Reports the design, methodology, and results of a research project which examined the effectiveness of bibliographic displays produced by online catalogs. A means of testing displays against several hundred thousand records at a reasonable cost and using that to test several display possibilities is described. (CLB)

Describes the background, goals, methods, and results of a needs assessment study at the New York Public Library. This structured, phased self-examination was designed to form a consensus about the institution's long term needs and priorities. (CLB)

This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit reports results of a survey of 82 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions conducted in early 1992 in order to gather information on interlibrary loan by examining a number of operation and management changes that are occurring and the steps that might be taken to ease the pressure…

Following a directory of New Jersey State Library staff, narrative and statistical information on fiscal year 1986 grant programs administered by the Library Development Bureau of the New Jersey State Library is provided for the following funding categories: (1) New Jersey state library aid, including per capita aid, incentive grants, area…

This 11-document kit introduces the current and planned uses of telecommunications facilities in the computerized information systems of several research libraries, public libraries, and library groups contacted in 1983. The first two documents are excerpts from reports on networks: "Telecommunications: An Overview for OCLC," and…

Discusses scale and character of changes brought about in interlibrary loan borrowing procedures through use of online searching and electronic messaging. Specific changes in University of British Columbia library and a survey of other Canadian university and public libraries (character of work, job classification, work assignments) are reported.…

This meeting on the retrospective conversion (RECON) of music materials brought together 21 individuals to plan the integration and coordination of RECON activities within the context of the music library community. Major music societies and professional music groups were represented as were music faculty and composing communities. This document…

This report presents the findings of a survey of New York State Library System administrators and governors designed to provide an empirical benchmark of opinion within the New York State library system and to aid in discussion, evaluation, and planning at the library systems conference. Survey data were collected by means of telephone interviews…

Intended for use by librarians in Alaska, this manual provides general guidelines for the maximum utilization of library resources through interlibrary loan service. The first of four major sections describes the Alaska Library Network (ALN), which provides protocols and procedures to libraries for resource sharing; points out that new protocols…

Building on a prior investigation of users' formulations and needs in fiction, this study was conducted to determine dominant patterns in public library user-librarian search interactions. Based on analysis of 134 actual user-librarian conversations about fiction recorded under everyday library conditions in Danish public libraries in 1976, it was…

This how-to-do-it guide for Oklahoma public libraries to use in evaluating their performance defines the individual performance measures, explains the data collection and analysis procedures, shows example calculations, and discusses the analysis and presentation of the performance measures. The performance measures are presented in terms of the…

Provides statistics based on the 1996 National Households Education Survey (NHES) of 55,000 families, measuring library use by presence of children, race, and ethnicity. Provides tables reporting use of public libraries by presence of children, by any household member, and by any household member in the last month. (PEN)

This book discusses the motivations that cause adults to go to the public library. It is grouped into eight sections concerning: (1) the research methodology and results used to determine four motivators that were good predictors of library use; (2) the development of library research; (3) several characteristics of library users in terms of…

Developed as part of a three-year project funded by the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA), this manual is designed to present librarians in the State of California with an alternative, "sense-making" approach to assessing the information needs of patrons and potential patrons and to assessing accountability, i.e., whether…

Because the general alphabetic arrangement of fiction in libraries is of little use to the ordinary reader, whose criteria for selecting books often relates to book content, a multi-dimensional and inexclusive fiction classification scheme was developed as a model for both book description and search strategy. Based on analysis of 160 actual…