This preliminary study was designed to benchmark patron perceptions of reference desk services at academic health science libraries, using a standard questionnaire. Responses were compared to determine the library that provided the highest-quality service overall and along five service dimensions. All libraries were rated very favorably, but none…

The purpose of this study was to assess usability of an academic library Web site and to better understand how faculty and students complete typical tasks using one. Despite their success in completing the tasks, participants experienced difficulties in knowing where to start and with the site's information architecture-in particular while…

Discussion of virtual reference services focuses on software that is currently available and further developments that are needed. Topics include co-browsing and collaboration capabilities; communications technology, including chat technology and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP); networked reference services; and online reference collections…

This longitudinal study examined the library use patterns of 1,046 undergraduate students during their first three years of college. The significant changes in library use patterns have implications for the redesign of academic library services, including reference and bibliographic instruction. (Author/LRW)

Reports on results of an exploratory study of perceptions of collections by librarians in an academic library that provides both traditional and networked information services. Five librarians from a Midwestern university library were interviewed. Findings indicated an uncertainty about the virtual world in two particular areas: collection and…

Describes the Lippincott Library (Warton School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) online chat reference service for students/faculty/staff to ask questions through chat and get an immediate response using a commercial service provided by LivePerson. LivePerson is a real-time text interface between the user who seeks information and the operator…

On 28 March 2002, the first decision under the Equal Remuneration Principle (re Equal Remuneration Principle (2000) 97 IR 177) was made by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. Applications were made by three parties, the Public Service Association of NSW (PSA) for a new "Crown Employees (Library and Archives Workers All Departments and…

This article describes a research center established by Professors Carol Kuhlthau and Ross Todd of Rutgers University in New Brunswick to promote the study of the impact of school library media centers on student learning and the dynamics of effective school library programs. The Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL) is…

Educating newcomers to help themselves provides the knowledge and security they will need to function better in the community, but it can also be a learning experience for students. This article describes an integrated curriculum at Community High School in West Chicago, Illinois, that combines Spanish native speaking (SNS) students and child…

Toni Garvey, director of the Phoenix Public Library (PPL) and LJ 2004 Librarian of the Year, has practiced her profession in a Western county jail, for the politicized board of a Southern public library, in the children's room of a university community, and through the up and down economics of a major American city. She has managed branches and…

Ask Elizabeth Gale Greenlee why she loves working at Greensboro Public Library's Glenwood facility and she will tell you. "I feel like I'm in the middle of everywhere, because so many people from so many cultures move, breathe, live, and learn in this place," she says. She has met Greensboro residents from 123 cultures, who speak 82 different…

Some faculty have started to use the Internet as a bridge to the public instead of merely to each other. Leveraging their specialist knowledge and their academic authority against perceived public needs, they have created another type of academic Web site on their institutional servers--the academic public service Web site (APSWS). APSWS is an…

The New Thought movement is the focus of an exercise in developing a core collection to support research in a defined subject area. The authors outline the New Thought movement's conceptual and historical development and apply this outline to the selection of library resources. A sample collection development policy is included; such a policy is…

Numerous state impact studies show that school libraries improve student achievement and standardized test scores, yet that fact is insufficient to keep financially strapped districts from closing their libraries. Teacher-librarians must be proactive and gather data at the school-site level to demonstrate how valuable they are to students and…

Transfer students represent an increasingly important group in four-year schools. To date, only limited information on the research abilities and library needs of this group has been reported. A survey of information needs and skills of incoming transfer students at Western Washington University (WWU) showed that while many reported some…