Q-methodology was used to identify clusters of opinions about e-books at Miami University. The research identified four distinct opinion types among those investigated: Book Lovers, Technophiles, Pragmatists, and Printers. The initial Q-methodology study results were then used as a basis for a large-n survey of undergraduates, graduate students,…

Any engineering librarian will tell you that their researchers' literature needs differ from researchers in other disciplines: Books are used less, and conference papers more, than in humanities disciplines. This study analyzes literature cited in theses and dissertations submitted over a three-year period by students in three departments of the…

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards for the 21st Century Learner do not just pay lip-service to the value of reading. They have been aligned with the Common Core standards that were derived from, and now influence, state standards-based tests, such as the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) reading tests. It is…

Within the next few years, traditional online public access catalogs will be replaced by more robust and interconnected discovery layers that can serve as primary public interfaces to simultaneously search many separate collections of resources. Librarians have envisioned this type of discovery tool since the 1980s, and research shows that…

This article presents the story of how Pepperdine University migrated its library management functions to the cloud using what is now known as OCLC's WorldShare Management Services (WMS). The story of implementing this new service is told from two vantage points: (1) that of the library; and (2) that of the service provider. The authors were the…

Simply put, professional development is evolving into something new and inspiring in the twenty-first century. Professional development is becoming more relevant, more reflective, and, most importantly, more social. Socially united groups give rise to a collective intelligence that bonds the members into a more ordered community. Collective social…

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) have received considerable attention in news headlines describing gamers who have died while engaging in excessive play. However, more common physical and psychosocial effects attributed to online video gaming are social isolation, increased aggression, and negative academic and occupational consequences.…

This study describes preliminary results of a study with elementary school teachers and librarians. Professional-development intervention workshops were conducted to improve teacher and school librarian collaboration to integrate library and subject content. A revised 24-item teacher and school librarian collaboration instrument (TLC-III) was used…

This annual report of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) contains an overview of activities of the Council between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008. These include programs, advisory groups, grants and contracts, and financial statements. It also includes a list of staff, a letter from the chairperson Paula Kaufman, and a message…

The author's focus for this column within the large universe of the public services literature is on articles which stress what is best for the user. That may mean finding out why faculty use or do not use the physical library, considering the elimination of the reference desk, beginning or enhancing a library's virtual reference services, or…

In this article, the author features ideas and strategies for outreach that librarians can do to promote one's library media program and the good work it does. She stresses that by working together and reaching out, librarians can help foster visibility and support for school library media programs and professionals alike nationwide. Here, she…

Libraries are successful to the extent that they can bridge communities and can leverage the diversity of the quest, the research, and the discovery. By building bridges among various sectors, libraries will be able to define themselves in the next generation.

Picture books for older readers present challenges for libraries in terms of how best to provide access to them. These books often have an "E" on the spine to indicate that they are "easy" or for "everybody," and share lower shelves with a far greater number of picture books geared for the preschool and primary grade audience. However, this…

It is common belief that most people can distinguish between right and wrong actions and usually make decisions to do the right thing. As educators, library media specialists are called upon to make decisions every day. Those decisions chart the course for that particular day and the future, for themselves and for those they work with. In this…

Each weekday when school let out, the Queens Library at Far Rockaway--a branch of the Queens Library in New York City--would fill with nearly 100 teens. Drawn by the public-use computers, many others, who had dropped out of school, would also crowd in. To invoke a cliche, the situation was both an opportunity and a challenge. The popularity of the…