How do you make art history and art museum library research exciting and relevant to an undergraduate studio art student? And, how can an innovative learning experiment lay the groundwork for future utilization of the acquired course knowledge and the art museum library resources? One answer, as we discovered, lies in creatively utilizing a…

Seekers of information in libraries either go through a librarian intermediary or they help themselves. When they go through librarians they must develop their questions through four levels of need, referred to here as the visceral, conscious, formalized, and compromised needs. In his pre-search interview with an information-seeker the reference…

This report suggests that Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan's "Five Laws of Library Science" can be reordered and reinterpreted to reflect today's library resources and services, as well as the behaviors that people demonstrate when engaging with them. Although authors Senior Research Scientist Lynn Silipigni Connaway and Associate Research…

Librarians have long struggled to find user-friendly mediums to provide meaningful information to patrons using bibliographies, pathfinders, and subject guides with varying degrees of success. Content management systems, such as Springshare's LibGuides, have recently been developed to facilitate the creation of online subject guides. Special…

In summer 2008, a small group of Santa Clara University librarians were charged with exploring ways of making online library research guides more user friendly and interactive. In order to know how to enhance our guides, we first asked the question, "What makes a research guide useful?" What follows is a detailed process of discovery.…

The digital age has freed information from the restrictive hierarchies of traditional cataloging methods, notably Dewey. Although libraries still deal with the challenge of physical books, online content is a different matter. Thanks to the unregulated, grassroots cataloging effort known as tagging, the Web presents a glorious chaos of…

The authors implemented a survey of faculty attitudes toward library research instruction that is closely related to two previously published surveys. After reviewing their results, the authors raise questions about the significance of some of the results of all three surveys.

Library pathfinders are a time-tested method of leading library users to important resources. However, paper-based pathfinders suffer from space limitations, and both paper-based and Web-based pathfinders require frequent updates to keep up with new library acquisitions. This article details a step-by-step method to create an online dynamic…

This article provides a brief history of the development of library subject guides (often referred to as pathfinders) from the late 1800s to the present. During this period, subject guides have changed both their focus and format. The needs of academic institutions at the turn of the 20th century were very different than they are today, and…

This study explores student selection of service learning projects in lieu of traditional library research projects. One hundred fifty-four strategic management students completed surveys exploring their tolerance of ambiguity, time pressure, attitudes toward civic participation, self-efficacy toward service, political conservatism, and the role…

Traces the history and development of the idea of intellectual freedom in American Libraries. (JG)

The chronicling of a library's history is discussed, using the history of the Tenafly, New Jersey, public library as an example. Sources of information and suggestions of what should be included in the chronicle are given. (SM)

The following items were considered of prime importance: a statistics programme for scientific libraries; a basic analysis of the function and resources of libraries and information centers; a survey of the tasks and objectives of libraries of different types in relation to the needs and attitudes of their users. (Author)

A point of departure for the collection and use of statistical information about a library's internal operation is presented. Several techniques for manipulating numerical data are suggested to achieve a better understanding of actual operations within the administrative unit being studied. (Author)