A library media specialist should be involved in understanding the curriculum and the content area standards in the school, school district and the state, which would help the library media specialists to assist in planning, collaboratively teaching and co-evaluating with the classroom teachers. The library media program can become an integral…

On May 9, 2003 Christine Borne launched the electronic discussion group NEXGENLIB-L. Her aim was to involve colleagues around her age professionally, a group usually unheard in the professional literature and discussions. The list quickly burned up with complaints about library school and work places, frustration about poor pay and student loans,…

Scholarship conducted in an increasingly online environment requires the services of a trusted third party in order to ensure that scholarly communication remains reliably accessible and applicable over the longer term. The library, by virtue of its most fundamental values and attributes, is probably better suited at this time than other…

This study was performed to analyze characteristics of a team-based organization introduced lately to many academic libraries in South Korea. The major areas of exploration included the introduction of the team approach, team empowerment, leadership of team leaders, open communication, and the director's commitment. The study used a survey design…

Noise in a community college library can be part of the nature of the environment. It can also become a huge distraction for those who see the library as their sanctuary for quiet study and review of resources. This article describes the steps that should be taken by library staff in order to be proactive about noise and the library environment,…

Strategic planning provides a useful structure for creating and implementing library web sites. The planned integration of a library's web site into its mission and objectives ensures that the library's community of users will consider the web site one of the most important information tools the library offers.

This article presents a plan of having a new facility for the library of Valparaiso University. The authors, as dean of library services and assistant university librarian for access services at Valpo, discuss their plan of building a Center for Library and Information Resources that would house more books while also providing computing centers,…

The Special Libraries' Association (SLA) has conducted salary surveys since 1967, triennially from 1967 to 1990, biennially from 1990 to 1996 and annually from 1997 forward. The objectives of the annual Salary Survey are to: (1) Collect and analyze systematic, accurate information about the salaries of special librarians and information…

In 2004, Sampson-Livermore Library at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, began circulating laptops to its patrons. After a small pilot project, full-scale implementation occurred and the service proved to be very popular. Policies and procedures were adjusted at several steps along the way to accommodate lessons learned from the…

This article uses Wellington City Libraries as the basis for a case study of a future-focused, reorganized staffing structure in a public library network. It covers the change from why, how, departure from a building-based hierarchical structure, new staff and line responsibilities, union involvement, implications for staff training to culture and…

In preparation for its Five-Year Plan for the years 2008 through 2012, the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services has reviewed a variety of information resources, including studies, publications, surveys and stakeholder meetings, to assist in understanding the state, its people, its future and the potential role of libraries. This…

What administrators know and understand matters when it comes to organizing a school for teaching and learning. When principals and assistant principals discourage the use of practices unfamiliar to them or do not support best practices, they can actually hamper student achievement and professional growth. This is especially true when it comes to…

This study investigates the satisfaction of library users at Wayne State University who utilize alternative information access methods. The LibQUAL+[TM] desired and perceived that satisfaction ratings are used to determine the user's "superiority gap." By focusing limited library resources to address "superiority gap" issues identified by each…

Over the years, the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) has experimented with various continuous improvement initiatives. Some projects fizzled owing to the universal killers of grand ideas such as inertia, inconsistent implementation, lack of buy-in, "flavor of the month" attitude, and the all-time favorite: if they ignore this idea it…

This case study describes the process of proposing and implementing a wiki for use in an academic library setting, based on the process used by Iowa State University Library. Using the Iowa State University Library Wiki as a model, this article lays out the decisions necessary at each step of the process of establishing a new wiki. Control of…