Annotated Webliography-Part I
February 11, 2009
I. The Paraprofessional in the Information Center
1) American Library Association, Human Resources Development and Recruitment, Library Support Staff Resource Center. Resources for Library Support Staff. American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/ala/hrdr/librarysupportstaff/library_support_staff_resource_center.cfm (accessed February 2, 2008 ).
The American Library Association being the oldest also caters to the grassroots level of the profession for library and information science. This website is the information venue for and about library paraprofessionals as well as professionals.
2) American Library Association, Human Resources Development and Recruitment. Role definition: World Book ALA goal award project on library support staff. Paper presented at the 3rd Congress on Professional Education: Focus on Library Support Staff. Glen Ellyn, Illinois: May 16-17, 2003. http://www.ala.org/ala/hrdrbucket/3rdcongressonpro/roledefinition.cfm (accessed February 2, 2008 )
This paper was presented in a library congress which focused about the support staff-the paraprofessional. The paraprofessional’s roles and responsibilities in the library hierarchy is discussed. Problem as to doing the same tasks with that of the librarians but receiving lower pay was a source of frustration among the paraprofessionals is the concern of the paper.
3) Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States. Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition, Library Assistants, Clerical on the Internet. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos147.html (accessed February 2, 2008 )
The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a career guidance resource that provides information on United States occupations. Each occupation is presented in its own chapter that discusses the type of work that is performed, the work environment, the education and training requirements, the possibilities for advancement, and the typical earnings. The website and the contents are fairly reliable to quote since it is maintained by an official and recognized department of the United States of America.
4) Margeton, Stephen G. Paraprofessionals: surpassing the grade. AALL Spectrum. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Law Libraries, April 1999. http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp9904/pub_sp9904.pdf
(accessed February 2, 2008 )
This short article describes the plight of the paraprofessionals in the library, specifically in the United States. The author, a professor of law and the director of a law library puts it that paraprofessionals are the backbone of the technical department and keep the circulation systems humming. They play an important role in managing library workflow and putting materials into the hands of library users. The author encourages the paraprofessionals to attend and be a member of paraprofessional organization-AALL to gain practical workplace tips.
5) Oberg, Larry R. Library Support Staff in an Age of Change: utilization, role definition, and status. ERIC Digest (May 1995). [Online] http://www.ala.org/ala/hrdr/librarysupportstaff/library_support_staff_in_an_ag e_of_change.cfm (accessed February 3, 2008 ).
This research paper by Larry R. Oberg addresses the changing status of the library personnel. He writes of task overlap and role confusion, new roles for support staff, the emergence of the paraprofessional and their role. Oberg’s primary focus is of the problems facing today’s library staff however he offers a few ideas for remedying these problems.
II. Information literacy
6) Andretta, Susie (2005). Information literacy: a practitioner’s guide. Oxford, UK; Rollinford, NH : Chandos Pub. Google Book Search, doi:10.1017/S472669605880880
It presents information literacy as the foundation of independent and lifelong learning and stresses the role of the education practitioner as a facilitator. The author gives two important messages for the information professional: 1) develop their roles and engage with teaching and learning, and 2) the need for continuing professional development to boost and maintain their levels of information literacy. The author is an authority in this subject matter since her papers and researches are geared towards information literacy, she a senior lecturer in London Metropolitan University. This book is not available on line but a book review can be found from Google book search.
7) Boon-Webber blog, The, http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
The blog is about information literacy which brings news and reports about information literacy around the world, also includes projects, conferences, and links to other IL sites. Philippine IL seminar was mentioned. It is current and updated with at least five entries a week by its two contributors who are authorities in the field of information literacy in the Department of Information Studies at the University of Sheffield and the whole of UK.
8 ) Butler, John T. and Jerilyn R. Veldof. “Information literacy toolkit: meeting the challenge of a large research university.” Academic Exchange Quarterly, (Winter 2002), Also available in print form. http://www.thefreelibrary.com and http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3325/is_4_6/ai_n28969874/pg_2?tag=content;col1 (accessed June 9, 2008 ) .
The University of Minnesota’s Information Literacy Toolkit is designed to serve the needs of students, faculty and the librarians. It consists of an integrated suite that supports a wide range of learning activities and information research needs. Each of the suites is accessed through online. The study concludes by suggesting that there are real opportunities for academic librarians to help bridge the gap between the Web and the student in attaining information literacy by connecting students with libraries’ high quality resources.
9) McDonald, Joseph. “Information literacy or literate information?” Paper presented at Symposium for Academic Librarians, Eastern Michigan University, April 2004. http://www.mlaforum.org/volumeIII/issue2/conf3.html (accessed January 29, 2009).
This paper is based on the results of a 15-year longitudinal study of highly effective teachers conducted by Ken Bain., which argue that library based information literacy duplicates in poor fashion what effective teachers, with well-developed curricula, already accomplish with their students. McDonald states otherwise that, library-based information literacy is argued as a corollary to resource-based education. It is frequently presented as the way to help the student deal with the quantity and quality of all these resources which are, required for successful learning and preparation for life.
10) Mohd Sharif Mohd Saad and Awang Ngah Zainab. “Information literacy programmes in Malaysian public universities: an observation.” Paper presented at the 68th IFLA council and general conference, August 18-24, 2002, in Glasgow, Scotland. http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla68/papers/142-098e.pdf (accessed February 5, 2009).
The paper discusses the effort initiated by selected Malaysian public university libraries to promote information literacy skills among their users especially in terms of the objectives, course content and approaches used in delivering information literacy programmes and activities. This paper is a good source of information since the writers are in authority and are credible to write about IL in Malaysia.
