Six articles discuss and illustrate new library facilities and furnishings. The winning libraries in the Library Buildings Awards Program, sponsored by American Institute of Architects (AIA) and American Library Association (ALA), are shown; two case studies of library renovation and design are presented; and the design for a new medical library…

Illustrates the benefits of an aggressive library program of regularly scheduled and professionally curated art exhibitions and related events. Describes the Visual Arts Program at the Pacific Beach branch library (San Diego). A sidebar by Debra Wilcox Johnson discusses libraries' development of cultural programming for adults. (AEF)

Argues for a reevaluation of the old-maid stereotype that will allow professionals in the library and information science (LIS) field to embrace digital technology while remaining mindful of their distinctiveness and recognizing the stereotype as an important part of their collective identity and professional history. (Contains 55 references.)…

Explores library consortia in the United States with particular focus on academic libraries. Highlights include the history of early consortia; economic issues, including sharing resources and cost savings; types of consortia, including regional, statewide, and those with a focus on automation; and groups of consortia. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the role of stacks support staff and student assistants in providing point-of-use assistance and instruction in Oregon State University's library. A user's survey is described; staff training is explained; and survey instruments and Stack Maintenance Team recommendations are appended. (LRW)

Discusses a scholar's reactions to libraries made by Umberto Eco in "De Biblioteca." Topics addressed include functions of libraries, including collecting; accessibility of materials; the scholar's creative use of libraries, and discovering materials not looked for or known about; North American research libraries; photocopying; and…

Describes the development of resource sharing through interlibrary loan among Orbis libraries, a consortium of institutions of higher education in the Northwest. Highlights include the Pacific Northwest Bibliographic Center (PNBC), Oregon Regional Union List of Serials (ORULS), shared electronic catalogs, OhioLINK, and OCLC interlibrary loan…

This column assesses the state of library and information studies (LIS) research. Researchers and practitioners in various LIS fields address questions related to the research front and agenda for collection development; what the field needs to advance further; whether it needs a more sophisticated conceptual or theoretical framework; operational…

Addresses the problem of crime committed in a library by its employees. Provides examples of crimes in state and public libraries. Discusses embezzlement in a state library, theft of library funds, falsification of records and violation of library loan policies, and reasons for crimes. Notes that such crimes can be safeguarded against by enforcing…

Describes the inclusion of interlibrary loan services in the reference department of the science and engineering library that accounted for a large percentage of the interlibrary loan activity, based on experiences at Baylor University. Staffing, interlibrary loan statistics, and faculty needs are discussed. (LRW)

Describes the results of a survey of public service librarians conducted by the Queens Borough Public Library to determine their confidence levels of using electronic resource to answer reference questions. Results demonstrated high confidence levels in using the library's online catalog and lower confidence in using the Internet. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the development of an electronic reserves software system and related administrative issues at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Topics include staffing; technical and work flow issues; education and training of users, faculty, and staff; assessment; and advice for other libraries building electronic reserve programs.…

Focuses on copyright issues for digitization of literary works in hybrid libraries. Discusses which works are covered by copyright within the term "literary works"; exceptions to copyright; preservation copies; preparing for negotiation; the licensing agreement; the EU and copyright; and copyright after digitization. (AEF)

A survey was conducted to investigate public library directors' use of the Federal-State Cooperative System for Public Library Data and the Public Library Data Service reports. This article highlights the uses directors made of statistics and the aspects of statistics that they found particularly useful. (Contains 51 references.) (Author/AEF)

Libraries and catalogers face choices in the treatment of the growing collections of electronic journals. Policies issued by CONSER and the Library of Congress allow libraries to edit existing print records to accommodate information pertaining to the electronic versions (single record option) or to create new records for them. The discussion…