Traditionally, school libraries have been evaluated primarily in terms of library management; the impact they have on teaching and learning has rarely been a focus. For this reason, they have often been omitted from whole school self-evaluation. Self-evaluation can help schools to prepare for inspection, but more importantly to identify strengths…

The result of a pilot study funded by the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA), this document is both a report of a test of adaptations of "Output Measures for Public Libraries" for the measurement of children's services in Wisconsin public libraries, and a manual for children's librarians to use for future data collection. The…

Modelling its self-study on earlier document availability research by Saracevic, Shaw, and Kantor, the Periodical Department of the William Paterson College Library (Wayne, New Jersey), evaluated service to its patrons. Specially modified and coded periodical request forms were collected from a sample of patrons who requested periodicals from the…

This is the final report of an 8-month-long project undertaken in February 1985 to study existing preservation activities within Chicago's Center for Research Libraries (CRL) compare local practices with programs in similar organizations, and make recommendations for an effective preservation program to be instituted. The background and…

A dramatic increase in interlibrary loan (ILL) in academic and research libraries in the last five years, combined with a changing office environment, is forcing reassessment of the relationship between the volume and cost of loans to service quality. In the spring of 1988, a survey was sent to 116 member libraries of the Association of Research…

One in a series of reports on public service studies by academic libraries that are being administered by the Office of Management Studies (OMS) of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), this report on the self study of the Michigan State University Libraries includes a brief description of the overall project and an executive summary of the…

This document is one of a series of guides to self-evaluation. It builds on the advice given in "How good is our school?" (revised edition 2002) and, more specifically, "Taking a Closer Look at the School Library Resource Centre" published in 1999. This guidance is intended for use in the primary, special and secondary sectors.…

This final report is a product of a comprehensive 14-month Preservation Planning Program (PPP) self-study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Libraries, working with the Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) Office of Management Studies. The PPP is designed to put self-help tools into the hands of library staff responsible for developing…

A brief history of "Psychological Abstracts" describes the development of this index over its nearly 100-year history. The various concerns and problems of both the publisher and users of the psychological literature are reported, and present and future solutions are discussed. Appended is an 18-item annotated bibliography. (Author/EJS)

This training manual describes and explains the variety of tasks performed by library clerks in the Riverside (California) Unified School District's elementary school instructional media centers (IMCs). It is noted that the job responsibilities of these clerks fall into four areas with specific duties relating to each: maintenance of the…

These guidelines are designed to enable library media specialists, or other educators working with school library media programs, to evaluate their programs within a framework of three sets of standards or guidelines: the Ohio Minimum Standards, the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary School standards, and "Information Power," the…

Since no local library can meet the information needs of the community on its own, librarians and local policymakers must look to other existing agencies and channels for support. In every locale are agencies, organizations, and governmental and social service units that daily gather, compile, and disseminate information as one of their missions.…

This manual is designed primarily as a guide for libraries undertaking a formal study of preservation needs as a foundation for planning programs to meet those needs. Based on the "assisted self-study approach" process, it presupposes a library staff large enough to permit the assignment of about two dozen people for an average of 5 or 6…

The project that yielded this report developed a framework for the University of Alberta's library to guide the activities of the self-study portion of the university's Presidential Advisory Committee on Campus Review (PACCR). The framework demonstrates how the review process can be adapted to meet the particular needs of the library while…

Questions presented in workbook format are interspersed with quotations from the literature about the library profession's stereotypes and self-image. The document opens with a synopsis of how librarians are portrayed by the mass media. Exercises about role perceptions are presented (e.g., define the terms "librarian" and…