This study explores the perceptions of male librarians working in an academic library. Underpinning the methodology of this paper is a series of in depth interviews conducted over several years with a group of selected male librarians. This paper suggests that the meanings constructed by male librarians in the non-traditional work environment have…

Purpose: To examine and discuss the features of library portals and suggest further development of these research tools. Design/methodology/approach: The two categories of library portals (horizontal or public, and vertical) were examined to establish the characteristics of some of the portal software available in the marketplace. The study…

This article seeks a comprehensive approach to information literacy instruction. The author suggests a programmatic solution that ensures that every undergraduate is provided information literacy instruction before graduation. The recommended process anticipates an eventual evolution of the academic library into a bonafide teaching department.

The low prioritizing of user service is a longstanding problem in Chinese academic libraries. While acknowledging various external and internal obstacles for this problem, this article argues that traditional library culture, as demonstrated throughout the article, constitutes the root cause for the underdevelopment of user services on information…

In response to local demand, the University of Calgary Library established a fee-based information service for non-university clientele. The benefits from this service have been both intangible and financial. This article reviews the planning and implementation of the service and its future directions.

The Information Center (IC) evolved to take control of technology, to integrate the library's growing collection of networked resources with its service mission, to build a team of personnel committed to the success of the IC, and to integrate assessment into the cycle of change at the Mansfield Library.

Texas A&M University Libraries has been testing virtual reference services since February 2004, but during the fall semester 2005, the Libraries began implementing and actively promoting the services to various target groups. Distance education students were identified as a primary target group for virtual reference services, and as of the…

The results of an extensive survey of the senior academic staff of the Israeli universities on their use of electronic journals and databases are presented. The major findings are that the use of electronic sources is already widespread among the respondents and more than 50% found the electronic services indispensable. Disparities were found…

Results from two multiple regression models involving HighWire journal subscriptions in 2003 for 16 participating universities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Sweden indicate a highly predictive relationship between the number of article downloads and the number of users--meaning that the size of a user population can be estimated by…

An increasing number of academic and research libraries have built high-density shelving facilities to address overcrowding conditions in their regular stacks. However, the work performed in these facilities is physically strenuous and highly repetitive in nature and may require the use of potentially dangerous equipment. This article will examine…

This paper discusses the complex nature of transformational change required to achieve a learning culture. Peer mentoring will be discussed as an example of a learning process that is in harmony with the values-based transformational leadership and change process, the professional values of librarianship, and the democratic nature of a learning…

Roy J. Stewart made two very significant contributions to Deaf America. He was a key member of a Gallaudet alumni committee (along with Harley D. Drake, class of 1904, and Frederick H. Hughes, class of 1913) that raised seed money for the construction of the Edward Miner Gallaudet Memorial Library, which was influential in Gallaudet's attaining…

When the author saw the job ad for Metropolitan State University, she thought she had found a new way to be a librarian. In her new position, frustration and occasional terror sometimes grip her: when she's teaching, or speaking in front of other faculty members, or trying to figure out how to be a "professional." In other words, her…

While preparing to migrate from Innovative Interfaces' text-based serials module to its new Millennium Serials product, the author, a manager of technical services operations in a small academic library, found herself faced with a number of decisions regarding how to store holdings information. Holdings data is information about individual items…

The Lloyd Sealy Library of John Jay College of Criminal Justice started as a small collection of books in the corner of the New York City Police Academy. A little over four decades later, it now contains one of the best collections of criminal justice materials in the world. Despite fiscal setbacks and tough times for the University and the…