Academic libraries are spending considerable time and study on redesigning spaces. The use of technology is often an important part of these redesigned spaces. The space redesign goals at F. D. Bluford Library focus on creating open, activity-promoting, colorful spaces that are designed to be attractive to students. The goals also focus on…

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…

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…

As access services emerges as a discrete discipline within the field of librarianship, opportunities for access services librarians to meet and discuss the issues facing today's libraries continue to grow. One annual meeting that has attracted less attention over the years is the Ivies + Access Services Symposium. Held at various member…

This study evaluates whether or not community college libraries have in place the characteristics necessary to develop digital branch libraries to meet the expanding and changing needs of their publics. Using Hon and Grunig's (1999) relationship building criteria as a framework, 98 community college library websites were analyzed to determine…

Academic libraries by nature serve as spaces for communities of learners to gather. Careful design and marketing of spaces to meet specific needs, staffed by experts to facilitate and guide such learning, enhance the impact of "library as place." In this article, the author shares two examples of collaborations that have resulted from partnerships…

Nearly two years ago, the Center for an Urban Future published "Branches of Opportunity," a report documenting that New York City's public libraries have become more vital than ever, and are serving more New Yorkers in more ways than ever before. This new report provides an exhaustive analysis of the libraries' capital needs and offers a…

The "embedded librarian" as a concept has emerged in the literature only recently, but has quickly gained footing as a model of practice. Many scholarly explorations of embedded librarianship have been published, though no two works define this concept in the exact same way. David Shumaker's description seems to be particularly apt: "Embedded…

This article describes the process and role frontline access and public service staff play in needs assessment and evaluation of user services, specifically in understanding the voice of the customer. Information includes how the University of Arizona Libraries have incorporated daily data collection into the strategic planning process, resources…

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…

The contributions in this volume represent a decade of OCLC's user behavior research findings that articulate the need for the design of future library services to be all about the user. Highlights include: (1) People associate the library with books and do not consider the library in relation to online resources or reference services; (2) People…

People using libraries will expect to receive more of what they provide in more ways and in more places. It's already the case that people presume they should be able to do things they can do at the library through the web. Because they can do that, they presume they can use the libraries through their phones and their tablet computers. To some…

This article features the University of Liverpool's arts and humanities library, which applies a new search tool to improve the user experience. In nearly every way imaginable, the Sydney Jones Library and the Harold Cohen Library--the university's two libraries that serve science, engineering, and medical students--support the lives of their…

Tufts University Hirsh Health Sciences Library created a Facebook page and a corresponding managing committee in March 2010. Facebook Page Insights data collected from the library's Facebook page were statistically analyzed to investigate patterns of user engagement. The committee hoped to improve posting practices and increase user engagement…

The current rate of change suggests scholarly communications issues such as new publication models and technology to connect library and research tools is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. As models evolve, standards develop, and scientists evolve in their communication patterns, librarians will need to embrace transitional…