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…

Science and engineering libraries have an important role to play in preserving the intellectual content in research areas of the departments they serve. This study employs bibliographic data from the Web of Science database to examine how much research material is required to cover 90% of faculty citations in civil engineering and computer…

Many research libraries are looking for new ways to demonstrate value for their parent institutions. Metrics, assessment, and promotion of research continue to grow in importance, but they have not always fallen into the scope of services for the research library. Montana State University (MSU) Library recognized a need and interest to quantify…

This issue of "Research Library Issues" ("RLI") highlights the value of professional failure. The idea to explore this theme emerged from conversations with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Innovation Lab Advisory Group earlier this year. It is the hope this issue highlights the value of failure--both its necessary…

The purpose of this paper was to determine the relationship between the characteristics of academic disciplines such as hard or soft subject, pure or applied, life or nonlife; and the number of books charged out of an academic library by students. (Author/KP)

This manual describes the methods, procedures, techniques, and activities that were used to produce the Academic Library Survey of 2004 (ALS:2004). This manual is designed to provide guidance and documentation for users of the ALS data. Included in the manual are the following: (1) an overview of the study and its predecessor studies; (2) an…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") focuses on current and emerging topics that are strategically important to research libraries. The articles explore issues, share information, pose critical questions, and provide examples. This issue includes the following articles: (1) Special at the Core: Aligning, Integrating, and…

A national probability sample was made to survey the costs, the characteristics of materials loaned and borrowed, and the present and future magnitude of interlibrary loans for academic libraries. From a sample of 80 libraries it was found that the cost of a filled loan request varied between two and seven dollars and that lending cost per…

Focusing on the resources of an academic library (th University of California at Los Angeles, in this case), this booklet outlines and discusses a plan for conducting library research in preparing a term paper. Beginning with a section on books, in which the card catalogue is explained, the outline continues with sections on periodicals and…

Perhaps the most important finding of this review of research in user behaviour is that it has yet to be demonstrated that the use of lbiraries has any definite influence on anything else. (111 references) (Author/NH)

This study investigates the bases for constructing quantitative and qualitative measures of Australian Colleges of Advanced Education (CAE) library collection adequacy, and the feasibility of producing specialized and appropriate measures to guide future collection planning. Adequacy is based on the libraries' policies for providing materials to…

Previous studies on use of library materials based on borrowing behavior failed to address the issue of how the measurement of library book use might be expanded to a broader definition of use, specifically to include browsing behavior. The development of a non-obtrusive and accurate measurement for browsing behavior has remained a challenge.…

Treasures await students and researchers on the shelves of libraries and archives across the country, but unfortunately they often remain unknown to the "modern" researcher who limits his/her research to using the Internet. The process of physically going to the library stacks and browsing the shelves in a subject area is on the decline…

To examine library usage by faculty and students in the Schools of Engineering at Purdue University, data was analyzed from a sample of 12,000 loans during a three month period. User level (graduate student, undergraduate, faculty, or staff) and subject of borrowed material as indicated by Dewey Decimal Classification were examined for each major…

Presents data on the use of microfilm backfiles of 140 periodicals over a three-year period in a community college library, showing 25 percent of titles were unused in each year, with five titles accounting for over 50 percent and 30 titles for over 90 percent of use. Scholarly journals were rarely used. (RT)