• Title/Summary/Keyword: librarian

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The Application of Operations Research to Librarianship : Some Research Directions (운영연구(OR)의 도서관응용 -그 몇가지 잠재적응용분야에 대하여-)

  • Choi Sung Jin
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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    • v.4
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    • pp.43-71
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    • 1975
  • Operations research has developed rapidly since its origins in World War II. Practitioners of O. R. have contributed to almost every aspect of government and business. More recently, a number of operations researchers have turned their attention to library and information systems, and the author believes that significant research has resulted. It is the purpose of this essay to introduce the library audience to some of these accomplishments, to present some of the author's hypotheses on the subject of library management to which he belives O. R. has great potential, and to suggest some future research directions. Some problem areas in librianship where O. R. may play a part have been discussed and are summarized below. (1) Library location. It is usually necessary to make balance between accessibility and cost In location problems. Many mathematical methods are available for identifying the optimal locations once the balance between these two criteria has been decided. The major difficulties lie in relating cost to size and in taking future change into account when discriminating possible solutions. (2) Planning new facilities. Standard approaches to using mathematical models for simple investment decisions are well established. If the problem is one of choosing the most economical way of achieving a certain objective, one may compare th althenatives by using one of the discounted cash flow techniques. In other situations it may be necessary to use of cost-benefit approach. (3) Allocating library resources. In order to allocate the resources to best advantage the librarian needs to know how the effectiveness of the services he offers depends on the way he puts his resources. The O. R. approach to the problems is to construct a model representing effectiveness as a mathematical function of levels of different inputs(e.g., numbers of people in different jobs, acquisitions of different types, physical resources). (4) Long term planning. Resource allocation problems are generally concerned with up to one and a half years ahead. The longer term certainly offers both greater freedom of action and greater uncertainty. Thus it is difficult to generalize about long term planning problems. In other fields, however, O. R. has made a significant contribution to long range planning and it is likely to have one to make in librarianship as well. (5) Public relations. It is generally accepted that actual and potential users are too ignorant both of the range of library services provided and of how to make use of them. How should services be brought to the attention of potential users? The answer seems to lie in obtaining empirical evidence by controlled experiments in which a group of libraries participated. (6) Acquisition policy. In comparing alternative policies for acquisition of materials one needs to know the implications of each service which depends on the stock. Second is the relative importance to be ascribed to each service for each class of user. By reducing the level of the first, formal models will allow the librarian to concentrate his attention upon the value judgements which will be necessary for the second. (7) Loan policy. The approach to choosing between loan policies is much the same as the previous approach. (8) Manpower planning. For large library systems one should consider constructing models which will permit the skills necessary in the future with predictions of the skills that will be available, so as to allow informed decisions. (9) Management information system for libraries. A great deal of data can be available in libraries as a by-product of all recording activities. It is particularly tempting when procedures are computerized to make summary statistics available as a management information system. The values of information to particular decisions that may have to be taken future is best assessed in terms of a model of the relevant problem. (10) Management gaming. One of the most common uses of a management game is as a means of developing staff's to take decisions. The value of such exercises depends upon the validity of the computerized model. If the model were sufficiently simple to take the form of a mathematical equation, decision-makers would probably able to learn adequately from a graph. More complex situations require simulation models. (11) Diagnostics tools. Libraries are sufficiently complex systems that it would be useful to have available simple means of telling whether performance could be regarded as satisfactory which, if it could not, would also provide pointers to what was wrong. (12) Data banks. It would appear to be worth considering establishing a bank for certain types of data. It certain items on questionnaires were to take a standard form, a greater pool of data would de available for various analysis. (13) Effectiveness measures. The meaning of a library performance measure is not readily interpreted. Each measure must itself be assessed in relation to the corresponding measures for earlier periods of time and a standard measure that may be a corresponding measure in another library, the 'norm', the 'best practice', or user expectations.

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An Analysis on the Perception of Public Librarians about Lifelong Education Tasks: Focus on Incheon Metropolitan City (공공도서관 사서의 평생교육업무에 대한 인식 연구 - 인천지역을 중심으로 -)

  • Kim, NamJi;Cho, Jane
    • Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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    • v.27 no.3
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    • pp.51-73
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    • 2016
  • This study analyzes on the perception of public librarians about lifelong education tasks in public library using Mann Whitney U-test, Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient, Multiple regression analysis. At the same time, analysis about re-education needs using Analytic Hierarchy Process is conducted. As result, at first, 87% of respondents feel moderate or difficult about lifelong education tasks, especially on planning task. At second, librarians who have qualification about lifelong educator feel easier (P=0.04) than others, in detail, task about lecturer liaison (P=0.04) and planning (P=0.05). Adding that, the career experience and the job difficulty of librarians has negative relationship (R=-0.217). Especially scheduling (R=-0.33) and progressing (R=-0.22) tasks show statistically meaningful. At third, as the result of Multiple regression analysis, tasks about planning (P=0.04) and library marketing (P=0.05) are selected as meaningful elements which effect overall difficulty of life long education job. As final, 91% of librarian need retraining for life long education function, as result of spearman (R=-0.210), the more librarians feels difficult about life long education jobs, the more they need retraining. Anyway, as the result of priority of retraining subjects through AHP technique, user communication (CU P=0.310), planning (PL P=0.246), library marketing (LM P=0.173) are in weight order. CR ratio shows 0.146 with permissible degree.

Barriers to University Librarians' Research Utilization (대학도서관 사서의 연구활용 장애)

  • Lee, Eun-Chul;Kim, Kap-Seon
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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    • v.38 no.1
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    • pp.77-91
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    • 2004
  • The present study surveyed university librarians' perceptions of barriers to research utilization using the Barrier Scales. The results shows that in mean Barriers Scale scores, characteristics of the organization had the highest, and then followed by the communication, the research and the librarian. The most important factor was perceived to be organizational support relating to insufficient time to implement new ideas, inadequate facilities, and lack of authority to make changes and in the communication relating to lack of clarity of research implications for practice, lack to demonstrate research's relevance to practice, and lack of readability of research. Also, incomprehensible English research reports and statistical analyses were perceived as major barriers. The comparison with those of nursing was discussed. In order to settle the barriers identified, librarians should be educated to have 'research literacy' and organazational merit and reward systems were reinforced for research utilization. Also, it needs to explore librarians' specific experiences of barriers in utilizing process in practice. In further research, by integrating both the result of the quantitative and qualitative research, it needs to develop and to assess a standard measurement for librarians' barriers of research utilization in national and international context.

A Critical Analysis of Literature for Consumer Health Information Services in Public Libraries (문헌분석을 통해서 도출한 공공도서관 소비자건강정보(CHI) 서비스 연구)

  • Noh, Young-Hee;Oh, Sang-Hee
    • Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.47-77
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    • 2011
  • Due to the growth of people's use of the Internet as well as interests in health, people's needs of health information have rapidly increased in public libraries. Nevertheless, there are few studies in Korea about users' needs for health information and services that public libraries can offer to support these user groups. In the current study, a comprehensive literature review was conducted in order to understand the role of public libraries and librarians in serving users with health information and to identify the types of consumer health information(CHI) services available to users in public libraries. As for the CHI services that public libraries can offer for users, the current study emphasizes and discusses the directions and guidelines for improving the following six approaches: 1) CHI collection and information resource building, 2) CHI reference services, 3) CHI user education and training program development, 4) CHI services for minority/disability/cultural diversity groups of users, 5) CHI outreach program development, and 6) CHI network development with medical libraries, academic libraries, hospital, and medical institutions and associations. Although most of the discussion in the current study centers on cases and services provided in the United States or other countries, findings would be used to inform the importance of CHI services in public libraries, and to design and develop CHI services in Korea.

A Study on the Employment Circumstances and Employment Status of Temporary Librarians (비정규직 사서의 근무환경 및 고용실태에 대한 연구)

  • Noh, Younghee;Ahn, In-Ja;Oh, Se-Hoon
    • Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.259-280
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    • 2013
  • There has been a dramatic increase in the proportion of temporary employees in LIS fields, due to current trends of restructuring, automation, complete personnel systems, and complete wage systems. This research, therefore, conducted a survey exploring the current status and working environment of the temporary posts in LIS fields, in order to understand and direct the employment prospects of potential librarians. Results show that the average working period of more than half of temporary librarians are between 1-3 years. The total working period as a temporary librarian, including former experiences in their career, were evenly distributed between 1-5 years. Among those, being temporary often persisted, as 32% of temporary librarians stayed in their temporary status for more than 5 years. Second, temporary librarians perceived themselves as working the same hours as regular librarians, having independent or assistant tasks to regular librarians, and having a neutral or larger amount of tasks than regular librarians. Third, temporary librarians are employed and contracted from the work place, generally having contracts of less than 2 years or an open contract, which shows a serious level of job instability. Therefore, we should consider the following: proper remuneration for work of equal value, professional contractors, the supplementation of the total wage system and the number of public employees in the system as well as changing temporary positions to permanent positions and so on.

A comparative study on users' satisfaction about online catalog and card catalog (대학도서관의 온라인목록과 카드목록의 이용자 만족도 비교)

  • 강미혜
    • Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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    • v.24
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    • pp.163-187
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    • 1996
  • The library catalog is considered an important tool to provide library users with conveniences making a search for necessary information. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to investigate "behaviors and attitudes" of library users in a university library using online and card catalogs together, to compare their distinctions between online and card catalogs and then to bring about reforms for the development of future cataloging, thereby improving the utilization of online catalog and its service expansion. For this, this paper carried out a survey research which was randomly questionaired 280 library users of four universities in Seoul from March 28th to April 16th 1996. Major findings are as follow : 1. Library users tended to use more online catalog(50.0%) than card catalog (21.9%). 2. The main reasons the library users us online catalog were time saving(24.0%), convenience of use(21.3%), multiple searching possibility (16.2%), and the preferences of card catalog were location of library materials(34.6%), time saving(17.5%), Bibliographic information(14.9%). 3. The major access points which library users utilized mostly in their online catalog are title(30.3%), author(29.2%) and subject heading (17.6%), and for card catalog, title(40.5%), author(34.6%) and call no.(11.1%). 4. The methods library users learned to use online catalog are terminal screen(44.7%), online manual(26.1%), and for card catalog, library orientation(42.6%), librarian's help(18.5%). 5. It was shown that library users were not mostly satisfied about their searching results: the users satisfied with online catalog in the order of partly(46.2%), as expected(42.3%), more than expected(10.4%), and with the card catalog in the order of partly(54.6%), as expected(27.3%), more than expected(10.4%). It was found that although library users preferred online catalog more than card catalog, 54.8% of the total catalog users were not satisfied about the search results they have had. 6. The items which library users want to add to online catalog are catalogs of materials other libraries have(41.6%), catalogs of the materials the library has(29.3%), titles of serial articles(17.7%). And the additional services library users want are checking function of loan materials and reservation of materials(15.5%), subject headings(14.5%), more terminals(13.4%), catalog use explanations(12.9%), multiple access points(11.0%), searching function of contents, abstracts, and indexes(9.6%). Considering the fact that library users tend to use more favorably online catalog than card catalog and the trend that library change from card catalog to online catalog, it is strongly recommended to su n.0, pply students with formal and informal training programs for online catalog use.talog use.

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A Case Study on School Library Educational Services to Reduce the Information Literacy Gap Due to the Education Gap (교육격차에 따른 정보활용능력 격차 완화를 위한 학교도서관 교육 서비스 사례 연구 - 『도서관과 정보생활』 교과의 I·II영역을 중심으로 -)

  • Kang, Bong-Suk
    • Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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    • v.49 no.3
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    • pp.307-329
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    • 2018
  • This study aims to verify the effect of school library education service on the information literacy ability of high school students in the poor economic environment. For this purpose, we narrowed down to 215 high school first graders with substandard educational conditions, and then implemented information literacy education. The results of the information literacy test were compared, before and after the information literacy service. The preliminary tests of 15 schools including the targeted school were conducted, and we found that the results of the self-evaluation in those 15 schools exceed those with other generally good educational conditions. We considered in all aspects to find out how to overcome the information literacy gap through information literacy programs. Reflecting on the previous research verifying that the difference in educational environment affects the information literacy, we can confirm that the information literacy education service, which is the core service of the school library, can narrow the information literacy gap. We hope that this study will be a basis for the systematic establishment of information literacy education in public education.

A Study on the Effect of Alternative Leadership on the Recognition of Organizational Effectiveness of University Librarian: - Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Emotional Intelligence - (대안적 리더십이 대학도서관 사서의 조직유효성인식에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구 - 감성지능의 조절효과를 중심으로 -)

  • Cha, Hyunju
    • Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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    • v.49 no.3
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    • pp.361-382
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    • 2018
  • The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of shared leadership, authenticity leadership, and self - leadership on the recognition of organizational effectiveness of university librarians, which is an alternative concept of existing leadership. The purpose of this study is to examine whether leadership styles have more influence on recognition of organizational effectiveness, and whether there is a moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the relationship between leadership and organizational effectiveness. A total of 140 questionnaires were collected from 275 librarians of 55 university librarians working in the university libraries nationwide. The effect of alternative leadership, which is an independent variable, on organizational effectiveness was partially derived, and self - leadership had the greatest effect on job satisfaction, and control effect of emotional intelligence The results of this study are as follows. Although this study does not claim new concepts and facts in the field of leadership and organizational validity, it can be said that it contributes to introducing the theoretical relation to new concepts of alternative leadership which has not been relatively studied in the field of linguistic informatics.

Generational Comparative Analysis on Library Usage of Senior Groups in National Assembly Library of Korea (시니어의 세대별 도서관 이용행태 비교분석: 국회도서관을 중심으로)

  • Sim, Jayoung;Seo, Eun-Gyoung
    • Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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    • v.35 no.3
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    • pp.287-309
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    • 2018
  • As coming Senior-Shift age, senior users are regarded as one of the importance user groups in the library. This study is to find the usage patterns and needs of libraries and digital libraries by 152 seniors and to compare with young-old age (baby boom generation) and elderly age. As a result, total seniors visited regularly and preferred political & social, religion & philosophy, and history & geography. While the baby boom generation are using the economy & finance, art & culture compared to the older. And the baby boom generation visit for self-development and the older visit for leisure purposes. Secondly, If the search fails, the baby boomers control the results themselves, while the older is more turn to the librarians. It can be described as the need for a librarian exclusively responsible for the senior. Thirdly, senior have difficulties in access and use of search aided tools or functions. Therefore, this study suggested that it is necessary to build an intuitive interface using the help and menu descriptions for senior who have poor access to convenience and define functions.

A Q-study on Librarians' Role Orientations (도서관 사서의 역할지향(Role Orientation)에 관한 Q 연구)

  • Jung, Hyun-Wook;Kang, Hye-Young
    • Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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    • v.38 no.2
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    • pp.13-30
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    • 2007
  • The purpose of this study was to explore the role orientation that librarians are expected to carry during their career-life. More specifically, this study examined the pattern of librarians subjectivism related to attitude, belief, and confidence. Q questions were made of 36 items, including personal value system and role attitude. P sample included 23 librarians. Data were collected for 8 days (from April 15, 2005 to April 22, 2005). Analyses showed the following results. First, librarians role orientations were classified into 3 types: user-centered orientation, organization-centered orientation, and expertise-centered orientation. (1) The first type librarians were interested in having good relationships with users, while emphasizing the importance of providing good services to the users. (2) The second type of librarians were concerned with social function of the library, while placing highlight on their roles as organizational members. Among them, achievement evaluation was regarded as an important indicator of personal success. They were interested in having stable organizational culture, as well as economic growth of libraries. This orientation was dominant among married members. (3) The third type of librarians focused on librarians role implementation and professional achievement. They showed interest not only in the improvement of librarians creativity and the growth of expertises, but also the expansion of retraining opportunities. This orientation was conspicuous among female librarians. Second, several commonalities and differences were consistently found among librarians. The first type was interested in user-centered orientation(user contact, need satisfaction, self dignity, etc.). The second type was interested in organization-centered orientation(creativity, expertise growth, retraining opportunity, professional achievement. self-respect, etc.).

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