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Elsevier

Books in Library and information systems

  • Refocusing Academic Libraries through Learning and Discourse

    The Idea of a Library
    • 1st Edition
    • Mary K. Bolin
    • English
    Organizational Transformation in Academic Libraries: Discourse, Process, Product helps inform discussions in academic libraries on organizational patterns and divisions of labor. The book gives librarians leverage to think outside traditional bureaucratic structures and re-think how libraries serve their patrons. It examines existing structures and proposes new organizational models and lays out a process for planning organizational transformation and implementing a new organization. Seven chapters offer a radical vision of library transformation, proposing a collaborative process for changing academic libraries into organizations fit for the second quarter of the twenty-first century and beyond. Academic libraries are changing in the face of information technologies, economic pressures and globally disruptive events such as the current pandemic. As a result, practical solutions for transforming organizational and workflow structures for the future are desperately needed. The title analyzes existing organizational structures and proposes new ones that can be adapted to individual libraries. It discusses the challenges posed by virtual learning environments, digital initiatives and resources, changes to cataloging standards and succession planning, as well as changes brought about by the current pandemic.

  • China's Publishing Industry

    From Mao to the Market
    • 1st Edition
    • Qidong Yun
    • English
    China's Publishing Industry presents a portrait of the contemporary Chinese publishing industry in its political and commercial contexts, and analyses how its structures are influenced by the state and by market forces. Starting with an overview of the publishing business in China, this book takes a long view of the profound changes in China's publishing industry, covering a period from the 'socialist transformation' under Mao to the more recent reforms, such as the conglomeration and corporatisation, of the industry. The book investigates the impact of the changing social, economic and ideological environment on the structure and operation of the publishing industry, and explores how the burgeoning digital publishing business is shaped by the broader social context. It reveals that the process of commercialisation in China's publishing industry has been marked by persistent tensions and contradictions, and demonstrates, through case studies, how these tensions have impacted everyday practices.

  • Archives in the Digital Age

    Standards, Policies and Tools
    • 1st Edition
    • Lina Bountouri
    • English
    Archives in the Digital Age: Standards, Policies and Tools discusses semantic web technologies and their increased usage in distributing archival material. The book is a useful manual for archivists and information specialists working in cultural heritage institutions, including archives, libraries, and museums, providing detailed analyses of how metadata and standards are used to manage archival material, and how this material is disseminated through the web using the Internet, the semantic web, and social media technologies. Following an introduction from the author, the book is divided into five sections that explore archival description, digitization, the preservation of archives, the promotion of archival material through social media, and current trends in archival science.

  • Inherent Strategies in Library Management

    • 1st Edition
    • Masanori Koizumi
    • English
    Inherent Strategies in Library Management describes general and specific strategies for libraries based on core library values, and does so through concrete research. Many strategic management books for libraries introduce concepts of business management to the library world, but often neglect traditional library culture and core values. This book reexamines management through the lens of libraries themselves, rather than relying on strategies borrowed from the business world, in an attempt to bring to light the factors and decision-making processes behind how librarians have run their libraries over the past fifty decades. In other words, their decisions can be regarded as inherent management, born naturally from the core foundations, considerations, and operations of libraries. In addition, this book investigates the broad influences of business management theories on libraries, including a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of their use.

  • Staff-Less Libraries

    Innovative Staff Design
    • 1st Edition
    • Carl Gustav Johannsen
    • English
    Staff-Less Libraries: Innovative Staff Design considers the challenges of this approach, its pros and cons, identifies international experiences, and discusses best practices. It presents a step-by-step approach to implementing a staffless library and/or services, and seeks to inspire professionals to share experiences and optimize their library. Staff-less public libraries, enabled by technological developments, represent a significant and innovative aspect of the development of public libraries. The concept radically enlarges the availability of user access to public libraries. Some Danish public library branches have, for example, increased their weekly opening hours from 20 to 80 hours per week. In Denmark, the concept has been quite successful, increasing the number of staff-less libraries from 81 public library units in 2011 to 260 in 2014. From a longer view, however, the staff-less library concept contributes to the modernization of public libraries by further opening the library. Many library professionals have been surprised by the near absence of vandalism through the staffl-ess opening hours. According to the latest trend, the staffless library model is gradually moving from thinly populated rural areas and suburban neighborhoods to urban contexts. This book explores the concept, hence furthering the debate.

  • Collective Action 2.0

    The Impact of Social Media on Collective Action
    • 1st Edition
    • Shaked Spier
    • English
    Collective Action 2.0 explores the issues related to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in detail, providing a balanced insight into how ICTs leverage and interact with collective action, which will have an impact on the current discourse. Recent events in different authoritarian regimes, such as Iran and Egypt, have drawn global attention to a developing phenomenon in collective action: People tend to organize through different social media platforms for political protest and resistance. This phenomenon describes a change in social structure and behavior tied to ICT. Social media platforms have been used to leverage collective action, which has in some cases arguably lead, to political revolution. The phenomenon also indicates that the way information is organized affects the organization of social structures with which it interoperates. The phenomenon also has another side, which is the use of social media for activist suppression, state and corporate surveillance, commodifi cation of social processes, demobilization, or for the mobilization of collective action toward undesirable ends.

  • Stepping Away from the Silos

    Strategic Collaboration in Digitisation
    • 1st Edition
    • Margaret Coutts
    • English
    For over twenty years, digitisation has been a core element of the modern information landscape. The digital lifecycle is now well defined, and standards and good practice have been developed for most of its key stages. There remains, however, a widespread lack of coordination of digitisation initiatives, both within and across different sectors, and there are disparate approaches to selection criteria. The result is ‘silos’ of digitised content. Stepping away from the Silos examines the strategic context in the UK since the 1990s and its effect on collaboration and coordination of exemplar digitisation initiatives in higher education and related sectors. It identifies the principal criteria for content selection that are common to the international literature in this field. The outputs of the exemplar projects are examined in relation to these criteria. A range of common practices and patterns in content selection appears to have developed over time, forming a de facto strategy from which several areas of critical mass have emerged. The book discusses the potential to improve strategic collaboration and coordinated selection by building on such a platform, and considers planning options in the context of work on national digitisation strategies in the UK and internationally.

  • Navigation Design and SEO for Content-Intensive Websites

    A Guide for an Efficient Digital Communication
    • 1st Edition
    • Mario Pérez-Montoro + 1 more
    • English
    Navigation Design and SEO for Content-Intensive Websites: A Guide for an Efficient Digital Communication presents the characteristics and principal guidelines for the analysis and design of efficient navigation and information access systems on content-intensive websites, such as magazines and other media publications. Furthermore, the book aims to present the tools of information processing, including information architecture (IA) and content categorization systems, so that such designs can ensure a good navigation experience based on the semantic relations between content items. The book also presents best practices in the design of information access systems with regard to their main structures, including search query forms and search result pages. Finally, the book describes the foundations of search engine optimization (SEO), emphasizing SEO oriented to publications focused on communication and the coverage of current affairs, including images and videos.

  • Citation Tracking in Academic Libraries

    An Overview
    • 1st Edition
    • Judith Mavodza
    • English
    Citation Tracking in Academic Libraries: An Overview presents results from the overarching need for researchers to get relevant advice for their scholarly pursuits. This is even more critical in the fast changing environment, where even those who are established scholars find the new scholarly publishing paradigm hectic, and amateurs get easily intimidated. In the wake of the competitive ranking of universities, there is an added requirement for faculty to be involved with research activities so they can enhance the standing of their parent institutions. That means there is a need to use valid and authentic platforms for publishing. Making reference to already existing texts and answering questions that have been encountered by the author, the book is compiled to make easy, short, and concise reading that is an overview on the tracking of citations. Besides giving suggestions on how academic librarians can provide support to scholars, it includes the benefit of having librarians who are also scholars.

  • Emerging Technologies for Librarians

    A Practical Approach to Innovation
    • 1st Edition
    • Sharon Q Yang + 1 more
    • English
    Emerging Technologies for Librarians: A Practical Approach to Innovation focuses on the practical applications of emerging technologies in libraries, defining the technologies in the context of their use in real situations. Each chapter includes an overview of the use of emerging technologies in a particular work area that is followed by a list of relevant applications. Chapters cover work areas such as advertising, distance learning, metadata. and digital libraries, and also focus on applications, including mobile computing and web conferencing, followed by a conclusion. This book serves as a guide for those interested in learning about, and implementing, the available technologies that enhance library services, and also lists and discusses the types of emerging technologies that are available for a specific area of work.

  • Maximizing Electronic Resources Management in Libraries

    Applying Business Process Management
    • 1st Edition
    • Lenore England + 1 more
    • English
    Maximizing Electronic Resources Management in Libraries: Applying Business Process Management examines the use of Business Process Management (BPM) and the ways it can be beneficially applied to electronic resources management (ERM) to help organize processes in libraries. The book offers librarians a skillset that will make them ready for a variety of library environments. It focuses on the organizational tools offered by BPM, including key elements of ERM functions that lay the groundwork for the present and future use of ERM, and how they will drive methods by which libraries provide access to resources. BPM theories are then reviewed, along with a discussion of present applications of BPM to ERM and a final look at possibilities for future applications.

  • Selecting and Implementing an Integrated Library System

    The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make
    • 1st Edition
    • Richard M Jost
    • English
    Selecting and Implementing an Integrated Library System: The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make focuses on the intersection of technology and management in the library information world. As information professionals, many librarians will be involved in automation projects and the management of technological changes that are necessary to best meet patron and organizational needs. As professionals, they will need to develop numerous skills, both technological and managerial, to successfully meet these challenges. This book provides a foundation for this skillset that will develop and acquaint the reader with a broad understanding of the issues involved in library technology systems. Although a major topic of the book is integrated library systems (a fundamental cornerstone of most library technology), the book also explores new library technologies (such as open source systems) that are an increasingly important component in the library technology world. Users will find a resource that is geared to the thinking and planning processes for library technology that emphasizes the development of good project management skills.

  • The Myth and Magic of Library Systems

    • 1st Edition
    • Keith J. Kelley
    • English
    The Myth and Magic of Library Systems not only defines what library systems are, but also provides guidance on how to run a library systems department. It is aimed at librarians or library administrations tasked with managing, or using, a library systems department. This book focuses on different scenarios regarding career changes for librarians and the ways they may have to interact with library systems, including examples that speak to IT decision-making responsibilities, work as a library administrator, or managerial duties in systems departments.

  • How Libraries Should Manage Data

    Practical Guidance On How With Minimum Resources to Get the Best From Your Data
    • 1st Edition
    • Brian Cox
    • English
    Have you ever looked at your Library’s key performance indicators and said to yourself "so what!"? Have you found yourself making decisions in a void due to the lack of useful and easily accessible operational data? Have you ever worried that you are being left behind with the emergence of data analytics? Do you feel there are important stories in your operational data that need to be told, but you have no idea how to find these stories? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this book is for you. How Libraries Should Manage Data provides detailed instructions on how to transform your operational data from a fog of disconnected, unreliable, and inaccessible information - into an exemplar of best practice data management. Like the human brain, most people are only using a very small fraction of the true potential of Excel. Learn how to tap into a greater proportion of Excel’s hidden power, and in the process transform your operational data into actionable business intelligence.

  • Information Professionals' Career Confidential

    Straight Talk and Savvy Tips
    • 1st Edition
    • Ulla de Stricker
    • English
    Based in part on a selection of the author's past blog postings, Information Professionals' Career Confidential is a convenient, browsable, and illuminating pocket compendium of insights on topics relevant for information and knowledge professionals at any stage of their careers. This book collects comments on matters of interest to new and experienced information professionals alike in 1-2 minute “quick takes,” inviting further thought. Topics range from the value of knowledge management and effective communication in organizations to assessing employers’ perception of information professionals and how best to increase one’s value through professional organizations and volunteering. This unique resource will be illuminating for anyone in library and information science, career development, or knowledge and information management.

  • Informed Systems

    Organizational Design for Learning in Action
    • 1st Edition
    • Mary M. Somerville
    • English
    By fostering principles of systems thinking and informed learning though an inclusive, participatory design process that advances information exchange, reflective dialogue, and knowledge creation, the Informed Systems Approach promotes conceptual change in workplace organizations. Informed Systems explores theory-based participatory action research and provides examples of agile process models for activating sustainable design, dialogue, and reflection processes in today’s organizations. This book also examines forward thinking frameworks for academic libraries, and how they can be used in the context of dynamically changing scholarly communications. Chapters further the expression of collaborative information practices that enrich information experiences by simultaneously advancing both situated domain knowledge and transferable learning capacity. Design (and redesign) activities well integrated into the workplace culture are expressed through sustainable processes and practices that produce rich information experiences. Informed learning both promotes and sustains continuous learning, including collective reflection on information sources, collaborative practices, and systems functionalities. In these ways, transferable topical understandings and information resiliency manifest action oriented intention to ensure improvements of real world situations.

  • Strategic Human Resource Planning for Academic Libraries

    Information, Technology and Organization
    • 1st Edition
    • Michael A. Crumpton
    • English
    Strategic Human Resources Planning for Academic Libraries: Information, Technology and Organization provides an in-depth discussion of human resources as a strategic element of a library organization, especially as staffing needs and competencies change. The book focuses on the impact of human resource practices in a library setting, discussing several aspects, including the role of human resources when the library is part of a larger organization, along with information on how to identify strategic objectives that are expected and related to workforce issues. In addition, the book reviews hiring practices, reorganizations of staff, use of temps or time-limited positions, and how students, volunteers, and internships can make a strategic difference overall.

  • Domain Analysis for Knowledge Organization

    Tools for Ontology Extraction
    • 1st Edition
    • Richard Smiraglia
    • English
    Domain analysis is the process of studying the actions, knowledge production, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge-base of a community of commonality, such as an academic discipline or a professional community. The products of domain analysis range from controlled vocabularies and other knowledge organization systems, to scientific evidence about the growth and sharing of knowledge and the evolution of communities of discourse and practice.In the field of knowledge organization- both the science and the practice­ domain analysis is the basic research method for identifying the concepts that will be critical building blocks for knowledge organization systems. This book will survey the theoretical rationale for domain analysis, present tutorials in the specific methods of domain analysis, especially with regard to tools for visualizing knowledge domains.

  • Marketing the 21st Century Library

    The Time Is Now
    • 1st Edition
    • Debra Lucas-Alfieri
    • English
    Although the 21st century library is competing with numerous web-based resources, its clients can benefit from using its research assistance, physical and online holdings, and physical space, so they need to understand what the library offers. Marketing the 21st Century Library systematically and concisely teaches students and practitioners how to and why they should market and promote academic libraries. Librarians need to use marketing not only to advertise and promote resources, but also to boost the profession and the role we play. The book introduces key marketing concepts, followed by the history of library marketing. Subsequent chapters guide readers through a series of tools and resources so they can create their own marketing plans, concluding with an exploration of resources, services and further readings.

  • Law Librarianship in Academic Libraries

    Best Practices
    • 1st Edition
    • Yemisi Dina
    • English
    In the last two decades, advancement in technology has transformed every aspect of librarianship. Law Librarianship in Academic Law Libraries discusses issues and model practices in academic law libraries. This text will help librarians and library school students understand the operation, resources and facilities that are available in the academic law library. It explains the practices and trends that are widely practiced in different parts of the world. This book describes the expectations of an aspiring professional with an interest in specializing in law librarianship; revealing facts pertaining to management and administration which are not necessarily taught in library schools. The first chapter introduces the history of academic law libraries, and defines law librarianship. The remaining chapters are dedicated to different aspects of law librarianship including the importance of emerging technologies and how they are implemented in the academic law libraries setting, finishing with a concluding chapter on global opportunities available for law librarians.

  • Cataloguing and Classification

    An introduction to AACR2, RDA, DDC, LCC, LCSH and MARC 21 Standards
    • 1st Edition
    • Fotis Lazarinis
    • English
    Cataloguing and Classification introduces concepts and practices in cataloguing and classification, and common library standards. The book introduces and analyzes the principles and structures of library catalogues, including the application of AACR2, RDA, DDC, LCC, LCSH and MARC 21 standards, and conceptual models such as ISBD, FRBR and FRAD. The text also introduces DC, MODS, METS, EAD and VRA Core metadata schemes for annotating digital resources.

  • Multilingual Information Management

    Information, Technology and Translators
    • 1st Edition
    • Ximo Granell
    • English
    Multilingual information is in high demand in today’s globalised economy. Industry and market globalisation, intensified collaboration between European countries, technological developments, the advent and consolidation of the Internet, the rise of electronic business, and the increased use of electronic documents are some of the factors that have fuelled this need. Multilingual Information Management draws on previous empirical research to explore how information and technologies are used within the community of translators as information facilitators among different languages and cultures, to help them become more productive and competitive in today’s market. The book consists of three parts, including a literature review on information and technology needs among translators; a research framework to investigate the perceptions and use of information and technology within their working environment; and a strategic proposal for an Information Systems approach to multilingual information professionals and information literacy training.

  • Managing the One-Person Library

    • 1st Edition
    • Larry Cooperman
    • English
    Managing the one-person library provides a useful and needed resource for solo librarians confronted with the challenges of running a small library. The author uniquely focuses on topics encountered by solo librarians, such as IT troubleshooting and library security. Chapters on library management, collection development, serials management, and library marketing are included to enable solo librarians to easily manage day-to-day operations in these areas, and advise on how to respond to any challenges that should (and will) arise. This book will provide a much-needed resource manual that will allow solo librarians of all backgrounds, and paraprofessionals, to manage their collections as effectively as their larger librarian counterparts.

  • Library 3.0

    Intelligent Libraries and Apomediation
    • 1st Edition
    • Tom Kwanya + 2 more
    • English
    The emerging generation of research and academic library users expect the delivery of user-centered information services. ‘Apomediation’ refers to the supporting role librarians can give users by stepping in when users need help. Library 3.0 explores the ongoing debates on the “point oh” phenomenon and its impact on service delivery in libraries. This title analyses Library 3.0 and its potential in creating intelligent libraries capable of meeting contemporary needs, and the growing role of librarians as apomediators. Library 3.0 is divided into four chapters. The first chapter introduces and places the topic in context. The second chapter considers “point oh” libraries. The third chapter covers library 3.0 librarianship, while the final chapter explores ways libraries can move towards ‘3.0'.

  • Shaping Knowledge

    Complex Socio-Spatial Modelling for Adaptive Organizations
    • 1st Edition
    • Jamie O’Brien
    • English
    Organizations in ever-changing environments depend upon their knowledge, as their survival depends upon effective thinking and agile actions. Any organization’s knowledge is its prime asset yet its true value requires the activations of structure, query, search and decision. Shaping Knowledge provides an introduction to the key tools for thinking required by decision-making professionals in today’s knowledge-intensive landscapes, and equips them with key skills to capitalize on knowledge resources. This book provides practical methods and critical insights for modelling knowledge-driven domains, providing a rich resource for exploration in professional development and practice.

  • International and National Library and Information Services

    A Review of Some Recent Developments 1970-80
    • 1st Edition
    • George Chandler
    • G. Chandler
    • English
    International and National Library and Information Services: A Review of Some Recent Developments 1970-80 is the second in a series that surveys developments in specific types of library and information services and subject fields over a period of 5 to 15 years, according to the nature of the topic. The survey is from the point of view of the role of national libraries in national and international library and information systems. Organized into 10 chapters, this book begins with a description of intergovernmental organizations; international library and information associations; and conference of directors of national libraries. Subsequent chapters discuss developments in this field of interest in the Americas, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North Africa, Asia, and Oceania. This book will be useful to public, school, and university libraries, and to schools of librarianship and information science.

  • From Knowledge Abstraction to Management

    Using Ranganathan’s Faceted Schema to Develop Conceptual Frameworks for Digital Libraries
    • 1st Edition
    • Aparajita Suman
    • English
    The increasing volume of information in the contemporary world entails demand for efficient knowledge management (KM) systems; a logical method of information organization that will allow proper semantic querying to identify things that match meaning in natural language. On this concept, the role of an information manager goes beyond implementing a search and clustering system, to the ability to map and logically present the subject domain and related cross domains. From Knowledge Abstraction to Management answers this need by analysing ontology tools and techniques, helping the reader develop a conceptual framework from the digital library perspective. Beginning with the concept of knowledge abstraction, before discussing the Solecistic versus the Semantic Web, the book goes on to consider knowledge organisation, the development of conceptual frameworks, untying conceptual tangles, and the concept of faceted knowledge representation.

  • Bibliographic Information Organization in the Semantic Web

    • 1st Edition
    • Mirna Willer + 1 more
    • English
    New technologies will underpin the future generation of library catalogues. To facilitate their role providing information, serving users, and fulfilling their mission as cultural heritage and memory institutions, libraries must take a technological leap; their standards and services must be transformed to those of the Semantic Web. Bibliographic Information Organization in the Semantic Web explores the technologies that may power future library catalogues, and argues the necessity of such a leap. The text introduces international bibliographic standards and models, and fundamental concepts in their representation in the context of the Semantic Web. Subsequent chapters cover bibliographic information organization, linked open data, methodologies for publishing library metadata, discussion of the wider environment (museum, archival and publishing communities) and users, followed by a conclusion.

  • The Patron-Driven Library

    A Practical Guide for Managing Collections and Services in the Digital Age
    • 1st Edition
    • Dee Ann Allison
    • English
    Libraries in the USA and globally are undergoing quiet revolution. Libraries are moving away from a philosophy that is collection-centered to one focused on service. Technology is key to that change. The Patron Driven Library explores the way technology has moved the focus from library collections to services, placing the reader at the center of library activities. The book reveals the way library users are changing, and how social networking, web delivery of information, and the uncertain landscape of e-print has energized librarians to adopt technology to meet a different model of the library while preserving core values. Following an introduction, the first part begins with the historical milieu, and moves on to current challenges for financing and acquiring materials, and an exploration of why the millennial generation is transformational. The second part examines how changes in library practice can create a culture for imagining library services in an age of information overflow. The final chapter asks: Whither the library?

  • Multimedia Information Retrieval

    Theory and Techniques
    • 1st Edition
    • Roberto Raieli
    • English
    Novel processing and searching tools for the management of new multimedia documents have developed. Multimedia Information Retrieval (MIR) is an organic system made up of Text Retrieval (TR); Visual Retrieval (VR); Video Retrieval (VDR); and Audio Retrieval (AR) systems. So that each type of digital document may be analysed and searched by the elements of language appropriate to its nature, search criteria must be extended. Such an approach is known as the Content Based Information Retrieval (CBIR), and is the core of MIR. This novel content-based concept of information handling needs to be integrated with more traditional semantics. Multimedia Information Retrieval focuses on the tools of processing and searching applicable to the content-based management of new multimedia documents. Translated from Italian by Giles Smith, the book is divided into two parts. Part one discusses MIR and related theories, and puts forward new methodologies; part two reviews various experimental and operating MIR systems, and presents technical and practical conclusions.

  • Chinese Librarianship in the Digital Era

    • 1st Edition
    • Conghui Fang
    • English
    The library in China has been transformed by rapid socioeconomic development, and the proliferation of the Internet. The issues faced by Chinese libraries andlibrarians are those faced by library practitioners more globally, however, China also has its own unique set of issues in the digital era, including developmental imbalance between East and West, urban and rural areas, and availability of skilled practitioners. Chinese Librarianship in the Digital Era is the first book on Chinese libraries responding to these issues, and more.The first part of the book places discussion in historical context, before moving on to the digital environment of the Chinese library. The book then considers the issue of digital copyright in China, and debates the core values of the Chinese library. The next three chapters cover public and academic libraries, and library consortia. Finally, the book gives a view of the future prospects for libraries in China.

  • Academic Libraries in the US and China

    Comparative Studies of Instruction, Government Documents, and Outreach
    • 1st Edition
    • Hanrong Wang + 1 more
    • English
    Academic libraries have a long history both in the USA and China, with institutions developing along different trajectories, and responding to the rapidly changing library environment globally. Academic Libraries in the US and China compares current practices within Library and Information Science (LIS) in the USA and China, giving an historical overview of instruction, government documents, and outreach in academic libraries, as well as discussion and comparative analysis.An introduction leads to chapters on instruction, government publications, and outreach. Each topic is covered both for American and Chinese academic libraries. A conclusion then gives comparative analysis of US and Chinese academic libraries.

  • Excellence in the Stacks

    Strategies, Practices and Reflections of Award-Winning Libraries
    • 1st Edition
    • Jacob Hill + 1 more
    • English
    Excellence in the Stacks details the philosophies, practices and innovations of award-winning libraries over the last ten years. It will inform the profession and highlight the themes and strategies these liberal-arts colleges share, and where they differ. Using the Association of Research and College Libraries Excellence in Academic Libraries Award standards as guidelines for exploring librarianship, this book gathers the perspectives of all types of librarians at all levels of employment. By highlighting winners’ holistic approaches it helps define and focus the energies of college libraries in their pursuit of outstanding service and increased valuation by their parent institution.

  • Trends, Discovery, and People in the Digital Age

    • 1st Edition
    • Wendy Evans + 1 more
    • English
    Digital information is a constantly developing field. The first title in the Chandos Digital Information Review series, Trends, Discovery, and People in the Digital Age, summarises and presents key themes, advances and trends in all aspects of digital information today, exploring the impact of developing technologies on the information world. This book emphasises important contemporary topics and future developments from a global perspective. Dynamic contents by leaders in the field respond to what is happening in the field of digital information literacy, and anticipate future developments. Topics include: the future of digital information provision; Enquire; cloud computing; building an information landscape; e-books and journals in a changing digital landscape; discovering resources; citizens and digital information; data-management; community usage patterns of scientific information; software citations; the future of data curation; JISC; Skills Portal; the future information professional; university library and information services; academic libraries and their future; and impediments to new library futures.

  • How Libraries Make Tough Choices in Difficult Times

    Purposeful Abandonment
    • 1st Edition
    • David Stern
    • English
    Contemporary library managers face the need to make difficult choices regarding resource allocation in the modern business environment. How Libraries Make Tough Choices in Difficult Times is a practical guide for library managers, offering techniques to analyze existing and potential services, implement best practices for maximizing existing resources, and utilize pressing financial scenarios in order to justify making difficult reallocation decisions. The book begins by asking the fundamental questions of why, what, and how, moving on to look at how to manage expectations and report to both administration and faculty. The book then considers the four ‘D’s of Do, Delegate, Delay and Drop, before covering project management, and how to understand the mission and objectives of your organisation. The book then focuses on: service quality improvement analyses; identifying underlying issues; reviewing resources; identifying best practice; managing feedback and expectations; and looking at decision making skills and implications.

  • Designing Effective Library Tutorials

    A Guide for Accommodating Multiple Learning Styles
    • 1st Edition
    • Lori Mestre
    • English
    Learning styles are highly relevant for students in the online environment. Designing Effective Library Tutorials provides examples of, and steps for, how to create tutorials that match learning styles, based on usability studies of students from various cultural groups and styles of learning. The book presents studies, practical suggestions, and examples to assist librarians and faculty as they develop online programs for students from diverse learning styles. Research on learning style preferences in the online environment emphasizes the need to provide a variety of methods that include text, aural, visual, and kinesthetic examples. Geared for the practitioner working in online learning, the book summarizes current literature, and presents best practices for designing effective online tools for diverse learners, including suggestions for assessment of learning objects.This title is structured into twelve chapters, covering: The learning style debate: do we need to match up learning styles with presentation styles? Overview of learning style theories and learning style results from various studies; The intersection of culture and learning styles; The need for learning object development; Current practice: categories and features of library tutorials; Effective design of learning objects; Pedagogical considerations for tutorials; Interactivity options for tutorials; Assessment of learning objects; The value and process of usability studies; Marketing learning objects for broad visibility; and a section on resources.

  • Data Clean-Up and Management

    A Practical Guide for Librarians
    • 1st Edition
    • Margaret Hogarth + 1 more
    • English
    Data use in the library has specific characteristics and common problems. Data Clean-up and Management addresses these, and provides methods to clean up frequently-occurring data problems using readily-available applications. The authors highlight the importance and methods of data analysis and presentation, and offer guidelines and recommendations for a data quality policy. The book gives step-by-step how-to directions for common dirty data issues.

  • Managing Social Media in Libraries

    Finding Collaboration, Coordination, and Focus
    • 1st Edition
    • Troy Swanson
    • English
    Web 2.0 first created a scramble among librarians to participate in Facebook, YouTube, blogs, and other social media applications, and the turn is now towards management and consolidation. Managing Social Media in Libraries explores the developing information environment, the collaboration among library organizations, and the ways social media may convert the loose connections between library staff members. The book takes librarians beyond the mechanics of using social media, and establishes a framework to move library managers and leaders toward making social media effective. Managing Social Media in Libraries is structured around key topics in this area, including: refocusing after the first use of Web 2.0; library organisations as loosely coupled systems; social media within such systems; defining a purpose for the use of social media; connecting messages and tools; and integrating social media into standard websites.

  • Not Your Ordinary Librarian

    Debunking the Popular Perceptions of Librarians
    • 1st Edition
    • Ashanti White
    • English
    When you picture a librarian, what do you imagine? An old white woman with glasses and a prudish disposition? That is the image that many people conjure up when asked to picture a librarian; with 82 per cent of the professional force being female and the average age of a librarian at 45, coupled with popular stereotypical images, it is difficult to dispute the perceptions. But there is more to librarians than meets the eye. This book will explore the origin of the image and popular media images of the librarian, in addition to the effects of the stereotype, and the challenges to the perception of librarians today.

  • Teaching Research Processes

    The Faculty Role in the Development of Skilled Student Researchers
    • 1st Edition
    • William Badke
    • English
    Information literacy may be defined as the ability to identify a research problem, decide the kinds of information needed to tackle it, find the information efficiently, evaluate the information, and apply it to the problem at hand. Teaching Research Processes suggests a novel way in which information literacy can come within the remit of teaching faculty, supported by librarians, and reconceived as ‘research processes’. The aim is to transform education from what some see as a primarily one-way knowledge communication practice, to an interactive practice involving the core research tasks of subject disciplines.This title is structured into nine chapters, covering: Defining research processes; Research ability inadequacies in higher education; Research processes and faculty understanding; Current initiatives in research processes; The role of disciplinary thinking in research processes; Research processes in the classroom; Tentative case studies in disciplinary research process instruction; Research processes transforming education; and Resourcing the enterprise. The book concludes by encouraging the reader to implement the teaching of research processes.

  • Building Your Library Career with Web 2.0

    • 1st Edition
    • Julia Gross
    • English
    Many professionals in the Library and Information Services (LIS) area are using Web 2.0 to deliver content and reaching out to connect with library users. This book applies these technologies to help shape your own career development plan. Increased online connectivity has opened up new opportunities for professionals to network, learn and grow in their careers; in an online world, where many of us have a digital footprint already, new rules apply. This readable guide builds on the solid foundation of previous library career books. The social networking tools described will supplement the traditional methods of career development. Chapters provide advice and practical examples, showing how to use Web 2.0 technologies in our careers including: ways to enhance your skills; building professional networks; developing a positive online presence.

  • Academic Branch Libraries in Changing Times

    • 1st Edition
    • Nevenka Zdravkovska
    • English
    Are academic branch libraries going to be extinct in the near future? In these difficult economic times, when collections are digitized rapidly, is there still a need for a separate unit within proximity to the department, school, or college with a subject-based or subject-specific collection? Academic Branch Libraries in Changing Times gives a brief historical overview of the role of a branch academic library. It reviews the current situation from a practitioner’s point of view and suggests solutions for the future.

  • Qualitative Research and the Modern Library

    • 1st Edition
    • Valeda Dent Goodman
    • English
    Qualitative Research and the Modern Library examines the present-day role and provides suggestions for areas that might be suited to this type of research for the purposes of evaluation. The author discusses how the results from such research might be applied, and the overall impact of using this type of research to inform development of a more user-centred organisation. The book provides a thoughtful look at the implications of using qualitative research to inform decision-making processes within libraries and is written by an author and library researcher with international experience in various types of libraries, implementing/improvi... programs and services, and supporting user needs.

  • Information Literacy

    Infiltrating the Agenda, Challenging Minds
    • 1st Edition
    • Geoff Walton + 1 more
    • English
    Focusing on important information literacy debates, this new book with contributions from many of the main experts in the field highlights important ideas and practical considerations. Information Literacy takes the reader on a journey across the contemporary information landscape, guided by academics and practitioners who are experts in navigating this ever-changing terrain.

  • Convergence of Libraries and Technology Organizations

    New Information Support Models
    • 1st Edition
    • Christopher Barth
    • English
    This book describes and discusses the convergence of library and technology support in higher education. Over the past 15 years, a number of institutions have pursued merging library and technology services into a single information support organization. These mergers have taken different forms, but all seek to redefine information support in a 21st century model that promotes the interdisciplinary use of information. The coming years will see significant change affect libraries with the continuing disruption of the Internet and digitally-based services. Coupled with economic pressures, libraries and technology organizations will increasingly be forced to look closely at long-held assumptions of how their teams are organized and how work is divided and shared. Convergence of Libraries and Technology Organizations provides useful and practical guidance on converged information organizations as an effective response to change in the information profession.

  • Engaging Students with Archival and Digital Resources

    • 1st Edition
    • Justine Cotton + 1 more
    • English
    Aimed at professional librarians and archivists, this book explores connecting students and faculty with the archival and digital collections of the university’s library and archives. Academic research has been forever changed by the digitization of books, journals, and archival collections. As university libraries and archives move forward in the digital era, it is essential to assess the research needs of users and develop innovative methods to demonstrate the value of collections and services. This book provides librarians and archivists with the tools to develop a robust workshop program aimed at connecting students with archival and digital collections.

  • Ontologies, Taxonomies and Thesauri in Systems Science and Systematics

    • 1st Edition
    • Emilia Currás
    • English
    The originality of this book, which deals with such a new subject matter, lies in the application of methods and concepts never used before – such as ontologies and taxonomies, as well as thesauri - to the ordering of knowledge based on primary information. Chapters in the book also examine the study of ontologies, taxonomies and thesauri from the perspective of systematics and general systems theory. Ontologies, Taxonomies and Thesauri in Systems Science and Systematics will be extremely useful to those operating within the network of related fields, which includes documentation and information science.

  • Transforming Research Libraries for the Global Knowledge Society

    • 1st Edition
    • Barbara Dewey
    • English
    Transforming Research Libraries for the Global Knowledge Society explores critical aspects of research library transformation needed for successful transition into the 21st century multicultural environment. The book is written by leaders in the field who have real world experience with transformational change and thought-provoking ideas for the future of research libraries, academic librarianship, research collections, and the changing nature of global scholarship within a higher education context.

  • Scholarly Communication in Library and Information Services

    The Impacts of Open Access Journals and E-Journals on a Changing Scenario
    • 1st Edition
    • Bhaskar Mukherjee
    • English
    This book has been written with a view to understand the validity of the perceptions of Open Access (OA) e-journals in the Library and Information Science (LIS) field. Using relevant OA journals this book presents and evaluates journals qualitatively and quantitatively. Over the last three hundred years scholarly journals have been the prime mode of transport in communicating the scholarly research process. However in the last few decades, a changing scenario has been witnessed in their form and format. OA is an innovative idea that attracts a fair amount of support and opposition around the world because it bridges the gap between digitally divided scholars by solving the pricing and permission crises that have imbalanced the scholarly communication process. Some scholars are of the opinion that OA has led to a chaotic environment where anyone can publish anything. Scholarly Communication in Library and Information Services records, in detail, the impact by accessing the journals’ web site qualitatively and quantitatively in measuring the important elements such as articles, authors, countries, subjects and cited references. Finally, the book calculates the impact factor using synchronous and asynchronous approaches.

  • Practising Information Literacy

    Bringing Theories of Learning, Practice and Information Literacy Together
    • 1st Edition
    • Annemaree Lloyd + 1 more
    • English
    This book showcases new interdisciplinary academic research on the relationship between information literacy and learning. It combines findings with new understandings drawn from theoretical and empirical research conducted in primary and secondary schools, higher education, workplaces, and community contexts. The studies offer new insights into questions such as how transferable are the information practices and skills learned in one context to other contexts? What is the degree to which information competences are generic, to what degree are they domain and context specific? What are the kinds of challenges and outcomes that emerge from incorporating information literacy into education and training courses? And, most importantly, what kinds of theories and philosophies regarding the nature of learning, information, and knowledge, should information literacies education and research efforts be based on?