Reference Books Bulletin: Is Print Reference Dead?

in ALA Annual 2007: Day 4: June 24: Is Print Ref Dead?

Extracts:

Reasons why print is dying:

• Catalog information for p-titles is limited to title in most cases
  e-ref is very browsable online--TOC, indexes, etc.


• Preferences of contemporary users who expect 24/7 access, searchability, full text delivery.


• P-content is invisible


• Print indexes are too hard to use


• MLS/MLIS students are not required to take reference. Most get out of school with only one (or fewer) ref classes


• Print is....print. E-resources offer interactivity and multimedia. Many resources are dynamic and frequently updated

Continue reading

Make sure your resume is noun-intensive

A thought for those who are looking for a job and sending a resume: Don't be insensitive

Scanning technology used by most companies tends to search by nouns, not verbs. For example, instead of writing "managed projects" on your resume, write "project manager." in 10 Ways to Stand Out From Your Competition, By KATE LORENZ, CAREERBUILDER.COM EDITOR

Who is Reading Books (and who is not)

PS. This is a quote posted by Bill @ Faith Commons: A Chasm Is Growing Between the Knows and the Know-nots

58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.

42% of college graduates never read another book.

80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.

70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

--Jerrold Jenkins via Dan Poynter's ParaPublishing

What are the advantages of e-books over print books

punchline:

3.2.6i: Why Librarians would like to purchase more e-books and encourage greater use of them, and their concerns
3.2.6ia: Access
3.2.6ib: Stock Maintenance and Administrative
Tasks
3.2.6ic: Quality of Stock
3.2.6id: Economic Considerations

3.2.6ii: Librarians’ prioritisation of e-book acquisition, with reasons
3.2.6iia: High demand
3.2.6iib: Material types sought
3.2.6iic: Target subjects
3.2.6iid: Specific user groups
3.2.6iie: Constraints
continue reading: What are the advantages of e-books over print books

see also:

Advantages of E-books www.ukoln.ac.uk

The Benefits and Advantages of Ebooks By Remez Sasson

advantages of ebooks

Google for more

The Top 10 Reasons to Be a Librarian

By Martha J. SpearLibrary media specialist Berkley (Mich.) High School
(with apologies to David Letterman)

As a high school library media specialist, I have the good fortune to work with, and sometimes mold, young people. If I’m lucky, I discover what they do after graduation. Recently, one of my favorite students informed me that after earning her humanities degree at a tiny private college, she was pursuing a master’s degree in museum studies. Congratulating her, I jokingly said, “Watch it. That’s awfully close to a master’s in library science.” She laughed and said: “Oh, I’d never do that.” Somewhat defensively, I replied, “You could do worse.”

Long after this brief conversation, I wondered, where did we, as librarians, go wrong? Why is there such an onus on this profession that a bright, young person would choose, well, any career but that of librarianship? I think it’s sad. Librarianship has much to offer, and I think we can do better in promoting our profession. Toward that end, I present my top 10 reasons for being a librarian.

Ever-changing and renewing
Romance
Useful skills
Great conferences
Time off
A job with scope
It pays the rent
Good working conditions
Cool coworkers
Grand purpose
In sum, I feel very much like Evelyn Carnahan in the film The Mummy. To refresh your memory, our leading lady is in the midst of describing—and defending—what she does for a living to a roguish male. They have been drinking.

Evelyn: Look, I—I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O’Connell! But I am proud of what I am!

Rick O’Connell: And what is that?

Evelyn: I am . . . a librarian!

I couldn’t have said it better.

This article originally appeared in American Libraries, October 2002, p. 54–55. continue reading

Finding a journal article is like hunting for a needle in a haystack

I have an excellent powerpoint presentation on information literacy. This was originally designed as an online tutorial.
Available on request.

Punchline:
"Unfortunately, database searching techniques are rarely taught inelementary secondary education and college and graduate education may often see little increase in this nil level of instruction. Hence information literacy in academia is perhaps the most neglected area of erudition and is after all only that minor aspect of scholarship that involves the methods one uses in electronic sources to find the
publications and documents that are on topic for research and specific subject learning." David Dillard


See also other PowerPoint presentations:

• Blog As A Teaching Tool
• The Six A’s for Evaluating Web Content