Tennessee State University was a decade long user of OCLC's ILLiad platform. 2019 marked the year when the relationship with that system ended as our two interlibrary loan departments migrated to Tipasa, OCLC's new cloud-based system. The platform change did not stem from dissatisfaction with ILLiad but from being informed that Tipasa would…

How will your library serve mobile device users? By building apps from scratch? By offering entirely separate content? Or by modifying your site for mobile devices? This author found that the best fit for a joint library serving Victoria College and the University of Houston-Victoria was to build a mobile website in HTML and CSS using mobile…

There are universal elements to great videos and games that drive large audiences: beautiful cinematography and graphics, engaging and purposeful screenplays and storylines, unforgettable soundtracks, and a brand name that makes viewers and players want to return for more. Libraries can, and should, employ these elements in their own videos to…

The fact that people now live in a world of abundant portable electronic devices is important to any organization that maintains a web presence, including libraries. No longer tied to a desktop, the patrons' netbooks, tablets, ebook readers, and, of course, cellphones all become potential tools for remote access to library content. About a year…

Many libraries have developed mobile versions of their websites. In order to understand their users, web developers have conducted both usability tests and focus groups, yet analytical software and web server logs can also be used to better understand users. Using data collected from these tools, the Ursula C. Schwerin Library has made informed…

Near field communication is an emerging technology that allows objects, such as mobile phones, computers, tags, or posters, to exchange information wirelessly across a small distance. Though primarily associated with mobile payment, near field communication has many different potential commercial applications, ranging from marketing to nutrition,…

People live in an era of social, enterprise-oriented, and increasingly cloud-based technology; a dramatic shift away from stand-alone isolated silos that previously dominated. Computing systems can flourish today only when built to easily exchange data and services. An application that stands alone may provide practical functionality but may not…

Sixteen scholarly papers and twenty abstracts comprise the content of the eighteenth annual Brick & Click Libraries Conference, held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the conference, portray the contemporary and future face of librarianship.…

This study reviewed link resolver success comparing 360 Link and a local implementation of WebBridge. Two methods were used: (1) comparing article-level access and (2) examining technical issues for 384 randomly sampled OpenURLs. Google Analytics was used to collect user-generated OpenURLs. For both methods, 360 Link out-performed the local…

Throughout the history of library automation, the author has seen a steady advancement toward more open systems. In the early days of library automation, when proprietary systems dominated, the need for standards was paramount since other means of inter-operability and data exchange weren't possible. Today's focus on Application Programming…

In this case study the authors describe Pepperdine University Libraries' migration to OCLC's WorldShare Management Services. They elaborate on the rationale for the decision, review some of the challenges and lessons encountered along the way, and briefly discuss some effects of the new system on our libraries. The focus is on technical services…

The Internet and the World Wide Web have influenced the new approaches taken in teaching and learning at institutions of higher learning. The nature of the courses offered, the geographical spread of the teaching sites as well as the diverse and distributed student population are the catalysts for the changes. These non-traditional, or distant…

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,…

Free software isn't about cost, and it isn't about hype, it isn't about taking business away from vendors. It's about four kinds of freedom--the freedom to use the software for any purpose, the freedom to study how the software works, the freedom to modify the software to adapt it to one's needs, and the freedom to copy and share copies of the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate where students turn for course-related assignments, whether an ordered pattern could be described in terms of which sources students turn to and how students evaluated the information they chose to use. Data were drawn from open-ended questionnaires (n = 282). Semantic network analysis was conducted…