Service-learning is an important practice in higher education, allowing institutions to combine essential campus functions of research and learning with meaningful engagement in the community. As service-learning has made its way into institutional strategic plans, libraries have sought to support this work by integrating community engagement into…

California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) launched the five-year "Puedes! Caminos, Cariño, y Carreras in a Post-Pandemic Era" grant in Fall 2022 to enhance educational opportunity and attainment for Hispanic students in California's southern Central Valley. Building on the successes of Year 1, the project achieved notable…

California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) was awarded a five-year grant, "Puedes! Caminos, Cariño, y Carreras in a Post-Pandemic Era", that began in Fall 2022, to support educational opportunity and attainment of Hispanic students. Guided by the program goals, Year 1 activities demonstrated effective project operations on multiple…

In January 2018, Nova Southeastern University opened the NSU Writing and Communication Center (WCC), an innovative academic work environment that offers writing and communication assistance to all 20,000-plus NSU students. A key component of the WCC is its online writing and communication resources. These resources are made available to all NSU…

In Fall 2014 the University of Maryland Libraries launched a textbook reserves program to help relieve the burden of high textbook costs on students. Although its initial performance was lackluster, workflow refinements and expanded promotion greatly improved usage, resulting in a tenfold increase in circulation and expansion of the program. This…

With journal price increases continuing to outpace inflation and library collection funds remaining stagnant or shrinking, libraries are seeking innovative ways to control spending while continuing to provide patrons with high-quality content. The Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library reports on the evaluation, implementation, and use of…

Studies about diversity initiatives in academic libraries have primarily focused on large research libraries. But what kinds of diversity work occur at smaller libraries? This study examines the status of diversity initiatives, especially those aimed at students, at national liberal arts college libraries. Results from a survey of library…

The literature, activities, and resource needs of engineering students and faculty provide insight into a demographic that is often among the early-adopters of new technologies, tools, and methods of sharing information. Despite the often non-bibliographic nature of their research efforts, there are numerous elements of the traditional service…

The critical incident technique (CIT) is a qualitative research method where subjects are encouraged to tell personal stories that provide descriptive data. Researchers who use the CIT employ a structured methodology to encourage respondents to share their experiences regarding a particular topic. Incidents are considered effective/successful when…

A checklist evaluation on thirty-seven Women's Studies programs conducted using the individual institutions' online public access catalogs (OPACs) is presented. Although Women's Studies collections are very difficult to build, an evaluation of existing programs shows that collections, for the most part, have managed substantial coverage of the…

Premier League Reading Stars (PLRS) is in its eighth year. To complement a pre-post quantitative survey, an impact evidence base was required to inform consideration of continued funding into 2011 and beyond. PLRS is very highly regarded among child participants, parents, and librarians. The structure of the scheme, its basis on football, and the…

In 2008, the Digital Initiatives Coordinating Committee (DICC) requested a comprehensive assessment of the UW Digital Collections (UWDC). The goal of this assessment was to better understand faculty awareness of and expectations for digital library resources, services and tools; obtain faculty feedback on digital resource and service needs that…

Research was undertaken to guide development of services for personal digital assistant (PDA) users at the University of Alberta Libraries. A variety of qualitative methods were used to assess user satisfaction with current PDA services and identify potential PDA services for the libraries and resources. The research and needs assessment results…

Educational needs assessments (hereafter NAs) are inattentive to cost considerations and are frequently dominated by elite stakeholder groups. In this article I make a case for adopting a cost-utility approach, illustrating the argument with data generated in a NA of central library services in a Canadian school district. Using survey data from…

This final report of the National Institute on Library Service to Jail Populations begins with a discussion of project implementation related to objectives and procedures, the project planning committee, publicity and promotion, and other significant features and activities. The impact of the project and possible future activities are considered.…