Since the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act was signed into law in October, 2001, library administrators have become increasingly concerned that staff-especially student employees-continue to protect the confidentiality of patron records. Administrators have also become increasingly concerned that when law enforcement officials provide paperwork giving them…

After two years of construction, American Samoa Community College opened its new library on September 2, 2003. The library is located on the east side of campus and is equipped with ten computer workstations, four online public access catalogs, three copying machines, and an elevator that is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.…

This study grew out of a need to assess reference desk data and determine two items: the number of questions handled for the last three years and the times when the desk should be double staffed. Analysis of the data by chi-square standardized residuals identified the days of the week, and the times during the day of heavy and light use. Data sort…

This article describes a think-aloud study conducted to identify factors that influence the decisions made by digital reference "triagers" when performing triage on questions received by digital reference services. This study follows and expands on a Delphi study that identified factors that triagers agreed on after the fact of their performance…

The emerging trends in digital(ized) collection development from 1997 are examined using a sample of projects accessible through Web-based registries of the Association of Research Libraries and the Digital Library Federation. The analysis focuses on thematic repertoire, narrative structuring, underlying historiographic principles, presentation,…

This study investigates the influences of the antecedent factors on the complaints and resulting behaviors of 582 university library users in South Korea. There were statistically significant relationships between personal norms and negative word of mouth and indirect voice behaviors, between service importance and negative word-of-mouth behavior,…

On July 5, 2003, the author landed in Qatar, a newly minted CIO from College Station, Texas. His charge is to design and implement the required IT infrastructure--including telecommunications, networking, computing, and instructional technology--necessary to support Texas A&M University's newest branch campus, Texas A&M University at Qatar…

Even though distance education has a long and diverse history, dating back to 1840, in the last ten-to-fifteen years it has been completely transformed by the emergence of Web-based technology. This technology has had an enormous impact on all aspects of distance education (or distance learning as it is increasingly called). In addition to…

The University of British Columbia (UBC) Education Library used information about library opening hours world-wide and the results of an in-house 4-week survey of students exiting the Library between 9 and 10 p.m. to decide on new hours of operation that would better meet the needs of graduate students and eliminate confusion over changing…

The access and reproduction policies of the digital collections of 10 leading university digital libraries worldwide are classified according to factors such as the creation type of the material, acquisition method, copyright ownership etc. The relationship of these factors is analysed, showing how acquisition methods and copyright ownership…

This paper criticizes the checklist model approach (authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, coverage) to teaching undergraduates how to evaluate Web sites. The checklist model rests on faulty assumptions about the nature of information available through the Web, mistaken beliefs about student evaluation skills, and an exaggerated sense of…

This article describes how the 2006 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in New Orleans will long symbolize the significance of libraries and librarians to a convention city--and to the community around it. As the first major convention in the Crescent City since the ravages of Hurricane Katrina ten months earlier, the conference…

For some, it seems that the dream of a perfect research machine is almost within reach. Google announced late last year that it would digitize millions of bound books, making available online the full text of public-domain books and excerpts from works still in copyright. Thrilling and dazzling as the potential for research and distribution…

This study investigates the information needs of faculty and graduate students in agricultural and biological sciences. Qualitative research methods, interviews and focus groups, were used to examine what types of information these scholars need for their research, teaching and learning, how they seek that information, and perceptions. The…

Blogs and the whole gamut of interactive, Web-based tools are redefining how we connect with people and content on the Internet. This is the widely discussed next step known as Web 2.0, a truly revolutionary concept in which pervasive interactivity, where multitudes of users online actively exchange or contribute content, will transform the very…