When school librarians are hired, most of them will find positions as the only librarian in the school. Their training, their ideals, and what was once a clear vision of the profession can become murky when removed from their classrooms, their professors, and their peers. New school librarians can look for help in the district policies and…

Libraries receiving the corpus of a comics publisher are presented with challenges, especially regarding preservation and access for special and circulating collections. Libraries must consider user research needs and collection relevance. Library literature is consulted and recommendations are made regarding bibliographic description, subject…

Take a look around the bus or subway and see just how many people are bumping along to an iPod or an MP3 player. What they are listening to is their secret, but the many signature earbuds in sight should give one a real sense of just how pervasive digital audio has become. This article describes how that popularity is mirrored in library audio…

As the corpus of gray literature grows and the price of serials rises, it becomes increasingly important to explore ways to integrate the free and open Web seamlessly into one's collections. Users, after all, are discovering these materials all the time via sites such as Google Scholar and Scirus or by searching arXiv.org or CiteSeer directly.…

This book is for community leaders, librarians, library committees, volunteers, aid workers and others who are interested in the practical aspect of starting and maintaining a successful library. Throughout the developing world, countless dedicated people respond to the pressing need for information in their communities by helping to start a…

It has been a decade since the first aggregator journal packages began to become available at academic and public libraries throughout the United States of America. During these 10 years, the library and information science community has published numerous articles on the pros and cons of this method of delivery and these collections, more than…

This description of the role of the Information Services Division of Exxon Research and Engineering Division in emergency management covers the information technology developed and used for internally generated and published information, and how this information is used to prevent emergencies and deal with them should they actually occur. (EM)

Discusses the development of the Smart Book, a device which simplifies access to information normally found in printed form, and describes its two distinct components--the reader unit containing computer equipment, display screen, and controls, and the ROM book pack containing the text of the book and program functions. Possible applications are…

Discusses actions of American Library Association's Ad Hoc Committee on Publishers' Trade Discounts on the "Resolution concerning Discounts Received by Public Libraries from Trade Publishers," highlighting libraries' portion of annual book sales, ordering practices, and legal questions. (EJS)

Describes optical data disk products currently on the market and discusses publishers to users' needs. Ways in which librarians can influence product development and design are suggested. (CLB)

This annual review of the library automation marketplace presents profiles of 15 major library automation firms and looks at emerging trends. Seventeen charts and tables provide data on market shares, number and size of installations, hardware availability, operating systems, and interfaces. A directory of 49 automation sources is included. (MES)

This narrative of events leading to the publication of "Molly's Pilgrim" in a third grade textbook by the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishing Company illustrates the types of censorship exercised by textbook publishers in response to public pressure. Revisions of the story to avoid mentioning God and the Bible are described. (EJS)

Trends in foreign children's books observed at International Bologna Book Fair (1984/85) indicate that publishers in Europe (The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, England, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia) and Japan sell most children's books to general public and respond more directly to readers' interests…

Examines pricing practices of major producers of educational materials: Weston Woods, Listening Library, Random House Educational Media, Live Oak Media, S&S Communications Group, Phoenix/BFA, Benchmark, and Churchill Films. Royalties, production and manufacturing costs, list prices, recoveries to producers, and marketing are noted. (EJS)

Once submerged in general fiction, African-American novels now have an authorship and readership to match other genres. This article examines the need for a separate genre section, African-American novels and writers, African-American collections in public libraries, African-American book clubs, book lists, and effects on mainstream publishing.…