Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to identify best practices of employee onboarding, the process by which a new employee is introduced to an organization and its vision, mission, and values. Design/methodology/approach -Researchers requested that members of the Personnel Administrators and Staff Development Officers Discussion Group of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) share documents related to employee onboarding and three researchers independently reviewed the documents. The collected documents were compared to the socialization model proposed by Raymond Noe, including the detailed aspects of the organizational phase and the key components identified in the best practices literature. Findings -In total, 17 institutions submitted documentation for review. All institutions discussed at least one or more of the key areas identified in the socialization process. Every institution in the study included a discussion of job expectations and evaluation criteria (100 percent); ten (59 percent) discuss mission, vision, and values; however, topics such as culture (five or 29 percent) and politics (one or 6 percent) were infrequently covered. Onboarding programs varied in length (one week to more than six months). Check lists were the most common tool used to manage the onboarding process. Other notable topics covered include dealing with change, understanding the team-based environment, diversity, library awards and library fundraising. Research limitations/implications -Because of the limited number of documents examined in this study, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. Practical implications -Moving from a traditional new employee orientation model to a best-practices onboarding model will require HR professionals to conduct an internal assessment of the current program. Originality/value -Due to the high cost associated with recruiting new employees, the need for new employees to be fully functional and engaged as soon as possible, and the need to communicate performance indicators, the need to share best practices is important.
With funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Libraries of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Worcester Polytechnic Institute collaborated on a plan to expand the scope of science library practices and promote among medical, graduate, and undergraduate science students the preservation of scientific data in relevant repositories and archives. This paper outlines curriculum frameworks and learning needs for research data management instruction that can be delivered through a variety of methods. Individual modules are based on faculty and student interviews, as well as a comprehensive literature review. Curriculum Development An education committee with representatives from the library, information technology, and the faculty from each campus was assembled to oversee the development of the curriculum. National experts on data manage
This research probes future roles for libraries in the scholarly communication process through the use of scenarios. The researchers asked 20 ARL library directors to read and provide constructive comments on the scenarios, name the scenarios, and either select a scenario that most closely matched their vision or propose a new scenario. The directors identified six possible futures. Issues such as library as publisher, the economy, and the need for collaboration are discussed, as well as the timeframe for such futures and the desire versus the likelihood of a particular scenario happening.
This study's findings demonstrate that progress is being made in health sciences librarianship research. There is, however, room for improvement in terms of research methodologies used, proportion of applied versus theoretical research, and elimination of barriers to conducting research for practicing librarians.
Locally digitizing dissertations or other scholarly works for inclusion in institutional repositories can be cost effective, especially if small, defined projects are chosen. A successful project serves as an excellent recruitment strategy for the institutional repository and helps libraries build new relationships. Challenges include workflow, cost, policy development, and copyright permissions.
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