Discusses difficulties involved in locating sources of statistical information on public libraries in Canada and describes a study conducted to identify and evaluate various sources of such information. An 18-item bibliography is provided. (CHC)

Reviews studies of historical and current trends in the library location theory; the relationship between distance and library users and variables, including available transportation, use motivation, and community awareness; and public facility location models such as central place theory and elastic demand. Extensive references, four figures, and…

Describes a study which found that faculty patrons of the University of North Dakota Library were willing to rely on interlibrary access to journals in lieu of subscribing to them, given the effectiveness of the library network. Four references are cited. (FM)

Reflects upon the AASL Preconference on action research held in 1979, and poses important challenges for school library media specialists who are striving to maximize their unique contributions to the instructional program in schools. (Author/CMV)

Describes a three-phase national study examining the concepts of cooperative library ventures and combined libraries to determine which institutional structure had the most potential for improving school and public library services in the state. (CMV)

Identifies the future research needs of information and referral services in public libraries. The major theme is that emphasis must be given to users--both present and potential users of public libraries. (Author/PF)

Discusses a secondary analysis of a user survey from 13 public libraries to isolate factors that contribute to high levels of performance by reference librarians and to identify reliable indicators that can be used to measure and evaluate reference services. Examined user ratings of reference services by transaction type, either self-generated or…

The failure of school library research to reach a wider audience is not simply a matter of dissemination. Research should be conducted on all grade levels and not predominantly secondary schools; relevant to the sponsor; cumulative and built on issues of theory, methodology, and substance developed in earlier work; and interdisciplinary. (PEN)

This focus group study explored library patrons' opinions about Texas A&M library's Web pages. Discusses information seeking behavior which indicated that patrons are confused when trying to navigate the Public Access Menu and suggests the need for a more intuitive interface. (Author/LRW)

This article employs a citation-tracking method for gathering and reviewing literature of academic librarianship. Each work discussed either cites the work of F.W. Lancaster, an early predictor and enthusiast of "paperless information systems," or another that cites it. The aim is to provide an analytical overview on how academic librarians saw…

One of the two major ways of interpreting LibQUAL+[TM] data involves placing perceived service quality ratings within "zones of tolerance" defined as the distances between minimally-acceptable and desired service quality levels. This study compared zones of tolerance on the 25 LibQUAL+[TM] items across undergraduate, graduate student and…

Describes the use of the World Wide Web as a name authority resource and tool for special collections' analytic-level cataloging, based on experiences at The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. Highlights include primary documents and metadata; authority control and the Web as authority source information; and future possibilities. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the difference in subject access in OPACs (online public access catalogs) between subject searching (authority, alphabetic, or controlled vocabulary) versus keyword searching (uncontrolled, free text, natural language vocabulary). Compares a query on the term "garbage" in two online catalogs and discusses results. (Author/LRW)

Reviews a study which shows that guidance for selecting books in the classroom has increased. Considers children's self-selection strategies as a function of the instructional program. (MG)

Describes a study that obtained assessments of the status of research in library and information science from leading researchers in the field. Five key issue areas affecting the status of research are identified and specific recommendations are offered to address these issues and improve the status of research in this area. (31 references)…