The Kent Free Library (Ohio) evolved from the Great Atlantic and Western Railroad Reading Room of 1875, into a municipal Carnegie library, and then grew to be a medium-sized public school district library, in the city of Kent, Ohio. Its original building has been enlarged through three separate expansion campaigns, in order to have space to house…

With the results of the first national survey of children's library services in the United States to be finalized in 1991, a historical perspective on library service is warranted to add comparative value to the new findings. The Youngstown (Ohio) Public Library, which began with a small collection in 1880, traces its history of children's…

The purpose of this research was to look at the currency of the collection of a small public library and to determine the relationship between the amount of usage of the collection and the currency of publications in the collection. A 10% systematic sample was taken of the circulating nonfiction adult shelf list of the Franklin Public Library…

A survey was conducted to gather data about Ohio's prison libraries and the librarians who are responsible for them. These libraries are areas of challenge and opportunity for librarians, and there will be continued growth in this field as more and more prisons are built. However, few professionals are aware of the concerns and challenges facing…

This study considers the theories of impulse buying in an examination of the effects on circulation of library books when books are displayed face front (with all or most of the book jacket showing) as opposed to spine front. Reviews of the literature on consumer behavior and on library displays support the hypothesis of this study, i.e., that…

This study of four public libraries in Northeastern Ohio was conducted to determine the amount, if any, of restriction of access of materials to minors. Four libraries were opportunistically selected, and the director and children's librarian in each were interviewed. The emerging hypothesis was that some restriction would occur. The written…

The purpose of this study is to identify and determine the extent of technological change in the development of automation as it is reflected in the professional literature and the rates at which males and females contribute to this literature. A database search of Library Literature on WILSONDISC was undertaken to identify publications written in…

A sample of 300 video patrons at the Grandview Heights Public Library (Ohio) was surveyed to determine what information they used from the videocassette container to make their selections. It was expected that knowing what patrons used could help in deciding how much information to enter in bibliographic records for videocassettes. The majority of…

The purpose of this four phase quasi-experimental study was to determine if putting selected books into a display controlled by a theme in a school media center would: (1) increase the circulation of the display books; (2) cause an increase in the circulation of the entire collection; and (3) encourage children to read a type of book they did not…

To test the strength of a booklist as a selection aid, an experimental/control group research design was used in the Lexington Library of the Davidson County (North Carolina) Public Library System to measure the effect of a booklist on the circulation of a group of fiction books that had not been checked out from the library in 4 years or longer.…

The author researched and adapted ways to promote responsibility for library books. The program's aims were to reduce and retrieve lost library books that were reported on the inventory check and to make students, parents, and teachers aware of the problems and the importance of being responsible library users. Introduction to the project was done…