Intended for University of Connecticut library users and staff, a series of recommendations is presented for a training program to enhance adoption of the new Anglo American Cataloging Rules (AACR2). These recommendations are based on responses to two staff questionnaires, related readings, and the collective experience of the task force members.…

This study focuses on the planning necessary to support library instruction for an online public access catalog in an academic library. The installation of an online catalog is viewed as an opportunity for librarians to teach effective use of the library catalog. The project report consists of a review of the literature pertaining to the…

Four articles review the development of the MELVYL system, which began as the online catalog for the University of California campuses. Topics discussed include union catalogs; local library systems versus bibliographic utilities; retrospective conversion; MELVYL as a reference tool; and an online survey of remote use of MELVYL. (LRW)

This report describes efforts by three academic libraries to develop a model instructional program for online catalog users that could be adopted in other academic libraries. A key component of the research included the exploration and development of a methodology for utilizing online transaction logs to evaluate user performance. The four project…

This survey of 57 members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) examines technical and management issues in providing remote access to their online catalogs, as well as with instructions and services for remote users. It is noted that most ARL libraries have not yet conducted studies to project the extent of use of remote access, although…

This research was conducted in order to examine whether libraries are maintaining consistent and complete subject authority control and creating syndetic reference structure for popular topics. A descriptive study of 15 private liberal arts college libraries was conducted to determine whether the Library of Congress (LC) prescribed "see"…

This document presents the full text of a self-paced library skills workbook which was piloted in fall 1984 in all sections of freshmen English composition courses at Georgia College. The workbook text is divided into four units of instruction: (1) An Introduction to Georgia College's Russell Library; (2) The Divided Card Catalog Revisited and an…

With grants from the Council on Library Resources (CLR) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), New York University (NYU) Libraries conducted a study to assess user reactions to their online catalog, Bobcat (Bobst Library Computerized Catalog). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of NYU's catalog, to describe users' attitudes toward…

Researchers studying subject searching distributed an online questionnaire to users who access the University of California's online public access catalog, MELVYL, from public access terminals in the libraries of the University of California at Santa Cruz. This article discusses the results of transaction log analysis, comparison of in-library and…

Based on the responses of 77 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries to a December 1986 survey of 106 ARL libraries (a 73% response rate), this report profiles the current state of bibliographic access to federal publications. Following a brief discussion of survey background and methodology, a summary of survey results indicates…

This kit presents the results of a survey conducted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in 1974 to investigate and document various experiences of academic and research libraries in reclassifying portions of collections or entire collections and the relationship between libraries' particular classification schemes on effective…

New York University (NYU) Libraries received a 1-year grant from the Association of Research Libraries to study users' responses to its recently installed Geac online catalog, Bobcat (Bobst Library Computerized Catalog). The survey instrument, developed for Council on Library Resources (CLR)-funded national study of responses to public access…

This set of materials assembled by the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) contains seven examples of general use surveys and eight examples of user surveys on specific topics from a group of major research libraries. Among the items included are (1) a final report on a library user survey…

This research study addressed four issues relating to subject searching in online catalogs: faculty and student use of subject searching in library catalogs; users' knowledge of and use of the Library of Congress Subject Headings List (LCSH) in a controlled subject heading search; strategies for teaching effective subject searching; and users'…

Describes how a librarian, assisted by a knowledge engineer, developed a computerized reference assistance system for a separate government documents department. Rationale for the expert system, problems in selecting reference materials and user questions to computerize, and the formulation of a workable human/computer interface are covered. A…