Utah's libraries were perceived as instruments for "the establishment of a recognized social order" by each successive group that came to power and were often founded as the result of conflict between Mormon culture and the larger American society. On their arrival, Mormons established libraries primarily to provide access to information…

The Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex sends regular "directives" to its panel of volunteer correspondents around the UK asking them to reflect on various issues relating to the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. Two directives from the 1980s and 1990s relate to libraries, books and reading habits. These sets of…

The surprising success of Live Homework Help, a product of Tutor.com unknown to libraries before 2001, is in very large part owing to the company's effort to understand library funding and help libraries tap into all kinds of potential funding sources. The story is a model for partnerships between other companies and libraries. For the people of…

The Northeast Kansas Library System's filtering project started out as a response to the passage of CIPA, the Children's Internet Protection Act, in January 2001. Originally called "onGuard," it was a service that the Northeast Kansas Library System created for its members. When the Supreme Court ruling did uphold the constitutionality…

The South Dakota Arts Council submitted this FY 2006 annual report to the Governor and Legislature. It presents the 530 grants that were awarded with funds from the State of South Dakota and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Fiscal Year 2006 grant funds of $977,000 generated $12 million in local cash matching funds. These…

Issues 248 through 255 of "Fast Facts" from the Library Research Service present data gleaned from libraries in Colorado and across the nation. Topics addressed in these "Fast Facts" from 2007 include the library labor market, the benefits to libraries of using a statewide courier service, and the results of a patron survey at…

This document reports request for a total of $271,246,000 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for Fiscal Year 2008. Funds are designed to assist the Institute in expanding its leadership role in creating an informed and educated citizenry, and transmitting the values of American democracy. In recent years the Institute has…

Public access to the Internet and computers is transforming public libraries into de facto e-government access points, for such disparate services as disaster relief, Medicare drug plans, and even benefits for children and families. This new role for public libraries is not just user-initiated. Government agencies now refer people to public…

One of the hottest literary phenomena of recent years has been the explosion of what has been variously termed hip-hop, street, or urban fiction. Especially popular with younger African Americans, books in this genre are reaching an increasingly broad readership through ties to hip-hop music and culture. These crime stories generally revolve…

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL)/Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)/Young Adult Library Service Association (YALSA) Joint Task Force on School/Public Library Cooperative Activities has been collecting and disseminating information about cooperative activities around the country since the first meeting in January…

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that every year 76 million Americans get some kind of food poisoning, more than 300,000 are hospitalized, and approximately 5,000 people die. A 2004 analysis by the Center for Science in the Public Interest indicates that contaminated produce is responsible for the greatest number of food-borne illnesses.…

The purpose of this research was to explore the possible roles and responsibilities that public libraries might assume in the National Information Infrastructure (NII). Data was collected from September 1994 through June 1995, relying on the following data collection techniques: focus groups, personal interviews, survey data analysis, case…

This report summarizes findings from the State Library of Florida's "Evaluation of Statewide Youth Services Program" project. The project was designed to assist the State Library of Florida in developing a long-range plan for youth services and to link the public library effort to "Blueprint 2000," the Florida education goals,…

A survey of the reference departments of public libraries in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah was conducted to determine whether CD-ROM products are being used in routine reference work. Previous literature on CD-ROM had primarily been concerned with the response to and acceptance of the technology by patrons. A stratified sample of public…

This document presents a summary of public library statistics collected from fiscal years 1988 through 1993. Statistical information is included on library circulation and interlibrary loan; collections; income; expenditures; expenditures and collections; staff and volunteers; and hours, attendance, reference, and programs. The tables and graphs…