Since the late 1970s, the access services librarian or equivalent position has become commonplace in academic libraries, and degreed professionals have been sought for these positions since the beginning. In 2009, David McCaslin, California Institute of Technology, examined the place of access services in American Library Association-accredited…

As access services emerges as a discrete discipline within the field of librarianship, opportunities for access services librarians to meet and discuss the issues facing today's libraries continue to grow. One annual meeting that has attracted less attention over the years is the Ivies + Access Services Symposium. Held at various member…

In response to a charge from the library administration, the Circulation Committee of the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University designed and implemented a thorough assessment of circulation policies. Using multiple assessment methods including surveys, focus groups, and statistical analysis, the committee determined that the…

Introduction: Our aim is to compare the advantages and problems of e-book acquisition identified in research literature to those experienced by two Swedish university libraries. Method: A literature review was used to identify the main issues related to acquisition of e-books by academic libraries. The data for comparison were collected through…

Evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP) provides school librarians a systematic means of building, assessing, and revising a library program, thus demonstrating a school library program's worth to the larger school community. Through survey research collecting both qualitative and quantitative data, 111 public school…

Are librarians preoccupied with the future? There are countless books, articles, blog posts, webinars, and conference presentations filled with speculation about what libraries will become. This is understandable with the emergence of new roles for libraries and librarians as we determine our identity across the digital landscape. This essay…

This article takes a broad view of the evolution of collecting behaviors in a network environment and suggests some future directions based on various simple models. The authors look at the changing dynamics of print collections, at the greater engagement with research and learning behaviors, and at trends in scholarly communication. The goal is…

In this essay, we embrace a vision of the future of academic libraries where librarians confront and creatively address the lack of racial and ethnic diversity within our profession and actively pursue a social justice agenda within our libraries and in the communities we serve. This future requires that we acknowledge that many of our current…

Academic libraries have always been deeply associated with their collections, but the nature of those collections has changed radically as we have entered the digital age. As libraries continue to evolve, they will focus strongly on special collections while adopting a goal of providing access to as much other content as possible. The collection…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Multi-Subject Learning Survey (MSLS) as an assessment instrument for graduate students. Methodology: The MSLS was administered as a pre-test to 124 students enrolled in the introductory course for the Master of Science in Library Science degree at an American Library…

The purpose of this study was to explore the adaptive measures that academic libraries perform when implementing and operating a 24-hour schedule. Five in-depth interviews were conducted with current managerial-level librarians at 24-hour academic libraries. The exploratory interviews revealed similar measures for security, budgeting, employee…

When an institutional program review determined the Hillsborough Community College Libraries Web site was out-of-date, lacked resources, and was in desperate need of a makeover, the authors embarked upon a redesign project. The article describes the challenges and considerations that contributed to the authors' decision-making and design…

Three years ago, when K-12 schools started thinking seriously about creating digital libraries, the Mesquite Independent School District (TX) bought several Sony eReaders, loaded them with books, and circulated them to students. This initial attempt was not a rousing success. After the Mesquite ISD pulled the plug on its disastrous e-reader…

In the eighteenth century there were enough printed sources and archival materials to challenge or even overwhelm historians of that day. Two productive editors of lexicons and information management were Christian Gottlieb Jocher, who taught history at the University of Leipzig and became the chief librarian at his university, and Johann Heinrich…

This article examines multiple inventory methods and findings from the inventory processes at the University of Mississippi Libraries. In an attempt to reduce user frustration from not being able to locate materials, the University of Mississippi Libraries conducted an inventory process beginning with a pilot inventory of a branch library and a…