An increasing number of institutions are freeing up shelf space in their libraries and moving in student services as well as a coffee shop and other lures such as flexible seating arrangements. Librarians are taking down the silence signs in all but the quiet study room and urging members of the academic community to meet, talk, research and…

The trajectory of U.S. higher education in the next 20 years is portrayed by some as an arc of potential disaster and by others as a slightly upwardly inclined plane that may have some dips along the way. Generally these scenarios focus on the teaching and learning program of higher education institutions and give very little attention to the…

Clinton Community College (CCC) is a small campus serving a rural community just outside the city of Plattsburgh in upstate New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The Leroy M. Douglas Sr. Library (Douglas Library) is located in the George Moore Academic and Administrative Building (Moore Building). Prior to…

This paper describes the automated copyright clearance process for electronic reserves materials by the electronic reserves staff at the Information and Library Services (ILS), at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). Besides the standard practice to handle and post required course readings in digital format for UMUC's distance…

Libraries are important to universities, and they have two primary features: readers as well as collections are highly professional. In this study, based on the experimental study with five millions of users' borrowing records, our discussion covers: (1) the necessity of recommender system for university libraries; (2) collaborative filtering (CF)…

"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…

With their explosive sales and widespread availability over the past few years, e-books have definitively proven that they're here to stay. In this sequel to her best-selling book of the same title, expert Polanka dives even deeper into the world of digital distribution. Contributors from across the e-book world offer their perspectives on what's…

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…

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,…

Blogging offers an alternative and sometimes superior way to communicate with library patrons. It provides an opportunity to speak more directly to them, and it does so in a manner that is more comfortable and convenient for all involved. A library's Web site may be the only interaction that patrons have with the organization, so it makes sense to…

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…

Public health librarians face many challenges in collection development because the field is multidisciplinary, the collection's users have varied needs, and many of the essential resources are grey literature materials. Further, little has been published about public health selection tools. However, librarians responsible for these areas have a…

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…