ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 78 / C& RL News A check list fo r ev a lu a tin g you r lib ra ry ’s h a n d b o o k B y P a u l H eller Public Services Librarian Norwich University a n d B etsey B r e n n e m a n A cquisitions/ILL Librarian Worcester State College An essential public relations tool for your patrons. B e t s e y Brennem an of W orcester State College’s L earning Resources C enter has developed an in­ strum ent for judging library handbooks th a t can serve as an aid in self-evaluation or as a checklist for grading a set of m aterials. The checklist was com­ piled at the request of Paul Heller, public services librarian at Norwich University, to evaluate en­ tries in the V erm ont L ibrary Association H an d ­ book Contest in w hich all entrants received an in­ dividualized critique. Betsey, acquisitions/interlibrary loan librarian at W orcester State College, is the coordinator of th e 2,000-item N E B IC collection, w hich since early 1987 has resided at W orcester State College. NEBIC (the New E ngland Bibliographic Instruc­ tion Collection) serves as a “clearinghouse for ex­ amples of instructional m aterials prepared by aca­ dem ic lib rarian s th ro u g h o u t th e New E ngland region.” The collection has examples of over 100 handbooks from academ ic libraries and Betsey has personally reviewed several times th a t num ber. A former reference librarian, she has been involved in establishing BI program s and also teaches as an adjunct m em ber of th e University of Rhode Is­ land’s library school faculty. Generally speaking, the library handbook orients the p atro n to the li­ b rary b uilding and locates, usually by m ap or floorplan, “specific services and collections, eleva­ tors, handicapped access, drinking fountains, tele­ phones and other patron aids. It m ay in addition take the user on a tour of the building, identifying each notew orthy location.” The narrative portion describes each service giving rules and regulations as well as hours for service. In order to facilitate its use the guide should be indexed and th e index should have m ultiple entry points and be as free of jargon as possible. T he lib rary handbook has been aro u n d since 1905 w h e n C a m b rid g e U n iv ersity in tro d u c e d Notes fo r Readers. Since then the concept has p re­ vailed and the handbook has become an im portant public relations tool. Its omission is noted by ac­ crediting agencies and it is often used entirely or in p a r t by d ev elo p m en t officials, a rch itects, a c a ­ demic adm inistrators, and new faculty members. Every academ ic library in V erm ont, surveyed as potential entrants for the VLA H andbook contest, h ad published a handbook and some libraries had published m ore th a n one. Lyndon State College, for example, publishes a handbook for faculty as well as the general population. The value of the li­ brary guide as a force in public relations m ay be underscored by the fact th a t in 1972 the Federal L i­ brary C om m ittee Task Force on Public Relations published Guidelines fo r Library Handbooks offer­ ing advice on content, style of w riting, form at and design. Betsey’s “C riteria for L ibrary Handbooks” treats all of these in detail and, in fact, is partially based on this report. H er description of the criteria serves as an excellent guide for anyone preparing a handbook—at the m inim um , providing a checklist of w h at should be included. February 1988 / 79 Criteria for library handbooks Content • Essential information: full identification of th e school and library; location (street address, room num ber); days and hours of service; date of handbook’s publication (if frequent revision is not expected, this is often coded, as its usefulness is p ri­ m arily internal). • Services provided-, circulation; in terlib ra ry loan; reference; online searching; bibliographic in­ struction; regulations regarding use, including eli­ gibility. • Means o f contacting departments: telephone numbers; names, if turnover is infrequent or revi­ sion will be easy. • M ethods o f access to collections: catalogs; in­ dexes & abstracts; staff assistance (role of the li­ b rarian and encouragem ent for users to seek assist­ ance) . Useful additional inform ation • Inform ation about other related inform ation and research sources. • Floorplans or other simple directions to guide users to desired inform ation. • Table of contents or index (determ ined by size and complexity of handbook). • History of the library (also special architec­ tu ral features). • Special collections or related services. O rder of presentation • Most basic inform ation (identification, loca­ tion, etc.) m ust be given most prominence (cover, or at beginning). • Constantly needed inform ation (hours, tele­ phone num bers, etc.) should be placed to facilitate access (beginning, end, cover, or insert). • Bulk of descriptive inform ation should be a r­ ranged in order of decreasing im portance to the user (since readers are unlikely to read the h an d ­ book from cover to cover—the earlier inform ation is presented, the m ore likely the reader can absorb it). • Inform ation presented in a logical m anner; re­ lated items grouped. Style of w riting • N arrative should be brief and concise as possi­ ble. • Term inology should be explained from the rea d er’s p o in t of view ; avoid tech n ical jarg o n whenever possible. • The tone should be positive and should invite interest in reading the handbook and using the li­ brary. • Headings should be m ade w ith the reader’s in­ terest in m ind and should be w ritten to facilitate scanning. This is im portant w hen a handbook is too brief to require an index. • An index depends on the size and complexity of the guide’s contents. F orm at and design •A ttractiv e in appearance. •E asy to understand. •H a n d y to use. •E asy to obtain. •D esigned for retention. •E conom ical to revise. •T ypeface (gives character to a page, resulting in a stream lined appearance). •Illu stra tio n s: add to, not d etra ct from the guide’s attractiveness and usefulness; serve a p u r­ pose; placem ent w ith related passages of text; con­ form to limitations of the printing process; are of high quality; well produced; color (for emphasis and liveliness, ease in reading). ■ ■ Information crisis in Latin America In th e 1970s bibliographic databases offered th ro u g h such services as D IA LO G and ORBIT were m ade available to libraries in Mexico and L atin America. Since there were very few profes­ sionals trained to take advantage of these services, librarians in these countries took it upon them ­ selves to study the capabilities of the databases and convince others of the benefits th a t they offered. At the same tim e, the Mexican government was increasing its efforts to accelerate th e country’s technological grow th, and in the process discov­ ered th a t inform ation constituted the raw m aterial for developing national programs. The num ber of users of bibliographic databases grew as the value of access to international inform ation was recog­ nized. L ibraries, universities, research centers, and other inform ation agencies soon began to evaluate these services at professional neetings. Visits from system vendors becam e increasingly frequent, and have continued through the present tim e w hen al­ most all of them have local offices. U nfortunately, in 1982 Mexico was hit w ith one of its worst economic crises involving inflation, for­ eign debt, m anufacturing slumps, unem ploym ent, and a series of critical peso devaluations. The situa­ tion has been gloomy ever since and the peso con­ tinues to slide in relation to the U.S. dollar while