This report contains the results of the Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) survey of academic Health Sciences libraries for 2002-03. Data are presented on collections, expenditures, and personnel and public services. Out of 114 ARL university libraries, 65 responded to the survey. Health Sciences libraries reported median values of 232,559…

The growth in number and kind of online reference services has resulted in both new users consulting library research services as well as new patterns of service use. Staffing in-person and virtual reference services desks adequately requires a systematic analysis of patterns of use across service points in order to successfully meet fluctuating…

The Library Impact Data Project was a six-month project funded by Jisc and managed by the University of Huddersfield to investigate this hypothesis: "There is a statistically significant correlation across a number of universities between library activity data and student attainment." E-resources usage, library borrowing statistics, and…

A librarian and faculty member collaborated on creating a library research module for students in the faculty member's college success classes to help them learn the fundamentals of information literacy. Using the assignment "My Ideal Job," the students met four or more times with the librarian in a computer classroom to learn how to do…

This study uses three cohorts of first-time, full-time undergraduate students (N = 8,652) at a large, metropolitan, public research university to examine the impact of student use of three library resources (workstations, study rooms, and research clinics) on academic performance. To deal with self-selection bias and estimate this impact more…

How are academic libraries organizing themselves in order to engage in the content selection and digitization of local collections? Are libraries creating new positions or units, assigning responsibilities to existing departments, setting up cross-functional collaboration among existing departments, or using a combination of these strategies? Who…

Faculty were asked how important for their students the Association of College and Research Libraries' "Information Literacy Competency Standards'" outcomes are, and when students should display the relevant skills. Faculty believe most of the "Standards'" outcomes are important but show little agreement on when students should acquire them.

Studies suggest that course-integrated information literacy instruction is an effective way to enhance the quality of student research. However, many political science professors are unfamiliar with the growing information literacy movement in higher education today, with strategies for integrating information literacy into their courses and…

An increasing number of academic and research libraries have built high-density shelving facilities to address overcrowding conditions in their regular stacks. However, the work performed in these facilities is physically strenuous and highly repetitive in nature and may require the use of potentially dangerous equipment. This article will examine…

In autumn 2012, the University of Birmingham launched FindIt@Bham, a Primo-based Resource Discovery Service, after a series of focus groups with students and staff to help determine its initial configuration and customization. This article presents the results from a large-scale online survey and focus groups that were conducted to poll users'…

This report is based on a series of presentations at the second CLIR Seminar on "Participatory Design of Academic Libraries," held at the University of Rochester's River Campus June 5-7, 2013. Participatory design is a relatively recent approach to understanding library user behavior. It is based on techniques used in anthropological and…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to show that for the successful development of socio-technical systems it is essential that various stakeholders are able to integrate their different knowledge and perspectives. A method that supports knowledge integration in the course of introduction and development of socio-technical systems is the…

After providing access to over 100 video interviews conducted by a professor with notable entertainers and personalities from film through an institutional repository, an experiment was conducted to discover whether a larger audience could be gained by adding a subset of 32 of these videos to YouTube. The results, over 400,000 views, indicate that…

The study carried out at Makerere University and Uganda Martyrs University in 2010 aimed at providing strategies for enhanced distance learning library services in terms of convenience and adequacy. The study adopted a cross sectional descriptive survey design. The study revealed services provided in branch libraries in Ugandan universities were…

During the 2001-2002 academic year, Augustana College Library (Rock Island, IL) and St. Ambrose University Library (Davenport, IA) began a unique joint venture of peer observation between the reference staff members of the two libraries. Librarians from each college took turns visiting the other library and conducting peer observations of…