Academic libraries have long been called the heart of their campuses. As priorities have shifted away from print collections and other repository services, college libraries have expanded their services to be welcoming spaces that support students' sense of belonging and meet a wide range of needs. This is perhaps especially true of community…

In recent years, the opportunities for academic libraries to engage as a partner in digital initiatives in academia have expanded significantly. The traditional focus on digitization, preservation, and dissemination of collections has developed and shifted considerably, bringing new strategies for adequately serving the changed academic needs, as…

This case study details how a community college library, in response to rising textbook costs and COVID-related closures, advocated for and received an increase in funding to provide online copies of many textbooks in its reserve collection. It also provides a glimpse into the roadblocks acquisitions librarians might encounter in trying to bolster…

Academic libraries must provide accessible electronic and information technology to patrons using assistive technology to access library materials. Accessibility of scholarly material is particularly important in the STEM disciplines, where attrition rates of students with disabilities is higher than in other fields. In this study, the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to revisit previous design principles and guidelines for online makerspaces in public libraries (Kim et al., 2020) and expand the design principles with more updated implications and examples from the literature published during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The authors reviewed…

The e-book is raising fundamental questions around the dynamics and habits of reading; the role of books in the academic library; and the role of librarians in addressing new realities of reading and learning. Print and digital texts foster different styles of reading and different ways of thinking and doing research. This paper examines…

The majority of Americans think local libraries serve the educational needs of their communities and families pretty well and library users often outpace others in learning activities. But many do not know about key education services libraries provide. This report provides statistics on library usage and presents key education services provided…

Higher education libraries have traditionally sought to be able to demonstrate the impact their services have on student attainment. This is particularly important in the current economic climate where libraries frequently have to defend their budgets in the face of financial constraints, whilst needing to demonstrate better value for money to…

For-profit schools constitute the fastest-growing sector of higher education institutions in the United States. Yet accompanying the phenomenal growth of these proprietary colleges and universities has been considerable controversy over the role that the profit motive should play in higher education. The literature of higher education contains…

Embedded librarianship is a relatively new term but is a fairly well-established stance in academic librarianship. While the terminology has certainly spawned new activities and vigorous new channels of communication, few are talking about the strategies for expanding and enhancing the position of the librarian and libraries organizationally once…

Libraries are making diverse contributions to the development of many types of digital repositories, particularly those housing locally created digital content, including new digital objects or digitized versions of locally held works. In some instances, libraries are managing a repository and its related services entirely on their own, but often…

In the FY2007 and FY2008 Budgets, the President recommended that the National Commission on Libraries and Information Sciences (NCLIS) be consolidated with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). In FY2007, while waiting for Congressional action on the proposal in the President's FY2008 Budget, the Commission recognized the need to…

As academic libraries move toward the electronic frontier for their serial subscriptions, there are several issues to be considered. This paper intends to outline the advantages and disadvantages with respect to electronic and paper serials, address selection criteria, and describe our practice in coping with these issues at the Leddy Library of…

Electronic performance support system (EPSS) technology provides a powerful mechanism for helping end-users operate complex systems. This article describes and discusses some research we have undertaken to explore their potential within academic library systems. Based on a needs analysis, an EPSS for supporting library users was designed and…

Much contemporary library thinking and planning hinges on the belief that the true telos (or mission) of libraries is to merge into the new electronic environment, usually referred to metonymically as "the Internet." In this article, I argue that those who propagate the Internet as the coming information paradise, subsuming and superseding…