Libraries receiving the corpus of a comics publisher are presented with challenges, especially regarding preservation and access for special and circulating collections. Libraries must consider user research needs and collection relevance. Library literature is consulted and recommendations are made regarding bibliographic description, subject…

Readers' advisory with middle schoolers does not come easily. In an effort to expand students' reading horizons, the author describes how to teach students to speak intelligently and thoughtfully about their book preferences. She cites Joyce Saricks's "Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library" (ALA, 2005), a book that gave her the clarity…

Tutorials and digital learning objects provide librarians a quick, concise mechanism for delivering information and training on a wide range of library topics. The semiotic theory promoted by Charles Sanders Peirce (Wiener, 1958) and Howard Smith (2005) contains implications for enhancing the effectiveness of library tutorials through the…

Businesses and higher education leaders are looking for students with the ability to evaluate and analyze information and to use this information to solve real-world problems. These are the information literacy skills students need for the 21st century. However, several recent studies on the ability of college freshmen to handle the rigor of…

Ever since North Carolina State University Libraries launched their Endeca-based OPAC replacement in the beginning of 2006, the library world has been completely obsessed with ditching their old, tired catalog interfaces (and with good reason) for the greener pastures of more sophisticated indexing, more accurate relevance ranking, dust jackets,…

In today's library environment, the library's most important asset is its machine-readable database. In order to maintain this investment, Data Research Associates provides several comprehensive data conversion services, including retrospective conversion and authority control. For bibliographic records not yet in MARC (machine readable…

The process of establishing the vertical file for a new branch library is traced; suggestions for making the vertical file a better resource are offered; and guidelines covering the general objective, responsibility for selection and maintenance, principles of selection, and scope of the collection for vertical files are presented. A four-item…

Describes how Murray State University Library, a medium sized academic library in Kentucky, made use of an IBM mainframe and SCRIPT, a text formatting program to index two local newspapers. The entire procedure is described, including indexing, authority lists, input techniques, editing, and production and distribution of the index. (CLB)

This discussion of the establishment of the archives at Fitchburg State College, an institution with an enrollment of 3,700, provides details on the background of the project, approval process, literature search, planning, collection development, continuing publicity efforts, and facilities. Useful items found through the literature search are…

Sixteen papers from a workshop on computer applications sponsored by the University of Cape Town (South Africa) School of Librarianship are presented in this volume: (1) "Introduction to the Use of Information Technology" (Sue Bleimschein); (2) "Searching Remote Databases" (Steve Rossouw); (3) "SABINET [South African Bibliographic and Information…

This description of the role of the Information Services Division of Exxon Research and Engineering Division in emergency management covers the information technology developed and used for internally generated and published information, and how this information is used to prevent emergencies and deal with them should they actually occur. (EM)

This course syllabus for a continuing education course for health science librarians introduces the MEDLARS system, the MEDLINE database, and the Index Medicus. Designed to enable health science librarians to discriminate between the capabilities of manual searching and online retrieval, an overview is given of the nature and scope of MEDLINE and…

Discusses criteria for evaluating microcomputer database management systems (DBMS) used for storage and retrieval of bibliographic data. Two popular types of microcomputer DBMS--file management systems and relational database management systems--are evaluated with respect to these criteria. (Author/MBR)

Describes complementary characteristics of computing centers and libraries that could be combined to form the core of information support centers and discusses the possible impact on library processes and services. The use of telecommunications networks to reduce costs and increase efficiency in academic libraries is also examined. (CLB)