The changing research and information environment requires a reexamination of library support for research. This study considers research-related attitudes and practices to identify elements indicating readiness or resistance to expanding the library's role in research support. A survey of faculty conducted at the University of Nevada Las Vegas…

Ask any academic librarian if marketing their library and its services is an important task, and the answer will most likely be a resounding "yes!" Particularly in economically troubled times, librarians are increasingly called upon to promote their services and defend their library's worth. Since few academic libraries have in-house marketing…

Amid growing isolationism after World War I, the American Library Association transferred its wartime programs to train librarians in Europe and promote the American model of public libraries. Working in collaboration with American philanthropists and members of the French library community, ALA established a permanent library school in Paris that…

With the growth of international student enrollment in Chinese universities, user perception has become an area of developing research in academic libraries. China's policy of opening up has led to the education and economic reforms allowing major universities to enroll international students. These changes have created an increasing need for…

Some classes of Internet users have specific information needs and specialized information-seeking behaviors. For example, educators who are designing a course might create a syllabus, recommend books, create lecture slides, and use tools as lecture aid. All of these resources are available online, but are scattered across a large number of…

Usability testing has become a routine way for many libraries to ensure that their Web presence is user-friendly and accessible. At the same time, popular subject guide creation systems, such as LibGuides, decentralize Web content creation and put authorship into the hands of librarians who may not be trained in user-centered design principles. At…

In an age of assessment and accountability, academic libraries feel much pressure to prove their value according to new university measurements of student success. This study describes a methodology for how libraries may examine student interactions with services to assess whether library usage impacts student grade point averages (GPAs) and…

A 10-question Likert-type scale survey was presented to parents of children enrolled in the Imagination Library's (IL) program. IL sends age-appropriate books once a month to children from birth to age 5 so that their parent can read to them. After registering for the program and receiving books, 93 parents answered the survey questions…

The academic library has experienced overall growth and decline based on demographics, technology, and convenience, yet several problems face academic libraries today including: (a) perceived relevance, (b) market share, and (c) competition. The purpose of this study was to explore marketing activities and library usage in HBCU libraries. The…

Libraries have incorporated all kinds of emerging or recently emerged technologies such as social media, mobile apps, e-books, and tablets into their services with differing levels of resource commitment and with vastly different timescales. Some libraries adopt a measured, policy-driven approach, spending a year or more on research, assessment,…

The library literature addressing the role of bias in collection development emphasizes a philosophical approach. It is based on the notion that bias can be controlled by the conscious act of believing in certain values and adhering to a code of ethics. It largely ignores the psychological research on bias, which suggests that bias is a more…

In a time of increasingly digital distribution, challenging questions arise regarding what people own, what they want to access to, and how they develop and maintain collections. What considerations influence their decision making, as individuals and libraries shift toward more subscription-oriented content? Digital access to e-books and…

Why do librarians and library staff other than Web librarians and developers need to know about accessibility? Web services staff do not--or should not--operate in isolation from the rest of the library staff. It is important to consider what areas of online accessibility are applicable to other areas of library work and to colleagues' regular job…

Recent scholarship challenges the celebratory discourse surrounding Web 2.0. This paper engages with this scholarship to examine critically the implications of academic libraries' presence within commercially owned social media spaces. It considers the apparent contradiction between work to promote the principles of open access and the idea of the…

This paper describes our vision for the new UTS Library opening in 2016/17. Preparations are currently focussed on implementing enabling technologies which will move up to 80% of the print collection to an automated storage and retrieval system. This will allow the physical library to shift from a space dominated by book storage to a vibrant space…