Simply put, professional development is evolving into something new and inspiring in the twenty-first century. Professional development is becoming more relevant, more reflective, and, most importantly, more social. Socially united groups give rise to a collective intelligence that bonds the members into a more ordered community. Collective social…

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) have received considerable attention in news headlines describing gamers who have died while engaging in excessive play. However, more common physical and psychosocial effects attributed to online video gaming are social isolation, increased aggression, and negative academic and occupational consequences.…

This study describes preliminary results of a study with elementary school teachers and librarians. Professional-development intervention workshops were conducted to improve teacher and school librarian collaboration to integrate library and subject content. A revised 24-item teacher and school librarian collaboration instrument (TLC-III) was used…

Academic librarians are challenged with development and maintenance of collections of research materials in various formats. Although it is assumed that they are monitoring the needs of their constituencies as a part of the collection management decision-making process, the literature reflects only a few studies that focus on direct solicitation…

A trend toward the abstraction of computing platforms that has been developing in the broader IT arena over the last few years is just beginning to make inroads into the library technology scene. Cloud computing offers for libraries many interesting possibilities that may help reduce technology costs and increase capacity, reliability, and…

While the library economy continues its downward slide, the cost of attending the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting seems as high as ever. That is the price of professional participation. These days it seems a bit too high and tends to limit involvement in the old association to librarians in the higher echelons of the field.…

Predictions regarding how much traveling Americans will be doing this year and where they might go vary, but it is expected that many will cut back on what is increasingly considered a luxury. Even so, gasoline prices are down substantially from a year ago, the stronger dollar means better prices in Europe, and there are discounts in all areas of…

Valentine's Day presents an opportunity to show loved ones they are appreciated. Sweethearts, spouses, and families exchange gifts to express affection. Beyond traditional celebrations, new customs such as a romantic dinner, attending movies, and exchanging jewelry have been added. This article presents a brief history of Valentine's Day and a…

This article describes a study in which seven students with diverse disabilities participated in a one-credit online library research course which had been adapted to be accessible using the best practices literature on distance education for students with special needs. Students provided feedback on the design of the course and participated in…

To examine the open access availability of Library and Information Science (LIS) research, a study was conducted using Google Scholar to search for articles from 20 top LIS journals. The study examined whether Google Scholar was able to find any links to full text, if open access versions of the articles were available and where these articles…

Queensland Academy for Health Sciences (QAHS) is a senior secondary high school offering the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP). As part of the Diploma, students are required to complete a referenced research essay of four thousand words. For most, this will be their first experience of such a challenging undertaking.…

This research describes the results of a cross-case analysis of four individual case studies at schools having nationally recognized school library programs. The focus of the study is on the culture of the school as an organization and its effect on establishing an effective school library program. The purpose of the study was to identify cultural…

Lesson planning serves as a key means for ensuring the quality of instruction. In an effort to facilitate and improve the literature related to lesson planning, this paper proposes a framework which integrates online lesson planners, databases, case libraries, and Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis to support both pre-service and in-service…

This session will focus on the dilemmas and challenges of providing effective leadership skills for modern schools with digital information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities. It will review the selected challenges of engaging different generations of staff in ICT based learning and recommend strategies for effective leadership of ICT…

A longitudinal study at the TUT (Tshwane University of Technology) used citation analysis to analyze the reference lists of 480 Master's and Doctoral (M and D) theses and dissertations submitted at TUT between 2004 and 2007. The purpose was to determine what types of information sources M and D students at TUT use most, how the patterns of use…