Why pay attention to games? For starters, games are the "medium of choice" for many Millennials, with broad participation among the 30 and under population. Although part of a web of new media, technology, and social shifts, games are the quintessential site for examining these changes. Game cultures feature participation in a collective…

Reports the results of an unobtrusive study, from a user's viewpoint, of reference services available in the Suffolk Cooperative Library System. The study raises questions of policy centering around user expectations of library reference services. (RAA)

Argues that libraries have gone through a rising and falling pattern of influence, largely in response to changes in information technology. The library of the future is described as an information support center where librarians can fill two new roles: systems analysts and knowledge engineers. (EM)

Exploring resources in order to determine their full potential in information-seeking is a necessary part of the ongoing education and training of information professionals. One should explore every resource available in order to make the best judgments when relevant queries are introduced. In this article, the author stresses that one key to…

Presents results of a study on user needs, sources used, and search successes. Illustrates that despite increasing competition from other information sources available to the public--such as consumer media and the Internet--libraries are still a primary source of information and education for the American public. (AEF)

Do's and don'ts for reference librarians trying to fulfill the information needs of the library user. (5 references) (NH)

Librarians should expend less effort on debates about fees for services; instead they should seek to provide those services in the fairest possible manner. Cooperation with vendors, administrators, politicians, and others offers an opportunity to minimize through special subsidies the costs of the services to individual users. References are…

Describes a contract between the reference service of a library system in Illinois and a commercial supplier of information in Berkeley, California, to provide the answers to 200 reference questions for a flat rate of $6000. The contract, considered the first of its kind, successfully relieved a current reference overload. (RAA)