The paper examines the level of library automation and virtual library development in four academic libraries. A validated questionnaire was used to capture the responses from academic librarians of the libraries under study. The paper discovers that none of the four academic libraries is fully automated. The libraries make use of librarians with…

Today's academic libraries must demonstrate their value to cost-conscious university administrators. Budget trade-off decisions that involve the library can be difficult for any university administrator to make, and such decisions are complicated by the recent appearance of massive global digital libraries that seem poised to replace the…

Purpose: This paper aims to survey the web sites of the academic libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (USA) regarding the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. Design/methodology/approach: The websites of 100 member academic libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (USA) were surveyed. Findings: All libraries were found to be…

Colleges share many things on Twitter, but one topic can be risky to broach: the reading habits of library patrons. Patrons' privacy is precious to most librarians. Yet new Web services thrive on collecting and sharing the very information that has long been protected. This points to an emerging tension as libraries embrace digital services.…

This report is a sequel to the 2005 "Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources." This new report provides updated information and new insights into information consumers and their online habits, preferences, and perceptions. Particular attention was paid to how the current economic downturn has affected the information-seeking behaviors…

Intranets should provide quick and easy access to organizational information. The University of Alabama Libraries' intranet was only partially satisfying this basic expectation. Librarians could use it to find forms, policies, committee assignments, and meeting minutes, but navigating the libraries' intranet was neither quick nor easy, and it was…

The Digital Initiatives department at Miami University, like most digital initiatives and special collections departments, has a large number of rich digital image collections, stored primarily in a third-party database. Typically, these databases are not findable to the average Web user. From a desire to expose these collections to the wider Web…

Libraries today face an increasing challenge: to provide relevant information to diverse populations with differing needs while competing with Web search engines like Google. In 2009, a large group of libraries, including the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, joined with Innovative Interfaces as development partners to design a new type of…

This study explores the library needs of students and tutors of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), utilization level of the library facilities and resources, the problems in the use of library, and suggestions for improvement of library facilities for students and tutors. Data collected from 4080 students and 526 tutors belonging to 15 different…

Library intranets require flexibility and efficiency and enhance the internal communication and collaborative nature of creating and organizing the institution's information. At the University of Houston Libraries, the focus was on public services, so little attention was given to the intranet--the tool every department relied on for quick access…

Oregon State University (OSU) libraries, where the author serves as lead programmer, have developed a tool to make it easier for librarians to build and maintain interactive course assignment pages (ICAPs) and subject research guides (SRGs). That tool, Library a la Carte, enables librarians with minimal technical expertise to create dynamic…

There are many similarities between museums and academic libraries as public service institutions. This article is an examination of museum Web site practices and concepts that might also be transferable to academic library Web sites. It explores the digital manifestations of design and information presentation, user engagement, interactivity, and…

Lippincott Library's Historical Corporate Annual Reports Collection contains useful primary sources of information for several disciplines, including applied accounting and business history. They also are reflections of the societal and cultural mores of the times. Unfortunately, these reports are fragile, difficult to locate, and hard to access.…

Twenty-three scholarly papers and eleven abstracts reflect the content of the seventh "Brick and Click Libraries Symposium," held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future face of…

This article reports on a library renovation at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona which incurs complaints from professors and librarians about a shift from print to online materials. The $60-million project at Cal Poly is providing a difficult lesson in the challenges of library renovation, and in the changing role of one of the…