Handbook of Federal Librarianship

“Handbook of Federal Librarianship (PDF)
Source: Library of Congress (Federal Library & Information Network)

The Handbook of Federal Librarianship is a project of the Federal Library and Information Network’s (FEDLINK) Education Working Group. Committee members are primarily federal librarians and others who hold positions in federal libraries and information centers. The third edition of the handbook has newly revised and updated chapters, sections, and information.

In keeping with the charge of the original task force, this handbook is a resource tool for librarians new to the federal community and a quick reference guide for established federal librarians. Because the Handbook of Federal Librarianship is a guide written for professional librarians, it not intended to be a manual on how to be a librarian. Instead, it focuses on the federal angle of otherwise standard practices and procedures of good librarianship. This edition omitted topics if it did not contain any uniquely federal characteristics. The copyright chapter is an exception to this rule because it remains a challenging and continuously developing topic for all librarians. The Education Working Group overwhelmingly favored producing this handbook in electronic format so that working group members can update it as often as new developments or issues emerge.

To avoid duplicating information already available elsewhere, the working group identified a large body of existing resources and an extensive existing collection on this topic. Therefore, this handbook provides only brief treatment of the main points of a topic with hypertext links to web sites for detailed coverage and references to print publications. The final selection of the handbook has a comprehensive listing with hypertext links and bibliographic citations in the Resources chapter”