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.

The Multiracial Population is Growing, But Kid Lit Isn't Keeping Up

O'Brien, Sarah

Brown, Monica. (2014) The Multiracial Population is Growing, But Kid Lit Isn’t Keeping Up. School Library Journal.

When a girl in Meolida’s class referred to her as “white,” Melodia corrected her only to be told, “Your white to me. During a conversation on race between school kids, Melodia says, “That’s the way people are. They have to label everything and if they don’t know you, they have to make stuff up.” When it comes to race in our society, our culture is definitely quick to label, exclude, bully and judge. And for those who do not necessarily fall under the right label, we’re quick to exclude or question authenticity. With the multiracial population growing and this country being described as the ‘tossed salad’ instead of the melting pot, racial identity is no longer black or white. In the example of the conversation between school kids in the beginning of this article, it is especially hard for children to identify as only one race. Multiracialism is an important identity in our culture now, therefore it’s time that children’s literature should develop more complex and realistic representations of race. Children’s books need to represent the biracial or multiracial experience, and not only black and white.

In all the courses I’ve taken on Children’s Literature, (from college and graduate school) the exclusion of race seems to be one of the biggest problems we face. Unless we’re reading history books, why is race often left out in what we are reading to our children? As someone who has worked in libraries for five years and exclusively in the Children’s Room for three of those years, I have seen little improvement in trying to fix this. We need to include diversity for many reasons, having an accurate portrayal and representation of other ethnicities as well as learning from different cultures. Don’t we want our children to be curious about different cultures, different people? In developing juvenile collections, it is imperative to include all backgrounds of life to be a part of not only the nonfiction collection but the fiction collection as well. How many culturally diverse picture books can you count and chapter books? It’s not many and it’s something that needs to be changed and quickly.  

The Educators Guide to Pinterest

O'Brien, Sarah

Muther, Sarah. (2015) The Educators Guide to Pinterest. Edudemic: Connecting Education and Technology. 

Now that learning is happening online, it’s no surprise that bulletin boards have moved online, enter Pinterest. Teachers, Librarians and Educators use the Platform for many reasons including staying organized, planning projects or collecting material for class discussions. Librarians are running reading programs and creating book lists on top of using it for creative purposes like story times, crafts and (actual) bulletin boards. With a guide for educators on how to use the application, Sarah Muther, provides an in depth outline including planning lessons, fostering collaboration, sharing ideas and providing a list of pinners to follow.

Although this article is very brief in its explanation on how librarians can use the Pinterest application, from the perspective of the (almost) children’s librarian at my library, I use Pinterest for a lot of ideas, whether working with volunteers or using it for personal projects. As the Youth Service Coordinator, I use it to build upon story hour and bulletin board ideas. The author points out that librarians use Pinterest to build book lists and even run reading programs. Just recently, I noticed an adult program called the Pinterest Club, I couldn’t help but join in. There are so many great ways to incorporate Pinterest into the workplace and the library is an excellent place to connect resources and information back into the collections and programs.    

Building and Evaluating Juvenile Collections in Academic Libraries

O'Brien, Sarah

Williams, Virginia Kay. (2011) Building and Evaluating Juvenile Collections in Academic Libraries. Wichita State University. Pg 1-25

Although many college and university librarians support teacher education programs, relatively little attention has been paid to developing juvenile literature collections that support these programs. This paper discusses needs of education students and characteristics of juvenile literature which academic librarians should consider when developing collections. It examines standard tools for selecting children’s and young adult materials and analyzes their usefulness for building collections that support teacher preparation programs. Finally, it provides practical advice for evaluating juvenile collections and selecting materials to fill gaps in support for teacher preparation programs in mathematics, art and other subjects. (taken from the abstract)

While teacher education programs and majors are common in colleges and universities, these courses are not necessarily targeting academic librarians, they are intended to appeal to public and school librarians. Instead of adding material to a collection they know, it is important that academic librarians “understand how education students use juvenile literature, the characteristics of juvenile literature, and the standard tools available for selecting and evaluating children and young adult collections.” As academic librarians, they should be studying and reviewing the majors and certification programs on campus and talking with faculty staff about how they use juvenile literature in teaching. Important questions to consider may include: how do you use children and young adult books when teaching? What assignments do you give that require students to use juvenile books? Would you be willing to share a copy of your syllabus? Etc. Being a part of these types of classes will help the academic librarian build better collections focusing on children’s and young adult literature and teaching methods for education.

Checking out tomorrow’s school library collections

Gates, Angela

Stephens, W. (2014). Checking out tomorrow’s school library collections. Young Adult Library Services, 12(3), 17-19.

I thought this was an interesting article on collection development trends in school libraries. The author interviewed three library professionals—a university faculty member, an instructional media/technology coordinator, and a school librarian—to assess their thoughts on the future of collection development.

One of the points made in the article that I found particularly relevant to what we have been studying lately was the idea that rather than trying to represent everything, school libraries should develop collections based on the unique needs and requirements of the schools that they serve. One of the interviewees is quoted in the article as saying that a school library’s collection should be “unbalanced”—meaning that the school library should not attempt to devote equal resources to all parts of the collection.  For example, a school library that serves a high population of students without access to books (either at home or through a public library) might want to devote more of its resources to the fiction collection.  The school library that I volunteer in serves an elementary school that has a quarterly science or social studies thematic curriculum (e.g. Geology, Immigration etc.), studied by all the grades in the school, so our library needs a depth of resources in these particular topical areas.

Other important points made in the article were very much in line with what we have been discussing this semester: for example, looking beyond purchasing print materials, particularly for non-fiction materials, and the impact of Common Core standards on school libraries.

The P-D-A of It: Chicago Public Library's Patron-Driven Acquisitions Pilot, Part 1 estimated 5 pgs

Natalie Villegas 

INFO 266: Spring 2016

Medlar, M., Murphy, D. M., & Sposato, S. (2014, October). The P-D-A of It: Chicago Public Library's Patron-Driven Acquisitions Pilot, Part 1. Z687: Creating the Future of Technical Services. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/z687/cplpda1#a1 

In Chicago Public Library’s quest to develop a more patron driven collection development process they examined several processes and vendor roles. One was the Demand Driven Acquisitions (DDA) which calls for the collection department to preload potential titles to focus rather than limit materials as there is a large selection of titles in publication to choose from. The Chicago public library felt by having titles preloaded would bring awareness to patrons who wouldn’t have thought to make recommendations or bring awareness to the possibilities available. The preselection process is done through Ingram, which provides collection development services for a fee. Ingram will create a list of potential titles based on the Chicago Public Library’s parameters; then the staff in the collection development team reviews it and deletes any titles that already exist in the collection.  After this process the new titles are then incorporated in to the open catalog to be discovered.

The way in which the Chicago Public Library developed the parameters in which Ingram used for the selection process was quite efficient and established good guidelines for what would be desired by the community. The first step for the public library was to pull two years’ worth of inter library loan requests to review for patterns in publishers and subjects. Instead of selecting individual titles, the Chicago Public Library would preload full lists from trusted publishers; this was not only done for efficiency sake, but to guarantee that niche-interest titles would not be overlooked.

As noted in the article, the selections were divided into two parts:

1. the initial set-up, basically a PDA opening day collection that would populate the catalog with two years of back-list content; and
2. the ongoing titles, which would be what we would update the catalog with on a monthly basis moving ahead through the life of the project.

It is interesting to note they melded the current collection development and public driven acquisition processes together by having a delay in the monthly upload of titles; meaning there was an established 5 month lag. For example the titles uploaded in May would have been those titles selected in January, in order to provide time for the normal collection development to take place. Its interesting to note they still highlight the need for human involvement in the selection process before the list is incorporated. Chicago Public Library notes that occasionally books that technically meet the parameters will still need to be cut because they don’t meet the collection guidelines. The examples used in the writing include gift edition sets, and those materials selected at a higher scholarly level then that selected for their community. This also led to some publishers being dropped, such as Yale, Princeton, and Oxford publishing.

Since the projects initiation (fall 2013) the library has seen some “5,611 title added to the catalog based on the established parameters; 934 (16%) have been selected for purchase costing approximately $19,120”. The topics have consisted of computer programming, general technology, business, spiritual and religious nonfiction, an self-help titles. Of the 77 locations in the public library system, patrons from 74 locations have participated in the pilot program.