Results of this study evaluating library reference service indicate a statistically significant difference at the .05 level between obtrusive and unobtrusive evaluation methods. Library staff answer a greater proportion of questions correctly when they are aware of being evaluated. The 30 questions used, a report form, and references are included.…

Explores differences in precision of terms used in subject access in the humanities, differentiating by the exactness with which the phenomena designated can be located in space and time. Samples of 200 terms from seven indexes in the humanities are classified according to five categories of terms. Six tables present results of data analyses. (22…

Examines development of social libraries (formed by associations for member use) in New England and rest of United States before 1850, and social and public library growth between 1850 and 1900. Opinions of contemporaries and seven aspects of American life indicating reluctance to abandon social library are highlighted. (27 references) (EJS)

Reports on a study which examined a random sample of library science Ph.D.s who received their degrees between 1969 and 1979 to compare publishing histories of males and females with regard to quantity and type of publication. Results of data analyses are presented in five tables. (15 references) (MES)

A nationwide survey of 2,486 American adults, conducted for the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography in 1970, is reanalyzed to permit new comparisons of the large majority who favored library censorship of erotica with the minority who opposed it. Sixteen references are cited. (Author/FM)

Describes a study of American Library Association members that gathered data on self-directed, informal, work-related learning. Compares time spent in formal continuing-education activities with self-directed learning (SDL), and examines relationships among variables likely to influence SDL including size of the institution and professional…

Analysis of price discrimination (charging different prices to different customers for same product) for 89 academic journals in 6 disciplines reveals: incidence of price discrimination rose between 1974 and 1984, increase in mean institutional (library) subscription price exceeded increase in mean individual subscription price. Journal list…

Examines the scholarly practices of authors of recent monographs in the fine arts as indicated by their citations to source materials. Data are reported on source type, language, publication date, and reason for the citation; and the findings are compared to other citation studies in the fine arts and literary criticism. (28 references) (LRW)

Develops a cost methodology to use in deciding location, type of access, and type of shelving to augment existing stacks in the library. Library and user costs are included in the model and cost comparisons between alternative strategies are made. Data from a specific case study are used to illustrate the model. (22 references) (Author/CLB)

This study examined judgments of document relevance made by library science graduate students who were not the originators of the queries for which the documents were retrieved. Although the secondary judgments compared well with those of the original users, it was found that secondary judges used document record fields differently and had a…

Twenty-one libraries in Library Computer System participated in collection overlap study. Findings of random sample representing 1% of each collection indicate that high percentage of titles, 69.4%, occurred only once in network and that percentage of each library's collection unique to that library, ranged from 6.1% to 68.4%. (21 references) (EJS)

Examination of whether annual book budgets have kept pace with demands compares academic library book budgets in Germany and the United States in the mid-20th century with budgets of earlier years, taking into account annual book and serial production; costs of books; and the number of courses, faculty, and students. (Author/CLB)

Overlap (two libraries own same title) and duplication (one library has more than one copy) in children's collections of books and audiovisual materials were measured. It was found that there was less overlap between two school libraries than between a school library and a public library. Six references are cited. (EJS)

This article advances hypothesis that current university library book expenditures are no greater than past expenditures and explores six methodological questions involved in testing the hypothesis. A comparative study of German university libraries in 1860 and 1960 and American unversity libraries in 1910 and 1960 is presented. References are…

Documents the reasons for embargoes of academic journals in full text databases (i.e., publisher-imposed delays on the availability of full text content) and provides insight regarding common misconceptions. Tables present data on selected journals covering a cross-section of subjects and publishers and comparing two full text business databases.…