Explains zetetics which involve theories of research and epistemology and discusses its relevance to library science. Topics include library literacy, and the use of an information matrix to help library patrons understand what information they have and what they need to find. (Author/LRW)

Reports the findings of a survey of South African university and technikon libraries that investigated annual reports and their use outside of the issuing institution. Highlights include the purpose of annual reports; issues included; recipients of the reports; promotion and distribution; availability; and feedback. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the advantages of evaluation of library services and provides examples of decisions that might be aided through evaluation. The three attributes of library service of most concern to the evaluator--costs, effectiveness, and benefits--are considered. Describes general principles of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit studies in the…

Provides background on concept mapping and discusses concept maps drawn by library science graduate students in a reference and information services course. Applications of concept mapping of significance to librarians--in reference service, instruction, and research--are considered. Several sample concept maps are included. (19 references) (MES)

Describes recent research by the authors who received the 1990 American Society for Information Science (ASIS) Research Award. Three main areas of studies are described: (1) evaluation measures, methods, and models; (2) planning and evaluation studies involving individual libraries and library systems; and (3) planning and evaluation of library…

Discusses library use instruction in public libraries. The need for instruction is examined, the commitment of public libraries to provide information rather than instruction is considered, academic library and public library users' attitudes are discussed, and a 105-item bibliography of descriptive literature on use instruction in public…

Describes a citation analysis of journal articles dealing with online catalogs to determine patterns in subject content, date, publication format, authorship affiliation, type of authorship, and how the cited publication was used in the article. It is concluded that this literature has many characteristics of a scholarly literature and indicates…

Describes the use of "snapshot inventories" to assess the availability of a library collection by measuring the presence/absence of a representative sample of library materials at a given moment. Explains the methods and results of an inventory conducted at Monterey Peninsula College in California. (DMM)

Discusses women's information needs and the lack of published literature and research on this topic. Identifies subjects of interest, as well as current trends in commercial electronic information systems and telecommunications that make the issue of information needs research and analysis urgent. (Author/AEF)

Examines reasons for cataloging backlogs in libraries and describes a preliminary theory of backlog dynamics. Formulas for predicting backlogs are discussed, backlog models are explained, the use of computer simulation software to form models is described, and further research is suggested. (five references) (LRW)

Discusses the new sociology of education and suggests applications to current research and practice in the field of librarianship. Connections of librarianship to dominant political, social, and economic trends are stressed, and the need for library research to study those connections is emphasized. (78 references) (LRW)

Reviews research and writing on reference services in archives. Topics discussed include user studies of archives; the accuracy and efficiency of archival reference; the impact of technology on research in archives; interaction between researchers and reference archivists; and research needs in archival reference. (48 references) (LRW)

Analyzes 595 articles in 21 core library instruction journals published between 1977 and 1991 to test the theory that the number of research studies in bibliographic instruction is increasing. Research articles were classed by research method employed, subject studied, and library type. Results showed that the number of research articles increased…

Describes a study of the UCLA ORION online catalog that was conducted to determine (1) how often lengthy subject headings occur in the database, and what the effects of compressing the subject headings would be; and (2) how often the display of a term and its subdivisions are interrupted by syntactical construction. (seven references) (LRW)

Describes results of a research project conducted in Illinois to obtain detailed information about preferences of public library customers and about how much value they place on various types of library services. Discusses rural perceptions of public library contributions, willingness to pay more for service, and implications for library…