With the rise in the number of types of digital media and the time youth spend on these platforms, researchers theorize that interacting with digital media can provide significant motivation for youth to participate, create, and become active learners. The Consortium on Chicago School Research, with funding from the John D. and Catherine T.…

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…

Describes the process of question referral in California's second-level reference centers where questions are referred by public librarians, and provides examples of questions and sources typical of humanities research. Topics include the varied clientele and the use of databases, reference files, library collections, organizations, special…

The Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex sends regular "directives" to its panel of volunteer correspondents around the UK asking them to reflect on various issues relating to the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. Two directives from the 1980s and 1990s relate to libraries, books and reading habits. These sets of…

Step-by-step description of the community analysis and survey project undertaken by Grande Prairie Public Library (Alberta, Canada) includes discussion of use of American Library Association's "Planning Process for Public Libraries" as a guideline for designing staff, citizen, and user surveys. Statement of revenue and expenses (1982) is…

Discusses methodological issues in cross-cultural studies of diverse communities, including language problems, data collection and analysis, sample size, and dissemination of findings. A study of the information-seeking behavior of ethnolinguistic gatekeepers in several communities in California is described. Suggestions are given for public…