Technical services departments are increasingly expected to do more with less, which means that finding a balance between meeting service demands and developing staff knowledge and skills is more challenging than ever. Today's next gen catalogs, changing cataloging rules, and diverse formats and delivery models demand that technical services…

The first comprehensive national survey of all academic libraries in the United States which were conducting chat reference service was carried out to determine: what practices were being used to prepare personnel for chat reference service, what competencies were being taught, how and why training practices may have changed over time, and what…

This study investigated how school librarians perceive their status within the school by looking at factors suggested by the literature as either impacting on, or impacted by, status: their relationships with their colleagues and supervisors, their role within the school, job satisfaction, and views on their careers and their training. Most…

Student workers have always been a traditional and valuable component to the smooth running of many academic health sciences libraries. However, in recent years many libraries have redefined student workers' roles to extend beyond their traditional scope due to a range of factors, such as loss of staff and budget cutbacks. The Bio-Medical Library…

Library student assistants account for approximately one-fourth of the staffing in academic libraries in the United States. Each student assistant plays an important role in the daily operations of today's college libraries by providing desk coverage, technical support, and customer service. This article discusses the advantages/disadvantages of…

This book is for community leaders, librarians, library committees, volunteers, aid workers and others who are interested in the practical aspect of starting and maintaining a successful library. Throughout the developing world, countless dedicated people respond to the pressing need for information in their communities by helping to start a…

For this kit, 119 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) academic libraries were surveyed to identify: (1) the practices in the area of information desks; (2) information desk staffing; (3) information desk functions; and (4) their relation to the other service points within the particular library. Responses were received from 87 libraries, some…

Library webmasters in medium-sized academic libraries were surveyed about their educational backgrounds, job responsibilities, and training and experience levels in Web development. The article summarizes the findings of the survey with recommendations for libraries and library and information science programs. (Contains 7 tables, 5 figures,and 5…

This guide, which gives student library assistants background information about the New Mexico Tech Library as a whole, is designed to be used in conjunction with the operations manual of the department in which the assistant is placed. It provides information under four headings: (1) Library Departments (reference, interlibrary loan, technical…

Describes the formal educational requirements and qualifications for employment on the cataloging staff of the Library of Congress for both professional and paraprofessional employees and the on-the-job training provided for both levels of staff. (Author/CLB)

Based on personal experiences, both as a paraprofessional and as a professional, in cataloging various types of materials in very different library settings, this author identifies several variables that enter into the cataloging process and describes how learning is achieved. (Author/CLB)

After undertaking the time and energy consuming task of reference assessment, the library might discover that it needs to tweak delivery of service, weed and update the collection, upgrade workstations, or advance marketing strategies to get patrons to use reference materials and services. Like any other product or service, reference departments…

Describes patterns observed in the on-the-job training of copy and original catalogers, noting similarities and differences, and provides recommendations for both the training of new staff and continuing education for experienced staff. (CLB)

Describes the decentralization of original cataloging responsibilities that resulted from the development of an online catalog in an academic library, and a training program for the public service librarians responsible for cataloging. The importance of having cataloging conform with national standards is emphasized. (CLB)

This paper presents a description of the Old Dominion University's (Virginia) Reference Librarian Orientation Program designed to ease the transition of reference librarians new to the school and its reference department. The program introduces the reference librarian to the library, the reference department, and the university itself and consists…