Purpose: Public libraries play a pivotal role in supporting education and literacy. They provide numerous services, activities, collections and resources for education and leisure. Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) is an international renowned public library that provides numerous services for different users worldwide. E-learning is an emergent and…

Using the "point oh" naming system for developments in librarianship is attracting debate about its appropriateness, basis and syntax and the meaning and potential of Library 2.0. Now a new term, Library 3.0, has emerged. Is there is any significant difference between the two models? Using documentary analysis to explore the terms, the…

Current dife Libraries

The relation between library instruction and the reference function is explored, noting characteristics and aims of both functions, terminology (bibliographic instruction and library instruction), user attitudes toward library use, correlation of the two services, and purposes of both bibliographic instruction and the reference process. Sixteen…

This study examines sixty academic libraries' Web sites and finds that 80 percent of them do not have a technical services' homepage. Data reveal that institution's status might be a factor in whether a library has such a page. Further content analysis suggests there is an appropriate and useful public service role that technical services…

This survey of public library use in Arthur, Illinois, reveals that 14 percent of nearby Amish population have purchased nonresident, family library cards. Comparison with rural populations in downstate Illinois and library use in Ohio Amish settlements suggests changes in Amish culture and role of public libraries near Amish settlements. Includes…

A study of 296 American Library Association members found that although library media specialists (LMS) support the instructional consultant role as stated in the guidelines of Information Power, they lagged in its practice; and LMSs who used flexible scheduling practiced the instructional consultant role more than LMSs who used fixed scheduling.…

Determines the role of elementary and secondary library media specialists in (1) promoting reading growth; (2) assisting classroom teachers; and (3) teaching reading skills and strategies. Compares actual and ideal responsibilities of school library media specialists. (RS)

This essay reviews the functions of the Tanzanian National Central Library (NCL) and evaluates the activities performed and services provided by the NCL in light of the definitions of national library functions established by UNESCO and by K. W. Humphreys, Librarian of the University of Birmingham. The relationship between the NCL and the…

An objective description of the programs and outline of the problems of the Lenin State Library are presented by I.P. Osipova of the Lenin State Library of the USSR, and a comparison between that library and the Library of Congress (LC) is presented by Frank M. McGowan. The Lenin Library serves as national library of the USSR, state repository of…

Despite obvious and fundamental differences, contemporary library issues strikingly familiar to those of the west also beset the Soviet library world--issues that so far have been bridged in only technical apolitical areas. Governmental insistence on the centrality of ideology to library service remains an international stumbling block.…

Reviews the profiles of a typical public library, the Redondo Beach Public Library (California), and its nearby community college library, the Schauerman Library at El Camino College in Torrance, California. Discusses similarities between staff in public and academic libraries; differences between the two environments; and like missions of both…

Presents a brief overview of the sociological forces shaping the discourse of disability; examines the part that public libraries have played, or failed to play, in addressing issues of exclusion as they relate to people with disabilities. Focuses on Australia's deaf community and its particular informational needs. The low impact of the…

Describes the missions and roles of regional campus libraries and their campuses; analyzes how and if these missions and roles are put into practice, particularly in the area of community involvement; compares roles and missions of different regional campus libraries; and considers the future roles of regional campus libraries in their…

Through a comparison of the historical perspectives of medieval and modern libraries, this paper is designed to clarify the purpose and goals of the library, and to promote a public and intellectual debate to guide future developments. The Middle Ages were chosen because libraries possessed an importance and centrality to learning, civilization,…