Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Successful Information Broker?

Successful information brokers possess a uni ue combination of entrepreneurial characteristics and reference skills. An individual may be a successful reference librarian, but may not possess any or enough entrepreneurial characteristics to insure success as an information broker. This article provides an opportunity for reference librarians, in particular, to assess the extent of their entrepreneurial characteristics. The self-analysis and discussion of what information brokers and reference librarians have in common and what they may not, I will help individuals determine if a career as an information broker is a viable one for them.     

“If the Library Genie Granted You Three Wishes,What Would They Be?”: Results and Lessons Learned From an Annual User Feedback Campaign

The Health Sciences Library at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus implemented a user feedback campaign that successfully provided input about user needs. The library created an engaging marketing theme and employed a simple form to successfully solicit feedback from users. The program has been easy to replicate in subsequent years, and other health sciences libraries have been able to recreate the process at their institutions.     

What Does It Take to Make a Great Library?

No abstract available for this article.     

What Makes a Library Great?

Abstract

The author discusses seven measurable criteria that he accepts as defining a “great library”: Great libraries provide measurably superior service; have great funding; train and retrain their staffs; integrate their virtual, place and outreach services marketing; serve both the weakest and the strongest among their constituents; provide constituents with education and entertainment; and use virtual tools to offer a full range of timely information and services. These measurable characteristics define a modern library, the library that users want.     

What Will Be Required of You, 0 Graduate? A Way of Knowing

In this article, author Wes Jackson reminds us that the professions have a special responsibility to their knowledge heritage-what he calls “a way of knowing” about our current society, its recent changes and those that will come in our lifetimes. He points out that talk radio and the even more bizarre guerilla war of manipulated-issue television are not the place to get at the imperative facts about our way of life. The centerpiece of Jackson's concern is world climate change. He calls on professionals to use their scientifically based “way of knowing” to decide and help carry out the action that must be taken if climate change is going to be reversed. The problem, quite simply, is to find a way to power the Planet Earth on one-fifth of the carbon-based fuels that we use today to sustain our lifestyles and our commerce. Jackson points out that this challenge is a huge one, and that to be effective in this cause, lots of “neutral” professionals are going to have to become proactive in helping find and implement climate solutions.     

Electronic Copyright Rights: Do You Have What You Need?

Publishing agreements have long operated with certain assumptions about what books are and what publishers do. These assumptions are increasingly at odds with the new technological forms in which books are created and marketed, from e-books and Kindle 2 read-aloud works to so-called “vooks” that incorporate on-demand streaming video and other internet-based features in conjunction with hard copy books. Publishers’ contracts need to be re-thought in light of these changed circumstances. Specifically, publishing contracts today should focus on the activities in which the publisher may engage, and not the form in which the work may be presented, a point that was made clear several years ago in the Random House v. RosettaBooks litigation. In defining these activities, contracts should track the language of the exclusive rights enumerated in §106 of the Copyright Act. Finally, to the extent that books are becoming “audiovisual works” publishers may be able to shift to a work-made-for-hire model for obtaining ownership, rather than relying on grants from individual authors.     

Are You Talking to Me?

Social media has become a key medium for discussion and dissemination of news stories, fuelled by the low barrier to entry and the ease of interaction. News stories may be propagated through these networks either by official news organisation accounts, by individual journalists or by members of the public, through link sharing, endorsing or commenting. This preliminary research aims to show how computational analysis of large-scale data-sets allows us to investigate the means by which news stories are spread through social media, and how the conversation around them is shaped by journalists and news organisations. Through the capture of more than 11 million tweets relating to 2303 Twitter accounts connected to journalism and news organisations, we are able to analyse the conversation within and around journalism, examining who spreads information about news articles and who interacts in the discussion around them. Capturing the tweets of news organisations and journalists and the replies and retweets of these micro-blogs allows us to build a rich picture of interaction around news media.     

The Future of the Library: What Is a Public Library For?

The author suggests that libraries have been transformed a third time. Originally, libraries were the only place that valuable, handwritten, rare books could be found. As mass production kicked in post-Gutenberg, the library became an efficient way for the community to access knowledge. Today, though, in a post-paper world, the library must adopt a new role, a place where the community finds ideas, inspiration and others on a similar journey. The librarian is no longer a guardian of valuable books, but a curator of curiosity, passion and interest.     

What Do You Have on Arthur Flegenheimer? Research and Reference at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library

No abstract available for this article.     

How Do You Like Your Forgiveness? Communication Style Preferences and Effects

Two studies examined forgiveness recipients’ evaluations of, and responses to, four styles of forgiveness-granting communication: engaging, deemphasizing, conditional, and suppressing. In the context of close friendships, Study 1 showed that whereas the engaging style was highly preferred, the suppressing and conditional styles were not. Content analysis suggested that the latter two styles are perceived as unclear, inauthentic, and/or in violation of norms. Study 2 suggested that engaging forgiveness is preferable because it effectively addresses personal and relational face needs and reduces uncertainty. Implications for the conceptualization of forgiveness-granting styles and the practical construction of forgiveness expressions are discussed.     

Are You Ready for Your Close-Up? Creating a Library Promotional Video

Learn how to create a promotional library video for your library using the multimedia software Camtasia. Challenges and lessons learned are explored by detailing one reference librarian’s efforts at creating a Ask A Librarian video.     

What does the British Library do for medical librarians?

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Microaggressions in Academic Spaces: What About the Library?

Microaggressions are subtle aggressions, often unintentional, which are usually directed at certain groups of people, generally minorities. Due to their insidious frequency, they cause great discomfort. They can even cause permanent problems with adapting and integrating of various kinds. University libraries, as the social spaces that they are, accommodate a wide variety of people and can be places where microaggressions occur in different directions: librarians towards users, users towards librarians and among these groups. This study analyzes the incidence of various types of microaggressions in the academic library environment from the point of view of one group of users: academics and researchers. An online survey was completed by a large number of academics and researchers from a large geographic area. Data was obtained on both observed and felt or experienced microaggressions in the library, either towards themselves or other users, or towards the librarian. The results indicate that researchers are more aggressive than librarians, making the library space a safer place for diversity than the university. Nevertheless, for certain aspects the library shows some data that invites reflection and an opportunity to further reduce occurrences.     

What Do Distance Education Faculty Want from the Library?

Abstract

Much has been written on the importance of working with instructors teaching at a distance to provide library services to distant students and instructors. However, what distant instructors want and expect from the library has not been explored as directly, and definitely not on a large scale. Examining the small-scale studies that have been performed at various institutions, we can (1) identify what distance education faculty generally want from their library to supplement their instruction; (2) look at what services faculty would commonly like to see the library offer to their students; and (3) discover what further steps need to be taken to better understand the faculty we seek to serve.     

Can You Be a PESCaterian Among the Fort Worth Stockyards?

Yes you can, but you don’t have to eat only fish! All you have to do is follow the progress of the Protocol for Exchanging Serial Content (PESC) Working Group. The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) charged this group with delivering a recommended practice that will improve the interactions among libraries, archives, indexing services, content aggregators, publishers, and content creators, all needing to exchange serial data and work with digital files of serials. It will help them process a wide range of files that may be text based, image based, text with images, or some other combination, coded in a variety of file formats such as XML, EPUB, HTML, PDF, or ONIX. Laurie Kaplan discussed the PESC Working Group’s approach to this challenge.     

If You Build It Will They Come? Using a New Library Building to Establish a Culture of Marketing

Abstract

While most college campuses have strong support for the libraries, as competition on university campuses for limited financial resources gets tougher, support for libraries can be more theoretical than actual. Library users are unaware of the complexity of and expense required for library services. Not only must libraries compete for limited financial resources, they must also compete in a complex information marketplace. Today, libraries must market themselves to their constituents to ensure that services are utilized and appropriate resources are allocated for all formats of library materials. By committing to a strong marketing program, the University Library at Sonoma State University developed strategic plans to gain broader support from faculty, students, administrators and greater use of services. Libraries wishing to explore the possibility of integrating marketing efforts or libraries in the process of a move can adopt and/or adapt some of these techniques.