This essay challenges traditional assumptions about the small-town American public library and the roles it has played in its community. Conventional thinking and professional rhetoric grounded on a "user in the life of the library" perspective identifies the public library as a neutral agency "essential to democracy" that…

Librarians should think of Yelp (yelp.com) as a kind of giant suggestion box hanging on the wall of the Internet. This web-based review service describes itself as "an online urban city guide that helps people find cool places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play, based on the informed opinions of a vibrant and active community of locals in the…

In March 2010, the first floor of the main library at The Florida State University was renovated as a learning commons. With this change in design, all tutoring that existed throughout the library was moved into the commons. The crown jewel of these programs is the library's in-house, late-night peer tutoring program that has seen incredible…

This paper applied Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) to Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to identify service improvement techniques for an academic library. First, reader needs and their importance, and satisfaction degrees were examined via questionnaires. Second, the service improvement techniques for satisfying the reader needs were developed by…

Over 2000 participants made the daylong programming at the "Library Journal"/"School Library Journal" Virtual Ebook Summit, September 29, a robust conversation and not just within the summit interface but also in tweets with the #ebooksummit hashtag (and beyond) and in libraries across the country where participants logged in to take part. The…

In March 2007, SirsiDynix notified its Horizon and classic Dynix customers that it would not be releasing Horizon 8.0 in favor of developing its Unicorn software. As vice president/president-elect of SirsiDynix's Horizon/Dynix user group, the author was one of the first ones to be notified of this abrupt change in company strategy. The news sent…

This article describes the implementation of an interdisciplinary design studio as a means to teach creative problem-solving through project-based learning. "Learning and Innovation Skills" has been designated as a core skill that students need to be successful in today's world, and project-based learning is one approach to helping…

This article features Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML), winner of the Gale/"Library Journal" Library of the Year Award 2010. CML, comprised of an operations center and 21 branches, serves the 847,376 people who inhabit a large portion of Franklin County in central Ohio. It is an independent library with its own taxing district. CML…

Academic libraries support their universities' goals of developing and maintaining successful research programs. As the information landscape and researcher practices change, recognition of the library's role in supporting research may be diminishing. This article will explore some aspects of the academic research enterprise and identify…

For the August/September 2010 issue of "Library Technology Reports" (LTR) published by the American Library Association Techsource division, the author and her colleague, Rachel A. Fleming-May, focused on use and usage, both of electronic resources and use of libraries in general. In this article, the author discusses a few of the findings from an…

This paper describes the creation of a poster for the poster session that was part of the ACRL Science and Technology Section program "Federal Friends: Creating Greater Access to and Support for Science and Technology Information," at the American Library Association Annual Conference in June 2010. Details about the making of the poster up to and…

No matter how cutting edge (and nicely funded) one's library is, there is always something cooler and more efficient on the horizon. Granted, not all new technology may be necessary in the library. But chances are one is going to want to get something--RFID (radio frequency identification), text reference, downloadable content, gaming,…

"One-to-one" computing projects in which learners work with individual laptops or tablets across subjects are rapidly increasing in number. One aspect of this is that as the laptops give access to the Internet; digital images and texts--potentially from all over the globe--move into the classroom in an unprecedented manner. The paper…

Interested in connecting users with the latest resources aimed at advancing intellectual inquiry and discovery, researchers from Texas Tech University Libraries decided to embark on a study to explore the practicality of the latest technology, the iPad, within the varying functions of academia. Using an online survey and focus groups, the…

In academia, there is a growing acceptance of sharing the final electronic version of graduate work, such as a thesis or dissertation, in an online university repository. Though previous studies have shown that journal editors are willing to consider manuscripts derived from electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), faculty advisors and graduate…