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This comparative case study evaluated the role of foreign language study within the Library and Information Science (LIS) curriculum of two programs in the United States and Honduras. The purpose of this research was to understand the significance and usefulness of language courses from the perspective of the students enrolled. Students who had completed language courses in LIS programs in both countries were surveyed with regard to their motivation for language study, application of language skills in the workplace, most and least valuable aspects of the courses, and overall usefulness of courses. The results suggest that students in graduate LIS programs are interested in learning foreign languages when the courses are targeted to the students' specific interests and professional needs. The findings provide a curricular enhancement model that could be adopted at other universities, with key considerations focused on customizing language courses to the LIS context, required and elective course offerings, course delivery formats and student motivation.

A reference/instruction librarian used targeted outreach to furnish library services to faculty and students while assigned to work in the College of Education during a library renovation project. Due to the success of this temporary assignment, the author has subsequently maintained regular office hours in the College to provide research consultations for faculty and students, collaborate on collection development, and continue outreach efforts resulting in increased requests for research assistance and course-integrated information literacy instruction. The benefits and challenges of embedded librarianship in an academic department are also discussed.

This article examines the topicality of Library and Information Science (LIS) dissertations written between 1930 and 2009 at schools with American Library Association (ALA)--accredited university programs in North America. Dissertation titles and abstracts were examined for the presence of library-related keywords drawn from the core curricula of ALA-accredited schools, and trend data were created to describe the evolution of LIS doctoral research over the past eighty years. The results show that the percentage of dissertations found to contain no instance of any of the selected library keywords has steadily risen since 1980. Simultaneously, the percentage of dissertations found to contain instances of keywords in both the title and abstract has steadily declined. The results provide general empirical support for long-held anecdotal assertions that libraries are no longer the primary research focus at the doctoral level in LIS. (Contains 3 figures and 5 tables.)

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Library defines a project bibliography as a bibliography of publicly available publications relating to a specific JPL instrument or mission. These bibliographies may be used to share information between distant project team members, as part of the required Education and Public Outreach effort, or as part of required reports to management or sponsors. While some bibliographies may be done by the mission's team members, the JPL Library staff has been involved in a number of project bibliographies over the years. The JPL Library currently has 10 ongoing project bibliographies. Basic requirements and search terms are developed by discussions with the project representative. For most of our project bibliographies this means looking for the project/mission name in the title, abstract, or keyword fields in commercial databases. We provide regular updates to the project. Metrics compiled from the comprehensive bibliographies have been particularly useful to projects. Both metrics and the publication lists support the contribution by JPL missions to scientific knowledge.

While some professions maintain strong professional boundaries, public librarianship remains a field in which a significant number of those delivering service do not have library degrees. In this article, the author discusses the results of a new hiring practices survey from "Library Journal" ("LJ"). The survey, coupled with interviews, looks at an ever-changing landscape, as library executives express fealty to the MLS at the same time that certain tasks gravitate to nondegreed staffers. Over the last few years, say 33% of survey respondents, they hired more paraprofessionals, while only 19% report they hired more professionals; 48% say the balance is unchanged. In larger libraries, the adjustments are more pronounced. About half of the largest libraries, with budgets over $5 million, have hired more paraprofessionals. About one-third of that cohort say they will need fewer MLS staff in five years; in the overall sample, some 60% of all respondents say they'll need more MLS staff, with 12% needing fewer. The San Jose Public Library, California, for instance, aims to maintain service "while keeping staffing costs down." Technology frees clerical staff to "work directly with customers on basic reference questions and computer help." Degreed librarians, therefore, can focus on creating programs, developing partnerships with schools and other agencies, and working with collections.

In 2003, during the Biennial migration of academic librarians to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) conference, several of the programs in Charlotte, NC, discussed the recruitment and retention of the next generation but with an obvious lack of input from newly recruited librarians. In response, with Liza Posas, a library fellow at University of California-Santa Barbara, the author of this article posted a web-based survey to gauge how new academic librarians felt about their profession and what they would need to learn in order to become library leaders. This article summarizes the results from that survey.

In the summer of 2010, the California Digital Library (CDL) undertook a mobile device user research project to understand how the proliferation of mobile devices with internet access amongst the general public and the explosion of mobile tools and products in higher education affected CDL constituents and services. CDL wanted to understand if they would need to support users in a mobile capacity. In order to answer these objectives, findings from online surveys as well as in-person interviews were analyzed. General findings revealed that while mobile devices played a large role in constituents' personal lives, it was not a device that they turned to when taking part in their academic work. This conclusion lead CDL to develop a mobile strategy that involved building a mobile tracking and evaluation infrastructure to ensure continued assessment and monitoring of mobile usage and trends among their users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Clara Chu, an associate professor in the Department of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles in California, is presented. Chu was asked to give a little background on herself. When asked about her first impressions of the U.S., Chu compared her experiences while she was in Canada. She then shared how she came to be interested in Library and Information Science.

Libraries cooperate to expand access to collections, but more importantly to achieve economies of scope and scale as well as market power. Library collaboration is essential to cope with static budgets, rising costs, and the current information marketplace. The University of California (UC) libraries have built a collaborative infrastructure that encompasses a shared online catalog and journal indexing databases, storage facilities, document delivery and online requesting services, shared digital collections and more. Soon, this will expand to include shared print collections and new collaborative services. The combined scope of these joint activities and the interactions between them has created a very complex and highly interdependent system. Methods of adapting to these complexities are beginning to point to some fundamental changes in the ways that UC libraries will operate. Some of the challenges are illustrated through discussion of issues related to management of the UC libraries' shared collection of licensed digital journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author's experiences as a master's and doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley School of Library and Information Studies during a formative period in the history of information science, 1966 -71, are described. The relationship between documentation and information science as experienced in that program is discussed, as well as the various influences, both social and intellectual, that shaped the author's understanding of information science at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explains the creative use of a dual-color system as a principle for organizing business reference materials in a major California State University Library. Key problems in organizing the reference collection; Use of color as an organizing technique; Reorganization of materials on the business table.

Explores the positive and negative aspects of the feminization of librarianship between 1880 and 1905, with emphasis on the history of the Los Angeles Public Library. Careers of premiere women librarians, Mary Foy, Tessa Kelso and Mary Jones; School boards' inability to distinguish between feminization and professionalization.

The article presents Michael Gorman's presentation during the ACL Conference at Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, California on June 13, 2000. He discussed the values of librarianship based on an analysis of more than 40 years of library work and writings on the philosophy, ethics and values of librarianship. He concludes that with the incorporation of technology into all aspects of libraries, librarians need to distinguish between the process of change and the meaning and values of what librarians do in order to survive and grow.

In this article the author presents a critique of Michael Gorman' editorial in the April 2000 issue of "American Libraries" and his presentation at the Association of Christian Values conference held in June 2000 in San Diego, California regarding librarianship's conventional wisdom. He cites Gorman's set of values as weak due to its lack of a solid foundation. He provides an examination of Gorman's values to determine its validity for Christian librarianship and suggests that Christian librarians should also determine what their values should be.

The article provides information on the forum on visual resources management facilitated by the Visual Resources Division (VRA) during the 1993 conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS) in California. Accomplishments of the VRA/ARLIS Task Force on Professional Issues were noted. Task force member Linda McRae cited that preparation for work in visual resources management starts at the graduate degree level. Fellow member Martha Mahard emphasized the importance of technical expertise.

The article presents some of the highlights of a discussion that aims to help reference librarians understand the nature of cataloging records and catalogers understand how patrons and reference librarians use those records held during the 1993 conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America in California. D. Scott Skeleton of Houston Public Library explained the effects of the changes in classification schedules on public libraries. Attendees cited some issues for improving communication among technical librarians.

The article provides information on a discussion on online public access catalogs (OPAC) sponsored by the Museum Library Division of the Art Libraries Society of North America held during its 1993 conference in California. A program on the special needs of museum library OPACs was discussed. The digitization of images, interactive thesauri and interfaces with other museum systems were identified. Members of the division are Murray Waddington, Milan Hughston and Sally Gibson.

The article presents information about the activities and discussions related to art librarianship held during the 1993 conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America in San Francisco, California. Bus and walking tours were a success. Discussions included topics on image databases, digital photography and access to gay art scholarship. 76 various publishers and vendors featured an impressive display at exhibits. Guests were treated to dinner at the Empress of China restaurant in Chinatown.