Reports on a study to estimate the proportion of the University of Michigan's library collection needing preservation efforts and describes the rating scale used. (FM)

This empirical research examined scale economies of academic research libraries that belong to the Association of Research Libraries and developed a total cost function for estimating economies of scale. Argues that libraries are information provision organizations that provide multiproducts and multiservices and compares this study with previous…

Discussion of the ARL (Association of Research Libraries) E-Metrics project focuses on understanding how academic libraries might specify, produce, and assess institutional outcomes. Offers a framework for approaching the outcomes assessment process and suggests that multiple approaches to assessment are needed for an assessment of libraries in…

In their Top Trends of 2012, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) named data curation as one of the issues to watch in academic libraries in the near future (ACRL, 2012, p. 312). Data curation can be summarized as "the active and ongoing management of data through its life cycle of interest and usefulness to scholarship,…

Purpose: The present study aims to investigate the experience, contribution and opinions of users of respective institutional repositories (IRs) developed in India. Design/methodology/approach: The survey method was used. The data collection tool was a web questionnaire, which was created with the help of software provided by surveymonkey.com…

The author is a reference and instruction librarian at Iowa State University with collection development and liaison responsibilities for chemistry, biochemistry, entomology, and natural resource ecology. She recently came to librarianship with an education and three years' experience in biochemistry and biotechnology. During the last four years…

The Association of College & Research Libraries' (ACRL) Academic/Research Librarian of the Year awardees constitute a "hall of fame" for ACRL. This article reports research analyzing 30 years of awardees between 1978 and 2007. Studying the demographics and accomplishments of the awardees contributes to knowledge of how academic librarianship has…

Studies on the topic of obsolescence in literature are reviewed and it is concluded thatthe concept is not of practical use for librarians. An extensive list of studies in the field is appended. (PF)

Two studies concerned with optimizing the effectiveness of design of bibliographic materials given certain practical constraints are reported. (Author/PF)

Shows how simple probability theory can serve to remove the bias from a sample so that estimates of total yearly circulation and circulation distribution can be calculated from circulation desk data. (Author/PF)

Libraries must do some research before trying to establish a community information center. Librarians should consider feasibility, identify the target population, inventory community resources, define information needs, and provide for continuing study while the service is in operation. (LS)

Study of the development of libraries and librarianship may be done only historically, by analysis of the records of development. Such study necessarily is interpretive because historical study does not establish facts, but proceeds from them. In historical study an hypothesis may not be used as in scientific study, because the hypothesis is not…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) which was developed by the U. S. Navy as a management tool could be applied to a library process. Several chapters are devoted to an explanation of the tool and its advantages and limitations. Its potential value in library management is also…

A study was done at the Purdue University Libraries to identify publishers of interest to Purdue, to characterize the subject areas by type of publisher after library selection, and to evaluate the performance of commercial and university presses. The majority of the document consists of tabular compilations of the data collected in the study. The…