Looking for a better healthcare career opportunity?
8 October 2008
Best Practices For the Customer-Focused Library
Category: Clippings
From Current Cites (August 2008):
Metropolitan Library System, “Best Practices For the Customer-Focused Library” [pdf] WebJunction (27 August 2008). - …the study looked at customer behaviour in four Chicago area libraries (public and academic). Use of the library was measured by tracking customers’ movements within a library, by questionnaires and by video tracking of traffic flow, wait times and transactions times. Some results are surprising - 56% of people spent less than 10 minutes in the library and two-thirds did not know what they wanted before they arrived. The first half of the report outlines these and other key findings in brief paragraphs, and the second half contains best practice solutions, including suggestions for libraries with no budget, low budget or high budgets. Whether they use the terms members, patrons, users or customers, there is no doubt that libraries can learn a lot from the hard-nosed data collection and analysis that the retail industry has spent years refining. Supporting data from the consultants, and implementation plans from the library directors of the target libraries can also be found on the WebJunction site.
21 November 2007
Clippings: What’s Online? Recommended Resources On Job Hunting
Category: Clippings
From “What’s Online? Recommended Resources On Job Hunting” (Info Career Trends, November 2007):
Finding a Library Job
Frequently Asked Interview Questions - USC SLIS
How I Got my Dream Library Job, by Ignacio J. Ferrer-Vinent
The Info Pro’s Survival Guide to Job Hunting, by Mary-Ellen Mort
The Job Hunt: What I learned, by Meredith G. Farkas
LISjobs.com - Sites with RSS Feeds
The Nebraska Library Commission — Library Career Information
20 November 2007
Clippings: Communicating the Value of Your Libraries
Category: Clippings
From Current Cites (July 2007):
Note: Email me if you can’t access the article =)
Holt, Glen. “Communicating the Value of Your Libraries” Bottom Line 20(3)(2007): 119-124. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08880450710825833). - Short guide to shamelessly promoting the value of your library to various stakeholders through the ever-dependable approach, “What’s in it for me” or ‘WIIFM’ for short. The author draws on his extensive experience in Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to lay out basic principles, such as saving the user significant time or money. He concludes with this marvelous piece of advice: “Institutional communication is not just a smattering of marketing here and another smattering of marketing there. It is, instead, a disciplined, planned and thorough method by which a library tells its users why using their library is worth their time, money and effort, that is, why their library is valuable and the value that individuals and families will find there.” - LRK
20 August 2007
Report: The University Library
Category: Clippings
From Current Cites (July 2007):
Abbott, Andrew. The University Library (pdf). Chicago: University of Chicago, May 2006. - Agree with this report or not, it offers an invaluable outside-in perspective on current hot-button issues in academic librarianship. Respected scholar Andrew Abbott (author of The System of Professions) produced this “a serious theoretical analysis of library research” for a task force appointed by the provost of the University of Chicago, where Abbott teaches. Abbott offers fresh and often trenchant observations, many backed quite refreshingly by real data, about issues such as use of the university library by undergraduates and faculty, off-site storage, research study rooms, and even the current vogue for building faculty-graduate research centers, which he refers to as “Potemkin Villages” that “exist more as targets for external funding than as physical realities.” - KGS
22 July 2007
Moving Onward and Upward in the Wake of Adversity
Category: Clippings
From “Moving Onward and Upward in the Wake of Adversity” by Pam North (Info Career Trends, July 2007):
Many of us enter librarianship with the belief that it will be a stable, relatively stress-free career with countless rewards in the form of appreciation (if not riches). What I have encountered is a personally rewarding, yet uncertain and challenging profession…
What I learned during this tumultuous time and in the ensuing months has been that, even when it feels like the plush rug of security and stability has been swept from beneath your feet, there are ways to make things work - to remember that, indeed, you made the right choice.
#1 - Don’t take it personally
#2 - Turn crisis into opportunity
#3 - Make the best out of the worst situation
#4 - Know that change is difficult but inevitable
#5 - Listen to wise voices
13 June 2007
Using Wikipedia to Extend Digital Collections
Category: Clippings
From Current Cites (May 2007):
Lally, Ann M., and Carolyn E. Dunford. “Using Wikipedia to Extend Digital Collections” D-Lib Magazine 13(5/6)(May/June 2007). - An example of a library “getting in the flow,” this article documents the University of Washington Libraries’ effort to put their digital collections where their users will see them–in Wikipedia. The result was so successful in driving more users to their collections that they “now consider Wikipedia an essential tool for getting our digital collections out to our users at the point of their information need.” It’s a nice way to strengthen Wikipedia too. The article also contains some useful tips on creating articles and cross-references within Wikipedia, monitoring for changes and vandalism, and communicating with other Wikipedia users. - BR
1 June 2007
The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians
Category: Clippings
From “The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians” by Todd Gilman (Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 May 2007):
In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey argues that the most effective are those who have moved beyond both independence and dependence to master the art of interdependence — of working as members of a team, of knowing when two or more heads are better than one. In the spirit of Covey, then, I would like to offer my list of four traits that would not only make librarians more effective, but happier and more productive, too.
14 May 2007
Preservation and Disaster Control
Category: Clippings
From “News Libraries: Preservation and Disaster Control” by Richard Geiger:
What will you do when disaster strikes? Have you considered the possible catastrophes, the ways to avoid them or the best way to salvage or rebuild after a devastating loss? An important first step is the formulation of a disaster plan. Every news operation and every news library should have one. Disaster plans range from the very general to the very specific. This chapter will first discuss the many perils a library may face and then list some basic principles to guide the news librarian in preparing for the unpredictable.
28 April 2007
Digital Imaging - How Far Have We Come and What Still Needs to be Done?
Category: Clippings
From Current Cites (April 2007):
Puglia, Steve, and Erin Rhodes. “Digital Imaging - How Far Have We Come and What Still Needs to be Done?” RLG DigiNews 11(1)(15 April 2007). - Few are as qualified as Steve Puglia to pen this history of library- and archive-based digitization efforts. Having long labored in that particular orchard for the National Archives and Records Administration, as well as served on the faculty of the highly regarded School for Scanning, Puglia has lived much of what he recounts. But this is by no means simply a history of NARA’s efforts, Puglia casts a wide net over all the major players and the documents and procedures they promulgated over the years. The table of “Imaging Specifications and Guidelines” that identifies many of these is an impressive statement to the body of work produced by those active in the field.
10 April 2007
7 Great Careers for 2007
Category: Clippings
From “7 Great Careers for 2007” by Marty Nemko (Kiplinger.com, 6 April 2007):
Forget about the image of librarian as mousy bookworm. Today’s librarian is a high-tech information sleuth, a master of mining cool databases (well beyond Google) to unearth the desired nuggets.
