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.




Reference Services and Media


Book Description

Get the most out of your reference information systems and technology! Reference Services and Media meets the information challenges that overwhelm and assist us today with computerization, electronics, and telecommunications changes in the reference services of our libraries. As a professional in the library science field, you will discover innovative theories and researched solutions on many technology problems and challenges such as formatting and compatibility, training of reference professionals and library users, costs, and information have and have nots. With the year 2000 and beyond upon us, emerging technologies afford tremendous opportunities for reference librarians and for improved and enhanced public access to information. In Reference Services and Media you will learn about planning for staffing, troubleshooting fund-raising, and budget developing to support the use of information technologies. You will also examine the impact new media has on academic libraries, specifically video and movie clips that are transferred over intranets and internets and their opportunities and legal implications. In Reference Services and Media you will also explore: desktop conferencing and web access for reference services versus personalized contact desktop conferencing with personal computers in remote areas for reference service assistance positive and negative aspects of using each technology in reference use instruction creative methods for procuring funding for an electronic information literary instruction classroom providing a digital library for a state library network raising confidence levels of public service librarians in using electronic resources to answer reference questions Reference Services and Media includes case studies, tables, and an annotated bibliography that serves as a librarian's media reference toolkit, making it essential for effective media reference work. An excellent source for the reference librarian, Reference Services and Media will assist you in adopting and incorporating new information technologies for the present and future.




New Technologies and Reference Services


Book Description

Offer your patrons the cutting-edge reference services they demand!In the past, a reference librarian needed to develop a command of a few reference works, master the skills of the reference interview, and interface with library users in person or via telephone. Today's reference librarian is faced with much, much more. New Technologies and Reference Services suggests ways you can tame the information explosion and take advantage of new technologies.This comprehensive volume recounts the ways reference librarians have adapted traditional services to deal with the changes in both information technologies and library patrons. New Technologies and Reference Services offers tested techniques for fostering information literacy in patrons daunted by the high-tech edge of the new library. Even computer-savvy younger students may need help learning specialized searching skills. This practical volume suggests several innovative ways to teach those skills using interactive classrooms, drop-in seminars, and required courses.New Technologies and Reference Services discusses the other implications of new technologies, including: developing trends in publishing, including value-added services and the death of the printed encyclopedia the effects of CD-ROM, electronic publishing, and the Internet on copyright issues videoconferencing at the reference desk collection strategies and budgets in an era of multiple formats decentralizing library reference services information apartheid, the growing gap between the information haves and have-notsThis helpful volume gives practical, tested advice and ideas on the broader issues of information technology. With plentiful Web addresses, New Technologies and Reference Services presents new ideas sure to make your job easier.




New Technologies and Reference Services


Book Description

This comprehensive volume recounts the ways reference librarians have adapted traditional services to deal with the changes in both information technologies and library patrons. New Technologies and Reference Services shows how to provide needed services using videoconferencing, interactive classrooms, drop-in seminars, and required courses. It also discusses the other implications of new technologies, including developing trends in publishing, copyright issues, collection strategies, and decentralizing library reference services.




Distance Learning


Book Description

The demand for and technology needed to create effective distance learning programs are increasing at a breakneck pace. Is your institution keeping up? As educators, information professionals are faced with the challenge of providing Web-based library instructional materials in a time of ever-changing technologies. This book will help you address that daunting challenge, examining ways to assess user needs, to develop and offer well-thought-out information literacy courses, to employ appropriate teaching methodologies, and to determine the effectiveness of existing information literacy programs. With Distance Learning: Information Access and Services for Virtual Users, you will examine: the evolution and significance of asynchronous learning networks (ALN) and various issues in ALN, including cost, faculty and technology requirements, the nature of the learning community, social presence, and collaborative environment virtual reference services, including electronic journals, subject directories, the invisible Web, and search engines the criteria for evaluating search results the role played by consortia and cooperative efforts in facilitating user access to library resources a review of selected literature addressing user characteristics and service/staff issues involved in providing information support for distance education the strategies, technologies, and pedagogical issues surrounding the development of Web-based library instruction tools—includes Web page design, copyright issues, Web site maintenance, and usability the award-winning online information literacy course developed at Ulster County Community College in New York—its development, course modules, and administrative challenges the library support services provided to distance learning students in the SUNY Plattsburg Telenursing Program the influence of cultural factors on interactions within and perceptions of distance education




Outreach Services in Academic and Special Libraries


Book Description

Outreach Services in Academic and Special Libraries examines the creation and delivery of outreach programs designed to promote awareness of the library by meeting the information needs of underserved or uninformed patrons. This book contains the experiences of academic and special librarians who describe a wide array of successful outreach programs that are in place throughout the country. This valuable tool introduces professional librarians and library science students and faculty to current and highly innovative models of outreach services implemented in a variety of academic and special library settings.




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




Helping the Difficult Library Patron


Book Description

A problem patron is not one with difficult requests or obscure interests, but one who displays behavior that is deemed destructive, criminal, bothersome, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate. Librarians look at the nature of the problem in academic and public libraries, the impact of such technologies as the Internet and cell phones, and solutions from other professions as well as from the experience of librarians.




Helping the Difficult Library Patron


Book Description

This insightful book shows you how to deal with an issue as old as the library profession: interacting with problem patrons. It looks at this fact of life that affects almost every facet of library work and provides practical solutions--some developed within the field and some borrowed from other professions--that will improve reference services for those you serve and make the work of your library staff less stressful, more productive, and increasingly meaningful. Helping the Difficult Library Patron: New Approaches to Examining and Resolving a Long-Standing and Ongoing Problem examines: the nature of the problem from historical and demographic perspectives ways of dealing with the problem in academic and public libraries competency-based training techniques that will empower your frontline staff the impact of new technologies such as cellular phones and the Internet and ways of dealing with the new breeds of difficult patrons that come with them solutions from our colleagues what we can learn from the perspectives of others--psychotherapists, businesspeople, and corporate managers--you even get a Zen Buddhist viewpoint! effective ways to utilize community resources such as campus and local police and much, much more! Nowhere in the library literature have so many practitioners and educators combined their efforts to examine and provide solutions to this ageless problem. Library administrators, staff, and educators will find Helping the Difficult Library Patron a matchless resource!