Introduction To Reference And Information Services In Today S School Library

Students come to the school library every day with questions ranging from “How many people live in China?” to “I need to find out how the Sun began for my science paper.” Helping students find the answers to their questions is one of the most important responsibilities school librarians have. In Introduction to Reference and Information Services in Today's School Library, one of America’s premier school library educators covers the A-Z of both reference and information services for today’s library. Everything from teaching students how to use sources to both in-person and virtual reference service is covered. A key feature of the text is an annotated bibliography of core print and electronic sources for elementary, middle, and high school collections. Yes, reference and information services are vital library functions in the digital age. Even students who appear to be tech savvy have trouble finding the right information efficiently - and knowing what to do with it. This book examines information needs and behaviors, and provides strategies for assessing and meeting the informational needs of the school community. The book also addresses the conditions for optimum service: physical access (including virtual access), effective interaction and collaboration, instructional design, and systematic planning. Newer issues such as embedded librarianship, curation,collective intelligence, and web 2.0 intellectual property are also addressed. This book introduces the entering professional, and updates practitioners, to current standards and useful strategies.

This second edition of Information Services Today: An Introduction demonstrates the ever-changing landscape of information services today and the need to re-evaluate curriculum, competency training, and one’s personal learning network in order to stay abreast of current trends and issues, and more significantly, remain competent to address the changing user needs of the information community. Specifically, the book • provides a thorough introduction, history, and overall state of the field, • gives a diverse and global perspective of what it means to be a library and information professional today, • addresses why information organizations and information and technological literacy are more important today than ever before, • discusses how technology has influenced the ways that information professionals provide information resources and services in today’s digital environment, • highlights current issues and trends and provides expert insight into emerging challenges, innovations, and opportunities for the future, and, • identifies career management strategies and leadership opportunities in the information profession. The new edition features chapter updates to address changes in information services, introducing new topics such as strategic planning, change management, design thinking, advocacy, and data management and analysis, and includes new contributing authors. The book begins with an overview of libraries and their transformation as information and technological hubs within their local and digital communities. It covers the various specializations within the field – emphasizing the exciting yet complex roles and opportunities for information professionals in a variety of information environments. With that foundation in place, it presents the fundamentals of information services, delves into management skills needed by information professionals today, and explores emerging issues related to the rapid development of new technologies. The book addresses how libraries and information centers serve different kinds of communities, highlighting the unique needs of increasingly diverse users and how information organizations and information professional’s work to fulfill those needs. This book provokes discussion, critical thinking, and interaction to facilitate the learning process. The content and supplemental materials – discussion questions, rich sets of online accessible materials, multimedia webcast interviews featuring authors from this book discussing the trends and issues in their respective areas, and chapter presentation slides for use by instructors – give readers the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of and engagement with the topics. Additionally, this book recognizes the broad range of environments that people with Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degrees work in, which include both libraries and other information environments. Thus, this book does not only focus on libraries, but instead encompasses ALL kinds of information organizations.

This revised and updated sixth edition of Reference and Information Services continues the book's rich tradition, covering all phases of reference and information services with less emphasis on print and more emphasis on strategies and scenarios. Reference and Information Services is the go-to textbook for MSLIS and i-School courses on reference services and related topics. It is also a helpful handbook for practitioners. Authors include LIS faculty and professionals who have relevant degrees in their areas and who have published extensively on their topics. The first half of the book provides an overview of reference services and techniques for service provision, including the reference interview, ethics, instruction, reader's advisory, and services to diverse populations including children. This part of the book establishes a foundation of knowledge on reference service and frames each topic with ethical and social justice perspectives. The second part of the book offers an overview of the information life cycle and dissemination of information, followed by an in-depth examination of information sources by type—including dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, and abstracts—as well as by broad subject areas including government, statistics and data, health, and legal information. This second section introduces the tools and resources that reference professionals use to provide the services described in the first half of the text.

Table of Contents List of illustrations Preface Ch. 1 Information 1 Ch. 2 Information literacy 9 Ch. 3 Evaluating reference sources 17 Ch. 4 Print reference sources 29 Ch. 5 The reference interview 45 Ch. 6 Library catalogs 55 Ch. 7 Electronic reference sources 63 Ch. 8 Searching the web 77 Ch. 9 Creating electronic library resources 85 Ch. 10 Core curriculum and collaboration 91 Ch. 11 Building a reference collection 95 Ch. 12 Evaluation of reference service 103 Ch. 13 Sharing the reference collection with your school 115 References 119 Index 123.

Here is a succinct update on school library reference services for the busy practitioner or student. Exploring the state and state-of-the-art of school library reference services in the 1990s, this book provides an overview of current information skills teaching models, the impact of new technologies on the teaching of reference and the student search process, and assessment and evaluation models for gauging the success of school reference services. School Library Reference Services in the 90s is an informative guide for school media coordinators and specialists, library science graduate students, and professors and researchers in the field to help them understand what students must learn and what teachers must teach to keep everyone up to date in the fast-changing world of reference. School Library Reference Services in the 90s is divided into three sections that cover reference/research teaching models, technology, and evaluation. Topics in the first section include an examination of the current state of affairs in reference teaching, a look at various models for integrating library research and reference skills into the curricula, and discussions of the effects of these new models on the school librarian's role. Section two addresses the profound effect new technologies, such as CD-ROM, multimedia, CD-I and CD-TV, are having on both the teaching of reference and information skills and on the entire research process from initiation to production of the final student report. The last section presents three models for assessing the effectiveness of school reference services and skills instruction. School library reference services, and particularly library instruction, are changing dramatically in the 1990s as a result of the information age. School Library Reference Services in the 90s helps professionals in the field stay abreast of current developments and be more effective in their jobs.

This textbook and ready reference for today's reference-services librarian nicely combines theory and practical application. The authors utilized an advisory board and focus groups as well as their own significant expertise and experience to create a new approach to a basic facet of librarianship. They address the classic practices of using the reference interview to identify the question and instructing individual users to find authoritative answers rather than quantities of information. Next, they zero in on how to answer types of questions, suggesting the best available resources, print and electronic. Other sections discuss such topics as readers'-advisory work, user instruction, assessing reference services, and the impact of technology on reference functions. This volume will be useful to library-school students, current reference practitioners, and library managers.

Reflecting the dramatic changes shaped by rapidly developing technologies over the past six years, this new fourth edition of Reference and Information Services takes the introduction to reference sources and services significantly beyond the content of the first three editions. In Part I, Concepts and Processes, chapters have been revised and updated to reflect new ideas and methods in the provision of reference service in an era when many users have access to the Web. In Part II, Information Sources and Their Use, discussion of each source type has been updated to encompass key resources in print and on the Web, where an increasing number of freely available sources join those purchased or licensed by libraries. A number of new authors are contributors to this new edition, bringing to their chapters their experience as teachers of reference and as practitioners in different types of libraries. Discussions of services in Part I integrate digital reference as appropriate to each topic, such as how to conduct a reference interview online using instant messaging. Boxes interspersed in the text are used to present scenarios for discussion, to highlight key concepts, or to present excerpts from important documents. Discussions of sources in Part II place more emphasis on designing effective search strategies using both print and digital resources. The chapter on selection and evaluation of sources addresses the changing nature of reference collections and how to evaluate new types of sources. Each chapter concludes with an updated list of additional readings to guide further study. A new companion website will provide links to Web-accessible readings and resources as well as additional scenarios for discussion and example search strategies to supplement those presented in the text.

Reference and information services are more important than ever for today’s young people. By analyzing key features of reference and information services to young people in school and public library environments, including the research behind the trends and issues, librarians can make sure that those services are appropriately responsive to children and teens. Based on standards and evidence-based practice, this book helps you to optimize those resources and services by: providing guidance in assessing youth communities, determining youth’s information needs and information behaviors, developing and maintaining age-appropriate reference collections (starting with the book’s core list of print and online resources), optimizing physical and virtual access to reference and information sources, interacting with youth and facilitating their reference and information literacy skills, curating and producing reference and information products, dealing with relevant legal and ethical issues, and planning effective library reference and information services for youth. Chapter sidebar examples provide food for thought.