Assessment Skills and the Academic Library Job Market

Recruiting for Results: Assessment Skills and the Academic Library Job Market By Scott Walter and Megan Oakleaf  (pdf)

Abstract:

This paper reports the results of an exploratory content analysis of academic library position descriptions posted between 2004-2009 in order to determine the degree to which assessment skills are identified as required or preferred qualification for hire, as well as the degree to which assessment responsibilities are noted as components of the positions. It suggests that, despite the increased call for assessment in academic libraries over the past decade, there is little evidence that we are recruiting new professionals into our libraries with a clearly articulated responsibility for designing, implementing, or reporting the results of assessment activities.
 Also in Proceedings of the 2010 Library Assessment Conference - LibQUAL

Another library career shelved

Extract:

A library career shelved, by Kelly Grinsteinner Editor kgrinsteinner@hibbingdailytribune.net HIBBING — If one wanted to book some time with the reference and technical services librarian at Hibbing Public Library, they’re out of luck.
That option is long overdue. The position no longer exists.
 ... “I’ll still have to come in and get my books,” she said. “I do some electronic reading, but I’d say about three-fourths of my reading is still a book.”
continue reading: Hibbing Daily Tribune

On the same shelf:

• Study: 70 Percent Of Consumers Tied To Print, Most eBooks Are Never Read, CBS
• Libraries get help to improve digital literacy, By Cody Neff Register-Herald Reporter

• Beware, public libraries: You'll go the way of print newspapers if you automatically diss nonlibrarians' gutsy ideas

• Regular books are dangerous for allergic with acute reactions

What To Expect From Libraries in the 21st Century: Pam Sandlian Smith

courtesy: TEDxTalks

On Arranging Library Books by Color

Info courtesy:  Suresh D Nair

This post is about Library Shelf Classification by Color (Colour)

Colours classify the giant collection in the six-decade-old library

TNN | Dec 13, 2013

Extract:

A simple technique used in small-scale textile shops paved the way for the librarians of Lady Doak College to classify their huge collection of books with ease.

Inspired by the way shopkeepers mark the prices of products using colourful stickers, the J X Miller Library started a unique method called 'Rainbow Classification'. In this method, the staff paste colourful stickers on the spine of the books making their task easier when it comes to sorting and arranging the books.

continue reading:  TNN

Libraries: a plea from a silence seeker -- Any takers?

Once sanctuaries of quiet study, libraries have become glorified community centres.  spiked-online.com

Ebooks for Libraries: Still a Ripoff, BY ANNOYED LIBRARIAN

Info courtesy: Suresh D Nair

Extract:

It’s rare to see informed journalism about libraries and ebooks. Most news articles I see are along the lines of “Libraries are now lending ebooks,” with a brief report of a few libraries that are now, in fact, lending ebooks. That’s neither informative or particularly new. continue reading

On the same shelf:

• The Battle of Building Library's Digital Collection, Revisited
• What are the advantages of e-books over print books
• Ten of the Best Web 2.0 Tools for Cybrarians, by Cybrarian’s Web!

• The Canadian Ebook: Market Trends

• Ebooks in libraries: an overview of the current situation, by Linda Ashcroft Library Management,  2011, Volume 32, Issue 6/7, pp. 398 - 407
• Follow the Ebook Road: Ebooks in Australian Public Libraries, by Duncan, Ross Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services,  2011, Volume 24, Issue 4, pp. 182 - 193
• eBooks As a Collection and a Service: Developing a Public Library Instruction Program to Support eBook Use by Brendan O'Connell and Dana Haven Journal of Library Innovation,  2013, Volume 4, Issue 1, pp. 53 - 66
• eBooks for Libraries and Patrons: Two Years of Experience, by Richard L. Rosy Liber Quarterly : The Journal of European Research Libraries, 09/2002, Volume 12, Issue 2/3, pp. 228 - 233
• Ebooks and Beyond: The Challenge for Public Libraries by Duncan, Ross Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services,  2010, Volume 23, Issue 2, pp. 44 - 55
• Ebooks and the Retailization of Research by Fister, Barbara Library Journal, ISSN 0363-0277, 08/2010, Volume 135, Issue 13, p. 24
• OverDrive Media Stations Engage eBook and Audiobook Readers Inside the Library Internet Wire, 11/12/2013

Library book selection then (1925), now (2013),... in principle it remains unchanged...

• The theory of book selection for public libraries Lionel Roy McColvin (it was based on based on demand and value) (1925)

THE THEORY OF BOOK SELECTION
Lionel McColvin's classic The Theory of Book Selection for Public Libraries (1925) begins with thefollowing words:


"Book selection is the first task of librarianship. It precedes all other processes--cataloguing, classification, or administration--and it is the most important. No matter how thorough and efficient the rest of the work may be, the ultimate value of a library depends upon the way in which the stock has been selected." (McColvin 1925, p. 9).

McColvin starts with the need to have available the materials that will be in demand, not only because of the practical need to have in stock what users ask for, but also because there will be no benefit derived from acquisitions that are not used. No demand means no use and, therefore, no benefit, McColvin argues. But he also argues that a passive adapting of collections to demand would betray the mission of the library.


"If, however, we consider the library as a social force with the power to direct to some extent man's demand, (or, to use the usual expression, if we consider the library as an educationalforce) we will not be content to leave demand our only consideration." (p. 37, emphasis in original).

In brief, McColvin provides a frame with two dimensions--Demand and Value--which correspond to the dispensing and advisory roles of collections noted above. (source)

*More quotes by McColvin are in (p. 261):

Dictionary of Library and Information Science Quotations by Mohamed Taher and and L.S. Ramaiah. More quotations are here @ Library & Information Science Quotations or here: amazon.com

• Library book selection (Ranganathan series in library science;no.16) Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan (1966)
• Library Book Selection: (Edition 2) (Ranganathan Series in Library Science) S.R. Ranganathan and M.A. Gopinath (2006)
• Book Selection: Principles and Practice David Spiller (1991)
• Book Selection Then and Now (2013)
• Alive and Well: Revisiting Sable's "Death of Book Selection"
• Some problems in book selection policies and practices in ...
• A Comparison between the Book Selection Policy Decisions

Ten of the Best Web 2.0 Tools for Cybrarians, by Cybrarian’s Web!

Ps. Given below is the list. Full description of each tool is at the author's site, click here: http://cybrariansweb.com/links/

Incidentally, there is no date, hence not sure if this is a recent list or some of this is already gone with the wind (no pun indeed; just look at how often Google products vanish...). Wish the author could have added one liner to each of these to indicate how libraries (not just librarians as individuals) can use each Tool!!!

• Cloud Magic - for all your personal data
• ePubBud - for aspiring authors of children’s ebooks
• Google Drive - provides users with ‘cloud space’ to store and access files from anywhere
• Issuu - free digital publishing platform 
• Infogr.am - opportunity to create pictorial graphs to promote current services.
• Jumpshare - file sharing service
• Poll Everywhere - offers a unique way to create real-time audience responses for events
• Text2MindMap - allows users to create customized mindmaps directly on the website
• TodaysMeet - create chat rooms
• Weebly - ‘drag and drop’ website builder