Coming of Age in Reference Services


Book Description

Coming of Age in Reference Services: A Case History of the Washington State University Libraries focuses on the triumphs, trials, ideas, and difficulties of the Holland Library and how these experiences can help other professionals enhance services for patrons. The articles, written by reference librarians at the library, discuss topics such as departmental history and culture, training reference professionals, and user education programs to give you insight into how other librarians solve problems or implement changes. From Coming of Age in Reference Services, you'll receive advice from experienced professionals that can help you create change in your library and help you adapt to the many technological advances related to librarianship. Coming of Age in Reference Services allows you to gain first-hand experience that will guide you through problems or issues that may occur in your library. Addressing the uses and intricacies of electronic information, this book offers you information that will help you with a variety of other topics, including: training and retraining in reference skills and subject knowledge, interpersonal abilities, and thinking skills in order to improve services for the 21st century defining "Generation X," being a member of this generation, and their growing need for information and learning opportunities exploring how long reorganization plans take to be implemented and how the library environment can enhance services for users by discussing the history of Holland Library Public Services focusing on freshman taking English 101 to better teach them how to find information through cultivating better relationships with academic departments, creating web modules to reach more students, and understanding departmental cultures integrating techniques for finding books and using encyclopedias into the University's World Civilization course to encourage critical thinking discussing the impression of American Academic Libraries through the experiences of a Library Fellow from Lithuania Coming of Age in Reference Services leads you through the transformation of the Holland Library, allowing you to learn about the decisions, planning, and ingenuity involved in establishing a modern and more efficient information center. Containing appendices and a chronological timetable documenting the library's history, Coming of Age in References Services offers you knowledge from experience concerning library reorganization and the ever-changing world of a successful reference librarian.




Coming of Age in Reference Services


Book Description

Coming of Age in Reference Services: A Case History of the Washington State University Libraries focuses on the triumphs, trials, ideas, and difficulties of the Holland Library and how these experiences can help other professionals enhance services for patrons. The articles, written by reference librarians at the library, discuss topics such as departmental history and culture, training reference professionals, and user education programs to give you insight into how other librarians solve problems or implement changes. From Coming of Age in Reference Services, you’ll receive advice from experienced professionals that can help you create change in your library and help you adapt to the many technological advances related to librarianship. Coming of Age in Reference Services allows you to gain first-hand experience that will guide you through problems or issues that may occur in your library. Addressing the uses and intricacies of electronic information, this book offers you information that will help you with a variety of other topics, including: training and retraining in reference skills and subject knowledge, interpersonal abilities, and thinking skills in order to improve services for the 21st century defining “Generation X,” being a member of this generation, and their growing need for information and learning opportunities exploring how long reorganization plans take to be implemented and how the library environment can enhance services for users by discussing the history of Holland Library Public Services focusing on freshman taking English 101 to better teach them how to find information through cultivating better relationships with academic departments, creating web modules to reach more students, and understanding departmental cultures integrating techniques for finding books and using encyclopedias into the University’s World Civilization course to encourage critical thinking discussing the impression of American Academic Libraries through the experiences of a Library Fellow from Lithuania Coming of Age in Reference Services leads you through the transformation of the Holland Library, allowing you to learn about the decisions, planning, and ingenuity involved in establishing a modern and more efficient information center. Containing appendices and a chronological timetable documenting the library’s history, Coming of Age in References Services offers you knowledge from experience concerning library reorganization and the ever-changing world of a successful reference librarian.




Introduction to Reference and Information Services in Today's School Library


Book Description

In Introduction to Reference and Information Services in Today's School Library, one of America's premier school library educators covers the A-Z of both reference and information services for today's library. Lesley Farmer discusses everything from teaching students how to use sources to both in-person and virtual reference service.




Relationships Between Teaching Faculty and Teaching Librarians


Book Description

Every librarian who teaches in an academic library setting understands the complexities involved in partnering with teaching faculty. Relationships Between Teaching Faculty and Teaching Librarians recounts the efforts of librarians and faculty working together in disciplines across the board to create and sustain connections crucial to the success of library instruction. This unique collection of essays examines various types of partnerships between librarians and faculty (networking, coordination, and collaboration) and addresses the big issues involved, including teaching within an academic discipline, the intricacies of assigning grades, faculty perceptions of library instruction, and the changing role of the reference librarian. Education is the main focus of reference service in today's academic libraries and librarians teach a variety of single-session, course-related, course-integrated, or credit-bearing courses in nearly every discipline. Relationships Between Teaching Faculty and Teaching Librarians reflects the experiences of librarians, teaching faculty, and library directors, whose perspectives range from cynicism to cautious optimism to idealism when it comes to working with teaching faculty. The book includes case studies, surveys, sample questionnaires, statistics, and a toolkit for establishing an effective library liaison program, and examines the teaching and learning environment, course growth and maintenance, and the “professor librarian” model. Relationships Between Teaching Faculty and Teaching Librarians presents lessons learned from seeking a common ground including: a successful faculty/librarian collaboration for educational psychology and counseling a library research project for freshman engineering students a semester-by-semester look at a collaboratively taught graduate research and writing course a survey that determines how librarians and library directors feel about teaching outside the library an analysis of librarians’ attitudes toward faculty an analysis of attitudes that influence faculty collaboration in library instruction a look at innovative methods of increasing the teaching roles of librarians and much more! The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSA/CHE) has mandated that information literacy be included as part of a general education requirement. If your faculty wasn't calling for library instruction before the mandate, it probably is now. Relationships Between Teaching Faculty and Teaching Librarians will help librarians establish communication with faculty that provides a solid foundation for coursework in all disciplines.




The Image and Role of the Librarian


Book Description

Get a unique insight into the image problems librarians face! The Image and Role of the Librarian addresses all aspects of professional identity for librarians, including professional roles, cultural images, popular perceptions, and future trends. The book examines historical representations, stereotypes, and popular culture icons and the r




Evaluating Reference Services


Book Description

With this handy new guidebook, reference luminary Jo Bell Whitlatch outlines practical methods for evaluating and delivering excellent reference service to the technology-savvy library user of today.




The Changing Face of Government Information


Book Description

Learn what innovative changes lie in the future of government information The Changing Face of Government Information comprehensively examines the way government documents’ librarians acquire, provide access, and provide reference services in the new electronic environment. Noted experts discuss the impact electronic materials have had on the Government Printing Office (GPO), the reference services within the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), and the new opportunities in the transition from paper-based information policy to an electronic e-government. This source reveals the latest changes in the field of government documents librarianship and the knowledge and expertise needed to teach users how to access what they need from this enormous wealth of government information. Major changes have taken place in the way government information is created, disseminated, accessed, and preserved. The Changing Face of Government Information explains in detail the tremendous change taking place in libraries and government documents librarianship. Topics include the increasing accessibility to the federally funded technical report literature, information on the Patriot Act’s effect on the status of libraries in the aftermath of 9/11, the uses of Documents Data Miner©, and information about catalogs, indexes, and full text databases. This book also provides a selective bibliography of print and electronic sources about Native Americans and the Federal Government, as well as specific sources for information about the environment, such as EPA air data, DOE energy information, information on flora and fauna, hazardous waste, land use, and water. Each chapter is extensively referenced and several chapters use appendixes, tables, and charts to ensure understanding of data. This useful book gives readers the opportunity to learn: how the University of Oregon successfully integrated its business reference service and map collection into its government documents collection the results of a survey of FDLP institutions identifying the factors contributing to the reorganization of services details of the pilot project undertaken by the University of Arizona Library along with the United States Government Printing Office’s Library Programs Service to create a model for a virtual depository library which critical features are missing in today’s e-government reference service models details of the GPO’s plans to provide perpetual access to both electronic and tangible information resources—and the strategies to authenticate government publications on the Internet The Changing Face of Government Information is stimulating, horizon-expanding reading for librarians, professors, students, and researchers.




From Past-present to Future-perfect


Book Description

Explore reprints of selected articles by Charles Bunge, bibliographies of his published work, and original articles that draw on Bunge's values and ideas in assessing the present and shaping the future of reference service. As a reference librarian you will explore four categories of Bunge's work, measuring the effectiveness of reference service, the reference environment, reference sources, and reflections on the past and future of reference work. This important book will assist you in creating and maintaing an effective, and ethical reference service today and for the future.




Library Outreach, Partnerships, and Distance Education


Book Description

Increase patronage with effective outreach strategies!From the Introduction, by Wendi Arant and Pixie Anne Mosley: “Outreach is a concept that is gaining more and more significance for libraries, particularly with the recent developments in information technology. Dictionaries define it as 'the act of extending services, benefits, etc. to a wider section of the population.’This definition also implies a mission to communicate a particular message to an audience in order to gain their support. Its meaning for libraries is profound, having consequences for fund raising, public service, and public relations.”Library Outreach, Partnerships, and Distance Education: Reference Librarians at the Gateway focuses on extending community outreach in libraries toward a broader public by expanding services that are based on recent advances in information technology. This crucial volume with help you will explore many of the issues that are currently affecting libraries, including: the growth of technology and its effect on libraries and library users emerging literacy issues (computer literacy, non-English-speaking populations) providing effective services to at-risk populations diversity and multiculturalism and how they are changing the ways that libraries are used targeting and reaching specific user groups distance education--bringing the mountain to MohammedIf the public perception of libraries is ever to move beyond that of “musty old book warehouses,” librarians must take a more active role in the development of new services and in heightening awareness of their existing services and collections. Library Outreach, Partnerships, and Distance Education presents ideas and strategies that are now being implemented around the United States to do just that. This book should be a part of every library's plans for the future!




Doing the Work of Reference


Book Description

Become more versatile, competent, and resourceful with these practical suggestions! Becoming a first-class reference librarian demands proficiency in a wide range of skills. Doing the Work of Reference offers sound advice for the full spectrum of your responsibilities. Though many aspects of a reference librarian's work are changing with astonishing speed, the classic principles in this volume will never go out of date. This comprehensive volume begins with hints for orienting yourself to a new job and concludes with ideas for serving the profession. On the way, Doing the Work of Reference covers such diverse topics as working with student assistants, offering reference services to remote users, and keeping up your professional development. In addition, you will find strategies for dealing with technological change--not high-tech information that will become obsolete before the ink is dry, but ways of approaching the process of change that will work today, next week, and ten years from now. Doing the Work of Reference will help you increase your competence in: getting along with other staff members marketing the library to users and faculty handling ephemeral materials keeping students’attention in library instruction courses maintaining good relations with faculty increasing your subject knowledge and much more! This comprehensive guide is an essential handbook for librarians in the trenches. Whether you are a new librarian or a veteran at the reference desk, Doing the Work of Reference will help you burnish your skills.