This study investigates how article downloads from ScienceDirect changed after Temple University Libraries downsized its all-inclusive Elsevier big deal bundle to a selective custom package. After the libraries lost current-year access to nearly half of Elsevier's active journals, the total downloads from Elsevier journals declined by 16.2 percent…

With the growing population of undergraduate students on our campus and an increased focus on their success, librarians at a large midwestern university were interested in the citation management styles of this university cohort. Our university library spends considerable resources each year to maintain and promote access to the robust…

Reference librarians are constantly balancing their reference duties against other duties, for example, collection development and departmental liaison. The author works as a reference librarian at Texas A&M University-Commerce Libraries in Commerce, Texas. The university has approximately 11,000 students, a large number of whom are…

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…

Introduction: To provide valuable services in the future, libraries will need to create better information systems and set up an infrastructure more in line with the current technologies. The "Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records" conceptual model provides a basis for this transformation, but there are still a number of…

Many research libraries are looking for new ways to demonstrate value for their parent institutions. Metrics, assessment, and promotion of research continue to grow in importance, but they have not always fallen into the scope of services for the research library. Montana State University (MSU) Library recognized a need and interest to quantify…

This dissertation analyzes how North Carolina State University's (NCSU) James B. Hunt Jr. Library extends the ways in which the information architectures of academic research libraries can function as a technology, as discourse, and as rhetoric. The starting point for the analysis is the libraries of antiquity, which functioned technologically as…

This article presents a reading of the user interface in one public library system. Its aim is to find out the frames and competences required and used in the communication between the computer and the patron. The authors see the computer as a text that is to be read by the user who wants to search for information from the library. The transition…

This paper will look at the services presently offered to distance students by libraries within the categories of professional staff, access to resources, reference assistance, and library user instruction. It will then offer the argument that these services could be improved by developing embedded librarians within online academic courses as a…

During spring quarter 2008, the Western Washington University (WWU) Libraries established an interactive bloglike environment called "14 Days to Have Your Say" with the intention of gathering new ideas and feedback about the libraries from the university community. The environment was developed as a fairly simple Drupal site. The project…

Usage statistics are an important metric for making decisions on serials. Although the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries have been collecting usage statistics, the statistics had not frequently been used to make decisions and had not been included in collection development policy. After undergoing a collection assessment, the…

The Interlibrary Loan department at the University of Mississippi wished to examine interlibrary loan borrowing data dating back to the implementation of the ILLiad system in August 2001 in order to determine why the number of cancellations due to local availability continues to increase. The patron information was extracted in an attempt to…

Beyond collecting traditional circulation statistics, tracking in-house use of library materials is a significant measure of how patrons use our resources. In our pilot project, Lending Services staff members conducted nightly pick-ups of library materials left on tables, in carrels, in study rooms, as well as books cast aside in the stacks areas…

A mission-critical system is one that is so intertwined with the operation of an organization that the organization can scarcely function without it. Just as in corporations, mission-critical library systems offer the capability to unlock talent and time. They are essential to the transformation of higher education and the learning environment. A…

Rutgers University Libraries are using a Microsoft Access database to track the purchase of books requested by teaching faculty for use in the Reserve Collection. Reports are generated which show what is purchased, how money was spent. Combined with circulation figures and LC Subject areas, the database provides documentation of library support of…