Explores the variety of innovations in service models implemented over the last 25 years that health-sciences librarians have initiated to extend library services and information to remote users. Trends in health-care-management systems, education initiatives, the rise in consumerism, and expectations of new categories of users are discussed.…

Explores the role of the librarian and of the service perspective in the digital library environment. The focus of the article is limited to the topic of librarian/user collaboration when the user is in a remote location, including video-based reference services and the use of electronic mail. (Author/LRW)

Presents information on deafness and deaf people that is helpful to librarians communicating with deaf patrons. Communication modes and preferences are discussed, including speaking and facial expression, speech reading, lipreading, and sign language; and methods of optimizing conditions for good communication are described. (11 references) (LRW)

Discussion of the role of academic libraries focuses on a study that proposed and tested a model to explore the use of academic libraries. Investigated service quality factors, resources, and user characteristics, and concludes that use is influenced most by a user's perceived familiarity with the library and its resources. (Author/LRW)

This naturalistic study examined the role of nonverbal communication in the academic library. The decision to approach or not approach a reference librarian was studied through the use of Mehrabian's immediacy metaphor, and it was hypothesized that the nonverbal behavior of the librarian is related to the user's decision. Contains 53 references.…

Considers the future of library instruction and addresses four main areas: (1) the reference/instruction relationship; (2) the vision of creating the self-sufficient user; (3) organizing library instruction as a curriculum; and (4) the need for significant outcomes. Examples from Association of Research Libraries members are included. (Author/LRW)

Provides an overview of past and present library services to, and policies about, deaf people. Unique characteristics of the deaf community are discussed; recent developments in deaf studies, communication techniques, and laws affecting library services to deaf people are reviewed; and the roles libraries can play in providing services are…

Examines the information practices and strategies used by interdisciplinary scientists in research libraries. Highlights include gathering and disseminating knowledge outside their core knowledge domains through personal networks, conferences, and the literature; intermediaries who help transfer knowledge and information from unfamiliar subject…

Defines "values" and lists the eight values (stewardship, service, intellectual freedom, rationalism, literacy and learning, equity of access, privacy, democracy) derived by the author in an earlier work. Gives a brief history of the evolution of human-to-human reference service and discusses its future. Relates each of the author's eight values…

Proposes a new transitional budget model to help make libraries adept at and comfortable with change during the transition to an increasingly electronic knowledge environment, emphasizing staff education and training, new service opportunities, user responsiveness, teamwork, fiscal empowerment, and more effective management systems. (Contains nine…

Suggests that in digital library services assessment, anthropology can provide the initial understanding, the intellectual basis, on which informed choices about sample population, survey design, or focus group selection can reasonably be made. Analyzes the National Gallery of the Spoken Word (NGSW). Includes brief descriptions of nine NGSW…

Reference service technology has passed its first stage of insuring more accurate, rapid delivery of information. The second revolution underway will improve on both acquisition and retrieval of data. New technologies must fit into traditional reference service goals. The human should be given first priority. (Contains 46 references.) (Author/AEF)

This investigation compared self-reported use of public libraries and public opinion about library services with levels of per-capita library funding over time. Results showed a small relationship between self-reported use of libraries and levels of library funding. There was no relationship between public opinion and funding levels. Non-economic…

Libraries should be active participants in knowledge production, and should develop classificatory structures that support the needs of a diverse information ecology consisting of a complex web of interacting agents, users, and technologies. Within such an information ecology, a classificatory structure cannot follow a one-size-fits-all paradigm,…

Discussion of the impact of distance education on academic libraries focuses on marketing aspects. Topics include the rapid expansion of educational computing; the maturing of higher education; the World Wide Web as competitor to academic libraries; business purposes of academic libraries; distance education strategies; servicing market segments;…