Accessibility of electronic resources is an increasingly important topic. The University of Tennessee (UT) Libraries began gathering Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) in 2019 to demonstrate compliance with federal and state laws and university policy. This analysis seeks to identify trends in VPAT creation over time, as well as how…

Academic libraries must provide accessible electronic and information technology to patrons using assistive technology to access library materials. Accessibility of scholarly material is particularly important in the STEM disciplines, where attrition rates of students with disabilities is higher than in other fields. In this study, the…

Purpose: The present study explored tendencies of the world's countries--at individual and scientific development levels--toward publishing in APC-funded open access journals. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a bibliometric method, it studied OA and NOA articles issued in Springer and Elsevier's APC journals? during 2007-2011. The data were…

With its new variety of IT products and services created in the last decade for students, teachers and schools, Google has changed the face of education. Google technologies that can be used completely free of charge via a single account in any device offer innovative alternatives to meet the needs of education. These technologies also help…

What should a school district procurement officer ask when he or she sits down with a sales representative from a vendor of digital education products? Who else should be at the table? How do districts and providers become partners in instruction, rather than adversaries in negotiation? These are increasingly critical questions as public school…

The open access (OA) movement is working to transform scholarly communication around the world, but this philosophy can also apply to metadata and cataloging records. While some notable, large academic libraries, such as Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Cambridge, released their cataloging records under OA…

The Internet as a networked system has been rendered more complex than ever before as human endpoints are grafted into the system via increasingly pervasive and personalized networked devices. According to the United Nations, the Internet is a transnational enabler of a number of human rights, and as such, access to the Internet has been…

Today's electronic information landscape is growing exponentially with no signs of slowing. This poses a significant challenge for academic libraries. Librarians must continually learn and adapt to harness this explosion of resources. To fulfill their claim as the leaders in the information field they must be effective in providing access and…

In this column the authors discuss barriers to worldwide open access to peer-reviewed journal articles online and how they might be addressed by literacy scholars. They highlight economic and ethical problems associated with the current subscription-based system for distributing articles (which sometimes works against the ideals of research and…

The ebook ecosystem has experienced many changes recently--having both positive and negative effects for the school library. On the positive side, many publishers have stopped seeing ebooks as the coming of the Apocalypse; instead, they are seeing that the publishing business survives and, indeed, flourishes. The different actors in this arena are…

Integrating instructional technology into all classrooms has the potential to transform modern education and student learning. However, access to technology is not equally available to all districts or schools. Decreased funding and budgetary restraints have had a direct impact on technology acquisition in many rural school districts. One of the…

This bibliographic essay examines the difficulties associated with the selection, licensing, acquisition, and management of e-books in academic libraries. The potential advantages of e-book technology are likely to be realized only to the extent that they advance the economic goals of e-book suppliers and are consistent with the legal framework…

Education data can empower educators, students, parents, and policymakers with the information they need to make the best decisions to improve student achievement, information that can move the nation toward an education system in which every student graduates prepared for college and career. Safeguarding the privacy of student data is a critical…

In the very near future, students are likely to expect their universities to provide seamless access to e-books through online library catalogues and virtual learning environments. A paradigm change in terms of the format of books, and especially textbooks, which could have far-reaching impact, is on the horizon. Based on interviews with a number…

In 2011 the University of Wollongong Library undertook a significant review of its Resource Sharing services. This was prompted by constraints in the systems supporting this service, changes to the Library's key suppliers, Infotrieve Australia and the British Library Document Supply Service, and the need to deliver effective library services…