The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) poses challenges as well as opportunities for anyone or anything dealing with digital technologies, including libraries. Libraries and librarians have a twofold challenge in that they simultaneously must consider AI applications in library operations as well as AI skills and knowledge as part of…

Each night, around 20,000 people--both adults and children--make the streets of Dhaka (the capital city of Bangladesh) their home. Living amongst the noise, rubbish, and traffic, thousands of families walk down the streets of Dhaka, looking for a safe place to rest for just a few hours each night. Trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, the…

This paper is a review of literature devoted to the unique information needs and information-seeking behavior of the growing nontraditional or mature community college student population. This underserved user group faces distinctive challenges that librarians, researchers, and administrators must recognize and address. Much of the existing…

The purpose of this study was to describe the methods--including practices, policies, and roles--used by public and academic library staff in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Racial and Ethnic Approach to Community Health (REACH) intervention that proved successful in reducing or eliminating several diabetes-related health…

Founded in the 1850s to promote an informed citizenry, public libraries advanced both adult learning and citizenship education in the first half of the 20th century, thus becoming cornerstones of democracy. But with a more recent decline in public engagement in libraries and beyond, librarians question whether democracy requires more than an…

Our institutions of record are facing a new digital knowledge management challenge: stakeholder communities are now expecting customized Web interfaces to institutional knowledge repositories, online environments where community members can contribute content and see themselves represented, as well as access archived resources. Digital curation…

Amidst calls for libraries to regain their socially progressive roots and connections to community, this study analyzes two interwoven cases of nonformal, community education in northeastern Nova Scotia, initiated by libraries that aimed to revive those links. Through a reading circle and a people's school, librarians used historical materials on…

In July 2008, over 14,000 public libraries throughout the U.S. received, free of charge, a set of fourteen Audio Guides introducing them to The Big Read. Since 2007, when the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in partnership with Arts Midwest, debuted The Big Read, the program has awarded grants to…

This study investigated how school and public librarians can become better disseminators of health information and improve health information literacy in small and rural communities in a selected research area. We used the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas as our study area, composed of the economically depressed Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and…

This submission represents the views of a newly formed organisation known as Public Libraries Australia. Formed to aggregate the political, service and infrastructure capacity of Australia's 1510 (ABS June 2000) public libraries, Public Libraries Australia will support and represent public libraries on a national basis. Networked across Australia…