In 2011, cell phones and mobile devices are ubiquitous. The vast majority of Americans now own cell phones, and over half of them have mobile access to the Internet through a phone or other mobile device. For libraries to stay relevant, they must be able to offer content and services through the mobile web. In this issue of "Library Technology…

In this article, the author discusses Connecticut Library Consortium's (CLC) recently held fifth annual Trendspotting symposium, "E-books: Collections at the Crossroads." She was pleased to work with CLC to develop a cutting-edge program of dynamic, thought-provoking speakers and presentations, including an outstanding keynote by Eli Neiburger on…

Literature on library service models is scarce and exists mainly in non-traditional formats such as blog entries and webpages. Nonetheless, the subject evokes heated debate among librarians with many supporting the model they are using, sometimes without understanding that there are other options which perhaps could be better for their…

People keep writing articles about how valuable libraries are, even with ebooks and the Internet. What people are overlooking is that the reason libraries are having such fits dealing with a changing environment is not that libraries are unrecognized as fountains of value, it's that libraries are so valuable that they attract voracious new…

As technology continues to advance, libraries in Europe and America continue to improve upon their virtual reference services by employing new Web technologies and applying them to existing services. West African academic libraries have begun providing resources electronically to their users but still typically lag behind in the services they…

Almost everything is now available online. What is good about this is that in most circumstances, libraries are no longer limited to serving users within just physical spaces. This proves to be a wonderful benefit for users, but sometimes it does not always work out as expected. Those familiar with setting up electronic resources know the…

Ireland has a rich and long history. It is a land of fable and of strife, from the legendary warrior Fionn Mac Cumhaill (anglicized as Finn McCool) and the god-like Tuatha De Danann to the potato famine and the more recent Troubles. In the last decade, Ireland has experienced an economic boom and assumed a new place in the political landscape via…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the experiences of new users of Second Life in order to identify potential barriers and attractors to the expansion of the userbase and therefore the market for in-world information services. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-faceted methodological approach was taken utilising two questionnaires (pre- and…

Drupal is a PHP-and MySQL-based system for managing web sites, developed in 2000 and released in 2001 under the open GNU General Public License (GPL). It is modular, extensible, and scalable. In recent years, Drupal has gained a huge following within libraries as a content management system (CMS). Probably the best-known extension of Drupal in the…

Quora (www.quora.com) is a contemporary, web-based take on reference. Users post questions within Quora and other users answer the questions. Users can vote for and against answers (or not vote at all). It is users asking questions of friends and strangers and then sorting through the results. If the model sounds familiar, it's because it is.…

One of the first big shifts in how libraries manage resources was the move from print-journal purchasing models to database-subscription and electronic-journal purchasing models. Libraries found that this transition helped them scale their resources and provide better service just by thinking a bit differently about their services. Likewise,…

This study targets librarians and information professionals who use Web 2.0 tools and applications with a view to providing snapshots on how Web 2.0 technologies are used. It also aims to identify values and impact that such tools have exerted on libraries and their services, as well as to detect various issues associated with the implementation…

People do not want to talk about failure, and technological innovations that do not work out are especially difficult for librarians to discuss. Technological failures are expensive in terms of money and time lost, and they are often minimized by library directors in their annual reports in favor of reporting more positive outcomes. Today's…

Lesson planning serves as a key means for ensuring the quality of instruction. In an effort to facilitate and improve the literature related to lesson planning, this paper proposes a framework which integrates online lesson planners, databases, case libraries, and Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis to support both pre-service and in-service…

In this article, the author, a technology consultant for the Northeast Kansas Library System (NEKLS), shares the story of how the Kansas Library on the Web (KLOW) program was created. KLOW's story begins with the initial startup fund finding and the enthusiasm of the six pilot libraries. The middle of the story has to do with building a flexible,…