The Australian and New Zealand academic library statistics for 1996 provide data on overall staffing, services, collections. expenditures, and population in 43 Australian and 7 New Zealand academic library systems. Includes amendments to the 1995 statistics. (PEN)

Discusses the economics and value of information and describes a study that compared an objective measure, the estimated direct costs to a library to purchase materials or provide services used by specific users, with a subjective measure, exchange values those users would pay for the information. (LRW)

Provides a brief historical background of electronic journals and delineates both positive and negative aspects of the technology for academic libraries. Topics include accessibility; subscription costs; multimedia capabilities; technological, sociocultural, and economic barriers; refereeing, or peer review; copyright and licensing; selection and…

Discusses library cooperation and academic library consortia and presents a case study of a Canadian consortia that conducted a cost-benefit analysis for purchasing an electronic resource. Reports on member library subscription costs, external economic factors, value of patron time saved, costs and benefits for patrons, and net savings. (LRW)

Discusses changes in academic libraries, especially reference services, in light of the needs of increasingly diverse ethnic and minority users who have traditionally been underserved and underrepresented. Library collections, budget priorities, recruitment and training of librarians and staff, campus support services, and the use of technology…

Documentation supplied in this kit demonstrates how research libraries provide services to visiting scholars as distinguished from other categories of external user. A "visiting scholar" is most often defined as a faculty member affiliated with an institution of higher education but the term may also include independent scholars and persons…

Canada's National Core Library Statistics Program is designed to capture several key indicators of the broad impact on Canadian society of library services provided by the public, academic, and special library sectors. These impacts can be broadly organized into cultural and economic. Current indicators of cultural impact are question answering…

Describes Haverford College's attempts to integrate scientific electronic journals with previously held formats to enhance accessibility and to reduce costs. Highlights include material formats; faculty and department cultures; consortial arrangements; users' habits; implications for online catalogs; financial issues; and communication between…

Changing demands on academic libraries make it important to assess continuously the status of academic library resources and library operations. The Academic Library Survey (ALS), conducted periodically by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) since 1966, was designed to provide concise information on library resources, services, and…

Examines possible barriers to adequate reference services to children and young adults. Topics discussed include the effects of budget pressures and shifting priorities in public and academic libraries; equity in access to information; reference policies; communication between children and adult services staff and administration; multiple service…

Examines the effects of CD-ROM on academic library reference work. Topics discussed include the impact on job duties of the reference librarian; impact on users; system drawbacks; location of equipment; search strategies of users versus librarians; budgetary concerns; and future ramifications, including networking and electronic publishing. (10…

Discusses collection management in academic libraries in light of computer-mediated access to remote electronic databases and online resources. Topics include the library collection, ownership of versus access to information, the selection process, collection evaluation, collection development policies, materials budget, serials, and user liaison.…

Discussion of the cost effectiveness of searching online versus searching on CD-ROM highlights an example that compares costs for searching the ERIC database. Fixed costs and variable costs are described, labor costs are examined, implications for management are considered, and the effect of the number of databases and workstations is discussed.…

Discusses trends in the future of higher education and considers the possible resulting challenges for libraries, particularly the development of special collections. Topics discussed include management, developing cost-benefit measures, considering possible new users, inter-library cooperation, developing quality by communicating standards and…

Describes efforts by academic libraries in Virginia to increase resource sharing through new technological developments. Highlights include cooperative collection development; software designed for resource sharing; regional electronic resources centers; workstations; interfaces to connect online catalogs; patron-initiated interlibrary loans; and…