Twenty-one scholarly papers and fourteen abstracts comprise the content of the ninth annual "Brick and Click Libraries Symposium," held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The peer-reviewed proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future…

In "Marketing Today's Academic Library", the author uses his vast experience to speak directly to the academic library practitioner about matching services with user needs. This book proposes new visions and ideas, challenging the traditional way of thinking and providing a framework to target users more precisely. Most library marketing intended…

The American Association of School Librarians' (AASL's) School Libraries Count! annual longitudinal survey is an online survey that is open to all elementary and secondary school library media programs to participate. The 2009 survey was launched on January 30, and closed on March 22. AASL has received a high participation rate during the three…

Libraries are moving toward electronic resource management systems (ERMSs) to track their usage statistics, but these can be expensive to purchase and maintain. For some libraries, an ERMS can be cost-prohibitive, but they still need to justify the renewal of databases and e-journals to their budget officers or determine which e-resources should…

Libraries frequently apply for grants to help fund special projects and resources, such as purchases for library collections, innovative instructional technologies, and research subscription databases. Grants provide support for cultural events, professional development sessions, new construction, and building renovations. Like other library…

For those unfamiliar with Star Trek, "Dunsel" was a term introduced in the episode titled "The Ultimate Computer." It is a term used by Star Fleet cadets to refer to an entity that serves no useful purpose, in this case a human who has been replaced by a machine. The episode touches on finding the best balance between human and machine to run a…

People use the words "profession" and "professional" in a multitude of ways. This article provides an extensive discussion about the idea of "profession." The author discusses how librarianship stacks up against the established professions and explores whether librarianship is considered as a profession. The author argues that librarianship is not…

Now that American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has adopted the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner," elementary library media specialists are beginning to reflect on how they will change their practice. Just when they felt they had achieved a high degree of addressing the skills called for in their standards, they are now challenged…

This essay updates the two articles that were previously published in the Winter 1975/1976 and 1984 issues respectively of "Education Libraries," and featured the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Test Collection. At the time of the writing of the 1975/1976 article, the collection was known as The ETS Test Collection. However, since the collection…

Principles of universal design become increasingly important as librarians add information literacy courses and other instructional modules. Issues of access in higher education may be reframed as issues of the design of the inclusive classroom environment. This allows for the spectrum of multiple intelligences and learning modalities to be…

Scenario planning as a strategic tool for future planning was explored. The case study showed how the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Library applied the process to draw up its preferred future, and illustrated the importance of involving all stakeholders in every stage for the shared future to be acceptable to all.

"School Library Journal's" ("SLJ's") Job Satisfaction Survey, conducted online in spring 2008, asked school and public librarians about their salaries, pay raises, and opportunities for advancement; level of job satisfaction; major causes of dissatisfaction; on-the-job challenges; and how well they were prepared for their positions, among other…

The teacher-librarian should be the most effective weapon for collaborative teaching and learning within a school. Teacher-librarians do struggle to find time to effectively plan for the cooperative teaching and learning activities. Often school libraries run their own website as they struggle to offer a digital 24/7 library service for its users.…

The term "librarianship" is a generic one, suggesting one overarching discipline despite the numerous specializations and areas of research within the profession. While many disciplines use bibliometric analysis of their literature to define subfields of study within, such methods are not appropriate to librarianship due to the nature of…

A report about college students and their information-seeking strategies and research difficulties, including findings from 8,353 survey respondents from college students on 25 campuses distributed across the U.S. in spring of 2010, as part of Project Information Literacy. Respondents reported taking little at face value and were frequent…