In August 2008, the Missouri River Regional Library (MRRL), where the author serves as information technology coordinator, switched over from an internally hosted Microsoft Exchange email server to the Google Apps product. As the person who led the charge to use Google Apps and the person who actually flipped the switch, he was responsible for…

The year 2011 was the PALNI (Private Academic Library Network of Indiana) consortium's "rookie season" for the implementation of Primo, the 2010 Discovery Layer 500 race winner. In this article, the authors report on their transition to the cloud within Ex Libris Ltd.'s Primo TotalCare environment: their preparation, the steps involved…

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse's Murphy Library provides access to approximately 200 subscription databases. As with many academic libraries, methods and tools for managing these resources were sorely needed. However, the budget has been cut repeatedly over the past few years--thus the possibility of purchasing a commercial electronic…

As news outlets create headlines such as "A Cloud & A Prayer," "The Cloud Is the Computer," and "Leveraging Clouds to Make You More Efficient," many readers have been left with cloud confusion. Many definitions exist for cloud computing, and a uniform definition is hard to find. In its most basic form, cloud…

The authors, both of whom are working at the Musselman library, relate how they are always looking for ways to improve and update their reference service. When they introduced a chat reference service to their online library services, they received only four inquiries in the entire year 2002-2003. The authors found out later that the paltry number…

From blogs to wikis to podcasts to personalized e-mail alerts, there are now more ways to reach people than ever before. However, even with these new outreach pathways, success still depends on knowing your audience and having the ability to see beyond the "buzz" of technology. Best practices for outreach should emphasize a personal touch in the…