by Tony Zbaraschuk
Special Collections Librarian
La Sierra University
2000-2002
Allen, Susan M. "Rare books and the college library: current practices
in marrying undergraduates to special collections. Rare Books & Manuscripts
Librarianship 13:2 (1999), p. 110-19
Considerable information on how to use special collections in bibliographic
instruction, noting that the appeal of real, original, older materials may have
considerable impact on undergraduates. Discusses several projects of the sort
the author has in mind; very useful for someone considering displays or bibliographic
instruction.
Anderson, Julie. "Give print a chance." School Library Journal,
February 2001, p. 37.
Discussion of the different ways students use print and internet resources,
suggesting that use of print resources may focus the mind in ways computer searching
does not. Thought-provoking.
Baker, Robert K. "Faculty perceptions towards student library use in a
large urban community college." Journal of Academic Librarianship
23:3 (May 1997)
Excellent discussion of how college faculty perceive libraries, and why they
don’t give students more assignments involving libraries despite a conviction
that it increases student grades. Suggests that increasing student use of libraries
is something that needs to be built from the bottom up, starting with individual
faculty members and courses – broad appeals just don’t work.
Baruth, Barbara. "Is your catalog big enough to handle the Web? : the
case against OPAC integration of online resources." American Libraries
August 2000, p. 56-60.
Primarily a discussion of problems that must be overcome before OPACs can
provide effective, long-term access to online resources. Suggests that consortiums
and "umbrella systems", rather than each library providing records
on its own, is more likely to be an answer to the problems posed by electronic
resources.
Bazirjian, Rosann, and Nancy Markle Stanley. "Assessing the effectiveness of team-based structures in libraries." Library Collections, Acquisitions & Technical Services 25 (2001), p. 131-157.
Review Pennsylvania State University Libraries' shift of the technical services department to a team-based structure, concluding that a lot of difficulties were not foreseen and that assessment, in particular, was not really considered when planning the shift. Notes on some of the corrections that were made. Includes a survey instrument that may be of use to those in similar situations.
Bosman, Ellen, and Carol Rusinek. "Creating the user-friendly library
by evaluating patron perceptions of signage. Reference Services Review,
Spring 1997, p. 71-82.
Report of a library signage project at Indiana University Northwest, including
a review of the (surprisingly small) available literature and a survey questionnaire.
The conclusion suggests that patron comments on the survey were more useful
than statistical analysis of numerical replies. Worth reading.
Case, Beau David. "The acquisition of faculty member publications at their
university libraries." Library Resources & Technical Services
44:2 (April 2000), p. 84-91.
Survey of two major ARL libraries to determine how effective they were
at adding faculty publications to their library (not very). Several suggestions
as to why they were ineffective point to means of adding more faculty publications
(though the author suggests sticking to the 90% mark instead of trying for 100%
coverage of all materials including items published before the faculty member
arrived at the institution.) One point in particular: academic administration
often generates lists of publications by faculty members, but these are seldom
used as a collection development tool.
Chepesiuk, Ron. "JSTOR and electronic archiving." American Libraries,
Dec. 2000, p. 46-48.
Brief summary of JSTOR, an electronic archive of journals. Looks extremely
useful and interesting, especially the retrospective coverage and the joint
provision of text and images. (I do wonder about the reliability of the scanned
text, though – a number of times in other databases I’ve found obvious
scanning errors. These can play havoc with keyword searching.) I hope the last
paragraph’s suggestions that JSTOR will come down in price as more libraries
are added to the subscription base are correct.
Cohen, Laura B. "Yahoo! And the abdication of judgment." American
Libraries, Jan. 2001, p. 60-62.
A recommendation that reference librarians should steer users away from
Yahoo, since (a) its content is suggested by users and minimally reviewed, (b)
it "caters to the general public" (and so provides a lot of commercial
sites), and (c) its editors are so overbooked that they end up overlooking valuable
sites.
The article raises some useful points, but I think the author fails to make a case that something better is available to patrons seeking a general overview of web sources. Libraries don’t stop buying encyclopedias just because the articles in them could almost all be replaced by more detailed books already on their shelves; they buy them because they provide a fast overview and reference source.
Crawford, Walt. "Nine models, one name: untangling the E-book muddle." American Libraries, Sep. 2000, p. 56-59.
Discussion of the different types of E-books, their limitations, and their usefulness. Locked/proprietary ones are not useful; open and public domain ones have their uses. Primarily an overview of the current field.
Cramer, Dina C. "How to speak patron." Public Libraries 37:6
(Nov./Dec. 1998) p. 349.
Extremely useful rundown of some of the common terms patrons use that librarians
use in a slightly different sense. Frustration results because patrons are unfamiliar
with specialized library terminology. Some of the cited terms used by patrons,
and their likely equivalent in library-speak: bibliography/biography, fiction/factual,
reference/nonfiction. Short, matter-of-fact, useful.
Dewey, Melvil. "The relation of the colleges to the modern library movement"
in User instruction in academic libraries: a century of selected readings
(Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1986).
Discussion of the "modern" library in Dewey’s time, which has
some amazing resemblances to the modern library in our time. It is nice to note
that we’ve adopted some of his recommendations (like staying open from
eight to ten, for instance). There’s a clear emphasis on the importance
of not only books (today we would say "materials" or "resources";
the scale has broadened), but on the need to have all the things (bibliographic
aids, decent facilities, trained librarians) that make them useful and usable.
Some nice quotes. "To get, to keep, and to use, but the greatest of these
is to use." "College training is to give tools for getting further
education, the most essential of all being the ability to use libraries effectively."
I think he overestimates the requirement for a knowledge foundation to help
make sense out of the rest of it – what E. D. Hirsch calls "cultural
literacy" -- but there are some good points there.
Dilevko, Juris. "An ideological analysis of digital reference service models." Library Trends 50:2 (Fall 2001), p. 218-244.
Discussion of the implications of various models of proposed remote reference services. Dilevko is concerned lest reference librarians get replaced by call-centers, and points out that what really makes reference librarians useful is their wide base of knowledge, coupled with various skills at getting this across to users.
Quote: "Only a strong and concerted commitment to a progam of in-depth, time-consuming, and painstaking reading in diverse subjects can achieve this goal."
I think he's right to be concerned about the tendency to replace librarians with call centers, and the awareness that reference librarians need a broad base of knowledge to be able to answer questions well. At the same time, I would like it if a lot of the routine boring questions could be automated out of existence so I could concentrate on the interesting ones. The 80-20 rule applies here: maybe 80% of the questions can be answered by 20% of the effort, but that still means that to raise performance from C+ to an A, a lot of extra effort and knowledge has to be there.
Fenske, Ruth E., and Mayer, Nevin J. "Title coverage of seven indexes
to religious periodicals." Reference & User Services Quarterly
37:2 (Winter '97), p. 171-5.
Discusses the overlaps in title coverage between the major religious indexes
(ATLA Religion Index, Old Testament Abstracts, New Testament Abstracts, Christian
Periodical Index, Catholic Periodical and Literature Index, Index to Jewish
Periodicals). Looking at the data, one concludes that the ATLA Religion Index
provides the broadest coverage, and that there is still considerable duplication
among the various indexes despite years of effort to eliminate duplication.
The authors spend a lot of time discussing the merits of various combinations
of the indexes, which admittedly is not much use to libraries which don’t
have the money for more than one.
Fountain, Kathleen Carlisle. "Perceptions of acceptance: evaluating World Wide Web projects in performance reviews." College & Research Libraries 62:3 (May 2001), p. 260-268.
Concludes that formal evaluation guidelines for Web projects are very helpful in ensuring their proper consideration when performance reviews roll around. Presents results of a survey of designer satisfaction and evaluation of the effects of web site projects on professional promotion and recognition.
Furlong, Katherine, and Janelle Wertzberger. "Photomicrographs, the NPR 100, and student teaching: library liason ideas that really work." C&RL News 62:10 (November 2001), p. 1004-1006, 1020.
Account of library liason successes with various departments at Gettysburg College. Useful suggestions for librarians planning a liasion program.
Garnsey, Beth A. and Powell, Ronald R ."Electronic mail reference services
in the public library. Reference & User Services Quarterly 39:3 (Spring
2000), p. 245-54.
Reports a survey of the types of e-mail reference services offered, noting
that (1) there was a great variety in the ways libraries handled e-mail reference
services, (2) patrons tended to use it as much for research questions as for
ready reference questions (which apparently surprised the authors of the article,
but which I found quite in keeping with my usual experience), (3) e-mail reference
use was low (usually less than 1/day/library) but grew steadily with time, (4)
patrons loved the ability to ask a question when it occurred to them, not much
later. Surveying of patrons was difficult as few libraries were willing to provide
addresses to the researchers, due to confidentiality issues.
Gertz, Janet. "Selection for preservation in the digital age: an overview."
Library Resources & Technical Services 44:2 (April 2000), p. 97-103.
Survey of the basic issues involved in selecting materials for digitization.
Very useful introduction to the topic for those who have not previously considered
it in depth. Discusses technical and legal issues, always with an eye to what
best serves the library patron.
Gish, Kimbra. "Hunting down Harry Potter: an exploration of religious
concerns about children's literature." v The Horn Book 76:3 (May/June
2000).
Useful summary of the issues involved by a conservative Christian who is
also an avid reader. Enlightening, even to me. Might be useful to a librarian
faced with a censorship question.
Gomez, Martin. "Who is most qualified to serve our ethnic-minority communities?"
American Libraries, Dec. 2000, p. 39-41.
Primarily devoted to public libraries, but nonetheless had some interesting
suggestions as to how I can help serve our Hispanic Adventist community better.
Emphasis on increase in flexibility and importance of speaking the language
of the users.
Grillo, Dominick J. ‘Creating a Web-simulated union catalog." Computers
in Libraries 19:9 (Oct. 1999), p. 56-60.
Author recounts how he developed a Web-based system that searched multiple
INNOPAC catalogs and returned the results as a union list. Includes some PERL
code samples. Useful for librarians looking into inter-library cooperation.
Hazen, Dan. "Selecting for storage: local problems, local responses, and
an emerging common challenge." Library Resources & Technical Services
44:4 (October 2000), p. 176-183.
General essay on off-site storage and how to select which materials go
off-site. Useful for any library considering off-site storage.
Henderson, Cathy. "Negotiating new borders for special collections."
v. 14 no1 Rare Books & Manuscripts Librarianship 14:1 (1999), p.
9-17.
Discussion of the most effective ways for special collections and archives
librarians to conduct outreach. Primarily in answer to an earlier article arguing
that they shouldn’t do it at all.
Hoffman, Herbert H. "Contents or container? Priorities for the online
catalog." Public Libraries 39:3 (May/June 2000) p. 132-3.
Discusses difficulties with finding specific works published in anthologies,
collections, etc. (for instance, will a user know that "Works" by
Shaw probably includes the play "Arms and the Man"?) and suggests
some solutions. (Keyword searching is difficult because of far too many false
hits.)
"House of Style" (http://www.westciv.com/style_master)
Excellent introduction, reference, and tutorial for the use of style sheets
in HTML.
Johnson, B. Lamar. "Stephens College library experiment." in User
instruction in academic libraries: a century of selected readings (Metuchen,
NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1986), p. 110-120. Originally given at ALA Midwinter Conference,
1932.
An account of a library instruction program. Some very good points made
with regard to effective methods of instruction in library use. Most importantly,
students require repeated exposure to various reference aids to acquire
knowledge. Librarians have a big responsibility to make the faculty aware of
what’s available. He notes that decentralized libraries make knowledge
available to students wherever they need it: an interesting parallel to our
use of online sources. (The part of the plan that made the library director
the ranking member of the faculty and dean of instruction seems less likely
to come into effect any time soon.)
Quote: "It is a matter of common knowledge that most students entering
college do not know how to study."
Jones, Philip J. "Individual accountability and individual authority:
the missing links." Library Administration and Management 14:3 (Summer
2000), p. 135-145.
Analyzes the recent flourishing of team theory in library management literature,
and concludes that it overlooks the question of who is accountable if the team
fails. Jones suggests that the "flattened" library, rather than being
an ideal of democratic self-government, has the tendency to turn into an autocracy
if no one other than the library director is actually responsible for anything.
There is also the question of how group responsibility works in a legal environment
of individual contracts. He extols the theories of Elliot Jaques, who suggests
that what is needed is appropriate organization rather than flattened ones;
not no hierarchy, but the right kind of hierarchy, produces the best results.
Quoting Jaques: "…one organizational layer for each quantum step in
cognitive and task complexity."
I’m not sure how applicable this is to a library with four professional
staff (or five once we fill in Public Services), but it was interesting.
Jordan, Sophia K. "A review of the preservation literature, 1993-1998:
the coming of age." Library Resources & Technical Services 44:1
(January 2000), p. 4-21.
An 11-page bibliography of recent preservation literature, together with
comments as to important articles on the state of the field. Covers binding,
physical treatment, reformatting (microfilm, xerox), AV/film/photo materials,
digital preservation, environment control, disaster planning, and management.
Useful primarily as a starting point for preservation issues. Primarily dealt
with book formats and digitization (a field swelling in importance); little
has been published on the preservation of non-print material.
Joswick, Kathleen E. "A profile of police adminstration resources: using textbook citations to determine collecting parameters." Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 28 (2001), p. 159-169.
The value of this article lies in its subtitle: when librarians are forced to begin collection development for a new field, checking the works cited by major textbooks in the field (especially by multiple textbooks) is a very useful guide to what to purchase. Some general lessons: older materials are still cited and therefore useful; monographs are heavily used; works published by major organizations are likely to be useful. Other conclusions were more tied to the specific field of police administration and will be useful to those trying to develop collections in that field.
Kenneday, James R. "Integrated library instruction" in User instruction
in academic libraries: a century of selected readings (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow
Press, 1986), p. 231-241.
The first public presentation on bibliographic instruction. Discusses the importance
of integrating material into regular course, and building on material presented
in earlier years of college study. Recommends provision of annotated bibliographies
covering the major reference sources for the problem(s) the students are studying
in their class. Discusses four levels of instruction: pre-freshmen just in,
freshmen writing their first research paper, juniors beginning their majors,
and seniors trying to integrate everything. [We already address the first two
groups pretty well: we might want to consider how to address the second two
groups. This is an area where we need more integration with the faculty.] Library
instruction needs to be closely related to assignments if it is to be effective.
Notable: "most students need to be disenchanted of the notion that merely
because they received some instruction in high school and used their public
libraries they don’t need to receive any additional instruction."
"A program of library instruction will flounder if evaluation shows that
it is ineffective."
Kenreich, Mary Ellen. "Physical settings and organizational success."
Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 25:1 (Spring
2001), p. 67-69.
Useful discussion of the ways in which the physical layout and conditions of
work space contribute to employee's well-being and better work performance.
Recommended, especially if you haven't rearranged our office space around recently
in search of better working conditions.
Kilian, Crawford. "Effective web writing." Web Techniques
6:2 (February 2001), p. 41-43.
A primer on how to write effective web text – making sure that
the content is effectively presented to various types of users. Discussion of
the different types of Web users, their needs, and what style of web page is
appropriate for each of them.
LaFond, Deborah M., and Mary K. Van Ullen and Richard D. Irving. "Diversity
in collection development: comparing access strategies to alternative press
periodicals." College & Research Libraries 61:2 (March 2000).
Discussion of how to evaluate and provide access to non-mainstream periodical
literature. Some useful suggestions for the Heritage Room if it wants to keep
up with non-official Adventist publications. Includes some notes on which electronic
databases cover alternative press periodicals (none of them are particularly
effective) and various access strategies for these.
Lee, Chang Chen. "The architecture of a university library should have
spaces designed for special collections and university archives." Journal
of Educational Media & Library Sciences 36:4 (June 1999), p. 385-92.
Basic discussion of what a university library needs in the way of special
collections space, and how to get the architects to include it. Worth reading
for those involved in the design and construction of a new library.
Linden, Julie. "The library's Web site is the library: designing for distance
learners." College & Research Libraries News 61:2 (Feb. 2000)
p. 99, 101
Useful tips and advice for helping distance learners when designing a web
site. She suggests making a single page (easy to update) with all the information
for distance learners, and linking to it from other parts of the library website
(e.g., from "circulation policies" to "circulation policies for
distance learners"). The advice on remote database access was most helpful.
MacDonald, Eric. "Collection protection issues in a library renovation
project." College and Research Library News, April 2000, p. 277-279,
282.
Advice for how to safeguard collections during renovation, covering planning
(be involved; take special care with special collections), construction (security,
regular meetings with builders, watch out for dust) and post-construction stages
(cleaning after dust gets through despite your precautions.) Very useful, especially
when considering our plans for an upcoming addition to the Heritage Room.
Massmann, Ann. "The wood shelving dilemma". Library Resources
& Technical Services 44:4 (October 2000), p. 209-213.
Quote: "Wood. So beautiful, so traditional, so damaging to library
materials." An attempt to spread the word that wood shelving just doesn’t
make the cut when it comes to preservation issues; wood shelving and the sealants
and adhesives used in its construction emit chemicals that can be harmful to
books. (Rather important for our library, in light of the fact that the Heritage
Room and Vault contain a great deal of wood shelving.) Discusses various options
for replacing wood shelving or minimizing the danger it presents to books.
Maxwell, Nancy Kalikow. "On my mind: lunchroom loneliness." American
Libraries January 2001, p. 54.
Thoughts on how to deal with the changes in personal relationships as a
result of promotion. I’m not sure I agree with her suggestion that the
way to go is a completely decentralized library (with no superiors and hence
no problems in personal relationships from that source), but it’s thought-provoking.
Needleman, Mark. "Z39.50: a review, analysis, and some thoughts on the
future." Library Hi Tech 18:2 (2000), p. 158-65.
Review of the history and international context of the Z39.50 standard.
Not intended as a technical guide to implementation, but includes some references
to such. Concludes that Z39.50, while a standard within its niche, is unlikely
to expand or be supported by areas outside its present niche.
Nielsen, Jacob. "Alertbox." Online column, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/
Excellent discussion of various Web design and usability issues. Nielsen
has been writing the column since 1995 and is a gold mine of information.
Oder, Norman. "Cataloging the net: two years later." Library Journal
125:16 (October 1, 2000), p. 50-51.
Review of current efforts to catalog the web. Discusses commercial services
Yahoo and Google, and OCLC’s CORC project. Considerable handwringing over
whether or not librarians are getting sufficiently involved, or getting left
behind by the commercial services. Some discussion of other sites and approaches.
Palmquist, Ruth A. "Cognitive style and users’ metaphors for the
Web: an exploratory study." The Journal of Academic Librarianship
27:1, p. 24-32.
Very interesting article discussing the ways in which people think about
the Web, and some of the possible implications for web design. As the subtitle
suggests, it’s a very preliminary study of the issue. Worth considering
nonetheless.
Parisi, Paul A. "Methods of affixing leaves: options and implications."
The New Library Scene 19:2 (June 2000), p. 22-26.
Extensive discussion of various binding operations, defining each and listing
their advantages and disadvantages. Very useful to know what the options are.
Patton, Glenn. "Local creation/global use : bibliographic data in the
international arena." Library Resources & Technical Services
44:3 (July 2000), p. 141-145.
Overview of the expansion of OCLC into the international arena and some
suggestions for its future development along those lines. Provoked some interesting
thoughts about cataloging stuff that overseas Adventist librarians might be
interested in. This article was written from OCLC’s point of view, a North
American one. What does it look like from the other side of the fence?
Rible, Jim. "The librarian as campus Webmaster: careers merging?"
Computers in Libraries 19:10 (Nov./Dec. 1999) p. 18-20.
Author’s account of his career as split librarian/webmaster, and his thoughts
on the overlap and interaction of the two jobs. Some useful thoughts for anyone
in a like position, and for anyone considering libraries in the Web era.
Roberts, Gary. "Designing a database-driven Web site, or, The evolution of the InfoIguana." Computers in Libraries 20:9 (Oct. 2000) p. 26-32.
Discussion of the reasons for, and development of, a database-driven web site (basically, a site which takes a database of resources and automatically generates subject-specific HTML pages listing appropriate resources). Includes print and web resources. Very useful for webmasters or libraries contemplating a move to a database-driven web site.
Rockman, Ilene F. "More than faculty training: integrating information
competence into the disciplines." C&RL News, March 2000, p.
192-194.
Detailed report of a workshop "to provide discipline-based faculty
members with the knowledge and skills they need to incorporate information competence
principles into their coursework." Would be very useful for someone planning
a similar workshop (we ought to do one.)
Ross, Catherine Sheldrick, and Patricia Dewdney. "Negative closure: strategies
and counter-strategies in the reference transaction." Reference &
User Services Quarterly 38:2 (1998), p. 151-63.
Discussion of why reference interviews fail, pointing out that many reference
librarians appear to regard "user goes away and stops bothering me"
as a successful termination of the reference interview, while patrons might
naturally have a different view. Discusses strategies used by librarians to
terminate interviews (non-welcoming body language, unmonitored referrals, vague
promises, etc.) and patron strategies to overcome these (persistence, acting
dumb, trying another reference librarian.) Emphasizes the need for reference
librarians to return to the basics of reference interview (welcoming body language,
open-ended questions even if it seems obvious what the user wants, follow-up
questions such as "If you can’t find anything, come back and we’ll
see what else we can find."). Notes that the long-term average success
rate in reference interviews of 55% could be raised substantially by following
simple basics such as these.
Very helpful – it inspired me to go look up further information on
body language to ensure that I wasn’t accidentally driving people away
or being perceived as unwelcoming.
Russell, Carrie. "Stolen words." School Library Journal February
2001, p.40-43.
Suggestions by ALA’s copyright specialist on how librarians can balance
their duties to respect the law and sharing information, with five principles:
be a copyright advisor, stay informed about copyright, remember users have rights
too, promote fair use, and consider the source of any information you get about
copyright. A useful introduction to the topic, but more of a "meta-article"
about copyright issues than one presenting specific information (barring the
fair use issue.)
Schnell, Eric H. "Writing on the web: a primer for librarians." http://bones.med.ohio-state.edu/eric/papers/primer/webdocs.html
(version 10 Dec 2000; site © 1999)
A useful tutorial on web site design. Emphasis on how it can be made most useful
for users (use their vocabulary, take different browser types into consideration,
etc.) Not a lot of new information, but some useful references, and would likely
be very helpful for a new librarian. Like most HTML tutorials on the web, it
seems to concentrate on the easy stuff (how to do HTML, some basic do’s
and don’ts) rather than the hard stuff (maintenance, designing an overall
site look, keeping new additions compatible with the old).
Quote: "Users rarely cross more than two layers in a hypertext structure
before returning to their entry point."
Schultz, Nathalie. "E-journal databases: a long-term solution?" in Library collections, acquistions, and technical services 25 (2001), p. 449-459.
Discussion of development of an e-journal database at Griffith University Library in Australia, and of the long-term usefulness and viability of such databases. Interesting for libraries considering how to track and publicize their e-journal holdings.
Shaw, Charles B. "Bibliographical instruction for students" "
in User instruction in academic libraries: a century of selected readings
(Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1986), p. 107-109.
Notes on the importance of teaching all students the necessary parts of
library research, and do it "thoroly" (I’m just as glad that
Melvil Dewey’s spelling reform proposals didn’t succeed…). I
found it interesting that he thought that reference librarians weren’t
capable of training freshmen in the use of the library; he thought instead that
it would be necessary to train a whole new group of "bibliographic instructors".
Obviously he was living in a world with much more resources for hiring and training
people than we have today. (Or he was living in a dream world, which is still
true of some librarians today.)
Shay, Lynn Rebbeor and Sherman Hayes. "Why am I dreaming in html subtitles?
: words of wisdom for new Webmasters." College and Research Library
News, April 2000, p. 299-301, 311.
Basic advice for new Webmasters, covering page design (on the KISS principle),
dealing with other people and computer networks, and the basic technical skills
required. Useful.
Simpson, Pamela. "Electronic journals in the online catalog: selection
and bibliographic control." Library Resources & Technical Services"
42:2 (Apr. 1998), p. 126-32.
Extremely useful overview of the issues involved in selecting and cataloging
electronic journals. Many notes on practical difficulties that need to be overcome,
as well as an emphasis on the differences necessary between processes focused
on a physical item and processes involving access to an electronic one.
Slote, Stanley J. Weeding library collections-II. 2nd rev.
ed. Littleton, Colo. : Libraries Unlimited, 1982. 198 p.
Comprehensive guide to methods and ways of weeding a collection. (I understand
that a 4th edition is now available; this is somewhat dated and does
not mention computer OPACs and all their wonderful possibilities for tracking
book use.) More directed towards public than university libraries, but still
a valuable resource for anyone considering a weeding project, though I would
probably want to check more recent literature before starting such a project.
Smyth, Elaine B. "A practical approach to writing a collection development
policy." Rare Books &Manuscripts Librarianship
14:1 (1999), p. 27-31.
A basic introduction to the usefulness of collection development policies, and
ways to keep them from being useless. Highly recommended for people writing
collection development policies (or who have considered them "pointless
exercises in fantasy" due to budgetary constraints.)
Sottong, Stephen. "E-book technology: waiting for the 'false pretender'". Information Technology and Libraries 20:2 (June 2001), p. 72-80.
Discussion of the current viability of e-book technology, concluding that it has not yet reached the stage of being a viable large-scale alternative to printed sources due to price and technical limitations.
Suiter, David E. "Establishing uniform headings for the sacred scriptures:
a persistent issue in Hebraica-Judaica cataloging." Judaica Librarianship
9 (Spring 1994/Winter 1995), p. 83-5.
Discussion of possible subject heading terms for the Old Testament which are
acceptable to both Christians and Jews, suggesting the use of "First Testament"
and "Second Testament" as alternatives to O.T. and N.T. [I’m
not sure that this would work any better.] Authority control work often sounds
dull and boring – I think it happens to be interesting and useful, both
for ourselves and those who will come after us. Sparked a couple of thoughts
about uniform titles for Ellen G. White books.
Sweetland, James H. "Reviewing the World Wide Web--theory versus reality." Library Trends 48:4 (Spring 2000) p. 748-68
Primarily an analysis of CHOICE reviews of websites, discussing how they comply with standard guidelines for reviews of websites. Concludes that even with reviews, website quality is still an issue to which too little attention has been paid, and notes some alarming statistics on the quality of websites compared to print reference sources. Also discusses the issues of website permanence and the difficulties in maintaining access to the most recent version(s) of information.
Useful note: it seems that most users will not go much beyond 30 to 50 sources in any case (hence the now-standard database approach of hardwiring that limit into various aspects of the presentation). Note that this requires relevance algorithms to be highly effective, which so far they are not (though doubtless some improvements have been achieved since this article was written.)
Tenopir, Carol. "The power of citation searching". Library Journal (November 1, 2001), p. 39-40.
Discussion of the ISI/Web of Science citation index features. Worth looking at as an introduction to how citation searching works, and as a discussion of the current state of the art in this field.
Thomas, David H. "The effect of interface design on item selection in
an online catalog." Library Resources and Technical Services 45:1
(January 2001), p. 20-46.
Long article discussing different possible presentations of catalog data
and variations in how users selected items from the different presentations.
The in-depth discussion of factors involved, the long literature review, and
the extensive bibliography make this very useful to anyone thinking of revising
OPAC interface design.
Tillett, Barbara B. "Authority control at the international level."
Library Resources and Technical Services 44:3 (July 2000), p. 168-172.
Historical review of the development of IFLA’s AUTHOR Project, an
international names database. Some suggestions as to future developments. Mildly
thought-provoking, but mostly obvious stuff. (Then again, would it have been
obvious thirty years ago, or forty?) Primary point: the development of linked
parallel records in different countries instead of single universal authority
records.
Vaughan, Jason. "Three iterations of an academic library web site." Information Technology and Libraries 20:2 (June 2001), p. 81-92.
History and evolution of the UNLV Libraries' web site. Things to note: team-based approach, organization by subject instead of by format, ways of facilitating navigation through the site. Useful for webmasters.
The Web Design Group, http://www.htmlhelp.com/
Comprehensive and extremely helpful series of web pages on use and design
of HTML. Very good reference and style material; free HTML validator (which
spotted a lot of stuff that Dreamweaver didn't see when I checked with it);
useful series of FAQs and problem solutions. Highly, highly, recommended for
anyone working with HTML.
Weingart, Sandra J. and Janet A. Anderson. "When questions are answers:
using a survey to achieve faculty awareness of the library’s electronic
resources." College and Research Libraries 61:2 (March 2000), p.
127-134.
How a survey to determine which databases faculty were using turned into
a way to educate faculty as to what was available. This struck me as an extremely
useful thing for us to do, given our new databases and the number of faculty
I’ve encountered who are unaware just how many resources are available
through the Library web page.
Whitlatch, Jo Bell. Evaluating reference services: a practical guide.
Chicago: American Library Association, 2000.
Extremely useful book on how to evaluate reference services, with a great
deal of practical advice about surveys, interviews, and various other forms
of investigating how effectively library service is being administered. Also
includes an extensive annotated bibliography on the various subjects it covers.
Yee, Martha M. "Guidelines for OPAC displays (computer file)." ALCTS
Newsletter (Online) 10:6 (Dec 1999)
Discussion of principles governing OPAC design. I expect to make use of
this in conjunction with our web page revision, which should probably include
the OPAC.
Yang, Zheng Ye. "University faculty's perception of a library liaison
program: a case study." The Journal of Academic Librarianship26:2
(Mar. 2000). p. 124-8.
Results of a survey at Texas A&M discussing how faculty viewed library liaison
program, and what services they considered most important. Emphasizes the need
for librarians to be proactive in making faculty members aware of library services,
as well as being sure to seek continued input from the faculty on their needs.
Last updated November 21, 2003
Web page maintained by Tony Zbaraschuk