Web design is a necessarily iterative process. During the process, it can be difficult to balance the interests and focus of the library site experts and their novice users. It can also be easy to lose focus on the main goals of site use and become wrapped up in the process of design or coding or in the internal politics of site design. Just as…

Using citation analysis, the authors examined the journals cited in theses and dissertations over the first five years of the Water Resources Graduate Program at Oregon State University. These journal titles were compared to the titles predicted as being important in the 2003 Oregon State University Libraries new program (Category I) review. A…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the functional attributes of the automated serials control systems of the libraries in seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and provide a comparative analysis. Design/methodology/approach: Features of the serials control modules of the library management systems (LMSs) in use in the…

Professors contribute to Institutional Repositories (IRs) to make their materials widely accessible in keeping with the benefits of Open Access. However, universities' commitment to IRs depends on building trust with faculty and solving copyright concerns. Digital preservation and copyright management in IRs should be strengthened to increase…

On June 15-16, 2010, California State Librarian Stacey A. Aldrich, initiated a strategic planning summit in Sacramento, California. The purpose of the summit was to build the future pathways for the California State Library (CSL)--one of California's oldest cultural institutions. This was accomplished by developing a CSL strategic plan (values,…

In 2000, the Colorado State Library published "How School Librarians Help Kids Achieve Standards: The Second Colorado Study." This follow-up study is the third Colorado study of the impact of school libraries and librarians on academic achievement, and the second study to examine their impact on student performance on the Colorado…

Current literature on libraries is abundant with articles about the uses and the potential of new interactive communication technology, including Web 2.0 tools. Recently, the advent and use of virtual worlds have received top billing in these works. Many library institutions are exploring these virtual environments; this exploration and the…

The Digital Initiatives department at Miami University, like most digital initiatives and special collections departments, has a large number of rich digital image collections, stored primarily in a third-party database. Typically, these databases are not findable to the average Web user. From a desire to expose these collections to the wider Web…

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has a long history of data collection, environmental scanning, and trends analysis. Its most recent work, "Futures Thinking for Academic Librarians," uses a 15-year horizon to look beyond the worries of the current economic cycle and the short-term future in order to anticipate the changing…

Regular readers of "Computers in Libraries" are aware that social networks are forming increasingly important linkages to professional and personal development in all libraries. Live and virtual social networks have become the new learning playground for librarians and library staff. Social networks have the ability to connect those who are…

When the Vise Library at Cumberland University set down the path to their digital makeover, they were optimistic that they could completely revolutionize their library's web presence. They tried to keep their goals manageable, but it turns out they did not "quite" achieve 100% success. In this article, the author describes how they have…

Digital learning environments are spaces in which data are shared, generated, and recorded. At the end of an online course, a rich collection of digital artifacts are left behind by the instructor and learners. Some artifacts are intentionally created learning materials and assignments, some are the products of class interaction in discussion…

Teachers often recommend that families engage their children in shared book reading to support literacy learning at home. When teachers purposefully provide families with home literacy activities there are benefits for everyone involved. The purpose of this article is to report the findings of a study that examined parental participation and…

Librarians recognize the importance of professional learning as their roles and responsibilities evolve in the shifting teaching and learning environments of the twenty-first century. However, the literature on meaningful, job-embedded learning opportunities for academic librarians is scant, and opportunities are especially scarce in the fields of…

Librarians at colleges and universities invested in graduate education must understand and incorporate adult learning theories in their reference and instruction interactions with graduate students to more effectively support the students' learning. After participating in a professional development program about adult learning theory, librarians…