Book Description

In the current information environment, public and academic libraries are recognizing that providing access to materials is a complex multi-dimensional phenomenon. To meet the changing needs of their patrons, libraries are reorganizing their service structures and developing organizational units called “access services.” Even though access services fall within the realm of public services, technical services, or library circulations, they are driven by an entirely new mentality. There has been an extreme paucity of information on access services available for libraries struggling to meet the challenges of the electronic age. Access Services in Libraries is the first book to establish a theoretical base for access services while also suggesting connections between theory and practice. Anyone involved in access services or considering adoption of this new organizational unit will benefit from the information in this groundbreaking volume. Access Services in Libraries provides fresh thinking that reexamines previous writings in this area, presents new experimental designs and results, creates contemporary organizational solutions, and adopts innovative techniques for increasing users’access to library materials within constrained budgets. Access services librarians, circulation department librarians, and library managers, especially those who are considering a reorganization that will include access services, will benefit from the philosophical and theoretical articles as well as practical advice on the design, delivery, and evaluation of responsive library services. Chapters in this invaluable book fill the gap in the literature about access services including theoretical descriptions of access services, current developing trends in access services, the historical development of the access services concept, practical studies related to common access services issues, and projections of future challenges. As Peter Watson-Boone states in his preface, “This volume is notable for charting a new current of thinking and practice that is moving quickly into the mainstream. It substantially documents the state of the art, and should bring increased clarity and focus to the debate now proceeding in many libraries about how we are to honor a commitment to the 'access’concept in the era when it will challenge the 'ownership’concept as never before.”