Serials Management in Special Libraries: Present and Future Relationships Between Libraries and Vendors

Summary

The management issues facing those who deal with serials in special libraries may be common to all special libraries, unique to the particular discipline, or shared by all libraries struggling to deal with serials in the 1990s. A law librarian and a medical librarian described the history, nature, and use of serial literature in their respective subject areas, and discussed important customer issues facing their libraries, including the financial aspects. They were joined by a vendor's representative who summarized the similarities and differences in these library situations from a vendor's perspective, including the opportunities and limitations of the vendor/special library relationship.     

Survey of Ohio's Prison Libraries

ABSTRACT

While prison libraries offer growing job opportunities for librarians, few professionals are aware of the concerns and challenges facing prison librarians. This survey was conducted to help develop a profile of Ohio's prison libraries which may be useful to librarians and MLS students who are considering employment in this area. Other professionals may also use the information to develop better understanding, more appreciation, and greater respect for the very challenging field of prison librarianship.     

The Forecast for Special Libraries

ABSTRACT

Special libraries exist in an ecosystem consisting of the information industry, the library world, their own organizations, and workforce demographics. Librarians need to be aware of the trends shaping all of these facets. This column takes a close look at Outsell's Information Industry Outlook report for 2016 and its implications for special libraries. The outlook for special libraries is neither the previously forecast Baby Boomer retirement crisis nor the dire end of special libraries many feared during the recent recession. Instead, the special library world is transforming, creating both challenges and opportunities for special librarians. Millennials entering both the workforce at large and the library workforce will make their presence known. Savvy information professionals will stay on top of these trends and find their niche, whether in a traditional physical library or in emerging careers outside the library.

Column Editor’s NoteSpecial libraries share concerns with their more general academic, public, and school counterparts, but they also have unique characteristics and concerns which merit separate consideration. Libraries of all types are evolving, and just as special libraries can learn from the general literature on libraries, practitioners in all types of libraries can learn from the experiences and best practices of special libraries. “The Specialist,” appearing in even-numbered issues of this journal, addresses the administrative concerns of special libraries. The column's scope is a broad umbrella of specialized librarianship and includes corporate, non-profit, government, and independent libraries as well as the specialized departments and branches of academic and public libraries. Contributions from practitioners and scholars on any aspect of special libraries are welcome. Interested authors are invited to contact the editor at tmurray@stamps.org for submission guidelines.     

Referral Marketing Campaigns

SUMMARY

Libraries' information consumer market share continues to freefall despite the opportunities that have emerged with the arrival of the Information Age. We've built digital libraries, offering access to immense digital collections of quality resources, and online service desks staffed by skilled experts, but the crowds are not coming. Marketing missteps are largely to blame for the declining role of libraries in people's lives. There is an awareness gap between the offering of digital libraries and the communities they serve. Word-of-mouth (WOM), or referral marketing, modeled on blogs like Slashdot <http://www.slashdot.org>, is the key to increasing traffic to licensed digital library resources. Face-to-face and electronically mediated WOM marketing can turn back the tide of falling market share, and regain lost positioning, in the communities a library serves.     

The Personal Touch: A Case for a Small,Independent Library

SUMMARY

Small city libraries often face pressure to join county systems, but the flexibility of being independent permits opportunities for service that bigger entities cannot offer. In addition, the personal touch helps distinguish libraries from other information providers such as book stores or internet services. Programs can be developed and offered on a few days' notice, without a lengthy approval process. Individual attention, such as delivering books to the doorstep of a shut-in patron, is routine. This article makes a case for independent libraries to remain that way.     

Opportunities for Real-Time Digital Reference Service

Summary

This article explores the opportunities that real-time digital reference service can offer to a variety of library settings from the independent public library to the large multi-campus university or the multi-national corporation. There are many occasions when a real-time digital reference service will be the optimal solution for a portion of a library's reference service. The authors' goal is to offer their original ideas, and examples from the literature, that will stimulate thought about real-time digital reference services that could be offered by your libraries. The numerous ideas and examples should provide the reader with workable methods for extending the reach of reference service to under-served populations.     

Taking Library Recruitment a Step Closer

Abstract

During the summer of 2002, Cornell University Library implemented the Cornell University Library Junior Fellows Program-an initiative aimed at introducing high school students of color to academic libraries and librarianship. The six-week program was developed in response to the need for innovative approaches to the recruitment and retention of people of color to the academic library profession. Additionally, the program sought to support the academic achievement of minority students through involvement in research and technology training opportunities. This paper outlines the program's curriculum, performance outcomes, and challenges, and includes discussion of the need for similar programs or initiatives to be designed and implemented at other libraries.     

The Value of Partnerships: Building New Partnerships for Success

ABSTRACT

In today's economy, higher education institutions are struggling to maintain quality while functioning with fewer resources. For libraries, the economic situation is compounded by the impact of an information marketplace that is characterized by prices for resources that increase at 7 to 10% per year, and by near and actual monopolies controlling content. Added to the complexities of the marketplace are the demands of a faculty and student body that prefer individual actions to group efforts. These economic and social issues can become real barriers to innovation, quality improvement, and successful services for today's libraries. One way to combat the economic and social environment is by creating new and improved partnerships to leverage resources and share expertise in order to provide better services and access to wider collections. But forming partnerships is not easy. This paper will review the characteristics of successful partnership as developed by the Gallup Corporation and will show how these values can be used in the academic library environment to create opportunities for success.     

Building an ethical digital humanities community: Librarian,faculty, and student collaboration

ABSTRACT

This article examines work building a digital humanities community at Salem State University's Berry Library. The initiatives are comprised of a three-pronged approach: laying groundwork to build a DH center, building the DH project Digital Salem as a place-based locus for digital scholarship, and launching an undergraduate internship program to explore ethical ways of creating innovative research experiences for undergraduate students. Together, these initiatives constitute an important move toward putting libraries at the center of creating DH opportunities for underserved student populations and a model for building DH at regional comprehensive universities.     

Politicking for the Public Library

ABSTRACT

In today's current political environment raising support for millage renewals, bond campaigns or even millage continuations for public libraries is affected by national politics, and a tendency towards tax aversion on principle across the country. The lessons we can learn from the governing boards of small and rural public libraries are worth raising up to a greater national consciousness. Board governance, community consciousness, and facilities management are clear and logical tools that elected boards of public libraries can use to politick for support of libraries.     

Building Community: Partnering with Students and Faculty to Design a Library Exhibition Space

ABSTRACT

An academic library's space has traditionally operated as a repository, but with the proliferation of new media and interactive technologies, libraries now also serve as incubators of ideas. Architecture students at Auburn University recently took part in renovating the design library. With the librarian acting as client, they were asked to investigate diverse materials and design methods to create a dynamic and interactive exhibition wall which would showcase the creation of new knowledge and facilitate the dissemination of new information. This article discusses how the plug-in wall acted as a catalyst for the school's renewed communal investment in the library.     

Interconsortial Cooperation for Resource Sharing: MOBIUS and Prospector

ABSTRACT

Academic libraries are desirable work locations for undergraduate students and graduate library science interns alike. However, using undergraduate and graduate library science students only to perform task-oriented work within a traditional, hierarchical supervisory structure does not provide the maximum benefit to the student or the library, as it removes opportunities for students learning from each other. Our model proposes to create a team-based framework that engages students around a project and makes uses of myriad centers of expertise in the library. We employed this framework around the Douglass Alumnae Oral History Project, which provided opportunities for students to build their skills in digital projects, communication, teamwork, and community building.     

The Disaster Information Specialist: An Emerging Role for Health Librarians

ABSTRACT

This article describes the emergence of disaster information (DI) specialists, with particular focus on their presence in health libraries. Although literature on the subject of disasters and libraries is dominated by accounts of librarians preserving collections and ensuring continuity of library operations following a flood, fire, or other disaster event, the work of DI specialists extends beyond these traditional roles. DI specialists conduct outreach in the community, providing information services to emergency managers and other disaster workers. This article recounts a history of disaster information service in which public librarians served communities during disaster recovery periods, and health librarians became involved in organizational disaster planning activities. DI products from the National Library of Medicine are introduced in addition to federal funding opportunities for DI outreach projects. The development of the Medical Library Association's Disaster Information Specialization Program is presented, and the article shares recommendations for library administrators to encourage DI training for librarians and support the development of outreach services to disaster workers.     

Helping Adult Undergraduates Make the Best Use of Emerging Technologies

Summary

College campuses are faced with an ever-increasing number of adult undergraduates, some of whom are returning to complete degree programs, while others are coming to college for the first time. In order to teach these adult learners effectively, colleges must recognize that they have academic and social needs, as well as life experiences, that are different from those of the traditional-aged undergraduates, and adapt their educational approaches accordingly. Adult students' experiences with and beliefs about libraries and information technology also differ from those of younger students. This must be taken into account when providing library instruction to this population.     

Communicating New Library Roles to Enable Digital Scholarship: A Review Article

ABSTRACT

Academic libraries enable a wide range of digital scholarship activities, increasingly as a partner rather than as a service provider. Communicating that shift in role is challenging, not least as digital scholarship is a new field with many players whose activities on campus can be disjointed. The library's actual and potential contributions need to be broadcast to a diverse range of internal and external constituencies, primarily academic staff, university management, library colleagues and related project teams, often with different perspectives. Libraries have significant contributions to offer and a focused communications strategy is needed to embed libraries in digital scholarship and to create new perceptions of their role as enabling partners.     

Changing the Library Brand: A Case Study

ABSTRACT

This article outlines some of the opportunities and challenges of changing what the library “brand” means to academic and professional services staff in the rapidly changing environment of UK higher education, taking the University of Leicester as a case study. It makes a practitioner contribution to the growing body of evidence of how libraries are extending their role and how their customers are responding. It begins by considering the drivers for change in the higher education and scholarly information environments and how these are influencing the development of library services at the University of Leicester. The topics considered include researcher development, Digital Humanities, Open Access, independent learning, and curating the university's own information assets. The impact of these developments is outlined and how an evolving approach to strategic marketing is beginning to change perceptions as the boundaries of the library's role extend.     

Library Experience Matters! Touchpoints to Community Engagement

ABSTRACT

This article explores the concept of service branding in the context of libraries and information organizations. We discuss community perceptions of library brand value from the librarian's perspectives in the context of public and academic libraries. Librarians’ thoughts and viewpoints in improving the community's library experience are also discussed. The findings highlight the importance of improving the library's visibility, creating appealing ambience, and developing a strategic branding plan in order to provide robust, compelling, and meaningful experiences for their community.