James Neal begins this essay with the introduction of the 1996 paper, "Choosing Our Futures," by calling it a provocation, and a call to arms for the academic library community to challenge complacency and move forward toward fundamental change. Neal writes here that in the context of extraordinary economic pressures, the early…

"Dewey or don't we?" is the question that hundreds, if not thousands, of school librarians across the country are currently asking themselves. Do they throw out what is old but trusted for new organizational systems, or do they continue using the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system and make changes and adjustments to the…

The school library profession has begun to develop a reputation for tech-savviness. Several school librarians are nationally recognized technology leaders and present at conferences where instructional technology is at the forefront. Unfortunately, while school librarians have done a wonderful job of marketing their technological expertise in the…

In 2012, more than a decade after the original Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (hereafter the Standards) were institutionalized as the goal of academic library instruction, the Information Literacy Competency Standards Review Task Force convened by ACRL recommended…

The exponential influx of digital content and mobile devices into schools begs for school librarians to engage in discussions and decision making about the selection, classification, management, and distribution of content ranging from e-books to open educational resources. As information professionals, school librarians should channel their inner…

Keeping a uniform, basic arrangement of the school library is essential if students are to be comfortable finding resources in other libraries. Two questions that must be answered if a new system were to be devised are: Who would decide on the particulars of that system? What criteria would be used to make the decision to ensure that use of the…

At the time of writing the original paper my viewpoint was a personal one, one that focussed on the status within the profession of equally qualified librarians based purely on the perceived status conferred by the type of libraries in which they worked. However, it must now be observed that the world in which public librarians operated then was…

When Louise Schaper opened the new Fayetteville Public Library (FPL) in Arkansas in 2004, she brought the state's second LEED Silver-certified building to completion. The green building fulfilled a community expectation for sustainable innovation established through complex public dialog, and the library went on to become the "2005 LJ/Gale Library…

Bill Schickling has spent a good chunk of his professional life at what is now Polaris Library Systems, shaping both the older Galaxy system and the newer Polaris integrated library system (ILS). When he joined the company as a programmer in 1987, it was still part of Gaylord, known mostly for its furniture and supplies division. Schickling was…

Purposeful assessment of space for the understanding and improvement of the academic library is a relatively new area of inquiry. This essay offers a framework to consider different factors affecting such an assessment and insights for undertaking a meaningful inquiry about the relationship of space to an academic library's evolving purpose as…

Stanford University is going through the difficult and highly fraught process of figuring out a plan for the library of the future. Coming on the heels of the "bookless library," touted as the vision for a new engineering library, a preliminary proposal in 2007 to tear down the seismically unsafe Meyer Library and digitize and house off campus…

In the not too distant past, libraries kept a vertical file of printed materials that typically consisted of newspaper and magazine clippings, pamphlets, brochures, maps, photographs, and sundry whatnots. Most, if not all, of these materials were irregularly published or they were not published in any official manner. They were seen as incidental…

Besides the School Library Media Program of the Year (SLMPY), American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has other awards to honor library media professionals and programs. From the Frances Henne Award for new library media specialists to the Collaborative School Library Media Award for collaborative projects, the awards recognize programs…

The rapidly evolving digital world inspires much use of nautical terminology: (1) navigation; (2) discovery; (3) the voyage; and (4) the new terrain at the end of the journey. Considering how quickly new technologies are arriving on smartphones, the nautical adventure is continuing at an increased pace. Innovations in basic library services follow…

It's an obvious observation that librarians today find themselves dealing with collections of ever larger proportions of electronic content. The degree to which that shift has already taken place varies from one type of library to another. Some organizations, especially those involved with specializations in biomedical, scientific, or business,…