As the cost of textbooks rises and discoverability of resources improves, students are turning more and more to interlibrary loan to meet their textbook needs. This article describes how systems can be utilized to streamline processes and allow for the canceling of textbook requests consistently and appropriately by taking full advantage of the…

This study analyzes data collected between 2000 and 2013 from the annual National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) Local Education Agency (School District) Universe Survey; the NCES Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS); and the U.S. Census Bureau Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates Survey (SAIPE). The findings…

At the request of New Business Item: 89 (NBI: 89) adopted at the 2015 NEA Representative Assembly, this study examines the extent to which students have access to public school library/media centers with qualified staff and up-to-date resources. The study explores trends in library/media center openings and closings as well as staffing patterns…

This paper will look at the services presently offered to distance students by libraries within the categories of professional staff, access to resources, reference assistance, and library user instruction. It will then offer the argument that these services could be improved by developing embedded librarians within online academic courses as a…

The New Media Consortium's "Horizon Report" for higher education cites games and gamification with a time-to-adoption of two to three years. The use of digital games is almost ubiquitous in social media and is swiftly gaining popularity in other industries as well. Many in higher education have embraced gamification due to its…

Since SC LENDS started operating in June 2009, more public libraries have come on board. All of this on the back end connects to a Mozilla-based staff client that has distributions for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, using SSL encryption to keep communications secure and private between remote libraries and the servers hosted at a high-end…

It seems, at times, that a frantic race persists to ensure that a child, in the crucial learning stages of early elementary education, acquires the appropriate reading level before he or she "gets behind." Though there are obvious issues with branding a book "Grade Level One" or "Reading Level 2.2," it is nevertheless…

Far more people are familiar with their local public or college library facility than their library's website and online resources. In fact, according to a recent survey, 96% of Americans said they had visited a library in person, but less than one-third have visited their online library. Since everyone agrees that online library resources are…

The University at Buffalo (UB) and Empire State College (ESC) designed a project that demonstrates the viability of shipping materials directly to the patron, the cost-effectiveness of using UPS for delivering and returning materials, the value of expanded library service to ESC patrons, and the practicality of purchasing-on-demand as a service…

This article recounts a project at the Middle Tennessee State University library to include records for electronic databases in the online catalog. Although electronic databases are accessible via the library's Databases A-Z list and related subject guides, cataloging these resources also provides access via the online catalog, allowing more of…

This meeting on the retrospective conversion (RECON) of music materials brought together 21 individuals to plan the integration and coordination of RECON activities within the context of the music library community. Major music societies and professional music groups were represented as were music faculty and composing communities. This document…

The 29 participants in this meeting on retrospective conversion included research and public library administrators; representatives from the Library of Congress, the major bibliographic utilities, and the regional networks; librarians with experience in planning retrospective conversion projects; three authors of the "Issues in Retrospective…

Technical procedures of Syracuse University Libraries are described in this manual which is divided in two parts: (1) description of the general organization of Syracuse University Libraries collections and the various ways to obtain access to them; and (2) detailed technical procedures to be followed when adding or removing material from the…

This document comprises a program schedule; welcoming remarks by Herman Liebaers (Brussels), entitled "Towards a European Equivalent of the Council on Library Resources"; and conference papers presented at an international conference on cooperation among research libraries. The following papers presented at the conference are (with two…

Description of considerations special libraries must address before building databases is based on practical experiences of Comstow Information Services. Developing standards for all types of materials (journal articles, internal reports, competitors' literature, government documents, conference proceedings, analytics, books), retrospective…