In states with limited road accessibility, rural students can feel isolated from library services. This article explores the creation, implementation, and results of an on-going longitudinal study assessing the library service needs of rural students in eLearning courses. To align with current practices in online pedagogies, including the…

Are services that were once intended to be exclusively available to the distance learning population now typically available for all users in a university community? This article seeks to investigate this question using two different methods. First, an unobtrusive study of 100 library Websites was conducted to determine whether these libraries…

This case study offers an alternative use of LibGuides beyond its intended purpose to offer course and subject guides. LibGuides have become an integral part of the virtual instruction landscape at Colorado State University (CSU) Libraries. We discovered that the LibGuides platform can also be effectively harnessed to provide support for…

The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether there are relationships between first-year college students' use of academic libraries and four academic outcomes: academic engagement, engagement in scholarly activities, academic skills development, and grade point average. The results of regression analyses suggest students' use of books…

Public services librarians are often in the position of training patrons how to use technology. They adopt new technologies such as discovery layers, link resolvers, subject guides, virtual reference services, OPACs, content management systems, and institutional repositories to provide access to materials and facilitate collaboration, but…

To better understand faculty attitudes and practices regarding usage of library-specific tools and roles in a university learning management system, log data for a period of three semesters was analyzed. Academic departments with highest rates of usage were identified, and faculty users and nonusers within those departments were surveyed regarding…

When secondary school librarians teach students digital life literacies, they help students perceive that librarians can provide support for real-life problems. The more librarians work with students, create inviting library environments, and have positive engagements with students, the more they change student perceptions of librarians in…

This paper describes the process whereby a university library investigated the value of its subject guides to its users. A literature review and surveys of library staff, library users and other libraries were carried out. Existing library subject guides and those of other higher education libraries were evaluated. The project team reported…

This study examines the evolving roles and responsibilities of entry-level academic reference positions, as stated in recent job advertisements posted on the American Library Association's JobLIST Web site and other sources. Findings from a content analysis of these advertisements indicate that current entry-level reference positions in academic…

Google Scholar is a free service that provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly works and to connect patrons with the resources libraries provide. The researchers in this study analyzed Google Scholar usage data from 2006 for three library tools at San Francisco State University: SFX link resolver, Web Access Management proxy server,…

Library customers have more remote information choices than ever before, so we must ensure that when they do come to the library, they experience a welcoming environment, a high standard of service, and receive equitable levels of service across campus. Developing a customer service program was a logical next step to reinforce the ongoing…

Information literacy instruction is provided in five formats: reference, one-shot sessions, credit courses, library Web sites, and embedded librarians. Each method offers distinct merits as well as limitations. Much can be gained by considering the swirl or interplay of all five and how working with one approach informs the others and results in a…

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

At the 2008 ALA Annual Conference, a wonderful Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) preconference was presented entitled "Library Instruction 2.0: Building Your Online Instruction Toolkit". The presentation was enlightening and provided numerous and valuable recommendations for Web 2.0 sites that can facilitate and enliven library…

Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that programs and services be accessible to people with disabilities. While schools of library and information science (SLIS*) and university libraries should model accessible Web sites, this may not be the case. This article examines previous studies about the Web accessibility of…