The paper reports on a collaborative education model involving library education, faculty and public library practitioners preparing under-represented and culturally diverse individuals for employment as support staff in public libraries. The Urban Library Program (ULP) is an intensive ten month education certificate at the para-professional…

There's no shortage of library management books out there--but how many of them actually tackle the little details of day-to-day management, the hard-to-categorize things that slip through the cracks of a larger handbook? "Library Management Tips that Work" does exactly that, addressing dozens of such issues facing library managers, including: (1)…

Describes HOOT OWL, the after-hours reference service of the Los Angeles Public Library. (PF)

This article enumerates factors which created demand for fee-based information service (commercial databases, competition for proprietary information in business world, effectiveness of librarians) and relates experiences at two public libraries. Sources of business, value of advertising, techniques of selling, and hiring and deployment of staff…

A lighthearted expose of non-typical patrons and their use and abuse of the reference librarian. (JAB)

Identifies nature of problems affecting library instruction in smaller public libraries and reports on writings which may be helpful to those libraries having no formal library instruction programs. Trends, a definition of the problem, literature reviewed, philosophy of library instruction, and programs over past 10 years are highlighted. (29…

The progress, potential, and problems of a fee-based, custom designed library research service for business and industry called INFORM are discussed. (JB)

Eva Miller has a knack for creating order out of disorder. She single-handedly brought Oregon's virtual reference service, Answerland, live in just under 90 days, says Rivkah Sass, now director of the Omaha Public Library. Miller created its web site, designed the graphics, developed marketing materials, and recruited and trained librarians--all…

A growing number of libraries have installed wireless data connections as a way of providing access to the Internet for members of the public. Some libraries have used their wireless networks to enable staff to use wireless devices to increase their mobility, effectiveness and responsiveness to client need particularly in providing reference and…

Presents standards for reference services developed by the Suburban Library System (Illinois) and discusses the effects of the standards on youth services. Standards for a written reference plan, reference staff, reference sources, and evaluation are included. (11 references) (MES)

Beginning in 1975, reference librarians in the Orlando (Florida) Public Library system volunteered to take part in individual videotaping sessions to see, (1) whether videotape self-evaluation could be done without disruption of service, and (2) whether videotape self-evaluation could improve public service. (Author/PF)

Maryland's third unobtrusive reference/information survey, which was conducted by an independent consulting firm, found that good reference service is a result of variables within each librarian's control. Training programs that were developed after previous surveys appear to have increased librarians' effectiveness. Findings of the survey are…

Retrieval terminals have been placed in four public libraries in Northern California to provide access to sixteen different data bases. The first year of this two-year experiment is described, and some of the technical, organizational, and economic aspects of the study are reviewed. (Author)

The purpose of this study is to explore the public library program of publicizing and interpreting the professional collections and services available for use by professional staffs of welfare agencies and to relate such programs of interpretation to levels of use by the agencies' staffs. Four libraries in cities of over 300,000 population were…

Describes the Tacoma Public Library's experience with "BIP Plus," the CD-ROM version of Books in Print. Memory requirements, search capabilities, automatic ordering, and the library staff's response are discussed. Keyword searching is explained as the system's most used feature, and price the area of most serious concern. (EM)