Organizations with increasingly diverse workforces and customer populations face challenges in reaping diversity's benefits while managing its potentially disruptive effects. This article defines workplace diversity and identifies best practices supporting planned and positive diversity management. It explores how academic libraries can apply…

This article presents an excerpt of Library Journal's (LJ's) Movers & Shakers ideas on how to ensure a vital library for the future. Several identify a disconnect between what librarians and libraries do and what users think they do. Mending this gap, they say, would transform library recruitment and library support. While specific insights on…

This case explores various entrepreneurial initiatives introduced by Dr. Ron Dow, dean of libraries, at a private, research-extensive institution in the northeastern United States. The case serves as an example of how entrepreneurial ideas can be applied within educational contexts, specifically, the academic support context of the university…

With fancy new software developments and growth in both the richness of content and delivery options for information resources, the Database Marketplace 2010 is a feast for buyers. Unfortunately, institutional budget cuts may force more of a famine mentality--with belt-tightening for most, and only purchases that are life-sustaining being served…

This paper presents a summary of the first survey of public library authorities in the UK to explore Sunday opening, undertaken in 2007 as part of the Clore Leadership Programme. It provides a snapshot of Sunday opening practice, set against a context of societal, economic, and policy developments, and examines whether Sunday opening furthers the…

Library school courses focusing on management and budgeting are as important as ever, as are continuing education opportunities for librarians who may not have encountered a severe economic recession. The journal crisis of the 1990s is still a fresh and unpleasant memory for many. However, for other librarians who may have graduated from library…

Since 2005 the State Library of New South Wales has provided staff with an opportunity to research aspects of the Library's services and collections through the State Librarian's Staff Fellowship Program. In January 2008, Maggie Patton commenced a project to rediscover and document the development of the rare printed collections at the State…

The librarian for the Stevens-Henager College, Murray, Utah campus was hired in the spring of 2008 and given the task of maintaining and improving the college's library and bookstore. It was soon discovered that many areas needed improvement (processes, outreach, policies, personnel, work-flow, etc.) Fortunately, she possessed skills from previous…

Self-service is the trend of today's libraries. The Run Run Shaw Library at the City University of Hong Kong therefore is transforming itself in the same direction and offers to its users what it calls the Easy-service. However, the need to handle cash-based micropayments at the service counter is a stumbling block. There is an urgent need for the…

The year 2009 will be remembered as one of angst, with the economy dominating news around the world. Few libraries were immune to the extraordinary financial pressures. The library marketplace by year's end was in a weakened position, with prospects of a long recovery at best. Concern persists that even deeper budget cuts will come when federal…

Librarians, like patrons and researchers, are caught between traditional library service models and the promise of evolving information technologies. In recent years, professional conferences have strategically featured programs and presentations geared toward building a mobile agenda and adapting or adopting services to meet new demands of mobile…

Books are traditionally set aside at the request of teachers from the main, normal loan collection to be put on reserve temporarily for checking out for a much shorter loan period to ensure that, at the expense of convenient, long-term loans for other users, all the students enrolled in a course have an opportunity to use them. Many studies have…

The librarians at Northern Kentucky University's W. Frank Steely Library have successfully added a new embedded librarianship program to their established reference and instruction services, without the support of increased staffing. In fact, this program was established and has matured during a period of staff reductions. The decisions made in…

This article addresses concerns raised by members of the local Muslim community regarding copies of the Qur'an in the circulating collections at Milner Library, Illinois State University. The librarians conducted an analysis of the collection of holy books and investigated the rules and traditions of the Islamic faith that govern the care and…

The former Associate Head of Access and Delivery Services of the North Carolina State University Libraries reports on successful use of matrix management techniques for the Circulation and Reserves unit of the department. Despite their having fallen out of favor in much of the management literature, matrix management principles are useful for…