MLS 758 MEASUREMENT & EVALUATION IN LIBRARIES ESSAY NURUL HIDAYAH MD SIDED IM 772/3

QUESTION 1: Describe the meaning of excellence in librarianship according to Mr. Choy Fatt Cheong

Excellence may be referred to the quality of being outstanding or extremely good (Oxford Dictionaries, 2012). It is a good quality that always used for people such as students and workers, institutions, awards such as Anugerah Pelajar Cemerlang Peringkat Negeri and slogan such as cemerlang, gemilang, terbilang. It is also an aimed for standard of performance. In terms of librarianship, excellence in librarianship means how the librarian in any type of libraries strive to contribute their time and energy for the benefit of the community it serves by Mr Choy Fatt Cheong in his talk on Achieving Career Excellence in Librarianship. Users need is the ultimate of everything in the library and it is very important to be fulfilled by the librarian. The librarian in the public library must ensure their library holding meet their target audience that consists of children, teenager and adult. They should have passion towards library by looking at every opportunity to attract the users such as by organizing exhibition or program. Mr. Choy added that successful librarians have to participate actively in giving strength and shaping the direction of the professional body. Most of the country in all over the world has their library associations that support the library and information science field such as Persatuan Pustakawan Malaysia. The aim of the association is to create of an information-rich knowledgebased civil society, through the promotion of information equity, lifelong and independent learning, and enhancement of library and information professionals. Librarians need to engage in this library association and others to keep up to date to the current issue occurred in the library in the country and also international. Then, the good impact will go to the library whereby enhance the accessibility of information sources and services among library users.

QUESTION 2: Explain the aspects of speech that have inspired you most.

Every librarian a friend of users is one of five rules of engagement for librarians proposed by Mr. Choy Fatt Cheong and the idea came from five laws of library science by S. R. Ranganathan. This statement really inspired me because I want to apply this when I become a librarian in the future. Librarian should not treat differently to every users come to seek for reference assistance such as between undergraduate students and postgraduate students whether it is only a simple question asked from the users. Besides, users should be treating as friends. Mr. Choy advised that librarian should change the term from user with friend. The concept of friend is closer than the users. Thus, this will enable the librarian to see clearly what will their friends can get benefit from what is being offered by library. Showing a good attitude will also make the users comfortable to communicate with librarian. For example, can their friends understand the signage located in the library. Then, there are three impacts in applying the rule of two: every librarian a friend of users to the library and librarian. Firstly, reduce the communication barriers between users and librarian. When users get the answer of what they are looking for, they will fell satisfied and then they will tell other friends to use the same service again. Librarian fails when the users go away with empty handed. Moreover, instead of saying I do not know, librarian must try to seek for alternatives for the matters. Secondly, produces greater satisfaction. After the users get what they want, the users will satisfy. Furthermore, the librarian also has greater satisfaction on that day by helping friends to enhance their knowledge through sharing his or her knowledge on the particular subject. For instance, teaching how to use online databases to search for academic journal. Thirdly, leads to repeat visits and call for assistance. When the users feel happy to use library services and collection without any distraction, it will increase the numbers of users come to the library instead of users visits the online library portal. Although, most users prefer to use non printed materials rather than printed materials, when they have been treated fairly, then it will make them to use the physical library services.

QUESTION 3: Describe 4 new things you learn from this presentation.

At the end of the talk on Achieving Career Excellence in Librarianship by Mr. Choy Fatt Cheong on 15 of March 2012, I have learnt four new things related to the library science field; five rules of engagement for librarians as proposed by Mr. Choy, the three categories of do things for librarians, the LAS professional development scheme and the CISPIN

recommendations. Those four new things regarded as new knowledge for me and I started to discover more in depth about them. Firstly, five rules of engagement for librarians proposed by Mr. Choy Fatt Cheong. It consists of five principle of behavior that should be possessed for every librarian. First rule is librarians are experts, secondly is every librarian a friend of users, thirdly is every encounter with users should add value to them, fourthly is users must have high demand and expectation of libraries and lastly, the librarys critical role in knowledge work must be widely recognized and acknowledge. Librarian has to continually update and upgrade their skills and level of knowledge to cope with various inquiries that will come from various types of library users. Furthermore, every user that comes to the library must have high expectations towards librarian in helping them to fulfill their needs. In my point of view, librarian for any types of libraries could implement these five rules in their daily life as a librarian to meet the users requirement. Secondly, the three categories of do things for librarians consists of librarian must do things that others cannot do, librarian must do things better than others and librarian must do things others can do but do not want to do. Those three statements really motivated me that as a student, in order for me to become an excellent student, I must be hardworking and enhanced my communication skills to compete with friends. Thirdly, the LAS Professional Development Scheme. The Library Association of Singapore (LAS) had developed a Professional Development Scheme that is an award given to the librarians who have achievement in their professional training and development effort. The award will be given after the librarians have completed a series of professional development activities. This scheme will encourage the entire librarian in Singapore to remain competent in the information field through participation in the conference, engage in independent learning project or attend any library related programs. Hence, this will ensure that the librarians actively engaged in the library association and build close relationship with other librarian in other country.

Fourthly, the CISPIN recommendations. This is a core skill that should have by the librarian recommended for the library school. There are six basic expertises of librarians. Firstly, librarians must have the ability to guide their users in building up knowledge for particular subject. Secondly, librarian must have the ability to teach information skills and offered information services as required by their users. Thirdly, librarian must have the ability to enable the easier of accessibility of information services. Fourthly, librarian must have the ability to source for all types of information resources. Fifthly, librarian must ensure that the library and information service meets the variety needs of users. Lastly, librarian must be creative in using the information technology to enhance the usage of library among their users. In my point of view, those are good quality should be acquired by the librarian to become an excellent librarian.