Book review: Libraries without walls 6
Title of Book
Libraries without walls 6: Evaluating the distributed delivery of library services
Author
Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven, and Margaret Markland (eds)
ISBN
1856045765
Publisher
Facet Publishing
Publisher Website
Reviewer Name
Janice Grant
Title
MKN editor
Review
This volume contains the papers from the sixth Libraries Without Walls Conference. 2005 saw the tenth anniversary of the series, which began in 1995, when the concept of delivery of library services to distant users was in its infancy. Now, ten years later, librarians routinely offer such services, either facilitating access to their own services to distant users, or allowing users within the library itself access to distant resources. In fact, most libraries now strive to do both.
Often such a volume, with a variety of authors reporting on different themes, can be difficult to read, but I was engrossed by this collection. It was fascinating to compare how different services have embraced, and attempted to evaluate, the vast array of resources made possible by rapidly advancing technology.
The focus of the volume is how libraries evaluate their readers’ use of distant resources. As I read, several themes recurred:
- It is vitally important to find valid tools to evaluate digital resources.
- Readers today are accustomed to finding information digitally; in fact, they expect it. Is this a threat or a benefit to traditional libraries?
- To what extent should librarians be involved in the promotion of and tuition in the use of the new resources?
The papers in the book address these themes, each from a different viewpoint. For example, there is a paper on ensuring access for users with disabilities, one on a consortium of Greek libraries, several on the complexities of assessing the value of resources, and one on an innovative digital video project.
As health librarians in Scotland, we are familiar with the NHS e-library as a model of resource sharing that provides material far beyond the means of any individual library. It was very interesting to read the contributions in the context of my own experience of using and promoting the e-library.
Repeatedly it was stressed that we must strive to find robust evaluation tools for the value of digital resources and for the measurement of user satisfaction. We tend to think it is self-evident that providing multiple databases, full-text journals, and electronic books is obviously ‘a good thing’. When we look closely, though, perhaps only ourselves and committed users are convinced. If we can produce realistic methods of monitoring libraries’ performance against customers’ expectations, then we have a powerful tool that allows customers access to the resources they require, gives the library a performance indicator to present to stakeholders, and gives the library staff standards at which to aim.
Such evaluation tools are not easy to create. We may count hits on a website or numbers of registered users, but such methods have as little value as book issue statistics in a traditional library. They do not take into account how valuable the resources have been in the actual learning process. Some of the papers demonstrate how poorly used the resources often are, academics and learners alike preferring to search on Google, if they search online at all. There are good papers on how different library services have attempted evaluation in a systematic way, including a very interesting one from Florida which attempted to prove in monetary terms the economic value of libraries. Alison Brettle’s paper looks at the issues involved in evaluating the impact of health library services. She comprehensively identifies the problems involved in valid evaluation and describes the benefits of a variety of tools. She then reports on a research study undertaken in the North West of England, Effective Methods of Providing InfoRmation for patient Care (EMPIRIC). Although the research demonstrated the value of library services and training for health professionals, many health professionals have little time to use the array of available resources in their own practice. I’m sure many of us have found the same with our own clients, and raised the question of whether we should be doing more in the way of promoting our ability to carry out mediated searches.
In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I found the concepts stimulating and most of the contributions positive in the face of the threat of Google and other alternative sources. However, we must be aware of our users’ information needs and their expectations of their libraries. In the future our users will increasingly expect immediate solutions. While trying to cater for this, we must continually strive to evaluate our services and their effectiveness. There are multiple demands on our authorities’ finances and we will be listened to only if we can demonstrate the benefit of our services in economic and educational terms for patient care.