With information technologies' pervasive use within all departments and by all staff, libraries and library staff get their fair share of mandated projects. Knowing how to successfully operate in this kind of environment is important to the overall success of the library as a whole. What is meant by mandated project? A mandated project is a…

The public computing center offers an economical and environmentally friendly model for providing additional public computer access when and where it is needed. Though not intended to be a replacement for a full-service branch, the public computing center does offer a budget-friendly option for quickly expanding high-demand services into the…

Social media now offer a fresh opportunity to enliven the learning process. But to gain traction, they will have to prove their relevance. Librarians are quite vocal in advocating for the preservation of human interaction around digital media; one might say that it is their charge to be certain that the human factors within digital libraries are…

Through the power of easily accessible and engaging new digital media technologies, family and oral histories can give voice to the unknown and overlooked stories of immigrants and their families--stories that often never make it beyond the children or the grandchildren. The academic library can be a natural focal point for this interaction and…

Technology has ushered itself into our culture without borders or boundaries. Students and educators have fallen victim to the notion of "information at your fingertips" and "easy access" while taking many things for granted. In the past few years, there have been several articles written about the use of textbooks in the academic library. Most of…

In fall 2008, a collaborative partnership was formed between the libraries of two Indiana universities--Marian College's (now Marian University) Mother Theresa Hackelmeier Memorial Library, and the University Library at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). The authors discuss the digital nature of this collaboration, which…

In 2009, after a year of planning and preparation, the second generation of Ohio Memory was launched. A collaborative effort of the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) and the State Library of Ohio, Ohio Memory is a repository for more than 75,000 digital items, including photographs, journals, and other manuscript materials, as well as print documents…

Creating online options for students has become more of a focus with the growth of distance-education programs. It has also become necessary with the growth of online databases, electronic journals, and electronic books. Teaching classes is one of the few areas where libraries have not all switched to online access. Reference librarians still tend…

Libraries are constantly evolving and changing expectations for the user and the information environment. More than just being an authoritative source for research, expertise, and quality content in the form of books and journals, the information center is evolving into a more expansive role. With the growth of information technology awareness and…

It is easy for a library systems administrator to sometimes feel quite overwhelmed by the responsibilities of the job. Keeping a network running smoothly is a challenge in itself, but they must also be concerned with protecting the network from the many threats that exist. Constant vigilance is necessary to guard against electronic attacks…