Libraries are not so unlike market giants Netflix, Amazon, and Pandora. Despite their significantly different business models and missions, they share an interest in facilitating the search for information, including what to read, view, and listen to next. Librarians, too, want their patrons to be able to use their tools to make connections among…

For years, patrons have been able to access library services from home and in the library building, but in the world of Google, Yahoo, YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, library web sites and catalogs are too often not the first place people go to look for information. The innovative use of toolbars could change this. Toolbars have been popular for…

Discusses access to digital library collections and considers the users' needs and expectations, search strategies, cataloging as a collection or as individual items, improving accessibility for users with disabilities, and customizing access. Also provides a list of useful Web links. (LRW)

As public and academic librarians rely more heavily on electronic resources to satisfy patrons' information needs, seamless searching across print and electronic holdings gets more and more essential. Enter the integrated library system (ILS)-independent electronic resource management system (ERMS), which promises to integrate, search, and expose…

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)