Studies of data-driven deselection overwhelmingly emphasise the importance of circulation counts and date-of-last-use in the weeding process. When applied to research collections, however, this approach fails to take account of highly influential and significant titles that have not been of interest to large numbers of borrowers but that have been…

Many research libraries are looking for new ways to demonstrate value for their parent institutions. Metrics, assessment, and promotion of research continue to grow in importance, but they have not always fallen into the scope of services for the research library. Montana State University (MSU) Library recognized a need and interest to quantify…

This dissertation analyzes how North Carolina State University's (NCSU) James B. Hunt Jr. Library extends the ways in which the information architectures of academic research libraries can function as a technology, as discourse, and as rhetoric. The starting point for the analysis is the libraries of antiquity, which functioned technologically as…

While not a new topic, many conversations are occurring about the roles of library staff and the changing nature of their work in support of research, teaching, and learning. Boundaries between specific functions or departments within the library continue to change as library employees grapple with issues of their roles in new service models.…

Introduction: Uncertainty is understood as an important component of the information seeking process, but it has not been explored as a component of reference and information service. Method: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to examine the practitioner perspective of reference and information service for eight academic research…

E-books constitute major challenges for library collections generally and present fundamental problems for consortial collection development specifically. The Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) and Oxford University Press (OUP) have created a mutually equitable and financially sustainable model for the consortial acquisition of e-books…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") focuses on current and emerging topics that are strategically important to research libraries. The articles explore issues, share information, pose critical questions, and provide examples. This issue includes the following articles: (1) Business Intelligence and Data Visualization with Tableau…

The report explores the revitalization of library publishing and its possible future, and examines elements that influence the success and sustainability of library publishing initiatives. The authors trace the history of library publishing and factors that have transformed the publishing landscape, and describe several significant library-press…

Academic librarians have always played an important role in providing research services and research-skills development to faculty in higher education. But that role is evolving to include the academic librarian as a unique and necessary research partner, practitioner, and participant in collaborative, grant-funded research projects. This article…

In 2013, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a group of seven librarians from the Research Library Leadership Fellows program of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) a planning grant to examine the center of excellence (CoE) model for information services. Used in a variety of industries, CoEs are designed to attract the most talented…

World Café, sometimes termed Knowledge Café, is now an established method of facilitating productive dialogue between a group or groups of people around an issue that matters to the group as a whole. Now a world movement, the methodology is straightforward and uses conversation as a key process to connect people, who may be from different…

This article presents an analysis of the feasibility of a bookless library in a research setting. As spaces for collections are being converted for increased study and community spaces, many libraries have been moving low-use collections to off-site storage. Issues regarding the types of storage spaces available are addressed. Concerns 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…

In the future, what role will the academic research library play in achieving the mission of higher education? This essay describes seven strategies that academic research libraries can adopt to become future-present libraries--libraries that foster what Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown have called "a new culture of learning." Written…

Although cited reference studies are common in the library and information science literature, they are rarely performed in nonacademic institutions or in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences. In this paper, we analyze more than 400,000 cited references made by authors affiliated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration between…