2014 年2月OCLC WebJunction 發表，美國博物館與圖書館協會(Institute of Museum and Library Service，簡稱IMLS) 贊助，發表圖書資訊專業領域能力索引 (Competency Index for the Library Field) 的更新版本，原本版本於2009年發表，圖書資訊專業領域能力索引可協助館員辨識與獲得專業領域相關的知識、技能，2014 年2月所出版的版本著重21世紀所需要的技能(21st Century Skills)、對圖書館資料與評估的當責(Accountability)及社區貢獻度 (Community Engagement)。索引的內容可區分為5大項目，36 個次項目，我們可從此看出圖書資訊專業所需技能與規劃館員繼續教育之課程方向與內容。 / MOOCs are Massive Open Online Courses that enroll anyone wishing to attend for free. Early MOOCs, which emerged out of the OER movement, are known as Connectivist MOOCs [aka cMOOCs] and emphasize both active student learning and knowledge creation using a wide range of tools that are (1) shared with fellow students and (2) openly licensed for use and adaption [i.e. community-generated OERs]. The more widely known MOOCs, xMOOCs, rely on video lectures by professors, some student interaction, and online educational tools. These register students in the tens of thousands and some have numbered as many as 160,000 in a class – making it impossible to provide professorial support. None provide access to institutional library collections. They are very expensive to produce and funded by investors or major institutions. Despite their name, xMOOCs are not open educational resources / 20. 一般民眾與老年人服務 (Core Technology Competencies) 20-1 推廣 (Outreach)：包括設計與執行符合社區需求的圖書館服務；定義與執行圖書館社區推廣服務，提高圖書館使用率，將服務觸及到未曾接觸之民眾；使用線上工具與所服務的民眾溝通。 20-2一般民眾推廣服務 (Adult Programming) ：設計、執行與贊助圖書館推廣服務並提供民眾獲取資訊，娛樂與終身學習。 20-3老年人服務與推廣 (Older Adult Services and Programming) ：設計與執行符合社區老年人需求的服務與活動、定義與執行圖書館老年人推廣服務，提高圖書館服務的使用率，並將服務觸及到未能服務到的族群，設計、執行與贊助圖書館推廣服務，並提供老年人或取資訊，娛樂與終身學習。 20-4讀者利用指導 (Readers’ Advisory) ：指引使用者選擇常用及休閒性閱讀及書評。發展良好的讀者使用指引策略與資訊源。 20-5參考服務 (Reference) ：發展與維護參考資源已達成讀者對其之需求，優化讀者進行參考晤談之過程，協助讀者達成資訊尋求。

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 1993. / Includes vita and abstract. Order number 9320541. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-186).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 1993. / Includes vita and abstract. Order number 9320541. Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-186).

Reading is a fundamental skill that each person needs to develop during early childhood and continue to enhance into adulthood. While children/teenagers depend on this skill to advance academically and become educated individuals, adults are expected to acquire a certain level of proficiency in reading so that they can engage in social/civic activities and successfully participate in the workforce. A step towards assisting individuals to become lifelong readers is to provide them adequate reading selections which can cultivate their intellectual and emotional growth. Turning to (web) search engines for such reading choices can be overwhelming, given the huge volume of reading materials offered as a result of a search. An alternative is to rely on reading materials suggested by existing recommendation systems, which unfortunately are not capable of simultaneously matching the information needs, preferences, and reading abilities of individual readers. In this dissertation, we present novel recommendation strategies which identify appealing reading materials that the readers can comprehend, which in turn can motivate them to read. In accomplishing this task, we have examined used-defined data, in addition to information retrieved/inferred from reputable and freely-accessible online sources. We have incorporated the concept of “social trust” when making recommendations for advanced readers and suggested fiction books that match the reading ability of individual K-12 readers using our readability-analysis tool for books. Furthermore, we have emulated the readers' advisory service offered at school/public libraries in making recommendations for K-12 readers, which can be applied to advanced readers as well. A major contribution of our work is in the development of unsupervised recommendation strategies for advanced readers which suggest reading materials for both entertainment and learning acquisition purposes. Unlike their counterparts, these recommendation strategies are unaffected by the cold-start or long-tail problems, since they exploit user-defined data (if available) while taking advantage of alternative publicly-available metadata. Our readability-analysis tool is innovative, which can predict the readability-levels of books on-the-fly, even in the absence of excerpts from books, a task that cannot be accomplished by any of the well-known readability tools/strategies. Moreover, our multi-dimensional recommendation strategy is novel, since it simultaneously analyzes the reading abilities of K-12 readers, which books readers enjoy, why the books are appealing to them, and what subject matters the readers favor. Besides assisting K-12 readers, our recommender can be used by parents/teachers/librarians in locating reading materials to be suggested to their (K-12) children/students/patrons. We have validated the performance of each methodology presented in this dissertation using existing benchmark datasets or datasets we created for the evaluation purpose (which is another contribution we make to the research community). We have also compared the performance of our proposed methodologies with their corresponding baselines and state-of-the-art counterparts, which further verifies the correctness of the proposed methodologies.

This study advances a theoretical model of appeal, the framework readers’ advisory (RA) librarians use to make book suggestions. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it combines elements of media studies, literary theory, and library science to posit new elements of appeal and new models for understanding its dynamics. This dissertation argues that, because appeal as currently practiced relies heavily on reductive binaries, it fails to account for a number of features that play a crucial role in a reader’s experience of a work. Through a historically informed explication of the existing appeal framework, it posits a new formulation: appeal is a tripartite construct involving the sensibility of a text, the content of a work, and the interest of a reader, where reader is understood in its broadest sense. The new framework demonstrates explicitly that appeal is both textual and readerly and advances a number of additional concepts that are possible only in a more nuanced, tripartite structure. The dissertation illustrates its findings through three application chapters, considering in depth Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The study further provides a new theory/practice model of appeal, strongly urging that, if RA service is to continue to advance, its provision and an understanding of its critical concepts be undertaken with depth and rigor.

No description available.

Studies have shown that library employees often choose not to use readers’ advisory tools but to instead rely entirely on their own experience, often doing the library user a disservice. However, very few have looked at why this is so. This thesis looks at to what extent thirty individual employees in thirty Swedish public libraries use readers advisory tools when helping a patron find a good book, with the major focus on what motivates them to use these tools and why some choose not to use them. It was found that readers’ advisory tools where not used with any consistency and that many things influence the library employees’ use of these tools. Among other things, having access to readers’ advisory tools was of course essential, as was that the library employee felt there were no major time constraints. The usability and usefulness of these tools was also central, as was the library employees’ competence and confidence at using them. Many also stated that they had trouble remembering that there were readers’ advisory tools available at all. The optimal tool, according to the participants in this study, is easy to access and easy to use. Outside of these criteria opinions divide on what is most essential, that they are organized by genre and based on the opinions of professionals or that they focus on the reading experience of library patrons. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the literacy environment at home, at school and in the community and the development of voluntary reading and thus a reading habit. This research is relevant as there is an alarming drop out rate, poor matriculation results and low scores in reading performance tests in South African schools. Many factors and possible causes can contribute to this, but a major problem is the lack of a reading habit, low literacy levels and an environment that is not supportive of literacy. As a result, many children are still leaving school functionally illiterate. In order to develop a reading habit, learners must get maximum support and encouragement from their literacy environment, as children learn from what is going on around them. The major role players in the learner's literacy environment, are the home and family (microstructure), the school and teachers, and his community which includes libraries (macrostructure). A literature study on the foundations, contexts and practices of literacy, voluntary reading and environmental factors that affect reading provides the theoretical basis and a conceptual framework for this study. The research method used is a case study with the focus on a sample of learners from Grade 3 - 7 from schools in the Highveld Ridge and Gauteng East area. Due to budgetary and logistical constraints, rural areas are not included. The empirical survey investigates various aspects of the literacy environment. The survey method, with questionnaires for learners, teachers and headmasters, was used. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to generate data. The findings are that many learners experience difficulties which hinder the development of a reading habit, for example: schools and communities do not have libraries, or access to them is limited; appropriate reading materials are not available; or learners do not have access to them; multilingualism is a major problem in a country with eleven official languages, as many learners have to learn and teachers have to teach in a language other than their mother tongue; parents are not literate and cannot help their children; socio-economic conditions are not conductive to reading; there is a lack of support from governmental at various levels. Although findings in a case study cannot be generalised, certain conclusions and suggestions can guide teachers, parents and librarians to create a more supportive literacy environment to encourage voluntary reading. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the literacy environment at home, at school and in the community and the development of voluntary reading and thus a reading habit. This research is relevant as there is an alarming drop out rate, poor matriculation results and low scores in reading performance tests in South African schools. Many factors and possible causes can contribute to this, but a major problem is the lack of a reading habit, low literacy levels and an environment that is not supportive of literacy. As a result, many children are still leaving school functionally illiterate. In order to develop a reading habit, learners must get maximum support and encouragement from their literacy environment, as children learn from what is going on around them. The major role players in the learner's literacy environment, are the home and family (microstructure), the school and teachers, and his community which includes libraries (macrostructure). A literature study on the foundations, contexts and practices of literacy, voluntary reading and environmental factors that affect reading provides the theoretical basis and a conceptual framework for this study. The research method used is a case study with the focus on a sample of learners from Grade 3 - 7 from schools in the Highveld Ridge and Gauteng East area. Due to budgetary and logistical constraints, rural areas are not included. The empirical survey investigates various aspects of the literacy environment. The survey method, with questionnaires for learners, teachers and headmasters, was used. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to generate data. The findings are that many learners experience difficulties which hinder the development of a reading habit, for example: schools and communities do not have libraries, or access to them is limited; appropriate reading materials are not available; or learners do not have access to them; multilingualism is a major problem in a country with eleven official languages, as many learners have to learn and teachers have to teach in a language other than their mother tongue; parents are not literate and cannot help their children; socio-economic conditions are not conductive to reading; there is a lack of support from governmental at various levels. Although findings in a case study cannot be generalised, certain conclusions and suggestions can guide teachers, parents and librarians to create a more supportive literacy environment to encourage voluntary reading. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)