This article examines how finding aids are structured and delivered, considering alternative approaches. It suggests that single-level displays, those that present a single component of a multilevel description to users at a time, have the potential to transform the delivery and display of collection information while improving the user…

Technology makes it possible to redefine libraries and make them relevant to the public once again. But how good are the digital services offered by public libraries today? The digital services department team of the Pode project at Norway's Oslo Public Library has spent the last 2 years investigating the possibilities available in order to…

Librarians have long recognized the importance of privacy to intellectual freedom. As digital technology and its applications advance, however, efforts to protect privacy may become increasingly difficult. With some users behaving in ways that suggest they do not care about privacy and with powerful voices claiming that privacy is dead, librarians…

While no one agrees exactly when it will happen, expectations are high that the digital textbook market will eventually elbow print textbooks off the shelves. When that day finally comes, what happens to the campus bookstore? It is hard to imagine a college or university without one, but in a world where most students are downloading their…

This study examines possible success factors when developing technical solutions for dyslexic students. Findings in the literature, in a web survey answered by students and in the experiences from the development process at the Medical Faculty Library, Lund University, were used to find out potential success factors and difficulties. The…

The Ohio University Libraries has been a part of the university's Freshman Year Experience (FYE) classes almost since their inception. Over the past ten years, we have tried many variations on the "library day" lesson plan, with various (low) success rates. For fall of 2010, the FYE coordinator asked for an extremely simple plan: just…

Results of a multi-campus survey compare self-assessment of online skills and frequency of use to satisfaction with services. Students who rated skills as high also reported satisfaction with library services. Lower self-assessed skills are associated with lower satisfaction and non-use of services. Librarians may consider using self-assessed…

Since the 1990s, the assessment of learning outcomes in academic libraries has accelerated rapidly, and librarians have come to recognize the necessity of articulating and assessing student learning outcomes. Initially, librarians developed tools and instruments to assess information literacy student learning outcomes. Now, academic librarians are…

Introduction: Critical appraisal is a crucial aspect of evidence-based practice. In order to determine whether research is valid, reliable and applicable, the evidence-based practice process advocates that published research be critically appraised. Between 2006 and 2008, the journal Evidence Based Library and Information Practice published 101…

This article presents a case study of the intranet implementation and adoption process of a SharePoint intranet at a small academic library and investigates why the many Web 2.0 tools of the library intranet are currently underused. Staff interviews showed that common goals for an intranet, such as information dissemination, knowledge sharing,…

That little rectangle with a button next to it? (Those things called search boxes but might just as well be called "resource drains.") Imagine it disappearing from a library's webpages. The intricate works behind these design elements make up a major portion of what library staff spends time and money developing, populating, supporting,…

Student-run Facebook groups offer librarians a new means of interacting with students in their native digital domain. Facebook groups, a service launched in 2010 enables university students to create a virtual forum to discuss their concerns, issues, and promote events. While still a relatively new feature, these groups are increasingly being…

The current study aimed to investigate language students' use of print and electronic resources for their research papers required in research techniques class, focusing on which reading strategies they used while reading these resources. The participants of the study were 90 sophomore students enrolled in the research techniques class offered at…

Academic libraries are currently facing their greatest challenge since the explosion in tertiary education and academic publishing, which began after World War II. The global digital revolution is affecting both the traditional forms of the creation, organisation, and dissemination of knowledge, and the world of tertiary education itself. In the…

This constructivist grounded theory study proposes an explanation of community college library instruction coordinators' efforts to sustain effective library instruction programs in southern California. The theory explains library instruction coordinators' positive approaches to the paradoxes, or persistent tensions, that they encounter when they…