While recreational reading material was once an integral part of the academic library collection and librarians were seen as guides in reading development for students, this has not been the case in the last 50 years. Fiscal constraints have forced library professionals to make choices so that leisure reading material has not been viewed as a high…

Purpose: This article aims to present experiences and the lessons learned from the University of Botswana (UB) library automation project. The implications of the project for similar libraries planning automation in sub Saharan Africa and beyond are adduced. Design/methodology/approach: The article is a case study of library automation at the…

Kent State University has developed a centralized system that manages the communication and work related to the review and selection of commercially available electronic resources. It is an automated system that tracks the review process, provides selectors with price and trial information, and compiles reviewers' feedback about the resource. It…

A critical component of strategic planning is creating a shared-awareness among library staff of the potential societal, political, economic and technological changes that will influence how future users will create and consume scholarly materials, what will be expected of library services, and how facilities will be used. The ACRL Futuring…

Twitter is a microblogging site, one where users send out messages of no more than 140 characters. The messages, known as tweets, can be seen by anyone who follows the account. Twitter is free, but free as in kittens, not as in pizza. To use it effectively, it will take time to learn the language and develop content. When used effectively, Twitter…

The widespread theft of collection materials, including rare and unique items, continues to be an issue of great concern to libraries of all types. The potential loss of such items threatens not only an institution's operations but, in many cases, global cultural heritage. Despite an increasingly open attitude among institutions regarding sharing…

In September 2009, the University of Iowa Libraries embarked on an experiment with patron-driven acquisition (PDA) of e-books with ebrary and YBP. An e-book-only PDA plan was initiated, entirely unmediated and with instantaneous access to the content. MARC records were loaded for each title, determined by our YBP approval profile and other…

University libraries globally launch coronavirus memory archival projects inviting the documentation of personal experience. Elicitations such as journal entries and oral history interviews fall under the category of life-writing. This Narrative Inquiry focuses on creative nonfiction stories produced by an online high school community and edited…

This study explores how factors relating to fully online Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) students' connectedness with peers and faculty may impact their professional identity development as library and information studies professionals. Participants include students enrolled in a fully online MLIS degree program in the…

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…

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…

Millions of books from public libraries and private collections have been scanned by various organizations in the last decade. The motivation is to preserve the written human heritage in electronic format for durable storage and efficient access. The information buried in these large book collections has always been of major interest for scholars…

The utilization of media to improve instructing and learning supplements conventional ways to deal with learning. Viable guidance fabricates between understudies' information and the learning destinations in mathematics. Through the using of media, it engages students, aids them in knowledge retention, as well as motivates them. This study…

For decades, library and information science (LIS) education has been producing LIS professionals to serve people in all walks of life. But there are challenges to LIS education as society advances. This study performed quantitative and qualitative content analyses of data collected about LIS education in China and the United States. Four…

Introduction: It has been suggested that cognitive characteristics may affect search. This study investigated how decoding abilities, short-term memory capacity and rapid automatised naming skills relate to query formulation. Method: A total of twenty dyslexic participants and twenty non-dyslexic controls completed four standardised cognitive…