Games and other forms of play are used in today's libraries to attract underserved patrons, to introduce patrons to other library resources and services, and to facilitate engagement between library patrons. While many perceive gaming as a new library service, gaming services have been part of librarianship since the nineteenth century through…

As library collections increasingly become digital, libraries are faced with many challenges regarding the acquisition and management of electronic resources. Some of these challenges include copyright and fair use, the first-sale doctrine, licensing versus ownership, digital preservation, long-term archiving, and, most important, the issue of…

This article traces historical uses of the phrase "why girls go wrong" to provide a context for analysis of Progressive Era reading guidance for girls and then turns to actual girls' responses to reading. The historic context depicts the milieu in which young women and the advisors who sought to guide them lived and read as a time of intense…

Diversity has been identified as a priority in library and information services for some time. The limited published research on diversity programs in libraries, though, has focused on academic libraries. This article represents the results of a study of leadership diversity in large, urban public libraries. In the study of members of the Urban…

The objectives of a study to develop objective weeding criteria are described and the study findings are presented. (AB)

Describes geographic information systems and the assembly of data for analysis for the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library (Indiana). Presents examples of possible analyses: distribution of library patrons; distances patrons travel to use libraries; branch library services and characteristics of populations served; numbers of patrons served…

This study found the patterns of circulation in various categories of adult books to be similar across the branches of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. In only some subject categories, branch circulation levels were related to socioeconomic characteristics. (AEF)

This checklist-based study examined the extent to which gay-related English-language picture books for preschool and elementary age children are held across 101 public library systems from five countries (with emphasis on United States and Canada). Comparisons of holdings among library systems show large differences, and among titles show some…