Many librarians evaluate local Interlibrary Loan (ILL) statistics as part of collection development decisions concerning new subscriptions. In this study, the authors examine whether the number of ILL article requests received in one academic year can predict the use of those same journal titles once they are added as library resources. There is…

University College Dublin became the first library in the Republic of Ireland to trial patron-driven acquisition (PDA) as a collection development tool in 2013. A total of 42% of UCD Library's book budget was allocated to the project, which included both electronic and print books. This article describes the twelve month project from the tender…

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…

This annotated bibliography provides citations for selected English language journal articles and books that stress and address general, broad concerns of the academic library. Following citations of two bibliographies, the citations are presented in six general categories: (l) budgeting (12 titles); (2) decision making (9 titles); (3) directing…

Briefly describes the career of Herbert Goldhor and discusses two aspects of his contributions to librarianship: public library service and administration, including the collection and publication of data for analysis and use by researchers and decision makers; and scientific research in librarianship. A chronological list of over 175 publications…

Examines the role of research in assisting library managers to operate libraries more effectively. Strategies for research and for library managers to better create and use research are suggested; conceptual and practical issues that affect research utilization are discussed; and the need for improved efforts by both library managers and…

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…

Reviews major topics involved in governance of academic libraries in a rapidly changing environment: (1) the academic environment and the library--organizational characteristics of both institutions; (2) academic governance patterns; (3) librarians and governance--faculty status, faculty status and governance, unions and governance, modifying the…

Discussion of the decision-making role of the librarian covers pertinent planning activities, i.e., systematically analyzing problem, reviewing literature, gathering and analyzing data, and assessing positive aspects of implementing new knowledge so gained. Knowledge of the research process, replicating research, and assuming the responsibility of…

Identifies and discusses characteristics of effective in-house studies in public libraries. Characteristics discussed include clearly stated research questions, translation into measurable terms, study design, staff training, data analysis, and targeted reporting. It is argued that studies done within existing management and communication…

This study examines the role of the user study as a management tool in academic libraries and proposes a task-oriented survey method to estimate the library clientele's need for documents. Research on work and task-oriented information studies is discussed and applied to the development of a survey instrument. A case study employing the…

This paper reports the results of a study on the role of librarians in college library decision making. Emphasis is placed on the library directors' perceptions of librarians' participation in nine areas of decision making and the form of participation by librarians in these areas. The nine areas of decision making addressed by the study are: the…

Findings from informetric research represent an important background resource to add to the mix of information useful for resolving difficult and ongoing problems in specific library environments or information service settings. This paper provides examples of informetric research that can be useful input to decision-making in the field of library…

The Lancaster County (Pennsylvania) public library, which receives many school districts' interlibrary loan requests, experienced a 100% increase in periodical article requests. Working cooperatively, school and public librarians developed a LSCA Title II grant to study magazine usage to make cost-effective decisions about improving timely access…

More effective use of diminishing resources was needed to provide the best possible services at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) library. This required the improved decision-making processes of a Library Management Information System (LMIS) to provide systematic information analysis. An information flow model was created, and an…