A project-based active/cooperative design course is planned, implemented, assessed and evaluated to achieve several desired engineering outcomes. The course allows freshman-level students to gain professional hands-on engineering design experience through an opportunity to practise teamwork, quality principles, communication skills, life-long…

Recreational reading as a method of language learning has been a focus of investigation in second language education. This article considers recreational reading through the additional perspective of academic librarianship. Its purpose is to discover if recreational reading is a topic that lends itself to research through both perspectives. This…

Every year, thousands of history teachers nationwide stand before their students describing the evils of using an open source encyclopedia for research projects. The teachers warn of lower grades and a general unfulfilled life for any student who uses Wikipedia in a research bibliography. Yet those same students who listen to the fiery words and…

This paper describes a study comparing the information literacy skills of commencing undergraduate and postgraduate Information Studies students at Curtin University. The study was conducted by means of an online multiple choice survey, which students completed during the first few weeks of their course. The results show that a number of both…

This study focuses on the use of the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Training information literacy model in a primary school as the basis for the possible establishment of a culture of transfer of information literacy skills. The study used constructivist grounded analysis to interpret data gathered from teachers and principals.…

Teens in limited-resource communities face challenges to healthy eating. Many youths lack food preparation skills and have limited access to ingredients needed to prepare healthy foods at home. University of Maryland Extension offered healthy food preparation lessons to teen participants of a popular weekly electronic gaming program in a Baltimore…

In these days of increased testing and continued failure of inner-city and poor rural schools to meet the grade, it is becoming more and more necessary to turn to the public library to help students reach the ever-increasing goals being set for them. It seems somewhat unfair to hold the schools solely responsible for continued failure when the…

This year's "School Library Journal's" spending survey showed that, despite the recession, the vast majority of media centers around the country have retained their credentialed media specialists. For example, almost 85% of elementary schools and more than 95% of middle and high schools have a full-time certified librarian. In addition, salaries…

This article highlights various literature covering a broad range of topics that are of interest to public services librarians, from collections and user services to one's own research and professional development. Although addressing many topics, these authors have all used or advocate for solid research methods and data analysis in their works,…

The book has made the transition to the digital age; that much is certain. However, the jury is still out on what form or forms the book of the future will take and how libraries will adapt. This article is a look at the impact of digital books on public library acquisitions, including available formats, purchasing considerations, functional…

Social networking sites cast a wide net, not only in the sheer number of sites that exist on the Internet but also in terms of their application and usefulness. The last column, in "PSQ" v.4 (3), examined sites that could assist professionals with outreach, networking, and collaboration. In this second column dedicated to social networking sites,…

Many libraries use RSS to syndicate information about their collections to users. A survey of 65 academic libraries revealed their most common use for RSS is to disseminate information about library holdings, such as lists of new acquisitions. Even though typical RSS feeds are ill suited to the task of carrying rich bibliographic metadata, great…

Local records are the foundation on which social history is constructed. However, in an era when most historians categorize themselves as social historians, it is amazing to note how much these primary resources appear to be underutilized in scholarly works. This article attempts to understand why this is so by investigating how it is that…

In 2007, the author examined existing academic libraries in the United States to determine best practices for the design, implementation and service of learning commons facilities. A primary objective of this study was to discover how to create a higher education learning environment that sustains scholarship, encourages collaboration and empowers…

This article attempts to offer an overview of the current changes that are being experienced in the management of audio-visual documentation and those that can be forecast in the future as a result of the migration from analogue to digital information. For this purpose the documentary chain will be used as a basis to analyse individually the tasks…