The study described here investigates the thoughts and opinions of young readers related to age banding on children's books. Emphasizing the views of children themselves, rather than adults such as parents, librarians, teachers and authors, the research involved a series of three focus groups involving children aged 11-13 years. The discussions…

The "Comprehensive Allocation Process" (CAP) is a reproducible decision-making structure for the allocation of new collections funds, for the reallocation of funds within stagnant budgets, and for budget cuts in the face of reduced funding levels. This system was designed to overcome common shortcomings of current methods. Its philosophical…

This paper reports the implementation results of the Portuguese School Libraries Evaluation Model, more specifically the results of primary schools self-evaluation of their libraries' reading promotion and information literacy development activities. School libraries that rated their performance as either "Excellent" or "Poor"…

Introduction: This is a study of hierarchical navigation; how users browse a taxonomy-based interface to an organizational repository to locate information resources. The study is part of a project to develop a taxonomy for an library and information science department to organize resources and support user browsing in a digital repository.…

When VCRs became affordable, the film industry worried that people would stop going to the movies. Theaters have not gone away, but they have changed, with many now focused on delivering spectacles that can be seen only in a grand setting, with a big screen and booming sound. Traditional colleges now face a similar challenge, thanks to free or…

Professional development is, in essence, a form of lifelong learning, and as such, can be viewed within the context of pedagogical concepts. More specifically, professional development is a process that builds on the experiences of the professional through assessment and reflection. The library as an organization acts like a teacher or instructor…

Arizona State University is the largest public university in the United States with an enrollment of 70,440 in 2010. ASU's online offerings are also expanding rapidly with a target of 30,000 students by 2020. In one program, growth and transformation from hybrid to 100% online demanded scalability to handle large enrollments. Thus an instructional…

Providing library instruction in distance learning environments presents a unique set of challenges for instructional librarians. Innovations in computer-mediated communication and advances in cognitive science research provide the opportunity for designing library instruction that meets a variety of student information seeking needs. Using a…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the predominant factors contributing to low reading abilities of pupils at Elsie Lund Basic School in the Tamale Metropolis, Ghana. Purposive sampling technique was used to select twelve (12) classroom teachers of the Elsie Lund Basic School. The instrument used to collect data was one-to-one in-depth…

To promote the development of greater creativity in my students' design work, I created an online tool--called Reflective Inquiry (RI)--that accompanies all of my open-ended assignments and that I require students to submit with each project. The RI is composed of a series of prompts that students must respond to, almost daily, to explain and…

This report presents findings about how a sample of U.S. college students gathers information and engages with news in the digital age. Included are results from an online survey of 5,844 respondents and telephone interviews with 37 participants from 11 U.S. colleges and universities selected for their regional, demographic, and red/blue state…

In 2013, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards received a 5-year Investing in Innovation Fund Development grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop, implement, and study Accomplished Teaching, Learning, and Schools (ATLAS). ATLAS is an online case library that contains examples of "accomplished teaching"…

Proper planning and assessment surveys of projects for academic library Web sites will not always be predictive of real world use, no matter how many responses they might receive. In this case, multiple-phase development, librarian focus groups, and patron surveys performed before implementation of such a project inaccurately overrated utility and…

To demonstrate the effectiveness of university libraries, we investigated the relationship between university students' sports performances and their libraries collections of sports. By examining approximately 20 university libraries' collections and their sports ranks, as indicated by Waseda Sports 2008, we demonstrated their positive…

During a six month contract with the Royal University of Bhutan, the author was required to develop the initial stages of a first library qualification to be offered in Bhutan. Questions raised by this project included: is a first qualification in librarianship needed in Bhutan? What are the potential student numbers in such a programme? What…