This academic library book buying survey examines full-text databases; electronic journals; top circulating subjects; price increases for serials and resulting subscription cuts; the influence of digital choices on purchasing decisions; circulation versus use statistics; and electronic books. (LRW)

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, audiobooks began to gain a place in libraries and became part of library collections and services. The growing interest in including them in school and public libraries was concurrent with widespread use of audiocassettes at home and in business. Children and adults enjoy listening to audiobooks as much as…

Media specialists and teachers spend an estimated $1.4 billion annually on nonfiction titles. And even though most librarians, like Shirley Morand of New Richmond High School in Ohio, expect budget cuts this academic year, they still plan to dish out a sizable chunk of money on books that support students' textbooks, according to School Library…

Teacher-librarians are awash in data. Studies on the impact of school library programs on student achievement have now been replicated in 12 states (more are in the works) with amazingly consistent results, these are added to studies dating from the early 1960s that support the importance of school library programs to student achievement and the…

Kim Charlson believes everyone should live life to the fullest no matter what their handicaps. Blind since early childhood, she chose librarianship because, as a braille reader and avid user of talking books, she wanted to be "in a decision-making capacity in the library field and influence the direction of library services for people with…

Multicultural books are popular with library media specialists and teachers who feel the need to include a diversity of cultures in the materials young people have available to them. It must include titles that are authentic and respectful works from a Native American perspective. A list of the Web site addresses and names of books that deal with…

This article is about Jeff Trzeciak, the tech hotshot at the Wayne State libraries. He oversees instructional technology for the entire campus community, library technology services (with over 1000 workstations and 30 servers), digital library services, and the help desk. It is clear he loves his work. His passion, though, is creating online…

This article features the New York Public Library's (NYPL) recently opened Digital Gallery. Containing more than 275,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities, the Digital Gallery offers unparalleled access to the past for educators and interested visitors alike. Organization and navigation present a challenge with any…

Developing a library collection is one of the most important pursuits in medical librarianship. A library's collection is its foundation, and the collection is the central information resource upon which most library activities rely. Today's vision of the medical or health sciences collection must incorporate a broader range of materials,…

Public health librarians face many challenges in collection development because the field is multidisciplinary, the collection's users have varied needs, and many of the essential resources are grey literature materials. Further, little has been published about public health selection tools. However, librarians responsible for these areas have a…

The development of the Internet and the online collections accessed by it has created major adjustments in all library functions, including collection management and budgeting. The authors share how two public libraries have come full circle in electronic collection management, beginning with early selection, followed by current weeding programs…

This paper presents a case study about the process of cooperating with a commercial vendor on a new product for library inventory.

Librarians, through their professional associations, have long been committed to the social justice principle embedded in the concept of "free access to information". External censorship challenges to library collections threaten this principle overtly. However, censorship can also occur in libraries in various covert and often unconscious ways.…

Eighteen scholarly papers and eighteen abstracts comprise the content of the 8th "Brick and Click Libraries Symposium," held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future face of librarianship. Many of the…

This handbook contains activities and resources designed to help school librarians identify, analyze, and select appropriate and useful ethnic studies materials. It is presented in four major sections. Section I examines ways of defining ethnic groups, presents sample census tables showing the social characteristics of residents by race for the…