Collaborative work spaces within academic library settings are becoming increasingly important as libraries consider their roles in the twenty-first century. This paper considers the value of implementing a room reservation effort as part of the larger drive toward creating viable collaborative work spaces and discusses how to effectively manage a…

Purpose: Using a descriptive case study approach, this paper aims to validate academic librarians' perceptions that they are marginalized by faculty during academic program reviews, and recommends ways for the two groups to collaborate more effectively to make program reviews more meaningful. Design/methodology/approach: The paper describes a case…

Developing a strategy for embedding librarians in online courses can be challenging, but it is essential to demonstrate to accrediting agencies how libraries serve online students. A well-thought-out plan can be scalable and sustainable for rapidly growing online programs and can satisfy accreditation standards. This article examines how one…

The Marketing column features essays about a variety of creative and innovative marketing strategies used to highlight collections or promote services in all types of libraries. Its purpose is to provide real examples of how libraries are using marketing and outreach techniques in interesting ways. This article describes the social media content…

Through their affiliation with an institution of higher education, undergraduate students are able to access a range of research materials and, as a result, enter the scholarly conversation and build upon existing research. This ability to access information that others cannot is called information privilege. This article builds upon Char Booth's…

This article shares the story of the author's involvement in a national literacy initiative known as the African American Read-In (AARI) in Springfield, Missouri. The article highlights successes that public school librarians and university librarians are experiencing as they work together to promote diversity and reading through a community-wide…

With the continued growth and evolution of distance education at many colleges and universities, academic librarians must be prepared to respond to the changing needs of distance users. This article discusses the results of a utilization assessment of distance instructors at five midsized American universities. The results inform libraries about…

This study is based on the belief that inquiry-based learning should be made an integral part of any student's learning, especially at university level. To find out the students' perceptions toward library user education, 426 questionnaire surveys have been collected from the Peking University (PKU), China and the University of Tsukuba (UT),…

This paper will outline the process and discussions undertaken at the University of Denver's University Libraries to implement a lending service providing video game consoles. Faculty and staff at the University Libraries decided to pursue the new lending service, though not a traditional library offering, to support the needs of a video game…

In the spring of 2015, the University of Minnesota Libraries formed the Content Services department, which is comprised of Interlibrary Loan, Publishing Services, and the Copyright Permissions Service. These three service points, as well as additional Library units, work together with campus partners to save students money on their course…

This article explores the implementation of special collections interlibrary loan policies and procedures at the University of South Florida (USF), focusing particularly on the development of policies related to physically loaning published materials, and traces the development of these policies through a pilot project to routinized…

When a mid-sized library at a private university held its first robust research-support event, a huge portion of the student body was noticeably absent -- the distance population. The ACRL Standards for Distance Learning Library Services affirms that distance learners are entitled to the same services and resources as on-campus learners. This…

In Fall 2014 the University of Maryland Libraries launched a textbook reserves program to help relieve the burden of high textbook costs on students. Although its initial performance was lackluster, workflow refinements and expanded promotion greatly improved usage, resulting in a tenfold increase in circulation and expansion of the program. This…

The literature on marketing library resources to distance students reaches back to at least the mid-1980s based on a simple EBSCOHost search across over 40 different databases. Authors of this study sought to develop a comprehensive understanding of what our colleagues have learned via research about this critical topic. Because the Web, as we…

A growing trend at universities is to use digital badges (micro-credentialing) for capturing the "soft skills" students gain outside of the classroom. Libraries can use this opportunity to become campus leaders in digital badges, using the system to not only promote their information literacy activities but to coordinate workshop…