During the summer semester, the Vise Library at Cumberland University (CU) began working on its "digital makeover." It has six goals: (1) Create a more user-friendly and dynamic website; (2) Activate and maintain accounts on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter; (3) Produce a library blog that allows students, staff, and…

The job of literary archivist is changing as paper manuscripts yield to laptops, Blackberry's, and Facebook content, and digital preservation lets scholars learn more about authors' creative process than ever before. Personal computers and external storage devices have been around for more than a quarter-century, but only now, as the famous…

The year 2011 was the PALNI (Private Academic Library Network of Indiana) consortium's "rookie season" for the implementation of Primo, the 2010 Discovery Layer 500 race winner. In this article, the authors report on their transition to the cloud within Ex Libris Ltd.'s Primo TotalCare environment: their preparation, the steps involved…

Throughout the history of library automation, the author has seen a steady advancement toward more open systems. In the early days of library automation, when proprietary systems dominated, the need for standards was paramount since other means of inter-operability and data exchange weren't possible. Today's focus on Application Programming…

Imagine downloading a new software application and not having to worry about licensing, finding dollars in the budget, or incurring additional maintenance costs. Imagine finding a Web design tool in the public domain--free for use. Imagine major universities that provide online courses with no strings attached. Imagine online textbooks without a…

It comes as no surprise that different generations respond to and utilise emerging technology in vastly different ways. However as more Millennials take on leadership positions within academic libraries, their attitudes towards and uses of technology may bring conflicting expectations for leadership to the forefront. What are the generational…

One of the toughest challenges in an academic library systems office is how to manage and present the extensive selection of electronic resources from a variety of vendors. At York College of Pennsylvania, the authors participated in an admissions-driven web revision cycle and used a campus-provided CMS for 8 years. During this time, they tried…

This article presents a reading of the user interface in one public library system. Its aim is to find out the frames and competences required and used in the communication between the computer and the patron. The authors see the computer as a text that is to be read by the user who wants to search for information from the library. The transition…

An automated retrieval system, adapted from a commercial warehouse application, has been installed at Georgia Southern University and has been well accepted by patrons and library personnel due to its reliability, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and responsiveness. (Contains 1 figure.)

The paper describes the theory and definition of the practice of librarianship, specifically addressing how Web 2.0 technologies (tools) such as synchronous messaging, collaborative reference service and streaming media, blogs, wikis, social networks, social bookmarking tools, tagging, RSS feeds, and mashups might intimate changes and how…

The University of Minnesota-Duluth is the second largest campus in the University of Minnesota system. The UMD library, which serves more than 11,000 students and 500 faculty members, is primarily an undergraduate library. The reference team consists of eight librarians, including author Sunshine Carter, reference and electronics resources…

As a concept, the next-generation catalog (NGC) is not new to librarians, who have been wishing for better OPAC interfaces for their integrated library systems (ILSs). The NGC has been the focus of discussion for more than 5 years now, from the 2006 report of the implementation of Endeca at North Carolina State University, to Marshall Breeding's…

The rumored death of librarianship caused by the advent of technology has not, and will not, come to pass. In this article, the author describes how technology has exponentially increased the librarian's ability to provide library service at the Calcasieu Parish Public Library, where she serves as head of Collection & Computing Services. The…

When the Vise Library at Cumberland University set down the path to their digital makeover, they were optimistic that they could completely revolutionize their library's web presence. They tried to keep their goals manageable, but it turns out they did not "quite" achieve 100% success. In this article, the author describes how they have…

Open source software has become a catchword in libraryland. Yet many remain unclear about open source's benefits--or even what it is. So what is open source software (OSS)? It's software that is free in every sense of the word: free to download, free to use, and free to view or modify. Most OSS is distributed on the Web and one doesn't need to…