In 2005, a record breaking 26 named tropical storms including 13 hurricanes ravaged the Gulf Coast of the United States. In response to the devastation of hundreds of schools, the Laura Bush Foundation swiftly created The Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative to help school libraries become fully functional and to offer the needed print…

Declining reference statistics, diminishing human resources, and the desire to be more proactive and embedded in academic departments, prompted the University of South Florida Library to create a taskforce for re-envisioning reference services. The taskforce was charged with examining the staffing patterns at the desk and developing…

This paper presents case study research of a job rotation pilot involving six library assistants in Cardiff University Library Service (ULS). Firstly, it investigates whether job rotation improves motivation and secondly, whether there is an improvement in skills, both technical and "soft". Following a review of the literature,…

This article discusses some of the premigration tasks at Minnesota State Mankato in preparation for migration to a new integrated library system, ALEPH. The authors describe the review of circulation policies to make sure that only relevant, current data and practices were carried over. There is emphasis on the need for ongoing review of policies…

This study examines the influence of culture on digital libraries of the first wave. The local cultures of innovation of five European national libraries (Biblioteca nacional de Portugal, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, the National Library of Scotland, and the British Library) are reconstructed in case histories from…

Describes several videos about authors and illustrators of children's literature. The videos include interviews, performances, and discussions of the illustration and writing processes. Technical and collection development issues are considered, and distributors and prices are listed for 66 videos. (MES)

Current technological advances make acquiring and producing oral history records easier for librarians. However, they must be aware of practical, philosophical, political, and legal issues involved therein. Preservation formats include (1) audiotape; (2) videotape; (3) disc recordings; (4) film; (5) slides and audiotapes; and (6) microfilm. (CDD)

The University of Florida Libraries took the opportunity of remodeling its Humanities and Social Sciences library to conceptualize the design of an info commons area for the new building. An Info Commons Concept Team was formed and charged with this task. The team used site visits, surveys, focus groups, and interviews to determine the needs of…

The staff of libraries and the populations they serve grow increasingly more diverse. Library users of different ethnic backgrounds, with different abilities and different needs, challenge libraries to be the place for everyone to get the information and materials they need. At the same time, library staffs should mirror the diverse population…

Prior to 1997, the University of Oxford in Great Britain had approximately one hundred autonomous libraries with little coordination of services, collection development, or management among them. In that year a new director was hired with the mandate to integrate many of these libraries into one centralized system. Over the past seven years…

Discussion of library instruction for teaching the use of computer-based searching techniques focuses on a study conducted at Evergreen State College to determine novice and experienced users' information seeking habits, and to create a multicultural teaching model for researchers that acknowledges the users' conceptual frameworks. (15 references)…

Describes a strategy for query negotiation, based on a sense-making approach, which enables librarians to understand queries from users' viewpoint. The results of tests of the neutral questioning approach in workshops for librarians are discussed along with participating librarians' responses to this technique. (MBR)

Presents three articles that describe the use of storytelling and oral histories in junior and senior high schools: (1) a project that emphasizes family and community history using storytellers; (2) using tape recorders to gather oral histories and write a book; and (3) storytelling ideas for librarians to use in a variety of classes. (seven…

Seven articles on library reference services highlight reference obsolescence in academic libraries, major studies of unobtrusive reference tests, methods for evaluating reference desk performance, reference interview evaluation, problems of reference desk control, online searching by end users, and reference collection development in…

The 28 papers in this sourcebook relate to the evaluation of children's services in public libraries: (1) "Introduction to Evaluation" (Jane Robbins and Douglas Zweizig); (2) "Research and Measurement in Library Services to Children" (Adele Fasick); (3) "Evaluating Children's Services" (Diana Young); (4) "What Is…