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Purpose: This paper reviews historical changes and trends in undergraduate libraries in the US since the 1990s, focusing on the contents of services provided, and examines how the concept of 'undergraduate library service' has changed in the US. Methods: First, through an extensive review of the literature, important discussions or assertions on changes in undergraduate libraries are systematically enumerated. Second, 23 universities having their own undergraduate libraries in 2009 were selected, and their services were surveyed by examining their websites and documents published about the undergraduate libraries. Third, a detailed case study was performed for four universities in which the undergraduate library had drastically changed and two universities that introduced a new undergraduate library in the.1990s. Results: The results show that the services of undergraduate libraries have: 1) become more integrated, 2) played a greater role in university education, and 3) become more sensitive to students' achievements. Also, library operations for the services have: 1) become more collaborative within the library system, and concurrently 2) become more collaborative with faculty members and campus's units. On the other hand, the concept of undergraduate library services has changed from "services within libraries exclusively used by undergraduate students in research universities" to "services for undergraduate students provided totally by the whole library system". More recently, services have become recognized as an important activity to be executed by the whole university, not only the library, through effective collaboration among departments involved in the education of undergraduate students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper clarifies the characteristics of theories on the strategic management of libraries in the United States, focusing on: 1) how strategic management concepts have been applied to operations or tasks in libraries, 2) the degree to which strategic management theories have an impact on them, and 3) whether library staff place a high value on the results of applying the theories. Methods: First, a set of strategic management theories to be investigated was selected from standard text- books of business administration and library management. Second, for each theory in the set, bibliography and bibliographic databases, Library Literature, LISA and LISTA, were searched in order to identify documents discussing it. Third, cases studies and bibliometric analysis were attempted based on the documents. In case studies, some actual cases of applying the theories to library management were extracted from documents, and how the theories were implemented in library operations and how they were evaluated by library staff were analyzed. On the other hand, in bibliometric analysis, the numbers of documents were counted by year, and chronological trends of popularity of the theories in libraries were empirically clarified. Results: The cases studies show that library managers in the US are particularly concerned about `planning' and `evaluation'. However, in most cases, it would have been difficult to progress from planning to practice. Also, library managers tend to select theories on administrative organization rather than those oriented toward the external environment. Although most management theories were not adequately implemented in the cases, only theories on core competence would have been accepted positively and incorporated adequately into practice in libraries. The bibliometric analysis clarified that the impact of management strategy theories is increasing each year, and new theories are being applied in library situations more quickly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain the content and context of learning and teaching support provided by Earlham College Library as part of a series of research projects on the educational function of college and university libraries. The Earlham College Library was selected because in has provided diverse programs to support learning and teaching since the 1960s and its practices have influenced many college and university libraries in the U.S. Methods: This research conducts a descriptive case study presenting a detailed account of the learning and teaching support provided by Earlham College Library. The data are interview data, archival records, administrative documents, reports, dissertations, data on physical artifacts, and observational data. Results: Programs to support learning and teaching are initiated to respond to the actual and potential needs of clients and to integrate library programs into existing services provided by the college body. The programs use techniques such as repeatedly publicizing the existence and the educational role of the College Library and its reference librarians and providing support to courses in which research papers have been assigned. In terms of programs that support learning, it was found that undergraduates appreciated course-related instruction on specific topics, but were not as likely to accept similar instruction for multiple courses or course-related instruction on general topics. Faculty members were found to recognize on improvement in the quality of their student's performance as a result of their enhanced information retrieval skills. The evaluation of programs that support teaching revealed that faculty members were able to develop a clearer sense of the role of the College Library and its reference librarians in the educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]