Practical help for history instruction: Making the one-shot count

While it is generally assumed that active learning, information literacy course are the most effective means of teaching library skills, not every college or university library has the talent, resources, or institutional support required for that level of instruction. Frequently, a student's library instruction is taught as a “one-shot” by a librarian without specialized training in the subject being taught. This essay is addressed to instruction librarians with limited experience in historical research find themselves called upon to conduct “one-shot” instruction sessions for history classes.     

馆员学者化与学者型馆员

分析了“馆员学者化”提法不科学的原因,认为图书馆工作始终存在简单劳动与复杂劳动的差别,馆员需要高、中、低不同文化层次的人员构成。阐明了学者型馆员的涵义,指出培养学者型馆员是大学图书馆的性质和任务决定的,也是提高图书馆在高校中地位的需要,应该把培养和造就一大批学者型馆员作为高校图书馆队伍建设的长期任务。     

Library Instruction and Information Literacy for the Adult Learner: A Course and Its Lessons for Reference Work

Summary

The creation of a course, offered through UCLA University Extension, called “Research Methods for Fiction, Nonfiction, and Film Writers” was motivated by the observation that many adult learners lack information skills and the opportunity for formal library instruction. The content and format of this librarian-taught course have changed through the years both to incorporate more electronic resources and to employ more active learning methods. This article describes the need for the course, the course content and its evolution, and the active learning exercises employed. What an academic reference librarian derives from teaching such a course informs reference work with adult learners, whether or not they are part of the university community.     

When Off-Campus Means Virtual Campus: The Academic Library in Second Life

ABSTRACT

This article discusses how a library's consistent policy of accessibility and foresight positioned itself to serve its students, faculty and staff in the virtual world of Second Life. Always ahead of the technological curve, this library has been the front-runner in providing services to distance learners via text messaging, “chat,” e-mail, and telephone services and via its laptop librarian project across the campus. It now is poised and ready to provide service in Second Life. Collaboration between the library and teaching faculty culminated in the creation, development, and furnishing of a library in Second Life, an environment that gives new meaning to “off-campus” learning. Without marketing, but as a visible presence, the Second Life library was able to attract both off-campus guests and affiliated students and faculty and even participated in campus-wide projects. This experiment has enjoyed the support of both the university and library administration.     

A Review of: “Dictionary of Orthopedic Terminology. Gonzalez,Julio; Bernstein,Saul; and Collins,Deborah, eds.”

The daily “Morning Report” is a fixture in many residency programs. In the past, librarians have attended this meeting and, in various ways, worked to enhance the resident learning experience. At the academic children's hospital discussed in this study, the concept was taken a step further. Together with the chief residents, the librarian provided a complete “learning package” consisting of the case write-up along with relevant, librarian-filtered, evidence-based information. The learning package was then e-mailed to all residents and some of the attending physicians. This program led to a huge increase in the use of library resources and services as well as a renewed recognition of the value of the library and the librarians.     

Excellent Care for Cancer Survivors: A Guide to Fully Meet Their Needs in Medical Offices and in the Community edited by Kenneth Miller

ABSTRACT

A new librarian offers advice and insights about what she has learned from working at a library within a health science center. The librarian earned her MLIS in spring 2015, and while she had previous teaching experience, she realized there was much more learning needed to properly teach medical, graduate and allied health students, faculty, and residents. In this “one-year on the job” column, the librarian describes the different teaching experiences today’s librarians encounter, and reflects on what she has learned from them and how they shape her view of the profession.     

Towards an Integrative Literature Search: Reflections of a ‘Wild’ Adult Learner

Summary

An integral learning approach involves principles beyond andragogy, a “new pedagogy,” transformative learning, feminist, or postmodernist perspectives and the “integrative knowing” in adult education theory. Drawing on a radical conflict transformation model of eldership, the author presents personal reflections on his own evolution as a library researcher and adult learner for the past 25 years. Skills and metaskills for the reference librarian are included. The traditional helping role and identity of librarians is challenged to become a ‘guide’ for the hunt, whereby the process of the search is valued as much as the end result.     

Identifying the Serials Librarian: Serials-Related Position Titles in the United States and Around the World

Serials are a familiar academic job responsibility, but serials librarians are becoming difficult to identify. While serials continue to exist, the transition from print to electronic resources contributes to a trend in which the job titles of librarians who manage serials no longer include the word “serials.” A content analysis was conducted to examine the prevalence of the word “serials,” as well as common synonyms including “continuing resources” and “periodicals,” in U.S. and non-U.S. academic library job titles. In a sample of 98 U.S. national and regional universities and colleges, 18 librarian and 98 staff job titles were found that included the word “serials” or a synonym for serials. By comparison, a sample of 71 universities from 8 non-U.S. countries revealed 17 librarian and 85 staff job titles that included the word “serials” or a synonym for serials.     

Library Homepage Design at Smaller Bachelor of Arts Institutions

This study examined the homepages of the libraries of 175 smaller bachelor of arts institutions, coding for the presence of 98 design elements. By reporting and examining the frequency of these features, the authors noted what is and is not common practice at these libraries. They found that only fourteen elements were present on at least half of the homepages studied. The most common elements were hours, a link to the university homepage, interlibrary loan, library instruction/tutorials/guides, a staff directory, an “about section,” and a “contact librarian” link. The large degree of variability in design demonstrates the unsettled nature of academic library homepage design, at least among smaller institutions, and makes it difficult for designers of such pages to follow a standard set of practices.     

Book Clubs: Best Practices in Promoting Critical Thinking in Business Classes

The curricular reform movement within education has called for the development of critical thinking skills within the academy. At the authors’ university, the outreach librarian has successfully facilitated several face-to-face book clubs with the goal of honing members’ analytical skills and fostering lifelong learning. As a means of expanding this effort to a formal academic learning objective, the outreach librarian was also virtually embedded into the course management system for several business classes. This article discusses a collaborative faculty/librarian use of online course-related book clubs as a tool for advancing higher level critical thinking skills such as evaluation and reflection.     

One-Shot Library Instruction and Cambourne's Theory of Learning

Librarians who teach one-shot library instruction classes (one-time, one- to three-hour classes to students who are assumed to be novice researchers) are often torn between two pedagogic approaches: a “critical mass” pedagogy emphasizing a minimum amount of databases that must be introduced with little time for student searching, and a “use-oriented” pedagogy emphasizing the introduction of one or two databases, with the instructor providing adequate time for the student to hone their search skills through in class work time that provides for interaction with the librarian. Drawing from the learning theory of Brian Cambourne, we compare the two pedagogic approaches and argue that a use-oriented approach is a better match to Cambourne's Conditions of Learning, but that without certain preparations of and expectations from the student, librarians will struggle with both approaches in these one-shot library instruction sessions.     

Changes in Public Library Youth Services: A Content Analysis of Youth Services Job Advertisements

ABSTRACT

This article investigates requirements and responsibilities for public library youth services librarians. Position advertisements were published in American Libraries in five-year increments, from 1971 to 2001. Youth services librarian positions were analyzed as to changes in position titles, education requirements, job responsibilities, and personality characteristics. Findings suggest that the number of advertised youth services positions is increasing, and job titles are changing from the specific “children's services” to the more generalized “youth services.” Advertised responsibilities of the youth services librarian have consistently emphasized collection management and administrative duties, and many advertisements place a heavy emphasis on personality traits.     

A Foot in the Door

Abstract

The Houston Community College System (HCCS) is one of the largest community colleges in the nation, serving over 52,000 students. Though there is no dedicated full-time distance education (DE) librarian at HCCS, “traditional” librarians are meeting the needs of a rapidly growing population of DE and hybrid students by adapting to new roles and applying technology in innovative ways. An adventuresome cadre of information professionals has been reaching out to students to engage them where learning takes place. These “virtual librarians” are embedded in Web-based courses in order to promote library services to students who may never set foot in a HCCS campus library. As DE enrollment continues to expand, however, it has become necessary to consolidate efforts, and this is being accomplished through the utilization of a Web log (blog) and syndication tools, as well as some additional free applications.     

Embedded & Clinical Librarianship: Administrative Support for Vital New Roles

ABSTRACT

Medical libraries continue to face the challenge of demonstrating relevance and value in hard economic times. Job titles such as “embedded librarians,” “clinical medical librarian,” and “informationist” have become more common as medical libraries strive to meet patrons at the point of need within a natural workflow. This article provides an overview of such positions, including necessary skills and expertise, added value, administrative challenges, and a discussion of evaluation.     

"双高计划"背景下高职院校图书馆发展策略研究

文章结合对39所“双高计划”高职院校图书馆建设现状的调查,以专业馆员服务、教学辅助服务和行业信息服务作为发展路径分析其中的典型案例,得出此背景下高职院校图书馆的发展策略。     

高校图书馆学科馆员制度初探

介绍高校图书馆建立学科馆员制度的必要性，阐述学科馆员的工作职责及高校图书馆建立学科馆员制度的人才保障措施，并探讨在当今高校图书馆如何有效地建立学科馆员制度。     

图书馆“短视频+”服务现状及发展策略研究

新媒体时代,图书馆“短视频+”服务可以满足读者碎片化学习需求,对其现状及发展策略的研究有利于提升图书馆服务推广效果。论文以抖音、B站、微博视频号、微信视频号为研究对象,调查我国省级公共图书馆和高校图书馆“短视频+”服务的现状,通过对比粉丝数、获赞量、作品数量及内容特点,揭示“短视频+”服务的不足之处,提出了从管理规范、功能定位、平台特色、营销理论、服务模式五个方面提升图书馆“短视频+”服务的发展策略。     

试论提升高校图书馆员职业地位的途径

高校图书馆作为高校的文献信息中心．与师资队伍、实验设备并列被称为高校办学的三大支柱。但现实中高校图书馆员普遍面临职业地位低下的问题．必须从社会层面、馆员个体层面、图书馆层面来探讨,即通过建立图书馆职业资格认证制度,提供高层次、多功能的服务,强化管理,注重馆员形象的塑造与宣传等途径来提升其职业地位。     

高校图书馆学科馆员服务模式研究

对我国高校图书馆学科馆员服务模式的开展情况进行了调查与分析,并在此基础上探讨了学科馆员服务的主要工作内容。最后就如何发展我国高校图书馆的学科馆员服务提出了四点建议：一、不断提高学科馆员的素质及技能;二、加强学科馆员的组织和制度建设;三、建立统一的学科馆员服务平台;四、深化学科馆员的服务层次。     

网络环境下高校图书馆学科馆员素质探讨

随着高校学科馆员制度的建立和发展,学科馆员已成为高校图书馆信息服务的主要力量。通过对学科馆员涵义及职责的阐述,论述了高校图书馆学科馆员所应具备的素质。