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This issue ofJournal of Library Administrationmarks a transition of editorship for “Global Perspectives.” This column will provide a retrospective of past contributions under the founding Editor, Jim Agee. It will look briefly at the landscape of libraries and library organizations worldwide from a variety of sources, and conclude with a call for future submissions, with updated and expanded parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Finding an appropriate temporary storage location for books and providing access to them is a significant challenge for libraries undergoing renovations. The current article describes the use of a document management company by an academic library to store 430,000 books for 8 months and provide a retrieval-on-demand service. Aspects covered include the selection of a commercial storage provider with its own retrieval service; details of the move to and from offsite storage; the integration of the service with library processes; communications and user feedback; book usage during the storage period; overall costs; and lessons learned from the experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services Electronic Resources Management Interest Group Meeting at the 2018 American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Conference in Denver, Colorado in February. Information about common frustrations and misconceptions as well as opportunities for doing better and delivering perspectives from two vendor representatives, two library leaders, and one library consortium director is presented.

Two research questions guided this study: (1) Is there a gap in customer service quality perception between librarians (service providers) and patrons (service beneficiaries)?; and (2) How do patrons perceive the relational service qualities of librarians who staff the reference desk? Quantitative results based on a Likert scale survey showed no statistically significant difference in service perception between librarians and patrons. Both groups rate the overall reference desk service and service qualities of librarians highly. Qualitative results demonstrate how patrons view reference service within the context of their service and study needs. These findings were used to facilitate a librarian development workshop and led to the creation of a reference policy manual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Books are traditionally set aside at the request of teachers from the main, normal loan collection to be put on reserve temporarily for checking out for a much shorter loan period to ensure that, at the expense of convenient, long-term loans for other users, all the students enrolled in a course have an opportunity to use them. Many studies have found that reserve usages are not high enough to justify the time and effort involved in making the arrangement. This article reveals that the accessibility and availability of materials to students, the idle status of reserve items on the shelf, and the usage of the collection may be improved if the access to books on reserve and on normal loan matches and fits the instructional choices of teachers and the study modes of students. As long as books in print format continue to play a role in the library collection, librarians have to manage their access to the best benefit of the users. Further studies on how the access to library materials can be managed and arranged concertedly to make the usage surpass the 80/20 rule are desired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the state of blog archiving by identifying from the published literature the most popular blogs and blogs on major events. Next it will check their current status and archiving methods. Blogs are not systematically archived, and some blogs on major events of the first decade of this millennium may already have been lost. It calls for better preservation and organization of blogs that have historical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Service to our users is the principal basis for a library''s existence and as users'' expectations increase, libraries must continually change their organization''s policies, procedures and workflows to meet these expectations. In order to achieve this in the Acquisitions Monographs Unit at Texas A&M University (TAMU) Libraries, Library Administration utilized a public service librarian who has a strong user oriented background to provide a fresh look at established procedures. This librarian examined TAMU Libraries Acquisition Monographic policies, procedures and workflows from a user perspective and found some of them to be out of date. Then the librarian researched other businesses and libraries best practices which she then adopted and modified to fit the needs of her unit. These “New Best Practices” could be transferable to any library facing similar organizational needs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on the emphasis of the issue's new column titled "Future Voices in Public Service," which is formulated for students in graduate library and information science programs to discuss key issues in academic library public services. It also aims to envision what students feel regarding what librarians in public service have to offer to academia. These students tell the readers of their visions for the profession or speak about research that is going on library schools. This issue is hoping to provide fresh perspectives in the U.S. and other countries.

The author discusses seven measurable criteria that he accepts as defining a "great library": Great libraries provide measurably superior service; have great funding; train and retrain their staffs; integrate their virtual, place and outreach services marketing; serve both the weakest and the strongest among their constituents; provide constituents with education and entertainment; and use virtual tools to offer a full range of timely information and services. These measurable characteristics define a modern library, the library that users want. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features the library service, self-checkout. Self-checkout systems are beginning to be integrated along most of libraries' automation systems. The most common self-check out systems utilized in libraries are those with radio frequency identification systems because library users find it easy to use. The system is compose of an electromagnetic desensitizer, user instruction screen and a barcode reader. Suggestions regarding implementation of self-checkout systems in libraries includes analysis of reasons in adopting the system, workstation locations, staff impacts and cost of equipments.