Five years ago the Association of College and Research Libraries published "The Value of Academic Libraries" report, spurring academic libraries to action concerning assessment. Communicating library value is especially important when reaching distance learning populations outside the walls of the library. By employing marketing and…

What began with a few libraries' early application of ethnographic methods to learn more about user behaviors and needs has grown to become a significant body of work done across many institutions using a broad range of methods. User-centered investigations are increasingly influential in discussions about the shape and future of the research…

This study uses three cohorts of first-time, full-time undergraduate students (N = 8,652) at a large, metropolitan, public research university to examine the impact of student use of three library resources (workstations, study rooms, and research clinics) on academic performance. To deal with self-selection bias and estimate this impact more…

In the last two decades, fundamental changes in information distribution, in the general economy, and in the behaviors of faculty, students, and library staff have problematized the question of an academic library's value and how it can be measured. This article reviews those changes and, drawing on research linked to the Collegiate Learning…

Students at U.S. colleges and universities are concerned about the high cost of textbooks. Expansion of library course reserves has been suggested as one solution to this problem. The authors surveyed libraries at public universities to explore the status and management of physical course reserves and the role they play vis-a-vis textbook…

Under the auspices of the International Reading Association, an evaluation was conducted of Rural Education and Development (READ) program of creating community libraries in Nepal. READ set out to address the high rates of illiteracy and poverty in Nepal through the development of these libraries. To examine READ's approach, a team of…

Professionally, school librarians are faced with an explosion of choices--search engines, online catalogs, media types, subscription databases, and Web tools--all requiring scrutiny, evaluation, and selection. In turn, this support "stuff" forms a basis for making additional choices about how and what they teach and what they assess. Whereas once…

At the request of the Chief Officers of the State Library Agencies, the Gallup Organization, Inc. studied attitudes and behavior concerning the use of public libraries in America and reported their findings. In the first phase of this national survey, 1,561 adult men and women were asked their sources of information; the extent to which the…

The eleven conference papers emphasize the need for research into the "why" and the "who" of the library non-user. Attitudes and environmental factors contributing to non-use are: (1) lack of student motivation by pre-college experience with libraries; (2) failure of instructors to utilize the library except as a reserve collection, (3) failure of…

The use of 200 public libraries in New York City was analyzed according to their neighborhood characteristics. In addition to demographic, economic, and cultural factors traditionally considered, the social and spatial interactions within a neighborhood were related to public library use. Correlation and regression analyses were implemented for…

This publication contains six "capsulized" reports concerned with research in learning resources centers and school libraries, and the role of school media specialists. Each report follows the same format design, i.e., questions previewing the topic; introduction, methodology, findings, conclusions, and marginal notes; and a pathfinder to the…

The overriding goals of this research project, which investigated the extent to which the rural public library is meeting the information needs of its constituents, are to enable the rural public library to become a more efficient disseminator of information and to enhance its role in the development of rural America. The study targeted both rural…

Seven of these ten papers are concerned with library research in specific countries; the remaining three deal with library planning and ethics in research. Titles are "The Library as a Cultural Institution," by Jadwiga Kolodziejska, Poland; "The International Seminar 'Book and Library in Society' of the Polish Book and Readers…

The results of three surveys conducted in 1983--one of Texas Tech University students, one of the library staff, and one of faculty members--indicated that all three populations surveyed agreed that the library should provide bibliographic instruction for students. Preliminary profiles of user needs were developed on the basis of responses to the…

This report documents a national examination of the role of the public library in rural America. The investigation consisted of a study of public library use patterns in over 300 libraries among 2,485 adults (44% of the total contacted) in nonmetropolitan America. Seven of 10 public library users in rural areas are women, with a median age of 42…