Community college libraries and public libraries play a vital role in bridging the digital divide by providing equitable access to technology, internet connectivity, and digital literacy across the United States. Community college libraries support students' academic success by providing access to specialized software, online research tools, and…

Community college and public libraries both serve overlapping populations--including students, job seekers, adult learners, ESL learners, and low-income and underserved communities--playing vital roles in supporting and enriching their local communities. Libraries connect patrons and community members to critical information related to basic needs…

This article uses the case study of developing a collaborative "out-of-hours" virtual enquiry service by members of the Northern Collaboration Group of academic libraries in the north of England to explore the importance of communication and collaboration between academic library services in enhancing student learning. Set within the…

While the National Library of Medicine created the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) as a network to provide medical and health information, historically few nonmedical academic libraries have participated. University medical libraries and hospital libraries have been the major focus of the Network. Recently, the NNLM has…

Purpose: To describe the development of the library management system, e-Granthalaya, for public libraries in India. This is an initiative of the Indian government's National Informatics Centre (NIC). The paper outlines the challenges and the potential of a full-scale deployment of this software at a national level. Design/methodology/approach:…

This is a study of 140 unfilled interlibrary loan requests sent to the New York State Interlibrary Loan Network (NYSILL) during October and November, 1968. Detailed information on each case in the study is provided in an appendix to the report. The findings are: (1) the unfilled requests do not differ markedly from filled requests; (2) The quality…

Although the current focus of library consortia has been their role as buying clubs, technology has opened up other important roles as well. One of these is a radical reassessment of physical resource sharing--increasing the ease, speed, popularity, and cost efficiency of the traditional interlibrary loan function. A case study of patron-initiated…

Reviews studies that have attempted to measure levels of community library service, and describes the testing of hypotheses related to the impact of public library system development in Wisconsin on community library services. Conclusions about public library service in Wisconsin and the research methodology used are stated. (16 references) (CLB)

Rural communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have been having problems accessing much needed information, while traditional bodies of knowledge are slowly disappearing as the old generation passes on. This paper argues that the school library is a possible agent to spread information. In addition to providing information to school children and…

Explores marginal costs involved in decentralization of academic libraries by analyzing labor and material costs of a branch library (Library School Library, University of California, Berkeley) and discussing cost to users and universities. Benefits of a branch library are summarized based on survey done among 40 users. References are provided.…

Examines data from the National Center for Educational Statistics to determine whether networking and resource-sharing activities of public libraries have increased libraries' use of Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Results suggest that libraries have significantly increased their borrowing through ILL in recent years. Two tables provide loan statistics.…

Case studies describing programs funded under the Library Research and Demonstration Component (II-B) of the Higher Education Act (HEA), and Title III of the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) are included. The awarding of grants, and contracts to support research and demonstrations for improving library and information sciences,…

A research project sponsored by the Illinois State Library had two goals: to develop a set of mathematical models suitable for predicting the impact of alternative library network policies on network preformance, and to demonstrate through series of case studies that the methodology developed could feasibly be applied to real library networking…

Prior to 1997, the University of Oxford in Great Britain had approximately one hundred autonomous libraries with little coordination of services, collection development, or management among them. In that year a new director was hired with the mandate to integrate many of these libraries into one centralized system. Over the past seven years…

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Library participated in the statewide conversion to a new integrated library system in the summer of 2002. Prior to the system's implementation, various local and statewide committees coordinated efforts to train their staffs so as to ensure a seamless transition. This case study analyzes, in…