As academic libraries are increasingly supported by a matrix of database functions, the use of data mining and visualization techniques offer significant potential for future collection development and service initiatives based on quantifiable data. While data collection techniques are still not standardized and results may be skewed because of…

This article discusses how college libraries responded to the call of eliminating discrimination and social inequality in campuses where students of color are present. In the late 1960s, many college and university libraries responded to student and faculty demands to broaden the curriculum and opportunities for scholarship by aggressively…

Library history has constituted a significant portion of the research articles published in the "Australian Library Journal" and in "Australian Academic & Research Libraries". By contrast, archives history has attracted much less interest from researchers publishing in "Archives and Manuscripts". The author uses…

Criticisms of library and information science (LIS) research abound and most focus on method, in the broad sense. This article examines the discourse on LIS from the standpoint of rhetoric and argument. Rhetorical and argumentative strategies are used in almost all formal communication, and these strategies themselves communicate purpose and point…

This article describes the formation and content of a required library and information research course for graduate and professional students enrolled in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Master of Arts degree program at Western Washington University. The course was created as a result of library assessment, student feedback, and faculty…

This call for action addresses the high-level benefits of adopting a university-wide policy regarding research data management. It identifies the various university stakeholders and suggests that the library initiate a conversation among them in order to get buy-in for a proactive, rather than reactive, high-level policy for responsible data…

Google's Book Search program mines the holdings of research libraries for texts to digitize. Some of that material is out of copyright; a lot of it isn't. A lawsuit came about when some authors and publishers decided that Google's project exceeded the bounds of fair use. As part of a settlement, the parties have proposed creating a Book Rights…

This research is concerned with the pragmatic performance characteristics of competing information technologies (ITs) and services in the university research center, as measured by user demand and choice. Technologies and services studied include: (1) mediated search service operating at cost recovery, open to all; (2) end-user service collecting…

This survey was conducted to determine to what extent ARL (Association of Research Libraries) libraries permit food and drink to be consumed in library facilities, whether there has been a shift in recent times toward a liberalization of policy and practice, how restrictions are enforced, and whether there are particularly successful strategies…

This research extends the "Purdue studies" of research library growth, presenting results that include library statistical trends during a 35-year period, 1951-1985. It serves to update Purdue's 9-report series (1965-1973) and is a validation study of Purdue's growth forecasts, 28 of which were published in 1965, then revised in 1971.…

This kit is based on a review of the organization charts of 71 member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) gathered in January 1991, compared with an earlier SPEC Kit published in 1986, and contains charts of 29 of the libraries. A summary of the chart analyses presents information about the titles of library directors,…

In order to develop guidelines for the selection of journals by the Center for Research Libraries, a study was done of the use made of the Center's Journal Access Services (JAS), which supplies photocopies of journal articles to member institutions from the Center's collections and from the British Library Lending Division (BLLD). Based on a…

To investigate the experience of American and Canadian university libraries with remote access catalogs, self-administered questionnaires were sent to the 137 directors of all Association of Research Libraries (ARL) libraries and all libraries of Canadian degree-granting institutions. The study was designed to: (1) survey Canadian and U.S.…

This SPEC kit is based on a June 1987 survey of approval plan use by 94 members of the Association of Research Libraries. It reports on the current practices of these libraries, the perceived advantages and disadvantages of using approval plans, and the effect of increased library materials costs and library automation on such plans. It is noted…

Discussion of cooperative activities among libraries focuses on cataloging of Latin American materials among research libraries. Differences in motivation for cooperation in acquisitions and in cataloging are discussed; and a study is described that examined which libraries were providing online cataloging, and differences between OCLC and RLIN…