Michael Heyd

Becoming Business Minded for Librarians in This Changing World

It is probably safe to declare that with all the changes in hospital environments, hospital librarians are already becoming business minded. It is also safe to declare that more business knowledge ...

Learning Management Systems (i.e., HealthStream) as a Step Toward Data Management for Hospital Librarians

Librarians today live and work in rapidly changing environments that present serious challenges to traditional roles, but these challenges can offer opportunities to serve in new and exciting ways. Networking with other information professionals is an important way to learn about such opportunities and to gain new perspectives and ideas. The Medical Library Association’s Hospital Libraries Section ListServ is an excellent means of networking, and the value of making general inquiries to members is substantial. Every set of inquiries is really the beginning of data collection. Inquiries can lead to surveys; surveys can lead to the creation of relevant data and even meta-data that can be used to effect change. A simple inquiry by the authors at the end of May 2015 asked hospital librarians if they had an additional job focus such as continuing medical education (CME), learning management systems (LMS; i.e., HealthStream), or electronic medical records (EMRs). The majority of responses reflected much growth in the profession. Responses from medical library colleagues included

Jean P. Shipman and Barbara A. Ulmer, eds. (2017). Information and Innovation: A Natural Combination for Health Sciences Libraries. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 194 pages,

The oft-repeated adage that you can’t tell a book by its cover can also apply to its title, as it does to this one. The enticing subtitle doesn’t clarify it, nor does the cryptic mashup of images on the front of the book. One’s first impression might be that Information and Innovation is about new ways for librarians to do their jobs, or new roles for them in the so-called information age. The latter guess is closer, but this book’s scope, as the back cover explains, is limited to the role of health sciences libraries partnering with innovators in new and creative ways. In fact, the focus is primarily on library roles in the development of digital medical therapeutic devices and apps and in managing the scholarly information generated in the process. Probably no medical librarian practicing today considers the library’s storage and preservation functions its primary purpose, but the roles promoted in this book go well beyond its access and dissemination missions and into the realm where knowledge is created and brought into digital and physical actuality. The first chapter, by Temple University dean of libraries Joseph Lucia, is an essay tracing this emerging vision of the library directly back to its roots in the Athenian stoa and the Alexandrian Library. Libraries began as places for collaboration and sharing of ideas, Lucia tells us, and the new vision of libraries as creation engines is entirely appropriate. He quotes David Lankes, saying that the mission of libraries today and in the future is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities, and touts Lankes’ book, The Atlas of New Librarianship, as a touchstone text for anyone wishing to understand how the work of knowledge creation connects to our professional core competencies (1). The second chapter, by editor Jean Shipman and colleagues Tallie Casucci and Spencer W. Walker, outlines the four stages of the innovation cycle:

75.00, hardcover, ISBN: 9781442271401

Most, if not all, hospital librarians have at least heard of total quality management (TQM), continuous quality improvement (CQI), Kaizen, Six Sigma, and other improvement methods. If you are a supervisor or manager, you may have been recruited (or required) to participate in one or more projects using one of these programs or processes to effect positive change in your organization. Perhaps, however, you have not used them to improve your library operations and services. As Lesley Farmer and Alan Safer point out in the introductory chapter of Library Improvement Through Data Analytics,

Library Improvement Through Data Analytics by Lesley S. J. Farmer and Alan M. Safer: (2016). Chicago, IL: Neal-Schuman, 174 pages,

Marshall Breeding, the editor of this book and author of five of its chapters, is a wellknown consultant, speaker and writer on library technology topics. In Library Technology Buying Strategies he sets out to give librarians, administrators, technical support personnel and others practical advice for acquiring new library automation systems. The book briefly reviews the history of library automation, explains the current state of library systems, and explores major trends for future development. Library Technology Buying Strategies seems to be slightly misnamed. The phrase library technology may suggest to some readers a broader focus than it offers. Implementing a New Library Automation System: What You Need to Know would be a more precise title. Readers may also wonder about the use of strategies in the title. The Web site businessdictionary.com defines strategy as:

75.00, softcover, ISBN: 978-0-8389-1425-0

Marshall Breeding, the editor of this book and author of five of its chapters, is a wellknown consultant, speaker and writer on library technology topics. In Library Technology Buying Strategies he sets out to give librarians, administrators, technical support personnel and others practical advice for acquiring new library automation systems. The book briefly reviews the history of library automation, explains the current state of library systems, and explores major trends for future development. Library Technology Buying Strategies seems to be slightly misnamed. The phrase library technology may suggest to some readers a broader focus than it offers. Implementing a New Library Automation System: What You Need to Know would be a more precise title. Readers may also wonder about the use of strategies in the title. The Web site businessdictionary.com defines strategy as:

Library Technology Buying Strategies edited by Marshall Breeding: (2016). Chicago, IL: ALA Editions, 136 pages,

Marshall Breeding, the editor of this book and author of five of its chapters, is a wellknown consultant, speaker and writer on library technology topics. In Library Technology Buying Strategies he sets out to give librarians, administrators, technical support personnel and others practical advice for acquiring new library automation systems. The book briefly reviews the history of library automation, explains the current state of library systems, and explores major trends for future development. Library Technology Buying Strategies seems to be slightly misnamed. The phrase library technology may suggest to some readers a broader focus than it offers. Implementing a New Library Automation System: What You Need to Know would be a more precise title. Readers may also wonder about the use of strategies in the title. The Web site businessdictionary.com defines strategy as:

55.00, softcover, ISBN: 978-0-8389-1467-0

The termmetaliteracy has been used at least since the mid-1980s in education and psychology literature (1,2). However, the editors of Metaliteracy in Practice brought the word to front-stage in the library world with their 2011 article, Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy (3), and its 2013 follow-up, Proposing a Metaliteracy Model to Redefine Information Literacy (4). In these articles and in their 2014 book, Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners (5), they developed the concept of metaliteracy as a pedagogical and learning process for the rapidly evolving society of the 21st century. Their model has been adopted by librarians and educators in a variety colleges and universities and is a key component of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (6). Metaliteracy in Practice presents eight real-life examples written by professors and librarians who are using the principles outlined by Mackey and Jacobson to make their literacy instruction more effective and more relevant. Metaliteracy, as envisioned by Jacobson and Mackey, incorporates all of the various literacies (media, cyber, digital, etc.) that have become essential in the Web 2.0 era. It encompasses four domains: behavioral, cognitive, affective, and metacognitive (i.e., thinking about our thinking.) The model prescribes specific learning goals and objectives for each domain, and these serve as the foundation and much of the structure for the case studies in this book. The case studies include both graduate and undergraduate courses. Some are integral to the school’s overall educational programs; others, such as the RN to BSN program in chapter 3 and the graduate course for teacher training in chapter 5, are curriculum-specific. Rather than imposing a rigid frame on literacy instruction, the contributors have applied metaliteracy principles in innovative ways. In fact, flexibility is inherent in their approaches to teaching and implicit in the metaliteracy model. Other themes running throughout Metaliteracy in Practice include:

Library Technology Buying Strategies edited by Marshall Breeding

With the introduction of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services value-based purchasing (1) and the Institute of Medicine’s 2010 challenge for nursing, health care facilities are looking to improve care for their patients through the use of evidence-based practices (EBP) and research. Susquehanna Health, a small rural health care system in north central Pennsylvania, is no different. In 2009, the nursing leadership of the health care system decided to embark on a journey of nursing excellence. The idea was proposed to hospital administrators and board members and overwhelmingly approved. Thus the journey began. The first few changes in support of better patient outcomes included an increased collaborative model of patient care, implementation of shared governance, and the development of nursing research. The basic tenets of the collaborative model recognize all disciplines as important contributors in the care of patients. Shared governance involves both leadership and direct patient care (bedside) nurses working in various councils, with the goals of decision-making, the improvement of nursing care procedures, and the creation and implementation of new nursing care practices. When the Nursing Department at Susquehanna Health transitioned to a shared governance model in 2009, the medical librarian, long an active member of the former Patient Education Committee, became a member of

Library Technology Buying Strategies, by Marshall Breeding

Learning From Libraries That Use WordPress focuses on the flexibility for anyone to create a Web page using WordPress. Really, anyone interested in creating a free WordPress site can benefit from much of this book. Libraries can create their own Web pages, subject guides, or blog. For libraries fortunate enough to have a department for creating and maintaining their Web page, this book has limited value. The final section alone provides enough inspirational anecdotes to make it worth the cover price.