This review offers a critical analysis of the library and information science (LIS) literature on first-generation students (FGS) from the last 40 years. This literature demonstrates an interest in understanding the needs of FGS to serve them better, but it is often grounded in a deficit model of education that focuses on what first-generation…

The objective of this study was to reveal how the national economic recession has affected the nature and extent of support for tenure track librarians at Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions. The authors surveyed 43 ARL Deans and University Librarians to discover the criteria for achieving tenure and the current…

Daylighting, a controlled architectural tool that influences users' perception and behavior, in university libraries and their influences on users' preference and satisfaction was examined in this study. The effects of daylighting in coordination with visual comfort, on university library users were measured in relation to four environmental…

This paper discusses the use of laser pointers at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Library, University of Maryland, College Park, as a personal response system (PRS) tool to encourage student engagement in and interactivity with one-shot, lecture-based information literacy sessions. Unlike more sophisticated personal response systems like…

Macquarie University Library's planning for a new library coincided with a major renewal of the university's curriculum and research activity. This provided a significant opportunity to re-think the presentation of the library collections in the new environment. This article describes how strategic alignment with university goals and the framework…

From a fledgling technology with no proven business models, electronic books (e-books) have grown in importance usurping traditional formats as an acquisitions budget line in many academic library contexts. Business models include purchase, subscription, and pay per use. In academic and research libraries, web based e-book delivery is the dominant…

Creating a learnable, effective, and user-friendly library Web site hinges on providing easy access to search. Designing a search interface for academic libraries can be particularly challenging given the complexity and range of searchable library collections, such as bibliographic databases, electronic journals, and article search silos. Library…

The difference between the University of Texas at San Antonio's Applied Engineering and Technology Library and other science-focused libraries is not that its on-site collection is also available electronically. It is that its on-site collection is only available electronically. The idea of libraries with no bound books has been a recurring theme…

The author is a reference and instruction librarian at Iowa State University with collection development and liaison responsibilities for chemistry, biochemistry, entomology, and natural resource ecology. She recently came to librarianship with an education and three years' experience in biochemistry and biotechnology. During the last four years…

The Association of College & Research Libraries' (ACRL) Academic/Research Librarian of the Year awardees constitute a "hall of fame" for ACRL. This article reports research analyzing 30 years of awardees between 1978 and 2007. Studying the demographics and accomplishments of the awardees contributes to knowledge of how academic librarianship has…

The internationally recognized "NMC Horizon Report" series and regional "NMC Technology Outlooks" are part of the NMC Horizon Project, a 12-year effort established in 2002 that annually identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact over the coming five years in every sector of education around the…

The "Best of the Literature" column is intended to keep librarians, administrators, and staff up to date with the most recent, relevant, and useful literature of the field. In the last few years, students of color across the nation have spoken out about their experiences of racism and racial microaggressions on their campuses. They have…

Academic libraries have been subjected to disruptive events throughout history. Academic literature primarily provides case study examples of incidents, guidance on developing an emergency management plan or advice on recovering or restoring items, particularly related to Special Collections, which require specific handling expertise.…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") is a quarterly report from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). This issue includes the following articles: (1) Rebalancing the Investment in Collections (H. Thomas Hickerson); (2)…

Accreditation is critical to the viability of institutions of higher education. Each of the six regional groups that accredit two- and four-year institutions has standards specifically addressing online or distance learning. In general, these standards require institutions to show that distance learners have adequate access to appropriate library…