Describes customer call centers that provide customer service and support in business and considers how their routines could be adapted to library operations. Topics include centralized staff; interactive voice response; automated call distribution; question analysis; sophisticated software; training and monitoring; telephone reference; and…

Sixteen years ago, the author was the sole librarian at a suburban Chicago elementary school, teaching 24 classes a week to 450 students. She was overwhelmed and alone, and there was nobody in the building who really understood what she was going through. Although she regularly met with 15 fellow district librarians to review broad topics such as…

The Douglas County Library System (DCLS) is a rural system in Southern Oregon. It's headquarters library is centrally located in Roseburg. DCLS serves a population of 100,000 with the largest concentration of people within 15 miles from the Pacific ocean. Because the library system supports around 150 machines scattered across 11 sites, it needs a…

Three sets of roles that libraries play in education are identified. Each of the roles is explained, accompanied by relevant statistics and examples. In the first place, libraries provide access to education by teaching information skills, by providing leadership and expertise in the use of information and information technologies, and by…

The Defense Department Scientific and Technical Information (STI) network is composed of over 200 technical libraries and information centers tied together by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), an organization which seeks to improve the flow of information throughout the STI network by promoting shared cataloging and integrated…

The nature of the instructional process, with emphasis on student involvement in the use of materials, makes it essential that excellent school library media programs be provided at the school building level. The National Program for Library and Information Services could provide substantial improvement in the provision of information services to…

The final report from the Higher Education Library Integrated Network (HELIN)'s Task Force on Bibliographic and Authority Control begins with a statement of the charge to the task force. It then summarizes its activities in each of five areas: (1) documentation of local authority control (cataloging) practices; (2) consultation with vendors of…

This issue presents articles which, in some way, help to clarify and define library services. It is hoped that this clarification in library service will serve to secure the resources libraries need to serve the people of New York. The following articles are presented: (1) Introduction: "Clarifying and Defining Library Services" (Joseph…

Based on the document "Final Report on the Study to Develop a Library Automation Blueprint for the New Jersey Library Network" (December 1987) and the reaction to it by the New Jersey library community, this plan was produced to guide the New Jersey State Library in meeting the goal of developing one statewide database containing the holdings…

The proceedings of this symposium contain the texts of 21 presentations: (1) "The Alexandriana Library: A New Opportunity in International Library Cooperation" (Stuart Ede); (2) "Conservation, Culture and Curriculum" (Brendan Loughridge); (3) "European Library Cooperation: An EC (European Community) Standpoint"…

Taking as its point of departure the landmark paper, "The Role of the School Library Media Program in Networking," this study assesses the state of networking involving school libraries in mid-1982, with emphasis on operations of substantial significance to students and teachers and resource sharing. An analysis of the networking concept and…

This discussion of the implementation of services related to the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) if Concordia University Libraries were to join CRL includes policies and procedures designed to assist Concordia in making effective use of CRL's services without sacrificing regular services or incurring large expenses in addition to the…

The inputs to mathematical models of library operations require periodic updating. The data collection effort necessary for such updating can be quite expensive; however, if the data collected can serve multiple purposes, the costs can perhaps be justified. A management information system (MIS) offers a vehicle for multiple uses of data, and thus…

THIS PRELIMINARY STUDY OF A COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM AMONG THE APPROXIMATELY FIFTY AFFILIATES OF THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN REFERENCE AND RESEARCH LIBRARY AGENCY, INC. (METRO) PROVIDES AN OUTLINE FOR AN INITIAL INFORMATION TRANSFER NETWORK WITHIN A FIFTY MILE RADIUS OF TIMES SQUARE. THE TECHNIQUE OFFERED IS THE MORCHAND INFORMATION…

A 3-month trial of the Dearborn Area Libraries Infopass System (DALIS), a local library cooperative program coordinating the reference services of six libraries (special, public, and academic), suggests that further study is warranted to develop cost benefit data. Processes found to be of most importance for success in the multi-type library…