Expert Searching in the Google Age

Jankowski, Terry Ann. Expert Searching in the Google Age. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-4422-3965-4

Publisher's Description
How do expert searchers fit into the Google age? Is there still a role for them? How can you be the best searcher you can be? What tools can you use to develop your skills and build better searches? These questions and more are covered by Jankowski. After making a case for the value librarians can bring to the searching process, whether using Google or other databases, Jankowski takes you through the entire search cycle and offers a glimpse into the future of searching.
 
How do you negotiate a search so that all parties are satisfied? How do you decide which resources to use and use them to their best advantage? What are the steps to building a good search strategy and how do you adapt and modify it? When the results are in how do you manage the results and document the process? Filled with tips and tricks gathered from over 40 years of experience Jankowski provides the answers in this conversational, yet practical guide. 

In addition to providing checklists and examples throughout the book, an entire chapter describes search tools and resources to grow your own expertise. Opportunities to apply the knowledge gained are offered in most chapters. This compact useful book can be used as a reference text, for self-study or as a course text.

Online Searching

Markey, Karen. Online Searching: A Guide to Finding Quality Information Efficiently and Effectively. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-4422-3885-5

Publisher's Description
Online Searching puts the aspiring librarian on the fast track to becoming an expert searcher who unites library users with trusted sources of information to answer their questions.

To accomplish this, it ushers you through online searching as a seven-step process:
(1) determining what the user really wants in the reference interview,
(2) identifying sources that are likely to produce relevant information for the user’s query,
(3) dividing the query into big ideas and combining them logically,
(4) hypothesizing whether a known item or a subject will satisfy the query,
(5) representing the query as input to the search system,
(6) conducting the search and responding strategically, and
(7) displaying retrievals, assessing them, and responding tactically.

For key concepts, Online Searching enlists multimedia, representing visually what is difficult to convey via words alone. When you analyze Online Searching’s real search topics, search online, and compare your results with its suggested answers, you’ll experience the seven-step online searching process first-hand. Included are specific recommendations about what you should teach end users about online searching and a method for quickly and efficiently familiarizing yourself with a new database and search system.

Including short video demonstrations, Online Searching is your go-to guidebook for ramping yourself up from novice to expert searcher.

Table of contents

Reference...for Info Lit Skills

Lanning, S. (2014). Reference and Instructional Services for Information Literacy Skills in School Libraries (3rd ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. ISBN: 978-1-61069-671-5

Publisher's Description
Students need to be able to distinguish good information from bad. This book gives you the tools to transmit those essential skills to your students.

Being an effective school librarian requires acting as an active instructional partner, an advocate for information literacy and information resources, and a reference librarian. Now in its third edition, this concise book provides you with a solid foundation in providing reference services to students as well as teachers. It details all aspects of providing essential reference services in the context of the AASL Standards, the Common Core State Standards, and the evolving role of today's school librarian.

Author Scott Lanning emphasizes service and instruction while addressing topics such as inquiry, critical thinking, building core reference skills, electronic and Web resources, leadership skills, and virtual reference services. The book begins with chapters that discuss information and the information-seeking process. The following sections cover the provision of reference services, methods for teaching information literacy, the use of electronic resources in general, and the creation of library resources that support reference and instruction. The text concludes with an assessment of the value of reference and instruction services to the school and beyond.

Features

• Covers theories of information behavior, models of information literacy, and provision of reference services in various mediums
• Emphasizes reference and instructional services and examines the impact of the Common Core State Standards on reference services in schools
• Explains how to conduct the reference interview

Table of contents

Intro to Ref and Info Services in Today's School Library

Farmer, L. S. (2014). Introduction to Reference and Information Services in Today's School Library. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN: 978-0-8108-8718-3

Publisher's Description
In Introduction to Reference and Information Services in Today's School Library, one of America’s premier school library educators covers the A-Z of both reference and information services for today’s library.

Everything from teaching students how to use sources to both in-person and virtual reference service is covered. A key feature of the text is an annotated bibliography of core print and electronic sources for elementary, middle, and high school collections.

Yes, reference and information services are vital library functions in the digital age. Even students who appear to be tech savvy have trouble finding the right information efficiently - and knowing what to do with it. This book examines information needs and behaviors, and provides strategies for assessing and meeting the informational needs of the school community. The book also addresses the conditions for optimum service: physical access (including virtual access), effective interaction and collaboration, instructional design, and systematic planning. Newer issues such as embedded librarianship, curation, collective intelligence, and web 2.0 intellectual property are also addressed. This book introduces the entering professional, and updates practitioners, to current standards and useful strategies.

Table of contents is online.

Reference Skills for the School Librarian

Riedling, Ann M., Loretta Shake, and Cynthia Houston. Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips. 3rd ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Linworth, 2013. 

ISBN: 978-1-58683-528-6

Publisher's Description

...Written specifically for K–12 librarians and teachers, the authors present helpful tools and easily applied strategies for every major area in reference, from the reference interview to encyclopedias and dictionaries. This textbook teaches basic reference processes, sources, services, and skills; and provides authentic, real-world school library media reference scenarios as well as exercises for reflection and guided application in today's reference world.

Highlights
• Updated edition provides a wealth of new print resources and web-based tools that are specifically appropriate for grades K–12
• Covers the full range of reference processes, sources, services and skills, from major issues to the nuts and bolts of daily operation
• Includes webliographies that add dimension to any reference toolkit
 

Sample Topics
Abstracts
Biographical Sources
Dictionaries
Encyclopedias
Geographic Resources
Indexes
Questioning Skills
Reference Interview
Reference Skills
SLM Reference Skills, Tools, and Tips

Table of Contents

Essential Reference Services for Today's School Media Specialists

Lanning, Scott, and John Bryner. Essential Reference Services for Today's School Media Specialists. 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-59158-883-2

Publisher's Description

...Today's school media specialist is an active instructional partner, an advocate for information literacy and media center resources, and a reference librarian.

Essential Reference Services for Today's School Media Specialists: Second Edition is an overview of today's reference environment covering the essentials of reference services, from selecting resources to weeding the collection, from the advantages of chat reference to the types of library instruction. This book is the place to start for information on reference services. It begins with a discussion of information and information literacy and also covers using and evaluating print and electronic reference sources, providing and evaluating reference services, creating web resources, teaching the core curriculum, and more.

Grades K-12

Features
• Offers a database search worksheet to use with students
• Includes a list of print reference sources available for further reading

Highlights
• Provides a concise overview of the current state of reference services
• Discusses information power, the 21st-century learner and Big6 Skills and how they apply to reference services
• Discusses the reference transaction and the Behavioral Performance Guidelines from RUSA
• Examines the strengths and weaknesses of the various methods for providing digital reference service and discusses how to evaluate sources to find quality information

Reference Interview Today

Knoer, Susan. The Reference Interview Today. Libraries Unlimited, 2011. 
ISBN: 978-1-59884-822-9

The reference interview has always been an important tool in the librarian's toolkit. This book looks at how it is best used in the traditional face-to face reference interaction, but also in the virtual world. It addresses best practices for working with culturally diverse populations and difficult patrons, as well as how to use social media tools to provide effective service. An excellent training tool for library staff new to reference work, it can also serve as a guide to experienced reference staff who are looking to master new delivery methods.

ALA Guide to Economics & Business Reference

American Library Association. ALA Guide to Economics & Business Reference. Chicago: ALA, 2011. 016.33 ALA ISBN: 978-0-8389-1024-5

Focusing on print and electronic sources that are key to economics and business reference, this title provides the readers with the information on business law, electronic commerce, international business, management of information systems, market research, and more.

The Librarian as Information Consultant: Transforming Reference for the Information Age

Murphy, Sarah Anne. The Librarian as Information Consultant: Transforming Reference for the Information Age. Chicago: American Library Association, 2011. ISBN 978-0-8389-1086-3 025.52 Murph Library users evolving information needs and their choice of search methods have changed reference work profoundly. Today’s reference librarian must work in a whole new way not only service-focused and businesslike, but even entrepreneurial. Murphy innovatively rethinks the philosophy behind currentlibrary reference services in this thought-provoking book, which: · Rebrands reference librarianship on the model of a consulting business, providing a renewed vision of the reference desk by treating patrons as clients · Spells out the importance of the patron s voice, and details methods for building and maintaining relationships with patrons · Identifies the reference librarian s competitive advantage over Web search engines and shows how to capitalize on it Murphy adapts existing business practices and programs to the context of the library, allowingfrontline staff and administrators in any type of reference department to monitor and continuouslyimprove their library’s services.

Serving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Teens: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians

Martin, Millias J. Jr. and James R. Murdock. Serving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Teens: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians. New York: Neal-Schuman, 2007. 027.63 Marti ISBN 978-1555705664

This volume takes on the challenge of providing library services to LGBTQ teens. In a clearly laid-out format and a highly readable style, the guide focuses on helping queer teens within the larger umbrella of providing service to all teens. Part 1 covers library service to the LGBTQ population. Understanding the queer community and identifying LGBTQ teens' informational needs, offering effective service in a safe environment, handling readers'-advisory and reference interviews, doing collection development, integrating LGBTQ themes into general programming, and assesssing and responding to the rate of change and inclusion a community will tolerate are all covered in an accessible manner. Part 2 consists of an excellent annotated bibliography as well as sample booktalks and instructions for program design. An additional source bibliography and a fine index complete a superior tool for starting or enhancing library services to a formerly neglected subset of the teen population.

Conducting the Reference Interview; A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians 2nd edition

Ross, Catherine Sheldrick, Kirsti Nilsen and Marie L. Radford. Conducting the Reference Interview; A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians 2nd edition. New York: Neal-Schuman, 2009. 025.52 Ross 2nd ed. ISBN 978-1555706555

This second edition is completely updated, with an all-new section on virtual reference. The section on the readers’-advisory interview is now a full chapter. Marie Radford joins authors Ross and Kirsti Nilsen, bringing her expertise and research on virtual-reference services. All three authors have been involved in large and long-term research projects on reference and readers’-advisory interviews, virtual and face-to-face, and their work informs all chapters of this book. Scenarios based on real library transactions illustrate many important ideas, and most also include comments and discussion questions, making it easy to adapt them for classes or workshops. Sidebars appear on nearly every page, with “Did you know?” research facts, short exercises, and “Quick Tips.” This outstanding work is highly recommended for all libraries and is essential reading for all LIS educators and librarians involved in staff training.