A recent library school graduate, Corey Harper was nominated by his colleagues at the University of Oregon (UO) because of the key role he played in implementing digital collections. Along with technical expertise, says Watson, he brought with him "[an ability to] balance idealism with expediency, the striving for perfection with the need to…

The following is a cost comparison of students photocopying print reserve readings for a typical college course versus printing out hard copies of the same articles if they are offered as electronic reserves at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The prices quoted were taken from the website of a major office supply company the week of…

In order to learn from experiences of academic libraries that combined their Circulation and Reference functions into one service point, an informal survey was conducted through relevant listservs. Some academic libraries have combined Circulation and Reference Departments at one desk and others are in the process of doing so. The results…

Are librarians doing all they can to ensure that customer services are delivered with the customer in mind? Librarians are great at helping, but we sometimes need help with identifying customers, defining their needs, developing services, and reviewing the processes behind the services. Fourth Generation Management provides new insight for…

Purpose: To give an overview of the current state and trends in authentication and authorisation in satisfying academic library users' mobility and instant access to digital information resources, and to propose that libraries strongly support efforts to establish a global authentication and authorisation infrastructure.…

Purpose: To report on the collaborative project between Newcastle University Library and 3M which aimed to increase self-issue levels using six sigma methodology. Design/methodology/approach: The six-month long project is outlined and gives an insight into the process improvement methodology called six sigma. An explanation of why we ran the…

The idea for a family literacy event resulted because teachers wanted more time to share reading strategies with parents, and parents wanted more information on how they could support and encourage their children with reading at home. With great success, Holy Cross School, Kemptville, Ontario, hosted a Family Literacy Night that coincided with the…

The Central Piedmont Community College Libraries moved from a separately maintained periodicals holdings list to a fully-integrated serials module. Establishing the serials module from scratch required the library to make a series of interrelated decisions beyond the realm of serials management and control. The implications of the serials module…

In recent years an increasing number of publishers have adopted tiered pricing of journals. The design and implications of tiered-pricing models, however, are poorly understood. Tiered pricing can be modeled using several variables. A survey of current tiered-pricing models documents the range of key variables used. A sensitivity analysis…

The LibQUAL+[TM] protocol solicits open-ended comments from users with regard to library service quality, gathers data on 22 core items, and, at the option of individual libraries, also garners ratings on five items drawn from a pool of more than 100 choices selected by libraries. In this article, the relationship of scores on these locally…

While the idea of data collection is new for many library media specialists, traditional statistics such as circulation, age, value, total collection numbers, class use of the library media center, etc. have been gathered since the dawn of library time. Typically these statistics are gathered simply because it has always been done, but library…

Exploring resources in order to determine their full potential in information-seeking is a necessary part of the ongoing education and training of information professionals. One should explore every resource available in order to make the best judgments when relevant queries are introduced. In this article, the author stresses that one key to…

The authors detail the trial and piloting of a telephone enquiry service (TES) at the Bundoora Campus Library at La Trobe University in order to attempt to resolve the balance between telephone and face-to-face enquiries at the library service desk. They investigated various options throughout 2001 and 2002 and settled on a centralised service…

Electronic reference resources are expanding traditional print reference collections far beyond the walls of the library building. While the library literature has seen a debate rage about the various merits and pitfalls of electronic reference sources, no one disputes they are here to stay. As more of the library content becomes available through…

Texas A&M University has a history of international collaboration, cooperation and global outreach. Texas A&M University at Qatar provides engineering students in the Middle East with an education, and ultimately, a degree comparable to that found on our home campus in College Station. The Texas A&M University Libraries have provided…