Creating a tendency for their students to act in a certain manner under a given circumstance is exactly what library media specialists are about. This is something they do teach. They have two main purposes as library media specialists. One purpose is to create and support the love of literature. A second purpose is to develop ethical users of…

This article describes the process of producing "Snow Soup"--the 2009 Adobe Flash animation produced by the Computer Game Development and Animation seniors of Washington County Technical High School in Hagerstown, Maryland, for libraries in their area. In addition to the Flash product, the students produced two related Game Maker games, a printed…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the features that international student users prefer for next generation OPACs. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 16 international students of the University of Sheffield were interviewed in July 2008 to explore their preferences among potential features in next generation OPACs. A…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that Web 2.0 provides an exciting set of tools for librarians to help their students become more information-literate. Design/methodology/approach: Recently, information overload and Web 2.0 have led librarians to adopt practices labelled as Library 2.0. Information literacy can be the key to…

Parent volunteers can be an important asset to a well-run school library. Parent volunteers are that extra pair of hands and extra eyes. Monotonous and even tedious tasks can be accomplished quickly by people searching for ways to spend a little time with adult conversation while providing a benefit to their children. And eventually they can…

Research and professional practice in librarianship has increasingly turned to community-focused information services (CIS), which allow people to participate in creating and sharing information about themselves and their communities. These information services have a great potential to empower and engage marginalized communities; however, in this…

With the increasing ranks of cell phone ownership is an increase in text messaging, or texting. During 2008, more than 2.5 trillion text messages were sent worldwide--that's an average of more than 400 messages for every person on the planet. Although many of the messages teenagers text each day are perhaps nothing more than "how r u?" or "c u…

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) enabled the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to develop increased visibility among leaders shaping the development of the Internet. It also provided a mechanism for ARL member institutions and others to engage in partnership strategies to develop projects that would bring digital content and…

This paper briefly describes the structure of the national higher education association community, discusses the role of coalitions in collective advocacy, and reviews collaborations between the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) carried out during the tenure of ARL Executive Director Duane…

This article provides a number of examples of nonfiction texts, corresponding comprehension strategies, and ideas for service-learning projects that, when combined, can result in greater student motivation and comprehension when reading nonfiction texts. Additional books are also suggested for several topics. (Contains 6 notes.)

National Standard 9, "understanding music in relation to history and culture," forms the basis for this article about family traditions found in bluegrass music. With historical information about the roots of bluegrass music in the Old Time tradition, the author provides helpful links and instructional strategies to help general music…

The results of a survey to determine the training needs and normative experiences of temporary government documents librarians are presented. The results indicate that temporary librarians tend to work in academia, have been in librarianship for a shorter time period, and have fewer technical processing skills than permanent documents librarians.…

How can library media specialists encourage kids to read outside the curriculum and maintain this reading beyond elementary school? What does it take to get children involved in recreational reading and turn their focus to books? At Sycamore Elementary School in Avon, Indiana, library media specialists have organized reading programs which have…

In this article, the author presents a list of her favorite romantic young adult novels to tempt the hearts of the tweens and teens. They are arranged in their appropriate Cupid-inspired categories.

This survey was conducted to determine how ARL (Association of Research Libraries) libraries are participating in extension/outreach through three objectives: identify the level of involvement; determine the types of outreach service, as well as user populations; and ascertain the impact on the library, including its financial donor programs. A…