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To trace patterns of collection development expenditures between 1994 and 2004 among Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) largest and smallest public and private academic libraries, to identify the impact of serial inflation, the emergence of electronic resources and changes in the monographic market upon the buying patterns of the largest and smallest academic libraries, public and private, in the USA and Canada.

Analysis of the annual ARL statistics for collection development expenditures between 1994 and 2004, focusing upon the ten largest public, ten largest private, ten smallest public and ten smallest private academic ARL libraries.

Libraries have largely responded to the revolutionary changes of the last decade very conservatively, retaining their commitment to monographic acquisitions and to their paper collections even as they have built new, electronic libraries.

ARL statistics present a complex picture, and libraries are not consistent in the manner in which they report their activities. The methodology does not seek a statistically precise model but seeks only to lay out a useful snapshot of library collecting patterns over the last ten years.

Academic libraries have not yet fully confronted the issues raised by changes in scholarly communication over the last decade and still have many difficult decisions ahead of the, as patterns of the last ten years may be difficult or inappropriate to sustain.

Provides a picture of collection development patterns of the largest and smallest ARL academic libaries that complements ARL's own analysis, which is based on median values.

To describe the issues involved in the introduction of mandatory submission of electronic theses at Cranfield University.

Background information on how the availability of e‐theses has developed at Cranfield University is provided along with discussions and advice on issues such as the choice of software, thesis submission workflow and timeframes, particularly in relation to the publication of thesis‐related articles. It also looks at metadata issues as well as both retrieval and usage of electronic theses. Finally it describes how the service has expanded from e‐theses to other types of material and to the development and expansion of an institutional repository for Cranfield.

It is shown that there are a number of issues that will need to be addressed from the points of view of librarians, academic staff and registry staff and that one effective method of managing the process is to set up a working group with all stakeholders in the process. There is a clear need for administrative procedures to be discussed in detail and a recognition that the time involved in changing regulations may be significant.

It is clear that most of the issues that have arisen at Cranfield as outlined in the paper will be mirrored at other institutions that are considering the same changes, and so those institutions looking at the area of e‐thesis submission may gain some useful insights.

This paper provides useful advice on the issues that will arise as institutions go through the process of introducing the mandatory submission of electronic theses.

A short survey of the use of online information retrieval is presented and shows that 70% of academic libraries were users. The main justifications for implementation were felt to be cost‐effectiveness and greater retrieval capability. Most services were directed at academic and research staff and few at undergraduates. At this stage only a small number of trained searchers exist in each institution. The pros and cons of charging for services are evaluated and linked to the results of American surveys.

To provide a model for implementing an on‐going program of training in usability topics for staff throughout the organization.

Drawing on best practices and thinking of industry leaders, a model for implementing an on‐going training program is developed based on learning theory, training practices, and the unique issues related to usability engineering.

Provides a model for developing a localized training program for usability.

This paper addresses an area of usability, training in usability, which has not been addressed directly. It fills a vacuum in the literature by offering a practical model for beginning an on‐going program of usability training for staff.

Building multilingual resources and providing multilingual services have always been important tasks for Chinese academic libraries, but they are also the difficult issues that the libraries are facing. In this chapter, we present a survey conducted on six different academic libraries for collecting data on multilingual resource building, on the usages of the multilingual resources and on multilingual services. Each of our survey to an academic library consisted of four interviews to the library administrator and the librarians of the book, periodical and database departments. Our goal in this chapter is to examine multilingual resources and services in academic libraries in China. The study results confirm several conclusions from the literature about multilingual resources and services in Chinese academic libraries, and at the same time, the results also reveal original insights on possible strategic decision on focusing on multilingual databases and books, and on the problem of lacking adoption of translation-based technologies such as cross-language information access and machine translation in improving the usages of multilingual collections and services.

Four years after the release of a responsive design website that provides a dynamic screen layout across three access devices (computer, tablet and smartphone), a repeat study was conducted to determine changes in the way that library website functions are and are not accessed.

A survey, similar to the original study, was used to determine the rate of access of 20 website functions by three access devices (computer, tablet and smartphone) and a “did not use” (DNU) category. A two-proportion Z-test was used to determine significant differences in the rate of access for each website function and the “did not use” (DNU) category by each access device from 2014 to 2018.

The computer is still the primary tool used to access website functions, but its rate of use is declining, while access via the smartphone is increasing, including research and for learning functions traditionally accessed only by computer. Access by tablet, with poor website function access rates in 2014, declined in use, with some rates approaching zero. Increases in the DNU category for website functions occurred, but reasons why were not determined. The increases raised questions about the relevance of some of the website functions and if other actions are needed to increase use.

Repeating the 2014 study provided insights into the changing landscape of device preferences for accessing library website functions. The number of significant changes identified demonstrates the importance of recurring studies to determine how online access to library website functions evolves over time.

With the technological innovation dominating higher education, the university libraries, as physical spaces, continue to play a crucial role in connecting students with knowledge. The emergence of the “Learning Commons” serves as a catalyst in the design of library spaces, renewing libraries’ roles and missions and making them popular to Millennials for new reasons. This study aims to record Greek librarians' views on the current situation in Greek academic libraries regarding physical space design, services provided and the existence of the “Learning Commons” model characteristics.

This study was conducted through an online survey structured questionnaire (closed-ended, five-point Likert scale, multiple-choice and statements questions). This study population comprised librarians working in 37 academic institutions and colleges. The collected data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. The research questions were answered using variables creation and the tests, t-test, ANOVA and Kruskal–Wallis. The groups of questions were tested for their reliability using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

In total, 186 librarians responded to this study. The responses revealed that participants were willing and ready to accept and support a different approach to academic library physical spaces use, according to the shared learning spaces model. However, this requires changes in the organization's vision, further growth and evolution. Although recently most Greek academic libraries have made significant progress in developing their services to function as information and digital hubs, they do not function as learning collaborative hubs, since the “Learning Commons” model is not reflected in their buildings.

The creation of new academic libraries according to the “common” model is a rapidly evolving issue that affects Greek libraries. This paper highlights the characteristics of libraries that should be adopted in the modern era, the new roles of academic librarians and the importance of an appropriate design of the physical space to achieve optimal learning outcomes. At the same time, this paper is one of the few that illustrates librarians', and not users', perceptions of these changes. This paper is a good research example, and the methodology for measuring this type of context could be used by other future research approaches in other countries.

THhe value of current awareness services has long been recognized, and the possible forms of such tools are well documented. However, little attempt has been made to study the role and exploitation of these techniques in libraries and information units. Questions such as: which current awareness services are most popular?, is the most appropriate dissemination method dependent on the sector of librarianship?, how significant a part of a libary's activities are current awareness services? and, how do they fit into the day‐to‐day routine of the library?, remain unanswered.

A community outreach program called Surabaya Memory (SM) initiated by Petra Christian University’s Library in Indonesia is described in this chapter. It is dedicated to the preservation of Surabaya city’s historical and cultural heritage, and provides a case study of academic library leadership both in its campus setting and in society in general. The initiative started in 2001 as a heritage project dedicated to preserving resources digitally, but since then evolved into much broader initiatives involving various community outreach programs. These programs and activities have been held in the city’s malls in an effort to reach everyone, not just the learned and cultured groups of society. In organizing all those programs and activities, the Library found itself assuming expanding roles and functions. It has also found itself exercising leadership roles in facilitating various university academic departments and administrative units to reach out to the community at large. SM also served as a forum wherein academic departments could showcase the Surabaya-related work of faculties and students to the general public. In some cases SM’s programs and activities which could be integrated into academic courses in several academic departments. The chapter discusses a model for academic libraries to assume leadership roles on campus, and for redefining their roles and activities well beyond their campuses. Such newly redefined roles will, in the end, raise not only the public profile of academic libraries on campus but also of the entire university.

Describes the development of a fully managed service at Cranfield University that supports various aspects of online, distributed or blended learning. The e‐Learning Managed Solution (eLMS) is capable of addressing different e‐learning strategies, allowing learning content to be repurposed across sectors and different programmes, allowing better management of workflows and providing durability of learning content.