Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Answering Consumer Health Questions

Spatz, Michele. Answering Consumer Health Questions. NY: Neal Schuman, 2008. 025.527661 Spatz. isbn 1-55570-632-0

Practical tips and tools for every health reference desk! Patrons seeking medical information are often trying to gain control following an upsetting diagnosis working with them can be rewarding and difficult. In this practical, readable guide, consumer health reference expert Michele Spatz, gives you an understanding of the psychology of those seeking medical information and the skills necessary to respond usefully and appropriately. Spatz outlines the most common inquiries and behaviors of health information searchers and the most useful go-to resources. Sample librarian-patron interactions in every chapter give you useful strategies and scripts. Dozens of templates and forms and tips on everything from setting up the reference desk to encourage confidential inquiries to using body language to signal your availability will help you create a welcoming, empowering atmosphere in your library. Chapters on ethics and potential legal issues guide you through the nitty-gritty of what constitutes practicing medicine without a license, confidentiality requirements, and more. Sections on email, virtual, and telephone reference will help you establish clear guidelines, and creative tips on marketing to healthcare providers will help you forge valuable new partnerships.

The Secrets of Facilitation: The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Getting Results With Groups

Wilkinson, Michael. The Secrets of Facilitation: The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Getting Results With Groups. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004. 658.4036 Wilki isbn0-7879-7578-8

The Secrets of Facilitation delivers a clear vision of facilitation excellence and reveals the specific techniques effective facilitators use to produce consistent, repeatable results with groups. Author Michael Wilkinson has trained thousands of managers, analysts, and consultants around the world to apply the power of SMART (Structured Meeting And Relating Techniques) facilitation to achieve amazing results with teams and task forces. He shows how anyone can use these proven group techniques in managing, presenting, teaching, planning, selling, and other professional as well as personal situations.

Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management. 2nd Edition

Johnson, Peggy. Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management. 2nd Edition. Chicago: ALA, 2009. 025.21 Johns 2nd Ed. isbn978-0-8389-0972-0

In recent years, books about electronic resources have greatly outnumbered those covering collection development. Fortunately, Johnson has answered this shortcoming. In nine chapters, she covers the entire field of collection development, from its history to collection analysis to marketing. She succinctly discusses ways to organize and staff for selection, how to write collection plans and budgets, how to manage collections, and how to set up cooperative collection plans with other libraries. The book closes with an appendix listing selection aids, a glossary, and an index of names and subjects. Invaluable to library students and beginning librarians, this book also has helpful ideas and information for even seasoned collections librarians.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Virtual Reference Best Practices

Virtual Reference Best Practices : Tailoring Service to Your Library, by M. Kathleen Kern. Chicago : American Library Association, 2009.

From the publisher:

When it comes to virtual reference, one size doesn't fit all. What
works in one library won't necessarily work in another. How do you figure out what to do? The recently published Virtual Reference Service Guidelines from the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), which is reproduced in appendix A, provides the starting point. Kern, a leading virtual reference expert, outlines the tools and decision-making processes that will help you and your library evaluate, tailor, and launch virtual reference services that are a perfect fit for your community and your library.

Moving from general guidelines to making concrete decisions about integrating virtual with traditional reference, Virtual Reference Success
  • Provides a handy checklist of issues to consider
  • Suggests plans for sustainability of services
  • Offers activities and discussion points that support decision making
  • Shares proven sample policies and materials currently in use
  • Summarizes practical one-page "Research You Can Use"
  • Outlines the pros and cons of collaborating in a consortium
Reference librarians, heads of library services, and managers of virtual reference services will welcome this flexible approach with its wealth of exercises and resources to implement immediately. Here's everything you need to reach sound and sustainable decisions about virtual reference services.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Libraries Connect Communities

Libraries Connect Communities : Public Library Funding and Technology Access Study 2007 - 2008, principal investigators, Denise M. Davis, John Carlo Bertot, Charles R. McClure ; editor, Larra Clark. Chicago : American Library Association, 2008.

From the publisher: Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2006-2007 assesses public access to computers, the Internet and Internet-related services in U.S. public libraries, and the impact of library funding changes on connectivity, technology deployment and sustainability. The study builds on the longest-running and largest study of Internet connectivity in public libraries begun in 1994 by John Carlo Bertot and Charles R. McClure of the Information Institute at Florida State University.

This comprehensive report provides information that can help library directors and library IT staff benchmark and advocate for technology resources in communities across the nation. The data also is of importance for policymakers at local, state and federal levels, manufacturers of information and communication technologies, and the communities served by public libraries.

The study provides data from thousands of rural, suburban and urban libraries in every state; information provided by 43 state library agencies; and feedback from focus groups and site visits in Delaware, Maryland, Nevada and Utah. Additional state data tables are provided online at Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study and Public Libraries & the Internet

The study is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the American Library Association.

Public Libraries and Internet Service Roles

Public Libraries and Internet Service Roles : Measuring and Maximizing Internet Services, by Charles R. McClure and Paul T. Jaeger, Chicago : American Library Association, 2009.

From the publisher: The Internet is not a one-way street in terms of library service as it challenges any traditional notion of its use for collecting or managing information. The information is constantly changing. It is not a static and reliable source like a book, nor is the content necessarily correct all of the time. In this resource authors Charles McClure and Paul T. Jaeger speak to the ways in which the Internet has had more impact on public libraries than any other technology since the creation of the book. The issues presented are vital to library service, planning, evaluation, research and education—and most significantly how effectively libraries service the general public.
  • Learn the importance of measuring and maximizing library service through internet services
  • Analyze new and unique Internet-enabled service roles of public libraries—expanding on the Web 2.0 environment
  • Gain insight in selecting and creating Internet-enabled service roles
Public Libraries and Internet Service Roles will help ensure that public libraries remain a vibrant marketplace of ideas freely accessible to all members of the library community.

Using Interactive Technologies in Libraries

Using Interactive Technologies in Libraries, edited by Kathlene Hanson and H. Frank Cervone, New York : Neal-Schuman Publishers, c2007

Integrating new technologies into existing library services is the key to meeting user needs. Newest in the renowned series from the Library and Information Technology Association (a division of the American Library Association), this cutting-edge guide provides practical advice, detailed examples, implementation ideas, and helpful forecasts for the future roles of four major interactive technologies.

Librarians will find helpful information on: using Real Simple Syndication (RSS) for providing data based on disciplinary interests and across vendor platforms; developing Wikis as a replacement for static HTML pages to provide greater currency in subject guides — without the need for librarians to develop Web-authoring skills; implementing blog feeds to meet real needs such as library instruction for distance-education students; and employing podcasting as an alternate method for distributing digital media. Use this LITA Guide to incorporate the newest technologies into programs and create a high-technology profile with your library’s customers.