An Unlikely Collaboration: How Academic and Special Libraries Can Help Each Other Survive

This column uses the occasion of James Matarazzo and Toby Pearlstein receiving the 2016 John Cotton Dana Award from the Special Libraries Association to reflect on their unique partnership, which has lasted decades and resulted in a wealth of research results and tools for corporate librarians. Despite the tools available to them to measure and demonstrate their value, however, special libraries continue to face closures, downsizing, and increasing pressure to do more with less. Today, special libraries are not alone in feeling this pressure, as even the academic libraries that have been so central to campus life find their place questioned. As Matarazzo and Pearlstein formed the unlikely yet lasting partnership of scholar and practitioner, perhaps academic libraries and non-academic special libraries can join forces to effectively leverage their collective experience and knowledge in demonstrating their worth to stakeholders.     

Delivering Career and Job Information:

Today's labor market has become increasingly complex. and the average career or job seeker has been left stranded. New information is required at every turn. Libraries are in a position to be a prime player in the delivery of career and job sources and services. Before doing so, however, libraries must have key personnel who: are knowledgeable of labor market and employment trends; develop strong core collections in career and job sources; are well versed in accessing information, including various formats and nontraditional sources; network with other community career/job resources; and market the library's services. In doing so, libraries have the opportunity to provide much of the information required for a career or job search, and in the process can enhance its reputation within the community.     

Special Libraries and Diversity:

By their very nature, special libraries are often restricted to a certain user population, be it an in-house corporate information center, hospital library, or newspaper library. Or the collection may be of a particular era (Civil War), or on a partiular person or ethnic gruop (papers of Frederick Douglass, Icelandic Collection). Some specialized collections are open to the public; some are restricted to scholars while others are available only to the people working for the organization. Special librarians walk a thin line between information access, serving clients and preserving the information in their trust.     

Special Libraries and Instruction:

As in any library, bibliographic instruction is a very important service of a special library. However, it is almost never referred to by this name. The sessions can be referred to as individualized orientations (for one person) or a special presentation on services (for a group of managers, scientists, engineers, etc.) These presentations and orientations are opportunities for the savvy special librarian to sell and show off the library, build a support network for the services offered, and acclimate the client to the vast information available in the library, ensuring a client base and continued existence.     

试析移动图书馆研究的理论支点

移动图书馆形成与发展的根本动因并非来自于移动技术的物性功能,社会需求推动了移动图书馆的产生、功能确定以及未来发展空间.而且无论移动图书馆如何“移动”,它必须始终沿着实现社会价值这一方向设计自身的发展走向,图书馆固有属性始终是移动图书馆的根基.为实现这种社会价值,在研究过程中,应从“合理性”高度审视移动图书馆研究,需坚持总体性思维方法,需着眼于移动互联时代图书馆利用实践形态的新变化,需深入、回归到人本身.     

Libraries of Today and Tomorrow: How Architecture Can Help Craft a Responsive New Language

ABSTRACT

Many of us remember the library from our childhood because it had one simple objective: to provide open and free access to information. This has largely been the case since Andrew Carnegie developed his formula to build libraries for communities across North America in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Fast forward to the 21st century and our world has become increasingly interconnected and less predictable. Rapid change due to innovation and technology is the norm and as a result, we expect our buildings to adapt to these changes as seamlessly and immediately as possible. Across the built environment, we are finding ways to make buildings amenable to changing user groups. Schools absorb changes in pedagogy and enrollment. Commercial space adapts to changes in tenants and brand. Workplace environments evolve with technology, headcount and collaborative styles.

As libraries continue to evolve, architecture will be at the forefront of solving real, functional issues for clients, while honoring everything libraries are trying to accomplish. At the same time, the design expression reflects the truly unique expectations we are now asking our buildings to solve.

As architects, we can be your advocates in planning new facilities that are amenable to change, as well as existing facilities that require reimagining in order to meet new criteria. Through design, we meet these new challenges, while inspiring community connections in well built, well cared for and well loved spaces.     

Libraries and Career Planning and Placement Professionals:

The 1990's will see a rapid rate of change in many areas that will impact technology, the economy, and people. One specific area of impact will be the job search process. There will be more people changing jobs and careers. To conduct a successful job search, people need easy access to a variety of job search resources. Public libraries already play a key role in providing these vital resources. To accentuate this role, the idea of a partnership is presented between career planning and placement professionals and libraries. Together these two forces can effectively facililate the job search process. This extended role will lead public libraries to be a hub or center of extensive networking resources crucial for job seekers. Examples from Illinois public libraries with current job search programs, and one volunteer community-based program, will be featured. Text will revolve around the ideas presented during various job search programs, and quotations of professionals in the field.     

Trends in Support for Students with Special Educational Needs in UK University Libraries: Focusing on Support Personnel and Systems

The provision of service to students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) at university libraries in the UK differs based on the types of positions that are being used to staff these programs. This study finds that although nondedicated staff tended to provide services that required fewer specialized skills, they seemed to place a higher priority on meeting the immediate needs of students with SEN, while dedicated staff members tended to focus on the quality of the support being provided. Second, this study finds that it is difficult for university libraries to provide the tailored training or alternative formats required by students with SEN without support personnel on staff who have specialized expertise. It remains to be determined which type of special needs staffing and support system is most effective, since no significant differences were observed in the responses of those surveyed.     

综合性大学的专业图书馆建设研究

建设专业图书馆不但有助于满足师生差异化的信息需求,也有助于提高文献资源的利用效率和图书馆经费投入的产出效率。通过比较中外3所综合性大学的专业图书馆的建设模式可知,国内一些综合性大学的专业图书馆建设大多是在原有专业资料室和二级学院资料室的基础上整合发展起来的,缺少文献资源建设的自主权。因此,国内综合性大学可以采用依附模式建设专业图书馆,并通过资源共享等措施提高文献资源的利用效率。     

Special Libraries Assessment or Marketing the Special Library

Unlike many reference librarians, special librarians have always found themselves in the position of having to prove the value of their information centers, information services, and even themselves. Now, more than ever, it is important for the special librarian to be prepared to document the worth of the provided services and facilities to satisfy both the user and the administrators.     

科学专业图书馆如何为自主创新服务

本文根据我国自主创新命题的提出,分析了科学专业图书馆在自主创新体系的地位和作用,并提出了科学专业图书馆为自主创新服务的若干措施。     

Research Information Management: How the Library Can Contribute to the Campus Conversation

This article describes a project undertaken as part of a cross-campus strategic planning effort. The project documented current campus practices and systems in use for collecting, analyzing and reporting key research metrics. The project identified organizational issues around siloed data collection and lack of clarity on data stewards, data stakeholders, and data reporting schedules. The work highlighted to University Administration the need and importance of effective research information management (RIM) and the key role that the University Libraries can play in this area.     

The Libraries They Are A-Changin': How Libraries Reorganize

This article will report on the results of a study of library reorganizations in the literature. The authors identified five steps common to all library reorganizations, and this article describes those steps as well as two management change theories most mentioned in the literature—the eight-step process of change by John Kotter and Reframing Organizations by Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal. The article will draw conclusions formed by a comparison of these theoretical models to the practice and real-life experience of reorganizations as described by libraries in the literature.     

Research is Elementary: How Blue's Clues Can Help Teach Communication Research Methods

Objective: First, this activity is to make research fun and reduce communication students’ anxiety concerning the research methods class. Second, this activity is to create a vivid illustration of the basic characteristics of the research process, and to illustrate that the research process is non-threatening and should be thought of as a process that can be done by students. Third, this activity is to help students realize research methods are not “math,” nor are they limited to statistical analyses.

Courses: Beginning and intermediate research methods courses, as well as advanced communication courses that require students to read research articles, particularly for those classes whose students have not had a research methods course     

The Preservation and Maintenance of Special Research Collections in Public Libraries:

Whether or not, or under what circumstances, public libraries should house special-subject research collections is examined with respect to: (1) feasibility of community participation in administrative decisionmaking and allocation of funds: (2) reliability of library/collection use statistics as measures of performance: (3) rationales for and costs of maintaining special collections. Literature on local history and performing arts research collections is discussed to illustrate practical administrative considerations. Creation of community participation opportunities, either through formal analyses of library communities or other methods, is advocated as essential with respect to the preservation and maintenance of special subject research collections in public libraries.