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5856 results in Facet Publishing

Page 177 of 293

The No-nonsense Guide to Training in Libraries
  • Barbara Allan
  • Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 May 2013
  • In order to make an impact with their customers, library staff must be well trained and up-to-date. Training is often delivered by library managers, development officers and trainers who may have limited budgets with access to few resources. This accessible guide uses case studies and examples of best practice from public, school, academic, special and government libraries to help library and information workers deliver excellent training practice. Increasingly, library and information staff are being asked to do more and more with fewer resources. In the context of higher education and further education, library and information workers are often involved in training large, diverse groups of more than 100 students, who may have limited resources. In public libraries, library staff may be involved in delivering a wide range of training activities to extremely diverse groups. Many library and information workers in special libraries deliver end-user and specialist training to busy professionals who are unlikely to have the time to attend pre-scheduled workshops. In addition, the rise of social networking tools and other information and communication technologies, has meant that training practices are continually changing to meet the expectations of participants. This book provides guidance on the design and delivery of effective training courses and is aimed at helping experienced trainers, as well as those who are still developing their skills, including: The people side of training; Use of technologies to support training practices; Different approaches to learning and teaching; Planning and designing training; Delivering training: face-to-face and blended learning; Evaluation of training events and continuous improvement; Learning and development in the workplace. The book will be essential reading for all library and information workers involved in training.

  • 9 - Providing access to users

  • Adrian Brown
  • Book:
    Practical Digital Preservation
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 May 2013, pp 243-272

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Access provides the very raison d’être for digital preservation: what we are seeking to preserve is a viable means of access to digital objects, now and into the future. Everything we do in this regard must therefore be informed by the needs of current and future users: their requirements should dictate how we go about the business of digital preservation. While the preceding chapters have considered how to maintain a digital object's potential for access, this chapter looks at the realities of actually providing access to users today. However, while approaches to providing access to digital objects should be driven by an understanding of what users need, they must inevitably be tempered by the constraints of practicality, legality and curatorial responsibility.

    This chapter discusses some of the issues that you need to consider when presenting preserved digital records to users. These include the practical, technical and legal challenges involved in providing access online and within a search room environment.

    What do we mean by access?

    Access means many things to many people: for some it may simply entail the ability to view something onscreen, for another to download a file, for a third to extract the content in format suitable for reuse elsewhere. Some users expect extensive documentation and step-by-step guidance, others are happy with minimal information or assistance. It is essential for every repository to consider what forms of access it wishes to provide for its user community, taking account of the capabilities of the former, and the expectations of the latter.

    Fundamentally, access requires users to be able to do three things:

  • • Find things of interest: Resource discovery encompasses a range of techniques for searching and browsing the content of the repository.

  • • Understand the options for accessing a given digital object: It is not necessary that every digital object be available to every user, nor for objects to be available through any particular mechanism – such as the web – but it is essential that a user be able to understand whether or not access is possible and, if so, how. Availability pertains to what is technically possible, and any conditions of use that apply either to the repository in general, or specific digital objects in particular. These may include restrictions relating to copyright, confidentiality or citation, for example.

  • • Access the object.

  • 4 - Models for implementing a digital preservation service

  • Adrian Brown
  • Book:
    Practical Digital Preservation
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 May 2013, pp 63-108

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Many different models are possible for operating a digital preservation service – there are options to suit every size and type of organization, from national bodies with substantial dedicated budgets and teams, to the smallest organization seeking to achieve something practical at minimal cost, and without specialist skills. This chapter analyses the range of possible options, including bespoke, in house and outsourced solutions. It assesses the pros and cons of the alternatives, and considers which elements of a service may be most suited to certain approaches, and under what circumstances. It also considers the current and developing market for providing these solutions. Next, it looks at the process of implementing the chosen solution, and some of the practicalities of operating a digital repository, including the roles required, and availability of suitable training. It then examines the notion of ‘trusted’ digital repositories and proposes a ‘maturity model’ for digital preservation, which enables organizations to assess their capabilities and create a realistic roadmap for developing them to the required level. The alternative models are illustrated by a series of case studies.

    Options

    Digital preservation is a comparatively new discipline, and models for good practice, including the technologies and services required to support them, therefore exist at varying levels of maturity. Approaches to providing the fundamental elements of a digital repository are now well established, but some of the techniques and technologies required to deliver advanced preservation functions, especially for newer and more complex types of digital content, remain in their infancy.

    This section analyses the available options in detail, assessing the respective strengths and weaknesses of each.

    Do nothing

    Any analysis of options should always include the status quo – not only does this provide a baseline against which other, more positive, options can be assessed, but it also allows a true comparison of the implications of not taking action. The costs of doing nothing include the continued burden of maintaining archival data on inappropriate storage infrastructure, and the costs of recreating, or failing to preserve, digital resources that would be lost as a result of inaction, as described in Chapter 2, ‘Making the case for digital preservation’.

    This option assumes no development of digital preservation services, including zero investment and staffing. Table 4.1 sets out the pros and cons of the do nothing option.

  • 1 - Introduction

  • Adrian Brown
  • Book:
    Practical Digital Preservation
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 May 2013, pp 1-18

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Picture a scene: in a county record office somewhere in England, a young archivist is looking through the morning post. Among the usual enquiry letters and payments for copies of documents is a mysterious padded envelope. Opening it reveals five floppy disks of various sizes, accompanied by a brief covering letter from the office manager of a long-established local business, explaining that the contents had been discovered during a recent office refurbishment; since the record office has previously acquired the historic paper records of the company, perhaps these would also be of interest? The disks themselves bear only terse labels, such as ‘Minutes, 1988-90’ or ‘customers.dbf’. Some, the archivist recognizes as being 3.5” disks, while the larger ones seem vaguely familiar from a digital preservation seminar she attended during her training. On one point she is certain: the office PCs are not capable of reading any of them. How can she discover what is actually on the disks, and whether they contain important business records or junk? And even if they do prove of archival interest, what should the record office actually do with them?

    Meanwhile, a university librarian in the mid-west USA attends a faculty meeting to discuss the burgeoning institutional repository. Introduced a few years ago to store PDF copies of academic preprints and postprints, there is increasing demand from staff to store other kinds of content in a much wider range of formats, from original research data, to student dissertations and theses, teaching materials and course notes, and to make that content available for reuse by others in novel ways. How, the librarian ponders, does the repository need to be adapted to meet these new requirements, and what must the library do to ensure the long-term preservation of such a diverse digital collection?

    Finally, in East Africa, a national archivist has just finished reading a report from a consultant commissioned to advise on requirements for preserving electronic records. The latest in a series of projects to develop records management within government, he knows that this work is crucial to promoting transparency, empowering citizens by providing them with access to reliable information, reducing corruption and improving governance through the use of new technologies. The national archives has achieved much in recent years, putting in place strong records management processes and guidance.

  • 4 - Use of different technologies to support training practices

  • from Part 1 - Training practices
  • Barbara Allan
  • Book:
    The No-nonsense Guide to Training in Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 May 2013, pp 61-88

  • Summary

    Introduction

    One of the challenges in writing this chapter is the speed of technological development and the continuing availability of new tools and techniques to support training activities. Consequently, this chapter focuses on providing a general overview of the different ways in which current technologies can be incorporated into training programmes.

    Initially, the internet provided library and information trainers with access to a range of tools and facilities to support learning and teaching. These included:

  • • web-based tutorials

  • • online communication tools

  • — asynchronous tools such as discussion boards and messaging services

  • — synchronous tools such as chat or meeting rooms

  • • specialist software which could be used to develop games, quizzes and surveys, presentations, multimedia resources.

    • In educational institutions, these were often combined to produce virtual learning environments (VLEs) such as Blackboard and WebCT, which also included online tracking systems.

    The rise of social media and Web 2.0 has provided an increased range of tools that may be used for learning and development. At first sight, these appear to be a complex array, but they can be divided into three main groups: communication tools, collaboration tools, and multimedia. Common examples are presented in Table 4.1.

    Keeping up to date is a real challenge. New technologies appear to be developed at an ever-increasing speed and trends and patterns of use are constantly changing.

    TIP FOR TRAINERS

    A valuable source for keeping up to date in the library world is the website of Phil Bradley at www.philb.com. In addition he regularly produces useful books which provide an upto- date summary of a particular aspect of technology. _

    This chapter is devoted to exploring both ‘traditional’ internet learning and teaching facilities and real-time media tools. They are arranged in alphabetical order.

    Apps

    Apps (or application software) are available online from a variety of sources and they may be run on computers, laptops and tablets, smartphones and other electronic devices. Apps rose to fame when Apple launched the iPhone 3G in 2008, and the Apple App Store popularized the idea of downloading applications and application updates from a single website. Apple now provides more than half a million apps from its App store. Apps are available from many websites, e.g. Microsoft, BBC, and may be available free or for a charge.

  • 1 - From script to print

  • from Part 1 - The historical dimension
  • John Feather
  • Book:
    The Information Society
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 March 2013, pp 3-20

  • Summary

    The origins of writing

    The earliest evidence for the existence of Homo sapiens derives from the interpretation of archaeological and palaeontological evidence rather than from records consciously made by people themselves. Our species was already in an advanced stage of physiological and intellectual development before we began to leave a deliberate mark on the world around us. The first such marks, perhaps the first consciously created records, are the graphic representations of daily life which have been found in caves in France and elsewhere. Scholars debate the significance of these, whether they are religious, social, or merely artistic; for our purposes, their importance is that we have here the first evidence of a species which sought some means to represent the world in which it lived. It found a material on which the representation could be recorded – the rock walls of a cave – and a medium – natural dyes – in which it could be made.

    Between palaeolithic cave paintings and the first real records of human activities there are millennia. The earliest cave paintings are generally considered to date from 40,000 years ago; even so, they embody the basic principle of meeting a perceived need by developing, or making use of, a combination of medium and material. All subsequent systems have developed from that same perception of need.

    When complex societies began to evolve in various parts of Asia, their very complexity forced them to consider, possibly even consciously, how complexity could be managed. Pictorial representation, forceful as it is and important as it continues to be, is limited. While pictures can convey shapes and colours far more effectively than words, and can often give greater clarity than a verbal description of an action or a scene, they are less effective in embodying abstractions or ideas. A picture can show the shape and colour of a house but cannot state its financial value. A picture can represent the appearance of a person, but cannot show what that person is thinking. A picture can reproduce, with great accuracy, the appearance of a car, but it can neither explain how it works nor show it in motion. To preserve an image of anything other than a purely visual and static world, we first need a system which allows us to express language in some representational form.

  • 3 - The information market-place

  • from Part 2 - The economic dimension
  • John Feather
  • Book:
    The Information Society
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 March 2013, pp 41-74

  • Summary

    The publishing industry: a paradigm of information transfer

    The mechanisms that have been developed for the transfer of information from source to user all require significant capital investment. The role of information in society can only be properly understood in a context in which its cost and monetary value are properly taken into account. The development of information technology, and the gradual convergence of previously separate technologies, have tended to emphasize both the cost of the infrastructure of information systems and that of delivering the service to the user. But this is not entirely new. The change, although it is significant and even radical, has been one of degree rather than of kind. As we saw in Chapter 1, ever since the invention of printing, and in a very limited way even before that, there has been an overtly commercial element in the information transfer process. The trade in the printed word is perhaps not the only comparison which could be used as a model for the commercialization of computer-based information service provision, but it is certainly the most familiar. Until very recently print, in all its manifestations, was still the most common and the most important information medium in terms of the quantity of stored information which was uniquely available and the comparative ease of access which it offers. Although print-on-paper is gradually being displaced by electronic delivery, the publishing industry offers many insights into information phenomena which are instructive and will be relevant for some time to come. It is, therefore, with print that we shall begin.

    The publishing industry – the producer of books, magazines and newspapers – is merely one part of a larger complex of trades and industries. The size and scale of the operation of individual firms within this complex varies from vast multinational corporations, such as News Corporation, at one extreme, to a small bookshop owned and operated by a single person at the other. Linking these improbable partners is a long chain of supply which provides the route along which information can travel from source to user. Inevitably this chain is continuously subjected to commercial pressures, and the free flow of information itself may sometimes be distorted or disrupted by accident or design.

  • 10 - Exhibiting archives

  • Helen Forde, Jonathan Rhys-Lewis
  • Book:
    Preserving Archives
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 March 2013, pp 159-174

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Why put irreplaceable material at risk? The main answer to this is that exhibitions are a major way of promoting access to archival material and involving the public and staff in a topic of mutual interest. All the activities connected with exhibitions, such as the publication of catalogues, production of facsimiles for sale, group visits and publicity, are major concerns of those involved with outreach. For those involved with preservation the essential requirement is to match these needs with adequate security and preservation standards, while not inhibiting or dampening the enthusiasm and talent of colleagues. The crucial factors are collaboration and understanding; exhibitions involve planning and co-operating, compromise and change. Once others understand the concerns of all, the process becomes easier but communication in the first instance is vital. If the parameters relating to standards of exhibition are laid out at the very beginning much less can go wrong. This chapter covers:

  • • minimizing the associated risks

  • • policies, standards and guidelines for exhibitions

  • • managing the care of documents in exhibitions

  • • planning and preparing for an exhibition.

    • How can the overall risk be minimized?

    The easiest way of minimizing the risk is to set out an exhibition policy and procedure with which everyone agrees. This may involve not only a simple statement of aims for internal use but also a more detailed policy and set of procedures for external loans. The organization will benefit from being very clear about what it will and will not display, outside borrowers will understand the limits of what can be borrowed and why, and staff will appreciate the concerns of other colleagues. Drawing up such a document may take some time, but plenty of examples are available to suggest the main headings. It is very unwise to wait until an exhibition is suggested; policies developed in a hurry under the pressure of a particular project are never satisfactory. Consider:

  • • the purposes of exhibiting archival material and the authority by which the archive does so

  • • the scope of exhibitions and the capacity of the organization to mount them

  • • whether the policy of the organization is to display originals or facsimiles

  • • the location – whether on the premises or elsewhere.

Page 177 of 293