The National Library of Canada's Electronic Publications Pilot Project:

From June 1994 to the summer of 1995 the National Library of Canada carried out the Electronic Publications Pilot Project. The objective of this Project was to identify and understand issues that the National Library of Canada and other Canadian libraries would encounter in handling electronic publications and online collections. A small number of formally published Canadian on-line journals were acquired, controlled, catalogued and stored permanently at the Library. Public access was provided on the Internet through Gopher and the World Wide Web. Several areas of the Library were involved in the three teams which were set up to pursue the Project's goals. The members of the Technical Services team received equipment upgrades and underwent a considerable amount of training in order to accomplish assigned tasks. Identifying appropriate titles and obtaining copyright clearance for those selected proved to be a very time-consuming exercise. The problems and issues encountered during the acquisitions, serials check-in and cataloguing activities confirmed that dealing efficiently with electronic publications was indeed a new challenge for the staff of the National Library. At the end of the project, recommendations from the Technical Services team were submitted and they will be incorporated into the Final Report of the Project which is expected to be available to the public in the fall of 1995.     

Evolution of an academic–public library partnership

A partnership to improve access to health information via an urban public library system was established in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2011. A multiyear project was outlined that included an information needs assessment, a training class for public library staff, information kiosks at library branches for delivering printed consumer health materials, and a series of health-related programming. The partnership evolved to include social service and community organizations to carry out project goals and establish a sustainable program that met the health and wellness interests of the community.     

Assessing reference staff competency in the electronic environment

This paper shows how the Galter Health Sciences Library of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine developed and implemented a program to assess reference staff competencies for assisting users in the electronic environment after completing a new training program. The first phase was a year-long assessment of reference questions to identify the types of questions received at the desk. Next, a training program for reference was developed and implemented with an emphasis on answering the most common questions identified such as remote access, access privileges, holdings information, and database searching. The program included individualized instruction on library policies, electronic resources, access restrictions, and troubleshooting. The next phase was to create instruments to test staff competencies in answering questions after training. Based on the scores, additional training was individualized and provided to the appropriate staff member to enhance their skills where needed. The training system that was developed has proven to be effective as most staff scored better than 92% on initial testing. As a result, library management can be certain that users' questions are being answered correctly and that the staff has the skills required to work in an electronic environment.     

Online Information Retrieval in the Public Library:

Public libraries have added access to online intermediary searching and end-user systems, but have not based the decision to do so on in-depth study of needed skills, impact on staff and projected benefit to patrons. If quality online searching is to be provided, methods of staff selection and development need to be seriously considered. The role of the online searcher is defined, as are the qualities, skill and expertise necessary for the job. Guidelines for staff selection are listed under four categories: (1) education, (2) experience, (3) present level of knowledge/skill, (4) general reference ability, Three types of staff training programs are listed: (I) general orientation for all staff (2) training in the fundamentals of online searching, and 3) online searcher development and training. Content requirements !or each of these programs are provided. The need for well planned staff selection and development methods is acute if quality online search service is to be provided in public libraries.     

Public health professionals in the Midwest: a profile of connectivity and information technology skills.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess Internet connections and information technology skills of public health workers in the Midwest. METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed to 713 local health departments (LHDs) in the ten states of the Greater Midwest Region. RESULTS: Three hundred forty-four LHDs (48%) responded. Overall, 85% own a computer that would allow Internet access. Half provide Internet access to some or all staff. Of these, two-thirds use e-mail and half search the Web. One-half are linked to the State Health Department, and 30% are linked to other local health departments. Over half use CDC-Wonder; less than 20% search MEDLINE. Two-thirds of the respondents expressed an interest in MEDLINE training, and three-fourths are interested in learning more about the Internet. Sixty-nine percent of respondents planned to enhance electronic communication capacity within the next year. CONCLUSIONS: Public health practitioners need timely, convenient access to information to aid them in improving the health of the American public. A majority of public health departments in the Midwest are technically capable of connecting to the Internet. This technological capability, combined with an expressed desire by public health agencies to have workers become computer literate, suggests an important role for health sciences librarians.     

In‐house peer supported literature search training: a public health perspective

Public Health England plays a vital role in ensuring the health of the nation. The Knowledge and Library Service (KLS) is a key part of the organisation's evidence supply chain. KLS staff handle over 200 requests for literature searches per annum, and this number is increasing exponentially year on year. Searches are often complex and require specialist public health knowledge to complete effectively. Library staff who are new to the area of public health require support and training. In this article, Anh Tran, Knowledge and Evidence Specialist for Public Health England, discusses a peer supported literature search training course that has been developed in‐house for the benefit of new library staff, and to increase the Knowledge and Library Service's literature searching capacity at Public Health England. H. S.     

Developing and Implementing a Moodle-Ares Integration for Physical and Electronic Reserves at a Small Liberal Arts College

Reacting to the popularity of reserves and as part of an ongoing merger of circulation, interlibrary loan, and reserves into a fully integrated access services department, DePauw University purchased and implemented Atlas Systems’ Ares reserves software. As part of that implementation, a campus programmer designed interface integration between Moodle, the campus course management software, and Ares. Despite setbacks and complications along the way, the implementation was successful; both faculty and students have provided positive feedback, and staff members are able to process material faster and more accurately. We hope to deepen Ares's integration with both Moodle and with our integrated library system and public catalog as time goes on.     

Electronic Reserve and the Integrated Library System: From Installation to the Future

The libraries at the University of Toledo manage electronic reserve via Innovative Interfaces product Media Management. This article explores the reasoning behind selecting this software and examines the challenges of installation, maintenance, responding to patron access problems, and providing faculty support. Providing quality service with a small staff is also addressed.     

Learning resource needs of UK NHS support staff

BACKGROUND: A report on the findings of research into the learning resource needs of support staff conducted at York Hospital. METHODS: A qualitative method of focus groups was used to explore the views and experiences of support staff. This provided a rich source of data and allowed an often overlooked group to give their own experiences of learning and libraries. This was supplemented by one-to-one interviews using more in-depth questions. A literacy and numeracy test gave a general picture of essential skill levels within the sample group. RESULTS: An improvement in communication to support staff needs to take place to ensure that all support staff know about the library, how and where to access training and obtain a network computer password. The project confirmed the need to expand library resources for support staff. It was found that there were no obvious essential skills resources within the Trust and a lack of awareness of essential skill issues. CONCLUSION: The learning needs of support staff need to be addressed sensitively. Many have had unfavourable experiences. Lack of access to computers and information technology (IT) training contributed to the group favouring written communication. More work needs to be done on essential skills for all staff.     

Working around the ERM: Automating Accurate Electronic Serials Holdings Data in Bibliographic Records

Accurate holdings information for electronic serials is essential to librarians and users. Collection management staff spent copious amounts of time creating and updating links and public notes in electronic serials bibliographic records. This effort not only duplicated the work of our e-resource access and management software, but the updated information also quickly became outdated and inaccurate. This article describes our project to replace platform-specific Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) with an International Standard Serial Number–specific, static URL that points to the e-resource access and management software resource page and details the. process, from generating the URL and batch-editing machine-readable cataloging records, to garnering support from stakeholders and teaching users to navigate new steps.     

Analysis of library associated information needs of staff in a specialist palliative and gerontological care centre in Mid-West Ireland

Background: Milford Care Centre is a major centre for specialist palliative and gerontological care in the Mid‐West of Ireland. In August 2008, a Librarian was employed to support the information, research, teaching and professional development needs of staff and students. In planning associated with this role, it was necessary to undertake an analysis of the information needs of staff. Objectives: (1) To understand the information needs of staff with regard to the new Library and Information Service. (2) To identify current access to and levels of skill in information literacy and ICT. (3) To ascertain the need for training in those skills. Methods: A web‐based questionnaire was disseminated in November by email and printed copies were left at other locations. Results: Assistance with obtaining journal articles was rated most highly by respondents as being an important service. Eighty‐three per cent indicated that they did not have access to online health databases. Small group classes were considered the preferred method of providing training. Afternoons were also considered more convenient for visiting the library. Conclusion: The results will be used to plan the development of the library with a better insight of users needs and assist us to utilise resources more effectively.     

Collections and systems: a new organizational paradigm for collection development

Collection development and the management of access to electronic resources in large academic libraries increasingly requires close cooperation between collection development librarians, public service librarians, and systems librarians and staff. Many libraries, both public and academic, have created new positions or converted existing ones with titles such as ‘electronic resources librarian’ or ‘electronic information coordinator.’ Two years ago, the Washington State University (WSU) Libraries decided to take a different approach to managing these two vital library functions by creating the new position of Assistant Director for Collections and Systems. This paper explores the convergence of collection development and systems in a research library. It sets forth the philosophical underpinnings of that convergence, and it discusses issues encountered in the integration of the two services in the WSU Libraries. Finally, it explores strategic issues for future collection development and management from the perspective of this new organizational paradigm. [1]     

新世纪图书馆员工培训的构想

通过对图书馆员工教育培训问题的分析,探讨21世纪图书馆员工培训的新思维,从员工培训的组织、计划和体系化等多层面架构图书馆的培训模式,并具体设计了多种培训途径。     

University Libraries-Electronic Reserve

ABSTRACT

The Arizona State University Libraries Electronic Reserve system provides ASU students easy online access to required course reading. Journal articles, tests, syllabi and class notes are digitized and available on any computer with Internet access. Students no longer need to make a trip to the library but can now read, download or print these items at their convenience. The documents are easily located through a direct link in the libraries' online catalog and retrievable with “two clicks of a mouse.” This system was designed by the staff of the university's library. While outside vendors offered programs ranging in price from $47,000 to $70,000, less than $400 was spent on software. With over 750 files for 169 courses digitized, electronic reserve is popular, averaging 11,000 “hits” a month.     

Increasing state public health professionals' proficiency in using PubMed

Objective: The paper provides an overview of a strategy to increase utilization of online bibliographic databases by public health workers.Methods: A web-based survey of professional staff in the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services was conducted to assess their use of and interest in training in online bibliographic databases. Based on the findings from the assessment, the department, in collaboration with the state university, provided brief ninety-minute training sessions for interested staff on the use of PubMed.Results: Seventy of 115 (61%) of staff completed the survey. Only 39% of staff reported using an online bibliographic database to conduct a literature search in the past year, and only 10% (n=7) reported having ever received any training in their use. Perceived proficiency with the use of PubMed was higher upon completion of the brief training. The majority of training participants (n=27) indicated that they were very likely to use PubMed in the next year to search the literature.Conclusions: A collaboratively designed training can increase public health workers'' proficiency in and intentions of using online bibliographic databases.

Highlights

• A web-based assessment of Montana public health workers identified a lack of training in and use of online bibliographic databases and an interest in receiving training in their use.
• Brief training in the use of online bibliographic databases increased state public health workers'' self-assessed proficiency in and intentions of using these resources.

Implications

• Low-cost strategies, such as inexpensive web-survey tools, to assess staff needs and brief training sessions for public health workers were effective in increasing public health workers'' self-assessed proficiency in using online bibliographic databases.
• Collaboration between state health departments and universities to design and provide relevant training in the use of online bibliographic databases is an effective approach to addressing public health workers'' skills in using these resources.

     

An Evaluation of Four Levels of Online Training in Public Libraries

This study employed a sequential, mixed-method confirmatory research design to assess the impact of the delivery of library staff asynchronous online training at four levels of instructional intervention and workplace integration on short- and long-term knowledge acquisition/retention, self-efficacy, and job performance. The study utilized a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest design with 192 staff members from twenty-seven public libraries in the United States completing all phases of the four-month longitudinal study. The study proposed an evidence-based, comparative evaluation framework to discern effectiveness of competency-based online training and the impact of varying online training implementation practices. The study found that all levels of instructional intervention resulted in significant short-term knowledge acquisition and enhancement of self-efficacy, and the three approaches that utilized facilitation resulted in long-term knowledge acquisition and improvement in self-efficacy. The impact on long-term workplace practices resulted in unique findings for small and large libraries. The researchers recommend further research in online training evaluation and best practices in public library online training.     

Getting Staff Involved in Providing Community Information

Staff involvemcnt with community information starts at the administrative level with planning and commitment. Part of the planning process is assessing what other agencies in the community are doing to provide community information, and determining the library's role in this process. It should be clear to staff that providing information about community resources is a legitimate part of the total information service offered by the library, not a nonEssential extra-work addition. Staff training is an ongoing process, and an essential part of becoming comfortable in using this community resource file. The skills which administrators bring to the implementation of a new service say a great deal about how they manage any change. If initial planning has been well thought out, adequate training offered, and communication good between public service staff and those responsible for coordinating the service, staff acceptance and use of the new service should be high.     

Cataloging in a Remote Location: A Case Study of International Collaboration in the Galapagos Islands

The Corley Smith Library is a small, special library located at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands. Currently, the library is managed by international volunteer librarians in collaboration with Station staff and local volunteers. Recently the library migrated its online public access catalog to Koha. We describe the process of selecting an open-source integrated library system and implementing Koha. Cataloging in this remote location presents challenges related to technology, staff expertise, language, local practices, and obtaining supplies. We define the strategies to address these issues, including long-term goals of copy cataloging with Z39.50 and remote cataloging by volunteer librarians.     

Health Index Plus: a CD-ROM product for consumer health information

Health Index Plus, a consumer health information CD-ROM database, was field-tested by staff and patrons at a public library in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Ease-of-use, database content and quality, and appropriateness for audience were evaluated. Overall, patrons found the database simple to use. The contents focus on topics of popular interest and provide access to scientific material that is normally not available or comprehended by many public library users. Although some indexing problems and other shortcomings were noted, the database is recommended for public and other libraries providing consumer health information.