Clinton Community College (CCC) is a small campus serving a rural community just outside the city of Plattsburgh in upstate New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The Leroy M. Douglas Sr. Library (Douglas Library) is located in the George Moore Academic and Administrative Building (Moore Building). Prior to…

In this article, the author discusses how the Berklee College of Music preserves its past and learns for the future. Though the library has received support from the college administration for the creation of an archive, it has been difficult for the interest in preserving the college's history to compete with more urgent needs, such as being able…

People see challenges to libraries in funding, in ebooks, and in the internet. However, in this information-rich age, librarians' roles are even more important. They are information experts. They know how to think about the changing information environment, and they know the impact--both positive and negative--it can have on people whose jobs…

In 2009 the University of Washington (UW) Libraries special collections received funding for the digital preservation of its audio indigenous language holdings. The university libraries, where the authors work in various capacities, had begun digitizing image and text collections in 1997. Because of this, at the onset of the project, workflows (a…

As with many other libraries in the U.S., the Rutgers University Law Library-Newark (RULLN), where the author works as digital services librarian, offers VHS tapes and CDs to its patrons. In 2006, some faculty members asked if their lectures could be posted online with protection so that only authorized users of the university's NetID system could…

Lafayette College is an undergraduate, private liberal arts and engineering school in Easton, Pennsylvania. In 2005, Lafayette rededicated its newly renovated library, complete with shared library/instructional technology facilities and a media studio. As originally envisioned, instructional technology (ITech) would have its own separate service…

Far more people are familiar with their local public or college library facility than their library's website and online resources. In fact, according to a recent survey, 96% of Americans said they had visited a library in person, but less than one-third have visited their online library. Since everyone agrees that online library resources are…

Although self-checkout technology has been around for about 15 years, cashiers have not yet needed to worry about being rendered obsolete. Many stores have added self-checkout, but a clerk still has to be stationed in the area to help with problems. While self-check technology has improved immensely over the years, it still has not caught on to…

Since 2004, Buffalo State College's E. H. Butler Library has used the Information Commons (IC) model to assist its 8,500 students with library research and computer applications. Campus Technology Services (CTS) plays a very active role in its IC, with a centrally located Computer Help Desk and a newly created Application Support Desk right in the…

Sir Syed Ahmad founded the Madrasatul Uloom in a small city named Aligarh in India. The establishment of this institute, which was later known as Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College and has now become Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), marks one of the most important events in the educational and social history of modern India. The Maulana…

Podcasting is a term derived by combining iPod with broadcasting. During 2006, when the idea of podcasting was still in its infancy, this author [an information systems librarian at the Universal College of Learning (UCOL) in New Zealand] began to consider how this new technology could be used by librarians to provide instructional sessions. She…

Librarians expend considerable resources to develop services and implement new products catering their users' changing needs. Such efforts begs for the involvement of library users in the development and/or beta process. The authors, both academic librarians, realized that much of their online services were underused, so they devised a plan to…

The new Fac-Back-OPAC (a faceted backup OPAC) is built on code that was originally developed by Casey Durfee in February 2007. It represents the convergence of two prominent trends in library tools: the decoupling of discovery tools from the traditional integrated library system (ILS) and the use of readily available open source components to…

Knowing that some students appreciate their library's value and want to contribute to its new developments, the author sought to generate discussion about her library to know how her library patrons use the internet. At first, she created a blog, but after that attracted few responses, she built a wiki instead, to invite more student interaction.…

Facebook is a social network that connects people with other people. Librarians have created Facebook Groups to share ideas and to debate how to use this resource as a potential marketing and/or reference tool. Based on conversations among these librarians, it appears that student response to library outreach on this medium is lackluster at best,…