This fact book, compiled to fill the need of practicing librarians and researchers for recent data on public libraries, contains statistics concerning or relevant to the U.S. public library system. Data on all aspects of American public libraries are summarized from such sources as annual reports, journal articles, surveys, books, doctoral theses,…

A review of the library literature on personnel turnover and the costs involved in replacing personnel provides background information for a model designed to determine the costs involved in hiring an academic librarian. This model is based on the experiences of a specific library. (CLB)

Discusses features of online library catalogs and their cost characteristics, including financial management and planning (hardware and software options, turnkey vendors); approaches to cost analysis (actual experiences, building blocks); baseline estimates for two average academic libraries; and vendor estimates. Forty-five references and a…

Presents a study of Georgia college libraries that used published library statistics to compare public historically black college libraries to traditionally white college libraries. Comparisons were made by: volumes and total library staff per student; salary expenditure per student and per professional librarian; and professional library staff…

Discusses the impact of the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) on state prison libraries. Evaluations of the LSCA are reviewed; the effectiveness of the LSCA in the areas of library budgets, staff, and book collection size is considered; and recommendations for further research are suggested. (22 references) (LRW)

Describes a study that examined changes in the directors of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries from 1970-89. Directors' characteristics are discussed, including gender, previous position held, age, and highest degree; library characteristics are described, including size of collection and expenditures; and literature about…

Reviews the literature for studies conducted in the United States and in Canada on the use of magazines in elementary school libraries, and describes a study of Oklahoma schools that investigated titles most frequently used by children. Results are reported that indicate most use is for pleasure reading. (six references) (LRW)

Reviews the events and the literature of 1986-90 concerned with the pricing of research and professional materials for libraries. Serials are discussed, including pricing studies and price indexes, publisher's views, and the need for a new paradigm of scholarly publishing; monographs are considered; and electronic publishing is addressed,…

Examines the effects of CD-ROM on academic library reference work. Topics discussed include the impact on job duties of the reference librarian; impact on users; system drawbacks; location of equipment; search strategies of users versus librarians; budgetary concerns; and future ramifications, including networking and electronic publishing. (10…

The first part of a two-part review of research related to school library media collections summarizes studies with implications for budgets and collection size, the selection process, collection policies, and the librarian as censor. A table compares data on holdings and expenditures for schools providing high-level library service with national…