Uses accreditation and Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) sectional standards/criteria, higher education outcomes-assessment research findings, and recent performance-effectiveness studies to identify institutional outcomes to which academic libraries contribute, describe specific performance indicators whose measures of impacts…

Explores the role of the librarian and of the service perspective in the digital library environment. The focus of the article is limited to the topic of librarian/user collaboration when the user is in a remote location, including video-based reference services and the use of electronic mail. (Author/LRW)

In 1999, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) of the United States Department of Education charged the RAND Reading Study Group (RRSG) with developing a research agenda to address pressing literacy issues. Published in 2002 after much investigation, the RRSG concluded that evidence-based practices in the teaching of reading…

Many teachers think too little about the role of the library media specialist in their professional lives, and because of this oversight they underutilize this great resource. This article explains the top ten reasons why teachers should work with their library media specialists: (1) Improving test scores and enhancing student academic…

In this article, the author discusses her personal experience of coming up with a mission statement for her library. A significant part of that goal was to identify what a best-practice library looked like so that she could emulate the model in her library. The entire process is described in this article.

What have librarians got to do with brain research? Much more than most librarians realize, says Betsy Diamant-Cohen, Children's Programming Specialist at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore. Her original plan was to be a social worker, but it was suggested that she could be equally effective in improving lives as a librarian--while having a…

Kimberly Martin is just 30, but she's been reinventing the Bonner Springs City Library since late 1998, even before she earned her library degree. Some 20 minutes west of Kansas City, Bonner Springs is a small town (service population around 10,000) in a bustling metropolitan area. Martin's goal is to provide service on a par with the larger…

When Kim Taney is not tending 80 workstations on the Webster Public Library's local area network, supervising the pages, working the reference desk, and advising libraries on how to improve teen services, she teaches ballet and choreographs her dance studio's productions. Choreography is a useful skill for someone with such a multifaceted life. As…

Every democratic society relies on deliberation and dialogue between social groups with varying perspectives to provide for the representation of the diverse members of the society. Meaningful deliberation is based on open access to information by individuals and free exchange of information between different social groups. Policy developments in…

Caroline Ward's energetic enthusiasm for books and children is contagious. In 36 years of library service to children, no librarian, student, or child who has heard her tell a story, give a booktalk, lead a discussion group, or teach a children's literature class is likely to have forgotten the experience. While Ward is cheerfully offhand about…

After two years of construction, American Samoa Community College opened its new library on September 2, 2003. The library is located on the east side of campus and is equipped with ten computer workstations, four online public access catalogs, three copying machines, and an elevator that is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.…

The nation's schools and libraries have come up with shelves full of innovative twists on the basic book club. This article offers a few of these fun and educational ideas that can be adapted for everyone from young beginning readers to teens. Teachers and librarians describe book club activities that they have found successful in: bringing…

The "65 percent solution," developed by First Class Education, a national advocacy group, states that 65 percent of a school's operating budget be devoted to "in-class instruction" as opposed to "out-of-classroom" purposes. One of the unintended consequences of this "solution," according to this author, is that it provides another basis for…

School library media center scheduling, particularly the fixed versus flexible scheduling controversy, continues to be debated in spite of decades of advocacy for flexible scheduling. According to van Deusen (1999), flexible scheduling is "a plan wherein classes meet for instruction in the library resource center when they have a specific need…

A task force was charged with developing a revised set of guidelines for public library service to children in Vermont. Together with the results of a survey of Vermont public libraries, the help of recommendations from other states, and the expertise of individual libraries, the task force drew up a number of guidelines. In the first section the…