Provides a methodology for evaluating title coverage of full-text periodical databases in relation to a library's print journal collection. Presents a pretest of that methodology along with a discussion of collection development principles for an effective evaluation of full-text databases. (Author)

Describes a study conducted at Punjab University (Pakistan) that measured the rate of availability of documents needed by users based on Paul Kantor's model of availability analysis. Results are compared with four studies conducted in the United States using the same methodology, and factors related to document unavailability are discussed.…

The periodic review and development of public library standards are undertaken by the Kansas State Library to best serve the public interest by insuring the quality of the state's public libraries. Standards are defined for the structure and governance of libraries. Service objectives and standards for automation and technology are defined.…

Study of 68 school media centers in 11 states was conducted to field-test collection mapping as a technique and to amass enough data to enable individual schools to compare their collections with national pool of school collections. Collections of participating schools were also compared to nationally recognized selection lists. (CDD)

Includes six articles that discuss a digital library for astronomy; comparing evaluations of digital collection efforts; cross-organizational access management of Web-based resources; searching scientific bibliographic databases based on content-based relations between documents; semantics-sensitive retrieval for digital picture libraries; and…

This report documents the results of a survey on the current use and management of approval plans, and compares them with similar studies published in SPEC kits in 1982 and 1988. Overall, Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions still consider approval plans to be efficient and cost effective. Survey results include: (1) the percentage…

Describes a project at Stanford University Library that was initiated to enhance user access to government documents collections by developing a prototype natural language computer-based aid. The development of an expert system, Government Documents Reference Aid (GDRA), is explained, and the application of expert systems in libraries is…