A recent national survey polled public library directors and local government officials concerning the value of public library services and outlook for local tax support of public libraries. This article focuses on procedures used in planning the study sample, and broader issues to be considered in designing a national sample for public libraries.…

Prior to 1997, the University of Oxford in Great Britain had approximately one hundred autonomous libraries with little coordination of services, collection development, or management among them. In that year a new director was hired with the mandate to integrate many of these libraries into one centralized system. Over the past seven years…

This final report is a product of a Preservation Planning Program (PPP) self-study conducted by the Colorado State University Library (CSUL) working with the Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) Office of Management Studies (OMS). Designed to put self-help tools into the hands of library staff responsible for developing plans and procedures…

This final report is a product of a Preservation Planning Program (PPP) self-study conducted by the State University of New York (SUNY), Stony Brook, working with the Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) Office of Management Studies (OMS). The PPP is designed to put self-help tools into the hands of library staff responsible for developing…

In recognition of the increasing emphasis on competency-based certification, this annotated bibliography of 41 school media texts has been prepared to help school media specialists find information related to specific competencies in order to improve skills or resolve problems, and to aid media educators in developing topical reading lists. When…

Twenty-one sites that have integrated informal departmental collections with library systems were surveyed. Respondents offered recommendations on assessing feasibility, identifying collections, establishing work roles, and choosing centralized versus decentralized approaches for sharing information about departmental collections. Political and…

Introduction to the second part of a two-part series on collection development invites the reader to evaluate current collection development practice while considering changes, in light of recent innovations in library automation, resource availability, and format. Three major themes discussed in as many articles are briefly reviewed. (SD)

Glasgow Caledonian University Library (Scotland) conducted a pilot study to design a set of user chosen performance measures which can be used in British academic libraries for data collection. Members of 8 stakeholder groups were identified and given an 103-question survey, with each question to be rated on a 1-5 scale of importance. Stakeholder…

This report presents the results of a major 5-year review by the State Library of Pennsylvania Advisory Council on Library Development of the 1984 Comprehensive Plan for Library Service in Pennsylvania, together with related resolutions adopted by delegates to the 1990 Governor's Conference on Library and Information Services. The council review…

In 1988, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, a research team from the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University began a study of the origin, development, and diffusion of the Public Library Association's (PLA) planning and evaluation manuals. The study was intended to add to the general understanding of the…

This general summary of the results of a library study conducted in Hawaii presents the major findings from the survey of residents, the library staff survey, the government agency survey, and the measurements conducted in five Hawaii libraries. Major recommendations for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of library performance are…

Library Technical Assistants (LTA's) were the subject of a study designed to focus on four areas: (1) the present status of formal LTA training programs, (2) the present and potential job market, (3) the duties which LTA's perform, and (4) the attitude of the professional librarian toward the LTA. Data were collected from two sources--catalogs of…

An annual report for 1974-75 is presented by the Council on Library Resources (CLR) which was established in 1956, with funds from the Ford Foundation, to help provide solutions to significant library problems through directly administered programs, grants, and contracts with organizations and individuals. Described are CLR-supported activities in…

Literature analysis indicates that surveys are not widely used in the planning process for academic libraries because of difficulties with design of user studies, translation of survey results into management decisions, and acceptance of survey data by librarians. Trends such as competition from private information sources will force a change in…

Two articles discuss information professions in Africa. Highlights include the training of personnel at the middle level; library schools at the University of Ibadan and the University of Botswana; curriculum recommendations; and a review of 87 articles published between 1985 and 1989 that investigate areas of research in the information…