Administration and Management
Competency: This assignment demonstrates competency in library’s administration and management.
Learning outcome 1: Identify and define goals; develop measurable and single-outcome objectives for each goal and define effective strategies for achieving objectives as part of the strategic planning process
Learning outcome 2: Develop appropriate content for funding proposals.
Description: For this assignment which was part of my Library Management class, I chose a topic of Managing Overdrive and Other Electronic Resources at a Public Library. I picked this particular topic after I interviewed the library’s director and she told me that she is having trouble with figuring out how to purchase enough titles on Overdrive, Hoopla and Zinio on a limited budget. This urban library is located not far away from New York City and a lot of patrons travel to Manhattan by train for work. They like to listen to audio books and read online titles during their long commute. With the increased demand for the downloadable magazines and e-books, it became more challenging to keep track of the usage statistics and to remember when to renew contracts with vendors. Also, the prices of e-books are much higher than their print counterparts. The library’s director felt overwhelmed by the growing level of responsibility in managing the electronic resources and buying the titles which were in demand by the patrons. After reading scholarly articles on this topic and investigating all possible alternatives and solutions, I created a Consultant’s Report to the Director of the Library which listed short and long-term proposals on how to manage the library’s electronic resources more effectively.
Analysis: I suggested the following short-term solutions in my Consultant’s Report:
Adding free electronic resources into the Library’s ILS, such as Project Guttenberg and Internet Archive.
Supplementing the Overdrive with cheaper pay-per-use services, such as Freading.
Utilizing free analytics engines, such as ReadersFirst Guide which evaluates vendors or Boopsie for Libraries, which helps monitor patrons usage and run detailed data analysis.
For long-term solutions, I suggested:
Signing up for participation in a local Library Consortium.
Hiring a new part-time employee who is a specialist in electronic resource management and who is able to create documentation, such as budget spread sheets and provide an assessment of the e-resources on quarterly or semi-annual basis.
Organizing fund-raising events at the Library in order to collect money for adding more books into the Library’s electronic collection.
I understand that hiring a new part-time employee sounds very expensive considering that the library was already struggling with the shrinking budget, but the Library’s Director told me that they always hire part-time employees who do not usually stay for a long time since they are not offered any health and other benefits. I thought that they could hire someone with really good technological skills next time. Out of all the suggestions, I think that this one made a lot of sense in terms of having an employee who was proficient at using Library’s Resources Analytics engines, especially considering that quite a few of them are available for free. In my opinion, the services that allow libraries to track downloads, usage statistics, queries, channel visits and help track overlapping resources, are extremely important for library’s strategic budget planning. They help to make informed decisions about how to expand or downsize the collection, which titles are popular, and which ones need to be dropped due to lack of usage.
Another very important suggestion was to join the local Library Consortium. Being a member of a Consortium has its own downsides, e.g. sometimes the Library is not able to make such decisions as which vendors, hosting platforms and titles to choose. In my opinion, the advantages are more important, such as getting discounted prices for e-books and other electronic materials.
I also think that there are some excellent free electronic resources available which every Library should consider. In my report, I highlighted Project Guttenberg as a great option for the libraries with limited budget. Even though this resource contains mostly classical literature (and not the current bestsellers), it can be easily integrated into the Library’s ILS and become available for users through the Library’s catalogue. It is an excellent source of additional e-books which can be utilized by the patrons on a regular basis.
Reflection: Working on this assignment gave me an opportunity to reach out to the Library Director, interview her and learn a lot of very practical information on such processes as how a library makes purchasing decisions; how do they split their budget; what are the challenges of handling a growing demand for audio and online books and magazines. Reading all of the research articles that I went through to find the best solutions on how to manage the library’s online resources in the best way, allowed me to learn about how other libraries deal with similar issues. Overall, this project was a great way to dive into the world of library’s administration and get first-hand experience on what are the biggest challenges of a public library manager's daily work. During the interview, we went over a lot of other issues, such as not being able to retain full-time employees since the library’s budget does not allow to pay for their health benefits; lack of support from the stakeholders; dealing with the annual budget cuts while the costs of up-keeping the library are constantly rising, the shrinking state aid, etc. I really appreciated the Library’s Director’s honesty and was very glad to receive this crash course on library’s management issues. I am really hoping that some of my suggestions, such as using the pay-per-user services and establishing the fund-raisers on regular basis helped with getting additional financial means towards expanding the Library’s electronic collection. This was a very good topic which helped expand my "theoretical" horizons with a lot of practical information about real challenges that library administrators face at their job.
User Services
Competency: This assignment demonstrates competency in reference and user services.
Learning outcome 1: Design a variety of information services to meet the needs of diverse users, including onsite, remote, and under-served users.
This learning outcome is met by the webinar’s topic of creating a diverse, patron-driven e-books collection at an academic library. This collection would accommodate changing users’ needs and expectations and broaden the library’s collection substantially by purchasing books on interdisciplinary subjects.
Learning outcome 2: Identify, evaluate, manage, and use information resources and sources effectively.
This learning outcome is met by the explanation in my webinar on how to handle the financial aspect of PDA, such as choosing the right budget and conducting regular audits to make sure the patrons are not overspending the amount which was designated for this method of collection development.
Description: For this assignment, I chose a topic of Patron-Driven Acquisition method of collection development at an academic library because I think that it is very important for the librarians to consider the needs and interests of the patrons while making purchasing decisions. The Demand Driven Acquisition model represents the actual needs of the patrons who have the ability to choose the e-books they want from a large pool of available titles.
This is the “just in time” purchasing model type instead of the traditional “just in case” one when the librarians buy books through approval plans and other methods. I wanted to explore and learn more about it in detail since it would be useful for me in my future career of an academic librarian. I only knew about this purchasing model from the point of view of the seller (since I work for Ebook Central) and I wanted to gain more information from the customer’s perspective.
Link to Work Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpgBYqgzeBQ
Analysis: I built my webinar in the following way: first I explained what is the Patron-Driven Acquisition Method, then I described how this method of purchasing titles works (the patron chooses the title, and if they view it for more than 5 minutes, it triggers a short-term loan; if the title has been triggered more than 3 times, the library automatically purchases it for perpetual access). After that I went over the benefits and challenges of this method of titles purchasing. I learned a lot from the research articles about all nuances of Patron-Driven Acquisition method. For example, I learned that one of the biggest advantages of this method of purchasing titles is accommodating to the users’ changing needs and expectations. The e-book will circulate since it has already been purchased for short term loan at least three times. The PDA titles are usually more in demand than the e-books purchased by a regular method, such as the approval plan. It allows the libraries to purchase the titles that are truly used. Moreover, it provides the students with immediate access to the title. Unlike Inter-Library Loan system when the patrons might have to wait for the title to be sent from a different library, these titles become available for reading right away.
I also learned that another advantage of Patron-Driven Acquisition is providing a better return on investment. Many titles that libraries purchase on specific subject, never circulate. Nowadays, when libraries have to deal with the ever-shrinking budgets, they cannot afford to buy titles that just “sit” in the catalogue without being read. It is a waste of library’s financial resources. It gives an opportunity to the libraries with limited budgets to increase the size of their catalogue without having to purchase e-books unless they are actually checked out.
Another benefit of this method of material acquisition is that PDA broadens the library’s collection substantially by purchasing books on interdisciplinary subjects. Traditional selection methods are not that effective since selection librarians tend to purchase titles within specific classification ranges. PDA helps libraries build collections in new areas which librarians did not know were necessary. Patrons are choosing the content that is more advanced and specific than the material librarians would normally purchase. It helps the libraries to fill the gaps in their collections.
Reflection: Learning the in-depth information about Patron-Driven Acquisition method helped me realize what a diverse set of skills a collection development librarian needs to have to be able to upkeep the library’s resources in perfect order. Academic librarians need to be very careful while choosing a specific vendor with whom they will be signing the contract for Demand-Driven Acquisition model. They need to choose a pool of titles (for example, 50,000 e-books) which will be loaded into the library’s catalogue. These titles have not been purchased but the patrons do not realize that. They can just trigger them for a short-term purchase whenever they need to read a specific title. The problem is that triggered purchases may get out of hand if the library user base is large and the process is not managed carefully. Basically, the patrons may use up all of the funds which were set up for the PDA titles within first half a year and there will be no money left for purchasing the books which are published and become available in the second half of the year. This process must be managed and overseen in an ongoing way. In order to control this overspending, libraries need to adopt monthly billing allocations during which the catalogue records must be suppressed and reactivated each time funds are depleted or replenished. This procedure might be quite time consuming for library staff and adds to their workload. Another thing to consider is that librarians need to choose the correct selection criteria for the pool of titles they receive from the aggregator for PDA. Librarians need to have a lot of experience and be very careful with setting up the price limit for the titles. They can also choose the titles by the publication date, and by the publishers they trust. They can take out the inappropriate content from the pool of titles which aggregator offers as available for PDA (for example, titles that contain the words “For Dummies” in the name), and make sure that there are enough scholarly titles (such as published by University Presses) available.
Working on this webinar made me realize that library’s profession involves such skills as being exceptionally well organized to be able to manage the library’s resources properly. It is extremely important to remember to conduct regular audits, to keep an eye on the library’s budget and weed the resources and collections that are not being used. Librarians also need to be very cautions with handling library’s budget and always try to find a method to implement cost savings. From this perspective, PDA is an attractive choice for the librarians who would like to keep the spending of the library’s budget under control and to develop a collection that truly meets the needs of its users. If the PDA program is carefully monitored, it will prove to be an excellent tool of successful collection building. Once I start working as a librarian, I will make sure we implement PDA at our library if it has not been done yet. Overall, I think that I picked a very good topic for my webinar which helped me learn a lot of practical information about the daily work of a professional librarian. I hope to work more on this topic in the future and hopefully, conduct proper research and publish an article on PDA.
Research
Competency: Students will be able to perform effectively in the library and information science professions by demonstrating competency in research activities.
Learning outcome 1: Identify and explain a research question.
Learning outcome 2: Locate, evaluate, analyze and synthesize research findings.
Description: I worked on this project for my Research Methods class. The topic which I picked for this assignment was “The most efficient strategies in teaching Library Instruction classes to overcome the feeling of Library Anxiety in freshman university students”. I was interested in this topic because I myself experienced the feeling of anxiety while I first started attending Kean University Library as a freshman student. I felt that librarians looked unapproachable so I was afraid to start asking questions when I needed help locating physical and online resources in the library. When I talked to my sister (and we are immigrants from Ukraine so we were not familiar with American libraries environment), she told me that she did not even realize that the Reference librarians are present at the reference desk for the purpose of helping students with their questions. Even though my sister has received a Library Instruction class during her first semester at the local community college, she was still not feeling comfortable enough to talk to librarians who always seemed to be very busy with other tasks. It was difficult for her to locate resources at the library since she had very little experience in browsing library’s catalogue.
In order to gather information for my research, I was supposed to interview several librarians at different academic libraries to find out which strategies they employ in their library orientation classes with freshman students that work best for overcoming Library Anxiety. Since it was a mock study I did not conduct the actual interviews but wrote a paper which would prepare me to perform this type of research in real life. I decided that I would use the qualitative descriptive study method for my research. It would have been an in-person survey that relied on my prepared in advance series of closed and open-ended questions. This method works best because it encourages the librarians to elaborate and provide more details or insight and get a greater depth of response.
Analysis: Reading all of the literature on the topic I picked for this assignment made me realize, among other facts, the importance of the Library Instruction sessions for students’ overall academic success during their studying at higher education institutions. Even though most libraries offer Library Literacy classes during the first year of study, it does not seem to be sufficient. Many articles point out to the correlation between students attending the recurring library workshops throughout their studies and their ability to conduct proper research for relevant sources and subsequently write better quality papers which raises their GPA. The students’ skills in analyzing and evaluating information also increase after taking subsequent Library Instruction sessions. Another improvement after attending library workshops is the development of better critical thinking and synthesizing the material skills. The effect of taking such classes extends beyond the classroom and applies to day-to-day activities.
Another suggestion I learned about from the articles is that taking a one-credit Library Information and Science class during the first year of the university program leaves a lasting impact on students and serves as a foundation of life-long learning.
Another point which was raised in the articles is how crucial is building a strong collaboration between librarians, teaching faculty and university administrators. It is very important for teachers and academic advisors to encourage students to attend library workshops and learn proper information retrieval skills. Working with teaching faculty to tailor library instruction workshops to the needs of students and their curriculum is critical in capturing this audience. Another factor that helps in making library instruction sessions more popular among students is a vigorous marketing campaign throughout university campus and library’s website.
Also, librarians’ outreach to students, such as visiting them in their studios or on campus, is another efficient technique which helps bring students back to the library and incite their interest in exploring library’s resources.
I also learned that the following methods work best in overcoming the feeling of Library Anxiety in students:
organizing warmth seminars to make the students feel more comfortable in the library environment
changing the structure of the Bibliographic Instruction sessions from a traditional lecture to short interactive presentations followed by practice time
offering one-on-one instruction sessions to individual students throughout the semester
building a strong collaboration between librarians, teaching faculty and university administrators so they could encourage students to attend library workshops
inviting students to participate in multiple Library workshops instead of just one instruction session (when each workshop is concentrated on just one topic, for example, how to conduct Boolean search, etc.)
Reflection: Working on this assignment made me realize two things: 1) the huge importance of Library Instruction sessions; 2) that perceived librarians’ in-approachability is one the biggest “fear” factor for students who experience library anxiety. Students research confidence increases significantly if they get to know their librarians in informal and casual way, if librarians demonstrate compassion and if they establish a comfortable psychological climate in the library. I think it is crucial for the librarians to identify the ways to create a better synergy between librarians and undergraduate students and better involve students in acquisition of technological research and critical thinking skills needed to function effectively in an information-based society. I would like to incorporate some of the techniques which the librarians use for making the students feel more comfortable while in the library in my future career as a librarian. For example, one of the libraries which I read about in my literature review, uses an orientation session during which the librarians are not present. The idea is to follow Constance Mellon’s “warmth seminars” technique, which aims to convey friendliness, helpfulness, sincerity and trustworthiness of the librarians. The librarians decided to post “Ask Me!” signs which included their name, photograph, subject area and “something funny” - a speech bubble with five fun facts about each of them (such as, for example “I have a secret passageway in my house, and a secret room”). After the students got a chance to walk around the library and read these fun posters, they were supposed to know the librarians next time they came to the library and identify them in their face-to-face interaction. This method brings an element of a game into students first interaction with the librarians and makes their subsequent interactions more fun and friendly. I would like to use a similar method in my work as a librarian. I also realized that I need to learn and practice more on how to conduct a proper Library Instruction session once I start working at an academic library.
Technological Knowledge and Skills
Competency: Students will be able to perform effectively in the library and information science professions by demonstrating competency in the application of technology.
Learning outcome 1: Demonstrate effective use of current technologies.
Learning outcome 2: Organize and provide digital resources and services.
Description: I worked on this project for my Integrated Library Systems class. I was supposed to find out which Integrated Library System the Library of my choice is currently using and describe all of its main features and components. During the interview of Ms. Eleonor McKnight, who is a Technology Librarian at Nancy Thompson Library/Kean University Library, I learned that Kean University Library has migrated a year ago from its previous ILS, called Voyager to the OCLC’s next-generation cloud-based system called WorldShare Management Services, or WMS. This was a major change for the Library from every perspective.
First of all, switching to this ILS was expensive. The entire cost for implementing WMS for Kean University was $250,000 for the first three years. One of the most important considerations for choosing WMS instead of any other Library Management Systems (such as a very popular product available from ExLibris, Alma, for example) was that Nancy Thompson Library was already subscribing to OCLC core services, such as Cataloging, Metadata, Resource Sharing and Inter Library Loan Services. The Library’s bibliographic records were held in OCLC database and WorldCat, which is the largest online library catalog in the world. WMS uses data available in WorldCat knowledge base, the WorldCat Registry and other data repositories. Alma seemed to be a little too sophisticated for their Library, even though both systems cost approximately the same.
Analysis: Ms. McKnight explained that it took about 6-8 months to implement the new ILS. The project manager from OCLC helped to get through the implementation process, step by step. It involved migration of data, circulation modules, and creating all types of new matrixes. It was a major undertaking to do. An IT person from Kean and another one from OCLC helped to move the data from one system to the other. Even though the implementation process was relatively long and complicated, the benefits of moving to this new system were countless.
One of the biggest advantages of this system was that since WMS interface is served via a web browser, it allowed Kean University Library to eliminate hardware and maintenance investments. It removed the need to manage and maintain local servers, clients and upgrades.
Another advantage was that WMS streamlined tasks for the entire library staff, since it offered all applications needed for library management, such as acquisition, circulation, metadata, resource sharing, license management and analytical reports. It helped reduce the manual input to such extend that the Library moved to employ only four full time librarians.
I found out that another benefit of WMS included streamlining the work-flows for cataloguers. Since WMS pulls the bibliographic data from WorldCat, the cataloger only needed to select the data, and indicate that it should be transferred to Kean University Library’s
system. This way, all previous time-consuming modules, such as downloading bibliographic records from other places, and uploading them into Voyager, were eliminated.
The titles acquisition process was stream-lined as well. Now the librarians in the acquisitions department only had to set the parameters in WMS and the e-books were put into the system by automatic feed from ProQuest and other aggregators.
Overall, I was very impressed by the level of sophistication of WMS and the multiple advantages it offered. Of course, it is very expensive to purchase such super modern Library Management System, but its numerous benefits outweigh the costs by far.
Reflection: Working on this project provided an excellent opportunity to find out a lot of very important practical information about Library Management Systems in general and WorldShare Management Services, in particular. Ms. McKnight spent a lot of time showing me the ILS on her computer and explaining all of the ins and outs of its functions. I felt that this was a very valuable experience since most of my previous knowledge about Library Management Systems came from a few webinars which I watched at work and the information from the textbook we were using for this class. It made me realize to what extend the modern technological advances in the Library and Information Science field can improve and transform the work processes for any librarian, whether they work in acquisition, reference, cataloging or administration units of the library. I am sure that I will be able to use this practical experience, including all of the sophisticated terminology, in my future work as an academic librarian. Working on this assignment made me feel proud to be part of the profession of a librarian. Our job is not just about handing over books to library patrons. It involves a very high level of knowledge of digital resources and services. Library Science is a field that has so much potential for new technological advances, such as discovery services, management solutions, research tools, collection management services for handling library's various print and online assets. A new Electronic Resource Management System can save thousands of dollars for a library's budget by analyzing all available collections and providing usage statistics. Therefore, librarians should always stay on top of new products and trends in the Library and Information Field. When I get a chance to work as a professional librarian, I will strive to learn new technologies, develop additional technical skills and further educate myself by attending various webinars, training sessions and presentations at conferences.