Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Economic Well-Being And Social Justice Through Pleasure Reading, Pauline Dewan

Library Publications

Purpose – Librarians planning for the future and unsure about the place of books in an age dominated by technology and media need evidence to make sound decisions. Library and information science researchers have studied the impact of pleasure reading on individuals but not on society. The purpose of this article is to raise awareness about the benefits of recreational reading for societies and to consider the implications of these findings for libraries.

Design/methodology/approach – Examining a wide range of studies by government bodies, intergovernmental agencies, and academics, this article addresses a gap in the library literature by critically evaluating …

Using New Venture Competitions To Link The Library And Business Students, Yanli Li

Library Publications

New venture competitions are designed to motivate university students to develop business plans and to present them to a panel of judges including business community members. Wilfrid Laurier University has integrated the new venture competition into its business school curriculum.This paper intends to share the experience of a new business librarian at Laurier Library in working with faculty to assist students to prepare for the new venture competition. A short survey is conducted to evaluate how students use the library resources and services for completing their projects. The results show that course guides and databases are the most used library …

Accessibility Of Vendor-Created Video Tutorials For People With Disabilities, Joanne Oud

Library Publications

Many video, screencast, webinar, or interactive tutorials are created and provided by vendors for use by libraries to instruct users in database searching. This study investigates whether these vendor-created database tutorials are accessible for people with disabilities to see whether librarians can use these tutorials instead of creating them in-house. Findings on accessibility were mixed. Positive accessibility features and common accessibility problems are described, with recommendations on how to maximize accessibility.

Aiming For Service Excellence: Implementing A Plan For Customer Service Quality At A Blended Service Desk, Joanne Oud, Peter Genzinger

Library Publications

This article discusses a public service review and redesign that resulted in a blended service desk combining reference and circulation functions, staffed by nonlibrarians. The redesign implements a number of organizational structures that encourage service excellence, as found in the business literature and in examples of nonlibrary organizations that excel in customer service. The article identifies key organizational structures that have been shown to support or hinder good service and discusses the process of implementing these structures in practice and the results of an assessment process designed around determining success.

Under The Floorboards, Greg Sennema

Library Publications

My grandfather Theo Polman (1904-1965) maintained a daily diary for his entire adult life, recording both banal and dramatic events that occurred in and around his home in Groningen. In reading and rereading his diary – in particular the dark years of Nazi occupation – I have become intimately familiar with the quotidian details of his life as a tobacco-store owner, as a doting husband to his homemaker wife, and as a caring father to his son and daughter (my mother). Theo's descriptions of tangible objects including heirlooms or food items are easily detectable in my own upbringing as a …

Perennially Popular: The Appeal Of Classic Fairy Tales For Children, Pauline Dewan

Library Publications

No abstract provided.