The Reference Library User

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The Reference Library User

Provide the best possible service to your library patrons. With a healthy respect for those who seek assistance at the reference desk, a group of library and information service specialists examine the public whom they serve. The Reference Library User focuses on the possible interactions between the reference librarian and the library user. The authoritative contributors discuss many problems in the relationship between the public and the library, and all offer suggestions that will at least help librarians to better serve the public on a daily basis. A major emphasis of The Reference Library User is on the various populations using the library and their particular needs. For example, one chapter examines the information needs of deinstitutionalized patrons and presents methods of providing service and a rationale for community outreach. The state program in Rhode Island is outlined, describing efforts to reach community residents through public libraries and the state operated Bookmobile. Other chapters provide strategies for providing reference services to older adults, the learning disabled, the blind, and the physically handicapped. This informative new volume also deals with general concerns facing librarians today, including determining the audience for both public and academic libraries, educating the user, encouraging nonusers to become library users, and calming irate patrons. Reference librarians will be particularly interested in the problems and solutions discussed in this new volume, as will library managers and administrators who will always benefit from a fresh perspective on public service for the library user.
Library Users and Reference Services

This useful book helps reference librarians understand the information seeking needs and behaviors of the diverse groups of people in the communities they serve. With the increasing diversity of the American population, librarians striving to plan and deliver excellent reference services must enhance their understanding of how best to assist many types of individuals and groups, from children to the elderly. Library Users and Reference Services provides much-needed help in this area, delivering strategies and methods to aid readers in their quest for increasingly effective service for all members of the communities in which they work.Library Users and Reference Services is divided into four sections of chapters which cover a broad range of topics to assist readers in planning and delivering appropriate services. Section One explores customer service, economics of information, and marketing as key concepts useful in studying information needs of specific groups in the population. Section Two focuses on scholars and students in three broad academic disciplines: science, humanities, and social sciences. Section Three covers groups with special characteristics such as age, economic standing, gender, or profession. Section Four discusses evaluation and provides guidance in the use of the most widely accepted measures for assessing reference effectiveness.The book’s final chapter explores redesigning reference services for the future, providing a glimpse of how such services may change. Library Users and Reference Services is a practical guide to help readers understand the many issues related to serving diverse populations in a community. Reference librarians and graduate library school students and faculty will learn more effective ways to help a heterogeneous public with the help of this new book.
Library User Metaphors and Services

Author: Carl Gustav Johannsen
language: en
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Release Date: 2015-09-25
How do library professionals talk about and refer to library users, and how is this significant? In recent decades, the library profession has conceived of users in at least five different ways, viewing them alternatively as citizens, clients, customers, guests, or partners. This book argues that these user metaphors crucially inform librarians' interactions with the public, and, by extension, determine the quality and content of the services received. The ultimate aim of this book is to provide library professionals with insights and tools for avoiding common pitfalls associated with false or professionally inadequate conceptions of library users.