Libraries are under pressure to prove their worth and may not have achieved this fully successfully. There is a resultant growing requirement for value and impact measurement in academic and research libraries. This essay reviews the natural history of library performance measurement and suggests that proof of worth will be measured by the…

Purposeful assessment of space for the understanding and improvement of the academic library is a relatively new area of inquiry. This essay offers a framework to consider different factors affecting such an assessment and insights for undertaking a meaningful inquiry about the relationship of space to an academic library's evolving purpose as…

This study examines data reflecting the actual impact during the first 3 years of use of the second edition of the Anglo American Cataloging Rules (AACR2) in one library, and compares them with a 5-year projection done in 1980. Findings showed the impact was close to the projection. (Author/EM)

Updates a storage cost model for academic library collections by examining how changes in construction costs and circulation costs affect the choices of an alternative book storage strategy. Results show that the most economical alternative for a large range of construction and circulation cost alternatives is to convert existing ground space to…

Prior to 1997, the University of Oxford in Great Britain had approximately one hundred autonomous libraries with little coordination of services, collection development, or management among them. In that year a new director was hired with the mandate to integrate many of these libraries into one centralized system. Over the past seven years…

Replicates an earlier investigation of job satisfaction among library personnel in academic libraries, looking at such factors as different departments within libraries, supervisory level, length of time in the profession, age of the employee, and employee's career orientation. Both studies found significant differences in satisfaction between…

Identifies library perception of forces out of control in scholarly communication system and proceeds to description of attempts libraries are making to regain sense of control. Points of similarity or contrast between scholarly publishers and research libraries are addressed, with emphasis on concept of selectivity. Seven sources are given. (EJS)

This first of a two-part series on resources in major university music libraries contains "Rare Resources in the Yale Music Library" (Harold E. Samuel) and "The Music Library, University of California, Berkeley" (John H. Roberts). Topics discussed include special collections, rare books and manuscripts, music archives, and…

A model based on storage and retrieval costs that determines efficient allocation of materials to different storage regimes in academic libraries is developed. An economically rational basis for determining role of several alternative storage methods which distinguish among materials by expected level of use is offered. Nineteen references are…

Comments on impact of photocopying, networking, and resource sharing on acquisitions programs of research libraries and describes fiscal situation in academic institutions, specifically in Massachusetts Institute of Technology libraries. Electronic publishing, role of research library as subscriber and intermediary, and communication between…

Review of development of German scientific and technical information network highlights scientific and technical libraries before World War I, the 1920s, effects of National Socialist rise to power, restriction of foreign acquisitions, technological university and wartime activities at Berlin-Charlottenburg, documentation movement, German Society…