Adding an "E" to Free

In a perfect world, you’d have the funds to buy or subscribe to all the ebooks and ejournals your users want. You’d have a couple dozen Kindles and iPods, loaded with content, on hand to loan out. You’d have a magical library Netflix account that would let all your patrons watch movies from home by entering their library card numbers; ditto for iTunes that would stream music from your collection. Someday, maybe. But for today, it’s possible to build a decent e-collection around free resources. Here are several of my favorite free e-resources for you to check out

So We're Publishers Now?

Librarians are increasingly responsible for publishing information to the web. What tools are out there to help create meaningful research guides for your students and faculty

Putting Your Knowledge Out There

How to get the information you publish elsewhere to the places your users are looking by using RSS feeds and a few simple tools to customize library computer desktops

Cool Tools for Back to School

I’d like to offer you some truly awesome library and research tools that will be useful for your school-bound patrons. For students who may use a wide variety of computers in campus labs, at home, and at your library, having simple online applications that don’t require anything but a web browser and a login can make a huge difference in the ability to get work done. All of these tools are free and can be easily linked and promoted from a page on your library’s website

Somewhere Over the Verde Rainbow

ERMs are the future of serials management for academic libraries, but no one is quite sure what that future will look like. Lessons learned during Verde ERM implementation from K-State Libraries at Kansas State University

Welcome! Creating an Effective New Employee Orientation Program at Kansas State Libraries

K-State Libraries found itself in the interesting position of a simultaneous hiring boom and organizational redesign that threatened to leave a large group of new employees adrift without guidance from an HR director or unit. Deciding to embrace change from within, an ad hoc task force of three stepped forward to create, implement, and manage a new employee orientation program until an HR director could be hired. We started with formal and informal surveys of staff members to assess needs. Based on those results, and with the endorsement of the Libraries’ leadership team, we created a three-pronged program to orient incoming faculty and staff to the Libraries. The program was designed as a whole-organization orientation, with the intention of standardizing “first month” experiences on the assumption that employees who start off on the right foot will be more likely to adapt, succeed, and be retained as contributing members of the organization. First of the three prongs was a step-by-step checklist for use by the administrative staff and immediate supervisor during the first 3 months of employment. This checklist covered basic necessities like phone lines and computer equipment, as well as orientations to other library departments and information about benefits, policies, and procedures. Next was an orientation notebook for the new employee, containing helpful campus information, documentation for common computer tasks, and general facts about the Libraries. Finally, we solicited and trained volunteer guides to be matched with each new employee. Guides were assigned from outside the new employee’s immediate work area to serve as a social connection/introduction to the rest of the library, and to be a friendly, neutral source for answering procedural questions. As of this writing, 17 individuals have been through the orientation program, and it has resulted in a smoother integration of these individuals into the Libraries compared to those hired before the orientation program was in place