Aimed at practitioners and students of librarianship, this book is about interesting and unusual practical projects currently being run by academic liaison librarians. It shows how liaison librarians can extend their roles beyond the established one of information literacy teaching and showcases areas in which they can engage in collaborative ventures with academic and administrative staff. Designed to excite and inspire, New Directions for Academic Liaison Librarians demonstrates the potential of the liaison role and emphasises the need for flexibility, imagination and initiative in those who hold these posts.
As librarians move into the middle of their careers, they are more ready than ever to take on new leadership opportunities. Literature on leadership is expanding in the field of library and information sciences, and more and more seminars and workshops are being offered for new and seasoned leaders. This book asks the questions: ‘What about us?’ and, ‘Where is the leadership advice and training for those who are no longer new librarians, but are also not yet seasoned leaders?’ The title illustrates how to work the middle, from being in the sophomore slump progressing to the next leaders in the field, to look for perspectives from others who are in the middle of their career, and how they have developed into leaders, ways to develop one’s own style of leadership and grow one’s career and future as a librarian and information professional.
Aimed at practitioners and managers, this practical handbook provides a source of guidance on project management techniques for the academic and cultural heritage sectors, focusing on managing projects involving public sector and other external partners. Issues under consideration and illustration include: different approaches to managing projects and how to select appropriate methods; using project management tools and other applications in project development and implementation; ensuring the sustainability of project outcomes and transferability into practice; realistic monitoring methodologies and specification and commissioning evaluation work that has real value.
Customer Care provides a detailed course suitable for delivery to library staff at all levels. It can be used as a stand-alone reference work for customer care processes and procedures or, alternatively, it can be used by library staff to tailor a customer care course to suit the requirements and training needs of their own staff.
Aimed at library science students and librarians with newly assigned administrative duties the book is about improving one’s thinking and decision making in a role as a library manager. Most librarians get very little exposure to management issues prior to finding themselves in a management role. Furthermore, most library science students do not expect that they will need to understand management yet they quickly find that there is a need to understand this perspective to be effective at almost any library job. Effective library management is about having some tools to make decisions (such as a basic understanding of management theory and how it applies in the library environment, understanding common traps we all fall into, etc.), knowing yourself, being able to motivate others, fostering a diversity (especially within workgroups), being able to communicate effectively, and having an understanding of one’s organizational culture. The book touches on all of these aspects of library management.
This book is aimed at the practicing academic librarian, especially those working on the ‘front lines’ of reference, instruction, collection development, and other capacities that involve dealing directly with library patrons in a time of changing scholarly communication paradigms. The book looks at open access from the perspective of a practicing academic librarian and challenges fellow librarians to continue the dialogue about how the movement might be affecting day-to-day library work and the future of academic libraries.
This book helps information professionals in their continuing professional development (CPD). The book shows them how to examine their own skills and plan their development over a period of time. It also helps them to focus on their career path and begin the acquisition of skills necessary for the route they wish to follow in information work. The book is set against the background of CPD being an essential part of the modern information professional’s career planning. Employers are certain to be able to choose between a number of qualified personnel for every available post. Those individuals that have a proven track record of skills development in both their personal and professional skills are more employable.