The focus of this article is to reflect on current and near future issues and trends concerning academic libraries. This includes an overview of the literature on embedded librarianship and a focus on the need for more participatory and collaborative approaches to library services. The core argument is that academic libraries need to continue to…

This article explores the closing of the Howard Ross Library of Management at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. We hypothesized that closing a branch library would result in a decline in the use of library services. We measured library service using circulation statistics, library instruction workshop statistics, and data from the online survey…

Academic and public libraries are facing the challenge of finding new avenues of service and of creating value for their constituencies. This value is in the form of outcomes that result in bettering the people who use libraries and the community at large. The authors feel that librarians must find creative ways to make their communities better…

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…

Libraries are making diverse contributions to the development of many types of digital repositories, particularly those housing locally created digital content, including new digital objects or digitized versions of locally held works. In some instances, libraries are managing a repository and its related services entirely on their own, but often…

Twenty-three scholarly papers and twelve abstracts comprise the content of the eleventh annual Brick and Click Libraries Symposium, held at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The peer-reviewed proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future face of…

Assessment efforts document the academic library's contributions toward student success and institutional outcomes. Use of an Assessment Cycle at Pierce College Library enhances outcomes-based education and facilitates the library's role in the institutional assessment plan. Three examples of the Cycle are used to illustrate its application in…

Campus teaching centers dedicated to improving instruction are commonplace today in academe. This article presents ways in which libraries and teaching centers have developed partnerships and identifies benefits for both entities. Specific examples are drawn from the authors' two institutions, including a review of the ways that relationships were…

The Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award is the most prestigious commendation given to practitioners in the field. The following questions about ILL were posed to the two most recent recipients of the Boucher Award: Tom Delaney (2002), Coordinator of Interlibrary Loan Services at Colorado State University and Lynn Wiley (2001),…