Scholarly web-based application programming interfaces (APIs) allow users to interact with information and data programmatically. Interacting with information programmatically allows users to create advanced information query workflows and quickly access machine-readable data for downstream computations. With the growing availability of scholarly…

This study identified nearly 700 English-language refereed journals in education and psychology that were founded in 2000-2009. Part one discusses the publishers, format, open-access availability, and current status of these publications. Titles were then searched against coverage lists of EBSCO Academic Search Complete, Gale Academic OneFile,…

The author, a digital access architect in the information systems department of the Orange County Library System in Florida, was given the challenge of creating a library mobile app around the 2009 holiday season. At that time, Sheri Chambers, digital content manager in the information systems department, and Debbie Moss, assistant director of the…

Academic, government, and corporate librarians organize and leverage internal resources and content through institutional repositories and library catalogs. Getting more value and usage from the content they license is a key goal. However, the ever-growing amount of content and shifting user demands for new materials or features has made the…

Technology makes it possible to redefine libraries and make them relevant to the public once again. But how good are the digital services offered by public libraries today? The digital services department team of the Pode project at Norway's Oslo Public Library has spent the last 2 years investigating the possibilities available in order to…

Resource Description and Access (RDA) represents both a revised set of cataloging rules and a completely new framework in which to catalog. It aims for backward compatibility with AACR2 at the same time that it seeks to facilitate moving library data to the Semantic Web. Given these competing goals, it's not surprising that RDA's implementation…

The technology of the 21st century has had no shortage of challenges for libraries, but it has also brought opportunities. Operating systems, databases, and application environments that can use cheap off-the-shelf hardware to scale and handle hundreds of millions of transactions were not developed for libraries. However, libraries have taken…

In spite of its popularity, keyword search mode has not been standardized. Though information professionals are quick to adapt to various presentations of keyword search mode, novice end-users may find keyword search confusing. This article compares keyword search mode in some major reference databases and calls for standardization. (Contains 3…

Librarians build collections. To do this they use tools that help them identify, organize, and retrieve items for the collection. Zotero (zoh-TAIR-oh) is such a tool that helps the user build a library of useful books, articles, web sites, blogs, etc., discovered while surfing online. A visit to Zotero's homepage, www.zotero.org, shows a number of…

In 2000, Eastern Washington University became part of the Cascade Consortium and participated in consortial borrowing through the Cascade Union Catalog. In 2003, the Orbis and Cascade consortia merged into the Orbis Cascade Alliance, which manages the Summit Union Catalog. Since 2000, Cascade or Summit consortial borrowing has increased while…

This article provides an overview of and rationale for the use of authority in school libraries--from both an historical and current/future perspective. First, the importance of consistent, meaningful authority term context and form is discussed. Then, the exciting, yet challenging, role of authority in today's information world is…

The information industry continues to consolidate, just as agribusiness has consolidated and now dominates farming. Both the family farm and the small information company still exist but are becoming rarer in an age of mergers, acquisitions, and increased economies of scale. Small companies distinguish themselves by high quality, special themes,…

This paper discusses the first major implementation of two significant new cataloging models: IFLA's FRBR (International Federation of Library Associations' Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) and event modeling (INDECS and Harmony). The paper refers briefly to the decision making processes leading to the adoption of these models,…

A truly global supply of bibliographic records and the emergence of online publishing put new challenges on the organization of bibliographic control. Three important cataloging codes are presently under revision, the AACR, the Italian RICA and the German RAK. The basis for a record, the carrier=content dichotomy, is one fundamental issue which…

Explores to what extent the germ theory, when it was still a relatively new idea, is evident in the bibliographic records in the "Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office of the United States Army" (Index Cat), the largest medical bibliographical tool ever published. Data suggest that scientists are quick to apply the new…