Credo Reference, the award-winning online reference service, announces the launch of a new online community, Libraries Thriving, a space dedicated to communicating the value of libraries and their ability to impact the learning moment.
Libraries Thriving facilitates collaboration on the innovative use of e-resources and is free to all members of the educational community: librarians, educators, researchers, publishers and library vendors.
To address challenges in the current climate, Libraries Thriving offers:
An Editor-led Discussion Forum: Covers diverse topics such as "Marketing your Library," "Information Literacy for First-Year Students," "Libguides and Subject Guides" and others
A Learning Community: An international group of librarians, faculty and IT staff engage on key educational technology issues and share their case studies
An Online Seminar Series: Educational discussions covering key technical issues limiting progress in libraries
"Credo Reference is proud to sponsor Libraries Thriving. " commented Mike Sweet, Credo Reference CEO. "We are taking steps to support libraries and welcome other library vendors and publishers to join us."
The next Libraries Thriving online seminar, "Information Literacy and the Oprah Effect," is scheduled for April 7th and 21st. Discussing the noticeable inflection of fiction popularity and literacy that results from an Oprah recommendation, Pete Ciuffetti, Credo Reference Director of Library Innovation, shares ideas for the start of a similar revolution for authoritative e-resources. Past seminars can be found archived on the Libraries Thriving website.
The online community is one piece of a larger Libraries Thriving initiative at Credo Reference to empower librarians with a positive vision of their future role in information discovery and delivery and to provide the tools, resources and support for the collective achievement of this vision.
Much has been written about the future role of the library in the digital age and the continued downward pressure on libraries' budgets. In such an environment, it is often difficult to find the support and inspiring stories needed to navigate the changing landscape effectively. Credo Reference and Libraries Thriving are responding to challenges like these with a renewed focus on a long-run vision of success and defining a path towards it.
The new initiative is taking many forms, including:
- Libraries Thriving online community
- Programs around effective use of e-resources
- E-resource audits and recommendations
- Enhanced support for Credo Reference customer implementations
For more information or to sign up for a quarterly newsletter please visit http://www.librariesthriving.org.
Founded in 1999, Credo Reference, with offices in Oxford and Boston, has been offering completely customizable reference collections for libraries since 2002. Credo's General Reference services combine extensive content from multiple publishers with unique cross-referencing technology, effortlessly delivering authoritative answers to millions of researchers worldwide. Publisher Collections and Subject Collections allow libraries to augment their collection with specific, deep reference content from highly-regarded publishers. Visit www.credoreference.com and http://blog.credoreference.com.
