Describes a survey conducted among library school graduate students and librarians at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that investigated factors that play a role in information professionals' choice of Internet search tools. Utility functions and ease of use are discussed and the original online survey is appended. (Author/LRW)

Random samples of works were drawn from the catalogs of the Bobst Library, New York University, and the Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary, New York to examine derivative bibliographic relationships. Two sites were chosen to allow a test of the differences in collection development patterns between a university research library and a…

A survey of academic chemistry librarians concerning how they obtain and maintain subject knowledge found: 86% took college-level chemistry courses, 64% have a science degree, and 43% have a chemistry degree. Respondents work on professional development activities such as scanning core science journals, subscribing to science discussion lists,…

Reports on the results of a survey on structure, support, and expectations in place for peer review of librarians. Compares previous research, discusses new information on the value placed on individual contributions in the review process, and reviews librarian status to uncover differences in the structure of the review process and how…

Discusses how libraries today are re-thinking their entire educational mission in response to changes such as laptops, connectivity, Web-enhanced learning, and portable computing. Libraries are now designed to integrate new technologies that allow digital resources to supplement and expand the library's traditional print holdings and to help…

Examines the concept of service quality in libraries. Highlights include assessment; service quality versus user satisfaction; measuring service quality, including SERVQUAL; planning; experiences at Texas A& M University in cooperation with ARL (Association of Research Libraries) that resulted in LibQUAL+; and conceptual issues. (Contains 54…

Presents a history of academic library instruction and the role of the librarian as educator. Topics include teaching in the library versus teaching in the classroom, the role of new information technologies, and criticism of academic librarians as classroom teachers. (Contains 102 references.) (LRW)

Traditional measures of quality are no longer adequate to reflect library excellence and impact. Analysis of an Association for Research Libraries data set showed that there was a relationship between the ARL Index and services; between the number of undergraduate students and services; and between instructional presentations and operating…

Sophistication and accessibility can be dangerous bedfellows, especially when it comes to information sources. One of the real challenges in undergraduate academic libraries can be connecting students in a meaningful way to the resources that will be most helpful and understandable for them. This article discusses how techniques borrowed from the…

This paper examines how future metadata capabilities could enable academic libraries to exploit information on the emerging Semantic Web in their library catalogues. Whereas current metadata architectures treat the Web as a simple means of interchanging bibliographic data that have been created by libraries, this paper suggests that academic…

This article presents a case study of the collaboration between the Business Career Services Office (BCSO) and the Business and Economics Library (BEL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The collaboration with BCSO helped BEL to become a strategic partner to both the College of Business and to graduate Business students. A survey…

This study investigates the satisfaction of library users at Wayne State University who utilize alternative information access methods. The LibQUAL+[TM] desired and perceived that satisfaction ratings are used to determine the user's "superiority gap." By focusing limited library resources to address "superiority gap" issues identified by each…

The author investigates issues faced by academic research libraries in providing virtual reference services to unaffiliated users. These libraries generally welcome visitors who use on-site collections and reference services, but are these altruistic policies feasible in a virtual environment? This paper reviews the use of virtual reference…

Reference interactions with patrons in a digital library environment using digital reference services (DRS) has become widespread. However, such services in many libraries appear to be underutilized. A study surveying the ease and convenience of such services for patrons in over 100 academic health science library Web sites suggests that…

Online course syllabi provide a convenient source of information about library use. This article discusses the strategies used to retrieve syllabi, analyze library use, and develop new opportunities to collaborate with faculty. A new Web-based service was developed to pull course- and library-related materials into a convenient package.