Games and other forms of play are used in today's libraries to attract underserved patrons, to introduce patrons to other library resources and services, and to facilitate engagement between library patrons. While many perceive gaming as a new library service, gaming services have been part of librarianship since the nineteenth century through…

As cultural institutions begin to share physical and human resources, and as new technologies reshape approaches to access and preservation, educational programs must respond in kind. However, it is important to ask in what ways the current convergence of libraries, archives, and museums marks a return to tradition rather than a departure from it.…

The authors develop a framework for addressing the question of truth in librarianship and in doing so attempt to move considerations of truth closer to the core of philosophical debates within the profession. After establishing ways in which philosophy contributes to social scientific inquiry in library science, the authors examine concepts of…

Considers the objectives, campaign strategy, ideology, and reception of the American Library Association's Enlarged Program to revitalize library services after World War I. Forty references are cited. (FM)

Explores problems concerning operation of Chinese libraries from 1949 to present, discussing library services in four periods--1949-57, 1958-65, 1966-76, and 1976-81--to illustrate how development of Chinese libraries has been affected by political, economic, and cultural conditions. A brief chronological context and 72 references are included.…

Shows how l'Heure Joyeuse, a children's library started in Paris in 1923 as a gift from U.S. philanthropists, became a model of open-access, user-oriented public libraries. L'Heure Joyeuse's unique role in the development of public libraries in France from before 1900 to the present is described. (41 references) (EAM)

Library home pages and digital library sites have many properties and purposes in common with the Baroque wall-system libraries of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. Like their Baroque antecedents, contemporary library Web sites exploit the moment of entrance and the experience of the threshold to create and sustain the illusion of a…

Describes a study of 20 American historians that was conducted to better understand the nature of research in history. Highlights include choice of research topics, use of archives, writing habits, use of computers, the classification of historical knowledge, implications for libraries, and suggestions for future studies. (43 references) (LRW)

The Tanganyika Library Service (TLS) was the national public library service set up in Tanzania, East Africa, in the 1960s. By the end of the decade, it was generally regarded as a model of Western-style public library development in Africa. This is an account of its establishment and early years based on accessible documentary sources in Tanzania…