Although many developments have been made in the design and development of learning object repositories (LORs), the efficient use of such systems is still questionable. Without realising the functional use of such systems or considering the involvement of their dynamic users, these systems would probably become obsolete. This study includes both…

"Sense of place" no longer applies only to the physical library. All students are distance learners to one extent or another, and all distance services must be considered as a single virtual learning commons. Librarians at Bucks County (PA) Community College implement and integrate current teaching, learning, virtual reference, and mobile access…

We analysed how teachers as users of open educational resources (OER) repositories act in the re-use process and how they perceive quality. Based on a quantitative empirical study, we also surveyed which quality requirements users have and how they would contribute to the quality process. Trust in resources, organizations, and technologies seem to…

Any librarian who has managed electronic resources has experienced the--for want of words--"joy" of gathering and analyzing usage statistics. Such statistics are important for evaluating the effectiveness of resources and for making important budgeting decisions. Unfortunately, the data are usually tedious to collect, inconsistently organized, of…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") is a bimonthly report from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). This issue includes the following articles: (1) Strategies for Opening Up Content: Laying the Groundwork for an Open…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the challenges faced in digitising copyright-protected books and other materials within the National Library of Norway. Design/methodology/approach: Following a description of Bokhylla, or The Bookshelf, the paper outlines the strategies adopted within the National Library of Norway…

This paper is a summary of the project that the author completed at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) library for providing online access to 80 open access E-journals and digital collections. Although FGCU uses SerialsSolutions products to establish online access, any one can provide access to these collections as they are free for all. Paper…

The purpose of this study was to measure the degree to which academic libraries or library staff members throughout the United States adhere to the Guidelines for Virtual Reference Services provided by the Reference & User Services Association (RUSA). The results of the study were analyzed to identify specific areas where improvement is needed…

Rare, distinctive, unique--academic libraries are exploring new ways to describe and define what they've traditionally called special collections: incunabula, manuscripts, rare books, cultural artifacts and more. These valuable, historically important, and often one-of-a-kind artifacts can be a treasure trove for scholars and students. Technology…

This case study investigated the relationship between policy and practice with regard to advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Ugandan teacher education. Our qualitative study, conducted in 2008, focused on the experiences of six language teacher educators in an urban Primary Teachers' College (PTC). We also drew on…

The contributions in this volume represent a decade of OCLC's user behavior research findings that articulate the need for the design of future library services to be all about the user. Highlights include: (1) People associate the library with books and do not consider the library in relation to online resources or reference services; (2) People…

College students are accessing virtual libraries whether they are on campus or learning from a distance. Academic institutions serving virtual patrons must remain focused on meeting the needs of those library users by continually examining their preferences, their searching behavior, and the information they seek. The purpose of this research was…

Technology has transformed libraries. There are digital libraries, electronic collections, online databases and catalogs, ebooks, downloadable books, and much more. With free technology such as social websites, newspaper collections, downloadable online calendars, clocks and sticky notes, online scheduling, online document sharing, and online…

Organization of electronic resources workflow is critical in the increasingly complicated and complex world of library management. A simple organizational tool that can be readily applied to electronic resources management (ERM) is the use of checklists. Based on the principles discussed in The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, the…

Virtual environments such as Second Life (SL) may provide a way to connect with today's digital native and increase the readership of the community college student, both in virtual and real world libraries. Many colleges and universities already have a presence in SL. Books and services typically found in a "brick and mortar" library can…