It has been a decade since the first aggregator journal packages began to become available at academic and public libraries throughout the United States of America. During these 10 years, the library and information science community has published numerous articles on the pros and cons of this method of delivery and these collections, more than…

Describes the development of an evaluation instrument, the Environment Rating Scale for Public Library Children's Services, that addresses the need to know how effectively the public library is serving children's needs. Field tests of the first draft and reliability testing of the second draft are described, and future plans are discussed. (nine…

This report reflects the results of an evaluation of the coverage in the annual Public Library Statistics program, a joint federal-state information collection project. It is the first phase of a broader project of the Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to evaluate the overall statistics available from the annual…

Many public libraries in the United States have undertaken the planning process suggested by the Public Library Association. They have incorporated into their mission statements some of the Association's eight basic library service roles as local priorities. This study explored the relationship between the chosen service role of 12 public library…

This is the fourth in a series of reports evaluating the Public Library Statistics (PLS) program, an annual census of public libraries in the United States. The census includes, in addition to a full count of public libraries and their outlets, a variety of statistics about the services provided by and, the financial condition and the staffing…

Reports on a project that investigated, by means of interviews, the information needs, information-gathering strategies, and information use of 10 urban and 9 rural community groups in Australia. Highlights include accuracy and reliability as criteria by all groups, rural groups' perceptions of being disadvantaged, and the importance of public…

Includes three articles that consider the effects of the Internet on public library reference services. Highlights include the reliability of Internet information sources, its timeliness as a tool for information access and dissemination, the Internet as change agent for libraries; reference publishing, helping the searcher refine requests, and an…