To mark its founding in 1558 by Albrecht V., Duke of Bavaria, the Bavarian State Library (BSB) has issued a splendid catalogue (358 pages) with many sumptuous full-page coloured plates, taken from 113 works which were in the Library during its formative period 1558-1599). These works include manuscripts, church and secular music and early printed…

Compared with oral history in most Western countries, oral history theory and practice in Mainland China lag behind in both study and practice. This paper outlines the experience of oral history work in the Shantou university library, and the types and features of the oral history collected by the library. It examines problems in the development…

Treasures await students and researchers on the shelves of libraries and archives across the country, but unfortunately they often remain unknown to the "modern" researcher who limits his/her research to using the Internet. The process of physically going to the library stacks and browsing the shelves in a subject area is on the decline…

In this research project, the authors set out to discover the current practice in both the archival and cataloging worlds for usage of access points in descriptive records and to learn how archival descriptive practices fit into long-established library cataloging procedures and practices. A sample of archival finding aids and MARC records at 123…

Leadership is an often-misunderstood word, especially in the context of libraries. With multiple definitions for the word "leadership" and vast numbers of leadership styles, it can be difficult to identity what exactly is meant when discussing library leadership. This literature review brings together 10 years of scholarly research on…

This paper reports a self-study undertaken at Cornell University's Albert R. Mann Library to explore appropriate public services for an agricultural research faculty. The study took place over a 22-month period and involved a literature review, development of a questionnaire, administration of the questionnaire, an experimental period of…

This self-study--part of a series of studies conducted at Michigan State University Libraries--was designed to elicit information regarding non-use of the library by members of the academic community. A telephone survey questionnaire was administered to a stratified systematic sample of students and faculty members, and 1,269 students and 211…

The reference collection traditionally rewards serendipity by presenting key resources in a compact group. At the University of Manitoba Libraries, reference collection space is at a premium and, increasingly, electronic versions of reference materials are selected for purchase. However, our space saving comes at a cost: Our patrons can't browse…

This author arrived at the Folger Shakespeare Library in 1981 kind of by accident, a DC public high school English teacher on hiatus from the classroom due to burying parents and birthing children. She was on her way back to that classroom, but the opportunity to work in the land of all things Shakespeare was too good to pass up, even though there…

This document is a guide for library research in psychology or counseling. The first section discusses how to do research in the library, including choosing a topic, beginning with books, updating the information with journals, checking out books, interlibrary loan, visiting other libraries, and writing the paper. The second section provides…

This survey gauged the number of academic libraries offering workshops and classes on the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web. In the spring of 1996, a survey on Internet instruction was distributed to the then 119 ARL member libraries. The survey asked about instruction methods, instructional facilities, planning, technology, publicity,…

A survey was mailed to head librarians at 118 American art museum libraries to determine the nature and extent of their libraries' services to the public. In addition to some baseline demographic information, survey questions focused on: (1) the types of information sought by the public; (2) the degree to which the public is allowed access to the…

This report discusses the scope for and feasibility of introducing automated systems into the Botswana National Library Service (BNLS). The study was undertaken at the request of BNLS and was conducted by an outside consultant who interviewed staff, read internal documents and reports, and studied patterns of work. Topics of the report include:…

Intended to serve as a model for those wishing to assist librarians in conducting research, this guide describes the funding sources and computing, consulting, writing, and other resources available to University of Colorado Boulder librarians who want to engage in research. Sources of funding to support research are listed first, including the…

This paper represents the state of the art of research in library science on professional competencies for academic, public and special libraries since 1985. The seminal research study done on librarian competencies was conducted in 1983-86 by King Research. The goal of the study was to identify the type of skills and knowledge that information…