Branding and the idea that ebooks are still essentially books are important concepts to keep in mind, especially when confronted with all there is to oversee and consider in the arena of electronic resources; it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the torrent of change and the intricacies of the business. The author states that electronic resources…

Like a bright beacon on the hill, the Lillian Marrero public library rises majestically above the deserted buildings and bulldozed voids below on Germantown Avenue. Here in the heart of what is known as the Philadelphia Badlands, makeshift garbage dumps line the sidewalks. The tall grass that surrounds abandoned lots does nothing to obscure the…

This article reports a librarian's collection development efforts to support her institution's first independent doctoral degree (Ed.D., Educational Leadership) via a citation analysis comparing information usage by education doctorate dissertation authors from six peer institutions nationally. This analysis is part of a long-term examination of…

School librarians in the Mesquite Independent School District (ISD) have been operating solo on their campuses since the 1970s. Campus clerical assistance in the school libraries was a luxury that they couldn't afford. Since the district's vision was of a teaching librarian, a Library Processing Department was established in 1972. As years passed,…

Librarians are the ultimate information workers, with little they can count as done at the end of the day. Staying productive and motivated when there are no finished items that you have created at day's end can be difficult. For just this reason, David Allen, author and productivity expert, has proposed an information-worker-centric theory of…

This paper reports on the results of an overlap study of Australian research library collections. The study used OCLC's WorldCat Collection Analysis software to mine data recording Australian holdings on the WorldCat database. The data is analysed according to the results obtained for six "groups" which represent various coalitions of…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present the results of a research study conducted to assess the perceptions and opinions of 100 staff working in libraries on the impact of using IT on library housekeeping operations and information services, in eight central university libraries in India. Design/methodology/approach: Data gathering…

Many libraries have developed mobile versions of their websites. In order to understand their users, web developers have conducted both usability tests and focus groups, yet analytical software and web server logs can also be used to better understand users. Using data collected from these tools, the Ursula C. Schwerin Library has made informed…

Presented as the keynote address at the Library Research Seminar, University of Maryland, October 7, 2010, this essay identifies and explores three agendas ever appropriate for study, the pursuits of which are especially needed now. They are as follows: to (1) explore the historical dimension of library topics, (2) revive study of the institution…

A few articles have drawn some amount of attention specifically to the local causes of the success or failure of electronic resource management system (ERMS) implementations. In fact, it seems clear that local conditions will largely determine whether any given ERMS implementation will succeed or fail. This statement might seem obvious, but the…

College students have a tendency to become stressed from both their schoolwork and their personal lives. As the end of a semester approaches, the stress levels begin to rise for everyone. The procrastinators, the planners, and even those ahead in their work become tenser even with small problems, such as slow printers or an unavailable book needed…

Today's scholars face an outstanding array of choices when choosing search tools: Google Scholar, discipline-specific abstracts and index databases, library discovery tools, and more recently, Microsoft's re-launch of their academic search tool, now dubbed Microsoft Academic Search. What are these tools' strengths for the emerging needs of…

Far from being dusty old relics who are guardians of the book, embedded librarians need to be proactively leading students through the digital maze of the virtual library. Working with students more than 7,000 miles away changed perceptions of how to teach and learn, and how people interact online. We will share how as embedded librarians we…

Birmingham City University's Library and Learning Resources' strategic aim is to improve student satisfaction. A key element is the achievement of the Customer Excellence Standard. An important component of the standard is the mapping of services to improve quality. Library and Learning Resources has developed a methodology to map these…

This case study explores the introduction of a university wide employability program by the World of Work Careers Centre (WOWCC) at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). The article reports the background against which an employability program was implemented; the justification and growing demand for more emphasis on employability skills in…