Reviews the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) activities regarding special collections. Highlights include local and collaborative approaches; budget pressures; access to special collections; digitization programs; recruiting qualified staff; results of a survey of ARL special collections; and the need for ongoing statistics for special…

Discussion of special collections materials focuses on independent research libraries. Topics include how collection development differs; who they serve; access to the collections, including digital access; and future challenges, especially the need for increased financial support, changes in scholarly communication, and the need for increased…

Develops a comprehensive, unified, explanatory theory of librarianship by first making an analogy to the unification of the fundamental forces of nature. Topics include dependent and independent variables; publishing; acquisitions; classification and organization of knowledge; storage, preservation, and collection management; collections; and…

Expanded resource sharing will be a feature of twenty-first century libraries. Discusses and illustrates, with reference to OhioLINK, steps to expanding resource sharing: joining a consortium, integrating intellectual access (catalogs and circulation), providing for physical and electronic delivery of materials, and integrating the collection…

Eight articles address topics related to library services to teenagers: (1) power inside and outside the library; (2) information needs and interests; (3) barriers to information access; (4) the ACCESS PENNSYLVANIA program; (5) information skills curriculum; (6) values education through libraries; (7) ethnic literacy; and (8) planning public…

Introduces the concept of the virtual library and explores how the increasing reliance on computers and digital information has affected library users and staff. Discusses users' expectations, democratization of access, human issues, organizational change, technostress, ergonomics, assessment, and strategies for success and survival. Contains 35…

The complexity of the information environment, and more uncontrolled distribution and access, lead to new issues for users. Reference services, with a stronger instructional role, must become more proactive in providing a fully developed repertoire of services responsive to the multifaceted queries facing librarians today. (Contains 31…

Describes a study of ARL (Association of Research Libraries) members called LibQUAL+ that identified users' perceptions of library service quality and measured gaps between expected service and perceived service. Discusses results of user interviews regarding information seeking behavior; self reliance; ubiquity and ease of access; and hours of…

Discusses the experiences of four librarians who adopted marketing strategies to improve their practice and their institution's services, and examines the role of marketing in today's information society. (AEF)

Addresses issues of electronic publishing from an archival perspective, including authentication, mutability, reformatting, preservation, editorial and administrative policies, costs, the role of librarians and archivists, technical procedures, access and the rights of privacy and freedom of information, and standards. (AEF)

Discusses issues of quality in public libraries in light of changes in services resulting from social and economic changes. Highlights include quality strategies, the customer service revolution, anticipating new markets, defining library values and missions, information technology, training staff for the future, funding, partnerships, and…

Discusses library resource sharing. Highlights include access to information, document delivery, interlibrary loan, and the social, economic, and technological complexities of new mechanisms; and traditional roles of libraries that provide both opportunities for cooperation and paradoxes for the continuation of selection, archiving, and…

The Library of Congress (LC) has increasingly created digital reproductions of visual materials to enhance access to its resources. This article describes selected aspects of LC's practical experience and current practices from digital capture through interactions with users, with an emphasis on the integration of access to pictorial images online…

Provides an overview of the current state of networking technology in rural libraries and describes a model for educating rural librarians in accessing electronic networks. Topics discussed include information needs in rural libraries; telecommunications technology access in rural areas; and examples of services to enhance information access.…

Defines "values" and lists the eight values (stewardship, service, intellectual freedom, rationalism, literacy and learning, equity of access, privacy, democracy) derived by the author in an earlier work. Gives a brief history of the evolution of human-to-human reference service and discusses its future. Relates each of the author's eight values…