This prestige study surveyed full-time faculty of American Library Association (ALA)-accredited programs in library and information studies regarding library and information science (LIS) journals. Faculty were asked to rate a list of eighty-nine LIS journals on a scale from 1 to 5 based on each journal's importance to their research and teaching.…

This Libraries and Policy essay explores the interrelationships between the public library goals of supporting democracy and remaining an apolitical institution and the expectations for demonstration of value and economic contribution at a time in which public discourse emphasizes austerity from public institutions. Libraries' positions on…

Librarians have long recognized the importance of privacy to intellectual freedom. As digital technology and its applications advance, however, efforts to protect privacy may become increasingly difficult. With some users behaving in ways that suggest they do not care about privacy and with powerful voices claiming that privacy is dead, librarians…

The "use" of library resources and services is frequently presented in library and information science (LIS) literature as a primitive concept: an idea that need not be defined when it is being measured as an operational variable in empirical research. This project considered representations of library "use" through the…

Reviews attempts by Library of Congress in the 1940s to resolve the cataloging crisis that preceded changes in cataloging rules in the 1950s and 1960s. Recommendations of an unpublished report on reorganization, simplified cataloging, cooperative cataloging, personnel policy, and cost analysis changes are examined, and results of implementation…

Examines the work of women's voluntary associations in support of public libraries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Activities studied include support of traveling libraries, library legislation, and the founding of local libraries. Cooperation of organized women's groups with the American Library Association and other organizations is…

A model based on storage and retrieval costs that determines efficient allocation of materials to different storage regimes in academic libraries is developed. An economically rational basis for determining role of several alternative storage methods which distinguish among materials by expected level of use is offered. Nineteen references are…

Describes a study that investigated holdings of small publishers' books in OCLC libraries and selection procedures for these titles, including the influence of reviews, publishers, and vendors. Questionnaire responses from librarians and vendors are analyzed, and results indicating a significant relationship between holdings and reviews are…

This article identifies competing schools of thought about the teaching of reference work by examining the relationship among nine reference textbook authors and by exploring the educational influences of five pioneers in the field of library science. The use of textbooks to examine the understanding of a field is discussed. (93 references) (LRW)

Discusses theoretical conceptions of the library and suggests that modern conceptions are informed by a view of knowledge grounded in early twentieth-century positivism. The view of scientific knowledge developed by Michael Foucault is described, and possibilities for the creation of new knowledge are considered. (75 references) (LRW)

Twenty-one libraries in Library Computer System participated in collection overlap study. Findings of random sample representing 1% of each collection indicate that high percentage of titles, 69.4%, occurred only once in network and that percentage of each library's collection unique to that library, ranged from 6.1% to 68.4%. (21 references) (EJS)

Review of development of German scientific and technical information network highlights scientific and technical libraries before World War I, the 1920s, effects of National Socialist rise to power, restriction of foreign acquisitions, technological university and wartime activities at Berlin-Charlottenburg, documentation movement, German Society…

Ralph A. Ulveling's 1951 challenge to the American Library Association (ALA) policy on censorship is described. Ulveling's proposal to segregate materials containing propaganda and the efforts of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee to address lack of consensus in the profession and librarians' role in protecting intellectual freedom are…

Provides a historical overview of postal service policy from 1792 to the present on mailing library materials. The current policy debate in response to congressional reassessment of the benefits of the library rate is reviewed. A table presents the percentage of library rate mailings and subsidy by sender and recipient. (143 references) (MES)

Examines development of social libraries (formed by associations for member use) in New England and rest of United States before 1850, and social and public library growth between 1850 and 1900. Opinions of contemporaries and seven aspects of American life indicating reluctance to abandon social library are highlighted. (27 references) (EJS)