Technical services departments are increasingly expected to do more with less, which means that finding a balance between meeting service demands and developing staff knowledge and skills is more challenging than ever. Today's next gen catalogs, changing cataloging rules, and diverse formats and delivery models demand that technical services…

The article examines some of the non-routine challenges that an academic library director can expect to deal with during his or her career. Each challenge is discussed in a paragraph or two, beginning by characterizing the challenge as an animal that serves as a metaphor for unusual but nonetheless important conditions that can, sooner or later,…

There is an ongoing paradigm shift in librarianship that prompts the application of pedagogy throughout our professional practice. In light of the special attention to basic writing development in community college curricula, this article provides an overview of basic writing pedagogy. It discusses the overall college-level writing and research…

In the Fall of 2009, the Moraine Valley Community College Library, using guidelines developed by Jakob Nielsen, conducted a usability study to determine how students were using the library Web site and to inform the redesign of the Web site. The authors found that Moraine Valley's current gateway design was a more effective access point to library…

Through the power of easily accessible and engaging new digital media technologies, family and oral histories can give voice to the unknown and overlooked stories of immigrants and their families--stories that often never make it beyond the children or the grandchildren. The academic library can be a natural focal point for this interaction and…

This study examines local research guides created by academic business librarians to assist patrons with researching the communities (towns, cities, and regions) where their schools are located. A key finding is that only 33% of the libraries surveyed provide guides to local research, while 80% provide guides to international research. (Contains 2…

This article describes a library renovation project in a community college that involved using existing space and reorganizing it to support the way students learn both individually and collaboratively. The article also looks at the importance of the academic library as place.

Increasingly at West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC), English 101, English 102, and Enrichment 091 are taught online, allowing students more work availability and time with family, while decreasing commute time and expense. In order to meet the library orientation needs of these online students and provide other options for…

This paper discusses the LaGuardia Community College Library's launch of a fully-online one-credit research class. The authors discuss the process for creating the class, from the technical specifications to the pedagogical approach to the course content and delivery. The authors also discuss the challenges of providing a fully online class to…

Community colleges offer many advantages over other types of institutions, financially and educationally. This article will explore some of those advantages, including comparisons to other types of institutions. A brief introduction to accreditation will contextualize how community colleges have advantages of certain institutions. Lastly,…

Librarians at the Stevens-Henager Career College Salt Lake City Campus have developed a library-instruction program over the last year. The basic section consists of 40-45 minutes on primary, secondary, and tertiary literature, search techniques, live online searching using student-contributed examples, finishing off with short sections on…

This study explores how LaGuardia Community College faculty use library resources for personal research. Faculty were given a survey of library usage patterns, as well as their attitude toward the LaGuardia library and libraries in general. Findings indicate tenured faculty more likely to use the LaGuardia library than untenured faculty. (Contains…

In order to increase the benefits that the student receives from bibliographic instruction, many community college libraries are incorporating the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) into their BI programs. In order to take full advantage of the Competency…

As a strategy to promote the Arapahoe Community College Library's collections and services, the Library undertook to brand itself as a math resource center. In promoting one area of expertise, math was selected to help address the problem of a large portion of high school graduates' inability to work at college-level math. A "Math…

Libraries and library faculty play a significant role in supporting college curriculum and helping students succeed academically. In particular, libraries are the primary location both physically and remotely for supporting faculty and students in their research and information needs. Over the years, this role of libraries and library faculty has…