At Winona State University's Krueger Library, where Kendall Larson is an associate professor and Allison Quam is an assistant professor, informational and directional signs are an essential part of the interior space. Yet the ubiquitous sign and media saturation has challenged them to design and maintain effective signage that is conspicuous and…

Minnesota's libraries provide public access to information technologies and teach the skills necessary to use them. The challenge is to leverage these organizations, largely funded and nurtured at the local level, so that they will be an effective and efficient part of a statewide information infrastructure. In this report, the Minnesota Library…

In these days of distance learners, virtual libraries, and electronic information, no library can be without some way of providing remote access to affiliated users, whether they are distance students, online students, or local students and faculty members working from home. Libraries subscribe to any number of electronic resources and journals,…

Digital libraries continue to flourish. At the same time, the principles of user-centered design and the practice of usability testing have been growing in popularity, spreading their influence into the library sphere. This article explores the confluence of these two trends by surveying the current literature on usability studies of digital…

Since the late 1990s, few case studies on implementation of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) have appeared in the literature. How has or hasn't the landscape changed? This article reports on the experience of EAD planning and implementation at the University of Minnesota Libraries and suggests that though many of the lessons learned by early…

Many advocates for children are not yet involved in decision making and planning regarding the right of all children, regardless of family income, to benefit from information technology. This Kids Count report explores critical issues about information technology and children's literacy, education, and intellectual development. The report explains…