Reviews the influences of organizational evolution and intentional change, library posture toward collection development, personnel management, and human perspectives on the establishment of an administrative framework for achieving collection development goals. (Author/EM)

Explores issues associated with the imposition of fees on information obtained from sources made available by today's technology. Highlights include the commodification of information, economics of access to information, library costs and user fees, cost benefits of automation, financial support for automation, and implications for collection…

Establishes theoretical framework for solution of problem confronting academic libraries--growth in number of journals and surge in prices--by showing how concentration of usage is function of sociobibliometric laws based on cumulative advantage principle. Use of citation indexes in academic evaluation and library collection development is…

Examines the link between the publish or perish issue and the quantity and quality of scholarly publications and explores the costs to libraries resulting from this situation. The use of electronic publishing as an alternative to serial collections and recommendations from the American Council of Learned Societies are discussed. (CLB)

Two articles describe National Shelflist Count project organized 13 years ago under auspices of American Library Association's Resources and Technical Services Division to collect and publish comparative data about strengths and growth of major North American research collections. History, limitations, usefulness, and recommendations of 1983 task…

Examination of the challenges for serials management posed by rapid changes in technology places particular emphasis on issues relating to the bibliographic control of and access to serial publications. Problem areas are identified as organization for serials work, staffing, and the multiplication and specialization of serial publications.…

This study explores current trends and practices in functional integration based on site visits to six Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries selected on the basis of their responses to a Fall 1984 ARL questionnaire. The responses indicated that, for all six libraries, some integration of functions existed, staff reorganization…

This study examined the nature and chronological spread of references used by English-speaking scholars writing monographs on foreign literary topics, and compared the findings to an earlier study of the monographic literature of English and American literature and the humanities journal literature. Implications for research library collections…

Results of this examination of the information needs and gathering behavior of social scientists, especially historians, suggests that existing library and information services may be based on a misunderstanding of their needs. Factors that need to be studied are identified, and research models are suggested. (CLB)

Seven articles on library reference services highlight reference obsolescence in academic libraries, major studies of unobtrusive reference tests, methods for evaluating reference desk performance, reference interview evaluation, problems of reference desk control, online searching by end users, and reference collection development in…

Describes an exchange program between academic libraries in Sichuan Province and Washington State University, and discusses the Chinese approach to academic librarianship in the areas of management and personnel, access and circulation, automation, reference services, collection development and censorship, and library facilities. (CLB)