Discussion of women and leadership focuses on women in librarianship. Highlights include the evolution of thought about women and leadership; feminist research and theory; Margaret McIntosh's model for leadership, including womanless leadership, problems in leadership, and leadership redefined; equity in leadership; and implications for…

Discusses providing an onsite coffee bar in a public library; includes guidelines for feasibility assessment, writing a request for proposal, and working with vendors. Weighs the advantages and disadvantages of working with big vendors and choosing a cart or a full-scale cafe. (PEN)

Describes recent improvements in the Chicago Public Library's performance evaluation system that has made it more participative and effective. Discusses three areas of change: broadening the range and improving the relevance of the appraisal criteria; increasing the number of rating criteria; and requiring narrative commentaries on employee…

Attitudes of 139 Western New York library assistants towards training, support from management for training, and topics for training have been measured. Release time, funding, and specific training suggestions by supervisors have been found to correlate with training participation.

This paper outlines professional development activities for new academic librarians. The authors review and critique various professional development activities including publishing, presentations, involvement in professional organizations, continuing education, and institutional and community service. Includes descriptions of activities and a…

Although some people feel that there should be no expectation of privacy in a library because it is a public place, the debate on the library's obligation to protect patron privacy continues. Despite the media attention given to some notorious breaches of privacy (for example, the hacking of Paris Hilton's electronic address book), and the…

Relevance has been called the "What's In It For Me" (WIIFM) issue. If there is not something in the content that the learner really needs, then they normally do not want to be bothered with it. Relevance is learner driven, but must be teacher provided for optimal learning. Relevance is so important to the making of meaning that Eric Jensen (1996,…

In this column, the author provides a description and brief review of the "Children's Literature Comprehensive Database" (CLCD). This subscription database is a 1999 spinoff from Marilyn Courtot's "Children's Literature" website, which began in 1993 and is a free resource of reviews and features about books, authors, and illustrators. The separate…

The Public Library Association (PLA) Conference, Seattle, February 24?28, relieved much of the sting felt by vendors who had exhibited at the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in San Diego (InfoTech, LJ 2/15/04 , p. 27ff.). In stark contrast to ALA, which suffered from some of the slowest floor traffic in recent memory,…

The underlying essence behind all creativity is the humanity that elevates art above manufactured product. Creativity takes courage to be nurtured and extracts personal sacrifices. Gifted with premonitions, obscured by insecurities, inflated by, ego, skewed by emotional highs and lows, wild and crazy, the lives of creative people are rarely dull.…

Across the country, school improvement plans and school improvement committees are the guiding forces in schools. As school improvement plans are created, revised, and evaluated, library media specialists have an opportunity to demonstrate how they can play a critical part in the team that strives to increase student achievement in their building.…

Classrooms are places for learning. The library media center, which is the library media specialist's classroom, should also be a major place for learning. The author, as a classroom teacher for 20 years, knows that for learning to take place, consistency is crucial. Realistic rules and enforcement of these rules helps with this consistency.…

Newspapers can open up opportunities for classes to use library resources along with them. Some of the suggestions offered to teachers regarding the use of newspapers in the classroom and library such as locating additional information, practicing reading skills, comparing or contrasting, and creative writings are discussed.

Results of this study confirm the paucity of books in classroom libraries and the insufficient school funding for the classroom library. A sample of New York City teachers reported that they spent an average of $378 of their own money on classroom library books, and received an average of $143 from the school each year for books and supplies.…

This report presents the early findings of an exploratory deep log analysis (DLA) of journal usage on OhioLINK, reporting on the information seeking methods of users. Compared to the users who sought information by browsing journals, those who conducted searches to find information and articles tended to record longer session times and viewed more…