Academic libraries have long been trying to gain access to users through their favorite online spaces, such as social networking sites. In this article a project of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro's University Libraries, which integrated library resources with the campus course management system, Blackboard, is detailed. The main…

In the journal "The Chronicle of Higher Education," an article by Geoffrey Nunberg criticizes Google's Book Search (GBS), emphasizing that disturbing errors are endemic. He recognizes that for mainstream "googling" purposes, "they don't really care about metadata provided by a library catalog." In perhaps his most discouraging point, linguistics…

The Future Voices in Public Services column is a forum for students in graduate library and information science programs to discuss key issues they see in academic library public services, to envision what they feel librarians in public service have to offer to academia, to tell us of their visions for the profession, or to tell us of research…

The social work library at USC provides a case study of an academic library's transition to an information center service model. Analysis of the collection, user community, Web 2.0 applications, and Web usage data demonstrates how the changes facilitated library services and information literacy instruction. (Contains 6 tables and 3 figures.)

Using a combination of marketing, Web 2.0 tools, videoconferencing, face-to-face instruction and site visits, a library presence including systematic information literacy instruction is embedded into multiple programs at sixteen sites in a growing college of education with nearly 6000 students and over 115 full-time faculty members. As the needs…

A major challenge facing academic libraries is the need for reference librarians to become knowledge experts in their assigned subject areas. The subject-specialist approach increases the effectiveness of collection development, classroom instruction, and faculty liaison interactions. Simultaneously, this approach creates the need for continuous…

This paper traces the century-long history of a library that has served teacher preparation programs in Calgary, Alberta, since 1909. It looks at how this library's role and collections adapted to shifting notions of what constituted good teacher education and changing economic circumstances. In recounting this history, the paper examines the…

The intent of this paper is to explore the potential of utilizing interlibrary loan (ILL) data relating to lending denials to improve ILL services while highlighting institutional policies that have a negative impact on lending fulfillment rates. Reasons for denial as well as the types of requests being denied are reviewed. In addition, the author…

This article describes the usefulness of Web analytics for understanding the users of an academic library Web site. Using a case study, the analysis describes how Web analytics can answer questions about Web site user behavior, including when visitors come, the duration of the visit, how they get there, the technology they use, and the most…

This article examines how librarians are struggling to redefine, and in some cases eliminate, the venerable institution of reference desk services and it explores the new ways in which reference questions get answered at university libraries. These include fielding questions through e-mail, instant messaging, and other mobile technologies, making…

Based on information gathered from two discussion sessions moderated by members of the Education and Behavioral Sciences Section's Online Learning Research Committee a survey was conducted to identify how librarians use course/learning management systems and learning objects to deliver instruction. Objectives of the study were to identify the…

Due to a shortage of librarians to teach classes coupled with a growing student body, librarians at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) decided to explore alternative means to deliver instruction. Their charge was to supplement traditional classroom instruction by utilizing ETSU's course management system (Desire2Learn, D2L) to inform students…

This study analyzed 2005-2006 Web of Science bibliometric data from institutions belonging to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and corresponding ARL statistics to find any associations between indicators from the two data sets. Principal components analysis on 36 variables from 103 universities revealed obvious associations between…

To examine the open access availability of Library and Information Science (LIS) research, a study was conducted using Google Scholar to search for articles from 20 top LIS journals. The study examined whether Google Scholar was able to find any links to full text, if open access versions of the articles were available and where these articles…

Successful disaster response is an exercise in managing human resources under very difficult conditions. Catastrophic disasters can disrupt both the physical communication networks and the social networks critical to efficient response and recovery. While a well-designed disaster plan serves as a framework, it often requires communication and…