In the journal "The Chronicle of Higher Education," an article by Geoffrey Nunberg criticizes Google's Book Search (GBS), emphasizing that disturbing errors are endemic. He recognizes that for mainstream "googling" purposes, "they don't really care about metadata provided by a library catalog." In perhaps his most discouraging point, linguistics…

Questions are raised concerning the statistical methodology employed in the NILN. The author states that "better and more appropriate statistical methodology should be incorporated in future studies on library needs" and two alternatives are suggested. (JPF)

In this article, the author discusses the benefits offered by integrated library systems (ILS) for making more informed decisions. Library software vendors, realizing ILS products can reveal business intelligence, have begun to offer tools like Director's Station to help library managers get more out of their data, and librarians are taking…

Several questions are raised concerning how data is collected and interpreted to generate the National Inventory of Library Needs. The author urges NCLIS to confront some basic issues which have been raised by the document, including data collection techniques and the professional backgrounds of the individuals involved in the study. (JPF)

Presents and interprets data concerning United States library referenda held in fiscal year 1995. Out of 45 capital fund elections, 39 (87%) were successful; and 52 out of 70 (74%) operating fund referenda passed. The article and six tables provide information on voting totals, funding levels, election specifications, and ballot competition. Nine…

Analysis of statistical data gathered by ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom in a survey of censorhsip in U.S. libraries and other educational institutions shows that censorship is on the increase and that censorship attempts are becoming better organized as more groups make their wishes known concerning educational materials. (JPF)

In this, the sixth year of recording academic library building data, it is possible to begin a yearly appraisal of change, progress or decline by comparison with the five-year base data published last year. (Author/NH)

Corporations employ data mining to analyze operations, find trends in recorded information, and look for new opportunities. Libraries are no different. Librarians manage large stores of data--about collections and usage, for example--and they also want to analyze this data to serve their users better. Analysts use data mining to query a data…