Reading While Getting Paid

When sitting on the desk and not able to work on a project, I can read any of the following from my library's EBSCO database, for free. It's not the same as flipping through the pages of the magazine, but that doesn't look like professional sort of thing anyway, does it? What, you're getting paid to set at the desk and read magazines?!? No, no. I'm getting paid to be current on the latest research in my field. This is just a reminder to me to read.

Acquisitions Librarian
American Libraries
Book Links
Booklist
Canadian Journal of Information & Library Sciences
Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children
Collection Management
Computers in Libraries
EContent
Emergency Librarian
Feliciter
Huntington Library Quarterly
Information Technology & Libraries
Internet Reference Services Quarterly
Journal of Academic Librarianship
Journal of Access Services
Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship
Libraries & the Cultural Record

Library Journal
Library Media Connection
Library Mosaics
Library Quarterly
Library Resources & Technical Services
Library Talk
Library Technology Reports
Library Trends
LJ: Library Journal
Online
Online Classroom
Online Searcher
Orana
Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture
Quarterly Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa
Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Library
Reading Online
Reference & User Services Quarterly
School Libraries in Canada
School Library Journal
School Library Media Activities Monthly
School Library Monthly
South African Journal of Library & Information Science
Teacher Librarian
Technology Connection
Yale University Library Gazette
Young Adult Library Services

Fighting Information Overload

There's a small article in the June 2013 edition of School Library Journal that talks about the current value of librarians not being in providing exhaustive services, but in providing selective information services. The four points the author makes are:

1. Weed the collection and pick the best. Then get to know all about it so you can use it well.
2. "Concretize" [not a real word] the resources. Best is to teach it in the moment, but if the moment if after hours (or whatever), then use products like CamStudio to make quick screen captures to teach it.
3. Categorize large groups of items into smaller, more specific groups. This way the user doesn't have to guess what a database does.
4. Start simple by introducing smaller sets of things and then progress to larger sets. Once the user has a handle on a topic, you can give more information.

As a customer, this is a no brainer. I prefer to shop at Trader Joe's because there aren't a million things to choose from and what they do have is great quality for the price. TJ's has done my work for me.

As a librarian, this is a little harder b/c I want to find everything. I don't know if what I have found will meet the need, so I want to send the user home with everything. I suppose to better serve the user I need to spend more time learning about his/her info need, spend more time in the reference interview.