Describes a communications, materials booking, and interloan system in a Canadian public library system which allows equal participation of all sizes of libraries. The system has reduced the percentage of requests not found, improved turnaround time, is more cost effective, and has generated a higher respect for resource sharing. (EM)

As background for defining public library adult services in the 1980s the perceived role of the public library in the United States since its inception is summarized and changing definitions are analyzed. Data collection and analysis plans for the Adult Services in the Eighties Project are described. (EM)

Recounts events that led to the firing of Mary L. Jones, Director of Los Angeles Public Library (1905) and caught in public crossfire such figures as the mayor, city council, library board of directors, Charles Lummis (Jones's replacement), Susan B. Anthony, Anna Shaw, Herbert Putnam, and Melvil Dewey. (29 references) (EJS)

Discusses areas needing revision in the manual "Output Measures for Public Libraries," i.e., measurement objectives, research skills of output measures users, management versus research contexts, relating inputs to outputs, problems in data collection, user versus library performance, sample sizes, interpretation of output measure…

Prestel is an interactive videotex system which has been available to the public in the United Kingdom since the late 1970's. Recent research funded by the British Library Research and Development Department provided public libraries with access to Prestel and monitored their reactions to the services. Aims of the trial were to promote Prestel by…

Presents a description of PLEXUS, an expert system on gardening designed as a referral tool for public libraries by the University of London. Highlights include determining user characteristics, developing the problem statement, the use of semantic categories, and search strategies that modify the original problem statement using Boolean…

This report is the result of a project which analyzed the current collection of statistics from academic, public, and school libraries by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and by state agencies and prepared recommendations for a more efficient and effective national data collection system. Current data collection methods are…

This paper examines the barriers to cooperation among a group of librarians and trustees in the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS) in New Jersey as the group explored the potential advantages of a cooperative automated circulation system. This network of public libraries shares reciprocal borrowing, direct access to borrowing, and…

The 23 papers presented at this conference deal with the information needs of institutionally-based part-time students in United Kingdom universities, polytechnics, and further education colleges, and with library and information services for the adult learner. Keith Percy and John Simpson provide overviews on the number and types of part-time…

This book addresses many of the practical issues involved in developing the virtual library. Seven presentations from the Eighth Annual Computers in Libraries Conference are included in this book in augmented form. The papers are supplemented by "The Evolving Virtual Library: An Overview" (Laverna M. Saunders and Maurice Mitchell), a…