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This article examines Microsoft PowerPoint use at library conferences. Through a survey of two hundred librarians, the first part explores librarians’ perceptions of PowerPoint use at library instruction conferences. Through a content analysis of sixty-seven PowerPoint presentations, the second part of the paper describes the design strategies and techniques used by instruction librarians to share their knowledge and work with colleagues at conferences. Based on the results of the survey, content analysis, and the advice of presentation consultants, the final section of the paper recommends ways to improve PowerPoint presentations.

PurposeThe paper sets out to provide a selected bibliography of books influential to the librarian's teaching and learning philosophy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper introduces and annotates books identified by LOEX‐of‐the‐West 2006 attendees as influential to their instruction activities, teaching philosophy, or meaning of education.FindingsThe paper provides information about each source, including an introductory discussion on the classification of the titles into six major genres of instruction inspiration and four major (generic) philosophies of education and learning.Originality/valueThe information presented in the paper may be used by librarians and interested parties to solidify and broaden their own thoughts and values on who they are as an instructor.

Whereas academic library participation in learning communities has become visible in recent years, the literature is still lacking research studies providing assessment data. This article offers the first perspective from students on the value of information literacy instruction through a learning community and the impact that instruction has on academic careers. A qualitative research method of focus group interviews was employed to solicit opinions from students who completed during a three-year period the University of Hawaii at Manoa's (UHM) Libraries, Scholarship, and Technology (LIS 100) learning community course. The findings indicate learning communities provide a valuable context for learning both affective and cognitive information literacy skills necessary in an undergraduate education.

Stories are powerful teaching tools because of their potential to stimulate the imagination of students and engage them with the material. The short story gives meaning to abstract concepts, aids memory, makes learning fun, and is time efficient. This article explains the approach to teaching information literacy through the use of short stories, including how to create vivid connections to the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Provides course instructors with examples of how the short story can be used as a platform to discuss information literacy standards.

This article provides a methodology for evaluating title coverage of full-text periodical databases in relation to a library’s print journal collection. A pretest of that methodology is presented along with a discussion of collection development principles for an effective evaluation of full-text databases.

AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE [website] (http://www.afionline.org), reviewed 9 June 1999. GOING DIGITAL: STRATEGIES FOR ACCESS, PRESERVATION, AND CONVERSION OF COLLECTIONS TO A DIGITAL FORMAT edited by Donald L. DeWitt (New York: Haworth Press, 1998—$45.00, ISBN 0–7890–0521–2, 232 pp., index) ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION [website] (http://www.eff.org), reviewed 17 April 1999. Founded in 1990 by John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor (of Lotus 1–2‐3 fame) FACT: FIRST AMENDMENT CYBER‐TRIBUNE [website] (http://w3.trib.com/FACT), reviewed 17 April 1999. FACT is hosted by Wyoming's Casper Star‐Tribune and edited by Charles Levendosky (a columnist and editor for that newspaper) THE HISTORY CHANNEL [website] (http://www.historychannel.com), reviewed 11 June 1999. THE NATURE OF THE BOOK: PRINT AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE MAKING by Adrian Johns (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998—$40.00/no paper price, ISBM 0–226–40121–9 hard, 0–226–40122–7 paper, 753 pp., bibliography, index) K.I.S.S. OF THE PANOPTICON [website] (http://...