Offering a separate, popular reading collection can be a valuable public service in academic libraries. Popular reading is also known as leisure reading, recreational reading, and reading for pleasure. These phrases are synonyms for an interest in reading bestsellers, mysteries, romance novels, biographies, graphic novels, humor, self-help, or…

This study examines what the public search for in the catalogue of the State Library of Victoria (SLV). As well as indicating the type of content being accessed, this gives an indication of what catalogue users expect of the State Library collection. A content analysis was undertaken of a random, stratified sample of 4,000 search queries typed in…

Robert Young became the Director of Education at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, in October of 2007. In this article, the author discusses some of the workshops and other materials available for teachers and students at the Folger. Beginning with an idea that Peggy O'Brien had 23 years ago, Folger Education has developed into a…

What is the economic situation in libraries these days? What are academic and research libraries doing with regard to making the resources in their collections more discoverable? Are they involved in institutional repository (IR) projects? And how do IRs and the availability of open access journals affect library purchasing decisions? Those were…

Gathering qualitative information about usage behavior of library Web sites is a time-consuming process requiring the active participation of patron communities. Libraries that collect virtual reference transcripts, however, hold valuable data regarding how the library Web site is used that could benefit Web designers. An analysis of virtual…

We investigated whether American dissertations that were deposited in university libraries or disseminated on microfilm prior to 1978 were "published" for copyright purposes. This question has direct bearing on the copyright status of these works today. In the absence of a directly relevant legal decision to clarify the matter, the…

This article features Richard J. Klarchek Information Commons (IC) at Loyola University Chicago, an all-glass library building on the shore of Chicago's Lake Michigan that is not only a state-of-the-art digital research library and study space--it also runs on cutting-edge energy technology. The building has attracted attention and visitors from…

This article aims to present a comprehensive review of MPhil and PhD research theses produced by library and information science (LIS) schools in Pakistan from their beginning to 2015. It also explores the research trends in LIS, identifies gaps, and presents an agenda for future research by LIS scholars. The origin, development, and current…

Introduction: This paper presents a review of research framed within the concept of social capital and published by library and information science researchers. Method: Ninety-nine papers fitting the criteria of having a specific library and information science orientation were identified from two periodical databases: "Library and…

Seekers of information in libraries either go through a librarian intermediary or they help themselves. When they go through librarians they must develop their questions through four levels of need, referred to here as the visceral, conscious, formalized, and compromised needs. In his pre-search interview with an information-seeker the reference…

The inclusion or not of chat services within Virtual Reference (VR) is an important topic for university libraries. Increasingly, email supported by a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) database is suggested in the scholarly literature as the preferred, cost-effective means for providing university VR services. This paper examines these issues and…

Using the results for participating Association of Research Libraries from the 2006 LibQUAL+[R] library service quality survey, we examine the service priorities of library staff (for example, whether desired scores for each survey item are above or below average) and the extent to which they are aligned with the priorities of undergraduates,…

In 2012, Keith Curry Lance and his associates completed a second school library impact study in Pennsylvania. The research conducted in Pennsylvania was the result of an Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership grant that examined students' reading and writing scores with sub-groups of students (Hispanic, Black,…

To mark its founding in 1558 by Albrecht V., Duke of Bavaria, the Bavarian State Library (BSB) has issued a splendid catalogue (358 pages) with many sumptuous full-page coloured plates, taken from 113 works which were in the Library during its formative period 1558-1599). These works include manuscripts, church and secular music and early printed…

Compared with oral history in most Western countries, oral history theory and practice in Mainland China lag behind in both study and practice. This paper outlines the experience of oral history work in the Shantou university library, and the types and features of the oral history collected by the library. It examines problems in the development…