Libraries are evolving into learning laboratories or "libratories"--environments where a wide variety of learning activities and projects can take place. Part project space, part design studio, part community meeting and presentation space, and part research and development lab, libraries of the future will have a new alphabet of services--the new…

In the new millennium, school librarians are more likely to be found sitting behind a computer as they update the library web page or create a wiki on genetically modified organisms. Or they might be seen in the library computer lab as they lead students through tutorials on annotated bibliographies or Google docs. If adequately supported, school…

At the 2011 ALA conference, social media was still a topic of many discussions. For the past few years, librarians have shared their efforts to incorporate social networking applications like Facebook and Twitter as part of library services. Some librarians have taken on the challenge of establishing a social network for their library, while…

The year 2010 saw a major revolution in tablet technology with the introduction of the Apple iPad. Curious about the potential of this new technology for libraries, a group of librarians at Ryerson University in Toronto seized an opportunity to investigate the emerging role of the tablet in the daily academic lives of students. The group found…

Two of the most time-consuming jobs in the library are taking inventory and keeping track of in-house uses of library material. Librarians have long been searching for more efficient solution for these two activities. New technology can be the answer to creating efficiency for libraries. In fact, if one is a SirsiDynix library, there is an easy…

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…

Cumberland University (CU), where the author serves as a library technical assistant, is a small, private liberal arts college located in Lebanon, Tennessee, about 30 miles east of Nashville. CU was the first college in Tennessee to have campuswide wireless internet access, and organizations such as the Alumni Association have a strong presence in…

During the summer semester, the Vise Library at Cumberland University (CU) began working on its "digital makeover." It has six goals: (1) Create a more user-friendly and dynamic website; (2) Activate and maintain accounts on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter; (3) Produce a library blog that allows students, staff, and…

The job of literary archivist is changing as paper manuscripts yield to laptops, Blackberry's, and Facebook content, and digital preservation lets scholars learn more about authors' creative process than ever before. Personal computers and external storage devices have been around for more than a quarter-century, but only now, as the famous…

In response to the rapid development of digital libraries over the past decade, researchers have focused on the use of metadata as an effective means to support resource discovery within online repositories. With the increasing involvement of libraries in digitization projects and the growing number of institutional repositories, it is anticipated…

The year 2011 was the PALNI (Private Academic Library Network of Indiana) consortium's "rookie season" for the implementation of Primo, the 2010 Discovery Layer 500 race winner. In this article, the authors report on their transition to the cloud within Ex Libris Ltd.'s Primo TotalCare environment: their preparation, the steps involved…

Purpose: This paper aims to elaborate the library data migration process from LAMP (Library Automation Management Program) to the open source software Koha's (2.2.8 Windows based) Pakistani flavour PakLAG-Koha in six legislative assembly libraries of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: The paper explains different steps of the data migration…

As federal government information is increasingly migrating to online formats, libraries are providing links to this content via URLs or persistent URLs (PURLs) in their online public access catalogs (OPACs). Clickthrough statistics that accumulated as users visited links to online content in the University of Denver's library OPAC were gathered…

Do students prefer to use Google instead of the library catalog? Ever wondered why? Google is easier to use and delivers plenty of "good enough" resources to meet their needs. The current generation of online catalogs has two main problems. First, the look and feel of the interface doesn't reflect the conventions adhered to elsewhere on the web,…

Purpose: This paper aims to survey the web sites of the academic libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (USA) regarding the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. Design/methodology/approach: The websites of 100 member academic libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (USA) were surveyed. Findings: All libraries were found to be…