A brief questionnaire was sent to a random selection of 70 librarians in the State University of New York Librarians' Association Directory to determine the frequency of their use of humor at the reference desk and in the library instruction classroom, their perceptions of classroom humor, and their reasons for using humor in these situations.…

Librarians must be alert to the local information needs of library users, and must also develop library instruction programs to help patrons make more effective use of the library. (LS)

The subject specialist in a university library selects materials, provides reference service to the university community, gives instruction in library use, locates and makes available less commonly used materials, etc. (Author)

Intended to aid college instructors in need of library and bibliographic instruction presentations, this report describes a program which was designed by reference librarians at the University of Nebraska at Omaha to introduce beginning undergraduate students to the use of the university library and its resources. The report presents background…

Traces the development of cooperation between reference librarians and catalogers, highlighting cooperative goals, role of the library catalog in meeting informational requirements of patrons, involvement of catalog librarians in library instruction, and patterns of library organization. Future trends are discussed. Twenty sources are given. (EJS)

Identifies interacting principles of theory of library service and indicates nature of library policies, activities, and professional values upon which implementation of principles rests. Library users ("worthy" and "needy"), hierarchy of service functions (stimulation, guidance, instruction, information services, access,…

Library Pathfinders into the Social Sciences--alternatives to standard techniques used in the teaching of subject reference and bibliography--are described. (1 reference) (SJ)

Describes an approach to teaching general and subject reference to students early in their academic life. Includes a bibliography of 20 guides. (JB)

Discusses the evaluation of library instruction through observations of student and faculty at the reference desk of university libraries. Bad effects (guilt, overconfidence, indignation) and good effects (patience, adventurousness, trust) of library instruction are noted, and characteristics of more successful academic library instruction are…

Describes a program developed at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) libraries that moved librarians from the centralized main library to college departments that are not served by branch libraries. Topics include remote access capabilities; librarians' roles, including reference librarian, instructor, Web master,…

Provides background on concept mapping and discusses concept maps drawn by library science graduate students in a reference and information services course. Applications of concept mapping of significance to librarians--in reference service, instruction, and research--are considered. Several sample concept maps are included. (19 references) (MES)

The lead article in this symposium argues that academic librarians have become too enthralled with their perception of themselves as teachers and urges them to shift their emphasis from instruction to services. Six authors respond to this view in short opinion pieces. (11 references) (CLB)

Twenty-one scholarly papers and fourteen abstracts comprise the content of the ninth annual "Brick and Click Libraries Symposium," held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The peer-reviewed proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future…

This report describes a 1986 survey of procedures and priorities at Indiana University and Purdue University regional campus libraries designed to aid the librarians at the Walter E. Helmke Library at Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, in re-evaluating various library procedures. Responses were received from nine of the 11 libraries…

Intended to focus attention on librarians' needs regarding coping with mental and physical occupational stress, this report summarizes the activities of a workshop on the concerns of librarian instructors held in the fall of 1979 by the California Clearinghouse on Library Instruction (CCLI); discusses the various definitions of burnout; and…