This manual is intended to help library staff maximize their work by providing information and references to many of the "frequently asked questions." There are two parts to the manual. The "Overview" is an introduction to school librarianship in Alaska that discusses putting school libraries in perspective; managing the school…

The projects collected in this book represent a wide cross section of the way microcomputers are used in libraries. Each project description includes organization and contact information, hardware and software used, cost and project length estimates, and Web or print references when available. Projects come from academic and public libraries,…

The presence of Siberian and Far Eastern libraries on the Internet has become the reality of today. Joining this community, they solve at least two main problems--those of rational use of World Wide Web resources and those of providing access to their own products. There is a system of fixing documentary streams disclosing regional problems. Each…

This paper presents the results of a survey that investigated which countries follow the United Nations recommendations by having a national policy for library services to visually impaired and other print handicapped children. Questionnaires were distributed to the 78 members of the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and…

Provides an overview of knowledge management and benchmarking, including the benefits and methods of benchmarking (e.g., competitive, cooperative, collaborative, and internal benchmarking). Arthur Andersen's KMAT (Knowledge Management Assessment Tool) is described. The KMAT is a collaborative benchmarking tool, designed to help organizations make…

This paper traces the expansion of the Internet into Russian and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) libraries from basic access to the development of World Wide Web (WWW) servers. An analysis of the most representative groups of library WWW-servers arranged by projects, by corporate library network, or by geographical characteristics is…

The questions of how and to what extent the changing information environment has influenced the concept of the national bibliography were addressed at the conference, "The National Bibliography in a Changing Information Environment," held in Estonia in October, 2000. The National Library of Estonia, organizer of the conference, invited…

This paper discusses the experiences of the Research Department of the Italian Chamber of Deputies over the past few years. The first section describes the origin of the department in the 1970s, including political factors, basic organizational features, and the salient features of the department's activity. The second section addresses the…

The Utah State Library Division conducted an evaluation of its participation in the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). The evaluation plan determined by the Utah State Library Division used two approaches designed to examine issues and achievements related to LSTA: focus groups and a statewide survey. Utah State University (USU) was…

This manual provides a beginning approach for research libraries to better describe the use and users of their networked services. The manual also aims to increase the visibility and importance of developing such statistics and measures. Specific objectives are: to identify selected key statistics and measures that can describe use and users of…

This paper discusses digital libraries on the Internet. The resource repository hierarchy, consisting of two major paradigms, search engines (SEs) and digital libraries, is presented. SEs are classified into three categories: basic-SE, directory, and meta-SE. The following six major characteristics of a library are summarized: collection of data…

This paper discusses the impact of the Baby Boomer generation on public libraries. The paper has five main objectives: (1) to provide a statistical and demographic profile of the Baby Boomers at the local, state, and national levels within Australia; (2) to provide characteristics of the Baby Boomer generation; (3) to present comparative results…

Occasional Papers deal with varied aspects of librarianship and consist of papers that generally are too long or too detailed for publication in a periodical, or are of specialized or contemporary interest. This latest volume in the Occasional Paper series reviews the changing and cumulative institutional functions of libraries in Western…

This report provides summary information about public libraries in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for state fiscal year (FY) 2002. It covers service measures such as access to the Internet, number of users of electronic resources, other electronic services, number of Internet terminals used by staff only, number of Internet terminals…

This document is intended to stimulate thinking about the role of the library in the digital age, about the potential--and the imperative--for libraries to meet new needs, and about how these needs will influence the design of physical space. The goal of this document is to expose an array of perspectives on the future of the library and to…