What began with a few libraries' early application of ethnographic methods to learn more about user behaviors and needs has grown to become a significant body of work done across many institutions using a broad range of methods. User-centered investigations are increasingly influential in discussions about the shape and future of the research…

The mission of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Research is to expand knowledge that advances OCLC's public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing library costs. OCLC Research is dedicated to three roles: (1)To act as a community resource for shared research and development (R&D); (2) To provide advanced…

While the mission of research libraries remains constant, the nature of research libraries and what they do is changing. Research libraries are taking on new roles in digital scholarship, data management, and scholarly communications. More than ever, libraries know they must align their mission with the objectives of key stakeholders. This article…

Analyzing position descriptions provides insights into new and emerging trends, especially as the role of academic and research libraries continues to evolve, and new position types and new ways of organizing work emerge. Personnel officers and other library leaders frequently collaborate by sharing position descriptions in an effort to understand…

Research workshops are designed to help students develop skills that go beyond the scope of one-shot library sessions. However, with more students conducting research off-campus, online, and in the evening, workshops targeted towards complex skills and competencies are difficult to offer. But what if librarians were to design and deliver intensive…

Social networks are fundamental to all people. Their social network describes how they are connected to others: close relationships, peripheral relationships, and those relationships that help connect them to other people, events, or things. As information specialists, school librarians develop a multidimensional social network that enables them…

Teacher-librarians have implemented collaborations, becoming facilitators of literacy development throughout their schools as library research moves into multimodal forms. For instance, Wolf & Jordan (2006) studied teacher-librarian collaboration with third grade students researching and writing within a unit on severe weather preparedness. The…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") is a quarterly report from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). This issue includes the following articles: (1) Rebalancing the Investment in Collections (H. Thomas Hickerson); (2)…

Advocacy on public policy issues such as copyright is a common concern of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL). Duane Webster has been instrumental in facilitating a collaborative approach to such advocacy. Part of this involves concerted efforts to ensure that fair use (United…

Faculty/librarian collaboration is a topic that receives almost as much coverage in the library literature as information literacy. It is probably safe to say that information literacy efforts cannot succeed without positive collaboration between classroom faculty and librarians. The most common scenario for such collaboration is the library…

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) enabled the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to develop increased visibility among leaders shaping the development of the Internet. It also provided a mechanism for ARL member institutions and others to engage in partnership strategies to develop projects that would bring digital content and…

This paper briefly describes the structure of the national higher education association community, discusses the role of coalitions in collective advocacy, and reviews collaborations between the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) carried out during the tenure of ARL Executive Director Duane…

This article describes the outcome of a collaboration between a faculty member and a librarian to integrate information literacy into a graduate counseling psychology program. This collaboration used discipline-based standards from a professional association (the Association of Counselor Education and Supervision, ACES) to provide instructional…

Increasingly, wiki technology is being used in education and business settings. Although most students are aware of Wikipedia, many do not understand that a wiki is a malleable platform that has a multitude of uses. Wiki technology is one of many social media tools that students need to not only become familiar with but also be able to effectively…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") is a bimonthly report from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). This issue includes the following articles: (1) Special Collections at the Cusp of the Digital Age: A Credo (Clifford…