Managing Electronic Resources by Ryan O. Weir

 DiBello, Amy 


Weir, R. (2012). Managing electronic resources (LITA Guide). Chicago, Ill.: ALA TechSource.

Ryan O. Weir's textbook Managing Electronic Resources was published in 2012 and predicts the library of 2020. Ebooks will change libraries and outnumber print books. University publishing houses will be making content available through Project Muse/UPCC, JSTOR, and other online platforms. The digital divide will increase in Third World countries and the poor and computer illiterate will rely on public libraries to bridge these disadvantages.

Behind the scenes, how we will work will also change radically. The split between print and electronic materials is impacting technical services departments and since everyone is already understaffed, the problems are only being compounded. Flexibility and skill acquisitions turn every day into another episode of MacGyver.

The libraries of 2020 libraries will revolve around eResources and libraries will have to find new ways to weather economic turmoil. Catalogers will be replaced with metadata specialists and job titles will be rebranded. Reference services as we know them will have to adapt to new user needs.
Distance education will increase as people become accustomed to working and learning remotely.

Special collection libraries and archives will continue to digitize and make collections available online. Consortia will become even more important and open access ventures will give vendors a literal run for their money.

Librarians have to be flexible multi-taskers who can solve problems, be technologically savvy, and able to communicate and negotiate with staff, administrators, and vendors in various contexts. They have to be courageous enough to lead and be diplomatic. They’ll be put in the tricky place of "managing" up their supervisors and stakeholders too. Managing people you supervise will require emotional intelligence, coaching, collaboration, and communication. We will need to abandon traditional hierarchies and work together as peers.

Reference is dead, long live reference

Pierucci, Jessica

Terrell, H. B. (2015). Reference is dead, long live reference: Electronic collections in the digital age. Information Technology and Libraries 34(4), 55-62. doi:10.6017/ital.v34i4.9098

Summary

The role of print reference in the library is becoming increasingly unclear as electronic information becomes more and more ubiquitous. The author explains that only about 10% of print reference collections are now used. Some librarians have expressed concern about the print reference collection diminishing in size and use, citing concerns of browsability of print, potential reliability issues for electronic sources, and access for those without library cards who therefore cannot use library internet. The author dismisses these concerns, explaining how ready reference is now best handled using mainly electronic resources in the current information environment and many electronic sources used in the library have no more issues with reliability than print sources. In addition, the author thinks the concern about patrons without internet access is better and more cost effectively addressed in ways other than keeping a mostly unused print reference collection for this group of patrons. For example, San Francisco Public Library has the Welcome Card allowing those who don’t qualify for a library card (often due to lack of an address or proper identification) to use computers and check out one book at a time, giving the user limited library privileges. The author cites this as a much better solution to the concern of those without ability to get library card being able to only use print than keeping unused reference material around.

Evaluation

The article’s title is a bit deceiving. The author doesn’t think reference itself it dead. Instead the author thinks the reference print collection is dead and needs to be dramatically weeded in favor of more highly used electronic reference resources. I’m happy that’s the case as I think reference is still important to help patrons develop valuable search skills and find what they want in the library’s collection. This just happens increasingly online.

I agree with the author’s assessment of the print reference collection as in the library where I work I’ve seen how rarely the librarians turn to print to answer reference questions. They generally favor library databases and other electronic resources. They show patrons how to search these resources to find the information they want to answer their inquiry. I was happy to see a passionate argument for weeding a rarely used part of the library’s collection. In a time of ever-shrinking budgets it’s great to find the places where the library can cut acquisitions and weed out unused material to put funds toward well-used parts of the collection.

Using Outreach Efforts to Acquire Documentation

Christina Perris
INFO 266
Fall 2015

Using Outreach Efforts to Acquire Documentation

Hughes-Watkins, Lae'l. (2014). Filling in the gaps: Using outreach efforts to acquire documentation on the black campus movement, 1965-1972. Archival Issues: Journal of the Midwest Archives Conference, 36(1), 27-42.

This journal article focuses on the Department of Special Collections and Archives at Kent State University’s efforts to develop their collection of documentation on the Black Campus Movement, 1965-1972.  The archivist opens by presenting a brief history of the black campus movement: first, on broad, national scale; then, in the context of how it was on the campus of Kent State.  The archivist discusses the efforts she undertook to assess the deficiency in the department’s collections through a survey of the holdings, and then how she creates a collection development plan to address these shortcomings.  The archivist goes on to explain how she reviewed the outreach strategy and brought it into alignment with the new collection development plan.  She then explains how she went on the acquiring the collection focused on the black campus movement and black student life.

This article is an probably one of the most ambitious, thorough and detailed accounts of what it truly takes to acquire a representative collection – whether it is specifically targeted to a special collection department, a special collections department with an archive or an archive alone – in your repository.  Whether you work in an academic library of a state-run university with a special collections department or a local historical society’s community-based archive, it might be advisable to be somewhat versed in the history of the United States educational system as it relates to state-run universities (at least, the “major events” in the system, such as the passage of Civil Rights legislation, students rights movements, etc.) or the basic history of the community.  Knowing the history – preferably from unbiased, academic sources – will allow to assess where “gaps” in the existing collection lie.  Once you identify these gaps, as the author did, you can then determine how to “remedy” them and present a more complete – and therefore, accurate – representation of the history of the institution or community.      

 

20 Great Ways Libraries Are Using Pinterest

Johnson, Stacey

 

Lofland, Lee (2013). 20 Great Ways Libraries Are Using Pinterest. Retrieved from

http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/20-great-ways-libraries-are-using-pinterest/

•  A list of ways to use Pinterest (or maybe other social media) to connect with patrons.
• Although this may not be specifically collection development, letting patrons now about new or special items in the collection is very important too. The article had some great ideas about promoting a library through Pinterest, especially pinning book covers to highlight new books or perhaps holiday books? Also using pins to highlight a historical collection or other special collection, especially an ebook or database resource that may not be so visible to patrons. This would be a great way to highlight any items or parts of the library collection that patrons might not know about.

Legal research and law library management

Rowland, Sarah

Marke, J., & Sloane, R. (1982). Collection Development. In Legal research and law library management. New York: Law Journal Seminars-Press, 132.

Summary: This is a looseleaf and the one I looked at was last updated in 2006. I read chapter 2 which was a nice overview of what collection development is along with specifics dealing with an Academic Law Library, County Law Library or Law Firm Law Library. The chapter right away tells you how laying out collection development policy can help, “Every library is unique, yet al library collections benefit when they grow in a thoughtful manner following guidelines set forth in a formal collection development policy (p. 2-5). It gives information on what to include in a collection development policy such as the mission, overview of the collection, selection guidelines, retention and weeding procedures. I liked that it gave examples from other law libraries along with giving specific references to other collection development tools to help develop a law libraries collection. It also had a section on acquisitions policy and things to consider such as need, cost, quality, duplication, currentness and availability.

Evaluation: The chapter of this book really helped me throughout the semester because I wasn’t only an academic library I was also a special academic library with a focus on law and having no background in law. However, I feel like it was laid out in a way that even with no background in law it gave me a great understanding on what a typical law library should look like. One example is that I noticed I didn’t have anything dealing with intellectual freedom in our collection development policy whereas other academic library did. The authors let me know that this is typical for law libraries to overlook having one even though they should. I would highly recommend anybody who finds they are working in a law library to especially check out the chapter of the book for a nice overview. It really helped me feel less lost during the semester when I had a question specifically about law libraries. I’m hoping the rest of the book is this useful.

Collection Development and Management: An Overview of the Literature, 2011-12.

Bailey, Rachel

Lehman, K.A. (2014). Collection development and management: An overview of the literature, 2011-12. LRTS, 58(3), 169-177.

Summary: This article explores collection development literature from 2011-2012. Much of the literature discussed limited budgets as well as space saving issues. Also addressed were e-books as well as open access availability, demand driven acquisitions, print on demand and weeding.

Evaluation: This article reminded me that collection development is a big topic and there are a lot of subjects under this heading. After reading the overview of the literature, I was particularly intrigued by the process of demand driven acquisitions. There’s no better way to find out what patrons want than going straight to the source. This should be done in addition to the other methods that are already in place.