Purpose: This paper aims to investigate design principles for transforming existing making communities of practice within public libraries into online knowledge-building communities to support youths, families with young children and adult members' making and tinkering during COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: Building upon C4P and connected…

Recommendations for planning and development of online student services based on a review of the literature on research conducted in a variety of college settings. Focus topics include the institutional website, help desks and information centers, student orientation, academic support, and library services.

Academic distance learning programs have gained popularity and added to the demand for online library services. Librarians are now conducting instruction for distance learning students beyond their traditional work. Technology advancements have enhanced the delivery mode in distance learning across academic disciplines. Online conference tools…

Laptops have become ubiquitous in academic libraries, as has the practice of circulating laptops for student use. Several studies have analyzed the how-to of loaning laptops, and a number of surveys have focused on how they are being used. However, little has been written of the practical lessons learned; the trial and error of those on the…

This article enumerates factors which created demand for fee-based information service (commercial databases, competition for proprietary information in business world, effectiveness of librarians) and relates experiences at two public libraries. Sources of business, value of advertising, techniques of selling, and hiring and deployment of staff…

Programs examples and discusses the profitability of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial operations that charge fees for information services and products. Various types of fees and charging mechanisms are described. A list of professional associations, publications, workshops, and selected readings is provided. (CLB)

A search of two major English language databases, Library Literature and LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts) for 1990-2000 was undertaken for the latest reports pertaining to literacy, including major surveys, evaluation studies, manuals on libraries and literacy, and recent major national or regional literacy movements that involved…

This bibliographic essay discusses a variety of items from the literature on the evaluation of reference services and reference personnel. A model for the evaluation process is presented on which the literature review is based. (Contains 48 references.) (LRW)

Recovery of significant achievements by exemplary individuals and institutions in public education and librarianship informs our present understanding and motivates future efforts. This narrative history recounts some of the struggles and successes of a great city library when the very conception of a free, public library was still being defined.…

Traces the development of reference service in American libraries during the second half of the nineteenth century and examines the evolution of reference service in the Providence Public Library. The article focuses on how the distinctive features of reference service were conceived and merged into the current concept of reference service. (43…

This paper examines the need for accurate, reliable data on energy, flowing upward to the national government from various energy-intensive information systems. Part I explores the need for a national policy coordinating this flow within both the United States and, for comparative purposes, Great Britain. Part II presents in outline form the…

Describes the origins of hypertext and reviews the history of the concept of nonsequential access to information that led to hypertext. Technological developments that have been combined with hypertext are discussed, including workstations, video and laser disk technology, and microcomputers; and library applications of hypertext and hypermedia…

Research on multiculturalism in libraries focuses primarily on collection development and on the recruitment of minorities to the profession. Although multicultural student outreach is relatively uncommon, it is essential in helping to combat the social, education, technological and financial barriers that leave many minority students at a…

Presents an overview of the literature on reference services for quantitative social research; differentiates between data for information and data for research; suggests a general approach to providing services for these materials based on traditional archives and government documents reference; and gives a practical framework for handling…

Describes three public library summer reading programs for children in the 1890s: Hewins' Vacation Reading Club; the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's Summer Playground Program; and the Library League of Cleveland. The growth of similar programs and related reports in the library literature of the early twentieth century are discussed, and summer…