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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.

This study analyzes the citations included in forestry master's theses at Mississippi State University from 1999 to 2003 in order to increase librarians' understanding of the sources used by forestry researchers. The results, which are compared with related citation studies, demonstrate the interdisciplinary nature of the field as well as the variety of sources used in forestry research. Forestry graduate students cited journal articles, books, theses and dissertations, conference proceedings, government and university publications, association and company reports, and miscellaneous other resources. Knowledge of these various sources can strengthen the services provided by librarians who assist forestry researchers through reference services, library instruction, and collection management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role of librarians in United States as information professionals to ensure the understanding of the value of employing a fact-based criterion for evaluating resources. Topics include disregard for facts in news and by political leaders in the U.S. , the use of information literacy in providing us with diverse perspective to work within academic communities, and the combination of information literacy and archiving.

abstract Zines have begun to gain a place in higher education as pedagogical tools studied or made by students, and many academic libraries maintain zine collections. The library literature reveals little about how nonlibrarian faculty use zines in their classrooms. This paper describes the results of a survey of faculty from a range of academic disciplines and professions who teach with zines and other booklet forms. Survey results reveal the extent to which faculty zine pedagogies include collaboration with librarians and use of library collections. Faculty describe instructional activities and attitudes that many library professionals, including reference and instruction librarians, directors or deans, catalogers, acquisition and special collections librarians, and archivists, may find useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the role of librarians as stewards of the academic library in helping off-campus communities meet pressing challenges in the 21st century. According to the author, to help break the academe-community barrier librarians should look beyond the confines of the library to transform the place into a more outward-facing institution. Further, he notes that as stewards of place, librarians should view libraries and communities as an organic unity and not as separate entities.

A dedication to service is often cited as a hallmark of a profession. Service is included as one of eleven Core Values in the American Library Association's "Core Values of Librarianship" (2004). For librarians, service includes helping people find information resources to meet their educational, recreational, and work needs. Reporting findings from a larger study into the professional identity of librarians, this paper explores the centrality of service, with specific attention to how librarians advocate for their services and, ultimately, for librarianship. Using a discourse analysis approach, this study examines the roles that Service as a Core Value and advocacy play in the construction of professional identity. Three different data sources were used: professional journals, e-mail discussion lists, and research interviews. The data were analyzed for the discourses librarians use when describing librarians, librarianship, and professionalism and their connection to advocacy. When librarians advocate for the services they offer, they are in fact advocating for the value of the profession. Discursively, speaking or writing about advocacy positioned librarians as active participants in their own identity formation. By making advocacy a central activity of the profession, librarians not only challenged others' perception of librarianship, they challenged their own understanding as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big data, like MOOCs, altmetrics and open access, is a term that has been commonplace in the library community for some time yet, despite its prevalence, many in the library and information sector remain unsure of the relationship between big data and their roles. This editorial explores what big data could mean for the day-to-day practice of health library and information workers, presenting examples of big data in action, considering the ethics of accessing big data sets and the potential for new roles for library and information workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To visit leisure reading collections in academic science and health sciences libraries to determine how they function and what role they play in their libraries. Methods The author visited seven libraries with leisure reading collections and carried out a semistructured interview with those responsible either for selection of materials or for the establishment of the collection. Results These collections contained a variety of materials, with some libraries focusing on health-science-related materials and others on providing recreational reading. The size of the collections also varied, from 186 to 9700 books, with corresponding differences in budget size. All collections were housed apart, with the same loan period as the regular collection. No collections contained electronic materials. Although there was little comparable statistical data on usage, at the six libraries at which active selection was occurring, librarians and library staff felt that the collection was well used and felt that it provided library users with benefits such as stress relief and relaxation and exposure to other perspectives. Conclusion Librarians and library staff at the libraries that undertook active selection felt that their leisure reading collection was worthwhile. It would be interesting for future work to focus on the user experience of such collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the trend of distance education programs in the U.S. and adds that it is important to ensure that online students have full access to all the services they require, including libraries. It mentions that the programs would be more successful if directors reach out to librarians and others who serve students. It adds that librarians need to reach faculty and especially to those who teach only online or part-time.

The article focuses on the development of the digital newspaper collection, Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press, through professor Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodríguez in the U.S. It recalls how Rodríguez created the collection through the help of digital project librarians from the Research Support Services Team (RSST). Meanwhile, it also mentions the Borderlands Cultural Communities (BCC) Program that preserves historical records along the nation and Mexico border.

The article presents an examination into the circulation of the works of the American author Mark Twain in the second half of the 19th century into the early 20th century during the early era of establishing public libraries in the U.S. Comments are given outlining the role of public libraries in developing literary canons among the general populace. Analysis is offered regarding the American literary canon at the turn of the 20th century. The particular prevalence of Twain's books is highlighted, questioning previous historical views regarding the censorship of his allegedly controversial subject material.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate issues surrounding the Google Book settlement in 2009, and its relevance to libraries by general discussion and examples from library practice. Design/methodology/approach – A set of projections and speculations that are both conceptual and practical in nature, based on early reactions and comments about this development. Findings – There are many philosophical and moral objections to the consequences of the Google Book settlement, and that the practical effects for academic libraries could be both positive and/or negative. The practical examples of such outcomes are designed to help clarify the implications for library and information practitioners and generate further debate. Research limitations/implications – The fact that the Book settlement is a legal arrangement between parties in a civil court makes in depth research analysis of a public nature very difficult – which is in itself one of the main themes of the paper. Practical implications – The teasing out of the real-life consequences of the settlement are intended be helpful to the library practitioner. Originality/value – This paper tries to offer an early insight into an important new development in information retrieval history from the point of view of academic librarians, in contrast to much contemporary comment, which has come from authors and rights holders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reprints excerpts from Aaron Trehub's piece about the relationship between Slavic studies and Slavic librarianship in the United States in the immediate aftermath of the end of the Cold War. The author, who at the time was Slavic librarian and bibliographer (and former Soviet affairs analyst), notes that through a curious quirk of history, the collapse of communism coincided with the birth of a powerful new communications medium (the World Wide Web). Together, these geopolitical and technological developments have fundamentally changed librarianship in general and Slavic librarianship in particular. Trehub's discussion of the various day-to-day difficulties experienced by Slavic librarians in the post-Cold War period pays special attention to the challenges that new information technologies create for patrons, as well as the instructional burden that this places on librarians. He suggests that excessive reliance on the Web may erode the capacity to reason critically, but admits that the long-term effects of digitization on education and research are unclear. In effect, Trehub's essay provides the historical background for re-evaluating what competencies constitute Slavic information literacy in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities and other institutions of higher education are far the greatest producers of grey literature (GL). Most of their education process is based on various written essays or other sorts of similar tasks. Even more important, the whole process is usually finished by some sort of written theses/dissertation (graduation work, diploma) that shows a graduate is capable of research work and has a proper knowledge of the field. The traditional paradigm was to make this material available through academic libraries. The Internet has helped to simplify this process and relieve academic librarians from trivial and routine tasks. It has also made it easier for all potential users, often students themselves, to access these materials, adding to other materials they can use that are part of GL materials. This sounds like a great leap forward if current research did not indicate that academic plagiarism is now a very serious problem worldwide. The research presented in this paper presents how librarians are getting involved both in making materials available and at the same time in fighting plagiarism and how their expertise in dealing with different information sources, including those called "grey literature," can be used to help teaching staff in their struggle to maintain the quality of academic education. This is also one of the factors turning traditional library tasks and services toward the more professional expertise expected by information technology experts. The survey of academic libraries in Slovenia presents the availability of theses and dissertations and other services offered by academic libraries and librarians and their future plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most biomedical librarians are frequent users of the major online services provided by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. These services include MEDLINE/PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed Central, document delivery, and other key biomedical resources. This article highlights less well-known services from reference, to historical information, to training and other services which librarians may not be aware the NLM offers to them. NLM encourages librarians to consider that NLM's unique and unsurpassed collection can help when local resources may be too limited to serve the needs of their patrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Little is known about the current state of industry standards subscriptions in US libraries. In this age of electronic access and tightening budgets, many libraries are re-examining whether or not to alter paper subscriptions of standards to electronic versions and/or switch to on-demand delivery. Design/methodology/approach - Two surveys were conducted in an attempt to gauge the extent to which other libraries are currently collecting standards in electronic format or providing on-demand purchasing for industry standards. Findings - The number of libraries purchasing electronic standards or providing on-demand purchasing in 2003 appears to be incongruous with comments from both surveys. In the 2001 survey, librarians could not find ways to fund on-demand purchasing and, in the 2003 survey, a number of libraries were purchasing some sets on an irregular basis to save money. A little over half (51 percent) of the responding libraries provide electronic versions of standards and 60 percent indicated they provide on-demand purchasing of individual standards. Originality/value - Survey responses resulted in several local changes to improve patron success rates at acquiring industry standard including: created a publicly-searchable database of locally-available standards, initiated a purchase on-demand process, worked with interlibrary loan (ILL) staff to determine which standards would be better to purchase versus request on ILL and became more adept at reference interviews involving requests for standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effie Louise Power (1873-1969) represented the high standard of collaboration among children's librarians that characterized the entire development of youth services work. This article examines Power's role in U.S. library history as a practitioner, library and information science educator, national and regional professional leader, and author. Particular emphasis is given to Power's place in the network of children's librarians in the early twentieth century, her professional authority as the librarian selected by the American Library Association to write the first textbook for children's librarianship, and her success as one of the many librarians who have written and edited children's books, especially folktale collections for use in storytelling programs. Emerging most notably from this research is the discovery of how energetically, albeit quietly, Power influenced not only her contemporaries but also the next several generations of children's librarians who have followed in her professional footsteps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the collaboration between librarians and museums in the U.S. Characteristics of the collaboration; List of academic institutions that provide links from their library site to museums on their campus.

Libraries have begun to add chat reference as a method to deliver reference service to remote user populations. To deliver quality service in a timely fashion, libraries need to construct a Virtual Ready Reference Collection (VRRC) of elite ready reference Web sites most often used during the chat reference interaction. This article explores the collection development steps needed to create a VRRC that is most beneficial on the local level. The value in creating this collection lies not just in the end product, but also in the process, which serves as a valuable training exercise. Selecting and maintaining the virtual ready reference collection will enhance the chat reference librarians' ability to deliver service in the chat reference environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on libraries in United States and the challenges they face in the digital world. Comparison of library leaders' visions and public's prescriptions for libraries; Strategies for libraries to catch up with the digital age; Relevance of the libraries in the community; Evolving role of the librarian.