The MLA's report "Language and Literature Research in Regional Comprehensive Institutions" identifies and documents the research support needs of faculty members in the disciplines of literature and language, cultural studies, and writing studies in the United States and its territories, focusing on institutions considered regional…

"University Futures, Library Futures: Aligning library strategies with institutional directions" establishes a new framework for understanding the fit between emerging library service paradigms and university types. It examined the impact of increased institutional differentiation in universities on the organization of academic libraries…

This study analyzed the relationships between variables of institutional expenses, library expenses, and library use and variables representing graduation and retention rates for colleges and universities. Using data drawn from the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System and the Academic Library Survey, institutions were compared by their…

Collection development for commercial online resources can be difficult without established standards, such as those librarians have for books. Using the Carnegie Classification System can be a good tool for generating a list of comparable universities to discover what they subscribe to. Librarians at the Paul Meek Library at the University of…

Designed to acquaint students with the facilities and resources of the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Library, this library manual is divided into 24 chapters: (1) The Main Library; (2) Reference Room; (3) Periodical Indexes; (4) Infotrac Academic Index; (5) Abstracts and Two-Step Indexes; (6) Locating Periodicals; (7) Newspaper Indexes and…

Discusses the training of professional and paraprofessional staff who do reference work in public, academic, and school libraries. The source-centered teaching approach versus teaching the search process is discussed, user needs are considered, and the use of Dewey Decimal Classification to teach the organization of the collection is described.…

This workbook for a library and information skills course at the University of South Florida (USF), Tampa campus, contains the following sections: (1) syllabus; (2) tentative course outline; (3) statement of the course goal, general objectives, and objectives related to LC (Library of Congress) classification and the online catalog, dictionaries…

Discusses differences between e-mail reference interviews and those conducted using other media; presents a taxonomy of approaches to e-mail interviews; and introduces a model e-mail interview, based on a project at the University of Maryland's College of Library and Information Services. (Author/LRW)

This paper discusses digital libraries on the Internet. The resource repository hierarchy, consisting of two major paradigms, search engines (SEs) and digital libraries, is presented. SEs are classified into three categories: basic-SE, directory, and meta-SE. The following six major characteristics of a library are summarized: collection of data…

This paper on the relevancy of training in bibliographic control begins with a section that discusses the reasons for teaching bibliographic control, including national and universal bibliographic control, cooperation between libraries and information services, quality service to the users, and development of systems and databases. The second…

An Association of Research Libraries survey of Alabama public university libraries revealed that disabled populations on campuses were not being served; 27 questions were divided into categories of general information, management and training, space, and general services. Reasons for lack of preparation included lack of knowledge and funding. The…

Argues that the Museum of Comparative Zoology Library reflects the union between the nineteenth century natural history values of Louis Agassiz and the twentieth century library and information science methodology. Special collections, records, cataloging and classification, serials and their classification, policies, services, and procedures are…

Describes the development of a taxonomy of the value of library services based on users' assessments from five large research libraries. Highlights include empirical and derived taxonomy, replicability of the study, reasons for using the library, how library services are related to time and money, and a theory of value. (LRW)

This procedure manual is designed to assist cataloging staff members at a university library through the 10-step process of barcoding and linking books classified by the Library of Congress system to the library's GEAC online computer system. A brief introduction provides background information on the project. The procedures involved in each…

Taking a post-modern approach, this paper addresses the relevance of measurement and evaluation of libraries and information services. The following topics are discussed: (1) past and present approaches to performance measurement, including origins of measurement and landmarks of the past; (2) a conceptual framework for evaluation, including a…