Libraries receiving the corpus of a comics publisher are presented with challenges, especially regarding preservation and access for special and circulating collections. Libraries must consider user research needs and collection relevance. Library literature is consulted and recommendations are made regarding bibliographic description, subject…

Every segment of life has its familiar products. In the food world, most people have heard of Kool-Aid, French's Mustard, and Coke. In the school library world, the Newbery Award, Scholastic, and AACR2 are well known nationwide. In this article, the author talks about AACR2, which stands for the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, Second Edition. It…

College student retention has been and continues to be one of the most important issues facing the higher education community. Despite this importance, little is known about the type and methodological rigor of institutional efforts to increase student retention. This article presents the findings of a study which attempted to gain a clearer…

This publication follows the tradition of publishing selected papers from Pacific Islands Association of Libraries, Archives and Museums (PIALA) annual conferences. The volume begins with a listing of the members of the PIALA 2007 Planning Committee, the Officers and Executive Board, and Acknowledgements, followed by the Pre-Conference Workshop…

In this column, the author discusses how the management of e-books has introduced, at many libraries and in varying degrees, the challenges of maintaining effective technical services workflows. Four different e-book workflows are identified and explored, and the author takes a closer look at how particular variables for each are affected, such as…

The position of electronic resources librarian was created to serve as a specialist in the negotiation of license agreements for electronic resources, but mission creep has added more functions to the routine work of electronic resources such as cataloging, gathering information for collection development, and technical support. As electronic…

Purpose: This paper aims to elaborate the library data migration process from LAMP (Library Automation Management Program) to the open source software Koha's (2.2.8 Windows based) Pakistani flavour PakLAG-Koha in six legislative assembly libraries of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: The paper explains different steps of the data migration…

Do library catalogs compete with Google or is it the other way around? We know which came first but which will finish in the end? Only trained library professionals were considered qualified to develop reliable catalog records. However, with the increased sophistication of search engines, we are beginning to realize that a collaborative effort may…

The rumored death of librarianship caused by the advent of technology has not, and will not, come to pass. In this article, the author describes how technology has exponentially increased the librarian's ability to provide library service at the Calcasieu Parish Public Library, where she serves as head of Collection & Computing Services. The…

The resource typologies proposed in the new standard, "Resource Description and Access" (RDA), are evaluated in the context of a particular university library catalogue through two card-sort exercises. Although it was found that end-users recognised the content and carrier aspects of the resource types as listed in RDA, they did not…

This research reports on a study designed to quantify the time and monies spent on cataloging and processing texts with accompanying materials. The study was designed to address a need for data to assist in collection development and workflow decisions.

Writing about cataloging and reducing a backlog in the archives of a special collections department is one thing, but actually establishing a plan and executing it is another. This article describes cataloging and reducing a backlog in the archives of a special collections department as a project that involves multiple people, techniques, and…

Libraries need to share records more with one another, make greater use of the Web, and bring more attention to their special collections, according to a report released last month by the Library of Congress. The new study examines how libraries can improve the distribution and use of their materials in a technology-centric environment. But "On…

This article explores ontological principles and their potential applications in the formal description of archival photographs. Current archival descriptive practices are reviewed and the larger question is addressed: do archivists who are engaged in describing photographs need a more formalized system of representation, or do existing encoding…

An increasingly visible youth transgender population is emerging and the number of transgender-inclusive fiction texts for young adults is growing. Adults serving teens in schools, libraries, and community agencies must begin actively pursuing, utilizing, and incorporating these texts into resource collections. This article provides an overview of…