Academic Library Quality Services
Academic Libraries are held to a higher standard because they are used by so many people for research purposes. They are utilized by college students and business people researching ideas and theories and they are utilized by doctoral students coming up with thesis subjects. Reports or articles written based on things found in an academic library are important and also can be used to find information that could theoretically be considered life or death.
The following is a listing of possible things to check for quality.
Opening times -- ideally libraries should be open twenty-four/seven, but that is not possible, therefore access to library via online services should be available twenty-four/seven.
Online catalog -- should be easy to use. Patrons should be able to find information with an easy search or a more detailed search.
Inter-library loans and document delivery -- checking out a book or a document should be easy and access to reference material and inter-library loan services should be timely, in other words you should not have to wait more than two to three days to receive material.
Reference service -- librarians should be technologically advanced and be able to help the patron find any information that they want to find, without any problems.
Electronic publications, books -- Kindles should be available and accessible, more and more books on CD's; magazines no longer in a rack, but on computer or other electronic source.
User training -- library should offer training in how to utilize the more advanced resources that are available.
On-line catalog
Librarians have voiced complaints about the usability of electronic cataloging since it was first conceived. Originally Amazon was the first electronic method of looking for a book or information in the early 2000s. One cannot discuss electronic online cataloging...
It is considered outdated because it is over fifty years old, but because it is so common, it is still utilized. Librarians have come up with other programs to catalog material, but the problem is finding something that can be used by all online catalogs.
Vu-Find is an open-source next generation catalog overlay system that was developed by Villanova University Library and released to the public for beta testing in 2008. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign began offering Vu-Find alongside WebVoyage in 2009. It uses a faceted search discovery interface and focused on limiting searches after the initial search instead of before. Most patrons liked it, although it was not rated as "perfect." One of the problems noted was that when patrons did a search for "Gone With the Wind" for an example, they couldn't tell if the library had the movie on DVD, as it only listed things as video or audio and didn't specify media type. Another thing mentioned was the lack of the star rating system like the one that Amazon uses, which patrons felt would be a plus. One of the things patrons really liked was the ease of use of Vu-Find, they liked the color choices which were easier on the eye than some other systems and overall patrons at this particular library really enjoyed it. The library is continuing to use it as the only on-going cost is that of server maintenance. (Emanuel, 2011)
Reference Librarian
From the first library, probably the librarian was considered a reference librarian. Patrons asked the librarian for help and in academic libraries especially patrons needed face-to-face help with research. The traditional model of reference librarian was the face-to-face interaction between patron and librarian who answered every type of question back in the paper age. The reference librarian, must now be prepared to join the…
