Sci Tech Librarianship

This book, first published in 1981, is a crucial overview of the current and future issues in the training of science and engineering librarians as well as instruction for users of these libraries.

As automation and competitiveness between companies and countries grows, the need for the speedy research and delivery of information is becoming greater than ever before. Defining technology transfer as ‘the process of getting technical knowledge, ideas, services, inventions, and products from their origin to wherever they can be put to practical use’, this book, first published in 1991, explores the role of the information specialist in the technology transfer process. It brings together discussions from information mediaries associated with federal information centres, academic research institutions, and a large metropolitan public library. Agencies and organizations at the federal, state, and local level that are involved in and responsible for technology transfer programs are described in a who's who section of the volume, and the system for the distribution of information at NASA is covered in detail, this being considered by some to be the birthplace of the technology transfer concept. The various regional NASA Industrial Application Centers are also identified, and the numerous print and online services available are noted as well. Other topics covered include the use of technology transfer in agricultural programs to improve U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace and how the large public library can promote technology transfer by acting as important centres for information transfer and research.

Published simultaneously as Science and Technology Libraries; v.17, no.2, 1998. Seven contributions discuss the changing nature of scientific and technical librarianship (a personal perspective over 40 years), the Internet and science and technology reference instruction, and education for librarianship in engineering, chemistry, the health sciences, and geoscience. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Here is a crucial overview of the current and future issues in the training of science and engineering librarians as well as instruction for users of these libraries.

Catch up with the many innovations now affecting sci/tech libraries! The twenty-four chapters in Innovations in Science and Technology Libraries discuss the creation of digital collections, e-repositories, personalized Web environments, and discipline-specific Web sites for students and researchers. The book also explores the use of new technologies to improve document delivery and service provision as well as demonstrations of leadership by science librarians who are willing to take risks, adapt to change, control costs, and collaborate with colleagues. Here is just a fraction of the fascinating cases and important concepts highlighted in Innovations in Science and Technology Libraries: the Drexel University Library’s transition from print to an electronic-only journal collection the benefits of adopting a just-in-time (purchase on demand) rather than a just-in-case acquisitions policy IntelliDoc—how it has raised the standard for document delivery worldwide and increased international recognition of CISTI how California State University, Sacramento, merged its science library into its central reference department—an examination of the two-year merging process the creation of branch libraries focused on electronic information—an engineering library at Kansas State University and an agriculture library at the University of Manitoba the impact of electronic information upon undergraduate science education literacy competencies in the sciences—and their implications for library instruction how the MIT libraries created and developed the Reference Vision system that now guides all of their new reference services the impact of learning communities upon library services recent additions that enhance the usefulness of the IEEE Xplore online delivery system Innovations in Science and Technology Libraries will bring you up-to-date on the latest developments, sharpen your awareness of new concepts and techniques in sci/tech librarianship, and help your library stay abreast of important changes in this ever-evolving field. Make it a part of your professional reference collection today!

Required reading for any librarian who has been asked to identify standards and specifications, this unique new book highlights the importance of standards in many sci-tech libraries. Collections of standards in sci-tech libraries encompass a great variety--from the most narrow subject fields, to those covering many, and from collections of American standards only, to those with an international array. Role of Standards in Sci-Tech Libraries addresses the need for standards in libraries and provides crucial guidelines for developing standards collections. The first chapter describes the operation and collections of the ideal service that could be established to serve those needing stadards and to promote the use and collection of standards. A helpful list of foreign and domestic organizations that issue standards is included. Successive chapters explore the role of standards in different types of libraries--a public library’s science and technology department, a corporate library, an academic library, and the library of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The final chapter addresses the role of Information Handling Services (IHS), a commercial source of all types of standards, discusses the range of standards services, and explains how information is acquired.

What will future sci-tech libraries be like? Who will be the key players? In this insightful volume, leaders in sci-tech librarianship reflect on their years in the profession and predict how the sci-tech library will look ten years from now. Sci-Tech Libraries of the Future takes a close look at the present revolution in the communication of scientific information and how technology has transformed the process of knowledge delivery and acquisitions. It prepares libraries to react to new channels of scholarly communication that in the future may challenge the viability of the research library. Most importantly, it emphasizes how the rapid pace of change in science, communication, and computers has pushed libraries to aggressively seek to become central to the knowledge formation and transfer process--just to survive. These provocative chapters reveal how sci-tech librarians need to work with scientists and engineers to understand their changing information needs and to participate in the planning and development of new information systems. Sci-Tech Libraries of the Future examines all areas of the scientific process that will be affected by change--the way research is conducted, communicated, transferred, stored, and delivered. The changes discussed in this book encompass researchers, librarians, information managers, publishers, and users. Some of the important topics discussed include an in-depth analysis of the information needs of science and engineering and how to best develop the electronic means to meet them; leadership challenges in the future electronic, computer, or virtual library; concern over the quality of information services for scientists delivered by non-scientist librarians; a ten-year prediction for sci-tech librarians and sci-tech publishers; the science library building of the future; the impact of increasingly interdisciplinary scientific research; the effect of federal policy on sci-tech libraries; and the impact of “faxiblity” of journal articles on sci-tech libraries. This valuable book reveals how essential it is that sci-tech libraries respond to these changes and the need for science librarians to work closely with scientists, engineers, publishers, vendors, and users by collaborating to link resources with users. Sci-tech libraries must prepare now for the future. Sci-Tech Libraries of the Future aids them in planning and developing effective information systems that will provide information conveniently and cost-effectively in the future.

This book, first published in 1986, is a practical resource to planning science and technology libraries. Librarians who have been through the process offer guidelines, an awareness of problems to anticipate, and solutions to them.