This article presents a case study of a five-year English-literacy project carried out in primary and middle schools in the Pacific island nation of Tonga from 2012 to 2017. It summarizes why and how the project was begun; the activities carried out by Peace Corps Volunteers and Tongan partners; its objectives; and the products, procedures, and…

This study focused on determining the extent to which collections of the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame met the needs of graduate students. This study data (2005-2007) consisted of a citation analysis of 248 dissertations and focused on the following questions: What were the graduate students citing in their dissertations? Did the library own…

As the school librarian at Aliamanu Elementary School, Patty (Patricia Louis) has focused on assessment with her teachers and students as a means to improve teaching and learning. Over the years, Patty and Vi (Violet Harada) have formed a collegial mentoring relationship, and this article provides a glimpse of what both discovered about building…

School librarians help train students to be effective acquirers, evaluators, and users of ideas and information--a necessary skill for survival in the information-rich society. From this stance, school librarians are definitely caregivers. But the author argues that this does not get to the heart of the matter: Librarianship usually translates…

In "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture" Henry Jenkins defines participatory culture as having "relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing with others, and informal mentorship whereby experienced participants pass along knowledge to novices. Members believe their…

School librarians are natural partners in the effort to improve the education, social and employment outcomes of black males. School librarians in Durham, N.C., have been working to close the literacy gap for black males. One of the literacy initiatives centered on the work of Alfred W. Tatum who believes that efforts to engage black males in…

Backups are a modern fact of life. Every organization that has any kind of computing technology (and that is all of them these days) needs to back up its data in case of technological or user errors. Traditionally, large-scale backups have been done via an internal or external tape drive that takes magnetic tapes (minicassettes, essentially) and…

This paper examines the idea, commonly expressed in the Library and Information Services (LIS) literature, that public libraries have a growing role as developers of social capital, and brings to bear some of the growing body of research into public libraries and social capital. It reviews definitions of social capital by writers outside the LIS…

Information Literacy (IL) is recognized around the world as an essential skill for the information society. The aim of the paper is to examine the various information literacy practices in university libraries in Africa, to identify the barriers facing IL programmes in Africa, and to provide suggestions on how best to improve IL practices. A…

Research libraries have sought to apply their information management expertise to the management of digital research data. This focus has been spurred in part by the policies of two major funding agencies in the United States, which require grant recipients make research outputs, including publications and research data, openly available. As many…

Data curation is a concept with many facets. Curation goes beyond research-generated data, and its principles can support the preservation of institutions' historical data. Libraries are well-positioned to bring relevant expertise to such problems, especially those requiring collaboration, because of their experience as neutral caretakers and…

The rumored death of librarianship caused by the advent of technology has not, and will not, come to pass. In this article, the author describes how technology has exponentially increased the librarian's ability to provide library service at the Calcasieu Parish Public Library, where she serves as head of Collection & Computing Services. The…

This article features a conversation between Usha Mukunda, who identifies herself as a librarian, and Vivek Vellanki, who is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in education. Mukunda has been successful in challenging the stereotypical image of the librarian as being serious, angry, and detached. Shortly after meeting her, one would likely be…

The material in this article is a compilation of the results of an National College Learning Center Association (NCLCA) study conducted by Dr. Marcia Toms under the auspices of NC State University which came from 211 unique institutions during the Spring of 2014. Invitations to complete the survey were sent to all past and present NCLCA members as…

This article aims to explain the ultimate organisation of the Argentinian educational system during the 1870s as a result of the 1873 world economic crisis, which led, among other measures, to budget cuts. These had serious consequences in both curriculum design and the general structure of the different educational levels. Such a system fostered…