The technology of the 21st century has had no shortage of challenges for libraries, but it has also brought opportunities. Operating systems, databases, and application environments that can use cheap off-the-shelf hardware to scale and handle hundreds of millions of transactions were not developed for libraries. However, libraries have taken…

The absence of a well-defined space for library resources within course-management systems has been well documented in library literature. Academic libraries have sought to remedy this deficiency in numerous ways. This article describes how a "library nugget," or module, was added to the Buffalo State College course-management system,…

A customer contact center offers academic libraries the ability to consistently improve their telephone, e-mail, and IM services. This paper discusses the establishment of a contact center and the benefits of implementing the contact center model at this institution. It then introduces a practical methodology for developing a valid measurement…

Academic librarians provide information literacy instruction and research services to graduate students. To develop evidence-based library instruction and research services for incoming graduate students, the authors interviewed fifteen incoming graduate students in the social sciences and analyzed the interviews using the Association of College &…

Ayamel is a system developed by Brigham Young University (BYU) and the American Councils for International Education. "Ayamel" is a stylized name developed to stand for International Media Library, a new designation for the federally funded project that started out as the "Flagship Media Library." The project was funded by The…

The research behaviors and library use of dance scholars are widely unknown, particularly in regard to issues of access to historical materials and new technology preferences. In the past thirty years, college and university dance departments in the United States have developed into independent, research-based programs. Despite the lack of current…

Information literacy (IL) is a multifaceted skill that encompasses information seeking, identifying research questions, finding answers to research questions, and then evaluating and using information appropriately (ALA 2001). Much research has been conducted on the low level of IL found amongst high school students. Failure to make connections…

Librarians often wish to know whether readers in a particular discipline favor e-books or print books. Because print circulation and e-book usage statistics are not directly comparable, it can be hard to determine the relative interest of readers in the two types of books. This study demonstrates a two-step method by which librarians can assess…

The scenario that the author encountered when she began working in her present position was not unusual for an elementary school library: the students study a culture, and the librarian reads the stories of that culture to them to enrich the study and to make the culture come alive. The fourth-graders studied the Maya in the fall and the ancient…

This article reports results from a survey about data management practices and attitudes sent to agriculture researchers and extension personnel at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University. Results confirm agriculture…

Electronic records management has been incorporated into the archival curriculum in North America since the 1990s. This study reported in this paper provides a systematic analysis of the content of electronic records management (ERM) courses currently taught in archival education programs. Through the analysis of course combinations and their…

As Open Educational Resources (OER) increasingly receive attention from academics, educational foundations, and government agencies, exemplars will emerge that lower student textbook costs by moving away from commercial publishers through self-publishing or curating web-based resources. Joe Moxley's "Writing Commons" serves as a scaled…

This study examines the influence of four predictor variables--university-wide research activity, faculty status (eligibility for sabbaticals), university control (public versus private), and enrollment--on the scholarly productivity of librarians at research universities in the United States. University-wide research activity is directly related…

As makerspaces begin to move into school libraries and classrooms, there is a growing need for professional development to help K-12 educators answer common questions such as "what is a makerspace," "why should I bother with a makerspace," "how do I run a makerspace," and "how do I teach from a makerspace?"…

This publication follows the tradition of publishing selected papers from Pacific Islands Association of Libraries, Archives and Museums (PIALA) annual conferences. This 21st annual conference was held in Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia, November 14-17, 2011. The volume begins with a listing of the members of the PIALA 2011 Planning…