"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") focuses on current and emerging topics that are strategically important to research libraries. The articles explore issues, share information, pose critical questions, and provide examples. This issue includes the following articles: (1) Special at the Core: Aligning, Integrating, and…

Today's library is still at the heart of all university activities, helping students and faculty become better learners, teachers, and researchers. In recent years there has emerged the formalizing of one or more of these activities into an Academic Commons. These centers of information have been labeled variously but they all share a commonality:…

Organization of electronic resources workflow is critical in the increasingly complicated and complex world of library management. A simple organizational tool that can be readily applied to electronic resources management (ERM) is the use of checklists. Based on the principles discussed in The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, the…

During the period in which Duane Webster led the Association for Research Libraries (ARL), powerful commercial interests sought for their own financial purposes the information resources essential for providing education and performing research. Juxtaposed was the Internet with its inherent capacity to democratizing these resources. Commercial…

Tribal college and university (TCU) libraries try to be everything to everyone. In addition to the typical college students working on papers, they serve mothers with small children, faculty working on advanced degrees, and community members seeking photos or recordings of their ancestors. TCU's could not exist without their libraries; they would…

Web 2.0 challenges libraries to change from their predominantly centralised service models with integrated library management systems at the hub. Implementation of Web 2.0 technologies and the accompanying attitudinal shifts will demand reconceptualisation of the nature of library and information service around a dynamic, ever changing, networked,…

The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Libraries initiated its spin on digital libraries as a partner in a W. M. Keck Foundation grant awarded to the university in 1997. The overall grant ($2,250,000) supported a variety of earth science-related projects at UNR. The UNR Libraries's portion ($450,000) funded establishment of the W. M. Keck Earth…

Collection development in the highly specialized area of the United States merchant marine, which includes navigation, marine engineering, shipping, naval architecture and shipbuilding, and seamanship, requires familiarity with the national and international organizations, governmental and other, which regulate and oversee the marine industry.…

Based on an in-depth study of the staffing of the California State University (CSU) libraries at Pomona, San Bernardino, and San Francisco, this report examines the adequacy of the formulas used to allocate staff to the 19 CSU system libraries. Focused on the impact of library staffing on the ability of students and faculty to access and use…

Describes a collaborative project by Austin Community College's Child Development, Child Laboratory, and Learning Resource Services programs to improve services available for those serving the city's youth, especially those involved in child care. Highlights goals for the program's lending library activities. Supporting data on the status of child…

Reviews the problems of implementing information technology in developing countries and cites examples from African projects. The use of CD-ROM for access to information is examined, and experiences at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia in introducing CD-ROM search services are described. (Contains five references.)…

This report documents the second phase of Yale University's Project Open Book, which explored the uses of digital technology for preservation of and access to deteriorating documents. Highlights include preconditions for project implementation; quality digital conversion; characteristics of source materials; digital document indexing; workflow…

Describes the development of California Institute of Technology Libraries' local database of articles from science and engineering journals and its integrated document request and delivery feature. It is noted that not all journals received by the libraries are in the database, backfiles are limited, and coverage is not comprehensive. (five…

This collection development policy of California State University Library states clearly what the library is now doing and provides a structure and mechanism for making adjustments to policies and procedures on a continuous basis. Declining budgets and the loss of purchasing power are contributing to a general awareness of the needed changes in…