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Librarians and Archivists in a fast-changing digital lanscape
Curated by Karen du Toit
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What Makes a Great Library Website | webinar by Public Library Association (PLA)

What Makes a Great Library Website | webinar by Public Library Association (PLA) | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

There’s a good chance that more of your library's patrons are using your website than coming into your building. Is your virtual presence welcoming? Easy to navigate? Reflective of your customers’ needs? Join us for a one-hour, live webinar and learn simple ways to evaluate the effectiveness of your library website, identify patron needs, and solve common website problems.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this one-hour webinar, participants will:

Be able to assess the effectiveness of their library website;Be able to create personas to clarify patron needs; andKnow some design patterns that can solve common library website problems. 

 

Date & Time

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

2:00–3:00 PM Eastern1:00–2:00 PM Central12:00–1:00 PM Mountain11:00 AM–12:00 PM Pacific 
Karen du Toit's insight:

Upcoming webinar > looks good!

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Annemarijs's curator insight, April 26, 2014 3:30 AM

Woensdag 30 april is er een webinar over het aantrekkelijk maken van bibliotheekwebsites. Websites van bibliotheken waren tot nog toe vooral sites om te zoeken naar informatie en om je boeken te verlengen of reserveren. Door de verdere ontwikkeling naar een digitale netwerksamenleving zullen klanten van bibliotheken behoefte hebben aan websites die ook als ontmoetingsplaats kunnen fungeren over allerlei grenzen heen.

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What's So Special About Special Libraries?

What's So Special About Special Libraries? | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

(2013). What's So Special About Special Libraries? Journal of Library Administration: Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 274-282. 

 

View full textDownload full textAccess optionsDOI:10.1080/01930826.2013.865395Tara E. Murraya 

pages 274-282


Publishing models and article dates explained
Published online: 12 Dec 2013Article Views: 33 Full text: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01930826.2013.865395 pdf: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01930826.2013.865395 ;
Karen du Toit's insight:

The unique characteristics of special libraries!

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Small Island Librarian: Corporate online storytelling for libraries?

Small Island Librarian: Corporate online storytelling for libraries? | The Information Professional | Scoop.it
Small Island Librarian: Corporate online storytelling: for libraries?

 

Posted by Mark-Shane Scale:

 

"In my view, there needs to be a course within library schools that will deals with institutional digital storytelling. This is because, in the age of social media and Library 2.0, libraries need to move online and tell their stories. Libraries need to find ways of connecting with their users and potential users in the online world. We need content on our websites and a social media presence that is constantly updated and engaging, reminding our users that we are a channel to credible information sources. Our Websites must now be more like blogs or online magazines, with a constant flow of information. We should not only tell users what we have, but also post commentaries and view points, to represent the information that we have within our collections. In short, we need to take a page from Coca Cola's book on corporate storytelling. If Coca Cola is thinking about becoming a publisher, why not libraries?"

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The Busy Librarian's Guide to Information Literacy in Science and Engineering

The Busy Librarian's Guide to Information Literacy in Science and Engineering | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

"CRL announces the publication of The Busy Librarian’s Guide to Information Literacy in Science and Engineering, edited by Katherine O’Clair and Jeanne Davidson.

The Busy Librarian’s Guide to Information Literacy in Science and Engineering provides a practical guide for librarians responsible for science, engineering and/or technology information literacy instruction to understand and apply the ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology into curriculum design and ongoing instruction. Edited by science and engineering librarians Katherine O’Clair and Jeanne Davidson, the book highlights unique needs and challenges for information literacy instruction within science/engineering curricula."

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Linked Data for Libraries, by OCLC - YouTube video

A short introduction to the concepts and technology behind linked data, how it works, and some benefits it brings to libraries. (RT @OCLC_ANZ: Wondering about linked data & why it's important to libraries?)

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Survey Finds That Libraries Are Interested in Collaborating on Online Projects, but Don't Do It Yet

Survey Finds That Libraries Are Interested in Collaborating on Online Projects, but Don't Do It Yet | The Information Professional | Scoop.it
And while home pages are being archived, social media collections lag.
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Perspectives on SAOIM 2012, via SAOUG

Perspectives on SAOIM 2012, via SAOUG | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

The Southern African Online Information Meeting with the theme: "Innovation in an Age of Limits"

 

By Phillipa Mitchell

"The SAOIM conference 2012 was a wonderful place for someone on the other end of the book spectrum – that of bookselling as opposed to being a librarian – to immerse themselves."

 

More chronicles here: http://saoug.org.za/category/saoim2012/

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Research libraries in the 21st century

Research libraries in the 21st century | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

Val Skelton:

"Although the purpose of academic and research library collections remains the same – to support the creation and dissemination of new knowledge – the nature of collections is moving away from ‘local’ to collaborative and multi-institutional. New forms of scholarship are transforming user expectations for broad, barrier free collection discovery and access. Libraries must transform their approaches to meet new user demands.

 

"The Association of Research Libraries’ (ARL) briefing paper for research library leaders sets out to draw a ‘big picture’ of the future of research library collections.

http://www.arl.org/news/pr/21sttfreport-17may12.shtml

 

 

Key findings – the research environment

- Publishing output will continue to increase
- Global/interdisciplinary research will grow
- The value of personal collections will increase

- Open content will proliferate


Key findings – the future of libraries

- Researchers must understand intellectual property frameworks – libraries can provide support
- Other new roles for research libraries include: digital preservation and data management experts and as supporters helping researchers collaborate even more
- There will also be roles to support the open content movement, for example as publishers as well as IP rights advisers
- Metrics about value to the research community must be improved
- Research libraries will need to maintain linked, digital content in order to enable discovery and future use.
- Resources will increasingly be allocated to the development of tools, an activity well suited to inter-institutional collaboration.
- There will continue to be moves to providing just in time services rather than building just in case collections
- The report is available to download from the ARL website. http://www.arl.org/news/pr/21sttfreport-17may12.shtml

 

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Special Collections Librarianship: a Brief Map of the Field by Katie Birkwood - Slideshare

Presentation about special collections librarianship compiled for the CILIP New Professionals Day 2012 (11 May, London).

 

This presentation is all about special collections, what they are, the functions of a special collections librarian, how to get into special collections, and the role of special collections librarianship.


Via Fe Angela M. Verzosa
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A Tribute to Special Libraries and Collections: NPR Library

A Tribute to Special Libraries and Collections: NPR Library | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

Catherine:  

"Special libraries are found within many different types of organizations, such as broadcast networks. Many have internal libraries and librarians which provide archival, research, information retrieval and reference services. These library collections are often closed to the public, focused on serving the needs of direct staff and affiliates. Librarianship within media organizations is a fascinating part of special libraries. In an article from American Journalism Review, in 1995, the 'news librarian' was described as, "the collectors, managers, and re-distributors of the organization's primary product, information. This is critical in all stages of information's flow through the organization – initial information gathering for use in news reporting, in the collection of the news product into databases, in the repackaging of information created by the organization into new products." Much has changed in the industry in the last fifteen years, however the role of collector and manager of the organization's content is still a vital one.

NPR is a non-profit privately and publicly funded membership media organization. The content produced by NPR is nationally syndicated to over 900 public radio stations in the United States. The NPR library does not have a publicly accessible website, as their collections are not available for circulation and reference outside of NPR affiliated patrons. The collection consists of archival audio of NPR produced shows, collections of commercial music and spoken word (films, tv shows, speeches, poetry). Library staff do have a twitter account that is well worth following. The tweets often highlight stories on the NPR website such as this one about the The Most Gigantal, Behemothian Thesaurus In The World"

 

- Includes links to all related websites of NPR.

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iLibrarian » Create Your Own Library Social Media Monitoring Dashboard through Protopage

iLibrarian » Create Your Own Library Social Media Monitoring Dashboard through Protopage | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

"Create your own social media monitoring dashboard." - Valuable to all libraries, archives and museums


Via Stephanie Sandifer, Dennis T OConnor
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Re-designing spaces for learning | Connected Principals, by @Sharris

Re-designing spaces for learning | Connected Principals, by @Sharris | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

Sharris: "This is a copy of a my guest blog post published this week for the World Innovation Summit for Education - WISE, Qatar - on re-designing spaces for learning..."

http://www.wise-qatar.org/content/stephen-harris-redesigning-spaces-around-collaborative-teaching ;

 

"There is a clear movement occurring in education globally right now – a movement that is seeking to shift the epicentre of educational paradigms from an industrial-era experience to something more relevant to the ever changing and dynamic contexts of the 21st century. In the first decade of this new century, much great work has been done articulating what 21st century skills might be – www.p21.org is a great example of this.

My focus is the key importance of spatial awareness in redesigning spaces for learning. I hope the second decade of this century will be marked by an awareness that redesigning spaces will be as important to change processes, as describing the new skills deemed necessary for learning and career creation in the last decade. I will focus on our journey of change as a case study for education redesign."

 

 

 

 

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Keeping and Deleting Patron Records in Law Libraries » VoxPopuLII

Keeping and Deleting Patron Records in Law Libraries » VoxPopuLII | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

Benjamin Keele:

"As researchers use materials in libraries, their actions tend to generate records—research trails in digital databases, lists of borrowed books, and correspondence with librarians. Most of the time, these records are innocuous, but to facilitate freedom of inquiry, librarians generally hold these records as confidential. This confidentiality is especially important in law libraries because legal matters can be very sensitive and stressful. Researchers implicitly trust librarians with at least hints of concerns the researchers would prefer not be generally known. If researchers knew any records of their questions could become known to others, some researchers would avoid using library collections or asking librarians for advice, guidance that very well may help them find valuable information.

In her interesting post, Meg Leta points out that, despite some exhortations that information on Web lasts forever, most information now online will disappear at some point. Websites go down when their owners fail to pay hosting fees. Data is deleted, either by purpose or mistake. A file sitting on a drive or disc will, without maintenance, eventually becomes inaccessible because the storage media has decayed or because the hardware and software needed to read the file has become obsolete. Since information will tend to vanish without action on our part, Leta suggests we should instead focus on actively saving information that is worth keeping.

Leta makes an excellent point, but I’d suggest that in addition to thinking carefully about what information needs to be kept, legal professionals also should consider whether certain types of information warrant purposeful destruction. I’d also suggest that for law libraries, patrons should be given the ability to retain, either through the library or themselves, records of their use of library resources."

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The Future of Libraries: Free Discussion on 9 Jan - David Lee King to chair

American Libraries Live will be hosting a panel discussion on the challenges and changes within the libraries for the near and distant future.  It is Thursday January 9, 2014 at 2:00-3:00 Eastern.  It is FREE to register and “attend” the discussion.

David Lee King, digital branch and services manager at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library will lead the panel which also includes:

Marshall Breeding, Library Technology Consultant, Speaker and AuthorBuffy Hamilton, Librarian at Norcross High School in metropolitan Atlanta, Library Technology Writer and SpeakerBohyun Kim, Digital Access Librarian at Florida International University Medical LibraryJoseph Murphy, Director of Library Futures, Innovative Interfaces

Register for this episode so you get email reminders at http://goo.gl/1p5dpV .

 

Preregistration is not required to attend. You can also attend by simply going to the site at the time of the event. If you’re unable to attend live, it will be recorded and available at http://www.americanlibrarieslive.org shortly afterwards.

Karen du Toit's insight:

Future of Libraries > always an interesting discussion!

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NELLCO's curator insight, January 8, 2014 8:38 AM

If you can stand one more "Future of Libraries" conversation...

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Why you need social media information governance frameworks

Why you need social media information governance frameworks | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

Kate Cumming:

Businesses run on information and by extending your information governance frameworks to the social media environment you will help ensure that all your business needs for information, now and into the future, will continue to be met.

To develop a social media information governance framework you could firstly:

map the business that is moving to social mediamap the information that is moving to social mediaassess your client information needs and expectations, as well as public accountablities that are dependent on your business information.
Karen du Toit's insight:

Social Media governance > the importance of it! Also in libraries

 

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(Re)Defining the Library, Part 2: - new taxonomy for allocating library functions & roles

(Re)Defining the Library, Part 2: - new taxonomy for allocating library functions & roles | The Information Professional | Scoop.it

Rick Anderson:

"After exploring why the library requires redefinition, this second part of a two-part post offers a new taxonomy for allocating library functions and roles.

 

"How do different libraries balance and provide for these two basic functions in light of the increasingly complex and unpredictable information environment in which they do their work?

It depends. I propose the following basic taxonomy of library types and functions.

 

Library of Cultural Heritage – A library that is charged with preserving the cultural and intellectual heritage of an entire country, region, or (perhaps) ethnic group.

 

Research Library of Record – A library, typically funded by a large university or in some cases by a large municipality, with a broadly inclusive and relatively stable circulating collection.

 

Research Library of Utility – A large and reasonably comprehensive library that is nevertheless characterized by a changeable circulating collection to which books are added and from which they are withdrawn according to the expressed and demonstrated needs of the curriculum, physical space limitations, and the research agendas of its constituency.

 

Academic Library of Utility – An academic library with a targeted, dynamic collection.

 

Public Library – [...] almost exclusively serve communities defined by political geography rather than academic mission.

 

Restricted Library – The working libraries of government agencies, commercial companies, nonprofit organizations, hospitals, and research institutes would all fall under this designation."


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10 Questions to Ask a Research Facility Before You Visit

By Kimberly Powell:

 

"Whether you're planning a trip to the State Historical Society, the Family History Library, the National Archives or the local courthouse, it pays to be prepared. Avoid frustration and increase your research time by asking these 10 question in advance of your visit.
1. What are the regular research hours?

2. Are there any holidays or special closures?

3. In what form are the records available?

4. Are there any record restrictions that will affect research?

5. What unique records or collections are available?

6. Are there restrictions on copying?

7. What can and can't I bring with me to the facility? Anything I absolutely need to bring?

8. What are the best times to visit?

9. Is there a lunchroom? Nearby parking? Public transportation?

10. Is there a particular archivist, librarian or staff member who specializes in my area of interest?"

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