Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Difficult Yet Satisfying Job Of Library Consultants

By Essie Osborn


Libraries have become the sole access of humans to a pool of knowledge before the dawning of the internet. Books, traditionally were mainly used for studying and becoming wise in the way of the world for the past decades. Nowadays, information is being fed directly to the reader with the use of high tech computers and portable mobile devices. Even with this high tech trend and the birth of portable devices, people have not got over books yet and it might continue even after generations to generations pass.

Inside bulky athenaeum were guardians that watched these sources of wisdom and ensured these are organized well until students who are looking for enlightenment came. These watchers are called librarians and on top of the hierarchy are tagged as library consultants. These experts are the people who oversees development and order in most state libraries. They are masters of such occupation due to their devotion and life long commitment in service to these institutions where knowledge had been protected.

These consultants are accountable for continuing education, facilitation, and consultation in most state athenaeum. They take charge in assisting governing boards in problem solving and they give practical advice to any issues and needs concerned with operations. Mainly, these process and activities include grant programs, management, and cooperative activities but these are just few to mention.

They also take part in reviews, state laws, and in explaining Federal laws which could heavily affect bibliotheca operations. In the purpose of improving, they realize progress reports, workshops, speeches as well as public meetings. They make negotiations in cases of conflicts and they solve issues in the network and internally.

Furthermore, they are overseers of development programs. They are often involved in the implementation and evaluation of statewide programs and improvement processes of information and library services. They are also the people behind the compilation of all the reports and summaries from various types of governing boards and athenaeum. In addition, they examine every existing and proposed plans and programs to see if these are being effective or if there is a need to change.

They are professionals who take charge with resource and networking. They monitor and handle networking activities for connected athenaeum and collaborations in information technology. They are monitoring advisory groups as well as statewide network resources.

Furthermore, implementation, evaluation, and development of public awareness programs are part of their forte. They have the task of collaborating with various centers to find out the needs regarding continuing education that is closely related to public advocacy and awareness. To cut it short, they have the responsibility of letting the public know about how important it is to go to the bibliotheca and read books.

Most of these professionals have a Masters from an accredited program of ALA or an education and experience combination degree. They also have expertise in library science and well informed with the trends for library services. Some of the experiences that may have helped them would include setting, facilitation, decision making, problem solving, presentation, development, and planning.

If you wanted assistance with improving a certain bibliotheca in your area, these are the individuals who can help you. You may get in touch with them through referral or through online. Others can be found working inside libraries too.




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