Once upon a time, nonfiction books for children routinely included concise, stodgy writing. Most of the books were text heavy, with just a few scattered images decorating, rather than enhancing, the content and meaning. But nonfiction has changed dramatically over the last two decades, evolving into a new breed of visually dynamic, engaging texts…

Critiques of hegemonic library classification structures and controlled vocabularies have a rich history in information studies. This project has pointed out the trouble with classification and cataloging decisions that are framed as objective and neutral but are always ideological and worked to correct bias in library structures. Viewing…

Holocaust denial literature has been treated inconsistently in library collections. At one time Holocaust denial literature was classed and subject headings assigned with Holocaust literature. After specific Library of Congress classification numbers and subject headings for Holocaust denial and Holocaust denial literature became available in the…

The "use" of library resources and services is frequently presented in library and information science (LIS) literature as a primitive concept: an idea that need not be defined when it is being measured as an operational variable in empirical research. This project considered representations of library "use" through the…

Social tagging enables librarians to partner with users to provide enhanced subject access. This paper quantifies and compares LC subject headings from each of 31 different subject divisions with user tags from Amazon.com and LibraryThing assigned to the same titles. The intersection and integration of these schemas is described and evaluated.…

The paper describes the processes and outcomes of the ranking of LIS journal titles by Australia's LIS researchers during 2007-8, first through the Australian federal government's Research Quality Framework (RQF) process, and then by its replacement, the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative. The requirement to rank the journals'…

The resource typologies proposed in the new standard, "Resource Description and Access" (RDA), are evaluated in the context of a particular university library catalogue through two card-sort exercises. Although it was found that end-users recognised the content and carrier aspects of the resource types as listed in RDA, they did not…

Genre is a hot issue in readers' advisory (RA) circles right now. Many people are looking at how genre functions and morphs. Studying a genre is not a new idea. Over two decades ago, and even longer in less formal ways, librarians began gathering to study genres--asking such questions as in what genre does this book fit and why, what are its…

The digital age has freed information from the restrictive hierarchies of traditional cataloging methods, notably Dewey. Although libraries still deal with the challenge of physical books, online content is a different matter. Thanks to the unregulated, grassroots cataloging effort known as tagging, the Web presents a glorious chaos of…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide an initial understanding of the constraints that historical video collections pose to video retrieval technology and the potential that online access offers to both archive and users. Design/methodology/approach: A small and unique collection of videos on customs and folklore was used as a case study. Multiple…

This book is for community leaders, librarians, library committees, volunteers, aid workers and others who are interested in the practical aspect of starting and maintaining a successful library. Throughout the developing world, countless dedicated people respond to the pressing need for information in their communities by helping to start a…

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), a unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, is the world's largest social science data archive. The data sets in the ICPRS database give the social sciences librarian/subject specialist an opportunity of providing value-added bibliographic…

The University of Florida Libraries took the opportunity of remodeling its Humanities and Social Sciences library to conceptualize the design of an info commons area for the new building. An Info Commons Concept Team was formed and charged with this task. The team used site visits, surveys, focus groups, and interviews to determine the needs of…