With the advent of the big data internet era, the corresponding multimedia technology is also developing. At the same time, as an important place for students to improve their cognitive level and expand their knowledge coverage, the construction of knowledge and information in university libraries will have an important impact on the growth of…

Assessment and supporting data have become of increasing interest in librarianship. In this paper, we describe the development and implementation of the Northwestern University Library Acknowledgments Database tool, which gathers and documents qualitative data, as well as its component reporting function. This collaborative project and resulting…

The Saskatchewan Music Collection (SMC) is a local music collection held at the University of Saskatchewan. This case study examines a project to digitize and present this unique special collection in the online environment. The project aims to facilitate access to the collection, preserve the collection and promote scholarship and interest in the…

Libraries have become increasingly interested in studying the use of spaces within their buildings. Traditional methods for tracking library building use, such as gate counts, provide little information on what patrons do once they are in the library; therefore, new methods for studying space usage are being developed. Particularly promising are…

The Main Library Service Desk is a one-stop academic help center located between a newly renovated student-focused space called the Learning Commons and the library collections. Services began with the first day of classes, August 26, 2013, and assessment has been ongoing, in part due to the availability of data. Staffing levels, staffing hours,…

The silo is a well-worn metaphor in information systems used to illustrate separateness, isolation, and lack of connectivity. Through the many iterations of system development, libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) have sought to avoid silos and find the sweet spot between interface design and metadata interoperability. This effort is being…

Any librarian who has managed electronic resources has experienced the--for want of words--"joy" of gathering and analyzing usage statistics. Such statistics are important for evaluating the effectiveness of resources and for making important budgeting decisions. Unfortunately, the data are usually tedious to collect, inconsistently organized, of…

Declining reference statistics, diminishing human resources, and the desire to be more proactive and embedded in academic departments, prompted the University of South Florida Library to create a taskforce for re-envisioning reference services. The taskforce was charged with examining the staffing patterns at the desk and developing…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the various web metrics tools that are available, and to indicate how these might be used in libraries. Design/methodology/approach: The paper describes ways in which web metrics can be used to inform strategic decision making in libraries. Findings: A framework of possible web…

In the journal "The Chronicle of Higher Education," an article by Geoffrey Nunberg criticizes Google's Book Search (GBS), emphasizing that disturbing errors are endemic. He recognizes that for mainstream "googling" purposes, "they don't really care about metadata provided by a library catalog." In perhaps his most discouraging point, linguistics…

This article discusses what SUSHI is and how it works. SUSHI stands for standardized usage statistics harvesting initiative. It was created specifically to solve the very problem of retrieving and having to reformat the usage reports. The promise of SUSHI is that, with wide adoption, it will drastically reduce the time spent collecting usage data…

In spring of 2006, a task force was charged to look at the feasibility of acquiring hand-held inventory devices for the Pennsylvania State University Libraries (PSUL). The task force's charge was not to look at the whole concept of doing an inventory, but rather to focus on the feasibility of acquiring hand-held devices to use in an inventory.…

This preliminary study investigates the current situation of school library support of K-12 health education in China. A survey of 42 school librarians and 115 K-12 teachers from selected schools was conducted to find out their views about school library's role in school health education and their current practice of library use in health…

A semimathematical model for library circulation control. The application is intended to contribute to a more structured yet flexible approach to library circulation management. It includes provisions for circulation policy analysis and management, recording, and controlling of circulation transactions. (Author/KP)

A cost-effectiveness analysis evaluating manual and automated circulation systems is described. The methodology identifies all automation costs and real changes in effectiveness. (Author/KP)