John Fiske (1842-1901) was an American historian, philosopher, lecturer, and prolific author. Renowned as a popularizer of evolutionary theory, Fiske rubbed elbows with Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. From 1872-79 he served as Assistant Librarian at Harvard University, occupied mainly with what is known today as "Technical Services," i.e.,…

This study explores the perceptions that Israeli reference librarians have of their jobs and their academic environment. Fifteen academic reference librarians were interviewed over a period of four months and their answers were analyzed using the thematic analysis approach. The analysis resulted in five major themes: 1) elements in reference work…

This paper reports on a questionnaire survey of 16 national libraries designed to clarify how national libraries attempt to justify their web archiving activities. Results indicate they envisage that a) the benefits brought about by their initiatives are greater than the overall costs, b) the costs imposed on libraries are greater than the costs…

Libraries are constantly evolving and changing expectations for the user and the information environment. More than just being an authoritative source for research, expertise, and quality content in the form of books and journals, the information center is evolving into a more expansive role. With the growth of information technology awareness and…

This research set out to explore the attitudes of school, academic and public librarians towards marketing libraries. The main question that was examined is whether personality characteristics such as empowerment, extroversion and resistance to change influence librarians' attitudes towards the marketing of libraries. One hundred and fifty-six…

The World Wide Web has come a long way in a very short time. A little more than a decade ago, with the invention of Mosaic, the first browser to display images inline with text instead of displaying images in a separate window, and Netscape, the first graphical user interface (browser), people began to experience a rapid expansion of information.…

The advent of policies at research-funding organizations requiring grantees to make their funded research openly accessible alters the life cycle of scholarly research. This survey-based study explores the approaches that libraries and research administration offices at the major Canadian universities are employing to support the…

The proportion of ethnic minorities in the LIS school student population has remained significantly lower than in the U.S. population: in 2002, ethnic minorities constituted only 11.3 percent of the LIS student population, compared to 31.3 percent of the U.S. population. Despite efforts by LIS schools and associations in recruiting and retaining…

This article reports on a project which was undertaken in 2006 to investigate the current modes and methods for delivering reference services in Australian academic libraries. The project included a literature review to assist in providing a definition of reference services as well as a snapshot of statistics showing staff and patron numbers from…

Steve and Tina Nabinger rely on one another not only as man and wife, but also in professional life... as practicing librarians in Upstate New York. They are librarians in love, who love to collaborate. Together they make up a dynamic duo spawning creative library lessons for their elementary and middle school students in Upstate New York. In this…

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…

A study was undertaken in four Tanzanian universities to investigate the status and practice of information literacy (IL) so as to determine the best ways of introducing or improving IL programmes. This article reports on the findings related to challenges and opportunities that could influence the effective implementation and introduction of IL…

While a positive attitude for librarians helps, there is a knowledge base and a research base in the field, a structured set of protocols, and a range of skills that have to be taught and practiced at the preservice level. In this article, the author discusses the importance for librarians to exude more enthusiasm about their work. She offers…

This article is a brief description of a young librarians' first six months in the profession. The article lists five things the librarian knows he has done wrong, and five things he knows he has done right.

To assess their knowledge, use, and attitudes regarding peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, this study surveyed academic librarians (n = 162) via a mail-in survey. Correlations between the sample characteristics (age, gender, year of MLS, type of library job) and P2P knowledge, use, and attitudes were also explored. Overall, academic librarians…