There has been a noticeable divide the past few years within the library world regarding electronic books. Many academic libraries have been purchasing or leasing web-based academic ebooks for years. Most public libraries on the other hand (thanks in large part to services such as OverDrive) have directed their attention toward downloadable…

In winter 2009, Barnard College began the process of adopting Drupal 7 as its content management system. The move included Barnard Library's Zine Collection website, an information resource dedicated to the library's special collection of do-it-yourself (DIY) publications by women. Recently, as a Barnard Zine intern, the author had the challenging…

This article presents the story of how Pepperdine University migrated its library management functions to the cloud using what is now known as OCLC's WorldShare Management Services (WMS). The story of implementing this new service is told from two vantage points: (1) that of the library; and (2) that of the service provider. The authors were the…

ERMes, the latest version of electronic resource management system (ERM), is a relational database; content in different tables connects to, and works with, content in other tables. ERMes requires Access 2007 (Windows) or Access 2008 (Mac) to operate as the database utilizes functionality not available in previous versions of Microsoft Access. The…

Numerous institutions of higher education have implemented a learning management system (LMS) or are considering doing so. This web-based software package provides self-service and quick (often personalized) access to content in a dynamic environment. Learning management systems support administrative, reporting, and documentation activities. LMSs…

Working as systems librarian for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST), a project for the National Solar Observatory (NSO) based in Tucson, Arizona, a large part of the author's responsibilities involve running the web site. She began looking into content management systems (CMSs), specifically ones for website control. A CMS is generally…

India is a huge country with a population of more than 1 billion. In India, by tradition, education and learning are highly valued. In fact, India has one of the largest higher education systems in the world, with regard to the number of institutions. Education is a necessity. It is the most effective instrument with which to imbue people with the…

In this article, the author discusses a project they undertook to reshape the libraries' Web services of the University of Houston site. The site had been in a state of flux and it needed a new structure for both managing and organizing it. She realized the staff was looking for a Web site that was more "Web 2.0" in nature. Web 2.0 is often…

Millipore Corp.--a global company of 6,100 employees for which the author serves as the science and patent information specialist--supplies products and expertise that span the research, development, and production stages in the life science research and biologic drug manufacturing fields. Millipore's corporate library, the information group,…

In this article, the author talks about an internal content management system that they have created at Calvin College. It is a hybrid of CMS and intranet that organizes Web site content and a variety of internal tools to help librarians complete their daily tasks. Hobbes is a Web-based tool that uses Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts written…

An IT decision maker gives an overview of public access PC software that's useful in controlling session length and scheduling, Internet access, print output, security, and the latest headaches: spyware and adware. In this article, the author describes a representative sample of software tools in several important categories such as setup…