In the competitive Higher Education environment, it is no longer sufficient for special collections to rely on the "uniqueness" of a collection as its unique selling point--it must be supported by a service and strategic plan that is both proactive in anticipating the demands of future researchers and responsive to current researchers'…

Libraries and archives digitize their special collections in an effort to increase access to rare and unique items. To ensure that resulting digital collections meet user needs, institutions have made assessment, consultation, and user participation integral to digitization initiatives and the selection process. Institutions must also build…

University College Dublin became the first library in the Republic of Ireland to trial patron-driven acquisition (PDA) as a collection development tool in 2013. A total of 42% of UCD Library's book budget was allocated to the project, which included both electronic and print books. This article describes the twelve month project from the tender…

Kimbel Library launched its mobile environment and ran it in full production for several months yet usage patterns were quite low and flat. The library only saw a substantial increase in usage when new, value-added services were integrated into this platform. Upon implementing and integrating discovery services, chat and SMS capabilities, and…

The exponential influx of digital content and mobile devices into schools begs for school librarians to engage in discussions and decision making about the selection, classification, management, and distribution of content ranging from e-books to open educational resources. As information professionals, school librarians should channel their inner…

What do a pink door, reading glasses, a website, and a Beetle Kill Pine ceiling have in common? Yes, readers will find them all in this collection of great design in libraries. But the reason they're featured is their important commonality: they were intentionally and thoughtfully placed in a library to meet people's needs or otherwise engage…

With both budget dollars and buying power shrinking for academic library collections, the selection of materials is a series of crucial choices. With increases in numbers of online programs, how can we determine if what we are buying is in fact what our users need? E-reserves are an increasingly popular way to provide digital copies of course…

This article discusses a project undertaken to assess the journals in a Big Deal package by applying a weighted value algorithm measuring quality, utility, and value of individual titles. Carried out by a national library consortium in Canada, the project confirmed the value of the Big Deal package while providing a quantitative approach for…

Library staff members should ultimately base their purchasing choices on the mission statements of their employing institutions. Fortunately, library mission statements have much in common. Undoubtedly, for example, all libraries have a goal that includes "serve the information needs of the community," because on some level, all libraries are…

Library scholars and practitioners have frequently reflected on the various factors that in combination make up a hospitable library, but there has been little theoretical synthesis of the notion of the library as a place of hospitality. The hospitality industry provides a rich vein of theoretical material from which to draw definitions of…

Over 2000 participants made the daylong programming at the "Library Journal"/"School Library Journal" Virtual Ebook Summit, September 29, a robust conversation and not just within the summit interface but also in tweets with the #ebooksummit hashtag (and beyond) and in libraries across the country where participants logged in to take part. The…

This study explores the library needs of students and tutors of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), utilization level of the library facilities and resources, the problems in the use of library, and suggestions for improvement of library facilities for students and tutors. Data collected from 4080 students and 526 tutors belonging to 15 different…

Purpose: This paper seeks to provide an insight into the implementation of some of the innovative Web 2.0 applications at Jaypee University of Information Technology with the aim of exploring the expectations of the users and their awareness and usage of such applications. Design/methodology/approach: The study was undertaken at the Learning…

Libraries need to weigh the benefits, usage, and cost-effectiveness of owning collections against seeking alternatives to deliver the information needed by customers. The University of Arizona Library investigated different approaches for meeting the research needs of East Asian Studies faculty and students under great pressure of physical space…

This book is a guide for librarians and media specialists who recognize the value of bilingual-bicultural education and are looking for ideas to develop library services for their Spanish-speaking patrons. Chapter one gives a brief history of Spanish-speaking people in the United States, as well as cultural characteristics, family role,…