Academic Libraries: “Social” or “Communal?” The Nature and Future of Academic Libraries

The apparent death of academic libraries, as measured by declining circulation of print materials, reduced use of reference services, and falling gate counts, has led to calls for a more “social” approach to academic libraries: installing cafés, expanding group study spaces, and developing “information commons.” This study compares these social models with the traditional academic library, whose spirit is best understood as “communal.” It argues that this communal spirit is unique and greatly valued by academic library users. Efforts to create a more social academic library threaten this communal spirit and may do more harm than good.     

What Does it Take to Make Discovery a Success?: A Survey of Discovery Tool Adoption,Instruction, and Evaluation Among Academic Libraries

Discovery tools have been widely adopted by academic libraries, yet little information exists that connects common practices regarding discovery tool implementation, maintenance, assessment, and staffing with conventions for research and instruction. The authors surveyed heads of reference and instruction departments in research and land-grant university libraries. The survey results revealed common practices with discovery tools among academic libraries. This study also draws connections between operational, instructional, and assessment practices and perceptions that participants have of the success of their discovery tool. Participants who indicated successful implementation of their discovery tool hailed from institutions that made significant commitments to the operations, maintenance, and acceptance of their discovery tool. Participants who indicated an unsuccessful implementation, or who were unsure about the success of their implementation, did not make lasting commitments to the technical maintenance, operations, and acceptance of their discovery tool.     

Library and Information Services to the Arabic‐Speaking Community: A Survey of Michigan Public Libraries

Public Libraries tout that they serve diverse communities, even having collection development policies, programs, and service that recognize their dissimilar neighborhoods. The authors of this article, having noted the influx of Arab‐speaking populations from Iraq and other Middle East countries to the United States, sought to find out the extent to which this population was receiving library service. The investigators discovered that four Michigan counties comprise a significant Arab‐speaking population; in fact, that population base is surpassed only by that of the Middle East countries and Paris, France. The researchers constructed a survey, based on a successful model used with libraries serving Spanish‐speaking populations and applied it to the Michigan libraries in the counties with a significant Arab‐speaking population. The results reveal that the Arab‐speaking neighborhoods, at least at the time of the survey, were not very well served (except in a few instances) by their public libraries.     

Balancing Evolving “Real” and “Virtual” Patron Needs: A Challenge for Access Services in Academic Libraries

ABSTRACT

Academic libraries are at a crossroads, facing increasing competition from other student services within their institutions and from commercial entities that duplicate their services. Examining some broader trends in education leads to suggestions as to how libraries might re-examine legacy services and assumptions and consider new directions. Specifically, the contributions that might be made by areas traditionally considered part of access services are considered. An annotated bibliography is included.     

The “Big Deal”: A Survey of How Libraries Are Responding and What the Alternatives Are

The library's mission is to support the information and educational needs of its users. E-journal “Big Deals” offer libraries one method of maximizing the resources available to their users, but, with libraries now experiencing flat or decreasing budgets, these Big Deals present budgetary difficulties for libraries. They also remove collection development decisions from the control of the libraries themselves. Some libraries have canceled their Big Deals, resulting in problems. This article presents the results of an online survey of libraries regarding these bundled journal packages.     

Working Together: Academic Librarians and Faculty Collaborating to Improve Students' Information Literacy Skills: A Literature Review 2000–2009

The purpose of this article is to provide a literature review of articles that include examples of academic librarians collaborating with faculty for the integration of information literacy instruction into faculty members' courses. This literature review is international in scope and reviews articles published from 2000 through 2009. Also discussed are the transition from bibliographic instruction to information literacy, information literacy requirements, and relevant Association of College & Research Libraries documents.     

Bundles,Big Deals,and the Copyright Wars: What Can Academic Libraries Learn from the Record Industry Crash?

This article reviews the contention that U.S. laws favor copyright owners over consumers, and pre-existing models over innovation. The relationship of commercial publishers to the Open Access movement is compared to that of the creators/users of file sharers and the Record Industry. The library literature bears out the contention that journal publishers have exhibited some of the behaviors that contributed to the decline of the major record labels. Librarians who support free scholarship will find the music industry plight instructive; just as iTunes fulfilled consumer demand, Open Access and other alternatives will transform publishing.     

Finding the Theory and Method for the Pedagogy of Teaching Legal Research: A Response to Callister's “Time to Blossom”

In his article “Time to Blossom,” Callister invites legal research experts to begin a discussion as to what theory and methodology would be most effective for teaching legal research. This article suggests that utilizing a tailored form of systems theory in conjunction with active learning methods would allow legal educators not only to teach students in an effective and understandable manner but also to adapt their teaching methods to correspond to changes in the legal research field.     

Gendered Expectations for “Agreeableness” in Response to Requests and Opinions

To address the need for more direct assessment of gendered expectations for communication behaviors, we devised a novel experimental approach that tests whether expectations for “agreeableness” are more salient when evaluating male or female speakers in their affirmative responses to a friend’s request or expression of opinion. Briefly, as lag times are introduced, it appears that females are expected to be more agreeable (or male delay is more tolerated), particularly when alignment with opinion is at stake or when a female is responding to another female. Findings are discussed in the context of Expectation Violations Theory.     

A Review of “Bite-Sized Marketing: Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian” and “Building a Buzz: Libraries and Word-of-Mouth Marketing”

No abstract available for this article.     

A Resource That Inspires: Exploring the “Include” Foundation of the National School Library Standards for Learners,School Librarians,and School Libraries

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has offered a multi-layered approach to serving our schools with the National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. The AASL Standards provide a valuable resource for professional development and a touchstone to inspire us to consider anew the basic elements of our profession. In this first column, one of the six Shared Foundations, “Include”, provides a way to consider several issues important to school libraries.