University rankings play an increasingly large role in shaping the goals of academic institutions and departments, while removing universities themselves from the evaluation process. This study compares the library-related results of two university ranking publications with scores on the LibQUAL+™ survey to identify if library service quality--as…

In this article, a librarian at Lincoln Memorial University creates library services for an MBA program offered entirely online that is in the early stages of development. The library services include a subject guide and 4 tutorials that will be added to the MBA online orientation. Other services include offering online office hours and…

It was early March 2008, and the author was only a few months from finishing her third year as an elementary school librarian. During the morning recess the school library was humming with the sounds of students. Suddenly, three students rushed in asking the author to help them find a silent-reading book for class. Looking at the clock and seeing…

The University of Michigan Library wanted to learn more about the kinds of searches its users were conducting through the "one search" search box on the Library Web site. Library staff conducted two investigations. A preliminary investigation in 2011 involved the manual review of the 100 most frequently occurring queries conducted…

Holocaust denial literature has been treated inconsistently in library collections. At one time Holocaust denial literature was classed and subject headings assigned with Holocaust literature. After specific Library of Congress classification numbers and subject headings for Holocaust denial and Holocaust denial literature became available in the…

The second of two parts, this article develops a taxonomy of value-in-use for library and information services based on user assessments and proposes methods and instruments for similar studies of library and information services in general. Divides value of services into three classes: reasons for use; quality of interaction; and worth, benefits…

This is the final technical report (in three parts) of a 15-month long project to study the costs and value of library functions at five major research libraries. Twenty-one services or service aspects were studied, and numerous measures of the importance or benefit of the service to the users were made. These measures were studied together to lay…

Because the general alphabetic arrangement of fiction in libraries is of little use to the ordinary reader, whose criteria for selecting books often relates to book content, a multi-dimensional and inexclusive fiction classification scheme was developed as a model for both book description and search strategy. Based on analysis of 160 actual…

Introduction: This study investigated unmonitored referrals in a nationwide, collaborative chat reference service. Specifically, it examined the extent to which questions are referred, the types of questions that are more likely to be referred than others, and the level of user satisfaction with the referrals in the collaborative chat reference…

During the last decade, research has become increasingly important to the profession of librarianship. Seven library schools now have doctoral programs, foundation grants have stimulated and supported scores of major projects, and the research method has been recognized as an accepted technique for solving library problems. The increasing volume…

Argues that the Museum of Comparative Zoology Library reflects the union between the nineteenth century natural history values of Louis Agassiz and the twentieth century library and information science methodology. Special collections, records, cataloging and classification, serials and their classification, policies, services, and procedures are…

This manuscript reports a study of the secondary-school library. The library, it is claimed, exists first to improve the curriculum, and second, to encourage reading as a leisure-time occupation. The purposes of this investigation are: (1) to list and describe activities and devices used in outstanding secondary-school libraries; (2) to present…

Describes the development of a taxonomy of the value of library services based on users' assessments from five large research libraries. Highlights include empirical and derived taxonomy, replicability of the study, reasons for using the library, how library services are related to time and money, and a theory of value. (LRW)

This report on a machine-readable data files workshop highlights unresolved issues related to innovative approaches to collecting, describing, and providing service for computer files in research libraries. The remarks of four of the workshop speakers are presented. Margaret Johnson of the University of Minnesota gives a comprehensive review of…

This survey examined whether recent changes in the accessibility of bibliographic records and electronic access has led to an emerging pattern in the way that documents are organized into four areas: (1) general questions; (2) technical services; (3) collections and public services; and (4) changes in the organization of documents service.…