Presents: "Research on Libraries/Librarianship in 1998"; "Assessment of the Role of School/Public Libraries in Support of Education Reform"; "Number of Libraries in the United States, Canada, and Mexico"; Highlights of NCES Surveys"; "Library Acquisition Expenditures, 1997-1998: United States Public,…

The Association of Research Libraries' Office of Management Services (OMS), working with the Research Libraries Group, Inc. (RLG), began the North American Collections Inventory Project (NCIP) in July 1983 as a cooperative effort intended eventually to involve research libraries throughout the United States and Canada. The project's long-term goal…

At the sixth transborder forum, librarians from the United States, Canada, and Mexico gathered to explore topics of interest to academic, public, school, and special librarians in all three countries. The conference program and general information are provided in English and Spanish. Presentations, some in English and some in Spanish, include:…

This SPEC (Systems and Procedures Exchange Center) Kit presents the results of a survey of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries. The survey addressed the following questions about numeric data (i.e., any information resource, print or non-print, with considerable numeric content) in academic libraries: (1) What relationships…

The analyses reported here on the growth and change of medical school libraries are based on the annual statistics of 67 U.S. and Canadian medical school libraries, 1975-89, and 4 primary statistics from "parent," main campus libraries, all of them members of the Association of Research Libraries. The results show that medical school…

Reports results of survey investigating aspects of weeding of materials in reference collections at 377 U.S. colleges and universities: existence of written policy or unwritten weeding practice; extent of weeding; frequency; what happens to discards; effect of shelf space, staff time, and use of materials on weeding decisions. (5 references) (EJS)

Presentations on NCIP (North American Collections Inventory Project) program developments and future program directions are combined with business meeting minutes in this report from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The text of remarks presented as part of a panel discussion on the program theme includes: (1) "Development and Use…

Reports on acquisitions of selected Western European political science materials deemed important for inclusion in at least one North American research library. The percentages of French, Italian, Swedish, Catalan, Icelandic, and Belgian materials not found in RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network) and OCLC are provided. Factors supporting…

Libraries in the United States have generally been successful in collecting the major metropolitan newspapers from Southeast Asia. They have been less than successful in collecting regional and specialty newspapers. Issues surrounding newspaper collecting include: identification; acquisition; processing, shelving, and storage; and preservation,…

The 108 university research libraries with the largest collections and 11 public and special libraries with large research holdings are listed. Data include rank (universities only), numbers of volumes, volumes added in 1991-92, current serials, permanent staff, and total expenditures in 1991-92. University libraries' total operating expenditures…

Explains President Clinton's donation of books about the United States to the Peking University Library and compares it to a donation of Chinese books from the Peking University library to the library of Kapiolani Community College (Hawaii). Suggests appropriate directions for U.S.-China academic library cooperation and for international academic…

This article presents results of a survey of 100 U.S. libraries focusing on their audio and video collections. Discussion covers genre or type of video collected, popular feature video titles, nonfeature films, nationwide jobbers and wholesalers and local distributors of audios and videos, and popular audiocassettes (how-to, motivational tapes).…

Six articles provide an overview of map librarianship in the United States and highlight the following areas: microphotography, cartography's photographic revolution; major sources for map acquisitions; preservation (processes, equipment, and supply dealers); map collections in public libraries; and suggestions for improvement in map…

Uses national guidelines, collection development texts, and the intellectual freedom literature to assess the practical value of the Library Bill of Rights in school library settings. Discussion focuses on invoking the statement as support when dealing with challenges to the collection. Appendixes include the Library Bill of Rights itself and…

Argues that a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures is most efficacious in library collection analysis. Cases drawn from the literature in which a combination of these measures was profitably applied are considered, and the types of software packages for purposes of data manipulation are discussed. (Contains 15 references.) (KRN)