Among public institutions, the library has great potential for helping the poor and disenfranchised. For many, the library is the only refuge for information, literacy, entertainment, language skills, employment help, free computer use and even safety and shelter. Experts Glen and Leslie Holt, with decades of service to inner city communities…

Fewer employees, shorter hours, diminished collection budgets, reduced programs and services--all at a time of record library usage. In this book, library expert Carol Smallwood demonstrates that despite the obvious downsides, the necessity of doing business differently can be positive, leading to partnering, sharing, and innovating. This…

Ask Here PA is Pennsylvania's new statewide live chat reference and information service. This article discusses the key strategies utilized by Ask Here PA administrators to recruit participating libraries to contribute staff time to the service, the importance of centralized staff training, the main aspects of staff training, and activating the…

Twenty-six scholarly papers and ten abstracts comprise the content of the thirteenth annual Brick and Click Libraries Symposium, held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future face of librarianship. The…

A study was conducted to examine and evaluate the impact of the Cooperative Information Network (CIN) Staff Development Project (CIN-SD) in individual CIN libraries and to recommend methods for establishing on-going staff development programs in libraries. This report presents findings gathered from a survey employing questionnaires and…

This survey of library personnel had the following objectives: (1) to determine the best subject areas in which to provide continuing educational opportunities for staff members, (2) to determine the level of subject content for each subject area, (3) to identify an expected participant enrollment for each level of each subject, and (4) to…

This proceedings of the 2001 Charleston Conference on library science contains the keynote address and the text of 27 presentations discussing the latest developments in the digital environment, serials, collection development, books and publishing, consortia, and personnel development as follows: "The Trends They Are A'Changing" (Tom Sanville);…

Initially prepared for use by teams of state library agency and library-media and information science association and education program representatives participating in the 1979-1980 CLENE/USOE Institute, "Statewide Systems of Continuing Education: New Directions," this paper was revised to expand its potential use beyond participating states. It…

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…

This report presents the results of a June 1997 onsite evaluation of a U.S. Department of Education HEA II-B grant awarded to the Portland Area Library System (PORTALS) during the period October 1, 1995 to September 30, 1997. The grant offered an opportunity to increase collaboration among PORTALS members via the activities of network deployment,…

An institute was conducted to introduce Western state library administrators to methods for planning staff development training. The intent was to strengthen staff development programs and to build a network of individuals interested in staff development in Western libraries. The program introduced a variety of training tools and presented a wide…

The Alliance Library System (ALS) is one of 12 regional library systems in Illinois, providing a full spectrum of support services for 300 member libraries of all types (public, school, academic, and special) located in west central Illinois. This paper describes the process by which ALS implemented a voice/video/data network connecting their four…

This paper traces the development of learning resources cooperation in northern Illinois community colleges. Discussion covers the community college philosophy and learning resources concept, background of the Northern Illinois Learning Resources Cooperative, success factors, activities (cooperative purchasing, information and resources sharing,…

This article presents the staff perspective on the advantages of collaboration between a library cooperative in Southeast Florida and one of its member libraries. Collaborative relationships between library cooperatives and member libraries exist primarily to benefit library patrons and community users. Important relationships between cooperatives…

Sharing a local automated library system will generally reduce the costs of automation for each participating library and will facilitate the sharing of resources. To set up a consortium, libraries must first identify and agree on governance issues and methods for dealing with these issues. Issues range from ownership, management, and location of…