School librarians work with a variety of individuals; the largest groups are usually made up of students (most often K-12, but perhaps also preschoolers), teachers, and administrators. However, it is also possible that school staff, students' parents and guardians, and even the community at large might participate in school library functions and…

The landscape surrounding the use of intellectual property has shifted dramatically over the past couple of years. Teacher librarians, responsible for guiding learners of all ages toward practicing digital citizenship, should be aware of the new rules for playing, living, and working in a new intellectual property sandbox. In the past, librarians…

Academic libraries routinely struggle to afford access to expensive journals, and patrons may not be able to obtain every scholarly paper they need. Is Open Access (OA) the answer? In this ALA Editions Special Report, Crawford helps readers understand what OA is (and isn't), as he concisely: (1) Analyzes the factors that have brought libraries to…

The Internet lets us share perfect copies of our work with a worldwide audience at virtually no cost. We take advantage of this revolutionary opportunity when we make our work "open access": digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. Open access is made possible by the Internet and copyright-holder…

Public libraries are heavily affected by political and policy-making processes that shape the funding, activities, and roles of libraries in society, with the explosion of information policy decisions in the past two decades significantly increasing the responsibilities of libraries while also increasing limitations on their activities. Research…

Despite the old-fashioned view of the academic library as a static institution, libraries can and do change in response to the needs of users and stakeholders. Perhaps the most dramatic shift in services has been the transition from a purely physical to a combination physical/virtual or even virtual-only environment. This article examines how…

This article presents an interview with Gigi Sohn, president and cofounder, as well as the strategist, fundraiser, and face, of the advocacy group Public Knowledge (PK). Since cofounding the organization in 2001, Sohn has fought alongside major library associations and their allies for the public's interest in the emerging digital world. Sohn is…

This study aims to develop a systematic patent training program using patent analysis and citation analysis techniques applied to patents held by the University of Saskatchewan. The results indicate that the target audience will be researchers in life sciences, and aggregated patent database searching and advanced search techniques should be…

Research libraries traditionally have focused their efforts on building local collections to support the research needs of their organizations and providing for the discovery and use of resources within these collections. The emergence in recent years of disciplinary and institutional digital repositories presents new challenges for research…

Librarians engage in some sort of negotiation all the time. Unfortunately, library schools do not uniformly teach negotiation theory or skills. New librarians are left to their own devices to self-educate, and self-educate they must. Most of the library-specific negotiation literature and continuing education opportunities focus almost entirely on…

There is no doubt that Google is great for finding images. Simply head to its home page, click the "Images" link, enter criteria in the search box, and--voila! In this article, the authors share some of their other favorite search engines for finding images. To make sure the desired images are available for educational use, consider searching for…

Librarians face a dilemma when it comes to copyright. On the one hand, if content providers disappeared, libraries and their patrons would suffer. By doing their part to eliminate copyright violations, they help keep publishers in business. On the other hand, they understand that "information wants to be free." They resent license agreements that…

Reference librarians often encounter "instrument seekers," library users who need to find a complete psychosocial test, scale, or questionnaire to use or adapt for research or clinical use. This article focuses on the resources that can help to answer these types of questions. Reference books, monographs, journal articles, and online…

Librarians and archivists face challenges when adapting traditional collection development practices to meet the unique characteristics of Web-published materials. Likewise, preservation activities for Web-published materials must be undertaken at the outset of collection development lest they be lost forever. Standards and best practices for…

Corporate training, financial services, entertainment, and education are among the top applications for streaming video servers, which send video to the desktop without downloading the whole file to the hard disk, saving time and eliminating copyrights questions. Examines streaming video technology, lists ten tips for better net video, and ranks…