Category: Uncategorized

Much is made about the process of “scientific communication” and how professionals gather and use professional information. However, I find that what I read about scientific communication does not equate to my personal experience, so I would like to find out what other reference librarians think about this process.  To  that end, I would like to use this blog to conduct a short survey.

What I would like to know is where you find the best professional information that you use in your daily activities.  To gather data, I would like you to think about the single most useful professional information that you have received during the past six months.  That information may have come from any of a wide range of professional communication media: books, journals, listservs, blogs, web pages, etc.  The only limitation that I want to place on the communication is that it must be public in nature, so that others would have access to the same communication.  Private emails, phone calls, or conversations are out of bounds for this survey, whereas publicly posted messages or presentations at conferences are acceptable because other people would have had access to the same information. 

If you want to contribute to this unscientific study of scientific communication, respond to this posting with a description of the type of source that you considered the best piece of professional information during the last six months.  If you feel comfortable, name the source — if not, indicate it's type. 

Since I started this discussion, I should indicate my own response:  journal article in RUSQ (and I did not start this post to plug RUSA, but there you go!).

Dave Tyckoson

A faculty member recently remarked to a colleague of mine that it seemed like more and more special subject encyclopedias were being published, and the faculty members was questioning the value and quality of many of these.   It would be interesting to see actual statistics on the numbers of such encyclopedias—does anyone know if any such numbers exist?    And certainly a great many of them are valuable.   When I compare the wealth of subject encyclopedias available today with what was available twenty years ago, I know that it’s much, much easier to find the kind of authoritative background information that they can provide (this without even considering the ease of electronic access to many of these titles).   That said, it does sometimes seem as if there are many duplicative titles, or titles whose creation seems to have been driven by a publisher’s marketing department.    Some have evidence of being produced hastily; I read of one instance where the editor of such a volume posted corrections on his Web site because the publisher hadn’t allowed time for proper editing and fact-checking.   What are other’s perceptions of this phenomenon, and how do we separate the wheat from the chaff?

 

 

“If you build it, they will come,” is a quote from the movie Field of Dreams in which the main character builds a baseball field to achieve his dream of having some famous players of the past come to play one more ultimate game of baseball. 

 

It is a great quote.  But a library or learning organization knows just building a great program, service or product; does not necessarily mean that they will come to take advantage of it.

 

I have heard that libraries use various methods to promote what the library is doing, such as internal marketing committees and:

 

-Inviting non-marketing staff to contribute

-Encouraging projects and promotions be done proactively among branches and departments

-Creating a collection of testimonial stories from patrons

-Developing a contest or theme to promote a specific service

-Connecting heritage/history month celebrations to promotions of ancestry research reference materials, databases and programs available at the library.

 

Does your public library have any successful promotions and campaigns you would like to share? 

 

How does your academic library get the word out on campus to students and new faculty?

 

How does your library or learning organization market its value, programs and services?

 

Please share your thoughts and comments.

 

Eileen Hardy

RUSA Marketing Specialist

 

If you are planning to attend the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC, there is useful information available on the DC convention center website: http://www.dcconvention.com/

You should receive room locations for any Annual Conference meetings, events, programs, or preconferences that are being held at the convention center; once you have registered.

If you want to find out where a room is located at the convention center, you can go to the convention center website and click on the button for “Meeting Planners” that lists floor charts.

Most, if not all, of the ALA conference hotels should also have information on their websites for “meeting planners” that lists floor charts for the rooms and ballrooms.  The floor charts are an easy way to help you get to the meeting, program, event, preconference, etc. and assist in estimating travel time.

At the bottom of the DC convention center website, there is a short “Frequently Asked Questions” section with links to information on nearby restaurants, parking, directions/transportation, etc.

Under “Attendees” section at the bottom of the webpage, look for the question “What to wear?.” You can click on the link there for information on current weather conditions.

I hope this information helps make your travel to and from the DC convention center a little easier.

Please feel free to share any travel tips that you use.

Eileen