Academic librarians should expand our understanding of what counts as an authoritative resource, and be unafraid to challenge long-established wisdom in this domain. Wikipedia is far from perfect, but neither is the Encyclopedia Britannica. Wikipedia is updated daily, while the Britannica is no longer printed. If we cling to the Britannica as a…

Although recent archival scholarship promotes the use of primary sources for developing students' analytical research skills, few studies focus on standards or protocols for teaching or assessing archival instruction. Librarians have designed and tested standards and learning assessment strategies for library instruction, and archivists would do…

Today's library is still at the heart of all university activities, helping students and faculty become better learners, teachers, and researchers. In recent years there has emerged the formalizing of one or more of these activities into an Academic Commons. These centers of information have been labeled variously but they all share a commonality:…

During the period in which Duane Webster led the Association for Research Libraries (ARL), powerful commercial interests sought for their own financial purposes the information resources essential for providing education and performing research. Juxtaposed was the Internet with its inherent capacity to democratizing these resources. Commercial…

Examines Gilman's contribution to the Librarian's Conference of 1853, Service as Yale librarian and professor in Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, influence on library development at the University of California and Johns Hopkins, contacts with the profession, and principal library writings. (Author)

Describes the method used by Bates College Library to evaluate periodicals. (PF)

The intent of this CLIP (College Library Information Packet) Note is to provide data and sample documents that can be used as examples by college and small university libraries that are writing or rewriting their mission statements. A survey was mailed in April 1998 by the College Libraries Section of the Association of College and Research…

The movement to faculty status for university librarians and to library governance is discussed. (21 references) (SJ)

In this article three questions are asked: (1) whether faculty status for librarians automatically leads to greater participation in management; (2) whether the academic department is the best model for librarians; and (3) whether lack of skill in introducing participation may not lead to disillusionment. (29 references) (Author)

The Systems and Procedures Exchange Center's (SPEC) Kits contain up-to-date information on the latest issues of concern to college and academic libraries and librarians today. This subject index to SPEC Kits covers all kits currently available from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Office of Management Services. Under each subject…

Technological change in academic libraries requires a redefinition of the professional librarian's functions and qualifications. (Author/PF)

This formal statement presents the principal objectives of the university, the goals of the library and nine specific objectives which define them, and more detailed descriptions of the policies which form a complex body of interrelated regulations designed to accomplish the library's critical objectives. (FM)

Description of the process of developing a five-year strategic planning document for the Indiana State University Libraries covers data gathering from a variety of printed sources, staff reports, and interviews with faculty; conceptualizing document content; writing; and editing. A questionnaire for teaching faculty is appended. (10 references)…

A general rationale for the academic library is called for so that all the issues, from student use of the book collection to the status and promotion of the professional staff, may fall into a logical perspective. A 60-item bibliography is provided. (LBH)

Prior to 1980, there was little structure for the provision of library resources to schools of education in Denmark. The Ministry of Education in December 1980 authorized the expenditure of funds for establishment of teachers college libraries and for salaries of librarians and assistants. The problems encountered and the progress made in…