Many low-income children do not have the opportunity to develop the computer skills necessary to succeed in our technological economy. Their only access to computers and the Internet--school, afterschool programs, and community organizations--is woefully inadequate. Educators must work to close this knowledge gap and to ensure that low-income…

Public libraries are redefining their roles in order to stay relevant to the needs of the communities they serve. Today, libraries are places where reading meets hands-on learning and where quietness coexists with voices and music. The latest advances in technology for children and teens, specifically, robotics sets and media-rich software, are…

Passed in 2000, the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) mandates Internet filtering for all public schools and libraries. Challenges to the law have been raised on constitutional grounds by free-speech advocates such as the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union. After losing one such challenge in district court,…

While some professions maintain strong professional boundaries, public librarianship remains a field in which a significant number of those delivering service do not have library degrees. In this article, the author discusses the results of a new hiring practices survey from "Library Journal" ("LJ"). The survey, coupled with…

"School Library Journal's" ("SLJ's") Job Satisfaction Survey, conducted online in spring 2008, asked school and public librarians about their salaries, pay raises, and opportunities for advancement; level of job satisfaction; major causes of dissatisfaction; on-the-job challenges; and how well they were prepared for their positions, among other…

This article reports on "LJ"'s annual book-buying survey of public libraries in which circulation took the biggest leap recorded since the survey was launched in 1999. This year's whopping 5.16 percent increase overall suggests just how many people are saving pennies by borrowing materials instead of buying them. In fact, libraries are being…

With online social networking sites becoming some of the most visited destinations on the Web, organizations from all countries have been scurrying to establish their presence on sites like MySpace, Orkut, and MSN Spaces. In this arena, the social networking site Facebook has become the world's most popular social networking Web site. Through its…

Singapore is now one of the fastest aging societies in the world. By 2030 those over 65 years old are expected to number 1.41m strong, 26.8 percent of the country's entire population. Given these numbers, it is not surprising that aging is a key concern in Singapore. This article reports on a qualitative study of 32 individuals over the age of 55…

E-books have been around for more than 10 years but are still a relatively new phenomenon to many librarians and publishers. With the introduction of e-book readers, the e-book has become mainstream, with recent triple-digit annual increases in sales. But what place do they have in the library? In this volume, Sue Polanka brings together a variety…

It's not always easy to get teens talking. But when the author became a young adult specialist at the Wilbraham (Massachusetts) Public Library four years ago, that's exactly what she had to do. Her main mission was to bring in as many high schoolers as possible. She needed to find out exactly what they wanted from the library. when she asked them…

Microblogging is a relatively new phenomenon in online social networking that has become increasingly prevalent in the last few years. This study explores the use of Twitter in public and academic libraries to understand microblogging patterns. Analysis of the tweets was conducted in two phases: (1) statistical descriptive analysis and (2) content…

This paper presents a summary of the first survey of public library authorities in the UK to explore Sunday opening, undertaken in 2007 as part of the Clore Leadership Programme. It provides a snapshot of Sunday opening practice, set against a context of societal, economic, and policy developments, and examines whether Sunday opening furthers the…

This study investigated the impact of literacy influences and perceived reading ability on the self-rated health (SRH) of 244 middle school students. Five literacy influences and reading ability independent variables resulted in moderate to substantial test-retest reliability [Kappas 46.6 to 63.8] over a two-week period. SRH served as the…

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library is a joint co-managed library of the San Jose Public Library and the San Jose State University Library, located in San Jose, California, the capital of Silicon Valley. Working in this merged public and academic environment, the authors find that the uses of technology transcend the differences and enhance…

In 1790, Congress passed the first act governing naturalization, which provided that any free, white, male or female adult alien who had resided within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States for a period of two years was eligible for citizenship. From this humble beginning the current system of granting naturalized citizenship developed,…