This book explores recent trends in human resource management practices and presents options for their application within the special context of libraries, especially academic and research libraries. It lays out a set of the most pressing HR management issues facing senior library leaders in the context of continuous organisational change in the 21st century and offers library practitioners effective tips for people management.
A practical how-to book that provides realistic and proven solutions to real-world challengesProvides examples from organizations to highlight concepts and their applicationsSummary of key points at the end of each chapter, as well as specific tips in three areas: A - Attention (things to pay attention to); R - Results (initiatives that help to achieve desired results) and T - Techniques (ways to apply the concepts presented."

Aimed at library science students and librarians with newly assigned administrative duties the book is about improving one s thinking and decision making in a role as a library manager. Most librarians get very little exposure to management issues prior to finding themselves in a management role. Furthermore, most library science students do not expect that they will need to understand management yet they quickly find that there is a need to understand this perspective to be effective at almost any library job. Effective library management is about having some tools to make decisions (such as a basic understanding of management theory and how it applies in the library environment, understanding common traps we all fall into, etc.), knowing yourself, being able to motivate others, fostering a diversity (especially within workgroups), being able to communicate effectively, and having an understanding of one s organizational culture. The book touches on all of these aspects of library management.
Provides a concise understanding of theories from management, psychology, etc. and applies them to practical every day library issuesContains real world cases for considering how theoretical concepts might apply in real library-related situationsCuts out much of the extraneous material often found in books of this kind and focuses more on what you actually need"

User-Generated Content and its Impact on Web-Based Library Services examines the impact of user-generated content on web-based library services. It begins with an overview of Web 2.0 tools and technologies and a brief look at the emerging semantic tools of Web 3.0 and their implications for libraries. The book investigates the changing role of the end user as both a creator and consumer of web content and what this means for society s perception and understanding of information. The author addresses the advantages and challenges of using these tools to bring community expertise and opinion into the library, from reinvention of the library website as a community rather than a collection to the issues of moderating user-generated content. The book also explores the notion of low-fidelity authority, understanding that by acknowledging the value in content that does not necessarily meet traditional definition of authority, it creates the potential to achieve a much greater level of relevance and engagement with users. Throughout the book, conceptual discussion is illustrated with real-world examples and practical suggestions for library practitioners.
Relatively new and extremely relevant topic, with which many libraries and librarians are currently grapplingProvides conceptual discussion and practical examples of sound strategies for managing user-generated contentThe book is about rethinking what we do as librarians, and surrendering some of our traditional notions of authority and control to the expertise that exists in the community "

Targeted at Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals, this book concentrates on usability evaluation methods used to design usable and user-centered library websites. Aimed at the practitioner, it is a practical guide to methods that are used to gather information from potential users that shape the design of the website based on an interactive design process. From planning the study to writing the report, this book guides the reader through the process of usability evaluation using examples from the author s experience with usability evaluation of library interfaces. It describes usability techniques, procedures, report writing, and design changes that lead to a user-centered interface.
A concise, practical guide to completing usability evaluation methods with an emphasis on creating user-centered library websitesIncludes examples that draw on the author s practical experience with usability evaluationUseful guidelines to creating participant recruitment letters, scripts, thank you notes, and forms illustrated with practical examples"

A practical guide to current Institutional Repository (IR) issues, focussing on content - both gaining and preserving it and what cultural issues need to be addressed to make a successful IR. Importantly, the book uses real-life experiences to address and highlight issues raised in the book.
Written by a successful Institutional Repository project managerThe author has detailed knowledge of Institutional Repository issuesDraws on practical knowledge and experience gained from organisational use

This book focuses on practical, standards-based approaches to planning, executing and managing projects in which libraries and other cultural institutions digitize material and make it available on the web (or make collections of born-digital material available). Topics include evaluating material for digitization, intellectual property issues, metadata standards, digital library content management systems, search and retrieval considerations, project management, project operations, proposal writing, and libraries emerging role as publishers.
Highly practical. Explains complex processes, warns of potential challenges and provides advice for solving realistic problemsComprehensive: includes coverage of the range of techniques and strategies for digitizing and organizing material that practitioners can use to plan and implement digitization projects "

Providing a thorough review of the concept of the Institutional Repository (IR) the book examines how they can be set up, maintained and embedded into general institutional working practice. Specific reference is made to capturing certain types of research material such as E-Theses and E-Prints and what the issues are with regard to obtaining the material, ensuring that all legal grounds are covered and then storing the material in perpetuity. General workflow and administrative processes that may come up during the implementation and maintenance of an IR are discussed. The authors notes that there are a number of different models that have been adopted worldwide for IR management, and these are discussed. Finally, a case study of the inception of the Edinburgh Research Archive is provided which takes the user through the long path from conception to completion of an IR, examining the highs and lows of the process and offering advice for other implementers. This allows the book the opportunity to introduce extensive practical experience in unexpected areas such as mediated deposit.
A comprehensive synthesis of the whole of the IR system - never before provided in other booksThe research results that it contains, are at the leading edge of this subject areaIncludes a comprehensive case study and examination of practical experience - never before provided in other books

In the past sixty years, oral history has moved from the periphery to the mainstream of academic studies and is now employed as a research tool by historians, anthropologists, sociologists, medical therapists, documentary film makers, and educators at all levels. The Oxford Handbook of Oral History brings together forty authors on five continents to address the evolution of oral history, the impact of digital technology, the most recent methodological and archival issues, and the application of oral history to both scholarly research and public presentations. The volume is addressed to seasoned practitioners as well as to newcomers, offering diverse perspectives on the current state of the field and its likely future developments. Some of its chapters survey large areas of oral history research and examine how they developed; others offer case studies that deal with specific projects, issues, and applications of oral history. From the Holocaust, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, the Falklands War in Argentina, the Velvet Revolution in Eastern Europe, to memories of September 11, 2001 and of Hurricane Katrina, the creative and essential efforts of oral historians worldwide are examined and explained in this multipurpose handbook.

Understanding Personalization: New Aspects of Design and Consumption addresses the global phenomenon of personalization that affects many aspects of everyday life. The book identifies the dimensions of personalization and its typologies. Issues of privacy, the ethics of design, and the designer/maker's control versus the consumer's freedom are covered, along with sections on digital personalization, advances in new media technologies and software development, the way we communicate, our personal devices, and the way personal data is stored and used. Other sections cover the principles of personalization and changing patterns of consumption and development in marketing that facilitate individualized products and services. The book also assesses the convergence of both producers and consumers towards the co-creation of goods and services and the challenges surrounding personalization, customization, and bespoke marketing in the context of ownership and consumption.

The digital is the new milieu in which academic libraries must serve their patrons; but how best to utilize the slew of digital devices and their surrounding trends? Optimizing Academic Library Services in the Digital Milieu identifies best practices and strategies for using digital devices (such as tablets, e-readers, and smartphones) and copyrighted materials in academic libraries. Special consideration is given to e-books, iBooks, e-journals, and digital textbooks. This title describes how academic libraries can remain current, nimbly addressing user needs. An introduction gives an overview of technology in academic libraries, including the foundations of copyright law and user behavior in relation to digital content. Three parts then cover: digital rights management (DRM); practical approaches to e-content for librarians; and emerging pedagogy and technology. Finally, the book concludes by telling libraries how to remain agile and adaptable as they navigate the digital milieu.
Presents a contemporary view on DRM and fair use for librarians in the context of contemporary technologyAddresses file standards in relation to devices in librariesDemonstrates ways that librarians can support and engage students using emerging digital technologiesIdentifies low- or no-cost solutions available to assist librarians to fully engage with users through technology in the digital milieu

Digital libraries have been established worldwide to make information more readily available, and this innovation has changed the way information seekers interact with the data they are collecting. Faced with decentralized, heterogeneous sources, these users must be familiarized with high-level search activities in order to sift through large amounts of data. Information Seeking Behavior and Challenges in Digital Libraries addresses the problems of usability and search optimization in digital libraries. With topics addressing all aspects of information seeking activity, the research found in this book provides insight into library user experiences and human-computer interaction when searching online databases of all types. This book addresses the challenges faced by professionals in information management, librarians, developers, students of library science, and policy makers.

Libraries as social and service-based institutions are constantly seeking innovative and effective ways to meet the needs of their users and maintain relevance amidst alternative information sources. They are constantly adjusting to meet the needs of users, contribute to the personal development of users, and alight with national development. All of these have placed a burden on libraries to engage in sustainable practices both to increase their capacity to drive current developmental endeavors and to sustain future relevance. Global Perspectives on Sustainable Library Practices provides a rich and robust knowledge resource that brings together diverse sustainable library practices that will revamp library operations towards optimally meeting the current objectives of libraries as a developmental institution as well as sustaining value for future operations and service transactions. Covering topics such as access efficacy, green space development, and library service delivery, this premier reference source is an essential resource for librarians, library administrators, educators and administration of both K-12 and higher education, students of library sciences, pre-service teachers, researchers, and academicians.

The Role of the Electronic Resources Librarian focuses on longstanding hurdles to the transition of libraries from print collections, to online information services, all from an Electronic Resources Librarian (ERL) perspective. Problems covered include cost containment for electronic serials, web design, discovery, customer service, efficiency, and adapting organizations to the needs of contemporary users. The title considers the historical development of the ERL role, how the position emerged in North America in the 1990s, how it is represented within the organizational structure of academic libraries, and how the ERL role maps to technology, information services, and professional identity trends.

Perspectives and identity are typically reinforced at a young age, giving teachers the responsibility of selecting reading material that could potentially change how the child sees the world. This is the importance of sharing diverse literature with today's children and young adults, which introduces them to texts that deal with religion, gender identities, racial identities, socioeconomic conditions, etc. Teachers and librarians play significant roles in placing diverse books in the hands of young readers. However, to achieve the goal of increasing young people's access to diverse books, educators and librarians must receive quality instruction on this topic within their university preparation programs. The Handbook of Research on Teaching Diverse Youth Literature to Pre-Service Professionals is a comprehensive reference source that curates promising practices that teachers and librarians are currently applying to prepare aspiring teachers and librarians for sharing and teaching diverse youth literature. Given the importance of sharing diverse books with today's young people, university educators must be aware of engaging and effective methods for teaching diverse literature to pre-service teachers and librarians. Covering topics such as syllabus development, diversity, social justice, and activity planning, this text is essential for university-level teacher educators, library educators who prepare pre-service teachers and librarians, university educators, faculty, adjunct instructors, researchers, and students.

In pre-Revolutionary War America, libraries were member-driven collections for the elite; it was not until 1790 that Benjamin Franklin helped to establish the first public lending library. Throughout the subsequent centuries the library has evolved, but always remained central to the cultural life of the nation. Thomas R. Schiff 's photographs trace the history of the library through aesthetic and style while featuring legendary architects such as Charles F. McKim; Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge; and I. M. Pei. The Library Book beautifully captures the shifting architectural styles and missions of the library in sweeping 360-degree panoramas-from the very earliest American libraries to the modernist masterpieces of Louis I. Kahn and others. In his introductory essay, acclaimed author and library lover Alberto Manguel considers the story of the library in America, its evolving architecture and cultural role, and how the American model reflects the archetypal idea of the universal library. Including brief descriptions of each unique library, this book brings bibliophiles into one hundred libraries across the nation.

Front-Line Librarianship: Life on the Job for Librarians presents a diverse range of observations, viewpoints and useful commentary on the current workplace experiences of librarians and their associates. The book's author presents an unrivalled portrait of front-line librarianship that is based upon his unique experience and voice. Chapters consider workplace matters, the fate of hardcopy books, speechmaking at conferences, the effects of recessions on libraries, continuing education, and corporate gift-giving programs. This book will make an excellent and useful addition to library collections in library science.

Creating a New Library: Recipes for Transformation offers ways to make your library group space into one conducive to transformational learning. The book is structured as a cookbook with an introduction to the idea, then directions on its execution. Next, the book gives tips on how to adapt each 'recipe' to fit other specific needs, including other kinds of libraries. The layout follows three strands: space, community, and outreach. Each section includes five elements critical to transforming spaces:, fun, stimulation, safety, freedom, and personal. From providing coffee in the morning, to a full Personal Librarian program, this book presents useful and engaging ideas for transformational learning.

Technology has revolutionized the ways in which libraries store, share, and access information, as well as librarian roles as knowledge managers. As digital resources and tools continue to advance, so too do the opportunities for libraries to become more efficient and house more information. Effective administration of libraries is a crucial part of delivering library services to patrons and ensuring that information resources are disseminated efficiently. Digital Libraries and Institutional Repositories: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice addresses new methods, practices, concepts, and techniques, as well as contemporary challenges and issues for libraries and university repositories that can be accessed electronically. It also addresses the problems of usability and search optimization in digital libraries. Highlighting a range of topics such as content management, resource sharing, and library technologies, this publication is an ideal reference source for librarians, IT technicians, academicians, researchers, and students in fields that include library science, knowledge management, and information retrieval.

While the availability of electronic documents increases exponentially with advancing technology, the time spent to process this wealth of resourceful information decreases. Content analysis and information extraction must be aided by summarization methods to quickly parcel pieces of interest and allow for succinct user familiarization in a simple, efficient manner. Trends and Applications of Text Summarization Techniques is a pivotal reference source that explores the latest approaches of document summarization including update, multi-lingual, and domain-oriented summarization tasks and examines their current real-world applications in multiple fields. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics such as parallel construction, social network integration, and evaluation metrics, this book is ideally designed for information technology practitioners, computer scientists, bioinformatics analysts, business managers, healthcare professionals, academicians, researchers, and students.

Data mapping in a data warehouse is the process of creating a link between two distinct data models' (source and target) tables/attributes. Data mapping is required at many stages of DW life-cycle to help save processor overhead; every stage has its own unique requirements and challenges. Therefore, many data warehouse professionals want to learn data mapping in order to move from an ETL (extract, transform, and load data between databases) developer to a data modeler role. Data Mapping for Data Warehouse Design provides basic and advanced knowledge about business intelligence and data warehouse concepts including real life scenarios that apply the standard techniques to projects across various domains. After reading this book, readers will understand the importance of data mapping across the data warehouse life cycle.

Citation Tracking in Academic Libraries: An Overview presents results from the overarching need for researchers to get relevant advice for their scholarly pursuits. This is even more critical in the fast changing environment, where even those who are established scholars find the new scholarly publishing paradigm hectic, and amateurs get easily intimidated. In the wake of the competitive ranking of universities, there is an added requirement for faculty to be involved with research activities so they can enhance the standing of their parent institutions. That means there is a need to use valid and authentic platforms for publishing. Making reference to already existing texts and answering questions that have been encountered by the author, the book is compiled to make easy, short, and concise reading that is an overview on the tracking of citations. Besides giving suggestions on how academic librarians can provide support to scholars, it includes the benefit of having librarians who are also scholars.

Formative Assessment, Learning Data Analytics and Gamification: An ICT Education discusses the challenges associated with assessing student progress given the explosion of e-learning environments, such as MOOCs and online courses that incorporate activities such as design and modeling. This book shows educators how to effectively garner intelligent data from online educational environments that combine assessment and gamification. This data, when used effectively, can have a positive impact on learning environments and be used for building learner profiles, community building, and as a tactic to create a collaborative team. Using numerous illustrative examples and theoretical and practical results, leading international experts discuss application of automatic techniques for e-assessment of learning activities, methods to collect, analyze, and correctly visualize learning data in educational environments, applications, benefits and challenges of using gamification techniques in academic contexts, and solutions and strategies for increasing student participation and performance.

"What information do these data reveal?" "Is the information correct?" "How can I make the best use of the information?" The widespread use of computers and our reliance on the data generated by them have made these questions increasingly common and important. Computerized data may be in either digital or analog form and may be relevant to a wide range of applications that include medical monitoring and diagnosis, scientific research, engineering, quality control, seismology, meteorology, political and economic analysis and business and personal financial applications. The sources of the data may be databases that have been developed for specific purposes or may be of more general interest and include those that are accessible on the Internet. In addition, the data may represent either single or multiple parameters. Examining data in its initial form is often very laborious and also makes it possible to "miss the forest for the trees" by failing to notice patterns in the data that are not readily apparent. To address these problems, this monograph describes several accurate and efficient methods for displaying, reviewing and analyzing digital and analog data. The methods may be used either singly or in various combinations to maximize the value of the data to those for whom it is relevant. None of the methods requires special devices and each can be used on common platforms such as personal computers, tablets and smart phones. Also, each of the methods can be easily employed utilizing widely available off-the-shelf software. Using the methods does not require special expertise in computer science or technology, graphical design or statistical analysis. The usefulness and accuracy of all the described methods of data display, review and interpretation have been confirmed in multiple carefully performed studies using independent, objective endpoints. These studies and their results are described in the monograph. Because of their ease of use, accuracy and efficiency, the methods for displaying, reviewing and analyzing data described in this monograph can be highly useful to all who must work with computerized information and make decisions based upon it.