There has been a noticeable divide the past few years within the library world regarding electronic books. Many academic libraries have been purchasing or leasing web-based academic ebooks for years. Most public libraries on the other hand (thanks in large part to services such as OverDrive) have directed their attention toward downloadable…

This document analysis examined the academic library and the changing role of the academic librarian in higher education. A comparison of the trends and issues reported by prominent librarians in the 20th century was made to those reported in the 21st century. Emphasis was placed on the following decades: 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s in the 20th…

The University of Denver's Penrose Library saw a substantial increase in use as a result of several new and enhanced services over a six-year period. In turn, longer operating hours and increased staffing for a 24-hours-a-day, five-days-a-week (24 x 5) operating schedule was funded. This case study analyzes student need for longer library hours…

In this article, the author discusses the future potential of electronic resources management (ERM) organization, within the development of the next-generation integrated library systems (ILS), as a very promising strategy. This also presents enormous challenges to ERM librarians though, especially on how to determine standards and workflows. The…

Linked data stores house vetted content that can supplement the information available through online library catalogs, potentially mitigating failed author searches if information about the author exists in linked data formats. In this case study, a total of 689 failed author index queries from a large Midwestern academic library's online library…

Over the last twenty-five years, the Minnesota Historical Society, the University of Minnesota Libraries, and Minitex have developed a partnership centered on creating pathways to higher education by engaging local middle school and high school students in immersive programs at academic libraries. These activities vary in scope and content, but…

This report covers a panel discussion on the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, published in January 2012 by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The panel was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on March 23, 2012, and was hosted by the MIT Libraries. Panelists were Patricia…

The Joint Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP) (jusp.mimas.ac.uk), created by five U.K. libraries in 2009, gives participating libraries a single point of access for electronic journal statistics. It provides its more than 160 participants, including 140+ academic libraries in the United Kingdom, as well as 21 publishers and 3 intermediaries, with…

Embedded librarianship service describes the practice of librarians integrating actively into the user's environment, rather than remaining in the library to await requests for service. This paper examines the concept of embedded service in the recent literature, within the past 5 years. It reports on a survey of embedded service in Chinese…

This report is the second in a two-part analysis of ACRL"Metrics", an online service that provides access to a range of quantitative data for academic libraries. In this analysis, ACRL"Metrics"' inclusion of data from the National Center for Educational Statistics' Academic Libraries Survey and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System is…

The authors discuss the long-term accumulation of unstandardized and inaccessible content within the Libguides system and the decision-making process to create and implement a set of standards using the migration to the LibGuides2 platform as a vehicle for change. Included in the discussion are strategies for the creation of standards and…

Action research as a methodology is suitable for use within academic library settings. Its theoretical foundations are located in several disciplines and its applications span across many professions. In this article, an overview of the theoretical beginnings and evolution of action research is presented. Approaches generally used in conducting an…

Peer learning dynamics have proven powerful in collegiate contexts. These dynamics should be leveraged at the undergraduate level in academic libraries for reference provision and basic information literacy instruction. Drawing on the literature of peer learning, documented examples of peer reference and instruction in academic libraries, and…

This article alerts academic libraries to some of the methods for purchasing electronic books (e-books) and notes that, while they are similar to the models used for journal-evaluation purposes, there are a number of factors important to consider that are different for e-books. Simon notes that, while theoretically there should be some advantages…

This article reports on a 2012 survey conducted by members of the Louisiana Academic Library and Information Network Consortium (LALINC) to determine the status of the curricular integration of information literacy instruction following numerous budget cuts to Louisiana higher education since 2008. The article also discusses the 2012 deletion of…