A significant number of distance students report they "stray" from their home universities by using local libraries, despite the fact that distance education librarians work hard to provide customized resources and services tailored to their programs and needs. Are public libraries and special libraries able to meet the research needs of…

This timely special report from ALA Editions provides a succinct but comprehensive overview of the "privatization" of public libraries. It provides a history of the trend of local and state governments privatizing public services and assets, and then examines the history of public library privatization right up to the California…

While connecting the nation's schools and libraries to the internet by modernizing and expanding the federal E-rate program currently dominates education technology efforts, a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education urges that adequate broadband access be accompanied by a comprehensive "digital infrastructure" that unlocks…

Each year the State Library sends annual report forms to California's public, academic, special, state agency, and county law libraries. Statistical data from those reports are tabulated in this publication, with directory listings published in the companion volume, "California Library Directory." For this fiscal year, 389 libraries of…

The purpose of the California State Library-sponsored project, InFoPeople, is to enhance access to information resources by providing points of public access to the Internet in public libraries throughout the state of California. This Stage 1 report represents an initial set of findings and issues related to the InFoPeople project and provides the…

This study examined the access of books among six communities in the greater Los Angeles area: Brentwood, Beverly Hills, South Central, Watts, East Los Angeles, and Compton, participants included 60 students, ages 7 to 12 years, selected from each community. The survey examined access to books in the home, classroom library, school library and…

To explain why member libraries were failing to fill interlibrary loan requests, this study surveyed 26 public, school, community college, university, and special libraries throughout the Cooperative Information Network (CIN). The study was designed to discover: which libraries were chosen for loans, how soon patrons wanted loan information, how…

This report summarizes data on the holdings of libraries in California, grouped by nine geographical regions. After a summary of statistics for all types of libraries, statistics are given separately for public, college and university, and special libraries. The following information is given for public libraries: (1) name of library, (2) number…

The Mountain-Valley Library System (MVLS), a cooperative of 19 public and academic libraries in nine northern California counties, performed a cost study of its interlibrary delivery system during fall, 1977. This report discusses the results of item count for all 62,000 materials handled in the system during a two-month sample period and projects…

Applies the resource dependence approach from open systems theory and the negotiated social order perspective to discussion of nine directors of four California public libraries between 1977 and 1989. Topics addressed include the libraries' communities and financial positions, the impact of Proposition 13, the changing environment, negotiation…

Evaluation results are described for the DIALIB project, a three year experiment of on-line bibliographic search services in four public libraries. Findings include users of the system and their characteristics; use of data bases; librarian reactions; and time and cost of on-line searching, both in a free and fee-based environment. (Author/JPF)

This evaluation of the California Title-Author List (CATALIST), second edition, a union catalog on microfiche published from computer output microform tapes which contains location records for approximately 700,000 titles held in 152 public, academic, and special libraries throughout California, is presented as a means of assessing progress to…

Discussion of public libraries' information and referral services for culturally diverse communities focuses on a study conducted in southern California that examined the information seeking behavior of ethnolinguistic gatekeepers in minority communities. Topics addressed include information and referral models; information sources; the perception…

The briefing and forum on children and youth services was the second public event organized by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science under the Omnibus Children and Youth Literacy Initiative, which was endorsed at the White House Conference on Library and Information Services in 1991. This report contains transcripts of the…

Statistical and directory information are provided in one volume. The 1975-76 statistics cover public libraries in five population ranges: bookmobiles, academic libraries, special libraries, state agency, and county law libraries. The data covers income, staffing and salaries, expenditures, materials, and activities. The first of three directory…