In 1981 and 1982, a group of 5 organizations conducted a coordinated study of public online catalog users and nonusers in 31 research, academic, community college, public, and governmental libraries with 17 different online catalogs. It was found that: (1) the most important user characteristic linked with success and satisfaction in using online…

Intended to be a comprehensive analysis of the use of government documents at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), this project was designed in particular to ascertain to what degree provision of full bibliographic control at UIUC facilitates documents use. A point-of-exit questionnaire was used to determine user status,…

This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) flyer/kit addresses some of the needs of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members regarding library building use and the aesthetics and well-being of the materials and people in the building. The kit draws upon documents gathered as part of a 1986 Quick-SPEC survey that dealt with food and…

This study, which was carried out with the support of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and Unesco between February 1981 and June 1982, is believed to be the first of its kind in the field of official publications collections. The report is based on a detailed analysis of the 199 replies received to 563 questionnaires…

To study the users and use of the subject searching capability offered by the new online public catalog at the New York State Library (NYSL) a study was begun before the catalog change in mid-1983 and continued for a considerable time after the change. Data were collected during three 1-week periods; one preceded the catalog change and two…

The University Library System at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus, is a decentralized system of 35 libraries spread over 3 campuses in 2 cities. This study evaluated the performance of two libraries in the system--Walter Library and the Institute of Technology Libraries--that provide document delivery services to assist faculty…

With grants from the Council on Library Resources (CLR) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), New York University (NYU) Libraries conducted a study to assess user reactions to their online catalog, Bobcat (Bobst Library Computerized Catalog). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of NYU's catalog, to describe users' attitudes toward…

From January 1980 through December 1982 the Illinois Valley Library System (IVLS) and 33 of its participating libraries conducted an experimental project to test the costs and benefits of OCLC use in small and medium-sized libraries. A series of 8 reports on the project have been produced, and the tables from the first report, which give…

This discussion of ways to solve the problem of overdue library materials reviews three pertinent articles from the library literature, several studies of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Library system, and a 1985 study at a southwestern public library. Attempted solutions are cited, including fines, overdue notices, retrieval methods such as the…

This research study addressed four issues relating to subject searching in online catalogs: faculty and student use of subject searching in library catalogs; users' knowledge of and use of the Library of Congress Subject Headings List (LCSH) in a controlled subject heading search; strategies for teaching effective subject searching; and users'…

This report of the findings of a year-long policy analysis of New York City's three public branch library systems, carried out by the Nova Institute in cooperation with a study committee composed of city and library officials, opens with a brief historic account of the development of the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and…

This report describes a study of the Jackson-George Regional Library (JGRL) System, which serves a 2-county area in Mississippi with a population of 131,918. The purpose of the study, which built on the planning and administration goals identified in "Planning for Progress: The Long Range Plan of the Jackson George Regional Library," was to…

This document reports in three volumes the results of a series of surveys designed to: (1) determine what contribution intermediary information transfer organizations such as libraries and information analysis centers make to the value of information; (2) assess the value of two somewhat different software information analysis centers and the…