The attractiveness of social networking sites (SNSs) has extended to almost all professionals in numerous human organizations including the library. Librarians as a result of this development are now making use of these sites to connect to other libraries and librarians both within and outside their environment. However, it is observed that the…

A survey of New Zealand academic subject/reference librarians was conducted in mid-2011 to identify the most highly valued knowledge, skills and competencies of reference librarians working in libraries in the tertiary sector. The project was part of an international collaborative project involving 13 countries. The results from New Zealand show…

School librarianship is affected by the widespread challenges affecting schools and changing notions of school libraries' relevancy. The purpose of this study was to ascertain how these societal trends influenced educators' decisions to be school librarians. In this second phase of a longitudinal qualitative study, five school library program…

Library 2.0 is a change in the way libraries interact with their users. Technological developments on the Web have had a major influence on these changes. The change also places new requirements on librarians' competencies and skills. This research investigates how librarians themselves see this change in terms of their work identity and working…

Prison libraries have traditionally fulfilled many purposes for their incarcerated patrons, and these libraries often carry a diverse collection to serve varied patron needs. However, during the trial of Steven Hayes for the Petit family murders, the prosecution questioned the collection development policies of the institutions where Hayes had…

Libraries are continually changing to meet the needs of users; this includes implementing discovery tools, also referred to as web-scale discovery tools, to make searching library resources easier. Because these tools are so new, it is difficult to establish definitive best practices for teaching these tools; however, promising practices are…

The purpose of this study was to explore the adaptive measures that academic libraries perform when implementing and operating a 24-hour schedule. Five in-depth interviews were conducted with current managerial-level librarians at 24-hour academic libraries. The exploratory interviews revealed similar measures for security, budgeting, employee…

Introduction: Little is known about the quality of health information in social contexts or how socio-emotional factors impact users' evaluations of quality. We explored how librarians, nurses and users assessed the quality of health answers posted on Yahoo! Answers, focusing on socio-emotional reactions displayed, advice given to users and…

This study was undertaken to better understand the range of learning practices that academic librarians use throughout their careers, and to explore the ways library schools give students the opportunities to engage in learning methods that they are likely to use in their careers as librarians. The study uses semi-structured interviews with…

This study describes preliminary results of a study with elementary school teachers and librarians. Professional-development intervention workshops were conducted to improve teacher and school librarian collaboration to integrate library and subject content. A revised 24-item teacher and school librarian collaboration instrument (TLC-III) was used…

In the very near future, students are likely to expect their universities to provide seamless access to e-books through online library catalogues and virtual learning environments. A paradigm change in terms of the format of books, and especially textbooks, which could have far-reaching impact, is on the horizon. Based on interviews with a number…

Since the late 1970s, the access services librarian or equivalent position has become commonplace in academic libraries, and degreed professionals have been sought for these positions since the beginning. In 2009, David McCaslin, California Institute of Technology, examined the place of access services in American Library Association-accredited…

This article reports on the development and results of a recent survey of academic librarians about their attitudes, involvement, and perceived capabilities using and engaging in primary research. The purpose of the survey was to inform the development of a continuing education program in research design. It updates earlier studies of academic…

Since the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) unveiled its WorldCat Local library catalog discovery layer in 2008, library instructors have debated how to incorporate this tool into their teaching. WorldCat Local's faceted searching brings both educational benefits and unexpected challenges to the classroom. Instructors frequently hold formal…

This study explores knowledge bases as extension of reference services for distance learners. Through a survey and follow-up interviews with distance learning librarians, this paper discusses their interest in creating and maintaining a knowledge base as a resource for reference services to distance learners. It also investigates their perceptions…