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This paper aims to examine the use of the WorldCat Collection Analysis tool and other measurements to analyze the strengths of collections supporting doctoral programs in a Carnegie Class 1 research university in order to enhance budgetary support for these collections.

In 2006 the Colorado State University (CSU) Libraries were asked to assess the library's support of doctoral programs in 12 key discipline areas. Peer institutions were selected and permission was obtained to access relevant statistics from their collection at the Libraries using the Collection Analysis tool, and relevant metrics for analyzing journal holdings. Use of the metrics for analysis of monograph and journal holdings and comparison of holdings between institutions is examined.

This case study analyzes how results obtained through use of the Collection Analysis tool and measurements of journal holdings were integrated with results from the broader analysis to achieve a valid comparison between strengths of collections. The authors then look at how this analysis was translated into requests for additional funding for access to materials that would support doctoral level research.

This paper shows how currently available tools for collection management can be used to educate a university community about the budgetary requirements of building graduate research level collections and to make a case for increased funding to support these collections.

Telephone directories have been an integral part of most public and academic libraries for nearly a century. Telephone directories represent an anomaly among library collections; known to virtually all users, they nevertheless often go unrecognized when librarians discuss reference sources. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to examine the history of telephone directory collections; second, to describe and analyze a survey of telephone directory collection use.

The aim of this paper is to describe a process undertaken by Colorado State University Libraries' (CSUL) faculty to address concerns regarding their leadership training and development opportunities within the Libraries.

A Task Force (TF) under the direction of the Libraries Faculty Council (LFC) collected and examined feedback from the faculty librarians, reviewed professional literature, and made recommendations to the Libraries' administration and the Council.

Recommendations by the TF include: possible training initiatives, leadership role development, and improvement of organizational communication. The work of the TF heightened awareness of the issue within the Libraries. An LFC standing committee is now exploring and offering leadership training opportunities on an ongoing basis. An organizational climate survey has been completed and its results shared among the library faculty to address the issue of communication. In addition, the Libraries' administration has launched a number of strategic initiatives that were open to faculty and staff for leadership and participation. A number of faculty librarians are now leading these initiatives based on their professional strengths and interests.

This article has value to academic librarians and library administrators as they consider improving leadership training and development opportunities in their libraries. As middle management positions in academic libraries diminish, consideration must be given to how academic librarians gain experience or are trained in order to be well‐prepared for future leadership positions. Additionally, library administration should be instrumental in providing such opportunities to their librarians to ensure professional growth.

The purpose of this paper is to chronicle the participation of the Colorado State University Libraries in a campus‐wide teaching program sponsored by the campus center for teaching and learning, and discusses the opportunities provided by such participation for academic librarians in general.

The author uses a case study approach to explore one academic library's participation in a campus‐wide teaching program sponsored by the institution's center for teaching and learning. The aim of the article is to demonstrate how the program works, and to discuss the potential for similar programs at other libraries.

The library's participation in a campus‐wide teaching program has strengthened ties with the campus center for teaching and learning; improved the instructional skills and knowledge of faculty and professional staff; and highlighted the importance of teaching and learning within the library.

The author presents a blueprint for instructional collaboration with the campus center for teaching and learning, and suggests that such programs will greatly benefit reference and instruction librarians.

This article will benefit reference and instruction librarians who seek to improve their teaching skills. Relatively few articles have investigated collaborative relationships between libraries and centers for teaching and learning in which librarians participate as students.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an account of digital archiving and preservation practices and processes successfully implemented at an academic institution.

This case study chronicles the planning and actions taken to identify, select, package, and archive local digital assets for long‐term access and migration. It includes a literature review and offers selected resources as a starting point for other institutions investigating digital preservation tools and practices.

Digital preservation is a broad, evolving, and important facet of digital asset management, yet often overlooked by library administration and understated in library operations. Collaborative approaches should be considered in implementing digital preservation tools and processes with limited resources.

What is successfully in operation at CSUL may be learned by other institutions. An effective preservation plan and established workflows will give an organization the capability to maximize limited funds and staff time.

The majority of the current literature provides theories, technologies, conceptual models, and large‐scale collaborations, with relatively little describing needs, practices, operations, and experiences at a specific academic library. This paper will contribute to the literature by discussing digital preservation from actual experience, based on the work we perform, the needs we face, and the solutions we reach within our current environment.

The Morgan Library at Colorado State University in Fort Collins suffered catastrophic flooding as the result of a historic rain storm and flood that swept through the town on July 28, 1997. This study examines this single library's organizational disaster response and identifies the phenomena that the library's employees cited as their motivation for innovation.

Purpose – This study provides an example of a library where a pre-disaster and post-disaster organizational environment was supportive of experimentation. This influenced the employees’ capacity and motivation to create a new tool meant to solve a temporary need. Their invention, a service now called RapidILL, advanced the Morgan Library organization beyond disaster recovery and has become an effective and popular consortium of libraries.

Design/methodology/approach – This is an instrumental case study. This design was chosen to examine the issues in organizational learning that the single case of Morgan Library presents. The researcher interviewed employees who survived the 1997 flood and who worked in the library after the disaster. The interview results and a book written by staff members are the most important data that form the basis for this qualitative research.

The interviews were transcribed, and key phrases and information from both the interviews and the published book were isolated into themes for coding. The coding allowed the use of NVivo 7, a text analysis software, to search in employees’ stories for “feeling” words and themes about change, innovation, motivation, and mental models.

Three research questions for the study sought to learn how employees described their lived experience, how the disaster altered their mental models of change, and what factors in the disaster response experience promoted learning and innovation.

Findings – This study investigates how the disruptive forces of disaster can influence and promote organizational learning and foster innovation. Analysis of the data demonstrates how the library employees’ feelings of trust before and following a workplace disaster shifted their mental models of change. They felt empowered to act and assert their own ideas; they did not simply react to change acting upon them.

Emotions motivate adaptive actions, facilitating change. The library employees’ lived experiences and feelings influenced what they learned, how quickly they learned it, and how that learning contributed to their innovations after the disaster. The library's supervisory and administrative leaders encouraged staff members to try out new ideas. This approach invigorated staff members’ feelings of trust and motivated them to contribute their efforts and ideas. Feeling free to experiment, they tapped their creativity and provided adaptations and innovations.

Practical implications – A disaster imposes immediate and often unanticipated change upon people and organizations. A disaster response urgently demands that employees do things differently; it also may require that employees do different things.

Successful organizations must become adept at creating and implementing changes to remain relevant and effective in the environments in which they operate. They need to ensure that employees generate and test as many ideas as possible in order to maximize the opportunity to uncover the best new thinking. This applies to libraries as well as to any other organizations.

If library leaders understand the conditions under which employees are most motivated to let go of fear and alter the mental models they use to interpret their work world, it should be possible and desirable to re-create those conditions and improve the ability of their organizations to tap into employees’ talent, spur innovation, and generate meaningful change.

Social implications – Trust and opportunities for learning can be central to employees’ ability to embrace change as a positive state in which their creativity flourishes and contributes to the success of the organization. When leaders support experimentation, employees utilize and value their affective connections as much as their professional knowledge. Work environments that promote experimentation and trust are ones in which employees at any rank feel secure enough to propose and experiment with innovative services, products, or workflows.

Originality/value – The first of its kind to examine library organizations, this study offers direct evidence to show that organizational learning and progress flourish through a combination of positive affective experiences and experimentation. The study shows how mental models, organizational learning, and innovation may help employees create significantly effective organizational advances while under duress.

An original formula is presented in Fig. 1.

Over the years, digitization has become an important part of libraries because it increases accessibility to the general public via the World Wide Web. Colorado State University Libraries (CSU Libraries) is currently working on a digitization project containing 19,537 wildlife slides. This project is unique because it was managed fully by undergraduate students, from the collection’s donation to the launch of the final Web site containing 1,000 digital images. There were unanticipated set backs and minor problems, but in the end all the pieces fell into place. This paper addresses the process the students took in managing the project and the problems that can occur with such a large collection.

Seeks to prove that studies conducted over the past several decades repeatedly indicate that information‐seeking behavior by members of the general public involves consultation of a variety of potential information sources, including libraries.

This article focuses on information seeking with regard to recreation activities in wilderness areas including, but not limited to, hiking.

The study results indicate that respondents do turn to the internet for some of their information needs. Web sites providing information on three hiking areas were also analyzed to determine their accuracy and access to information. The study concludes that information‐seeking behavior on the internet represents investigation of sources that existed in the pre‐internet era but that access has altered from earlier mechanisms, such as paper mail, telephone, or on‐site visits, to electronic investigation.

Libraries continue to represent a potential information source, provided that they take advantage of electronic access.