This case study examines social influences in research libraries' collection development. It shows that individuals' ideologies and political agenda shape their impression of user needs and their decision making. The study also reveals how the institution's operating structures, campus politics of interdisciplinarity, personnel deployment, and…

Discusses outcomes focused assessments of library research instruction using pretests and posttests, attitude and usage surveys, and focus groups at The Citadel library. Suggests that assessment results influence library instruction content, staffing, collection development, and collaboration with other faculty and academic departments.…

Explores issues related to the selection and purchase of digital content in academic libraries, including commercially-produced databases, electronic journals, and books and other electronic resources that are purchased from vendors; and in-house digitization projects. Considers the degree to which standard collection management principles apply.…

Examines whether surveying students in the classroom using course-specific questionnaires--and interviewing their instructors--is a viable tool for academic library collection building. Findings revealed this approach to be a valuable qualitative tool for assessing the college library's local book collection. (AEF)

Describes a pilot project at the University of Notre Dame library that included fully cataloged Web sites in the library's online catalog. Discusses Web site selection criteria and guidelines, access, implications for policies and practices in cataloging and collection development, and bibliographer's resources. (Author/LRW)

Government agencies are adopting electronic-information-dissemination strategies which both challenge established dissemination structures and offer new access opportunities for all libraries. This article explores the implications of this change and describes the initiative of one medium-sized, non-depository library to become a government…

Describes the historical and present roles of the prison library, as well as the nature of the prison librarian position. Identifies and analyzes the obstacles confronting a prison librarian when selecting academic materials and making those materials accessible to prisoners. (AEF)

Formulas from the "Standards for College Libraries" were used to compare the recommended collection size and number of professional librarians with the actual size of the collections and number of librarians for a random sample of Baccalaureate I and II colleges. Results revealed that significant numbers are not meeting the "Standards" in these…

Provides a methodology for evaluating title coverage of full-text periodical databases in relation to a library's print journal collection. Presents a pretest of that methodology along with a discussion of collection development principles for an effective evaluation of full-text databases. (Author)

Discusses academic library collection-development theory and policy. Suggests that a standard collection of works specific to each discipline (a canon), is a powerful tool because such canons can censor the works that fall outside of the prevailing norms, the hegemony of the discipline. (LRW)

Discusses why innovation is important for technical services and lists requirements: the ability to envision the future, the use of intuitive thinking and creativity, and well-managed implementation. Examines systems for verification and delivery of bibliographic records (OCLCs Passport for Windows and PromptCat), and outsourcing and…

To meet budgetary constraints and the rising costs of serials, Eastern Washington University (EWU) has defined a core collection for undergraduate education by linking journal holdings to a specific set of indexes. Describes the EWU core collection, resource allocation to academic departments, and implementation of a document-delivery pilot…

Analyzes aspects of proposed federal legislation which is attempting to reform portions of Title 44, "United States Code". Senate bill S.2288 charges the Government Printing Office (GPO) with responsibility for government printing, procurement, and dissemination. Includes a definition of government publication, GPO's depository-library program,…

Examines the expanding horizons for geographic information system (GIS) services in academic libraries, with examples drawn from experiences at North Carolina State University Libraries, a participant in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) GIS Library Project. Discusses building on partnerships; providing opportunities for instruction and…

Examines key management issues involved in delivering geographic information services on the World Wide Web, using the Geographic Information Center (GIC) program at the University of Virginia Library as a reference. Highlights include integrating the Web into services; building collections for Web delivery; and evaluating spatial information…