Search results

The purpose of the study is to discuss Questia, a library database that is marketed directly to student users.

Opinion piece.

From a student’s perspective, Questia is very useful. It would not be a useful addition to undergraduate libraries, even if site licenses are available.

It would be interesting to design a study to compare library skills of undergraduates who are subscribed to Questia with those who participate in traditional library instruction sessions.

It is suggested that Questia should be recommended to an undergraduate student who is struggling with basic research skills or who is especially pressed for time.

There are no scholarly articles discussing Questia after 2012.

The purpose of this article is to consider librarians as donors.

Opinion; literature review.

Librarians are likely to remember charities with wills or other financial bequests.

A collection of stories about librarians as donors might be marketable. Look into library development success when partnering with professional financial advisors.

Be nice to retired librarians and market your library’s giving opportunities to financial advisors.

The author found no evidence of employment or occupation as a donor characteristic; this might be worth exploring either as research or profiteering.

This paper aims to share progress in communication, fundraising, and collaboration in a small college library setting.

The paper takes the form of an opinion piece.

Small victories have the potential to culminate as widespread change.

While the specific accomplishments might not be unique, the author is incredulous that a pattern of achievements can make a library feel so transformed.

The purpose of this study is to ponder the past, present and future of library jargon and librarianship.

This paper takes the form of an opinion piece.

The library profession and its vocabulary will continue to evolve.

Most serials were once published on paper according to a schedule. This idea might sound as strange to young library patrons as paying for journals with bitcoins sounds to me.

The aim of this article is to share ideas about, and examples of, visual representations of library collections.

The article takes the form of a literature review and opinion.

Although information visualization appears in the literature as a field of study at least as early as 1981, library catalogs and indexes remain overwhelmingly text‐based.

Since 2010, only about 10 percent of the full‐text, scholarly articles in EBSCO databases with thesaurus term “information visualization” are published in library science journals.

The purpose of this paper is to consider library faculty and staff activities within an institution of higher learning in light of the recent ACRL report Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report.

Using some of the student assessment measures listed in the ACRL report, the paper discusses possible ways to quantify library duties.

The paper finds that it is invigorating to ponder what libraries do, within a bigger picture.

Avenues for possible research, with and without human subjects, include: library employees' effects on enrollment, retention, and graduation; using SCOPUS or other citation database, to evaluate libraries' effects on faculty research.

It is important to expand assessment of libraries beyond the usual “internal” statistics such as circulation, to include wider institutional measures.

The paper provides a commentary on September 2010 ACRL report.

The purpose of the paper is to reflect on the financial advantages and disadvantages of deferring a building renovation project.

This is a viewpoint paper in which the author attempts to see past her department's inconveniences.

Postponing the project is likely to be financially advantageous.

It is hoped that readers whose projects have undergone similar false starts will feel less alone, and it is hoped that readers who have been able to renovate or build libraries will better appreciate their experiences.

The purpose of this article is to resolve my aversion to the concept of teamwork.

Opinion.

There is a difference in how I perceive different groups referred to as teams, and in how I think each of those would function in a library setting.

In a literature search about disliking teamwork or the word team, I found little to address my reaction to the concept, either in libraries or in the greater work world. The articles or editorials I did find had more to do with particular teambuilding exercises.

The purpose of this paper is to offer advice, in the interest of preventing expensive mistakes, about certain aspects of library building projects.

The paper presents a list of avoidable errors made during real library construction or renovation projects.

The paper finds that a little common sense is a good thing to use in tandem with grand designs.

Hopefully, the practical implications of the paper will be cost savings for libraries and their parent organizations. Librarians, project managers, or architects might enjoy compiling photographs of similar mistakes and comparing them with sensible alternatives.

The paper presents a useful list for project managers.

The purpose of the article is to review possible new technologies which might enhance a Center for Digital Learning, Teaching and Scholarship at the library.

Opinion piece.

There are several cutting edge but increasingly affordable technologies which could attract students to the library and raise the library’s profile.

It would be interesting to design a study of library use and determine if the addition of unusual technologies had any effects.

Given the affordability of some devices, there is little risk involved in proceeding with establishment and furnishing of a Center for Digital Learning, Teaching and Scholarship at the library.

A literature search for drones and libraries retrieved no scholarly articles, but did bring back one or two news pieces about circulating drones at the University of South Florida.