January 21, 2016

Attendees:
Shannon, Hoover
Kelly, Springville Road
Leslie, BPL Downtown
Terri, Vestavia Hills
Holley, EOM
Michelle, Irondale
Edward, Homewood
Maura, Trussville
Debbie, Leeds
Bryce, Hoover
Leigh, North Birmingham

Topic:  REFERENCE RESOURCES

Because of a health issue, our speaker, Greg Sumner from Mergent, was unable to attend the Roundtable meeting.  Therefore, we all discussed various reference resources that we utilize.

A number of participants emphasized that a great deal of their marketing questions are answered using Reference USA, to which the entire county has access.  BPL purchases Alabama Legal Forms/Gale Legal Forms Library which is very useful.  Springville Road also noted that the online version of the Occupational Outlook Handbook  proves invaluable for job hunters.

One participant asked about the particularly thorny question of finding locally-focused competitor information -- ie.. for very small businesses.  It was suggested that Reference USA did provide some of this.  We discussed the possibility of having more in-depth training on this resource in the near future.

One very important notice was mentioned:  if we do not utilize and spread the word about HomeWork Help/Tutor.com, we may lose the resource.  PLEASE get with any teachers in your area to convey how important this source can be.  Spread the word!  For more information, please logon to Tutor.com with the password:  APL36117.   Parents and students alike can take advantage of this valuable resource by going to http://homework.apls.state.al.us daily from 1 pm to 10 pm.  (All sessions are online with professional tutors.) Perhaps one suggestion can help:  find out when your area schools have their Teacher Training Days and make sure the information gets to them.  Tutor.com also has downloadable training and marketing materials online.  Use it or lose it!

If you were not aware, the famous "Opposing Viewpoints" resources can be accessed online through Gale online.  We also discussed the ever useful Consumer Reports and their Buying Guides.  For those that don't subscribe to the hard copy, it can be found via Serial Solutions or Masterfile Premier.  Most of the larger libraries still pay to send back copies to the Bindery (if they survive).

Now, most libraries are getting rid of their Chilton Auto Repair books in favor of the online version. Evidently,the online version utilizes multiple drop-down menus for different types of repair, along with helpful videos.  Another participant mentioned that if a patron is looking for small engine repair to no avail, to try Google Images for schematics and that might provide helpful for repair.

For Fiction help, Fantastic Fiction was highly recommended.  It is especially good for printing lists of book series -- although it may not look like it, the print version strips out all graphics, photos and other information to just list the books in order, which is usually what the patron wants.  Gnooks was recommended for read-alikes.  This source presents the user with a word-cloud association for any given author.

Another item recommended were shelf talkers.  Hoover orders plastic shelf talkers from Brodart, the item is called "Opening the Book Reader to Reader Frames."  However, any library could just print shelf talkers on cardstock and post on the shelves.  Most often used are those that list series titles in order for people that don't want to ask at the desk.

Please:  if you have a well-loved resource for a particular use or want to recommend something, please share here!!

NEXT ADULT SERVICES ROUNDTABLE MEETING:  Thursday, March 17, 2016 at 10 am at the Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest.  Topic:  Adult Outreach, Collections and Programs.