In higher education systems, equal importance must be given to differently abled students. However, not all educational institutions have infrastructure and facilities to admit these students even though accessibility and support for these students is growing. There are many schemes, facilities, services, and financial assistance available to…

In 2005, the Library at UNSW began a comprehensive restructuring process that fundamentally changed the provision of services to its academic community. A primary aim of this process was to increase flexibility of service development and delivery and so to improve research support. The motivation for reformed services arose from considerations…

The mere fact that a library service is being used does not mean that the service makes a difference or has a positive impact on the user. This has significant implications for Special Library and Information Services (SL&IS) that have to constantly prove that they add value. Because of the difficulty of measuring impact effectively, the…

Purpose: The paper aims to study how the present distance learning libraries can improve upon their existing services and introduce new ones to enhance quality of services to distance learners. Design/methodology/approach: The paper includes a review of literature on quality assurance in open and distance education in general and student support…

Prestel is an interactive videotex system which has been available to the public in the United Kingdom since the late 1970's. Recent research funded by the British Library Research and Development Department provided public libraries with access to Prestel and monitored their reactions to the services. Aims of the trial were to promote Prestel by…

Maintains that there are two traditional categories of data for scholars: (1) physical objects and nonmaterial objects and (2) processed information. Describes the development and current plans for the Documentation Project, a Norwegian database for language and culture. (CFR)

Entering M.L.S. students, University of Toronto, were tested to elicit preference regarding provision of library service to older adults (theory-in-use) and degree of agreement with "The Library's Responsibility to the Aging" statement (espoused theory). Statistical analysis indicated no significant incongruence between students'…

This study of public library employees' perceptions of library goals based on one case study reveals that staff hold generally conservative views of public library purpose and prefer goals that are print-based and directly related to reading. Most significant influences on perceptions are local practice and practical considerations. (24…

Presents Checkland's soft systems methodology, discusses it in terms of the systems approach, and illustrates how it was used to relate evidence of user survey to practical problems of library management. Difficulties in using methodology are described and implications for library management and information science research are presented. (8…

Describes a computerized reference and bibliographic instruction system currently under development at the University of Waterloo Library. The functions of the system, which will include query negotiation, suggestions for research strategies, referral to appropriate reference materials, information on library services and locations, and library…

Two hundred eighty-three sources are included in this bibliography dealing with libraries, archives, and librarianship in the islands of the South and Central Pacific. Twenty-six island nations are covered, with brief narrative summaries of the library situation given in some cases: (1) American Samoa, (2) Belau, (3) Cook Islands, (4) Easter…

To investigate the experience of American and Canadian university libraries with remote access catalogs, self-administered questionnaires were sent to the 137 directors of all Association of Research Libraries (ARL) libraries and all libraries of Canadian degree-granting institutions. The study was designed to: (1) survey Canadian and U.S.…

This report is a documentation of the questionnaire that was used for a user survey conducted by the University Library of the Technische Universitat Wien (University of Technology, Vienna, Austria) in 1979-80. The survey entailed interviewing 692 faculty as well as 1,319 students on the following topics: (1) social variables; (2) research and…

This report discusses an ex post facto study that was done to examine the effect that the implementation of automated systems has had on libraries and support staff, labor costs, and productivity in the cataloging divisions of the library of the University of British Columbia. A comparison was made between two years: 1973, a pre-automated period…

The 23 papers presented at this conference deal with the information needs of institutionally-based part-time students in United Kingdom universities, polytechnics, and further education colleges, and with library and information services for the adult learner. Keith Percy and John Simpson provide overviews on the number and types of part-time…