Research at a library at Utica College (New York) revealed that "roving" reference librarians provided more sophisticated and thorough service than "stationary" ones, improving student search strategies and prompting twice as much work with electronic resources as conventional service. Roving also boosted librarian-client…

Offers suggestions and strategies designed to enhance skills for planning, motivating, and implementing organizational change for librarians assuming the role of change agent. Highlights include the human side of change, including fear and anxiety; and a process model of change that includes three stages: endings, transitions, and new beginnings.…

To compile a list of recommended electronic databases for rural libraries, public library patron questions received by the Arizona State Reference Center were searched on ten databases. The results indicated Books in Print, Magazine Database, ABI/INFORM, Public Affairs Information System (PAIS), and Government Printing Office (GPO) Publications…

"Born to Read," has attempted to build a partnership between public librarians and health care providers to help new and expectant at-risk parents. Describes the experiences of projects in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), Provo (Utah), and Houston (Texas). Discusses literacy and learning theory, ethnic needs, and resources for infant/toddler…

Discusses problems in OPAC (online public access catalog) searching, describes the value and styles of pathfinders that are used as subject guides, and illustrates how to include them in a NOTIS system. Future possibilities are considered, and examples of NOTIS screen displays for pathfinders are appended. (Author/LRW)

Explains listservs and describes how to locate listservs relating to the law. Topics include how to use listservs as current awareness tools; how to locate listserv archives; and how to use listservs as databases of information. Sidebars provide pertinent Web site addresses. (LRW)

Examined the accessibility of two Web-based abstracting and indexing services by blind users using screen-reading programs based on guidelines from the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines by the WWW Consortium. Suggests Web developers need to conduct usability testing and librarians need to be aware of accessibility…

Discusses the need for public libraries to broaden their services to preschool children in family daycare settings and describes Project Booktalk, developed by the University of Florida to provide students with opportunities to become involved in early language and literacy development practices by reading to children in family daycare settings.…

Discusses digital media content on the Internet and describes Souvenir, a digital media annotation tool with Web publishing and email capabilities that allows people to use handwritten notes as a personal audio/video index to retrieve and share specific media moments. Explains how it can create hyperlinks to media stored in a digital library.…

Considers the current trend in libraries toward live, or digital, reference services. Highlights include models for reference, including synchronous versus asynchronous; benefits for users; software packages; user expectations; suitability of the technology; and determining the best service for users and their information needs. (LRW)

Discusses international students on campuses in the United States and examines cultural differences with a focus on communication processes and styles, and recommends ways to accommodate cross-cultural differences in information services in academic libraries. Includes a survey of relevant literature and draws on the results of focus groups.…

Describes an international study of the principal's role in developing and supporting school library programs that was conducted in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Japan, Scotland, and South Korea. Discusses three survey instruments that were used to provide information for principals and teacher-librarians that would inform their efforts to…

Discusses results of a California Library Association study that investigated library employees' salaries as compared to salaries of employees in comparable public jobs. Highlights include reasons for unfair library employee compensation; comparisons of support staff supervisor salaries and executive salaries; and how to use the data to improve…

Discussion of cataloging U.S. government documents collections focuses on a study that examined two methods offered by commercial vendors for matching library holdings against machine-readable cataloging records produced by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). A third method, using specific Superintendent of Documents classification numbers,…

Describes the use of the "Science Citation Index" in deciding whether to keep older basic science books that have failed to meet other criteria for collection retention. It is concluded that manual searching of the indexes proved feasible and reliable, while the lack of book titles on the online version reduced reliability of weeding…