In the down-sized academic library of the twenty-first century, many librarians with little or no formal collection development training or experience are being entrusted with large departmental budgets, occasionally without the collaboration of a department liaison. How do new librarians, or librarians new to a discipline, deal with this…

Traditionally, the library and information profession has not been strongly research led in the way in which other professions, such as medicine and education for example, might be considered to be. However, it may be that the extent of practitioner involvement in research and the extent to which research informs practice have been underestimated.…

As academic libraries renovate or build new spaces that provide services to users, they should consider opportunities to collaborate with other units on campus to develop collaborative services in the new space. These collaborative spaces, such as information commons, teaching and learning centers, and multi-media studios, offer advantages such as…

AgEcon Search, http://www.agecon.lib.umn.edu, is an important and ground-breaking example of an alternative method of delivering current research results to many potential users. AgEcon Search, through a distributed model, collects and disseminates the grey literature of the fields of agricultural and resource economics. The development of this…

Graphic novels help all different types of learners. For children who are incapable of visualizing a story, the artwork helps them create context. Graphic elements also attract visually dependent readers, who then freely read the text, and help reluctant readers understand the plot of a story. Finally, graphic novels cross gender lines. In this…

This document contains conference papers, other speeches, and supplementary material from the first International Conference on Total Quality Management (TQM) and Academic Libraries, held in 1994. The conference was comprised of four sessions, and the introductory remarks of each are included, along with transcriptions of each session's…

This directory provides information about many types of Michigan libraries. It is divided into twelve sections: (1) public and branch libraries; (2) library cooperatives; (3) academic libraries; (4) regions of cooperation; (5) regional educational media centers; (6) regional and subregional libraries; (7) Michigan documents depository libraries;…

Academic libraries in Ohio were surveyed to determine the existence and content of training in customer service offered to library employees in the circulation and reference departments. Surveys were mailed to 127 libraries, and achieved a return rate of 68% (n=87). The survey contained questions about customer service training for both new and…

Strategic planning is not only concerned with achieving specific goals for the long-term future, but also breaks these goals into short-term intervals and continually assesses the results. Strategic planning can have an impact on how librarians, especially public service librarians, operate in academic settings. If strategic goals and programs are…

This paper describes the creation of a new library facility for Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, one designed ready to accommodate an infrastructure that would support the new technologies of the electronic information environment. Wiring and fiber-optic schemes are outlined briefly. The document is formatted as a script for…

This publication provides a compilation of Texas statutes relating to libraries and topics of interest to librarians through the 74th Legislature, 1995. In addition to laws in which the words "library,""books,""Texas State Library,""Library and Archives Commission," and "director and librarian"…

The Wyoming Academic Libraries Resource Project was initiated to improve cooperation and resource sharing by developing an interconnected information access and delivery system among Wyoming's academic libraries and the State Library. The goal was to formalize communication, cooperation, and resource sharing by developing an Ariel document…

Glasgow Caledonian University Library (Scotland) conducted a pilot study to design a set of user chosen performance measures which can be used in British academic libraries for data collection. Members of 8 stakeholder groups were identified and given an 103-question survey, with each question to be rated on a 1-5 scale of importance. Stakeholder…

This directory provides information about many types of Michigan libraries. It is divided into 12 sections: (1) public and branch libraries; (2) library cooperatives; (3) academic libraries; (4) regions of cooperation; (5) regional educational media centers; (6) regional and subregional libraries; (7) Michigan documents depository libraries; (8)…

One impact of the World Wide Web has been to level the playing field to a certain extent for publishing information by putting authoring and displaying tools in the hands of anyone who wants to use them. The University of California at San Diego (UCSD) Science & Engineering Library has taken advantage of the web's instructional possibilities…