Public libraries are redefining their roles in order to stay relevant to the needs of the communities they serve. Today, libraries are places where reading meets hands-on learning and where quietness coexists with voices and music. The latest advances in technology for children and teens, specifically, robotics sets and media-rich software, are…

In this article, the author discusses using Second Life (SL) in school librarianship. SL is a multi-user virtual environment in which persons create avatars to allow them to move and interact with other avatars. They can build and manipulate objects. To move, they can walk, run, fly, or teleport. There are many areas within SL to allow people to…

Robert Young became the Director of Education at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, in October of 2007. In this article, the author discusses some of the workshops and other materials available for teachers and students at the Folger. Beginning with an idea that Peggy O'Brien had 23 years ago, Folger Education has developed into a…

This article is Part 3 of a three part summary of selected articles from the journals of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) over a period of thirty-five years from 1972 to 2007. This three-part series in the April, May, and June (2009) issues of "School Library Media Activities Monthly" ("SLMAM") illustrate the evolution in…

The social work library at USC provides a case study of an academic library's transition to an information center service model. Analysis of the collection, user community, Web 2.0 applications, and Web usage data demonstrates how the changes facilitated library services and information literacy instruction. (Contains 6 tables and 3 figures.)

There is a general perception that as librarians, we know what constitutes and defines a rare book, that our heritage book collections are well-documented and their future survival is planned for and secure. This discussion paper asks whether our definitions of heritage material might be too narrow and whether they reflect the reality across all…

The intent of this paper is to explore the potential of utilizing interlibrary loan (ILL) data relating to lending denials to improve ILL services while highlighting institutional policies that have a negative impact on lending fulfillment rates. Reasons for denial as well as the types of requests being denied are reviewed. In addition, the author…

Proponents of Open Educational Resources (OER) point to numerous ways that a new approach to thinking about teaching and learning can break down barriers, making education accessible, available, and affordable to all. Digitized educational material that can be used, reused, translated, customized, and shared by faculty, students, and researchers…

A very high proportion of librarians are neither required to publish nor rewarded if they do. The would-be librarian/writer would be well advised to take a brief self-examination before developing a research and publication plan. The author provides a list of questions to consider and also suggests consultation with a colleague with greater…

The appearance of 3D printers in university libraries opens many opportunities for advancing outreach, teaching, and research programs. The University of Alabama (UA) Libraries recently adopted 3D printing technology and maintains an open access 3D Printing Studio. The Studio consists of a 3D printer, multiple 3D design workstations, and other…

Introduction: A new theoretical model, relevant to library and information science, is implemented in this paper. The aim of this study is to contribute to the theoretical concepts of library and information science by introducing an ethnological model developed for investigating charter tourist styles thereby increasing our knowledge of users'…

Students are increasingly participating in online courses. This increased participation in online courses can result in students being more distant from their campuses, thus receiving a different kind of service from their institution. Along with this increase in participation in online courses is the increase in availability of information…

Augmented reality technology has implications for the ways that the field of library and information science (LIS) serves users and organizes information. Through content analysis, the author examined how augmented reality (AR) is conceptualized within a sample of LIS literature from the Library and Information Science & Technology Abstracts…

To date, no systematic analysis of the current body of literature has aimed to understand the extent to which school technology leadership is being investigated. This review of the literature presents a content analysis of articles published from 1997 through 2010 housed in the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) database on the topic of…

This article describes the outcome of a collaboration between a faculty member and a librarian to integrate information literacy into a graduate counseling psychology program. This collaboration used discipline-based standards from a professional association (the Association of Counselor Education and Supervision, ACES) to provide instructional…