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Changes in the US healthcare system in the past 20 years have meant increasing pressure on consumers to find their own healthcare information. Their search, amid an ever‐widening array of information resources, has profound implications for library reference services. A recent study of 350 public librarians in Michigan is, to date, the only investigation of librarian practices in health information provision in a large region of the USA. Examines services, queries, problems, librarian training and health collection resources. The findings have special meaning for academic librarians as they delineate their unique role in the health information system and, with public librarians, seek to devise effective means for responsive library service in today’s competitive health information resources environment.

Few issues in recent times have so provoked debate and dissention within the library field as has the concept of fees for user services. The issue has aroused the passions of our profession precisely because its roots and implications extend far beyond the confines of just one service discipline. Its reflection is mirrored in national debates about the proper spheres of the public and private sectors—in matters of information generation and distribution, certainly, but in a host of other social ramifications as well, amounting virtually to a debate about the most basic values which we have long assumed to constitute the very framework of our democratic and humanistic society.

IT is evident from the numerous press cuttings which are reaching us, that we are once more afflicted with one of those periodical visitations of antagonism to Public Libraries, which occasionally assume epidemic form as the result of a succession of library opening ceremonies, or a rush of Carnegie gifts. Let a new library building be opened, or an old one celebrate its jubilee, or let Lord Avebury regale us with his statistics of crime‐diminution and Public Libraries, and immediately we have the same old, never‐ending flood of articles, papers and speeches to prove that Public Libraries are not what their original promoters intended, and that they simply exist for the purpose of circulating American “Penny Bloods.” We have had this same chorus, with variations, at regular intervals during the past twenty years, and it is amazing to find old‐established newspapers, and gentlemen of wide reading and knowledge, treating the theme as a novelty. One of the latest gladiators to enter the arena against Public Libraries, is Mr. J. Churton Collins, who contributes a forcible and able article, on “Free Libraries, their Functions and Opportunities,” to the Nineteenth Century for June, 1903. Were we not assured by its benevolent tone that Mr. Collins seeks only the betterment of Public Libraries, we should be very much disposed to resent some of the conclusions at which he has arrived, by accepting erroneous and misleading information. As a matter of fact, we heartily endorse most of Mr. Collins' ideas, though on very different grounds, and feel delighted to find in him an able exponent of what we have striven for five years to establish, namely, that Public Libraries will never be improved till they are better financed and better staffed.

The purpose of this study was to examine youth service librarians’ use of collaborative collection development (CCD) behaviors and interlibrary loan (ILL) to collaborate with school librarians.

A quantitative design was implemented with a self-administered survey that was placed online.

Public youth services librarians in the USA believe it is important to collaborate with school librarians. However, they are not frequently using collaborative resource sharing strategies. Public youth services librarians that have more experience, understand trends and issues in school libraries and feel they have knowledge of collaborative strategies are more likely to engage in collaborative resource sharing.

The study was limited to 265 public librarians serving youth in the USA. This study does not present the perspectives of school libraries.

CCD and ILL between public and school libraries are overlooked practices for building relationships between public and school librarians that should be explored. Presenting the benefits of these strategies during training programs may increase the resources that youth can access, thus having an overall impact on the quality of life in communities. Collaborating will also help communities understand the value of libraries as institutions for promoting lifelong learning.

The results provide evidence that public youth service librarians in the USA believe in the importance of collaborative relationships with school librarians. However, they do not frequently use ILL or engage in CCD behaviors with school librarians. Using ILL and CCD are two strategies that may be used to build stronger relationships.

The thesis of this book is that library measurement needs to move on and away from the idea that it is a process of counting and comparing the resources deployed by our libraries. The current emphasis on output measurement is an improvement but not the answer, refreshing as it is to judge a library by the quantity of what comes out instead of by the quantity of what is put in. The author believes that the nature of the library service is that of a “broad aim” social programme, best judged (evaluated) by gathering “politically significant information on the consequences of political acts”. “Political” here implies that the aims and intentions of those funding, organising and using libraries arise from more than one set of social values and from more than one definition of what the library is, and that they differ in priorities even when they do not directly conflict. Information about the library service will be in the form of a spectrum of measures reflecting the inputs, the processes, the outputs and the impact of the library, relating the various values in various ways. The difficulty in measuring library services, it is argued here, arises from the conflicts and lack of clarity about the aims of the service, and from uncertainty about how the process affects the outcomes. The technical problems of measurement are secondary. Chapter One aims to survey the range of measures available, whilst the rest of the book discusses how they might be used.

THE fact that the forthcoming conference of the Library Association is to be held at Eastbourne this year should provide it with an additional official interest, as it is here that the Association Hon. Solicitor and Legal Adviser holds the important office of Town Clerk. Mr. Fovargue is the authority on Library Law in all its aspects, and is the author of several books on this important subject. We are particularly happy in being able to print an article from his pen in our special Conference number. The programme of the proceedings is by now, no doubt, in the hands of our readers, and will be found to be less crowded, but no less useful for that, than in previous years. Apart from the usual business programme, which should prove full of interest, the social side has been fully catered for and delightfully arranged. Several interesting motor trips are to take place, and delegates will be afforded an opportunity of enjoying the charms of the beautiful county of Sussex as well as those of one of our most favoured of seaside resorts.

The history of the public library is long and rich, and continues to reflect this institution's initial mission: to respond to the needs of an evolving democratic society. From its early days as a subscription service for the middle-class, through its evolution to become an educational site for the lower-classes and new immigrants, the public library has served as a touch-stone for urban industrial society in North America (Lerner, 1998, p. 138; Shera, 1974). Over the past century, public libraries have evolved to respond to the growing needs of the communities they serve and continue to do so with recent advances in technologies (such as DVDs, electronic books, the Internet, etc.), and with a more global outlook on the ways that people seek and share information. Indeed, the public library's constituents today are exceedingly diverse, including children and adults from a broad range of socio-economic, cultural, and educational backgrounds, all of whom seek information for a variety of personal and work-related purposes. The fact that public libraries have been fulfilling patrons' information needs for well over a century is a testament to their enduring success and versatility as information providers, and also points to the overall effectiveness of public librarians as intermediaries in the provision process.

The overarching aim of this article is to consider to what extent the perceptions of librarians in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Sweden reflect a unified view of their professional role and the role of their institutions in supporting the formation of the public sphere and to what extent the variations reflect national contexts.

The multi-country comparison is based on online questionnaires. The central research questions are how do librarians legitimize the use of public resources to uphold a public library service? How do librarians perceive the role of public libraries as public spaces? How do librarians perceive their professional role and the competencies needed for it? Consideration is given to how the digital and social turns are reflected in the responses.

The results show evidence of a unified professional culture with clear influences from national contexts. A key finding is that librarians see giving access as central for both legitimizing library services and for the library's role as a public sphere institution. Strong support is shown for the social turn in supporting the formation of the public sphere while the digital turn appears to be a future challenge; one of seemingly increased importance due to the pandemic.

This study shows that libraries across the seven countries have expanded beyond simply providing public access to their book-based collections and now serve as social, learning and creative spaces: both in the physical library and digitally. Qualitative research is needed concerning librarians' notions of public libraries and librarianship, which will provide a more in-depth understanding of the changing professional responsibilities and how public libraries recruit the associated competencies.

The article provides a much needed insight into how librarians perceive the role of public libraries in supporting the formation of the public sphere and democratic processes, as well as their own role.

This paper aims to draw attention to the quiet, if inadvertent, disappearance of the front-line public librarian, as libraries make difficult organizational choices in the struggle to survive the relentless pressures to cut costs on one side while supporting a market ethos of customer service on the other.

Informed by the preliminary findings of a pan-Canadian study of labour in large urban public libraries and a review of professional and academic literatures dealing with contemporary service trends, four models/proposals [(1) participative, (2) community-led, (3) managerial/leadership and (4) digital inclusion] are critically reviewed with respect to their positioning of the front-line professional librarian.

The paper concludes with an argument in favor of one of these proposals because it supports the relevance of public librarians in service to their communities while remaining true to the democratic aspirations of this vital public service within our increasingly complex information societies.

The implication of this work is that by drawing our attention to the contradictions inherent within contemporary and popular library initiatives, the disconnect between formal education and professional practice is highlighted, thus providing a foundation for new empirical research into the changing nature of waged work (professional and non-professional) in public libraries.

Failure to situate the professional public librarian strategically and unambiguously within the rapidly evolving roles of the public library has implications for LIS educators, employers and, as significantly, current and future students.

Despite the high rates of connectivity among Western nations and the increasing sophistication of their populations, the digital divide persists among a growing urban and rural underclass. Building, maintaining and promoting a strong and accessible municipal information infrastructure, one could argue, is what public librarianship is all about.

This paper’s identification and critical review of the four dominant service models proposed for the present public library represents the first time that these literatures have been assembled together and critically interrogated for their implications for the work of public librarians. Given the importance of the question “what is the future role of the public library”, a critical analysis of the key contenders is a necessary exercise, as is shifting the subject of the conversation away from the customer and onto the professional public librarian.

THE sudden death, at a comparatively early age, of Mr. Franklin Trengrouse Barrett, of the Fulham Public Libraries, removes from the ranks of librarians, one of the most promising, highly‐trained, and best‐loved of those younger men whose work is making itself so strongly felt in this country. His death came as a severe shock to most of his friends, and particularly to his father, Mr. Francis T. Barrett, the universally‐esteemed City Librarian of Glasgow, who was quite unprepared for such a sudden and bitter bereavement. To him, as to Mrs. Franklin Barrett, a lady well‐known and much respected by London librarians, I am sure the deepest sympathy of all librarians and other colleagues will go forth. The sad event has already produced a great many messages of sympathy from many kind friends, and for these, and other efforts of consolation and comfort, the family are deeply grateful.