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New embedding and hyperlinking features of 360 tours have the potential to significantly impact how users access information and library services. This article examines current uses, benefits, and challenges of 360 tours for academic libraries. Librarians at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's Edith Garland Dupré Library are creating tours that serve as a point of access for library services, information, and instruction. Based on their own experiences and rooted in practices from early virtual online library tour development, the authors identify best practices for 360 tour creation and areas of opportunity for future development and testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undergraduate students are increasingly being asked to con- duct higher-level research in their areas of study. In order to address under-graduate needs, many academic librarians, especially those charged with crafting instruction, take critical thinking as a given in the teaching of information literacy skills. However, this review of the literature has revealed that, though there was some discussion of critical thinking in a library context in the mid 1980s, the concept did not really take hold until the 1990s, when higher education reform began to appear on many campuses. Additionally, the literature regarding critical thinking skills during this period exhibits four themes: (I) a lack of agreement among librarians and others on what critical thinking is and how it can be defined, (2) the importance of subject and course integration in the teaching of critical thinking skills in libraries, (3) the necessity of reaching undergraduate students, and (4) the special challenges of teaching critical thinking skills in an age when technology is changing so rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is no secret that the nature of reference is changing. Users no longer have to go to the library to find the resources needed for their research. The library is becoming a place to study more than a place to do research. Business students at the University of Mississippi are no different. With nice computer labs, a big building, and atriums for relaxing, there was little need for them to leave the School of Business Administration. How do you reach users who won't come to the library? You take the library to them. In 2004, the business librarian at J.D. Williams Library at the University of Mississippi began offering satellite or on-site reference to the School of Business Administration. Three years later the program is still running and considered a success-not only as a way to provide reference to a user group but also as a form of marketing and outreach for the library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Lucy Scribner Library at Skidmore College, we have produced 11 different postcards to promote services and collections. We have discovered the advantages as well as the limitations of using postcards as marketing/instructional/informational tools. There have also been some practical lessons to be learned along the way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A university library implemented a three-pronged marketing action plan to increase library visibility on campus. The plan included a publicity campaign, a formalized liaison program, and a user satisfaction survey. The year-long effort did return library instruction statistics to earlier levels but did not increase reference usage. Several factors are identified as potential causes for its limited success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing ideas and techniques can be found from observing and surveying patrons in your library. The marketing techniques discussed in this article were utilized over a seven-year period at the F. Franklin Moon Library, a small specialized academic library. These affordable, effective, and realistic marketing techniques include a variety of adaptable ideas including surveys, pencils, screen savers, signage, college newspaper columns, and e-mail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic librarians detect a change in traditional-aged college students over the last one or two decades. Characteristics of students belonging to Generations X and Y suggest a postmodern condition exists that influences these library users. Understanding the postmodern mind-set can help academic public services librarians confront these changes and more effectively assist college students. Characteristics of college students are examined and solutions to dealing with challenges they present are offered. Academic libraries can adjust the methods they use to better serve this population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Librarians have useful ideas for databases that address the needs of their patrons but often lack the skills to make them accessible. This is a how-to on mounting a database using a server supporting PERL 5 or higher, knowing only HTML and common page mounting techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ERIC database is available in many free Internet versions, mainly from ERIC clearinghouses. Paying for access to ERIC through a commercial vendor is a decision that needs to be justified by all libraries with finite budgets. This case study attempts to determine the relative merits of the features and functionality of the various free versions of the ERIC database in comparison with one commercial version. Conclusions are shared about decisions reached at one academic library. The conclusion centers on whether libraries can forgo a commercial version of the ERIC database. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]