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The very term “outsourcing” is seen by many cataloging departments as a scary word. However, the term is used to mean different things by different people. It carries meanings ranging from traditionally outsourced activities to more recent outsourcing of entire functions, departments, or units. This article identifies long‐accepted ways in which cataloging departments have utilized outsourcing and differences and similarities between those practices and more recent outsourcing activities.

Exploration and use of Dublin Core metadata tools in a graduate library course, Organization of Information, suggests applications of these tools in similar courses as an introduction to cataloging. Students used the Nordic DC metadata creator to catalog and classify both Internet and traditional information objects. Because links available from the Nordic DC metadata creator and Dublin Core home pages make cataloging resource materials easily available, students had less difficulty integrating their knowledge and those resources to create cataloging records than their counterparts in prior courses did. Practice with the Dublin Core tools, observation of their use by student catalogers, and the potential for gaining experience with more sophisticated tools available in the Cooperative Online Resource Catalog (CORC) project encouraged Bowling Green State University to participate in CORC.

Internet resources are increasing in number and importance. This paper reports on the practices and policies adopted for organising access to free Internet resources in a number of large university libraries and national libraries. References are given to some general printed literature on the topic as well as to websites exemplifying particular approaches. The paper is intended to give an impression of how libraries are integrating free Internet resources into their descriptions of information which their users can access, which resources should be included, and how they should be treated. It concentrates on the integration of free Internet resources, although the division of electronic resources into “free” and “paid for” is not usually made at the institutions studied.

In two surveys of focussed segments of the field of practice and library and information science (LIS) faculty, skill requirements for today's LIS graduates in the commercial sector are explored. Findings indicate that while faculty understands the trends and issues in the industry and believe their programmes are addressing the requisite skills, practitioners remain to be convinced that graduates gain the required skills during course instruction. Additionally, changes made over the last eight years in LIS curricula to address these needs have not totally accomplished the objective of adequately preparing graduates for immediate absorption into the workforce. Three recommendations: more effective positioning of LIS courses to students, change in attitude toward a more business focussed perspective, and the need to offer more practical experience, are suggested as possible solutions to the problems.

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.