This document explores the various issues and concerns related to the development of online systems in libraries and, in particular, online catalogs. Following a preface, foreword, and introduction, chapters are devoted to each of the following topics: (l) providing for special interests including the disabled; (2) authority control; (3) subject…

Because the general alphabetic arrangement of fiction in libraries is of little use to the ordinary reader, whose criteria for selecting books often relates to book content, a multi-dimensional and inexclusive fiction classification scheme was developed as a model for both book description and search strategy. Based on analysis of 160 actual…

This report focuses on a discussion of findings from analyses of computer transaction logs contributed by four of the online catalog systems used in the Public Access Project. It supplements the analyses of User and Non-User Questionnaires by providing analyses of data from the systems themselves. The four systems contributing data to this…

The University Library System at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus, is a decentralized system of 35 libraries spread over 3 campuses in 2 cities. This study evaluated the performance of two libraries in the system--Walter Library and the Institute of Technology Libraries--that provide document delivery services to assist faculty…

Zero Based Staffing/Services (ZBS/S)--a management tool designed to portray the relationship between the people or staff of an agency and the services they perform--was used in this study to inventory library services and staffing at the Central State University Library and provide a long-range planning analysis for library and university…

In order to ascertain the extent to which undergraduate full-time and part-time students at Lake Forest College, Illinois, were aware of existing library reference services, a telephone interview of randomly selected students was conducted in spring 1982, using a revised questionnaire originally developed for a similar study at the University of…

An extension of a doctoral dissertation that studied a group of high school seniors while they used the library for two assigned research papers, this paper presents a process approach to library skills instruction for high school students. The doctoral study traced the research process used by the students through a number of devices including…

With grants from the Council on Library Resources (CLR) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), New York University (NYU) Libraries conducted a study to assess user reactions to their online catalog, Bobcat (Bobst Library Computerized Catalog). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of NYU's catalog, to describe users' attitudes toward…

This paper reports the results of a circulation study in the government documents departments of a public library and an academic library. Based on a systematic random sample of the records of materials returned in 1981, the study had two purposes: to seek evidence to support the assumption that current documents circulate more than older ones;…

Prepared at the request of the Advisory Systems Committee of the Ontario Universities' Library Cooperative System, this report presents the results of study of the feasibility of a bilingual regional system for maps, or alternatively, the possibility of adapting the Guelph system to CARTESS. The report is presented in three sections: (1) a…

Academic library members of the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) responded to a computer library network effectiveness questionnaire to determine the extent to which actual network performance, as perceived by users, is consistent with expected performance. The study evaluated the technological system in terms of outputs and implications for…

The derivation of the concept of participative management from a variety of complementary managerial and motivational theories, and its acceptance and use as a managerial technique in library administration are reviewed in detail. The major contributions to the development of the concept of participative management, including Maslow's hierarchy of…

Results of a 4-month library self-evaluation program conducted by staff members at Carnegie-Mellon University Libraries are reported in this document. The study was conducted using the Academic Library Development Program (ALDP), a self-improvement strategy for libraries to evaluate and develop their performance. The study team consisting of four…

This study was conducted in l978/79 to test the hypothesis that the circulation of books put in a prominent display location would increase because of the tendency of adults to select books in public libraries by browsing, rather than looking for specific titles. The circulation of all copies of a sample of ll5 titles from the adult individual…

This report synthesizes results of a special project to study the origins of new special libraries, including influences in their pre-establishment period, and critical factors in the first five years of their lives. A review of prior research, a census of new special libraries in Illinois, group interviews with librarians and managers, and a mail…