Five years ago, ALA’s Presidential Task Force on Library Education specified eight areas of core knowledge for librarians. The third area, titled “Organization of Recorded Knowledge and Information,” details how librarians provide library users access to materials. It defined three specific competences related to recorded knowledge and info: Organization and representation; Developmental, descriptive, and evaluative … Continue reading Organizing Content
Funds shift, coworkers leave, a new director arrives. Such unexpected job changes may require you to learn a new skill—fast. In my experience, I feel as though I can learn nearly anything from books. Even if I need to take a class, watch a webinar, or participate in a hands-on demonstration, reading about a topic … Continue reading Continuous Learning
Whether we are going back to school or not, most of us sense new beginnings in the air. And whether we are in a school library or not, we are all part of the educational process. Literacy and learning start before school. Every Child Ready for School: Helping Adults Inspire Young Children to Learn is … Continue reading Back to School
We like to think we’re done when we graduate from library school, MLIS in hand. But then we meet the real world and a whole new set of questions and challenges: How, specifically, does your first employer’s library really approach customer service? How does it implement new technology? And a little further down the career … Continue reading Keeping Up with Continuing Education
Popular wisdom says if you want to learn how to use your latest piece of consumer technology, you find an 8-year-old to teach you. In “The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s,” (The New York Times, Jan. 9, 2010), Brad Stone looked at how children view technology differently than adults, and even how … Continue reading Bridging the Digital Divide
With this collection of books, we’re looking at ways technology—old and new—contributes to the management of libraries. In some cases, such as the card catalog, it answers a need and creates its own uses. In other cases, such as the cellphone, the technology was created for a different purpose but its adaptations transform library services … Continue reading Technology in the Library
Regardless of how large (or small) your library is, or whether you serve elementary school students, college professors, or retirees seeking the latest book by their favorite author, you are affected by issues that may change how we “do” librarianship. Here are a few recent titles that discuss these topics, sometimes raising more questions than … Continue reading Disaster Recovery, Going Green, Protecting Privacy: How We Do Librarianship
A thread through ALA President Maureen Sullivan’s mission has been “leadership.” Leadership takes many forms throughout our professional lives. We lead colleagues to accomplish the work of our libraries; we lead community groups to advocate on behalf of the library; we lead teams to learn new skills or to adapt a service in new ways. … Continue reading Leadership and Advocacy
Times are tough for libraries, and when times get tough, managers—whether college administrators, a principal, a board of trustees, or even voters—start asking about the viability of programs and the measurable benefits of those programs. That’s why understanding how to measure your library’s activities—and therefore proving their value—is critical in today’s economic environment. In Using … Continue reading Making Sure Libraries “Measure Up”
“I am a librarian. I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library. Before I fell in love with libraries, I was just a 6-year-old boy. The library fueled all of my curiosities, from dinosaurs to ancient Egypt. When I graduated from high school in 1938, I began going to … Continue reading The Library Is the Real School
Most libraries in the US are small. For public libraries, this means that the population served is under 25,000 people. Similarly, two-thirds of academic libraries serve institutions with fewer than 3,000 students. When it comes to school libraries and many special libraries, staff numbers are typically small as well. What this means, practically speaking, is … Continue reading Practical Matters: Prepare, Protect, and Market Your Library
A few days ago, a Finnish librarian I know posted a picture on Facebook of several people reading while riding public transportation. Only one person was reading a physical book, and my friend mused about the future of libraries. Ever the optimist, I suggested to her that the future will involve librarians providing virtual reference, … Continue reading Building the Shelfless Library
