2011 Best Practices for Government Libraries Now Available

The 2011 Best Practices for Government Libraries: e-Initiatives and e-Efforts: Expanding Our Horizons is is now available: 2011 Best Practices for Government Libraries in PDF. Best Practices for Government Libraries for 2011 and prior years are all available from the right sidebar here on the Government Info Pro.

Best Practices is a collaborative document that is put out annually on a specific topic of interest to government libraries and includes content submitted by government librarians and community leaders with an interest in government libraries. The 2011 edition includes over 70 articles and other submissions provided by more than 60 contributors including librarians in government agencies, courts, and the military, as well as from professional association leaders, LexisNexis Consultants, and more. As the editor of Best Practices for Government Libraries, I want to thank the contributors for sharing their knowledge, experience, and thoughtful perspectives in this year’s Best Practices. If you did not write for this year’s Best Practices, I invite you to submit a guest post for the Government Info Pro.

The 2011 Best Practices for Government Libraries: e-Initiatives and e-Efforts: Expanding Our Horizons is broken into six sections:

• EMBRACING NEW AVENUES OF COMMUNICATION
• ADAPTING TO NEW AND EVOLVNG TECHNOLOGIES
• ALTERING OUR PLACES AND SPACES
• TACKLING CHANGING EXPECTATIONS, RESOURCES, AND JOB DESCRIPTIONS
• PRESERVING WHAT WE HAVE AND PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
• EXPANDING HORIZONS

Here is a sampling of the articles in each section:

EMBRACING NEW AVENUES OF COMMUNICATION

• Blogging at the Largest Law Library in the World
  Christine Sellers, Legal Reference Specialist, and Andrew Weber, Legislative Information Systems Manager, Law Library of Congress
• “Friended” by the Government? A Look at How Social Networking Tools Are Giving Americans Greater Access to Their Government
  Kate Follen, MLS, President, Monroe Information Services
• Podcasts Get Information Junkies their Fix
  Chris Vestal, Supervisory Patent Researcher with ASRC Management Services, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and DC/SLA‘s 2011 Communication Secretary
• Getting the Most from Social Media from the Least Investment of Time and Energy
  Tammy Garrison, MLIS, Digitization Librarian at the Combined Arms Research Library at Fort Leavenworth, KS
• Thinking Outside the Email Box: A New E-Newsletter for the Justice Libraries
  Kate Lanahan, Law Librarian, and Jennifer L. McMahan, Supervisory Librarian, U.S. Department of Justice
• Bill’s Bulletin: Librarians and Court Staff Working Together to Develop an E-Resource
  Barbara Fritschel, U. S. Courts Library, Milwaukee, WI
• Proletariat’s Speech: Foreign Language Learning with a Common Touch
  Janice P. Fridie, Law Librarian, U.S. Department of Justice
• Social Media Comes Together with Storify
  Chris Zammarelli, Contract Cataloger on behalf of ATSG, LLC for the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Information Programs, Office of Information Resources

ADAPTING TO NEW AND EVOLVNG TECHNOLOGIES

• EBooks in Special Libraries: Final Report of the Federal Reserve System Libraries Work Group on EBooks
  Luke Mueller, Technical Librarian, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
• Kindle Lending Programs in Libraries
  Montrese Hamilton, Librarian, Society for Human Resource Management
• Intranet Case Study: Government Agency
  Lorette S.J. Weldon, MLS, BSIFSM, BA
• Putting the E in Library
  David E. McBee, Federal Government Librarian, ww.librarybuzz.blogspot.com
• Web E-Accessibility to Reach Full E-Audience: “Expanding Our Horizon” to Better Honor Diversity
  Ken Wheaton, Web Services Librarian, Alaska State Court System Law Library

ALTERING OUR PLACES AND SPACES

• Embedded Librarianship and E-Initiatives: The Dynamic Duo
  Rachel Kingcade, Chief Reference & CSC Direct Support Librarian, USMC Research
• Utilizing Electronic Databases During a Library Relocation
  George Franchois, Director, U.S. Dept. of the Interior Library
• E-Reference at the Library of Congress
  Amber Paranick and Megan Halsband, Reference Librarians, Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room, Serial & Government Publications Division, Library of Congress
• Best Practices: Telewor
  Robert Farina, MSLIS, Entrepreneur, Minor Potentate of Logogrammatic Research & Analysis, Data Wrangler, etc.
• Best Practices for Virtual Reference
  Susan Ujka Larson, MLIS
• To Build a Virtual Embedded Information Role, Start at the Top
  Mary Talley, Owner, TalleyPartners, 2011 DC/SLA President

TACKLING CHANGING EXPECTATIONS, RESOURCES, AND JOB DESCRIPTIONS

• Accidental Advisors: There’s GOT to Be a Better Way!
  Compiled by Nancy Faget and Jennifer McMahan (Eugenia Beh, Blane Dessy, Aimee Babcock-Ellis, Marianne Giltrud, Jessica Hernandez, Rich Louis, Virginia Sanchez)
• I Need a Library Job: Finding and Filling a Need on the Fly
  Naomi House, Reference Librarian, Census Library
• Rebranding the Library
  Julie Jones, Hartford Branch Librarian, U.S. Courts, Second Circuit Library
• NIH Handheld User Group: Library-IT Collaboration>
  James King, Information Architect, NIH Library
• Cats and Dogs – Living Together: Leveraging IT Resources for Library Use>
  Sarah Mauldin, Head Librarian, Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, Atlanta, GA
• Broadband Plan and the Provision of Public Libraries
  Christian Jiménez Tomás, Information Specialist, The World Bank Law Resource
• E-Gov Sites to Go Dark?>
  Kim Schultz, Outreach Specialist at the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information, operated by Chugach Federal Solutions, Inc.
• E-Gov on the Web: A Brief Summary of Electronic Access Through On-Line Resources>
  Jennifer Klang, Head of Reference Services, Department of the Interior Library
• Public Records Resources Online: How to Find Everything There Is to Know About “Mr./Ms. X”
  Jennifer L. McMahan, Supervisory Librarian, U.S. Department of Justice
• The Challenge of E-Legislative History for the “51st State”
  Lisa Kosow, Law Librarian, U.S. Attorney‘s Office for the District of Columbia
• E-Gov Resources on Native Americans and Tribal Issues
  Kathy Kelly, MSLS, C.A.
• LexisNexis 2010 International Workplace Productivity Survey: Executive Summary of Results for Legal Professionals

PRESERVING WHAT WE HAVE AND PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE

• Federal Libraries on the E-Horizon
  Blane K. Dessy, Executive Director, FLICC/FEDLINK, Library of Congress
• Research Metrics: Measuring the Impact of Research
  Research Metrics: Measuring the Impact of Research
• When I Walk Across My Library I Think…
  Edwin B. Burgess, Director, Combined Arms Research Library
• E-Initiative Liberia: Creating a Legislative Library in the Rubble of War
  Mary Nell Bryant, M.A., M.L.S., U.S. Foreign Service Information Officer, retired
• JustSearch at the Department of Justice
  Lila Faulkner, Diane L. Smith, and Jane Sanchez, Library Staff, U.S. Department of Justice Library Staff
• Real Libraries, Virtual Fundraising
  Biblio Latte, Volunteer Reference Librarian, Community Virtual Library
• Accessible Libraries: Ensuring All May Read
  Jane Caulton, Head, Publications and Media Section, NLS, Library of Congress
• A Model Lessons Learned System – The US Army
  Nancy M. Dixon, Principal Researcher, Common Knowledge Associates

EXPANDING HORIZONS

• Ten Scary Issues: Future Directions for Military Libraries
  Edwin B. Burgess, Director, Combined Arms Research Library
• Future Ready 365
  Cindy Romaine, SLA President 2011
• Expanding Horizons with E-Learning: VA Librarians Develop Online Tutorial for EBN Training
  Priscilla L. Stephenson, MSLS, MSEd, Philadelphia VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA; and Teresa R. Coady, MLS, VA Central Iowa Healthcare System, Des Moines, IA
• Library Connect Newsletter: Information Industry Explorations by and for Librarians
  Colleen DeLory, Editor, Library Connect Publications, Elsevier
• Building a Framework to Embrace the New and Expand Your Horizons
  Bruce Rosenstein, Author, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker‘s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life
• All About E
  Peggy Garvin, Founder & Principal, GarvinInformationConsulting.com

Want more Best Practices? View the 2010 Best Practices: The New Face of Value in PDF version.