Monday, November 19, 2012

Managing Electronic Resources

Weir, Ryan O. Managing Electronic Resources: A LITA Guide. Chicago: ALA TechSource, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-55570-767-5

Publisher's Description
Electronic resource management encompasses much more than turning on and off resources and tracking usage. This guide provides advice on the tools and best practices of the field help you tackle your workload while saving you time, effort, and money.

Chapters include:


• Coping with Economic Issues
• Acquiring Electronic Resources
• Negotiating Resource Licensing
• Reconciling with Payment Systems
• Making Electronic Resource Accessible
• Gathering, Evaluating and Communicating Statistical Usage Information
• Changing Staff to Facilitate the Shift to Electronic
• Looking Ahead from Now to 2020
Within these chapters, you’ll find a host of innovative ideas to help you, your employees or co-workers, get the job done with ease. You’ll learn how to track and assign staff tasks electronically, accumulate and assimilate information from departmental and interdepartmental meetings, manage email and written correspondence, track renewals, evaluate and negotiate license agreements. You’ll discover how to manage all this information with free applications and software – or with programs already on your office computer. This includes using Excel to keep electronic stats, tracking vendor contact information in Access, and create a database detailing ILL permissions and restrictions. You’ll also find out how to use Google Docs, Forms, and Calendar to track information about renewals, statistics, and problem reporting. 

Informative, useful, current, Managing Electronic Resources: A LITA Guide shows readers how to use what’s available to them to successfully manage their time, resources, and relationships with vendors and staff to ensure personal, professional and institutional success.

Licensing Information Resources and Services



Lipinski, Tomas A. The Librarian's Legal Companion for Licensing Information Resources and Services. Chicago: Neal-Schuman, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-55570-610-4

Publisher's Description
Legal expert Lipinski offers a definitive sourcebook for information licensing in libraries, including copyright and contract matters, general contract law concepts, developments in online and information contracting; and the advantages and disadvantages of licensing. Readers will find clear guidance on deciphering the legalese in agreements, advice on negotiating or countering provisions with library-friendly alternatives, and detailed explanations of specific licenses as well as a discussion of issues regarding online and information contracting. Additionally, three special sections provide valuable information in an easy-to-reference format:
  • Deconstructions of four common license agreements: Access Newspaper Archive, BioOne, Nature Academic, and Amazon.com Kindle
  • Answers to 126 questions about specific licensing agreements, plus a glossary, checklist and review tool for evaluating a license agreement
  • 20 key issues in licensing agreements, accompanied by sample clauses
You’ll save time, money, and unnecessary stress by putting the law on your side with this all-in-one guide to buying and licensing agreements.

Table of Contents
See publisher's website.

The Power of Data



 Andrews, Sandra D. The Power of Data: An Introduction to Using Local, State, and National Data to Support School Library Programs. Chicago: American Association of School Librarians, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-8389-8617-2

Publisher's Description
The Power of Data discusses the use of data sets to establish goals for school library programs. Highlighting data available at the local, state, and national levels, the book takes a look at how school librarians can use available data to influence decisions at the local level. The Power of Data will increase the ability of school librarians to effectively use existing data and to articulate the analysis of that data to the people who need the information, including principals, superintendents, school boards, parents, teachers, and students. 

Chapters
One: Considering the Questions
Two: Data and Data Analysis
Three: Local and State Data
Four: National Data
Five: Benchmarking
Six: Standards and Guidelines
Seven: Advocacy

A 21st-Century Approach to School Librarian Evaluation


Owen, Patricia. A 21st-Century Approach to School Librarian Evaluation. Chicago: American Association of School Librarians, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-8389-8618-9

Publisher's Description
A 21st-Century Approach to School Librarian Evaluation uses the AASL Empowering Learners program guidelines as a basis for a school librarian evaluation rubric—one that can be adapted or duplicated by school librarians and shared with school administrators. Workbook style prompts walk school librarians through suggested readings, action tips, and evidence collection to help gauge their current levels of achievement, set goals for progress, and form plans for future professional development. This book provides school librarians an opportunity to engage in rigorous self-evaluation and to shape school administrator evaluations. Librarians who proceed step-by-step through A 21st-Century Approach to School Librarian Evaluation will emerge prepared for their annual performance evaluation.

Appendices
  • School Librarian Evaluation Rubric
  • Summative Conference Form
  • Evidence of Accomplishment
  • Additional Suggested Readings
  • My Action Plan Template

The PARENT Approach (book)

Warren, J.W. (2008). The P.A.R.E.N.T. Approach: How to Teach Young Moms & Dads the Art and Skills of Parenting. Buena Park, CA: Morning Glory Press.

Addressing the challenges of helping school-age parents improve their parenting skills, this useful guide covers strategies and techniques that can be applied to various curricula and encompass all aspects of child rearing, including healthy pregnancy and delivery, proper nutrition and care, the importance of dual parental involvement, and that special postnatal time when the teen may be alone with her baby. Filled with learning activities and how to deploy them in the field, this resource will teach young parents life-long skills in literacy, discipline, and health.

Each chapter includes a reprint of the activities for one chapter in one of the Comprehensive Curriculum Notebooks. Each offers specific and separate suggestions for using these activities, suggestions for you whether you are:
• Teaching in the classroom
• Working with Independent Study students
• Leading a not-for-credit group of young parents
• Teaching through home visits with teen parents

(book description)

*This book is used by many programs for teen parents in Oregon.

Survey of Library Employee Training Practices



Primary Research Group.  The Survey of Library Employee Training Practices.  Primary Research Group, November 2, 2012.   023.8 Surve   ISBN 1-57440-201-3

This 100+page report looks closely at how public, academic and special libraries train their employees. It gives detailed data on spending on training, and on how libraries prioritize spending on training. The report helps to answer questions such as: how many libraries and what type of libraries have specific training budgets and training directors? Do they conduct internal courses? Send employees to external courses? Use library science schools? Do they reimburse employees for library science courses taken at universities? How much do they spend on internal courses, external courses or library science schools? Who oversees training? Which areas receive the most training support? Technical services? Information technology? Digitization? Circulation? Management? To what extent does the library use training services such as LibraryU, Merlot or Webjunction?

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Practical Cataloguing: AACR2, RDA and MARC 21



Welsh, Anne and Sue Batley.  Practical Cataloguing: AACR2, RDA and MARC 21.  Chicago: Neal-Schuman, 2012.  025.32 Welsh   ISBN 978-1555707439

The impending launch of Resource Description and Access: RDA will undoubtedly transform cataloging standards that have been virtually unchanged for 30 years, and little guidance is available to help catalogers make a smooth transition to RDA. Practical Cataloging: AACR2, RDA and MARC21 fills this gap by offering a step-by-step guide for mapping these new standards onto existing rules for description. The book thoroughly covers FRBR (Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records) and FRAD (Functional Requirements of Authority Data), on which the new rules are built, and explores how RDA elements can be incorporated into MARC21. Authors Anne Welsh and Sue Batley provide readers with an introduction to current catalogs and standards, and examine publication formats, bibliographic elements, access points, and headings. Theirs is a complete guide to RDA, including its development, structure, and features, plus a section that addresses its similarities and differences with AACR2. The authors also explain the MARC21 record, studying tags, indicators, and sub-field codes.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Public Libraries and Resilient Cities

Dudley, Michael, ed.  Public Libraries and Resilient Cities.  Chicago: ALA, 2013   021.2 Publi3    ISBN 978-0-8389-1136-5

Public libraries are keystone public institutions for any thriving community, and as such can be leaders in making cities better places to work, play, and live. In this important book, noted urban planner and librarian Dudley shows how public libraries can contribute to placemaking, or the creation and nurturing of vital and unique communities for their residents. Using case studies and other information from the field, the author
  •        Shows how public libraries can address pressing urban and environmental sustainability issues through smart urban design practices, making contributions to economic regeneration, and a commitment to social equity
  •        Provides examples of innovation in public library design, management, collaboration and public services
  •        Offers librarians, library administrators, and even urban planners the practical knowledge, tools, and vocabulary to overcome professional and disciplinary barriers
From the economic renewal potential of library development projects, to the provision of public space in a privatizing world, from services for the homeless to crisis management during urban disasters, Public Libraries and Resilient Cities explores the vital role that public libraries can play in the promotion of ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable communities in challenging times.