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Examines the following elements of scaffolding, providing insight into the librarian's role as educator: attention, ownership, collaboration, appropriateness, modeling, support, adjustment, and internationalization. A sidebar lists 10 ways to recognize a constructivist children's reference librarian. (AEF)

Describes a books by mail program developed by the San Francisco (California) Public Library to extend free mail service to homebound patrons, including both older users and users with disabilities. Discusses previous library service; planning, including working with the Postal Service; and costs. (LRW)

Discusses the need for effective library service to people with disabilities and focuses on the need to train users, based on experiences at the Special Needs Center of the Phoenix (Arizona) Public Library. Highlights include training rewards; librarians as trainers; and needs assessment through interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, and task analysis. (Author/LRW)

Describes several programs that were developed by staff at the Cleveland (Ohio) Public Library to be accessible to users with disabilities. Highlights include a Braille reading program; sensory garden; poetry club; book club based on talking books; wheelchair athletics; touching museum artifacts; and a mobile library for users who could not visit the library. (LRW)

Discussion of personalized information environments (PIEs) focuses on library personalized interfaces. Describes academic library PIEs and commercial sites, such as Amazon.com that use personalization; explores the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg's personalized interface; and discusses opportunities and challenges PIEs offer public libraries, including user needs, costs, and staff support. (LRW)

Discusses making public library collections accessible to Spanish-speaking users and describes the consequences that can result from inattention to linguistic and cultural accessibility. Topics include cataloging issues and solutions; labeling; shelving; signage; electronic access; Spanish language training for staff; intercultural communication; and continuing professional support. (Author/LRW)

Discusses public libraries' imperatives for training older adults in computer use and surveys current literature on older adult learning. Concludes that older adults do learn differently from younger adults; explores how learning differences are relevant to computer learning; and suggests implications for trainers of older adults. (Author/LRW)

Explores the movement toward community-centered standards in public libraries. Tracks the changes of the Public Library Association's (PLA's) planning model through four incarnations, summarizes each model, and examines trends and suggests a way to use the various models together for an easier planning process. (Author/LRW)

Discusses "The New Planning for Results" manual published by the American Library Association that helps create local standards of public library service, and provides implementation examples based on experiences in Vermont. Highlights include evaluating community needs; service responses to those needs; developing library objectives; and measuring outcomes. (LRW)

Reports on Counting on Results, a project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services that developed and tested tools to standardize and simplify the collection of outcome data from public library patrons. Discusses results of questionnaires that addressed "Planning for Results" service responses. (Author/LRW)

Describes the policies and procedures developed at the Vineland Public Library (New Jersey) for a program to lend laptop computers. Discusses laptops for in-library use and for home use; obstacles, including staffing ramifications and maintenance demands; checking for inappropriate Web sites left on the hard drive; and benefits for the users. (LRW)

Considers possible options for public librarians dealing with problem patrons. Highlights include considering the safety of the patrons and staff; general considerations of library security, including security guards, legal responsibility for patrons and staff safety; and working through possible options ahead of time to be more prepared. (LRW)

Discusses the combination of school and public library facilities. Includes six essays that relate experiences and opinions regarding public libraries that have some cooperative agreement with school or university libraries to share services and facilities. (LRW)

Describes innovative programs developed at the Danbury (Connecticut) Public Library to connect kids to the World Wide Web. Highlights include how to select appropriate Web sites; examples of good Web sites, some of which are interactive; planning for technology failures; and involving parents. (LRW)

Examines the legal issues surrounding Internet filtering in public libraries. Discusses First Amendment rights and responsibilities; recent court cases; legal problems with limiting Internet access; librarian intervention; less restrictive means to protect minors from harmful materials; and possible liability issues. (LRW)

Discussion of the professional education of employees in small libraries focuses on the Minnesota Voluntary Certification Program and its core set of domain competencies. The program provides focused professional education for library employees without a master's degree and reinforces the professional values of the library community and libraries. (Author/LRW)

Identifies public library policies, programs, services, or practices that have ruined customer relations and offers suggestions on how they could have been avoided. Highlights include automated telephone answering systems; staff monitoring of computer use; self-service equipment, particularly photocopiers; release forms; staff parking; loan limits; and references and identification for borrower registration. (LRW)

Discussion of library users who seek information for others focuses on a study of public library adult reference desks that identifies the relationships between agents and imposers that motivate reference desk use and describes agent users in terms of their self-reported education levels and frequency of library and reference desk use. (Author/LRW)

Describes an early childhood literacy program called Begin with Books and provides ideas for starting up, finding, and administering similar programs in public libraries. Topics include corporate sponsors; staffing; partnering with community organizations; training; scheduling; and budget information. (LRW)

Discusses whether the American Library Association (ALA) should adopt a set of core values for the profession, and if so, what these core values would be. Includes background, charge, and membership; process, content, format, and explication; the draft statement; dissemination/response to input; and objections to the draft core values statement. (LRW)

This article is designed to help public libraries provide support for people with mental retardation through the implementation of "Guidelines for Library Services for People with Mental Retardation", developed by the American Library Association. Topics include needs assessment; staff training; adaptive technology; resource formats, including Internet resources; and public relations. (Author/LRW)

Examines CCIs (Comprehensive Community Initiatives), which can help librarians expand services to young adults who live in poverty; reviews a Wisconsin plan which highlights community-based librarianship; presents a case study of a Florida CCI-based youth development project; and discusses public libraries and CCIs, and library education programs and community-based librarianship. (Author/LRW)

Reviews relevant literature dealing with reference service to children and summarizes the developmental stages of children that can influence the interactions between librarians and children. Includes data from observations and interviews of five librarians from a children's room in a Florida public library. (Author/LRW)

Investigates criteria correlated with the promotion of public librarians based on questionnaire responses from 90 public librarians. Compares the placement and promotion rates for white librarians and librarians of color, as well as for males and females, and discusses further research needs, plateauing, continuing education, and internships. (LRW)

These articles describe the Sister Libraries program, part of the White House Millennium project, sponsored by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science and the American Library Association to build relationships with libraries in other cultures. Discusses projects with public and school libraries and library development in developing countries. (LRW)

Describes the Eastside Cybrary Connection, part of the Riverside (California) Public Library, developed for young people ages 10 and up in a low-income, minority neighborhood. Highlights include electronic technology and print; collaboration between the public library, academic institutions, and community-based organizations; fund raising; and the role of librarians and volunteers. (LRW)

In 1998, the Houston Public Library launched a new library card campaign. Through extensive outreach, community partnerships, and the support of a major corporation, the program nearly doubled the number of children with cards in one fiscal year and increased juvenile circulation by more than 20%. The program led to an increase in library funding, and a new visibility in the community. (Author/AEF)

Plots trends in the growth of Internet use. Discusses pornography on the Web, using filters, and the ALA response. Reports results of a survey of Internet availability within Pennsylvania public libraries. Findings indicate more than 90% of respondents offer access to the Internet, nearly 80% do not use filters, and 50% attempt to control access to specific content, generally through acceptable use policies. Survey questions are appended. (Contains 29 references.) (AEF)

Compares directors' use of Public Library Data Service statistics and Federal-State Cooperative System for Public Library Data statistics to show how directors make use of statistics and to highlight the statistical information that directors find particularly useful. The survey addressed: last time of use; ways of use; frequency of use of specific statistical materials; user satisfaction; and other statistical reports used. (Contains 20 references.) (AEF)

A review of relevant library literature suggests that public library service to lesbian, gay, and bisexual people is poor. Offers ten suggestions to improve library services to these groups and discusses user studies; access, including classification and cataloging; library holdings; and social responsibility versus professional neutrality. (Contains 72 references.) (Author/LRW)

explains the work by the Maryland Association of Public Library Administrators Birth to Five Task Force that has helped public libraries get involved in community programs for preschoolers. Topics include national resources and initiatives; brain research; reading research; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study; systems reform for solving community problems; and assessment tools. (LRW)

A first-time project manager on a $4 million library addition and renovation project by the Homewood (Alabama) Public Library shares her experiences. Sidebars provide tips for new library project managers; description of construction administration documents; effective phrases to use with the contractor; and the top 10 lies told to a library project manager. (AEF)

Investigates how the needs of adult new readers are being met in five North Texas public library systems using the PLA's (Public Library Association) list of recommended titles for "Adult New Readers" for 1993-97 as the comparative sample. All the libraries had titles from the sample, though there was considerable variance. Only one library has an in-house literacy effort; some librarians were unfamiliar with the adult new reader collection. (AEF)

Presents perspectives from a library educator and three library administrators on the core values of librarianship, particularly public librarianship. The four contributors emphasize: cooperation for a shared endeavor, a passion to provide access, connecting information and people, and offering choice to individuals without restriction. (AEF)

Presents the perspectives of four public library administrators on sharing facilities with local schools, including benefits and problems. Topics include physical accommodations; intellectual freedom issues; security issues; management issues; costs and budgetary considerations; staffing; collection development policies; and the need for a marketing plan to encourage public use. (LRW)

Discusses the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), the new federal grant program for public libraries, and describes results of a survey of designated LSTA coordinators that was conducted to investigate how this new law has affected library development. Also examines changes from the LSCA (Library Services and Construction Act). (Author/LRW)

Examines the catalogs of 19 urban public library systems, 10 American and nine Canadian, to determine the extent of their holdings of 99 gay-related fiction titles in English for young adults. Data are tabulated by title, and a list of the titles surveyed is appended. (Author/LRW)

Discusses four competing public images of the public library and its relation to information technology, as identified in recent research: the traditional library, the resisting library, the adapting library, and the co-opted library. Suggests that the public perceives the management of public information as a complex problem requiring a variety of sources, technologies, and personnel to resolve this problem. (AEF)

Highlights some important conditions, both present and future, which will have an impact on public libraries. Discusses holding down expenses, including user fees, alternative funding sources, and private cosponsorship of programs; increasing productivity; use of computers and new technologies; staff development and internal marketing; improving services; and working with the community. (Author/LRW)

This preliminary study suggests that the same level of timeliness and accuracy can be obtained for answers to reference questions using resources in freely available World Wide Web sites as with traditional print-based resources. Discusses implications for library collection development, new models of consortia, training needs, and costing and budget issues. (LRW)

Includes three articles that consider the effects of the Internet on public library reference services. Highlights include the reliability of Internet information sources, its timeliness as a tool for information access and dissemination, the Internet as change agent for libraries; reference publishing, helping the searcher refine requests, and an administrator's perspective. (LRW)

Examines issues related to selection and censorship in five public libraries in Southern California in order to document public librarians' selection practices and to determine whether library policy and procedure assist librarians when confronted with challenges from the community. Explores issues of self-censorship in selection and community influence. (Author/LRW)

Reports on a longitudinal study of public-library borrowing that shows that high-volume borrowers are both consistent and persistent in their borrowing. Topics include identification of high-intensity borrowers; exploration of behavioral consistency; persistence of use; and personal and behavioral characteristics. (Author/LRW)

Suggests four methods for implementing a successful library planning process, based on experiences at the Anaheim (California) Public Library. Highlights include maximizing the level of public input; engaging staff at all levels in all stages of the process; assessing all input critically; and proper use in decision making. (Author/LRW)

Compares users of a traditional human-mediated checkout system with users of a self-service system in a Canadian public library to determine if and why patrons will use self-service if given the option, and how library staff might play a role in the successful implementation of self-service checkout. (Author/LRW)

Data on the 81 largest libraries in the "Public Library Data Service '96 Statistical Report" were examined to determine the validity of commonly held assumptions, namely that the age, educational level, and economic status of a community correlate, one way or another, with public library use and support in that community. No evidence to support these assumptions was found. (AEF)

Describes Jumpstart, a Web site providing remote access to government information in CD-ROM format, developed by Oregon State University's Valley Library, as a joint venture with the Oregon State Library and the Portland Area Library System to provide hardware, software, and training to rural school and public libraries in Oregon that have limited access to the Internet. (AEF)

A Problem Task Force from the Fairfax County Public Library worked with other county agencies such as the police and social services to redesign a "Problem Behavior Manual" and present a training module for staff to better prepare them to deal with socially ill patrons. (Author/AEF)

Public library services are being modified or changed by the Internet. Questions about how to evaluate and measure electronic services have become increasingly important. This article presents an analysis of some ways to create, define, and institute electronic network measures. (Author/AEF)

Describes the results of a study that investigated career decision making by adolescents. Discusses theoretical frameworks for this study, describes information sources used by questionnaire respondents, and suggests ways in which the public library's role could be expanded. (Author/LRW)