Professional development programs have been established in many academic libraries to support the research and scholarly activities of librarians. Continuous assessment can contribute to the sustainability and effectiveness of these programs. This study describes how measures of need, participation, satisfaction, and impact were employed to assess…

University College Dublin became the first library in the Republic of Ireland to trial patron-driven acquisition (PDA) as a collection development tool in 2013. A total of 42% of UCD Library's book budget was allocated to the project, which included both electronic and print books. This article describes the twelve month project from the tender…

This paper examines the extent to which public librarians are successfully prepared to engage the community in digital literacy and inclusion. A qualitative, multiple case study research design was chosen, using an analysis of policy documents and existing training programs offered by the libraries together with semi-structured interviews with…

The 24-hour/5-days-per-week (24/5) model at Belk Library & Information Commons has experienced multiple changes since first implemented in 2006. First the library started small, then expanded, then reduced, and finally expanded again. This article tells the story of a library's 24/5 evolution within the assessment cycle framework, describes…

For the Spring 2015 semester of the Public Library Management course, students were given digital badges along with grades for their coursework. For each topic's corresponding assignment, students received a traditional grade and those achieving at least an A- received a digital badge that represented the skill or knowledge demonstrated. By using…

The J. D. Williams Library at the University of Mississippi launched a pilot program during the 2010 National Novel Writing Month, hosting related events to determine community demand and how such efforts could be quantified. Using participant-submitted word counts and the event's own tools, researchers were able to ascertain that such events had…

Purpose: This article aims to present experiences and the lessons learned from the University of Botswana (UB) library automation project. The implications of the project for similar libraries planning automation in sub Saharan Africa and beyond are adduced. Design/methodology/approach: The article is a case study of library automation at the…

A small, private academic library took the risk of moving from a traditional integrated library system to adopting a system "in the cloud." This case study presents the setting, history, and local needs of the library, including staffing challenges, and explains the decision-making rationale and process. A description of the library's transition…

This article describes a case study that best illustrates the value of student workers in university libraries, focusing particularly on how this kind of creative endeavor benefits everyone involved--the library, the students, the faculty, and at the end of the project: the university community. (Contains 1 table.)

This case study describes the process of proposing and implementing a wiki for use in an academic library setting, based on the process used by Iowa State University Library. Using the Iowa State University Library Wiki as a model, this article lays out the decisions necessary at each step of the process of establishing a new wiki. Control of…

While the National Library of Medicine created the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) as a network to provide medical and health information, historically few nonmedical academic libraries have participated. University medical libraries and hospital libraries have been the major focus of the Network. Recently, the NNLM has…

Successful disaster response is an exercise in managing human resources under very difficult conditions. Catastrophic disasters can disrupt both the physical communication networks and the social networks critical to efficient response and recovery. While a well-designed disaster plan serves as a framework, it often requires communication and…

This narrative, single-case study examines how liaison librarians at the University of Minnesota (UMN) came to include advocating for reform of the scholarly communication system among their core responsibilities. While other libraries may hire a coordinator or rely on a committee to undertake outreach programs, UMN has defined baseline expertise…

This book, written by a number of library professionals, familiarizes the reader with the motives for and purposes of evaluation and the major contexts and models for evaluation and provides explicit examples how evaluation projects have been and can be carried out in a variety of library contexts. The strategies in this book grew from the S:OLE…

This study reports on the characteristics of selected public libraries into which adult literacy programs have become relatively integrated. The study addresses the following issues (1) the form of leadership in those libraries in which literacy programming has become integrated; (2) the organizational and staff support that promotes library…