Provides background on automation of library catalogs. Arguments are presented in favor of standards for online catalogs, and the possibility that inconsistent record access may result in confusion for library patrons is discussed. (MES)

Reviews major library issues and events of 1988, including: (1) the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Library Awareness Program; (2) cooperation with USSR libraries; (3) library finance; (4) preservation; and (5) special programing. News about a number of prominent library professionals is included in a sidebar. (MES)

Reviews a study by the RAND Corporation on the changing ethnic nature of California which focused on the impact for public library services of having the majority of the population composed of what once were racial and ethnic minorities. The report is criticized for the narrowness of the questions addressed, softness of data, and simplicity of…

Describes the role of Silvia Watson as information executive of the Highsmith Company, a supplier of office equipment and other materials to the library market. Watson's position in the organizational hierarchy, library services at Highsmith, company policies and products, and the role of the library in the company are discussed. (MES)

One critical role of the catalog is to help librarians manage and track their inventory, whether it's books, videos, journals, microfilm reels, laptops, or even access to study rooms. The phrase, "if you can't track it, you don't own it," is quite real for the library that is trying to monitor thousands or millions of items. In the last decade,…

Libraries must increasingly accommodate bibliographic records encoded with a variety of standards and emerging standards, including Dublin Core, MODS, and VRA Core. The problem is that many libraries still rely solely on MARC and AACR2. The best-trained professionals to lead librarians through the metadata maze are catalogers. Catalogers…

An online community is a group of people who connect with one another over time and through space using the Internet as their primary medium. Online communities also act, albeit through text. They organize political action, introduce to-be spouses, and create new products and tools. This article discusses how one librarian used online communities…

This article reports the results of Library Journal's 2005 Book Buying Survey. The results of the survey overall showed that attendance is high at the library and circulation is up as well. The survey also reported that fiction is what most people are reading. The how-to books also proved to be very popular. The article goes into detail concerning…

After a brief career in musical theater, Micki McIntyre entered the graduate library program at Columbia University, where she noticed a poster advertising free tuition to library employees. "There was a vacancy at the health sciences library, and that's how a theater major became a medical librarian." She's a medical librarian with…

It bothers Michelle Jeske that many people still don't know all that their public libraries can do for them, even in Denver, where 80 percent of the population has a library card. Fortunately, as manager of web information services at the Denver Public Library (DPL), she can reach out to people who never come through the library doors. Jeske and…

Catalogers, catalog managers, and others in library technical services have become increasingly interested in, worried over, and excited about FRBR (the acronym for Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records). Staff outside of the management of the library's bibliographic database may wonder what the fuss is about (FERBER? FURBUR?), assuming…

When Mary Ellen Icaza became Electronic Services Librarian at Montgomery County Public Libraries, she noticed that the readers' services information on the library web site was invisible, even to librarians. "And if staff can't find it," she says, "customers can't." She set out to help people find that material-and to turn a…

The New Americans Program at Queens Borough Public Library (QBPL) is well known for the innovative collections and programs it provides to one of the nation's most diverse communities. What is less known is the rigorous analysis of demographic data that provides direction to the program. Wai Sze (Lacey) Chan uses demographics to create as complete…

Troy Johnson was a devoted reader and library user even as a teen living in Alaska. His experiences with librarians there and at the University of Nebraska College of Law made law librarianship an appealing career choice when he received his law degree and realized he had no idea what he wanted to do with it. Now, as Electronic Services and…

The increasingly famous "Long Tail" is essentially a modernized version of the 80/20 rule, something with which most have at least a passing familiarity. The rule (credited to Vilfredo Pareto, a 19th-century philosopher) hypothesized, for example, that 80 percent of the property in Italy was owned by 20 percent of its citizens. That rule is now…