Generating, collecting, and analyzing building usage statistics can greatly increase the ability of an access services unit to meet the changing dynamic of patron needs in an academic library. By analyzing three different data points, the Access Services Unit in Malpass Library at Western Illinois University was able to determine the most…

How can libraries best assess and improve user space, even if they are not in a position to undertake new construction or a major renovation? Staff at New Mexico State University used a variety of ethnographic methods to learn how our spaces were being used as well as what our users considered to be ideal library space. Our findings helped us make…

Students at U.S. colleges and universities are concerned about the high cost of textbooks. Expansion of library course reserves has been suggested as one solution to this problem. The authors surveyed libraries at public universities to explore the status and management of physical course reserves and the role they play vis-a-vis textbook…

Activities and services that improve student engagement and retention in the higher education sector are important not only to individual students' success but also to university planning and funding. This paper reports on a study carried out to explore whether use of the library by new university students is associated with continued enrolment.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the initiative of the University Grants Commission of India in setting up the Infonet Digital Library Consortium (The Information and Library Network) in order to provide access to scholarly communication to the academic community in India. Design/methodology/approach: The context of higher…

This article discusses the role of open and distance learning to widen participation and promote social inclusion within Australian higher education, as well as the benefits that open educational resources (OER) could bring to that context. It also explores some of the most relevant social inclusion policies and related initiatives developed in…

This report consists of a series of recommendations for the improvement of the services and facilities of the DePauw University libraries in three areas--personnel, both professional and support staff; administration and management; and buildings and equipment--with an appended set of supporting documents for the most important recommendations,…

Use studies were conducted at the main libraries and science branches at the Davis and Santa Cruz campuses of the University of California to gather data for use in the detailed planning for establishing regional compact shelving facilities for infrequently circulated library material. Analysis of preliminary data on the three areas…

Three articles present: results of survey of use of videocassettes and audiocassettes in academic and public libraries; (2) results of a survey of library collections of audiocassettes of books and their acceptance by patrons; and (3) a description of the operation of a videocircuit by a regional library system. (EJS)

This report is the result of a self-study undertaken by the staff of the University of Miami's Otto G. Richter Library as part of the Academic Library Development Program (ALDP), a management self-study program developed by the Association of Research Libraries' Office of University Library Management Studies. The basic responsibility for the…

To investigate the experience of American and Canadian university libraries with remote access catalogs, self-administered questionnaires were sent to the 137 directors of all Association of Research Libraries (ARL) libraries and all libraries of Canadian degree-granting institutions. The study was designed to: (1) survey Canadian and U.S.…

A survey was conducted in those academic and research libraries that are involved in the OhioLINK project to determine their use of approval plans and their budgetary patterns. Written questionnaires were used to collect data in order to examine approval plan use, approval plan and firm order budgeting, and vendor use. Analyses of the responses…

This paper reports the results of a circulation study in the government documents departments of a public library and an academic library. Based on a systematic random sample of the records of materials returned in 1981, the study had two purposes: to seek evidence to support the assumption that current documents circulate more than older ones;…

This study examines the interlibrary loan requests made to NEOUCOM's (Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine) Oliver Ocasek Regional Medical Information Center in Rootstown, OH from its associated council hospital libraries. A total of 636 interlibrary loan requests from the period July 1994-July 1995 were analyzed. Components of the…

Faced with growing problems in the management and direction of its periodical collection, in 1973 the McLaughlin Library at the University of Guelph established a Periodical Use Committee responsible for collecting and analyzing statistics on the use of periodicals within the library. Specific responsibilities of the committee included deciding…