Embedded librarianship in distance learning courses taught within virtual environments such as Second Life is an emerging, leading-edge practice. This paper describes the experiences of librarians embedded in undergraduate English composition courses taught entirely in Second Life and presents the results of an empirical research study to assess…

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…

This article reports on selected results of a comprehensive survey of children's reading in England, carried out online in 2005 by the National Centre for Research in Children's Literature at Roehampton University. With 4182 responses from children living in England aged from 4 to 16 years, the survey is a follow-up to a similar study completed in…

A school library media specialist cannot be the lone proponent of the library media program. Other voices--parents, coworkers, and students--must all play their respective roles in communicating the value of a great school library media center. This column provides suggestions on ways to improve the services offered by the media program to these…

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…

In light of the new emphasis on information literacy, this research updates previous studies and explores current practices in first year library instruction and programming. Academic librarians are reaching out to freshmen seminar programs, first year orientations, Introduction to College courses, and English composition courses to integrate…

In the fall of 2007, ebrary surveyed 906 faculty from around the world, asking them how they used electronic resources. This article, focusing on the responses of faculty to a few survey questions, finds some expected and surprising attitudes that faculty have about electronic resources for their own and students' research. (Contains 2 notes.)

Presents the results of a survey of program directors of the 210 school media preparation programs in the United States and a sampling of school system personnel directors. This study was conducted to assess the national employment situation for school media specialists in 1986 and project employment trends into the near future. (MES)

This year's "School Library Journal's" spending survey showed that, despite the recession, the vast majority of media centers around the country have retained their credentialed media specialists. For example, almost 85% of elementary schools and more than 95% of middle and high schools have a full-time certified librarian. In addition, salaries…

This article considers two components identified as essential to effective academic library Websites--satisfaction of user needs and adherence to university Website guidelines--and how they sometimes contradict one another. A literature review is provided, followed by results of a survey the author created and distributed that measures a…

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…

Data concerning librarians' beliefs about possible problems associated with dual career marriages, as well as data on the educational and marital histories of librarians, were collected by a mail questionnaire distributed to a random sample of alumnae from the graduating master's classes of the School of Library and Information Studies of Texas…

This report provides data on the resources and expenditures of libraries in 160 state institutions in New York for the year 1985-86 and in 171 institutions for 1986-87. Six state departments are represented: Correctional Services, Education, Health, Mental Health, Youth, and the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Data…

Characteristics of selected public libraries into which adult literacy programs have become integrated are reported. Data are drawn from visits to five library literacy programs, telephone interviews with officials of 20 selected library literacy programs, and data submitted in the nominations of 68 programs from 22 states. Part 1 describes the…