Discusses the evolving roles of academic librarians as information professionals, and the resulting career development in terms of professional issues, organizational issues, technological concerns, and required competencies. A career path model is presented which delineates primary roles, psychological issues, and strategies for attaining…

Considers the need for academic libraries to measure the effectiveness of reference services on an ongoing basis, and discusses factors to be considered in the planning, design, implementation, and analysis of various assessment methods. The different evaluation criteria for reference staff, bibliographic instruction, and online services are…

Compares the existing library standards of the seven higher education regional accreditation commissions with performance measures identified through library literature and expert advice from the field. A model set of regional accreditation library standards that encompasses qualitative standards for accreditation purposes and suggested…

Discusses the role of the academic library in the support of nontraditional students, and offers several suggestions for effectively reacquainting these students with the library and developing their research skills. (CLB)

Reviews the literature that deals with the political ramifications of weeding material from academic library collections and the need to involve users and other libraries within the institution in the decision process. (14 references) (CLB)

The first of two articles discusses the similarities and differences between academic libraries and campus computing centers, and identifies the level of service libraries want from computing centers. The second addresses the advantages of automating library circulation systems, and the need to integrate those systems with other library and campus…

Discusses types of knowledge that should define the academic librarian: (1) background in history and development of higher education; (2) appreciation for history of scholarship and learning; (3) understanding of how knowledge is obtained in various disciplines; (4) ability to evaluate research findings. Three reactions to essay are included.…

Discusses the issue of centralization or decentralization of academic library collections, and describes a statistical analysis of book circulation at the University of Southwestern Louisiana that yielded subject area clusters as a compromise solution to the problem. Applications of the cluster model for all types of library catalogs are…

State-level funding formulas should be changed from enrollment-based to fixed cost-based, using standards such as those of the Association of Research Libraries. Funding linked with programmatic changes encourages quality of the institution and rewards effective library management. (CDD)

Using the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire with academic librarians in four midwestern states, this study found a positive relationship between faculty status and continuing education activity. However, in 7 of 20 job satisfaction dimensions of the survey, librarians with faculty status unexpectedly scored lower than those without faculty…

Educational research textbooks often portray online computer searching as available only from distant database producers, or as something students can do for themselves without assistance from a reference librarian/search intermediary. User education may be needed in this area to correct users' misconceptions. (Author/EM)

Responses to a questionnaire exploring faculty perceptions of academic librarians on campus are analyzed in terms of faculty-librarian contacts, usefulness of librarians, importance of academic subject background, and status. Results indicate that librarians are seen as professionals with a service function rather than as full-fledged academic…

Addresses overall contribution of nation's university libraries to nation's library network--public, schools, academic, special, and national libraries of defined geographical area--with special emphasis on Nigeria. Highlights include dual roles of university and national libraries, cooperative schemes for materials acquisition and regional…

Proposes a coordinated scholarly information system that would comprise a variety of independent suppliers of information. Highlights include key aspects of the system (quality control, terminals, communications, user interface, long-term planning), and various information sources (libraries, shared cataloging, information retrieval services,…

A questionnaire survey eliciting opinions of 47 university administrators (nonlibrarians) on issue of faculty status for academic librarians indicates that 23.4 percent of respondents felt that librarians were appropriately classed as faculty, while 76.6 percent believed that academic librarians were more appropriately placed in professional…