Important New Book Identifies Key Issues

New York, NY (July 7, 2008) — In the Web 2.0 world new technology is continually changing the way information of every kind is created and used.

Like every other sphere, records managers must also fundamentally change their approach if they are to have a role to play in this new world.

Managing the Crowd: Rethinking Records Management for the Web 2.0 World provocatively challenges records managers to find time amidst daily operational pressures to debate the larger issues thrown up by the new technological paradigm we are now entering and the threat it poses to established theory and practice. This important new book published by Facet Publishing in London and exclusively available in the United States through Neal-Schuman will be released on August 15, 2008.

A range of stimulating ideas is put up for discussion: why not, for instance, embrace folksonomies rather than classification schemes and metadata schemes as the main means of resource discovery for unstructured data? Adopt a ranking system that encourages users to rate how useful they found content as part of the appraisal process? Let the content creator decide whether there should be any access restrictions on the content they have created?

Author Steve Bailey has written a thought-provoking book which questions received wisdom and suggest radical new solutions to the very real issues records managers face.

Managing the Crowd: Rethinking Records Management for the Web 2.0 World
ISBN 978-1-85604-641-1.
2008. 6 x 9. 224 pp. $115.00.

About the Author
Steve Bailey currently acts as senior advisor on records management issues for JISC infoNet in England. He is responsible for preparing and disseminating a range of guidance material and tools to help support the development of records management within the sector and is a well known speaker and writer on records management issues with over 60 papers and presentations to his credit. Based in Britain, he is a former Director of the Records Management Society and is currently a member of the Education & Skills FOI Sector Group, the UK Ministry of Justice’s Information Rights User Group and The National Archive’s s.46 Code of
Practice working group. Steve’s blog on the future of records management can be found at http://rmfuturewatch.blogspot.com/.

About Neal-Schuman Publishers andFacet Publishing
Facet Publishing titles are exclusively available in the United States through Neal-Schuman Publishers, a leading provider of library management, Internet, and information technology resources. Facet is the imprint of the prestigious Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (formerly the British Library Association). Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK.

For More Information
Contact Yelena Perlin
(yelena@neal-schuman.com)

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Guide Features Best Practice Search Techniques That Can Be Applied in Any Discipline

New York, NY (July 11, 2008)—Are expert searchers born or trained? How do they find out what requesters really need? How can an effective and successful search strategy be created? “These are just some of the questions answered in Terry Ann Jankowski’s new book to be released by Neal-Schuman Publishers on September 3, 2008.

The Medical Library Association Essential Guide to Becoming an Expert Searcher:Proven Techniques, Strategies, and Tips for Finding Health Information teaches librarians, information specialists, and library school students how to take their search skills to the next level. Even though most of the examples and databases described within the guide are focused on the health and biological sciences, the search techniques outlined can easily be applied across disciplines.

“Interviewing clients, analyzing databases, and constructing search strategies are universal skills needed and utilized every day by any library staff member who provides information services,” says Jankowski.

Ideal for use as a course text or a workbook for self-instruction, Essential Guide to Becoming an Expert Searcher begins with a self-evaluation tool and then takes readers through all the components of an expert search. ” The ten-chapter book is specifically organized to follow the database search process from interview to completion. “In this way,” says Jankowski, “readers can take a search request from start to finish and learn the skills by immediately practicing them.”

Jankowski guides readers through the basics of search construction, offers practical guidelines for deciding what resource to start with, passes on tips and tricks from expert searchers, and reviews the usefulness of some of the most popular health science databases such as MEDLINE and PubMed, PsychInfo, CAB Abstracts, ABI/Inform, ERIC, and more.

Scattered throughout the text are more than a dozen checklists and many exercises and examples taken from the author’s own searching experience, which offer opportunities for application and practice. A glossary provides a quick resource for unfamiliar terms in the text. After reading through the book and completing the exercises, librarians will come away with a much better understanding of what is needed to develop the skills and techniques to become an expert searcher.

The Medical Library Association Essential Guide to Becoming an Expert Searcher: Proven Techniques, Strategies, and Tips for Finding Health Information
ISBN 978-1-55570-622-7.
2008. 6×9. 150 pp. $65.00.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Terry Ann Jankowski is a librarian at the University of Washington in Seattle, currently serving as Head, Education and Information Services at the Health Sciences Library. She is active in the Medical Library Association, having been a member of the Expert Searching Task Force and Education Policy Revision Task Force as well as the Continuing Education
Committee among other volunteer positions. She has edited the column on expert searching in MLA News as well as moderated the Public Services Section email list on expert searching. Jankowski has co-authored and written a number of articles and posters on various aspects of database searching, reference services, and user education.

About Neal-Schuman Publishers and the Medical Library Association
Neal-Schuman Publishers is the leading provider of library management, Internet, and information technology resources, and is the Medical Library Association’s co-publisher. Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK.
The Medical Library Association, founded in 1898, is an educational organization of more than 1,100 institutions and 3,600 individual members in the health sciences information field, committed to educating health information professionals, supporting health information research, promoting access to the world’s health sciences information, and working to ensure that the best health information is available to all.

For More Information
Contact Yelena Perlin
(yelena@neal-schuman.com)

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Librarians will find new book an authoritative source of information, a reader’s advisory tool, and a checklist for collection development

New York, NY (July 16, 2008)—Just in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), eight nationally recognized authorities have brought together essential information about the YALSA awards in one comprehensive guide. The Official YALSA Awards Guidebook, available from Neal-Schuman Publishers as of June 24, will provide librarians with an exhaustive list of award-winning books with which to build their collections, as well as useful tools for
promoting those books to readers.

“When you add YA award-winning books to your collection,” says contributor Erin Downey Howerton, “you then have an incredible asset—a core go-to list of books that provides both popularity and quality to your teen patrons.”

Ideal for any library that caters to a young-adult population, the book provides information on three YALSA awards: the Alex Award, honoring adult books that hold promise for young-adult readers, the Edwards Award, for YA titles that speak especially to adolescent interests and needs, and the Printz Award, for the best young adult book of the year. For each award, contributors discuss the history and founding of the award, as well as characteristics of the winning books. Lists of winning books
provide concise summaries as well as subjects covered.

The contributors have also included award acceptance speeches from notable authors like Judy Blume and Ursula LeGuin. Librarians, teachers and scholars will find the speeches useful for the insights they provide in the authors’ own words.

To help librarians promote their collections, the book includes photocopy-ready pages listing the winners of each award.

“By learning more about YALSA’s awards, every librarian working with teenagers, from generalists to teen specialists, can greatly improve the service they provide teenagers in their libraries,” says Paula Brehm-Heeger, YALSA President. “And, in the end, that is
the greatest accomplishment of all.”

The Official YALSA Awards Guidebook
ISBN 978-1-55570-629-6.
2008. 6 x 9. 225 pp. $55.00

ABOUT THE EDITOR
Tina Frolund is a librarian in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tina holds a master’s degree in library science from the University of Washington, Seattle. She is an active member of YALSA and a reviewer for VOYA: Voice of Youth Advocates. Her previous book is Genrefied Classics: A Guide to Reading Interests in Classic Literature (Libraries Unlimited, 2006).

About Neal-Schuman Publishers
Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City with offices in London, UK. Neal-Schuman is a leading publisher of textbooks in all areas of library and information studies, from library science to archival and records management, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

For More Information
Contact Yelena Perlin
(yelena@neal-schuman.com)

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