The librarian's perspectives: What are the issues? a report on the presentation of Corrie V. Marsh

Corrie V. Marsh is presently Head of the Acquisitions Department at the George Washington University Gelman Library. A native of Texas with her undergraduate degree from North Texas State (now the University of North Texas), she received her MLIS from Louisiana State University. Corrie has worked in Collection Development and Acquisitions at LSU, Old Dominion, Georgetown Law Center, and Brown University libraries.Corrie has developed connections with out-of-print and antiquarian booksellers in locating and acquiring special collections, ephemera, and regional resources. She is an active member of the AAP-ALCTS Publisher-Vendor-Library Relations Committee since 1984, and is also on the newly formed ALA-AAP Out-of-Print Task Force. She is a member of the Charleston Conference Advisory Board, an associate editor of Against the Grain, and an editorial board member for Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory. Coorrie has written several articles as a reporter to LAPT, contributed book chapters to the upcoming ALA publication, The Business of Acquisitions, and Haworth Press's The Acquisitions Librarian.In 1988, Corrie was able to enhance her knowledge of the out-of-print book trade through attending the annual Out-of-Print & Antiquarian Book Market Institute in Denver. She has had ongoing discussions with Jake Chernofsky of AB Bookman's Weekly, seeking ways to improve networking among out-of-print dealers and librarians.     

Bringing a Small Academic Library Back from the Brink

Abstract

When Villa Madonna College moved from Covington to Crestview Hills, Kentucky in 1968 to become Thomas More College, the designers of the new campus knew that the library would be a vital component of academic success for future students. As Thomas More transitioned from “College” to “University” in 2018, the library had unfortunately endured a long slow decline. With a recent renaming to the “Benedictine Library” in 2017, administration knew that more substantial changes were needed. In April 2018, the library started a new course with the 16^th Library Director in institutional history. This column illustrates the ambitious first two years of the new library administration, and details the work completed in the library’s “digital modernization plan”.     

Crossing Three Bridges: Linking Librarianship and Teaching Across the P-16 Educational Continuum

SUMMARY

Georgia State University Library's Education and Communication liaisons teamed up to teach a graduate course on the selection and use of reference resources for the College of Education's Library Media Technology Program. The collaboration between these two librarians can serve as a model for collaboration on three levels: collaboration between two librarians as co-teachers; collaboration between university librarians and academic department faculty; and, finally, “collaboration across work places” between academic librarians and school media specialists in P-12 settings. Unique challenges, benefits, and possibilities for this type of collaborative effort are examined.     

Envisioning experience: the potential of picture books

The reading of picture books contributes to the development of language skills and literacy. The visual content of the books helps to develop these skills but also enhances the effect of the text, develops children's aesthetic understanding, and provokes emotional response. By studying children who regularly use picture books in classrooms, Barbara Kiefer develops a framework for understanding children's responses to picture books and observes the growth of cognitive and aesthetic responses. Her findings have implications for illustrators, publishers, educators, and librarians. Barbara Kieferis an associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she teaches courses in children's literature, and reading. Originally trained in art education, she taught grades two, four, and five before completing her doctoral studies in language, literature and reading. She was elected to the 1988 Caldecott Award Committee and has served on the executive committee of The National Council of Teachers of English.     

Out-of-print, out of mind? A case study of the decision to outsource out-of-print acquisitions

This study addresses the question: Can the specialized process of acquiring out-of-print books be outsourced successfully to private vendors? The study reports the results of a case study of the decision to outsource out-of-print acquisitions at LaGuardia Community College in the City University of New York. Data were collected and analyzed regarding acquisitions costs, fulfillment rate, condition of books received, and overall success of the venture. The study concludes that the benefits of outsourcing outweigh the additional expense of vendor handling charges and suggests that libraries can successfully outsource routine tasks while maintaining control over important acquisitions decisions.     

Best Practices for Supporting Hearing-Impaired Law Library Patrons

Abstract

This article is written by Mari Cheney, Assistant Director, Research and Instruction at Boley Law Library, Lewis & Clark Law School. She holds a MLIS from the University of Washington and a JD from American University, Washington College of Law.

This article enumerates challenges that hearing-impaired law library patrons may encounter when using the library and its resources, and ways academic librarians can increase accessibility.     

The Visual Aspects of Outreach and Marketing to Art +Design Students

Special Libraries, Special Challenges is a column dedicated to exploring the unique public services challenges that arise in libraries that specialize in a particular subject, such as law, medicine, business, and so forth. In each column, the author will discuss public service dilemmas and solutions that arise specifically in given subject libraries while drawing links to how such issues affect librarianship in general. Special or subject-matter librarians interested in authoring a piece for this column are invited to contact Melissa K. Aho at aho@umn.edu.

Sarah Carter is Instruction and Research Services Librarian at Verman Kimbrough Memorial Library at Ringling College of Art +Design (www.ringling.edu). She holds dual master's degrees in Art History and Library Science from Indiana University. She can be reached at scarter2@ringling.edu or Verman Kimbrough Memorial Library, Ringling College of Art and Design, 2700 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34234.     

Mind the Generation Gap: Millennials and Boomers in the Library Workplace

As editor of On My Mind, I wanted to introduce myself and let you, the reader, know a little bit about what I intend this column to be. Primarily, I want it to be a venue for you to write about anything that has been bugging you or that you think needs to be said. This is an opinion column so please share your opinion. Maybe you want to talk about what you wished you had learned in library school. Or, perhaps you have a bone to pick with people who rely too much on using statistics in their weeding of books from the library's shelves. Whether the majority of librarians hold your opinion or not, I will try to give you a venue to express your thoughts. Also, this column is intended to be informal; feel free to use the first person. That does not mean that you cannot or should not back up statements you make with research. Please do. It does mean that personal anecdotes and stories are encouraged and make for a more interesting read. Finally, inquiries into writing for this column should be directed to me via e-mail. You will get a timely response. –Eric Jennings     

Trials and tribulations: Out-of-print 101

The authors interview librarians and out-of-print book dealers to find out how out-of-print academic titles are being handled. Librarians discuss successful strategies and various ways of identifying and pursuing out-of-print titles needed in their collections. Vendors and book dealers address the special needs of libraries, plus their methods of finding OP books. Recommended OP search strategies include advertising, using reference works, using vendors and dealers, and searching both Internet and Web databases. The report concludes with a listing of dealers that were mentioned favorably by academic librarians.     

Accessing the Old and the New

Summary

The University of Arizona Library's tradition of outreach to the surrounding community is reflected in two examples of projects detailed here. The first project is a series of Web exhibits created by librarians and individuals from the community that explore the history of Tucson and southern Arizona. Some of the Web exhibits detail the experiences of immigrant and Native American cultures in the area while other Web exhibits deal more generally with the history of the area. The second project involves a Federal grant that will make certain parts of library's Special Collections more accessible to the community by building new facilities that are open longer hours, digitizing some of the materials and adding computer workstations for users.     

Beyond Habit and Convention: Visual Literacy and the VRC

Special Libraries, Special Challenges is a column dedicated to exploring the unique public services challenges that arise in libraries that specialize in a particular subject, such as law, medicine, business, and so forth. In each column, the author will discuss public service dilemmas and solutions that arise specifically in given subject libraries, while drawing links to how such issues affect librarianship in general. Special or subject-matter librarians interested in authoring a piece for this column are invited to contact Melissa K. Aho at aho@umn.edu.

Amanda Rybin is the Associate Director of the Visual Resources Center in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago. She holds a BA in Art History and Creative Writing and an MLIS from the University of Denver. Her email is: arybin@uchicago.edu. The University of Chicago VRC may be found at: http://arthistory.uchicago.edu/vrc.     

Special collections in the classroom: embedding special collections in an undergraduate history writing class

Abstract

This article describes a 12-year collaboration between a special collections librarian and history faculty for an undergraduate history writing course at Vanderbilt University. Originally taught as a one-shot session, the final 9 years of the course embedded the class into Special Collections for 10 weeks of primary source research. This article describes the evolution of the course from a one-shot session to full embedding, the mechanics involved in managing the sessions in Special Collections, student support considerations, and tips for other librarians offering such sessions.     

The Slavist in the Digital World: Creating Scholarly Resources in Partnership with Librarians at the University of Virginia

ABSTRACT. This article offers a brief discussion of two projects—the creation of a set of digital images of Russian art and an exhibit of modern Russian children's books—developed in collaborative partnership between a Slavist and librarians at the University of Virginia. Both of these projects were designed to create shareable, flexible, and sustainable resources for research and educational use. The challenges and benefits of collaborative partnerships between scholars and librarians are discussed, and models for conceptualizing the relationships are also proposed.     

Librarians in the Classroom

SUMMARY

This article reports on a survey conducted by the author to determine how librarians and library directors feel about librarians teaching outside the library, i.e., in academic disciplines. The author discusses her own experience in the classroom and examines the benefits and detriments of the “professor librarian” model. She includes comments from those surveyed, and offers suggestions for further study.     

Juvenile picture books about the Holocaust: Extending the definitions of children’s literature

Despite a variety of definitions, children’s books and picture books generally adhere to certain conventions. Depicting the Holocaust in children’s books challenges these conventions. The authors review the Holocaust literature for children, paying special attention to two picture books: Let the Celebrations Begin! by Margaret Wild and Julie Vivas, and Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti and Christophe Gallaz. Their analysis leads them to conclude the books for children that deal with horrific events should be viewed as a category of their own. Virginia A. Walter is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has a Master of Library Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. Susan F. March is on the faculty of Kehillath Israel Religious School in Pacific Palisades, California. She has a Master of Arts in Education degree from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and a Master of Library Science from UCLA.     

Cataloging E-Books: Dealing with Vendors and Various Other Problems

E-books are an important part of library collections. Allowing patrons to easily find e-books in a library’s online catalog requires properly cataloging these materials. Miao Jin, Catalog Librarian at Hinds Community College, gave a presentation titled “Cataloging e-Books: Dealing with Vendors and Various Other Problems” at the Mississippi State University Libraries’ eResource & Emerging Technologies Summit held in the Mitchell Memorial Library on August 2, 2013. Jin provided information on cataloging her library’s e-books and adding them to the library’s online catalog. She presented strategies for loading e-book machine-readable cataloging (MARC) records, and shared her experience working with vendors.     

Text Messaging the Reference Desk: Using Upside Wireless' SMS-to-Email to Extend Reference Service

The author discusses “Text a Librarian,” a short message service-to-email service provided via Upside Wireless, Inc., a Canadian telecommunications provider. Any user of the University of Virginia Library who has a cell phone and text messaging capability can send a text message to a local phone number provided by Upside Wireless. Upside's “virtual SMS channel,” which forwards the message to the Library's reference e-mail account. Librarians then respond to the query with an e-mail message that the user receives as a text message on his or her cell phone. This article describes the process by which a library developed the idea for the service and decided to contract with Upside, as well as staffing for the service and the challenges, successes, and possible new directions. A brief survey of the SMS reference landscape is included.     

Writing Centers and Libraries: One-Stop Shopping for Better Term Papers

In the university environment, libraries and writing centers often operate as separate entities, but they provide similar services to students. The placement of the writing center inside the library may provide opportunities for partnership. At Florida Gulf Coast University, the Humanities Librarian and the Writing Center Director decided to take advantage of their close proximity and observe each other's service desks. The authors identify five challenges common to librarians and writing consultants as well as cooperative solutions. Furthermore, an exploration of how other libraries and writing centers around the country are working together inspired additional avenues for collaboration.