Googlitis, the overreliance on search engines for research and the resulting development of poor searching skills, is a recognized problem among today's students. Google is not an effective research tool because, in addition to encouraging keyword searching at the expense of more powerful subject searching, it only accesses the Surface Web and is…

The fitness for purpose of professional education for library work has been constantly debated. Librarianship education and library practice have changed significantly as a result of technological, social and other factors affecting information provision and use. The key role of subject librarian in academic libraries has been particularly…

I am grateful to the Editor for giving me excuse to delve into the fossil record. I confidently hope that my article was written before most of The Australian Library Journal's present readership was born. I am happy to stay with my pragmatic attempt at a definition of research as an intensified search undertaken with the hope of finding something…

Schools and teachers act to a limited degree in "loco parentis", thus assuming the role of parents, especially in the health and safety of minors in attendance at public school, but also in setting educational standards. Public schools have been delegated this role and implement policies, programs, and procedures that sometimes, unintentionally,…

Humans synthesize whenever they see links between ideas they have gleaned from other sources. Human brains operate by seeing patterns and trying to make linkages. As students learn about a topic through creating a text-based presentation, they might have varying conceptual understandings of how they can combine their ideas with the information…

The cataloging of otherwise unprocessed collections is an innovative minimal processing technique with important implications for reference service. This article mines the existing literature for how institutions engaged in minimal processing view reference, the strengths and weaknesses of catalog records as finding aids, and information about…

The "use" of library resources and services is frequently presented in library and information science (LIS) literature as a primitive concept: an idea that need not be defined when it is being measured as an operational variable in empirical research. This project considered representations of library "use" through the…

This article will outline the development of an Information Literacy Strategy in 2009 as part of an overall program of curriculum review and renewal at La Trobe University, Australia. Current information literacy programs at La Trobe University Library employ a diverse range of approaches and delivery methods. However, they are limited in scope…

A recent "New York Times" article heralded a film documentary whose subject was a competition in which the entrants vied for the title of "one of the best craftsmen of France." The film spotlights the competition between pastry chefs--French pastry chefs--who come from all over France to compete. It's a microcosm of larger…

The Common Core Standards (CCS) movement represents a double-edged sword for school librarians. On the one hand, it gives prominence to inquiry skills and interdisciplinary collaboration, reinforcing the profession's efforts to infuse inquiry into the curriculum through collaborative planning and co-instruction between classroom teachers and…

In this study, three years of SFX usage logs at Texas A&M University were analyzed to determine how patrons use link resolver services. The study contrasts the actions taken by users when full text is and is not available and compares public versus staff usage. The results confirmed users' preference for full-text services but also provided…

This paper investigates latest developments in sustainability studies, sustainability education and geography's place in sustainability education, with a focus on the USA. The investigation draws on latest information on sustainability education, from a survey of the 29 sustainability degree programs in the USA and interviews with the program…

This article discusses findings from a longitudinal research study that examined the way graduate students carry out the literature review and how they were impacted by attending a library literature review workshop. The literature review research process serves as an important gateway for graduate students into their scholarly communities'…

Interlibrary lending is often overlooked when resource-sharing operations are evaluated. The relevant literature shows a lack of current lending studies. It can be difficult to convince administrators that lending should be considered to be as important as borrowing in spite of the fact that one cannot operate without the other. 26,800 cancelled…

This article presents the results of a comprehensive survey of integrated library system (ILS) vendors conducted by the author and commissioned by "Computers in Libraries" CIL. The survey was intended to: (1) provide an up-to-date comparison of functionality currently available in ILS products; (2) provide a comparison of support services…