Understanding faculty work practices can translate into improved library services. This study documents how education and behavioral science faculty locate, retrieve, and use information resources for research and writing and how they publish and store their research materials. The authors interviewed twelve professors using a structured interview…

The Library Media Center of the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School, a high school specializing in Government and International Studies, located in Richmond, Virginia, serves close to 650 gifted students in grades 9-12. The skills of Governor's students range from the neophyte ninth-grade researcher to experienced faculty members embarking on their…

This paper discusses research areas and methods related to library history. The first section outlines research areas, including activities such as services to children in public libraries, mobile libraries, cataloging rules and practice, classification rules and practices, development of bibliographies, organization models, literature offered to…

This final segment of a series of studies to ascertain the degree to which visually impaired persons use the Library of Congress National Library Service for the blind and physically handicapped (NLS) examines the methodologies involved in conducting the studies, as well as the problems associated with those methodologies. Chapters explore the…

Presents Checkland's soft systems methodology, discusses it in terms of the systems approach, and illustrates how it was used to relate evidence of user survey to practical problems of library management. Difficulties in using methodology are described and implications for library management and information science research are presented. (8…

One of a series of annual studies undertaken by the Library Research Center for and on behalf of the Illinois State Library, this report provides a detailed, question-by-question examination of the 143 responses (84% of the 170 Illinois academic libraries polled) to the 1981/82 Higher Education General Information Survey/Library General…

An overview of relevant literature reveals that residents in urban areas apparently have a multitude of nonoccupational information needs which are not being satisfied within the constraints of existing information resources and systems. A conceptual framework was drawn, focusing on four basic components--urban residents, their needs, sources of…

Findings from informetric research represent an important background resource to add to the mix of information useful for resolving difficult and ongoing problems in specific library environments or information service settings. This paper provides examples of informetric research that can be useful input to decision-making in the field of library…

Theory behind modern evaluative bibliometric techniques is reviewed at three levels: (1) policy application; (2) strategic analysis; and (3) tactical analysis. New techniques developed at each level and limitations of each approach are discussed. At all levels, the process begins with assembling data and then moves to a data-based evaluation. (SLD)

An instructional module designed to help librarians learn to identify and negotiate reference questions is presented and discussed. The instructional module consists of an essay on performance of negotiation as a decision-making step in the reference process, and exercises for identification of queries that should be negotiated. A videotape which…

The proceedings of this forum contain 23 papers focusing mainly on the technical aspects of institutional research. Most of the authors are institutional research officers in various colleges and universities. Part 1 contains papers on institutional research methodology. They deal with such topics as faculty load studies, enrollment projections,…