Discussion of usability testing of Web interfaces for virtual libraries focuses on a usability study conducted at the University of South Florida. Highlights include testing instruments; discrepancies between actual performance and perceived performance; and the need to use plainer language and less jargon. (LRW)

Library history has constituted a significant portion of the research articles published in the "Australian Library Journal" and in "Australian Academic & Research Libraries". By contrast, archives history has attracted much less interest from researchers publishing in "Archives and Manuscripts". The author uses…

Librarians are conducting instruction sessions outside the traditional classroom setting using online tutorials with increasing frequency. Online tutorials seem like an obvious solution to meet the growing need for instruction to users in a time when resources are shrinking. Can librarians effectively teach library skills using an online tutorial?…

A collaborative learning activity that helps in developing library research skills is presented to help students get acquainted with librarians, used to the physical layout of the library resources, and develop an awareness of the information contained in the different library resources. The collaborative learning exercise introduces the students…

Criticisms of library and information science (LIS) research abound and most focus on method, in the broad sense. This article examines the discourse on LIS from the standpoint of rhetoric and argument. Rhetorical and argumentative strategies are used in almost all formal communication, and these strategies themselves communicate purpose and point…

This call for action addresses the high-level benefits of adopting a university-wide policy regarding research data management. It identifies the various university stakeholders and suggests that the library initiate a conversation among them in order to get buy-in for a proactive, rather than reactive, high-level policy for responsible data…

This article describes the formation and content of a required library and information research course for graduate and professional students enrolled in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Master of Arts degree program at Western Washington University. The course was created as a result of library assessment, student feedback, and faculty…

Google's Book Search program mines the holdings of research libraries for texts to digitize. Some of that material is out of copyright; a lot of it isn't. A lawsuit came about when some authors and publishers decided that Google's project exceeded the bounds of fair use. As part of a settlement, the parties have proposed creating a Book Rights…

Where library budgets are concerned, there is every evidence now, after three years, that research libraries have arrived at "the new normal." That is, they do not expect a return to systematic and regular additions to Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) budgets in order to support ever-increasing prices that are out of proportion to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on a study of the institutional repositories (IRs) in use in Indian universities and research institutes. Design/methodology/approach: Repositories in various institutions in India were accessed and described in a standardised way. Findings: The 20 repositories studied covered collections of diverse…

This review of Council on Library Resources (CLR) activities for 1991/92 begins by providing status descriptions on the four program areas identified by the Council as the focus of its attention and resources for the next several years. Programs described in the first area, Human Resources, are the Academic Library Management Program and the…

The 1986 annual report of the Council on Library Resources (CLR) reviews activity over the previous 10 years and provides a full record for the 12 months ending June 30, 1986, focusing on the program components of research, collaborative ventures to support operations and expand service capabilities, and the profession of librarianship.…

This paper examines developments at 26 universities to identify patterns and models of telecommunications information planning and decision-making. The study was designed to determine how telecommunications information (TI) policy questions are resolved on university campuses, and by whom. An important aspect of the study was to determine the role…

The Library Catalog Cost Model described in this report was developed to assist each of the 72 individual libraries participating in the project to compare the costs of alternative future forms of the catalog, emphasizing the costs of implementing AACR 2 (Anglo American Cataloging Rules 2). Inputs characterizing their costs and modes of operation…

This report is the third in a set of three reports from the project, "Issues in Library Research: Proposals for the 1990s," which was launched in September 1986 to investigate library and information science issues in order to assess the current state of the profession and identify a research agenda to lead into the next decade. This…