Online booksellers have done a terrific job of developing ways to let customers share their opinions about books with the goal of getting a person to buy more books. They have also made effective use of the bottom line, which is what a customer spends those hard-earned dollars on, to further entice people to add one more item to their cart. In…

Amid the sea change that libraries and information centers currently face, people are starting to see compelling solutions and bold initiatives from their colleagues. The challenge now becomes how to "spread the gospel"--how to inform widely dispersed information professionals about the successes they record. In 2011, volunteers within the Special…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose meta-synthetic ideas and knowledge asset management approaches to build a comprehensive strategic framework for Beijing City in China. Design/methodology/approach: Methods include a review of relevant literature in both English and Chinese, case studies of different types of support frameworks in…

This article stresses the importance of building design above technology as a relatively inexpensive way to reduce energy costs for a library. Emphasis is placed on passive solar design for heat and daylighting, but also examines passive ventilation and cooling, green roofs, and building materials. Passive design is weighed against technologies…

More than two decades of debate since the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) adopted the term information literacy have been marked by ongoing criticism of its associated definitions and standards. Some scholars and practitioners have argued for a critical information literacy, which applies the precepts of critical pedagogy to…

As new models of scholarly communication emerge, librarians and libraries have responded by developing and supporting new methods of storing and providing access to information and by creating new publishing support services. This article will examine the roles of libraries and librarians in developing and supporting open access publishing…

Research is conducted all over the world to solve problems or to answer questions of significance to humanity. Academic writing or writing to report research is not easy because it requires adequate background knowledge, interest, motivation and hard work. This study investigates the major challenges in research writing faced by Libyan EFL…

News reports and well-publicized government studies have led to a popular perception that reading is an endangered activity, particularly among youth. In this study we surveyed college students, librarians, and college writing instructors about students' attitudes toward reading for pleasure, examine barriers to voluntary reading among college…

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Science Digital Library/Distributed Learning (NSDL) program turned 10 years old in 2010. This report presents results of a preliminary program evaluation carried out by RAND and is organized around three principal goals: (1) Provide an initial evaluation of NSDL based on existing information…

The number of U.S. school librarians has greatly diminished despite advocacy efforts on the local and national level. This case study investigated the factors that led governing board members in a mid-size urban high school district to retain certified school librarian positions despite a major economic crisis. Data were collected through school…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out whether LibQUAL+[TM]can account for student loyalty to the library of an institution of higher education. LibQUAL+[TM] is a marketing tool that is used to measure perceived service quality of libraries, and the present analysis aims at validating this service quality instrument within a more…

In their requirements for Model and Master Classroom, Library, and School Certification, Renaissance Learning, the parent company of Accelerated Reader (AR), emphasizes the components for a successful reading program. Using Reading Renaissance requires emphasis on literacy throughout the entire school and makes the job of the school librarian a…

The study's purpose was evaluating skills and qualities library directors receive and recommending changes to their training. The project answered 5 research questions, such as, What will the data in Section 3 of the Senior Library Director Skills and Qualities Survey reveal senior library directors in the state-wide consortium perceive are…

In the new AASL "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner," the very first Common Belief is "Reading is a window to the world." School library media specialists have always developed collections of materials (both print and non-print) to hook students in and keep them engaged in reading. They continually promote their collections to both students…

While teacher-librarians embrace the concept of equitable access when they select "multicultural" materials to include in their collections, plan special programs, and teach lessons on a variety of topics, what do they do to make equitable access a part of their online catalogs? Have they achieved (or nearly achieved) a consistent level of…