Many research libraries are looking for new ways to demonstrate value for their parent institutions. Metrics, assessment, and promotion of research continue to grow in importance, but they have not always fallen into the scope of services for the research library. Montana State University (MSU) Library recognized a need and interest to quantify…

"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) Business Intelligence and Data Visualization with Tableau…

This report provides university and research library leaders with useful insights on emerging practices and infrastructures in European research information management (RIM), on the current and future role of persistent person and organization identifiers, and, more specifically, on incentives and barriers to adoption in three different national…

Academic librarians have always played an important role in providing research services and research-skills development to faculty in higher education. But that role is evolving to include the academic librarian as a unique and necessary research partner, practitioner, and participant in collaborative, grant-funded research projects. This article…

This paper presents the findings of a study on funding of the library at the University of Benin in relation to the recurrent budget implementation during the 1992/93 to 1996/97 academic sessions. The findings indicated that the library depended on the central administrations's allocation for its funding. It also showed that the University of…

The transformation of the first floor of Joyner Library into the Collaborative Learning Center produced significant changes to collection and user spaces. Collaboration, in this context, refers to students engaged in teamwork with technology and support services. A Culture War emerged when some faculty, displeased with the loss of the traditional…

A traditional mixed methods research model of citation analysis, a survey, and interviews was selected to determine if the Bruce T. Halle Library at Eastern Michigan University owned the content that faculty cited in their research, if the collection was being utilized, and what library services the faculty used. The combination of objective data…

The reference collection traditionally rewards serendipity by presenting key resources in a compact group. At the University of Manitoba Libraries, reference collection space is at a premium and, increasingly, electronic versions of reference materials are selected for purchase. However, our space saving comes at a cost: Our patrons can't browse…

The Portable Librarian'' concept consists of a reference librarian who goes from place to place throughout the library building offering assistance to the timorous'' and the confused.'' (NH)

This paper describes chat widgets, chunks of code that can be embedded on a web site to appear as an instant messaging system, and how they can be used on a science library web site to better serve library users. Interviews were conducted concerning experiences at science and humanities libraries and more similarities than differences were…

As more users access library services remotely, it has become increasingly important for librarians to reach out to their user communities and promote the value of libraries. Convincing the faculty and students in the sciences of the value of libraries and librarians can be a particularly "hard sell" as more and more of their primary…

Traces the traditional method of making books accessible through their topical arrangement on library shelves, outlines the reasons for the abandonment of this method in European research libraries, explores its modified reappearance in postwar academic libraries, and cites modern arguments against the practice of making an entire research…

The management consulting firm Booz, Allen and Hamilton, Inc. conducted a study of the organization and staffing of the Columbia University Libraries for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). This is a summary of the report which resulted from that study. The plan presents a framework for the conduct of management programs that contribute…

The Science/Technology Information Center at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, offers a new service to its science community. It provides a researcher with any materials not already located in his department library, regardless of format or location, at no charge. Operations, procedures, and costs are discussed. (4 references)…

Participants at the workshop met in groups with assigned discussion leaders and reported on the following aspects of libraries: Command and staff libraries, academic libraries with staffs of 11 or more, academic libraries with staffs of less than ten, and research and technical libraries. Each group made recommendations for improved library…