At the end of 2006 the UNSW Library restructured its five special libraries into a new division called the Information Services Department. It was a radical restructure and provides a new model through which the Library delivers services in both the physical and online environments in a flexible and proactive manner. A pivotal role within this new…

A "slow pedagogy of place" in (environmental/outdoor) education has been enacted by the two authors over the past three years in a third year undergraduate semester-long unit named Experiencing the Australian Landscape. An integrated practical and theoretical, de- and reconstruction of fast pedagogies is now needed, we believe, if…

The mere fact that a library service is being used does not mean that the service makes a difference or has a positive impact on the user. This has significant implications for Special Library and Information Services (SL&IS) that have to constantly prove that they add value. Because of the difficulty of measuring impact effectively, the…

Libraries and library faculty play a significant role in supporting college curriculum and helping students succeed academically. In particular, libraries are the primary location both physically and remotely for supporting faculty and students in their research and information needs. Over the years, this role of libraries and library faculty has…

Collaboration is widely promoted in school librarianship and education, yet little is known about the talk it entails. This intrinsic case study of eight planning meetings employed a discourse analysis and socio-cultural perspective to examine the school librarian's role as a broker for learning in the discourse of collaborative planning with…

Federal legislation now requires the deposit of some taxpayer-funded research in "open-access" repositories--that is, sites where scholarship and research are made freely available over the Internet. The institutions whose faculty produce the research have begun to see the benefit of open-access publication as well. From the perspective of faculty…

In the past decade, economic development experts have moved away from traditional approaches to economic development that have relied upon recruiting or attracting large businesses with offers of tax breaks, financial incentives, and other subsidies. Increasingly, communities are focusing their economic development resources on supporting the…

Public libraries have evolved into a primary source of Internet access in many communities, generating wide-ranging impacts in the communities that public libraries serve. Based on the findings of the 2007 Public Libraries and the Internet study, this article examines the ways in which the Internet access delivered by public libraries affects…

In American colleges and universities, plagiarism is a hot topic: teachers wail and moan about the rise in student plagiarism (though often without evidence to demonstrate this supposed rise); they complain that the Web has "caused" plagiarism; and at the same time, many believe that technology is the key to "solving" the problem of student…

In the new AASL "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner," the very first Common Belief is "Reading is a window to the world." School library media specialists have always developed collections of materials (both print and non-print) to hook students in and keep them engaged in reading. They continually promote their collections to both students…

College and university students across the United States are concerned about the cost of textbooks. This study examines the student patterns of coping with textbook inflation and the role that course reserve collections play in ameliorating costs. In the winter of 2007, an online survey was distributed to 1,500 Oregon State University students to…

The media often report on the negativity of Facebook, with horror stories of people losing their jobs because of something they posted. There can be useful purposes for Facebook, however, especially after the unthinkable happens on a college campus. Community college libraries can incorporate Facebook into their security planning.

This paper traces the century-long history of a library that has served teacher preparation programs in Calgary, Alberta, since 1909. It looks at how this library's role and collections adapted to shifting notions of what constituted good teacher education and changing economic circumstances. In recounting this history, the paper examines the…

Media centers have been transformed from warehouses for books and equipment into the hub of the learning community. Media specialists keep the hub functioning properly. If school library media specialists are doing their job well, they are making a difference in the ways teachers teach and in the ways students learn. On any given day, a media…

Embedded librarians, connected with students and faculty inside the classroom, lab and studio, have new opportunities for preparing students for research and for collaborating with faculty on course-integrated information literacy, research assignment design, teaching, assignment interpretation, and timely student assistance. What makes embedded…