Information Literacy (IL) competencies are defined as "the ability to locate, evaluate, and use information effectively" and are considered essential for students in their academic lives and future careers (ALA, 1989). IL plays an important role in developing critical thinking and problem solving skills, and improving academic…

Not since the age of Gutenberg has an information upheaval so thoroughly disrupted the processes of scholarly knowledge creation, management and preservation as the digital revolution currently under way. Academic libraries have traditionally been structured to effectively facilitate the access, use and storage of mostly static, print-based…

Libraries need to weigh the benefits, usage, and cost-effectiveness of owning collections against seeking alternatives to deliver the information needed by customers. The University of Arizona Library investigated different approaches for meeting the research needs of East Asian Studies faculty and students under great pressure of physical space…

ARL is the bimonthly report on research library issues and actions from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). ARL reports on current issues of interest to academic and research library administrators, staff, and users; higher education…

Over the past several decades, millions of digital objects of significant scientific, economic, cultural, and historic value have been published and distributed to libraries and archives on removable media. Providing long-term access to these documents, media files, and software executables is an increasingly complex task because of dependencies…

This report presents the results of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) 1982 survey of librarians' salaries in 17 tables. A brief introduction summarizing the most significant statistical findings from the survey notes that the fiscal 1983 median salary for ARL university librarians was $23,500, an increase of 8.2% from the previous year.…

The United States Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Research Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, has set up a computerized service system following low-cost guidelines. (Author)

This kit, an updated version of a 1974 publication, resulted from a survey of Friends of the Library Organizations commissioned by Tulane University in 1974. All members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) were surveyed with a mailed questionnaire. The survey analysis is based on the 63 ARL members who responded, 33 of whom had Friends…

This kit on the preparation and presentation of the library budget in Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions contains a concise summary of the results of a 1977 member survey on budget preparation and eight related primary source documents. The summary of the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) survey focuses on types of…

This Association of Research Libraries (ARL) kit contains source documents providing information on the general background, statistics/criteria, formulas, and decision-making processes used in the allocation of materials funds in academic libraries. The kit comprises: (1) a working paper on "Guidelines for the Allocation of Library Materials…

An examination of the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center's (SPEC) file of 72 annual reports from Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions found that administrators were using annual reports for several purposes: as communication links with library users, the university administration, and the general university community,…

This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit on retrospective conversion, which replaces a 1975 kit on reclassification, is based on interviews with and documents from Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members participating in retrospective conversion (recon). (Reclassification is almost always conducted as a sub-project of…

In a March 1980 Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) survey on preservation activities in Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions, 40 libraries reported having conducted a formal preservation study or needs assessment, 28 had adopted planning or policy documents, and 58 reported operating an active preservation program…

To check on the status of online cataloging developments in Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions in 1983, a brief questionnaire was sent to ARL libraries that had indicated or reported some progress toward an online catalog. The sample was not intended to be representative of all ARL libraries, and it did not necessarily…

The major Italian university libraries have great concentrations of bibliographic wealth but little financial support for present acquisitions. This has led to an uneconomical proliferation of special libraries in numerous university departments. An international congress on new library technology could lead to a better and more coordinated…