4 important things users want from a library (and how to offer them)

Public Libraries | Library Services | Phone Reference

 

 

Sometimes, there is a big imbalance between what the users wish to have in a library and what they really get. As Mick Fortune mentions in our previous post, for many years libraries measured their success primarily by footfall and they only focused on that. Only in the last few years, libraries have really started focusing on getting to know their users better. Even so, all the studies, such as those made by The Pew Internet, Carnegie UK Trust, Museums Libraries & Archives UK, etc. end up showing the same results.

In the following blog posts, we’re going to explore the various things users want from a library and suggest a few ways how libraries can set this right. In this first post, we will focus on the 4 most important things users want from a library.

 

1. A good range of books

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Improving Health Literacy, One Public Library at a Time Public resources and training programs for librarians

Marilynn Lance-Robb, branch manager at the Carvers Bay Branch Library in Georgetown, South Carolina, assists a patron with health information.Photo: Marilynn Lance-Robb

The first thing that Jennifer Davis tells patrons who come to her seeking medical information is not to Google their symptoms. “It’s the worst thing you could possibly do,” says Davis, director of Hall Memorial Library, which serves the communities of Northfield and Tilton, New Hampshire.

Instead, Davis assists patrons with their health care questions by helping them find information on Medline-Plus, an authoritative, free website where the public can find health information in more than 40 languages.

Although Davis, a former medical librarian, is familiar with health care topics, most public librarians do not necessarily have a medical background. Still they may be faced with an assortment of health-related questions from the public every day.

Read more...

20 Google Search Shortcuts to Hone Your Google-Fu

20 Google Search Shortcuts to Hone Your Google-Fu

Thorin Klosowski

Hidden behind Google's search box are a slew of shortcuts leading to so-called "OneBox" results that provide awesome tools and display helpful information quickly and directly. You might think you know them all, but a few are more hidden than others.

Google's OneBox is the result you get when Google magically knows the answer to a search you perform. Above the normal search results, Google gives your the definitive answer to your search—or a miniature, interactive tool to continue your search. These are different from search operators that help you narrow your search. With the OneBox results you can quickly find the weather, learn what a medication is, peek at a musicians discography, and even find release dates for movies. With this power you can find the information you're looking for almost instantly, and you'll look like the smartest person in the room for knowing the results before anyone else. Read more...

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Power Searching with Google – Inside Search – Google

Power Searching with Google – Inside Search – Google

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Brooklyn Public Library | Book a Librarian

Brooklyn Public Library | Book a Librarian

New York County Lawyers Association Guided Library Tour

New York Librarians MeetUp October 27, 2009

New York County Lawyers Association

The New York County Lawyers Association, one of the largest bar associations in the country with 10,000 members, was founded in 1908 as a response to the restrictive membership rules of other state and local bar associations. Interested in legal and public policy questions, it is open to all members of the New York Bar. For a more detailed description of the Association, see its website: http://www.nycla.org/.

The NYCLA library, with about 230,000 volumes, expects to serve 12,750 patrons in 2009 both in the physical library and fee based services such as copying and legal research. About 45% of NYCLA’s budget is appropriated to the library. The library has 6 professional librarians on staff.

Dan Jordan, the Director of Library Services, provided a tour of the library which encompassed an introduction to legal bibliography and research. As he explained the development of legal bibliography and the basics of legal research, he showed us the physical books, not just the shelves, but what the books looked like inside. We also visited the basement where the superseded volumes required for research are stored. As in most libraries, legal materials are moving online and people (depending on when they graduated from law school) are using books less. So NYCLA deals with the question of what to keep in physical form and what to discard.

I had briefly worked at the NYCLA library when I worked for Cassidy Cataloguing in the early 1990’s. As a law librarian for more than 25 years, I was familiar with legal bibliography and research. Still, I enjoyed the tour very much. This meetup was an excellent introduction to legal bibliography, legal research and the workings of a subscription library.

Caren Rabinowitz, JD, MLS

Assistant Organizer, NY Librarians Meetup