Critically acclaimed since its inception, Advances in Librarianship continues to be "the" essential reference source for developments in the field of libraries and library science. Articles published in the series have won national prizes, such as the Blackwell North America Scholarship Award for the outstanding 1994 monograph, article, or original paper in the field of acquisitions, collection, development, and related areas of resource development. All areas of public, college, university, primary and secondary schools, and special libraries are given up-to-date, critical analysis by experts engaged in the practice of librarianship, in teaching, and in research.

Improve the delivery of library services by implementing total quality management (TQM), a system of continuous improvement employing participative management and centered on the needs of customers. Although TQM was originally designed for and successfully applied in business and manufacturing settings, this groundbreaking volume introduces strategies for translating TQM principles from the profit-based manufacturing sector to the library setting. Integrating Total Quality Management in a Library Setting shows librarians how to improve library services by implementing strategies such as employee involvement and training, problem-solving teams, statistical methods, long-term goals and thinking, and an overall recognition that the system (not the staff) is responsible for most inefficiencies.Total Quality Management in a Library Setting describes the principles of TQM, its origins, and the potential benefits and barriers to be expected when adopting quality management approaches in libraries. Chapters provide guidelines for planning and implementation to help libraries use total quality management to break down interdepartmental barriers and work on continuously improving library services. The contributors, who have begun to think about using or who are already using TQM in a library setting, present specific planning and implementation issues that can be put to immediate use in libraries. With this innovative book, library managers will learn that by working together on problem solving teams to address specific operational questions, and by developing a shared knowledge of problem-solving tools and techniques, staff members grow personally and gain a larger sense of organizational purpose. Other TQM methods introduced in this book include the concept of the internal customer, which teaches staff to recognize how other staff members use the results of their work, and the principle of continuous improvement, which enables libraries to set measurable goals based on quantitative performance indicators, and to monitor progress toward those goals.

Producing the Archival Body draws on theoretical and practical research conducted within US and Canadian archives, along with critical and cultural theory, to examine the everyday lived experiences of archivists and records creators that are often overlooked during archival and media production. Expanding on the author's previous work, which engaged archival and queer theories to develop the Queer/ed Archival Methodology that intervenes in traditional archival practices, the book invites readers interested in humanistic inquiry to re-consider how archives are defined, understood, deployed, and accessed to produce subjects. Arguing that archives and bodies are mutually constitutive and developing a keen focus on the body and embodiment alongside archival theory, the author introduces new understandings of archival bodies. Contributing to recent disciplinary moves that offer a more transdisciplinary emphasis, Lee interrogates how power circulates and is deployed in archival contexts in order to build critical understandings of how deeply archives influence and shape the production of knowledges and human subjectivities. Producing the Archival Body will be essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of archival studies, library and information science, gender and women's studies, anthropology, history, digital humanities, and media studies. It should also be of great interest to practitioners working in and with archives

While academic libraries have much to offer the data science (DS) landscape emerging at academic research institutions, they are often overlooked in terms of partnerships beyond providing space for data science activities. The editors conducted a broad environmental scan of over 60 institutions, collecting information from publicly available online sources to identify trends and establish familiarity with baseline services offered to support campus DS efforts. Although some academic libraries are collaborating in specific ways at a small subset of institutions, based on the environmental scan, it was clear how much untapped potential there is for developing partnerships. The authors also conducted a series of interviews with library counterparts at six exemplar institutions to gain insight in how these institutions are building connections between library staff and data science efforts across campus. As Library and Information Science roles continue to evolve to be more data-centric and interdisciplinary and research using a variety of data types continues to proliferate, it is imperative to further explore the dynamics between libraries and the data science ecosystems in which they are a part. This book provides both a foundational base of knowledge around data science and explore numerous ways academicians can reskill their staff, engage in the research enterprise, contribute to curriculum development, and help build a stronger ecosystem where libraries are part and parcel of data science. This book is a valuable resource for academic library institutions who are currently engaged or are formulating their strategy for engaging in data science. From Schools of Library & Information Science to library systems, this book will address how to reskill information professionals, integrate information science expertise in digital humanities, engage in curriculum design/integration, and will highlight international efforts in the evolving area of data science. Library and Information Science (LIS) schools can use this book as a text in helping students understand how the evolving area of data science intersects with LIS and how libraries which are central to the teaching and research mission of academic institutions, afford numerous opportunities for graduates and practitioners to research, work with, and partner on data science initiatives.

Retrospective Conversion is an essential guide for library catalogers and technical services managers in the process of converting manual catalog records to machine readable form. It clearly illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of the three conversion methods--converting in-house, contracting to a vendor, and a combination of the two--and covers the areas of cost, staff, time, and record quality for each. Catalogers will learn how to make a bigger investment in advance planning to achieve better end results. Helpful chapters emphasize the need for planning, quality control, and authority control in the creation of a complete catalog in a machine readable form. Also included are case studies that illustrate specific methods in action and provide a wealth of general, usable information.This unique reference covers a variety of valuable topics for catalogers involved in converting manual catalog records. It includes an in-depth bibliography and review of the retrospective conversion literature, including over 200 items addressing general considerations, special formats, and international issues. Specific examples of retrospective conversion are analyzed including projects in medium and large size institutions, non-serials and serials cataloging, music scores, and the Library of Congress's conversion of the PREMARC file. Specific techniques are explained such as the development of a PC workstation interface to facilitate the conversion process, the use of sampling techniques in project cost analysis, how to determine what quality standards are needed and at what cost, and authority control in both manual and online catalogs.

Dictionary & Thesaurus of Environment, Health & Safety is the first and only dictionary/thesaurus to focus on the usage and structure of environment, health, and safety terminology. Containing nearly 600 pages, this book features thousands of terms that may be hard to find in any other reference source. Thesaurus terms are presented under broad subject categories, and all acronyms found in the thesaurus are listed with their reciprocal phrases. A separate section features a mini-thesaurus for Department of Energy vocabulary. ANSI standards were used to construct the thesaurus, and definitions are included for most terms, with acronyms indicating the source(s) of the definitions.
Dictionary & Thesaurus of Environment, Health & Safety provides a semantic structure for environment, health, and safety terminology and will prove invaluable for anyone involved in the management of programs and information systems that use these terms.

Libraries and Sanctuary is a practical guide to how libraries and their staff can support ‘new arrivals’ – people who have crossed borders to reach a country. The book looks at the different drivers behind an individual’s move, their need for signposting, and at the sorts of barriers that are faced by new arrivals and people seeking sanctuary. Readers will discover the background reasons for migration, the global political context of migration, and the likely impacts of both of these. They will also gain an understanding of just how much work libraries have done so far; learn from practical initiatives, ‘what works’ examples and longer case studies; identify gaps in library provision; and find inspiration to start similar initiatives in their own institution. Drawing on the author’s decades of work in libraries and social exclusion, this is a book for anyone seeking to create an inclusive and welcoming library community.

Everything you need to know in order to start, maintain, and provide service for a business collection, and to research virtually any business topic. Now in its fifth edition, The Basic Business Library is a modern sourcebook of core resources for the business library and the business information consumers and researchers it serves. This up-to-date guide also discusses strategies for acquiring and building the business collection in a Web 2.0/3.0 world and recommended approaches to providing reference service for business research. This text includes numerous real-world examples that cover market research, investment, economics, management and marketing. This is a single-volume guide to doing business research and managing business resources and services in a multitude of library environments. Readers will gain an understanding of the nature and breadth of providers of business information; learn the types and formats of information available; become familiar with key resources and providers in major categories such as marketing, financial information, and investment; and understand how to collect, use, and provide access to business information resources. Includes hundreds of topical chapters that cover key resources in-depth Provides a core list of the most essential library business resources Contains contributions from an all-star cast of experienced business librarians Bibliographic information regarding key resources is woven throughout the book

Here is an in-depth book on the process of evaluating your acquisitions and collection management programs. No project, no matter how ingenious or innovative, will be granted support by a funding agency without a solid evaluation plan. Evaluating Acquisitions and Collection Management discusses the reasons evaluation is held in such high regard by administrators. The authors describe a variety of evaluation activities that cover both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The first section of the book covers current trends and the impact on collection development and acquisitions, and how the evaluation of collections can reveal patterns of program support that can then be compared between peer institutions. Other topics include the process of assigning relative value to acquisitions activities, performance appraisal, and methods for improving procedures of acquiring materials. Acquisitions librarians and administrators will find this book extremely helpful in streamlining their acquisitions and collection management programs.

This inspiring book addresses a topic that is far too often ignored or disregarded by sci-tech librarians: Exactly how do scientists and engineers really discover, select, and use the countless information and communications resources available to them when conducting research? The answer to this question should be a major influence on the way information specialists develop information systems in their libraries. Unfortunately, many librarians are not as familiar with the work, information needs, and communicating behavior of the research worker. Information Seeking and Communications Behavior of Scientists and Engineers looks at this question from several perspectives to give an overall view of how to best serve the needs of the scientific community.This book is an encouragement and a challenge to sci-tech librarians to make an ever greater effort to understand the work of their users, the differing information channels and sources they employ, and thus tailor the library's systems and services to best support their information-seeking behavior.

In this unconventional management book, author Susan Carol Curzon presents a different take on traditional library management tools. Through personal narrative and anecdotes from other working professionals, Curzon presents the many everyday challenges one meets as a library manage.

Critically acclaimed since its inception, "Advances in Librarianship" continues to be the essential reference source for developments in the field of libraries and library science. Articles published in the Series have won national prizes, such as the recent Blackwell North America Scholarship Award for the outstanding 1994 monograph, article, or original paper in the field of acquisitions, collection, development, and related areas of resource development. All areas of public, college, university, primary and secondary schools, and special libraries are given up-to-date, critical analysis by experts engaged in the practice of librarianship, in teaching, and in research. It is authoritative, in-depth, and concise. It is your single best source for keeping up-to-date on key issues. It is written by professionals for professionals to find solutions to vexing questions.

Here is an essential introductory guide on all aspects of law librarianship written especially for non-law librarians, library school students, and beginning law librarians. Although there are several excellent practical handbooks and numerous articles on specific topics of law librarianship for practicing law librarians, Basics of Law Librarianship is the only resource that addresses the information needs of the student or new law librarian. Author Deborah Panella, managing librarian of a large, prominent New York law firm, explores the major areas of law librarianship. She covers vital topics such as the legal clientele, collection development, research tools, technical services, impact of technology, and management issues, and describes what makes law libraries different from other special libraries. She has written a clear, readable volume without excessive detail or the use of special terminology. The bibliography of law library literature and the index add enormously to the book's value as a major reference.

Here is unique volume offering practical advice on weeding and maintaining reference collections. It covers different types of libraries--academic, corporate, public--and problems, and librarians describe in detail methods and criteria used by their libraries in weeding their reference collections. Dr. Pierce has organized the topics of her book into relevant chapters. These chapters, bound to appeal to a variety of needs, address and discuss the problems and management of growing reference collections. As many librarians find weeding reference books a difficult task, most reference departments suffer from a lack of space as a result. Collection growth reduces shelf and seating space, and both books and people are lost in the clutter. In reading this essential book, reference supervisors will come to understand the importance of allowing reference area growth combined with effective weeding to promote an attractive and well-stocked reference area. Heads of reference will find Weeding and Maintenance of Reference Collections full of useful information, from the specific criteria and detailed methods contributed by several librarians who have found success in weeding their reference collections, to the practical hints on planning and evaluating collection contents and organization. Students and faculty of library schools and information studies will gain insight into successful management of increasing amounts of reference material as the Information Age gathers momentum into the 1990s.

This work provides a comprehensive examination of the life and professional career of E.J Josey within the broader historical and political landscape of the civil rights movement. In the era of Jim Crow, Josey rose to prominence in the library profession by challenging the American Library Association (ALA) to live up to its creed of equality for all. This was not easy during the 1950s and 1960s, during segregation. Using interviews with Josey and his contemporaries, as well as several archival sources, library educator Renate Chancellor analyzes Josey's leadership, particularly within modern day racial currents. During his professional career, spanning over fifty years (1952-2002), Josey worked as a librarian (1953-1966), an administrator of library services (1966-1986), and as a professor of library science (1986-1995). He also served as President of the American Library Association and perhaps his most notable achievement, he successfully drafted a resolution that prevented state library associations from discriminating against African American librarians. This essentially ended segregation in the ALA. Josey's transformative leadership provides a model to tackle today's civil rights challenges both in and outside the library profession. This authoritative work copublished by the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) documents for the historical record a significant period of history that is underexplored in the scholarly literature. The target audience for this book are researchers, historians, LIS educators and students interested in understanding the complex struggle for civil and human rights in professional organizations.

Most graduate programs offer a course in the management of a library. These courses, cover budgeting, supervising, marketing, providing services and other necessary functions and their related management concepts. Such courses are critical in giving beginning librarians the grounding in the study of management. However, anyone who has ever held any kind of management position, such as managing a program, directing a grant or running the entire library, can tell you that understanding the basics of management is not enough to be successful on the job. Not only do we need to continue our study of management but we also need to understand the unwritten rules, the unwritten strategies, and the unwritten wisdom which is either gained on the job, learned by observing others, or, if the librarian is very fortunate, taught by a mentor. Sometimes this knowledge, finally gained, comes at too high a price or is learned too late. A career inexplicably stalled, a desired position not gained, the failure to thrive in a current position can leave us puzzled, confused and hurt. After all, we worked hard every day.Every day, we concentrated on the job often sacrificing time with family and friends. What went wrong? These are the issues answered in this book. This is not a conventional management text. You will not get, for example, the history of management, the basics of budgeting or personnel and labor laws. Instead the focus is on nuances of behavior, political strategies, common wisdom, mentor-like advice, and the subtle codes, which, when paired with other management skills, will bring increased success on the job and throughout your career. It does not matter what type of library you are in-management is management, wisdom is wisdom. What Every Library Director Should Know is the insider's view of vital actions, behaviors and strategies to succeed in every type of library. The content is based both on the author's direct experience after a long career in several types of libraries but also on the direct observation of other managers. Inset into the book are pearls of wisdom from other directors, managers and observers who are answering the question, what is the one piece of management wisdom that you would give to anyone who wishes to become a library director?This book will help to get you there by explaining and illustrating the wisdom that is mostly unwritten and which mostly moves in subtle communication.

This pioneering volume of essays explores the destruction of great libraries since ancient times and examines the intellectual, political and cultural consequences of loss. Fourteen original contributions, introduced by a major re-evaluative history of lost libraries, offer the first ever comparative discussion of the greatest catastrophes in book history from Mesopotamia and Alexandria to the dispersal of monastic and monarchical book collections, the Nazi destruction of Jewish libraries, and the recent horrifying pillage and burning of books in Tibet, Bosnia and Iraq.

A companion volume to the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, the Thematic List of Desciptors will be a valuable tool for all those contributing to the development of information systems in the social sciences.

For faculty to advance their careers in higher education, publishing is essential. A competitive marketplace, strict research standards, and scrupulous tenure committees are all challenges academicians face in publishing their research and achieving tenure at their institutions. The Handbook of Research on Scholarly Publishing and Research Methods assists researchers in navigating the field of scholarly publishing through a careful analysis of multidisciplinary research topics and recent trends in the industry. With its broad, practical focus, this handbook is of particular use to researchers, scholars, professors, graduate students, and librarians.

Data Driven Decisions: A Practical Toolkit for Library and Information Professionals is a simple, jargon-free guide to using data for decision making in library services. The book walks readers step-by-step through each stage of implementing, reviewing and embedding data driven decisions in their organisation, providing accessible visualisations, top tips, and downloadable tools to support readers on their data journey. Staring with the absolute basics of using data, the author creates a framework for building skills and knowledge slowly until the reader is comfortable with even complex uses of data. The book begins with an exploration of explore the foundations of data driven decisions in libraries including a look at the impact of the current financial climate on resources, theoretical foundations of data collection and analysis, and how this book can be used in practice. The next section takes readers through the data driven decisions model, providing the guide for understanding and manual for implementation of the model. Finally, the book provides further perspectives and reading surrounding analysis and implementation of data driven decisions. This section aims to give supplementary and focused information on different areas of data driven decisions which can be included in processes once the reader understands the foundation of the book from earlier chapters. Highly practical and written in an accessible style, this book is an essential resource for librarians and information professionals who increasingly need to justify decisions on programmes and services through quantifiable data.

Critically acclaimed since its inception, "Advances in Librarianship" continues to be the essential reference source for developments in the field of libraries and library science. Articles published in the Series have won national prizes, such as the recent Blackwell North America Scholarship Award for the outstanding 1994 monograph, article, or original paper in the field of acquisitions, collection, development, and related areas of resource development. All areas of public, college, university, primary and secondary schools, and special libraries are given up-to-date, critical analysis by experts engaged in the practice of librarianship, in teaching, and in research. It is authoritative, in-depth, and concise. It is your single best source for keeping up-to-date on key issues. It is written by professionals for professionals to find solutions to vexing questions.