This report contains data on state library agencies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for state fiscal year (FY) 2004. The data were collected through the State Library Agencies (StLA) Survey, the product of a cooperative effort between the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and…

The British Library supports research by collecting and maintaining the national archive; by ensuring the provision of the national bibliography; by building up its collections of research materials from all over the world; and by providing access to its collections through reading rooms and interlending and document delivery services. This paper…

This paper discusses the establishment of a research service in the Norwegian parliament. The first section presents some general assumptions regarding a research service in parliament. The second section describes the first initiative, a mandate in the 1970s to establish a commission to clarify the need for such a service. The third section…

This paper discusses the role of the Parliamentary Library in Russia. The first section provides historical background. The second section addresses two prerequisites of the Parliamentary Library, i.e., the official documents collections and the rule of public law. The third section describes implementing public access to government information…

This paper provides guidelines for establishing a parliamentary research service. The following steps are described: (1) establish a robust democracy as the context for the parliamentary research service; (2) counter alternatives to a parliamentary research service, e.g., personal staff, party-based research, university contacts, interest groups,…

The Standing Conference of National and University Libraries' program which seeks to give prospective graduate library students a year of in-service training in various government, national and university libraries is described. Recent application and placement data are analyzed and conclusions concerning present problems and future development…

Examines the activities of major library institutions in China including the Society of Chinese Libraries, the National Library, provincial and public libraries, and university libraries. (LLS)

Discussion of evaluation methods to determine how a library's collection is being used focuses on use of citation analysis to evaluate the collection of the Ministry of Education library in Singapore. Highlights include compiling lists of citations from users; and an analysis of interlibrary loan records. (LRW)

Describes an exploratory study of government agency libraries that was conducted as a first step in the development of a theoretical framework to study the role of information provision by libraries in policy-making contexts. The library functions discussed include tracking issues and clientele, retrieving relevant information for clientele, and…

Includes five articles that discuss presidential libraries. Highlights include an overview of the development of the federal presidential library system; the Ronald Reagan library; the Richard Nixon library archives; access at the Gerald Ford library; and computerizing the Jimmy Carter library. (LRW)

This report investigates current trends in libraries and museums regarding the use of digitization and other technologies. In 2001, the Institute of Museum and Library Services conducted the first-ever study of the status of new technology adoption and digitization in the nation's museums and libraries. The baseline study identified pockets of…

In this article, the author describes how the New Orleans Public Library (NOPL) struggled with a fraction of its former staff, limited hours, and a massive fundraising challenge after Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. While previously 171 people staffed locations, only 40 employees plus a smaller--and shifting--cadre of…

This summary lists the holdings of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, which contains a variety of materials regarding education policy in the United States. Materials consist primarily of staff files created in the Ford White House between August 9, 1974, and January 20, 1977. A substantial amount of earlier materials is available in the…

This plan was developed to prevent any unnecessary loss of Rhode Island's library resources in the event of a disaster. Representatives from public, academic, and special libraries, town clerks' offices, and historical societies formed the Rhode Island Disaster Information Task Force, which collected materials from a wide range of institutions.…

The paper presents data on map collections in governmental, academic, public, institutional, and corporate libraries in Ohio. Only those collections containing over 100 maps are included in the study. The overall objective is to increase awareness of cartography as a source of information. A more specific objective is to provide comparative,…