Wise and careful selection of materials remains among the most important and enduring duties of the librarian--and also among the most difficult. The author has found this to be especially true in a specialized-subject library, where traditional collection development methods do not always yield good results. While collection development practices…

As academic librarians' professional and personal lives become busier and more varied, the need for tools to assist with accomplishing a myriad of tasks in a short time becomes even more necessary. Due to its ability to provide anytime and anywhere access to information, mobile technology offers a number of advantages for staying connected and…

In their Top Trends of 2012, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) named data curation as one of the issues to watch in academic libraries in the near future (ACRL, 2012, p. 312). Data curation can be summarized as "the active and ongoing management of data through its life cycle of interest and usefulness to scholarship,…

The growing trends of tiered reference, roving librarians, and virtual reference offer academic libraries several options for providing the most effective reference service. Increased enrollment at community colleges has prompted a reconsideration of how librarians can balance reference, teaching, and faculty responsibilities. This article…

Embedded librarians are attempting assimilation into a new pedagogical collective outside the library, often with a mission to improve the quality of service to that collective. But like the Borg, embedded librarians may not be achieving the results they envision. This article documents the varied experiences of five reference librarians at Murray…

While podcasting initiatives may have come and gone in many libraries, it remains a powerful and accessible way to leverage emerging technology to make personal as well as practical connections with users. In this article, the author briefly discusses best practices in podcasting informed by her experience in public radio, which gives her a unique…

Today's academic library provides resources that users can access both physically in the library and virtually from academic offices. This increasing availability of online access means that information resources are no longer confined within library walls and librarians need to rethink how their constituents' information needs are being met.…

In marketing one's library wares, an effective publicity strategy is to use promotional giveaway materials, mainly personalized items that promote one's resources and services. As with any marketing effort, it is important to be clear about the promotional initiative and whom librarians are attempting to reach. This author emphasizes that…