Librarians store, protect, and provide the knowledge our modern society needs, but it is frequently difficult to justify the services a reference librarian provides. The work load of a reference librarian varies greatly with periods of frantic activity separated by much longer inactive periods. The role is principally passive, waiting for library…

A symposium was held in 1971 at Syracuse University on the topic of measuring library effectiveness. The first speaker, Allen Hershfield, introduced the topic with emphasis on the importance and critical need for measurements of library effectiveness. The next speaker, Ernest DeProspo, was concerned with methodological problems and the relation…

Provides nine articles: research on libraries and librarianship, 1997; changing faces of library education (ALA-accredited graduate program title changes); number of libraries in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; highlights of NCES surveys; library acquisition expenditures; price indexes for public and academic libraries; state rankings of selected…