Electronic communication technologies continue to change the landscape of reference services. For many users, virtual communication is the preferred means of conversing. Synchronous virtual reference, similar to other synchronous means of communication, is an important method for reaching students and for providing teaching and learning…

At the beginning of each school year, the Languages and Humanities Division at Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) meets to discuss first-year composition matters. Faculty leave the workshop renewed by the collaboration and buoyed by the promise and potential of a new semester. Yet, when classes actually begin, faculty may find that they are…

While this Report is presented to the Library of Congress, it situates recommendations to the Library in the broader context of the environment in which the Library does and could function. Thus, the Report discusses and makes recommendations not only to the Library, but also to other current and potential participants in this environment. The…

In 2001, Eastern Washington University's Libraries began a laptop circulation program with seventeen laptops. Today, there are 150 laptops in the circulation pool, as well as seventeen digital cameras, eleven digital handycams, and thirteen digital projectors. This article explains how the program has grown to its present size, the growing pains…

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how public libraries in Ireland are using their websites to present local studies collections online. Design/methodology/approach: All the websites of public libraries in Ireland were evaluated against a checklist of 50 criteria by one of the authors. An analytic description was provided of the four…

As a group, readers' advisory (RA) librarians are a chatty bunch when it comes to what they are reading. They share book ideas with their friends and families. The adoption of online RA conversation forms is helping to extend these opportunities even further and offers a fascinating testing ground for RA work. Librarians have found that offering…

When the Johnson County Library (JoCo Library), a midsize suburban public library in Kansas City, Kansas, completely rebuilt its 2,000-plus-page website--one that had remained relatively stable for almost 5 years--the reaction from patrons and staff members was overwhelmingly positive. The web development team at the JoCo Library realized that the…

The United States no longer has a workforce dependent on operating machinery and performing repetitive tasks. Educators are therefore challenged to change the way students learn and to provide a workforce that is innovative and that has the ability to design new jobs. To do this, students must learn to be problem solvers, to create products that…

Ongoing theft from library patrons may be the work of a determined thief, one who will not be deterred by the crimeproofing techniques that often stop less committed criminals. This type of theft can be deterred when the library staff makes their patrons aware that successful deterrence depends on them not abandoning their valuables. Other staff…

Librarians expend considerable resources to develop services and implement new products catering their users' changing needs. Such efforts begs for the involvement of library users in the development and/or beta process. The authors, both academic librarians, realized that much of their online services were underused, so they devised a plan to…

Librarians use online mapping services such as Google Maps, MapQuest, Yahoo Maps, and others to check traffic conditions, find local businesses, and provide directions. However, few libraries are using one of Google Maps most outstanding applications, My Maps, for the creation of enhanced and interactive multimedia maps. My Maps is a simple and…

Microsoft and Google have very different business models. Microsoft believes that if they build it, people will come--and buy their products. Google's approach is different: if they build it, people will integrate it into their lives. People use Microsoft's product on Microsoft's terms, but people use Google products on "their" terms. In this…

To better understand the information needs of young university researchers, an observational study was performed at three universities in Stockholm, Sweden. The observations revealed that most of the researchers used Google for everything, that they were confident that they could manage on their own, and that they relied heavily on immediate…

Establishing a library brand requires positive effects on publics. Five publics identify each library: students, teachers, administration, parents, and community. It takes effort to target each of those five publics with a consistent message about what a library offers that makes it unique. Librarians, scrambling to accomplish the necessities of…

If we read to discover new worlds, we also read to find ourselves. For gays and lesbians, this act of discovery can be problematic: literature has so often excluded them. In the last decades, as gays and lesbians have grown increasingly vocal in the effort to secure their rightful place in society, a broad range of fiction has emerged that…