New York State Public Library Systems and Their Services

This research revisited the conditions for establishing and funding public library systems in New York State Education Law and the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education, examined public library systems' organizational mission statements, and analyzed the public library systems' 2007–2011 five-year Plans of Service and 2008–2009 annual reports. The study found that public library systems in New York State generally provide services following the instructions in the state law and regulations and in their mission statements, although there are wide-ranging variations of actual service activities among public library systems based on their organizational and demographic characteristics.     

Collection Condition Assessment in a Midsized Academic Library

In 2014, Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks conducted its first collection condition survey. The institutionally significant Alaska Collection was chosen as a manageable project. Research design based on the literature review led the researcher to conduct two surveys: one examining the entire collection and one looking at only those books most recently circulated. The combined surveys revealed that the circulating books are much more badly damaged that the books in the collection that do not circulate, across a variety of attributes.     

公共图书馆服务标准中的资源效益观——中英两国公共图书馆评估标准比较

[摘 要]《全国公共图书馆评估标准》是我国的公共图书馆评估的纲领和依据,对整个评估的效果和作用有着直接和巨大的影响,但是我国的《标准》整体设计理念与现代的图书馆评估的理念有一定的差距,本文通过对比分析我国和英国公共图书馆评估在图书馆建设等方面的指标,重点分析了我国的《标准》过于注重图书馆投入的资源而忽视了资源所产生的效益和当地的具体需求的问题,并从英国公共图书馆服务评估标准中汲取了值得我们在制定公共图书馆评估标准时借鉴的经验。     

Information Needs of a Young Nation: Rebuilding Library Services in Timor-Leste

ABSTRACT

Timor-Leste is an emerging young nation that has many ambitious plans for its people. After a long period of conflict major projects focus on rebuilding the country, including education. Libraries are regarded as an essential part of the young nation's intellectual capital development. The authors will focus on the opportunities and challenges that face the country's national university, Universidade Nacionál Timór Lorosa’e Timor-Leste (UNTL), in the redevelopment of its library and services.     

美国公共图书馆未成年人服务的特点

通过对美国公共图书馆未成年人服务相关文件和典型案例的分析,总结了美国公共图书馆未成年人服务的特点,共九个方面:具有悠久的历史,重视未成年人服务的指导,配备青少年服务馆员并提出明确的素质要求,设立专门的服务空间和全面的建设要求,提供区别化和特色化的服务,鼓励青少年参与管理,重视未成年人服务质量的评估,注重与外界的合作,开展未成年人服务的教育.参考文献62.     

谈公共图书馆评估的体系缺陷与改进建议

通过分析第四次文化部对公共图书馆评估所存在的体系问题和原因,论述传递文献情报信息是公共图书馆的主要社会职能,中介性是否发挥到位应是评价服务效益的主要指标,提出科学匹配评估目的与方式、尝试用经济量化法评估公共图书馆服务效益的建议,认为科学有效的评估基础是文化主管部门开发并统一全国公共图书馆的业务管理系统,建立有效的数据共享机制和文献资源保障体系。     

Collection Development Policies in Public Libraries in Australia: A Qualitative Content Analysis

The role that public library collection development policies play in guiding selectors and informing users has been promoted as a pillar of good professional practice. While these policies purport to open up the methods and the criteria used in selection so as to promote transparency and a sense of professional objectivity, how they actually are developed and put into practice has remained largely implicit in the research literature. This analysis revealed that policies tended to focus on local issues and remained heavily materials focused. How collections are developed to support user’s information needs and substantive issues associated with topicality are largely unarticulated.     

Frog Voices,Whispers, and Silences: Problems and Issues in Collecting for an African Studies Library in Africa

SUMMARY

This article is an attempt to respond to two questions about discrete special African studies collections in African university libraries. First, do we need to have such collections at all? Second, if we do, how can we write collection development policies that make sense, given the present turmoil in African studies and indeed in the social sciences in general? Librarians have a responsibility to recognise that their practice cannot be value-free, and that their collections are biased by the choices made by writers, by publishers, and by themselves. Their duty, especially in Africa, may simply be to ensure that African voices are not drowned out in their collections.     

我国公共图书馆国家政策重要思想演变研究:以重要政策文件为中心

公共图书馆的兴起与发展离不开政策的推动。文章以重要公共图书馆国家政策的文本为基础,采用历史研究法和文本分析法,将我国当代公共图书馆国家政策重要思想发展历史划分为3个阶段:萌芽时期(1949-1980)、深化时期(1980-2006)、高潮时期(2006-)。在此基础上梳理各时期政策的重要思想,并从内部和外部角度分析引起政策思想变迁的原因,最后从基本性质、主要功能、建设模式、核心价值维度总结我国公共图书馆国家政策思想的演变走向。     

Building an Academic Library Collection in a Developing Country

The University of Namibia was established in 1992 and started as a one-campus institution with fewer than 2,500 students to a university with twelve (12) campuses and nine (9) centers and more than 25,000 students. This study examines the profiles of the UNAM Library collections and the historical dynamics that have impacted it. New programs, schools, and campuses were introduced at a rapid pace and the library could only attempt to keep track with all new developments surrounding it. The role of collection assessment, collection development policy, and e-books were investigated within this scenario.     

Self-Help Legal Materials in the Law Library: Going a Step Further for the Public Patron

ABSTRACT

Service to pro se patrons continues to be one of the core issues facing law librarians. The current downturn in the economy makes this issue more critical than ever. This article provides one way to better meet the needs of this growing class of law library patrons.     

Public Library Services for Veterans: Selected Brief Case Studies

Public libraries across the country design and deliver programs for military veterans and their families, often collaborating with other organizations and agencies. The examples were assembled from both general and specialized interviews with librarians, and literature and Internet searches, with summaries of programs assembled and written by multiple researchers. The specific limitations on the listing in this article are clearly outlined in the first section. Overall, however, the article provides a good introductory overview of what’s going on in veteran’s programs and services in America’s public libraries in over seventy libraries in forty states. We hope this list of what public libraries have organized or are doing will supply other public librarians with ideas on how to provide new services or enhance their existing ones.     

Rural Public Library Outreach Services and Elder Users: A Case Study of the Washington County (VA) Public Library

ABSTRACT

Outreach services provided by rural public libraries are crucial to fulfilling their mission to provide information access to the widest array of user groups. Particular socioeconomic and geographic factors in rural areas present challenges of access to information resources, yet there exists only a limited amount of published scholarly work examining outreach services provided specifically by rural public libraries. This case study of outreach services to elder users offers contextual evidence for the centrality of social equity and access to the larger work of rural public libraries. Primary data were collected through four semi-structured focus group meetings conducted with elder users of the agency’s outreach services as well as through narrative interviews with six agency staff members. Principal findings showed that elder users had particular information needs related to entertainment and intellectual stimulation, challenges of transportation, and a limited access to technology and internet service. WCPL outreach services were found to positively impact the lives and general well-being of elder users by providing vital social and community connections and serving as a key link for elder users to an institution understood to be central to the life of the community in general.     

Stranger in a Strange Land: A Non-Librarian Expanding Library Collections

This article examines the challenge of creating a collection development policy for a century old historical library which in the last decade was rebranded as a Presidential Library.     

Identifying a Professional Core Collection for the Librarian of the Small-to Medium-Sized Public Library

A core collection of professional materials considered helpful in the day-to-day operation of small-to medium-sized public libraries was identified through a review of the professional literature and a survey of public library practitioners in Oklahoma. Highly Recommended and Recommended titles are listed in three categories: Administration and Management, Public Services, and Technical Services.     

Young Adult Use of Ebooks: An Analysis of Public Library Services and Resources

An online survey distributed to librarians at public libraries across North America established some interesting trends in public librarians’ perceptions of ebooks and teens. Some of the findings of this study are that teen library users strongly prefer to read print books for their recreational reading and show very little interest in ebooks or ebook programs offered by public libraries. Survey respondents indicate that teen library users remain largely unaware of or disinterested in the advantages of ebooks in providing them a convenient, private, and customizable recreational reading experience. Even when public librarians offer ebook programs for teens through school outreach, these programs tend to focus on the titles in the collection and the download process, rather than the specific benefits of ebook reading. More active promotion of these advantages could potentially appeal to teens, especially to non-library users and reluctant readers.     

美国公共图书馆社区信息服务的发展及其启示

文章首先介绍了美国公共图书馆社区信息服务的产生与发展，其次说明社区信息服务在美国社区建设过程中所起到的作用，最后指出美国公共图书馆社区信息服务的发展给我国图书馆界的启示。作者认为，社区信息服务是我国公共图书馆向信息化发展的关键，而公共图书馆在开展社区信息服务的过程中应注重合作伙伴关系的建立、充分利用现有的信息技术，并注意服务的推广和用户的培训。     

Representation in the Collection: Assessing Coverage of LGBTQ Content in an Academic Library Collection

Abstract

Academic library collections have been built and shaped by a focus on dominant voices and perspectives. In order for collections to reflect the value librarianship places on diversity as well as represent multiple perspectives and serve users of diverse backgrounds and identities, collections need to be assessed for coverage of content related to diversity. This article discusses the challenges inherent in engaging in such an assessment, discusses collection assessment methods, and describes an analysis performed on the Penn State University Libraries collections focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer content.     

Community Success: Rethinking Public Services in Academic Libraries

The members of our communities interact with library services, resources, and spaces through a number of touchpoints. In academic libraries, those touchpoints often come through curricular and co-curricular activities. A critical goal of connecting our community to our library via the curriculum is to enhance student learning, which we address through internal activities, such as developing instruction plans and external activities, such as exhibits and workshops. We, then, design rigorous assessments and a multitude of program evaluation projects to measure howwell libraries contribute to student learning so that we can communicate the degree to which we meet that goal. This article is a reframing of that progression—defining our community, what we do for that community, why, and how well—as an invitation to challenge our assumptions about public services and community success.     

Supporting Our Troops: Library Services and Support for Veterans

Veterans are a unique population that can be found in libraries across the United States. Libraries of all types are developing new approaches to the veterans in their patron populations in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This study identifies several common strategies that libraries, especially public and academic libraries, are employing to support their patrons who are veterans, as well as distinctions in strategy according to library type. It further explores whether libraries are relying upon library staff who are veterans when developing services and programming for patrons who are veterans.