Women who promoted library services to children in the United States in the late nineteenth century introduced the systematic use of survey research on library practice to the field of professional librarianship. They created a series of qualitative survey-based reports, the "Reading of the Young" reports, which were presented at ALA conferences…

This article discusses the development of academic research in the LIS domain and the purpose of LIS research. It is argued that there are several constituent parts of the research tradition, both theoretical and empirical, and that this has created tensions and misunderstandings between researchers and practitioners. Against this background, the…

Science and engineering libraries have an important role to play in preserving the intellectual content in research areas of the departments they serve. This study employs bibliographic data from the Web of Science database to examine how much research material is required to cover 90% of faculty citations in civil engineering and computer…

Research support services at The University of Queensland Library (UQ Library) have evolved in response to the global and national drivers, which have impacted on broader University strategy. UQ Library's success in responding to these drivers has involved leveraging the information within, and capacity of, the institutional repository, the core…

It is no secret that library budgets are in a downward spiral like the rest of the economy. The recent annual budget survey by the "Library Journal" indicates that per capita funding for libraries will decline 1.6%, and total library budgets will be reduced by 2.6% in FY 2010. Librarians are all too familiar with this bad news, and some of them…

Shared leadership theory recognizes leader influence throughout the organization, not just from the top down. This study explores how middle managers from 22 academic libraries in the Pacific West perceive their own agreement, participation and recognition of shared leadership. This survey and framework is the first to examine the extent shared…

The year 2010 saw a major revolution in tablet technology with the introduction of the Apple iPad. Curious about the potential of this new technology for libraries, a group of librarians at Ryerson University in Toronto seized an opportunity to investigate the emerging role of the tablet in the daily academic lives of students. The group found…

In recent years public libraries have experimented with user-generated or community-contributed content through the interactive tools of Web 2.0. For some commentators this not just establishes a new relationship between libraries and their publics, but signals the end of information hegemony and an "expert paradigm". Such claims need to…

Since 2008, Victoria University (VU) Library has employed 20 or more Student Assistants annually who work on a casual basis for up to 12 hours per week during terms/semesters to staff the Library in Study Hall mode (where there is self-service access to PCs and collections and limited staff assistance). This initiative appears to have been highly…

Many research libraries are looking for new ways to demonstrate value for their parent institutions. Metrics, assessment, and promotion of research continue to grow in importance, but they have not always fallen into the scope of services for the research library. Montana State University (MSU) Library recognized a need and interest to quantify…

This dissertation analyzes how North Carolina State University's (NCSU) James B. Hunt Jr. Library extends the ways in which the information architectures of academic research libraries can function as a technology, as discourse, and as rhetoric. The starting point for the analysis is the libraries of antiquity, which functioned technologically as…

While not a new topic, many conversations are occurring about the roles of library staff and the changing nature of their work in support of research, teaching, and learning. Boundaries between specific functions or departments within the library continue to change as library employees grapple with issues of their roles in new service models.…

This study draws from narrative research, wherein stories of individuals, groups, and communities are central to the interpretation. Through a process of interpretive interactionism, the author examined the groups and institutions involved in the ongoing conflict between the state and public education in Oaxaca, and then included comparisons and…

This article presents an analysis of the feasibility of a bookless library in a research setting. As spaces for collections are being converted for increased study and community spaces, many libraries have been moving low-use collections to off-site storage. Issues regarding the types of storage spaces available are addressed. Concerns and…

As federal government information is increasingly migrating to online formats, libraries are providing links to this content via URLs or persistent URLs (PURLs) in their online public access catalogs (OPACs). Clickthrough statistics that accumulated as users visited links to online content in the University of Denver's library OPAC were gathered…