An introduction to the library and information professions featuring a model of information transfer, the national information infrastructure, and the processes and functions and infrastructure of information professionals.
This introduction to the functions of information professionals is approached through models of communication theory. Professionals have the role of diagnosing the information needs of clients using information transfer theory. Current trends and issues are discussed as they focus on the role of a professional and the services to be offered.
This book felt more like a group of people were trying to force their beliefs on a wide audience, rather than being instructive about the library profession.
If you come from a working class background, this book will piss you off. Did you know that people who work as carpenters don't know how to problem solve or analyze client needs? And here's a gem: "... the tendency of [library] staff is to slip into focus on what is easy for them..." Ah, the classic complaints of the gentry about the hired help being shiftless. The authors devote a lot a words to stressing the importance of keeping the wrong people from getting notions about their own worth.
But if you can ignore those passages, there is some useful information. You just have to engage in a fair amount of winnowing to separate the wheat and the chaff.
This textbook was easily my most useless textbook this semester. I heavily skimmed every reading and now, one day after submitting my last assignment, I would be hard pressed to remember anything relevant from it.
I would have given this book 3 Stars, but it had a wide variety of spelling, grammatical, and layout mistakes that became very distracting. I mostly blame the editors--especially for the editor's note to an author that never got deleted from the book...
Boring textbook is boring. I haven't been keeping up with the reading assignments in this class because they feel superfluous, redundant, and unnecessary. No fault of the textbook writers, it's just my prof. Big waste o' $60+ yay.