Discusses library buildings and their role in building community. Reviews current design trends, including reading and study spaces; collaborative workspaces; technology-free zones; archives and special collections; cultural events spaces; age-specific spaces; shared spaces; natural light and landscapes; and interior design trends. (LRW)

Discusses the new beginning of the school year, the new nationalism following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and the role of the school library media specialist in recognizing the importance of information in a democratic society. Provides Web resources related to civic education. (LRW)

Reports findings from a study that investigated how public libraries are using online community networks to facilitate the public's information-seeking and use in everyday situations. Highlights include barriers to using community information systems; the public's online information behavior, including social connectedness; the use of sense-making…

Reviews the benefits of library work (and some cautions) before describing four assignments that exploit library resources: a business report assignment; a professional journal assignment; a style manual format assignment; and an international business communication assignment. (SG)

Asserts that the systematic de-emphasis of print (as opposed to electronic) media and the unique habits of mind they alone inculcate suppresses the spirit of inquiry because it foreshortens the horizon of ideas to which a student may be exposed and narrows the cognitive options for developing and exploring alternative ways of thinking. (EV)

Compares the implied ontological frameworks of the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting and the World Wide Web Consortium's Semantic Web. Discusses current search engine technology, semantic markup, indexing principles of special libraries and online databases, and componentization and the distinction between data and…

Describes potential situations where patron privacy can be endangered by the presence of information technology and how academic librarians can protect patron information and prepare patrons for safe information seeking in the online world. Discusses the USA PATRIOT Act, search warrants, and acceptable use policy. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the relevance of communication, meaning, and identity in putting information work into a cultural context. The process of information seeking is discussed, the mediation of communication formats and devices in determining meaning is described, and implications for information specialists are suggested. (11 references) (LRW)

Describes a study that analyzed a sample of library and information science journal citations from 1985-88 to determine authors' institutional affiliations. Authors from the private sector, academic librarians, and library and information science faculty are discussed, and suggestions for further research are given. (eight references) (LRW)

Reviews the research that suggests that qualitative approaches to the evaluation of library user education programs may sometimes be more appropriate than quantitative measures. The differences between quantitative and qualitative evaluation are discussed, and the instances in which one approach may be preferred to the other are identified. (17…

Describes a citation analysis of journal articles dealing with online catalogs to determine patterns in subject content, date, publication format, authorship affiliation, type of authorship, and how the cited publication was used in the article. It is concluded that this literature has many characteristics of a scholarly literature and indicates…

Describes an interface mechanism called "complex view support" to be used with a relational database system (RDBS) in supporting increasingly complex distributed environments in automated library systems. The interface system refers queries to multidimensional tables as well as to flat tables on RDBS and is shown to efficiently support…

Identifies the elements of science fiction that might appeal to adolescent readers and offers suggestions for developing innovative book talks on science fiction books. A bibliography of 133 books, categorized by subgenres such as hard science, space travel, and mysteries, is provided. (eight references) (CLB)

Defines functionally inaccessible materials as those that have gone through the library's traditional bibliographic processes, but cannot be retrieved when searched by library patrons. Typical examples are given and possible causes are discussed, including traditional cataloging practices and cost considerations. Methods for recognizing functional…

Discusses various aspects of the application of optical data disk (CD-ROM) technology in libraries. Topics discussed include the need to acquire information directly from optical data disk experts; characteristics of reference works that make them amenable to conversion; barriers to the application of this technology; innovations currently being…