There is a growing shift to digital offerings among public libraries. Libraries increasingly are fulfilling roles as technology hubs for their communities, with high demand for technology and career development training resources. Ebooks and other digital materials are on the rise, while print is being scaled back. More libraries are turning to…

This study reports on the results of interviews conducted in December 2009 and January 2010 to identify innovative service trends in library and information services in the government and corporate arenas. The study was undertaken as part of a Library and Archives Canada (LAC) research project to inform the Government of Canada Assistant Deputy…

"Embracing the chaos" is an ongoing challenge for librarians. Embracing the chaos means librarians must have a plan for responding to the flood of new products, widgets, web tools, and gizmos that students use daily. In this article, the author argues that library instruction and access services have been grappling with that chaos with…

Academic, government, and corporate librarians organize and leverage internal resources and content through institutional repositories and library catalogs. Getting more value and usage from the content they license is a key goal. However, the ever-growing amount of content and shifting user demands for new materials or features has made the…

Librarians are familiar with the single-line form, the consolidated index, which represents a very large portion of a library's print and online collection. Their end users are familiar with the idea of a single search across a comprehensive index that produces a large, relevancy-ranked results list. Even though most patrons would not recognize…

The 21st-century student is highly technological. In order to encourage and enable the technologically advanced students, the authors wanted to develop a technology equipment service in the library at Texas A&M University-Commerce. They had an idea of what they wanted to accomplish but were unsure of how to get started. They started a small…

In the library context, they depend on sophisticated business applications specifically designed to support their work. This infrastructure consists of such components as integrated library systems, their associated online catalogs or discovery services, and self-check equipment, as well as a Web site and the various online tools and services…

New technology appears at a fast pace these days. As individuals people must choose how much technology to allow into their personal worlds. Within organizations, people must collectively decide how to build, sustain, and perhaps jettison new technologies as they consider their long-term value and life span. This requires a collaborative spirit…

Technology has transformed libraries. There are digital libraries, electronic collections, online databases and catalogs, ebooks, downloadable books, and much more. With free technology such as social websites, newspaper collections, downloadable online calendars, clocks and sticky notes, online scheduling, online document sharing, and online…

In 2008, we started by pulling a sample of 483 public libraries from across the country, using 2007 public library annual report data. Because small libraries have different needs and resources than larger libraries, we stratified the sample to make comparisons by size, according to the following population groups: fewer than 10,000 served;…

The author has been extremely fortunate over the last few years to have had the opportunity to travel to many different parts of the world and speak and work with librarians in many countries and to have the chance to see first-hand some incredible libraries that demonstrate creative approaches to library services, innovative uses of technology,…

In this article, the authors share how cloud-based applications, such as Google Calendar, Wikidot, Google Docs, Google Sites, YouTube, and Craigslist, played a big part in the success of their plan of implementing a technology training program for customers and employees. A few years ago the Denver Public Library, where the authors work, developed…

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library is a joint co-managed library of the San Jose Public Library and the San Jose State University Library, located in San Jose, California, the capital of Silicon Valley. Working in this merged public and academic environment, the authors find that the uses of technology transcend the differences and enhance…

In 2007, "Library Journal" and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation named Hanover's Howe Library one of four "Best Small Libraries in America." Hanover is an affluent community with a long history of support for the public library. In fact, the town's taxpayers support two: Howe and Etna Library, a small, independent institution in the village of…

The downturn in the economy has taken its toll on libraries. Even in the best of times, most libraries have to work with budgets that are barely adequate to support their essential activities. In these recent months, the recession has subtracted significant funds from the parent organizations of many libraries: city, county, and state governments;…