Join The CV & Interview Advisors; international speakers and thought-leaders on all things related to personal branding, self-marketing and finding a new contract, for an exclusive webinar on how to write a high impact, contract-winning CV and how to make your LinkedIn profile really work for you.

Join The CV & Interview Advisors; international speakers and thought-leaders on all things related to finding a new job and enhancing your career, for an exclusive webinar on how to create your own personal branding

Join The CV & Interview Advisors; international speakers and thought-leaders on all things related to finding a new job and enhancing your career, for an exclusive webinar on "How to write a high impact CV and how to complete an Application Form for maximum impact".

This 60 min webinar will provide high-quality information on creating a CV that will really open doors and filling out application forms in a way that will convince an employer to invite you for interview.

LinkedIn now has over 365 million members so recruiters and hiring managers naturally use it as one big pond to fish for and select candidates. As a consequence, having a great LinkedIn Profile is not optional, it is essential.



 

Join The CV & Interview Advisors; international speakers and thought-leaders on all things related to finding a new job and enhancing your career, for an exclusive webinar

Libraries Hacked is a project to promote library open data and the creative reuse of that data.  Open data, and producing tech solutions with that data, has already proved to be of great benefit to public organisations.  It is a benefit that can be particularly applied to libraries.

What is Open Data?

Open Data is data made public with a non-restrictive licence, available to everyone to use for any purpose.  The 5-star open data plan provides guidance for open data quality.  This includes just making stuff available (maybe a PDF - 1 star), to open formats linked to other datasets (linked open data - 5 stars!).

The UK is currently top ranked for open data by the Open Data Barometer, and 2nd by the Open Knowledge Foundation.  This is a partly due to enthusiasts pushing for more national and local open data, and how organisations have responded to that demand.

Why make data open?  

Studies point to wider economic benefit, such as an Open Data Institute (ODI) and Nesta report suggesting a 5 to 10-fold return on investment over 3 years.  But for an organisation, benefits can be imagined by asking very simple questions.  Are we using data to it's full potential? Could it be merged with data from elsewhere?  Are those sources open and available?  Do we have the time to do all these things or should we let other people have a go?

Barriers to a growth in open data have been a suspicion and fear of data requests, associating that process with transparency obligations.  However, public and private organisations are realising that data-sharing benefits everyone, and a genuine external demand for their data could be of direct benefit to them.

What to make open?  Bath and North East Somerset Council have an open data policy which states they will open up any data requested of them.  The few exemptions are for data that is personal/sensitive, third-party owned/commercial, or that could pose a security risk.  It's a policy that has led the community to dictate what they want, requesting real-time car park occupancy, cycling/traffic counts, mapping of green spaces, and much more.  Far from being an exercise limited to increased transparency, this has resulted in a process of community engagement, using local data to create solutions to specific problems, as well as informing council policy.  In other words, to the emergence of a citizen-led ‘smart city’.

What’s the link to libraries?

It's easy to enthuse about all this, but where's the link to libraries?  Part of the problem is that there rarely is one.  The 'smart city' agenda promoted by government has largely ignored libraries, but cities have been ‘smart’ since they've had public libraries.  It is odd that a movement to inform citizens about their immediate environment, and enable community solutions, would exclude libraries, where such activity has always been promoted.
 
Articles often try to envisage a 'library of the future', imagining a changing role of libraries.  But lack of library involvement in open data (which can often receive significant funding) is a departure from a historic role in the community, not just a future opportunity.  Addressing this is not a suggestion of any change in focus or skills.  Open data needs libraries, and existing professional library skills.  Local and national open data portals, such as data.gov.uk are often a chaotic mess with few metadata standards, conflicting structures, poor categorisations and no conventions.  They just require some of these information professional skills. 

Library data

There is also a lack of open data about public libraries themselves, such as library catalogues, usage data, opening hours, or static and mobile library locations.

The benefits to libraries in offering comprehensive open data are clear.  Current national (non-open) library performance data is based on historic opinions on what needs to be measured, and isn’t always successful in collecting that data.  But where such measures attempt to collect specific data, an open data strategy simply releases data.  It is the public that define the performance of their library.  The data released engages citizens and encourages them to form their own questions of it.  Rather than being told answers to questions they may not agree with in the first place, it allows individuals to produce their own insight. 

With a lack of official open data, library-related data can still appear in many places.  Ian Anstice releases regular news posts on Public Libraries News (PLN).  Looking at these it's easy to see them as a dataset, with regular structure:  local news by authority, changes, international news.  A libraries hacked project queries PLN for new posts each night and extracts the individual stories.  The data is then embedded into the sidebar of the PLN site as an interactive map to show the spread of news across the UK.
 
Sue Lawson (@shedsue) and Julia Chandler (@juliac2) worked to produce a Google sheet that listed the twitter accounts of public libraries and library authorities.  A libraries hacked twitter gallery provides a view of those accounts with information such as when the account was created, last tweeted, and number of tweets/followers.  So, you’re able to see now that @manclibraries started tweeting way back in 2007, and @hull_libraries have a massive 60,000 tweets - well over double their nearest challengers.

Hacks

Look online and you can find other examples of how people engage with library data. There are scripts to automatically renew library loans, library membership apps that combine all your library accounts (academic/public) into a single portal, and much more.  These are small 'hacks' – creating tech solutions with enthusiasm and a spirit of exploration, and not being too bothered if it doesn't work out.  They don't need to be serious policy-forming analysis.  Simply engaging with data and creating 'mashups' with other data sources is often enough to see where more sophisticated solutions could be created, and where better data is required.

The popularity of engaging in this kind of hacking has led to hack events (‘hackathons’), often run by tech companies or groups of developers. Traditionally these have tended towards a stereotypical view of developers, and encouraged fairly anti-social working patterns (feed them pizza and beer through the night and they'll make software).  But these events are frequently becoming more accessible, the organisation Data Kind run 'Data Dive' events, getting together a wide ranging group of developers, designers and data scientists to use those skills alongside community and charity causes.

To run hack events you need community spaces with a suitable working environment, Wi-Fi, experts on hand to give guidance on data, and a balanced and wide-ranging audience.  In other words, they should be run in libraries, which have space, infrastructure, expertise, and are safe and trusted community spaces with widespread appeal.
 
So how do libraries get involved in open data? There are many local open data groups (often searchable on local groups sites like Meetup) who would welcome open data releases from local organisations, and more members.  Newcastle Libraries have started an open data process, involving the local North East data community, and started running hack events encouraging use of this data. Just the first event included statistical trend analysis, geocoding digitised historic maps, converting digitised texts into web friendly views, and more.

A key to starting out in open data can be forming a policy.  This not only gets sign-offs from key parties but can define boundaries, and help form a better understanding of your data.  Holding an event with trial data can help in understanding what people are particularly interested in, and where more data is required.  The outcomes of hack events are always surprising, engaging, and impossible to predict.  Which is why library data, which is fascinating, rich, and varied is so suited to open data and hacks.

A project is seeking to evaluate the accessibility of different eBook platforms. The project group members would like to invite HEIs to take part in completing an accessibility audit tool. The results will help to create a crowd sourced league table of accessibility features. Another anticipated benefit is that publishers will be able to identify any discrepancies between accessibility investments that they have made, and the perceptions of their users. Through collaborative and transparent testing, we hope to arrive at a shared understanding of what accessibility looks like.

The project group has worked in collaboration with the Publishers Association and Jisc to adapt the tool into something that can be used by librarians and suppliers alike. Huw Alexander at Sage comments that the project represents an “exciting opportunity to highlight the significant accessibility investments the industry has made over recent years. Considerable strides have been made to improve and support accessibility throughout the sector and this valuable initiative will allow us to continue to learn and develop together.”

Further information and links to guidance and the tool can be seen at: https://www.kent.ac.uk/studentsupport/accessibility/ebookaudit.html

The deadline for completion of the audit is Wednesday 31 August 2016.

CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group (RBSCG) are pleased to be offering training on cataloguing rare maps using DCRM(C).

Through lectures and visual aids workshop participants will be introduced to Descriptive Cataloguing of Rare Materials (Cartographics), or DCRM(C). The workshop will focus on the descriptive portions of the bibliographic record, following the scope of DCRM(C), with special emphasis on the differences between Descriptive Cataloguing of Rare Materials (Books) and DCRM(C).

The workshop is suitable for those with working cataloguing experience who wish to be introduced to rare cartographic materials cataloguing according to DCRM(C). Participants should have working experience in MARC AACR2 cataloguing using Descriptive Cataloguing of Rare Materials (Books) and/or Cartographic Materials: A Manual of Interpretation for AACR2.

The workshop will be given by: Todd Fell, Head of Rare Book Cataloguing, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Tea and coffee are provided but attendees will need to make their own arrangements for lunch.

This training is offered at a cost of £50 for members of the CILIP RBSCG and £80 for non-members. To book your place, please contact Tanya Kirk on tanya.kirk@bl.uk, quoting your CILIP membership number (if applicable) and indicating which day you would like to attend.

We are offering two free train-the-trainer places for this course for cataloguers who are interested in becoming RBSCG DCRM(C) cataloguing trainers and who commit themselves to giving the same workshop in the future. If you are interested in the offer, please contact Iris O’Brien (iris.o’brien@bl.uk) with a short statement about why you would like to become a trainer.

CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group (RBSCG) are pleased to be offering training on cataloguing rare maps using DCRM(C).

Through lectures and visual aids workshop participants will be introduced to Descriptive Cataloguing of Rare Materials (Cartographics), or DCRM(C). The workshop will focus on the descriptive portions of the bibliographic record, following the scope of DCRM(C), with special emphasis on the differences between Descriptive Cataloguing of Rare Materials (Books) and DCRM(C).

The workshop is suitable for those with working cataloguing experience who wish to be introduced to rare cartographic materials cataloguing according to DCRM(C). Participants should have working experience in MARC AACR2 cataloguing using Descriptive Cataloguing of Rare Materials (Books) and/or Cartographic Materials: A Manual of Interpretation for AACR2.

The workshop will be given by: Todd Fell, Head of Rare Book Cataloguing, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Tea and coffee are provided but attendees will need to make their own arrangements for lunch.

This training is offered at a cost of £50 for members of the CILIP RBSCG and £80 for non-members. To book your place, please contact Tanya Kirk on tanya.kirk@bl.uk, quoting your CILIP membership number (if applicable) and indicating which day you would like to attend.

We are offering two free train-the-trainer places for this course for cataloguers who are interested in becoming RBSCG DCRM(C) cataloguing trainers and who commit themselves to giving the same workshop in the future. If you are interested in the offer, please contact Iris O’Brien (iris.o’brien@bl.uk) with a short statement about why you would like to become a trainer.

The 2016 Lecture will be given by Peter Ingwersen, Professor Emeritus at The Royal School of Library and Information Science, University of Copenhagen, at the Geological Society during the afternoon of Monday 31st October. Professor Ingwersen won the award in 2015.

There will be two speakers: following an introductory paper by Stephen Robertson - Search: then and now -- with particular reference to the web, in which delegates will hear how we have reached the point at which Google is their primary or even sole entry-point to the web, and also (in some sense) is the web, Peter Ingwersen will look at Context in Interactive IR. His paper looks at what influences the framework of both information retrieval and information retrieval research.

The full programme – including the speakers’ abstracts – and details of the event can be found on the Tony Kent Strix Annual Lecture page - from where you can also book your place.

** Please note that although this is a FREE event, open to everyone, advance bookings ARE required.

The Annual Lecture series is sponsored by Google.

Focus 47(2) for 2016 is published!  CILIP ILIG Individual Member, Organisation Members and Group Only Members will have received this news - by email - from the Focus Editor. 

If you have not, contact CILIP Membership:

email  membership@cilip.org.uk

telephone +44 (0)20 7255 0600

address  CILIP Membership
                 7 Ridgmount Street
                 LONDON
                 WC1E 7AE
                 UNITED KINGDOM

CILIP ILIG members who are registered with the CILIP website can also access Focus 47(2) and Focus 47(1)  for 2016 -  and Focus 46(3) for 2015 - from the member only section of the CILIP ILIG Publication page.

Focus 46(2) for 2015 is now available to all from the public section of the CILIP ILIG Publication page.

Dr Richard Foster (Winchester College) will speak on Winchester College Library.

Details TBA.

CILIP are proposing to introduce a new approach to membership from January 2018, which will provide you with:

Better value for money

More affordability

More tailored benefits

 You can find out more about the new proposals here. 

CILIP Ireland members and non-members are invited to come along to a short focus group to learn more about the proposed new model and to provide feedback.

This event is free of charge. Please contact the CILIP Ireland Development Officer Gerardine Blee to reserve a place; gerardine.blee@cilip.org.uk

The Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals is representing Britain's library and information sector at the IFLA World Library & Information Congress with a message that the UK is open to international collaboration and partnership.
 
Nick Poole CILIP Chief Executive said, “The UK information, knowledge management and library sector works across more than twenty industry sectors. Our profession’s skills and expertise connects customers and organisations with the information and knowledge they need. The UK is a global leader developing solutions in partnership to meet user needs now and in the future. We are going to the IFLA Congress to showcase our fantastic, innovative sector and to seek opportunities for collaboration and partnership for CILIP and the sector.”

The Congress takes place in Ohio, USA, between the 13 and 19 August and brings together over 3,500 delegates from more than 120 countries. The event covers a range of topics relevant to the library and information sector including net neutrality, cultural heritage, copyright and human rights. It sets the professional agenda internationally through the development of guidelines and standards.

The event will provide candidates with an understanding of how to progress towards the relevant professional qualification, an awareness of the regulations and assessment criteria and a clear overview of the CILIP VLE.

The programme will include:

Overview of Professional Registration regulations and the portfolio building process

Overview and demonstration of the CILIP VLE and online portfolio system

Information on support available

Networking opportunities for candidates and those interested in the process

Opportunity for questions about the Professional Registration process

The event is facilitated by Matthew Wheeler (Development Officer, CILIP), and Alex McIlroy (Candidate Support Officer , CILIP Ireland).

The event is free of charge, and is suitable for all who are considering professional registration.

The event will take place at the Linen Hall Library, Belfast .

CILIP has recently announced a new membership model for 2018. As part of the process for shaping the proposals further, focus groups are being run in various regions (and online) in order to get detailed member feedback.

We will be running one at Peterborough Central Library, Thursday 15 September 2016, between 17.00-18.00.

It will last between 45-60 minutes.

The focus groups will examine some of the headline results from the survey and give members the opportunity to discuss some of the finer aspects of the proposed offer.

To attend, please book via the online booking form http://goo.gl/forms/xMPxrfZU5g5TPCPq2. Places will be limited to 10.  

Further details about the event will be sent nearer the time.

You can learn more about the campaign at www.cilip.org.uk/membership-2018 where you can also fill out a survey. All members are encouraged to submit a response to the survey, but if you would like to discuss the proposals further, please make use of this opportunity.

The new Children’s Workforce development e: learning modules are now available for all staff to undertake.  These are available via the Society of Chief Librarians Website - http://goscl.com/childrens-library-workforce/
 
SCL are hoping that all staff will complete the modules by the end of December 2016. Volunteers are also  encouraged to complete the modules.

To  access the modules  go to the UKSCL website (goscl.com), Click on Learning, Click on login or, if staff do not already have a login, Click on create an account, Click on Find courses, Click on Children’s Library workforce.

Following consultation with members, the CILIP Board has decided that an Obligitory Revalidation scheme will not be introduced at present. 

Revalidating remains optional. In order to revalidate, members need to log a minimum of twenty hours of CPD activites and submit a 250 word reflective statement. Revalidating is free of charge and members log their activities on the

CILIP Virtual Learning Environment

This wide-ranging Obligatory Revalidation consultation featured a high response rate, especially for the questionnaire, which had 2,366 responses. While there is considerable support for revalidation in principle (obligatory or not) and an understanding of the potential benefits, this consultation indicates that the opposing view is also strong.

We will continue to focus on the other key elements of our action plan to engage with employers to strengthen the status of the profession and CILIP members, specifically through:

• promoting the value of information and library professionals
• reinforcing the value of professional registration and promoting the presence and value of the online register of practicioners
• strengthening the Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB), available to CILIP Members as a new online tool and in a new format focussed on the health sector

What is obligatory revalidation?

Obligatory Revalidation would mean that all members who hold Certification, Chartership or Fellowship would be obliged to submit a portfolio for revalidation annually.

In a ballot of members in November 2015, CILIP Members voted against a proposal to adopt Obligatory Revalidation by 51% to 49%.

What were the results of the consultation?

The two main advantages, for those who voted in favour of obligatory revalidation, were the raising of professional standing and evidence of CPD. There were a small number of members who, whilst supporting the scheme felt it was not robust enough. 

 
The top three reasons cited for voting “no” included: not being required for work or career progression; professional experience outweighs the necessity to revalidate; and the perceived additions of regulations to the profession. Employer support was also considered an issue with a slight majority suggesting that employers do not support revalidation. 

Recurring themes in free-text, email and verbal comments from participants throughout the consultation included:

• Any revalidation scheme needs employer support in order to be successful
• A scheme needs to be robust in order to be meaningful and credible and should include a compulsory element. It demonstrates professional competence and is in line with other professions
• While many were in favour of the revalidation concept in principle, they were not in favour of obligatory/compulsory
• There is already an overload of work and time pressures without adding this additional burden
• It was felt that there were more important activities than this for CILIP to spend time and resources on
• Any scheme should be flexible to allow for different working practices, e.g. unemployment periods, career breaks etc

Luke Stevens-Burt, Head of Business Development (Member Services) at CILIP, said:

"I would like to reassure members about some of the concerns raised about revalidation in the consultation results. For instance, there is no charge to revalidate and CPD does not have to cost a lot to maintain. It can take numerous forms - from professional conversations to e-learning modules on the CILIP Virtual Learning Module, reading journals and Update magazine.

“We are committed to leading the development of a highly skilled information, knowledge and library workforce. We will do this by supporting members to develop their skills and knowledge through learning opportunities and Continuous Professional Development, and working with employers to invest in information skills and capacity in their organisations.”

To help mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roald Dahl, we have arranged a special guided tour of the museum and archive collection in the picturesque Buckinghamshire village of Great Missenden.

There is a charge for this event.

Libraries collect data all the time: circulation figures, patron records, inventory, purchase orders, database use, collection additions and withdrawls, number of walk-ins, staff and visit scheduling. Perhaps you collect turn-around data about functions such as purchase orders and fulfillment, processing, shelving, interlibrary loans, service calls. You might collect data about reference desk transactions, program participation, use of library handouts (as in number printed and taken), and website use. You might do surveys. Even photographs about the library and its use constitute data. What are some other data you might collect now – or might consider?

Now you want to use those data to improve your library. How do you deal with all that raw data? Few libraries systematically organize their data sets; they tend to keep and report them individually. Consider creating a master table of collecting each data source, the kind of data collected, the frequency of data collected, what the data measure, possible relationships between each data set, the related library function, and link to the library’s strategic plan. A good way to develop the chart is by function or library unit.

This chart visualizes the library’s activities and their interconnectedness, and provides the foundation for evidence-based practice. In creating this chart, librarians are often surprised about the amount of data already collected – or should be collected. For instance, keeping track of the number and types of handouts used in reference transactions – might be a useful new piece of data to collect for the reference desk. 

Librarians might also consider data that are generated automatically, but not actively mined, such as website “hits” or database usage patterns at the reference desk. Do these patterns vary by staff – or differ from patrons’ usage? Perhaps there is little correlation between the databases used by reference staff and those used by patrons; what might be some reasons? Should the library publicize their favorite databases more, or hold workshops on those favored databases? These question can lead to useful focus group sessions to gain insights into patron database behaviors, which can then inform library practice. 

By making data collection explicit and systematic, librarians can start to identify gaps in data and find ways to measure important factors. They can also see how one set of data might be applied to several aspects of the library. This interaction is particularly useful in identifying possible relationship between data, such as library portal usage and reference desk usage, instruction and number of walk-ins, or program participation and circulation records. 

What data are you collecting? Are there data “nooks” or gaps to uncover? How might a table of library data inform your work? 

About the book

Library Improvement through Data Analytics by Lesley S J Farmer and Alan M Safer shows how to act on and make sense of data in libraries. Using a range of techniques, tools and methodologies it explains how data can be used to help inform decision making at every level.

Buy the book

Every day people rely on Google for answers to their most personal, important and most trivial questions. How do we know if the information is reliable? A good place to start is with an information expert , Nazlin Bhimani, to investigate “Does mindfulness benefit children?”. 

‘Mindfulness’ has been in the news for some time now – from mindfulness for children as a way to combat exam stress and improve concentration to mindfulness training as a way to slow down and develop a calmer and more positive approach to life. A quick search on mindfulness in ‘Google News’ brings up thousands of results from just a few hours ago.  News sites from all over the world are represented in the results highlighting the ‘power’ of mindfulness, the use of mindfulness apps and advice that lawyers and doctors ought to start practising mindfulness! There doesn’t appear to be any negatives on the first page of results. Searching on Google will bring up many more thousands of results in less than a second. The first few results are advertisements – differentiated on screen by an ‘Ad’ icon. If we rely only on news sites and Google we would be convinced of the importance of mindfulness but to be certain of this, we need to look a little deeper.  So, how does a parent or guardian decide on whether this is a ‘new’ phenomenon, a different way of ‘meditating’ or not just another fad?   

What exactly are you looking for?

The first step is to know what information you are looking for.  Do you, for instance, want to find out about the benefits of mindfulness training for children? Or do you want to find out about the possible problems associated with mindfulness training for children? Or do you want to find out how mindfulness training is provided? Maybe you want to have information that answers all these questions in which case, you need to start with the first and work your way to the last.   It is important to be clear about what you want to look for as ‘browsing exhaustion’ is a common phenomenon which can lead you to simply click on lots of results that may not be as useful or have the relevant information from a reliable source to answer your question.

Let’s start with the questions about whether mindfulness is beneficial for children and whether there are negative effects of mindfulness training that parents need to be aware of. Most parents would want to know this first.

To begin with, I will type in the keywords ‘benefits mindfulness children’ which at the time of writing, will bring up over 700,000 results on Google.

Reading the page

Before clicking on any of these results, I would advise you to ‘read the page’.  You can’t but help noticing that the first few links are advertisements with that now familiar ‘Ad’icon.  Next, you will notice that Google has kindly provided the content from its sister site Google Scholar at the top, in order of the articles that have been cited (that is referred to in other scholarly papers) the most: 

The last of these looks promising vis-à-vis the query on benefits of mindfulness for children but if you scroll down to the end of the screen, you will notice that Google has also suggested related searches:

Going back to the list of results, you may want to have a quick look at the web addresses in the results list.  You will notice that most of the results will have the word ‘mind’ in the web addresses and almost all will end in .org or .com and .co.uk. Many appear to be relevant – they have names such as ‘mindfulnessinschools.org’ mindfulkidsandfamilies.com’, ‘mindfulteachers.org’, ‘childmind.org’, ‘mindfulnessforchildren.org’, ‘mindful.org’ and more - the keyword ‘mindful’ is part of the site’s identity and is the reason why these websites are top of the list or on the first page of results.  It’s time now to put on your critical hat.  

Put on your critical hat!

The six questions, ‘What?’, ‘Why?’, ‘When?’, ‘How?’, ‘Where?’ and ‘Who?’ are useful to remember (in whatever order you prefer!) when evaluating information.  They allow us to formulate questions, which will help you, sieve through the mountain of information that one normally gets when searching on Google.  Let me explain these:

• What? What is it that I am looking at?  A newspaper article, a research paper, a blog post, a news clip, a documentary, an advert, etc.?
• Why? Why did they write it and why do they want me to read it? Is it to inform me, other researchers, or is it to sell me something?
• When? When was research carried out and when was the information published?
• How? How can I tell if this is unbiased and honest information?  How has the author provided evidence? How has s/he incorporated this evidence (is there data, quotes, references etc)?
• Where? Where has the work been published (geographic location)?
• Who? Who wrote this? Who says they are the expert in this field?  

Bearing in mind these questions, let’s look at the first of the top five results:

The first is a document (a .pdf) which provides a research summary on the ‘Evidence for the Impact of Mindfulness on Children and Young People’.  The title itself answers the ‘what’ question.  You can see the author’s name – K. Weare (who?) and the date 2012 indicating when it was published.  You can also see that it has been cited or referred to by other authors 13 times.  This is a good indication of its impact in that it has been used by others interested in the subject of mindfulness and children.  The web address which ends in ‘.org’ indicates that this document is hosted by an organisation.

If you open the document, you will see that K. Weare is Emeritus Professor at the Universities of Exeter and Southampton and that this publication is part of ‘The Mindfulness in Schools Project’ report (again this answers the question what?) published by the Mood Disorders Centre at University of Exeter (who are likely the funders for this report) and this answers the question where?. So apart from the fact that the publication is four years old, on the face of it, this source could be regarded as a trusted source which can be used to provide you with background information on mindfulness and children.  

As you skim through the document, you can pick up from the subtitles the content that is covered by the author.  The author begins by looking at mindfulness in adults and then moves on to consider mindfulness for children.  Weare brings up references to several studies which provide evidence to support her claim that children can also benefit from mindfulness training.  She summarises the key pieces of research on emotional wellbeing, learning, mental health, physical health and social and emotional learning. At the end of the report, there is a long list of references which the parent/guardian can look up if s/he chooses.  

However, the question of bias (how?) needs to be kept at the back of your mind at all times.  The questions about who is ‘The Mindfulness In Schools Project’ and whether Katherine Weare is an expert in the area of mindfulness needs to be asked.  A search on ‘Katherine Weare and Mindfulness’ brings up a number of recent articles written by Weare, including several articles in academic journals.  There is also a video of her talking about her work at a conference in Sweden in 2015 – this is important as anyone can put up a video on YouTube and claim expertise.  From this evidence, we can conclude she is a bona fide expert on mindfulness and children.  

Another search on the ‘Mindfulness in Schools Project’ (MiSP) will take you to the organisation’s website.  In the ‘About us’ section, you will learn that the co-founders are school teachers.  Does this add to their credibility in terms of providing training to children? Browsing through the site, you discover that there is a flagship 9-week course that is on offer worldwide to teachers and other courses are available for different age groups of students.  Does this add to their credibility in terms of their understanding of children’s learning at different ages?  It is useful to be critical at every stage of the process of information gathering.  You also find out that the website advertises the fact that there are other studies that are being conducted by MiSP in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust (the MYRIAD study).  Furthermore, MiSP were involved in production of the ‘Mindful Nation UK report which was launched on 20th October 2015. This type of careful scrutiny of a website can help you decide whether the organisation is a credible one despite the fact that it is also a business (an inherent bias) that sells training.  It is not unusual to find partnerships partnership between business and academic institutions like this.     

Continuing your search

Remember that although you are now in the realm of looking at information on mindfulness training in schools as opposed to searching for information on the benefits of mindfulness on children, the two are interrelated.   The next step is either to continue to investigate the new reports that are cited on the MiSP site or to go back to your search results and continue the type of questioning we have done above on the other search results.  You will notice that one of the results is from a newspaper, The Huffington Post.   My recommendation is to stay away from newspapers as much of what they publish tends to be sensationalised.   

Now that you have a little more information on the subject of mindfulness, I would suggest that you have a look at the Google Scholar results to see what the ‘experts’, that is, academic researchers, have to say on the subject. Many of the articles are available on open access from the different university research repositories.  I would also recommend that, to be better informed, one also needs to search for the opposite – the negative effects of mindfulness training for children.  This would require a second search with the following keywords, for example “mindfulness children negatives”.  A systematic way of evaluating information (using the six questions or another method as suggested in the previous #AskALibrarian posts) will save you time in the longer run and provide relevant and quality information from Google.

#AskALibrarian

Other blogs in the #AskALibrarian series include:

• #AskALibrarian: How can I find reliable hotel reviews? - Leslie Stebbins
• #AskALibrarian: Do games improve learning? - Jane Secker
• #AskALibrarian: Is my smartphone listening to me? - Rebecca Oliva
• #AskALibrarian: Does Echinacea work when you have a cold? - Nancy Graham
• #AskALibrarian: What are the consequences of the EU referendum result? - Katharine Reedy

Facet Publishing have announced the publication of Library Improvement through Data Analytics by Lesley S. J. Farmer and Alan M. Safer.

This book shows how to make sense of data in libraries and use it to inform decision making at every level.

Sound data analytics is the foundation for making an evidence-based case for libraries, in addition to guiding myriad organizational decisions, from optimizing operations for efficiency to responding to community needs. Designed to be useful for beginners as well as those with a background in data, this book introduces the basics of a six point framework that can be applied to a variety of library settings for effective system based, data-driven management.

The guide covers such key topics as:

• the basics of statistical concepts
• recommended data sources for various library functions and processes, and guidance for using census, university, or chamber of commerce data in analysis
• techniques for cleaning data
• matching data to appropriate data analysis methods
• how to make descriptive statistics more powerful by spotlighting relationships
• 14 case studies which address such areas as digitization, e-book collection development and reference
• staffing, facilities, and instruction.

This book’s clear, concise coverage will enable readers of every experience level to gain a better understanding of statistics in order to facilitate library improvement. It will be essential reading for library managers and key decision makers.

-ends

Press and review copies contact:

James Williams, Marketing & Sales Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk

Notes:
Library Improvement through Data Analytics | Jul 2016 | 192pp | Paperback; 9781783301614; £54.95

About the authors:

Dr. Lesley S. J. Farmer, professor at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), coordinates the Librarianship Program. She earned her MS in library science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and received her doctorate in adult education from Temple University. She has worked as a librarian in K–12 school settings, as well as in public, special, and academic libraries. She chairs the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ School Libraries Section and is a Fulbright Scholar. Dr. Farmer received the American Library Association Beta Phi Mu Award for distinguished service and library education, as well as several other professional association awards, and national and international grants. Farmer’s research interests include information literacy, assessment, and educational technology, especially digital citizenship. A frequent presenter and writer for the profession, Farmer has published over 30 professional books and more than a 100 professional book chapters and articles.

Dr. Alan M. Safer is a professor at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. He received his PhD in Statistics from the University of Wyoming and his MS in Marketing Research from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He first came to CSULB as an assistant professor in 2000 and has been a full professor since 2010. Early in his career at the university, he created a MS degree in Applied Statistics and later a professional accelerated MS degree in Applied Statistics for industry students from companies such as Boeing, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman. He served as the graduate advisor for 7 years, and in 2009 was awarded university advisor of the year at CSULB. Dr. Safer’s research has been very interdisciplinary; he has over 25 publications in diverse statistical areas such as finance, library science, marketing, health science, linguistics, and forensics. His primary statistical research focus is data mining and quality control. In 2012, he was appointed coordinator of a national conference on quality control sponsored by the American Statistical Association. In the last few years, Dr. Safer helped create the Orange County/Long Beach chapter of the American Statistical Association and served as its vice president

The book is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. It is available in North America from the American Library Association.