Access and Express: Professional Perspectives on Public Library Makerspaces and Intellectual Freedom

This study examines the roles of makerspaces and librarians in public libraries, as defined by nine librarians instituting makerspace services. It explores their understanding of creative spaces and library policy, specifically the foundational principles of intellectual freedom and access. Using constructivist discourse analysis tools, this study analyzes interview data to illuminate a concept of access grounded in expression, incorporating hands-on activities, tools, and social connections. This study has implications for practitioners and policymakers in reconsidering access as a positive liberty enabled by social contexts, and librarians’ enzymatic roles in facilitating those contexts.     

Reimaging Public Libraries as Learning Communities: What Library Stories Can Tell Us

This article describes a study conducted in York County, Pennsylvania, on its countywide library system framed within the context of the statewide “Reimaging Libraries” Get Storied initiative, developed and marketed by organizational story consultant, Michael Margolis. Understood as an essential aspect of culture re-imaging and change, narratives were collected from library personnel by undergraduate students at Pennsylvania State University-York as part of a service-learning initiative (directed by the first author). Working closely with the library district consultant (second author), we assess the success of the initiative and make some recommendations for culture reimaging through the practice of storytelling.     

Public Library Services for Veterans: Selected Brief Case Studies

Public libraries across the country design and deliver programs for military veterans and their families, often collaborating with other organizations and agencies. The examples were assembled from both general and specialized interviews with librarians, and literature and Internet searches, with summaries of programs assembled and written by multiple researchers. The specific limitations on the listing in this article are clearly outlined in the first section. Overall, however, the article provides a good introductory overview of what’s going on in veteran’s programs and services in America’s public libraries in over seventy libraries in forty states. We hope this list of what public libraries have organized or are doing will supply other public librarians with ideas on how to provide new services or enhance their existing ones.     

A Safe,Helpful, and Ubiquitous Place That Requires Further Study

In this article, Bradley Wade Bishop sets forth the unspoken premise that public libraries that offer desired services to their constituents are going to succeed. This article has many specific examples of emergency and continuing services that small public libraries provide. It also suggests the need for extensive research on successful libraries which illustrate all sorts of rules about how to meet the future successfully.     

图书馆组织氛围优化探索——基于南京农业大学图书馆的案例分析

[目的/意义] 组织氛围优化有助于提升馆员对图书馆的满意度和馆员的工作热情。案例分析有助于在更多图书馆推广组织氛围测评,进而为管理优化决策提供支持。[方法/过程] 南京农业大学图书馆借鉴美国图书馆界开展ClimateQUAL^TM测评的做法,在对ClimateQUAL^TM量表进行本地化改造的基础上,分别于2011和2015年对图书馆组织氛围开展量化测评,通过分析数据寻找存在的问题并不断优化管理方案。历经4年多时间,完成图书馆组织氛围的优化探索过程。[结果/结论] 前后两次测评数据对比显示,2015年得分较2011年整体有所提升,同时集思广益、创新、激励竞争、用户服务和团队合作5个指标得分明显提升,说明组织氛围测评的必要性和管理创新举措的有效性。     

高校图书馆部主任的选用与培养

依据信息网络时代高校图书馆管理的实际,阐述了图书馆部主任应具有的能力、素质.强调在使用他们的同时为其营造一个尽快成长和成才的良好环境,这样才能促成高校图书馆队伍建设的发展,才能更好地为学校的教学科研服务.     

图书馆以人为本的和谐管理及其作用

论述了高校图书馆实行以人为本和谐管理的思想,提出以人为本的和谐在图书馆管理中的重要作用。同时强调管理中只有达到真正和谐,才能搞好图书馆工作,提高图书馆读者服务水平。     

Floating collection in an academic library: An audacious experiment that succeeded

Can a floating collection thrive in a large multicampus academic research library? Floating collections have been successful in public libraries for some time, but it is uncommon for academic libraries and unheard of for a large academic library system. This article will discuss the investigation into the feasibility of a floating collection at Penn State University Libraries, its implementation, and continuation for a period covering 2009 through 2015. Attaining the floating collection, limited to monographs in the general stacks of campus libraries, proved to be easier to implement than imagined and resulted in unintended benefits as well as some surprises.     

Teaching Them to Teach: Programmatic Evaluation of Graduate Assistants’ Teaching Performance

Academic libraries are one of the most important sources of “on the job” training for future library instructors. Librarians who supervise and assess these future library instructors (often in graduate assistant positions) often choose to provide observations and feedback each semester to these instructors in training. Scholarly literature, however, provides little information on whether this system helps graduate assistants to develop as teachers. The authors of this article assessed graduate assistants’ performance as teachers over three semesters using a system of observation and self-assessment. They analyzed both patterns and areas of growth and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this system.     

Big Data – What is it and why it matters

Big data, like MOOCs, altmetrics and open access, is a term that has been commonplace in the library community for some time yet, despite its prevalence, many in the library and information sector remain unsure of the relationship between big data and their roles. This editorial explores what big data could mean for the day‐to‐day practice of health library and information workers, presenting examples of big data in action, considering the ethics of accessing big data sets and the potential for new roles for library and information workers.