Enrollment in online courses is increasing in colleges and universities across the country. The Association of College and Research Libraries calls librarians to provide equivalent services to online and face-to-face students. The provision of library services to online students requires more collaboration with instructors than in the face-to-face…

It seems that fear of Web 2.0 is in full force. There are two concerns that resulted in a national panic concerning Internet Web 2.0 tools: pedophiles luring children via the Internet and corruption of youths through exposure to hard-core pornography or other vile material. Administrators, no doubt, are thinking in terms of saving themselves from…

Founded in 1982, Banned Books Week is celebrated annually during the last week in September and will be observed from September 26-October 3 in 2009. The event acknowledges Americans' right to read the books of their choice regardless of whether the ideas, language, or images are controversial. This annual observance of banned books is a good…

Robert Young became the Director of Education at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, in October of 2007. In this article, the author discusses some of the workshops and other materials available for teachers and students at the Folger. Beginning with an idea that Peggy O'Brien had 23 years ago, Folger Education has developed into a…

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced its 2009 annual lists of Fabulous Films for Young Adults and Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults ages 12 to 18. This article presents the titles that were released in January 2009 during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver,…

This article is Part 3 of a three part summary of selected articles from the journals of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) over a period of thirty-five years from 1972 to 2007. This three-part series in the April, May, and June (2009) issues of "School Library Media Activities Monthly" ("SLMAM") illustrate the evolution in…

As a direct consequence of the digital revolution, academic libraries today face competition as information providers. Using Richard N. Foster's technology S curves as the analytical model, this article shows that academic libraries are in the midst of discontinuous change by questioning a number of assumptions that support the current practice of…

Home decorating is a popular idea these days as seen in the rise of cable television channels like TLC and HGTV (Home & Garden Television) and TV shows like "Trading Spaces, Take This House and Sell It, Design on a Dime, Decorating Cents," and many others. Throughout history, humans have always expressed the desire to personalize and beautify…

The latest calamities to befall the economy aren't reflected in the 2008 compilation of building projects. This article discusses how public and academic buildings combine for 213 projects in 2008. The 183 public libraries and 30 academic facilities, completed between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008, squeaked through before the repercussions from…

People are now beginning to appreciate that acquisitions in the digital world is different. In addition to business acumen and accounting knowledge, a digital-age acquisitions librarian needs to understand scholarly communication and the emerging business models of digital publishing. In this article, the author discusses the challenges and the…

Sandwiched between Los Angeles and San Diego counties, nudging up to Riverside and San Bernardino to the east, Orange County, California is far more diverse than the stereotype. Orange County has no dominant city; its two largest, Santa Ana and Anaheim--each with populations around 350,000--are, respectively, home to lower-income Latinos and a…

Steve Roskoski's accomplishments during his tenure at Multnomah County Library touch upon almost everything the library does: developing employee training, introducing chat reference, supervising a branch while the manager is on leave, conducting story times, mentoring new staffers, working on interlibrary loan and hiring, and even serving on a…

The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, located on the National Naval Medical Center's campus in Bethesda, Md., is a medical education and research facility for the nation's military and public health community. The university's James A. Zimble Learning Resource Center provides web-based access to more than 9,000 electronic…

In this article, the author explains how library media centers can be used as learning laboratories to foster creativity literate learners. She addresses the traits of autonomy and independence, wonderment and playfulness, humor and wit, and persistent and prolific work as they help or challenge creative thinkers, and discusses how they can be…

This article describes the Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD) process and its application in the field of educational data mining (EDM) in the context of a digital library service called the Instructional Architect (IA.usu.edu). In particular, the study reported in this article investigated a certain type of data mining problem, clustering,…