Search

This article seeks to understand the current state of the field of special collections library administration in the United States. Using a dataset gathered through publicly available information about special collections directors from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Independent Research Libraries Association (IRLA), and the Oberlin Group institutional members, the authors explore the educational backgrounds of directors, the types of positions they held prior to taking on their current roles, and the effect of gender on leadership advancement. This article also discusses the similarities and differences between institution types as well as promotions within institutions and across types of institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environment in which human being, particularly, students operate makes information to be one of the decisive factors for survival. Students seek information to fill an identified gap in their quest for knowledge. This study, therefore, investigated information needs and seeking behaviour of students of the Nigerian Army School of Education, Ilorin, Nigeria. Five (5) research objectives were formulated for this study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Population for the study comprised of students at the Nigerian Army School of Education, Ilorin. Israel (2003) model for determining sample size was used to calculate the sample size with precision levels of 5% and confidence level of 95% and the recommended sample size was two hundred and twelve (212). A simple random sampling technique was used to select the samples from the population. The self-designed questionnaire was divided into six (6) sections. The content-related approach of validation was conducted to ensure the validity of the instrument while Cronbach alpha was used to test the reliability of the instrument and the overall reliability of the instrument was r = 0.832. The collated copies of the questionnaire were analyzed with the IBM SPSS version 21.0 using simple frequency counts and percentage. The presentations of the data for the research objectives were done using tables, pie charts and bar charts. The findings of the study showed that academic information is the major information need of the students of the Nigerian Army School of Education, Ilorin, Nigeria. The findings further revealed that the Internet and library are the most commonly used sources of information. The findings also showed that the major purpose at which the students seek information is to update their knowledge and to enhance their professional activities. However, the findings generally indicated that most students firstly acknowledge their information needs and compare available resources before making the final decision and if they seem not comfortable with the information they need in a particular information material, they will continue searching for information until they are satisfied. Among numerous challenges affecting information seeking behaviour of students, this study found insufficient library opening hours as the major challenge confronting the students of the Nigerian Army School of Education. The study, therefore, recommended that library working hours should be extended to meet the need of the students and that the library management should ensure that adequate collection of books is made available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays libraries are facing the challenges posed by a diverse and rapidly expanding information universe. Increased user expectations for faster and easier access to relevant information go hand in hand with institutional demands for increased operational efficiency. Integrated library system required to makes it easier for housekeeping operations in a library. Barcode is a part of housekeeping operation. The process of library automation in different aspects also helps to make better use of existing library services and staff. It allows for the improvement of library in the variety, amount and quality of materials that are available in the library's collection. This paper explores a new barcode interface for libraries. It designs the barcode interface by using the PHP high level programming languages and also using some HTML tags in home page. It also uses the Code-128, which is one of the important standards in barcode creation. Another important standard is FPDF for making the barcode in a single page or multiple pages in PDF format, which is most user-friendly and easy to display interface for printing the barcode. The main objectives of this paper are to (i) explore the possibility of generating 65 barcodes in a single A-4 size paper; (ii) print out the single barcode on a single page; (iii) generate the barcode from the CSV or EXCEL format and (iv) generate the barcode from starting number to end number in a single page or multiple pages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated Effects of Weeding Strategies on Information Resources Management Among Public Libraries in North-Central States of Nigeria, the researcher observed that Every library's print collection is limited by the space available, and collections must change over time to reflect changes in the community and in the library's goals, as result, five (5) research questions and objectives were formulated with respect to how unwanted information resources managed, shelf-time period of information resources, effects of weeding on library organisation and services and the challenges of weeding in public libraries. Survey research method was adopted for the study and staff in the circulation, technical, reference, readers and collection development units of the public libraries in Plateau, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) constituted the population of the study. Data were collected using questionnaire and observation, frequency tables and simple percentages were used to analyse the data collected for the study. The study found among others that public libraries in north-central states of Nigeria keep obsolete information resources in store rooms, basic tasks in library management include the acquisition, classification of acquired materials, preservation of materials (especially rare and fragile archival materials such as manuscripts), are affected by weeding activities. The study concluded that every library will have its own method for handling books pulled for discard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the growth and development of the architectural engineering college libraries in Haryana, India. It evaluates the available resources, library services provided, library hours, collection of practices and policies, issues on space and related facilities and document technical processing. Study shows that majority of these libraries start to operate in three years already. It demonstrates the significance of improvement in their staff strength and their collection. It suggests to create digital libraries, provide quality services in technical colleges, and establish well-qualified staff.

The article discusses the future condition of the library collections for adults in the U.S. that requires to rethink what will be collected, how to collect and make the collections available. It states that libraries are far from the traditional quite place due to the emergence of technological innovations that allow library users to connect and use all available resources to gain knowledge. The need for librarians to cope up with the technological advances is also emphasized.