首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
相似文献
 共查询到20条相似文献,搜索用时 31 毫秒
1.
《The Reference Librarian》2013,54(93):137-149
Abstract

The information age has changed libraries of all types and sizes in ways that no one could have predicted. For a rural library, though, changes have been fast and furious and have made a dramatic impact on the very nature of the library and the services the library offers. Rural libraries went from a gathering place for community activities to fully wired information centers in a matter of a few years. The article addresses what these changes mean for reference services-one of the most basic functions of a public library. While people are consuming more information than ever, will the rural library be able to keep up with this demand even with the Internet? The article explores reference services in rural public libraries, using examples from libraries in central and northern Illinois, giving consideration to the nature of reference services, how they have changed over time, and how this compares to small libraries in a metropolitan setting.  相似文献   

2.
Given the on-going emphasis placed on evaluation, measurement and Return on Investment (ROI), many public libraries have struggled to successfully integrate evaluation practices into operational workflows. Unfortunately, it appears that for some libraries who have implemented evaluation, they have focused on metrics that do little to inform the library’s practice, do not demonstrate how a library contributes to its community, and do not assist public libraries in the enhancement of their operations. While traditional output metrics such as circulation, program attendance and technology use provide data about library activities, these metrics are simple counts that fall short in providing insight into why people visited the library, if they accomplished their goals during their visit, or what would have improved their visitor experience. In addition, this reliance on “empty metrics” has had the negative effect of leading stakeholders, policy-makers and funders to believe libraries are nothing more than book depositories. Empty metrics reinforce old and inaccurate stereotypes about public libraries and the role of librarians. We contend that we are at a turning point: evaluation practices are now successfully being embedded into day-to-day library operations and have become a part of library culture. The next step is to ensure libraries develop meaningful metrics that demonstrate the library’s social contribution, and then engage stakeholders to recognize the necessity of adopting these new metrics.  相似文献   

3.
Results of a 2017 survey of 983 public librarians in the U.S. and Canada show that libraries increasingly provide opportunities for both youth and adults to practice yoga at the library. This article examines how these public library yoga programs work and what impacts they have. Most libraries have limited means to assess the impact of these programs. Nonetheless, over 80% of responding librarians said participation in yoga programs had met or exceeded their expectations, and 60% said yoga programs have brought new users into their libraries. These results suggest that yoga programs in public libraries are having significant effects.  相似文献   

4.
This article tracks how Ajax Library Services, located in suburban Toronto, followed up on its designation as the only ISO‐certified library in North America by its adoption of the computer‐based, computer‐survey tools of Counting Opinions. Use of the online survey tool helped to inspire reforms in customer service, collection development and many other library policies. And, with before and after data reports, library administration could see how the library's users reacted to the changes. This intermixing of quantitative and qualitative data represents a level of customer‐opinion‐and‐data analysis seldom seen in public libraries. Collecting Opinions has expanded its public library analytical utilities to include access to data on additional public libraries so that customers can do statistical rankings to rank their own service levels to other libraries who serve communities with similar demographics.  相似文献   

5.
The emergence of maker culture has led to an increase of makerspaces across a variety of educational organizations, including public libraries. These makerspaces provide library patrons with new opportunities to learn and create through exploration, creation, and play. However, as the number of library makerspaces grows, so does the need for assessing learning in those same spaces. There is a small amount of research completed on assessing learning of makerspaces in public libraries. The researchers in this study examine patron use of a library makerspace through a theoretical framework based on modern assessment research. Soon after the study began, it was necessary to rethink the original research questions and methods in order to better understand how assessment could be effectively implemented. Findings include determining the scope of library makerspace participants and their assessment needs, potential assessments that can address those needs, and design implications for assessments in library makerspaces.  相似文献   

6.
Public library systems intersect with both public and private spheres of social life, but how they negotiate public legitimacy and private influence remains a mystery. To better understand this problem, this study adopts a communication system approach. Using qualitative content analysis, this study examines data from three US public library systems. This study analyzes how private actors communicate with and through public library systems by parsing the signals into components: transmitter, receiver, medium, and message. The resulting signals form two dimensions: the Public Sphere dimension, where private actors govern, legitimate, and use the library, and the Private Sphere dimension, where private actors exchange personal services and exert economic power. A view of public and private signals in interaction reveals how public legitimacy is threatened and how public library systems can mitigate these threats. This study reveals how public/private conflicts in public libraries arise and how they might be resolved.  相似文献   

7.
To help users find their way around the large number of titles available, public libraries organize the collection by placing titles on shelves by genre, by adding classification codes in their online catalogs, and by pictograms on book covers. However, users may have different perceptions of how titles are to be grouped in genres or categories. Public library collections will be more accessible when the way their collection is organized matches these users' perceptions. The authors show how user perceptions can be derived from library loan transaction data. To overcome the particular methodological issues in using such data, a method of ultrametric trees and latent class analysis is developed to determine segments of users and how they categorize the collection. Results show clear user categorizations that in particular respects differ from conventional public library categorizations.  相似文献   

8.
9.
In spite of the growth of digital information and the resultant questioning by some of the value of public libraries, library usage data indicate there were 497,600,000 more visits to public libraries in 2013 than in 1993. Why do people still visit public libraries in the digital age? While many factors drive people to visit public libraries, one thing that public libraries offer that cannot be duplicated online is physical space. Over the decades, library space has been the glue holding the library universe together even as the specific activities that take inside libraries have evolved. While public libraries do an excellent job of promoting their important role in providing access to information, educational resources, technology, and a host of valuable services, they must also promote the value of public library space itself. This requires more than trotting out numbers; it requires telling compelling stories of how public library space is used and reminding the public that the kind of spaces public libraries provide are, in fact, a vanishing resource. The post-911 tightening of security in public buildings of all sorts—coupled with the increasing privatization of what were once public spaces—has left public libraries as perhaps the last remaining indoor public spaces where an individual can remain from opening until closing without needing any reason to be there and without having to spend any money. Public libraries should promote the uniqueness of their spaces in much the same way that National Parks promote the unique spaces they preserve and make available to the public.  相似文献   

10.
《资料收集管理》2013,38(3-4):53-68
This study examined the use of academic libraries by academic sponsored researchers in the social sciences at five universities in the greater Boston area. It provides information about researchers use of the library during the proposal development and research stages; it inquires into other information sources employed by the researchers; and it collects data about the types and ages of information materials used in support of the respondent's research projects. Analysis of the responses indicates that for the majority of the researchers, the library was used between one and five times during their proposal development work but that the resources of the library were not a factor in the development of their research proposals. While the researchers indicated that they had used or expected to use their campus libraries as well as other libraries during the course of their research, they also expected to obtain research related information from other sources. They ranked their personal collections first in importance as the place they turned to for information materials in support of their research activity, with their campus library or libraries ranked second.  相似文献   

11.
Academic libraries serve many student constituents, but one often overlooked group is students who are parenting children. Students who, by necessity or volition, bring their children with them to the library have specific needs. Serving these students, who often have difficulty succeeding and graduating at college, should be a priority for academic libraries. Offering assistance can help this group focus on their studies, achieve their academic goals, and thus decrease universities' attrition rates. This article begins by drawing on anecdotal evidence, then reviews existing literature on parenting students. Next, it examines and analyzes policies on children in academic libraries at large American universities. Half of all academic libraries don't have clearly accessible policies, and some have policies that discourage bringing supervised children to libraries, while a few have welcoming policies and facilities. This research shows that academic libraries can still make progress to serve a key constituency. Finally, it offers solutions for how academic libraries can serve parenting students, given varying spatial and financial constraints, as well as diffusing potential concerns that might hold academic libraries back from serving this part of the academic community. This analysis could be supplemented by further inquiry and interviews with libraries on how their policies were developed and are being implemented or with parenting students on what they desire and need from the academic library.  相似文献   

12.
Innovation in public libraries has been concentrated in the areas of participation, making & creating, learning, new outreach and partnerships. These trends represent the emerging areas of strategic focus for public libraries and are strongly influencing the development of library services towards a model that is collaborative, creative and participative, and that places the library at the centre of its user’s daily lives. This article provides an overview of these trends, with examples of how they are manifesting in library services, programming and strategy.  相似文献   

13.
Public library value is often ascertained by outlining the economic, social, and cultural benefits public libraries generate for the greater community. While researchers have focused on the concepts of social capital, civic engagement, and the role of libraries in promoting democracy, fewer studies have explored the public’s perceptions of libraries in an effort to determine library value. Furthermore, library nonusers are rarely included in these studies. In Alberta, Canada, 1,201 Albertans from across the province, including both urban and rural areas, were asked a series of questions about their perceptions of public libraries and library use. Findings reveal characteristics of library users and nonusers, what services and resources are used most often at public libraries, what value the public places on public libraries, and the role that libraries play in supporting communities.  相似文献   

14.
While the topic of community engagement in public libraries has been researched in urban public library systems, little research explores community engagement in rural library systems. The Canadian province of Nova Scotia is largely rural and sparsely populated, with a dwindling and aging rural population. This report examines how community engagement can connect Nova Scotia’s rural public libraries with their communities. Librarians from eight predominantly rural library systems across the province were interviewed regarding the community engagement practices currently being used within their libraries and how their patrons (particularly youth) were reacting and responding to these practices. This article synthesizes the information derived from these interviews and provides a summary of the community engagement efforts being made throughout Nova Scotia. This study ultimately determines that while librarians in rural communities face a number of challenges when attempting to implement community engagement (e.g., small budgets and low staffing numbers), they remain extremely passionate about the topic and dedicated to serving their communities in the most meaningful and relevant way possible.  相似文献   

15.
论加强公共图书馆问题研究   总被引:31,自引:13,他引:18  
对公共图书馆的研究始终是图书馆学的焦点,但在我国七展得远远不够,这是因为图书馆 基础薄弱和公共图书馆的研究人才不足而引起的,作者对如何加强我国的公共图书馆研究的有关问题作了探讨。  相似文献   

16.
Seed libraries are a relatively new innovation in the library field, offering seeds, gardening information, and the opportunity for community and ecological engagement to members. While they are increasingly popular in public libraries, they have not yet established a foothold in academic libraries. This paper defines the nature and role of seed libraries, the current state of seed libraries in North American universities, and offers recommendations for the establishment of seed libraries in academic libraries.  相似文献   

17.
This study sought to collect data from teens and librarians about their preferences and recommendations for the effective design of physical library spaces for teens. Librarians and teens at twenty-two U.S. public libraries filmed narrated video tours of their young adult (YA) public library spaces. The researchers used qualitative content analysis techniques to analyze the video data and to develop a framework for guiding the design of effective YA public library spaces. In addition to providing specific recommendations for user-centered YA library space design, this study highlights the need for continued user input into the design and maintenance of YA public library spaces as teens’ needs evolve and vary across time and from community to community.  相似文献   

18.
The issues facing New York State public libraries regarding preservation of materials are discussed. Much research has been conducted regarding preservation in research and academic libraries, but very little in the public library sector. The researchers examined what has been written in terms of the history, preservation methods, control of the library environment, education, organization, and government involvement. In order to evaluate current trends and attitudes of these libraries towards the preservation issue, researchers mailed questionnaires to the directors of the central libraries of the New York Stale public library systems. Responses were analyzed, conclusions drawn, and recommendations made regarding the preservation problems facing these libraries.  相似文献   

19.
The changing information landscape calls for a new leadership, new competences, and new approaches to library services. In today’s information age, information literate citizens must be able to assess the reliability of information, making information literacy instruction an important task for libraries. In this paper, five researchers present data from interviews they carried out with library leaders from Germany, Romania, Finland, UK, and Norway. The experiences of the library leaders were different, reflecting varying levels of economic austerity, and how closely each country adheres to New Public Management (NPM)-theory and practice. However, they also show how NPM and reduced budgets can lead to a greater and better cooperation.  相似文献   

20.
公共图书馆存在的理由:来自图书馆使命的注解   总被引:35,自引:4,他引:35  
在世界范围内,几份重要的公共图书馆文献都将当代公共图书馆的使命界定为教育、信息服务、文化传播、促进社会和谐、培育信息素养、培养阅读兴趣、扫盲。文章首先考察了这些文献对公共图书馆使命的阐述,然后以经验研究(empmal research)发现为依据,考察了这些使命作为公共图书馆存在理由的有效性。研究发现,这些使命在当代政治和社会话语中经常出现,公众对它们也具有很高的需求,从这个意义上说,它们的确为公共图书馆的合理性提供着有效注解,但信息服务使命目前正受到互联网的挑战,扫盲及培养阅读兴趣的使命正在受到图书馆借阅量下滑趋势的挑战。  相似文献   

设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号