If you are like the millions of people buying the latest smartphone, iPhone 5, or Samsung Galaxy S III, your local library should have something to offer you. The Emma S. Clark Memorial Library, for one, has an app for that! Dubbed "Emma Mobile," the library's application works with iOS (Apple), Android (Google), and Amazon Kindle Fire…

Why is it such a struggle to define and capture measures that convey to decision makers the value of libraries' services and programs to the communities, campuses, corporations, or organizations? To be honest, there are a number of reasons for this struggle--all of which can be addressed and, most importantly, solved. First, one has to face…

Several years ago, National Public Radio (NPR) librarians began developing a new content management system (CMS). It was intended to offer desktop access for all NPR-produced content, including transcripts, audio, and metadata. Fast-forward to 2011, and their shiny, new database, Artemis, was ready for debut. Their next challenge: to teach a staff…

Libraries today are determined to meet the expanding needs of their patrons by keeping their services and book collections up-to-date with the rapidly growing technological advances. Many have adapted to the innovative changes seamlessly by integrating new technology trends such as: (1) purchasing more ebook titles; (2) using social media sites…

There has been a noticeable divide the past few years within the library world regarding electronic books. Many academic libraries have been purchasing or leasing web-based academic ebooks for years. Most public libraries on the other hand (thanks in large part to services such as OverDrive) have directed their attention toward downloadable…

How will your library serve mobile device users? By building apps from scratch? By offering entirely separate content? Or by modifying your site for mobile devices? This author found that the best fit for a joint library serving Victoria College and the University of Houston-Victoria was to build a mobile website in HTML and CSS using mobile…

There is a growing shift to digital offerings among public libraries. Libraries increasingly are fulfilling roles as technology hubs for their communities, with high demand for technology and career development training resources. Ebooks and other digital materials are on the rise, while print is being scaled back. More libraries are turning to…

Clinton Community College (CCC) is a small campus serving a rural community just outside the city of Plattsburgh in upstate New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The Leroy M. Douglas Sr. Library (Douglas Library) is located in the George Moore Academic and Administrative Building (Moore Building). Prior to…

This article discusses the authors' implementation of Help Central, a site within the Lister Hill Library Collection on the University of Alabama-Birmingham's SharePoint server. Initially, Help Central was designed to address the inadequacies in the library's old, static HTML web-based support system, including haphazard issue reporting by staff…

For nearly a decade now, librarians have discussed and deliberated ways, for the sake of convenience, to integrate internet-like searching into their own catalogs to mimic what academic library patrons have been using outside the library. Discovery tools and web-scale discovery services (WSDS) attempt to provide users with a similar one-stop shop…

Building a social media profile itself is a rewarding experience for digital librarians, but there is another aspect to social media immersion, and it is a powerful tool for the profession. As librarians establish expert status in the use of popular tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and WordPress, they can add training and even product…

Last fall, Information Today, Inc.'s research division, Unisphere Research, conducted a survey of more than 1,200 public, academic, government, and special librarians with budget authority in North America. The study determined that after a couple of devastating years, most libraries are projecting budget stabilization in 2011. Naturally,…

Starting a digitization program can be a daunting prospect for any library, whether it is of the large, well-funded variety or the small, shoestring-budget kind. The former may have the luxury of costly commercial software, dedicated programmers, and multiple librarians of various specializations, all of which can smooth the process. But what if…

Spaces such as the Chicago and Miami YOUmedia centers are great examples of digital media labs. Focused on providing technology and services that allow teens to explore their passions in an unstructured creative process, these labs provide technology that encourages the self-expression and creation of ideas in almost any digital format, such as…

A diverse group, account-based services include a wide variety of sites commonly used by patrons, including online shopping sites, social networks, photo- and video-sharing sites, banking and financial sites, government services, and cloud-based storage. Whether or not a piece of information is obtainable online must be considered when creating…