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Community Cionnections: Library Leadership Institute Brings Together Librarians in East Asia

Library Leadership Institute Brings Together Librarians in East Asia

In March 2003, the University of Hong Kong Libraries initiated an education program designed to support library directors and senior librarians in the East Asia region by providing them with the opportunity to develop the new skills and awareness required of leaders in the rapidly changing information sector.

Since 2003, the University of Hong Kong Libraries have collaborated with regional library organizations to create an Annual Library Leadership Institute with the following objectives:

• To develop and enhance management and leadership qualities in academic and research librarians in the East Asia region, and
• To enhance collaboration and foster relations among academic and research libraries in the region.

The residential program offers a cost-effective means for librarians in the region to access management training services provided by experts in the field from the United States, Hong Kong and mainland China. To date, institutes have focused on the individual manager's role in providing leadership within the complex and changing environment of the 21st-century research library, and have attracted participants from mainland China, Fiji, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Third Annual Library Leadership Institute is scheduled to take place in Macau in May 2005. "What is special about this institute," explained Dr. Anthony Ferguson, Librarian for the University of Hong Kong, "is the opportunity for library leaders to work with colleagues from other cultures, using a common language, to discover out-of-the-box solutions to the problems facing them as they move from print to digital environments."

Elsevier is proud to be sponsoring five scholarships to enable librarians from the East Asia region to attend the institute in 2005. For further information visit the institute’s website at http://lib.hku.hk/leadership or send an email to leader@lib.hku.hk

Getting the Most From Your E-resources

More and more publishers are providing materials for librarians to help promote usage and awareness of e-resources. And why not? It’s a win-win proposition for both parties. Focused on creating the right kind of support, the MD Consult marketing team surveyed 180 medical librarians this past September, regarding promotional and awareness materials they use to educate their patrons. 76% of those surveyed use MD Consult training and awareness materials at their institution. The five most popular items were (in order): brochures, giveaways, user guides, quick reference cards and content lists. The five most effective items were (in order): quick reference cards, user guides, brochures, content lists and giveaways.

The team received useful ideas for other training and awareness materials including quick reference bookmarks, calendars, searching tips, search examples and registration instructions. If you have ideas you’d like to share, please email trainingfeedback@elsevier.com MD Consult training and awareness resources are available from
www.mdconsult.com/resources

Chris Jasek of Elsevier’s User-Centered Design Group answers your usability questions

What’s the best way to provide help and training information on my library website?
Most people will admit they "don't read the instructions," and therefore help pages are typically not a frequently used feature of any website. However, concise and clearly written help is highly valued by users when they want to access it. Consider these guidelines when designing your help pages:

• Place a help button near the top right corner of every page of your website.
• Provide context-sensitive help information (that applies to the page the user is currently viewing) when the help button is clicked.
• Be as concise and clear as possible when writing help text.
• Include specific examples users can relate to and make use of.
• Include links to possible training opportunities and other additional information to allow users to further learn about the topic at hand.
• Open help pages in a popup browser window that displays in the top right corner of the user's screen. This is an acceptable use of a popup and allows users to keep the main website in view.