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Plain Language is writing intended to be easily comprehensible by its intended audience. Used in government, legal, medical, and now educational writing, the primary goals of Plain Language are greater usability and equitable access. Current practices of describing databases to library users prioritizes marketing language and targets an audience of experts. In this article, the authors share applying Plain Language to library database descriptions to make them more understandable to novice undergraduate researchers. In revising the entire database list using Plain Language principles, they identified best practices for database descriptions. Initial usability results from the project are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this case study, the University of Idaho Library describes how advance planning, research, creativity, and collaboration enabled them to reopen to students during the summer of 2020 during the global COVID-19 pandemic and with reduced staff. By creating staging plans for computer labs and tables, a system for regular cleaning, backup staffing plans, eye-catching signage, quarantine protocols for library materials, and enforcing safety measures, the library was able to continue to provide services while keeping staff and patrons safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring access to library technology for disabled users and staff is essential for libraries. However, recent surveys reveal that many are still struggling to develop the infrastructure required to accomplish this. The author's own research in making a digital scholarship space and its technology inclusive of disabled patrons will act as a case study and be the basis for a five-step framework for implementing accessibility workflows and practices. The results of recent surveys, an overview of disability legislation, a dialogue around challenges with vendors, and other logistical factors related to supporting accessible technology, will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Information overload interferes with our abilities to use information effectively. It represents a challenge in searching print as well as online collections. Academic librarians have developed strategies to help their patrons reduce the effects of information overload. This article provides best practices employed by academic librarians to reduce their users’ information overload. Five themes emerged in a review of the literature: information presentation, library instruction, user strategies, librarian roles, and software technologies. Information literacy instruction remains particularly important in combating information overload since the promotion of users’ research skills facilitates their search competencies. Research on information problem solving that focuses on metacognitive strategies may help decrease information overload among users searching digital libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most libraries have fully integrated cadres of student assistants into their daily operations, including helping at points of service. As libraries rely more and more on student assistants, we must maintain exceptional customer service to our users. This requires our student assistants to possess information literacy skills that exceed those of our users. This assessment investigates the information literacy skills of first-year library student assistants when compared to the general first-year student population, and it examines if first-year library student assistants’ information literacy skills increase more than those of their peers during their first semester at college. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research libraries provide a significant portion of the open access materials available on the Internet, and an examination of the efforts of one such library will illustrate the role of these institutions in creating the current information environment. The Virginia Tech University Libraries established the Scholarly Communications Project (SCP) even before the Gopher protocol opened up databases housed at research libraries to librarians with Internet access. The SCP was primarily intended to take advantage of evolving technologies to produce and distribute academic journals without the costs associated with traditional publishing, and that journal archive, the EJournals, is still at the heart of what has become the Digital Library and Archives (DLA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of new technologies, changing librarian roles, and a generation of “digital native” students has led to an increase in noise levels in academic libraries. The authors present a review of the literature on increased noise levels in academic libraries in an attempt to identify best practices for adapting libraries to noise and to assist reference librarians who must confront disruptive patrons. They discuss such practices as zoning libraries, furniture arrangement, written policies, signage, and peer policing for noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of marketing activities for an academic library as an outgrowth of an overall library strategic plan can assist in clarifying which key resources and services should be promoted and in developing the optimal activities for communicating their benefits. Marketing as an ancillary process to strategic planning can increase awareness and use of library resources and services among targeted user groups and can present a clear, consistent image to students, faculty, and administration as to what the library offers to the life of the university community and validate its continued funding. A permanent library marketing committee is the best means for coordinating library marketing activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Area Studies librarianship is a unique, interdisciplinary field, faced with an infrequently researched disciplinary-identity crisis. Although its place among traditional subjects creates many challenges, its unique appeal provides many promises as well. In the traditional, subject-based librarianship model, Area Studies librarians have to make very different decisions regarding collection development, liaison, and instruction than their subject specialist colleagues. The article identifies some challenges and promises of the unique position of being responsible for a geographic area rather than any one subject. It also describes the experience of Area Studies librarians at Miami University and their efforts to work together with their subject colleagues toward satisfying the needs of their users. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Facebook is an extremely popular social networking site with college students. Many academic libraries have created their Facebook profiles to reach more users. This article studies the Facebook presence of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions, particularly academic ones. Their Facebook pages are analyzed comprehensively in terms of content, launch time, and popularity. The majority of these libraries maintain at least one Facebook page whose content typically focuses on library events, resource updates, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

College librarians, like all librarians, should be effective advocates for their libraries. Advocating for academic libraries with elected officials is especially important. This article provides information and resources which will assist you in becoming a successful legislative advocate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first in a series of columns intended to report on the progress of the Open Access (OA) movement in scholarly communication, chart the changes OA brings to the methods libraries and library users employ to acquire information, and estimate the value of OA materials for undergraduate library collections. At this point, it is not clear how long commercially published academic journals will be a sine qua non for college libraries. However, it is already obvious that undergraduate instruction can benefit from the scholarship available through Open Access at the same time that our libraries need the budget relief such resources offer. Librarians who work with undergraduates have very good reasons to stay current with the range and quality of OA content as well as with the best means of providing access to that body of scholarship. In addition, faculty teaching undergraduates depend upon librarians to keep them informed about changes in the information environment. With that in mind, “Out in the Open” is an attempt to introduce readers to the people, resources, and trends identified with the rise of Open Access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With digital monitoring devices easy to use, inexpensive, and accurate, even the smallest library can afford to identify and address environmental problems using a microclimate approach. This article describes the capability of data loggers and related software, and provides guidance for their selection and use. It further explains how to interpret the data to arrive at affordable solutions for the most pressing environmental problems by treating a library building not as a monolith but as a number of microclimates. By using this approach, libraries can effect modest and inexpensive environmental changes leading to significant improvement in the preservation of library collections as well as potential health problems for staff and users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current focus on libraries as place involves the collaborative needs of library users for features such as movable furniture, group work areas, and amenities such as coffee shops. Additional attention needs to focus on how the technology infrastructure can support collaborative work in academic libraries. The one-user-one-machine setup common in many academic libraries does not do this. A collaborative workstation that is inexpensive and readily assembled is described along with equipment needs and costs. The impact of such a collaborative workstation for both reference work and public use is discussed. [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]

Research consultations can be an integral layer of instruction for an information literacy program. One-on-one instruction provides an ideal situation for librarian teachers to reinforce and deliver personalized information literacy instruction in a confusing, information-glutted environment. However, reference departments must consciously move away from a service model of source provision to one of instruction provision in order to develop and provide this much needed supplement to an information literacy program. This article discusses the implementation of a research consultation service at Missouri State University's Meyer Library, as well as the results and analysis of user satisfaction surveys administered to both the patrons and the librarian providers of the new service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a study of academic libraries with sites at MySpace. From a selection of academic libraries with MySpace sites, the author brings to light the most common types of information and styles used to attract and inform patrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binghamton University Libraries implemented an IM reference service using the Trillian client to monitor multiple IM accounts at two distinct reference service points. This paper addresses the process and practical considerations of implementing the service including selection of the appropriate software, creation of IM accounts for each service, development of a staffing schedule, and training of reference staff. Also included is an outline of future plans for improving IM services for students and academic library users. [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]

Each fall, the Tunxis Library hosts a party. Usually thematic, sometimes didactic, and always cerebral, the library uses the party to communicate our ‘party line’ to the entire campus community: we are here to snake your life easier. It's particularly effective when delivered at the start of the semester, before the unrelenting rhythm of classes, committee work, and meetings has begun. Showing the campus community that the library is here to support them is our core theme, wrapped in a party context. Our goal is to create a party that jump-starts the fall semester for everyone. In this article, we describe our most recent parties, focusing how we develop, plan, and execute these promotional initiatives, with little money, but plenty of creativity and teamwork. [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]

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]

Penn State University Libraries' Open House is a unique concept in library orientation. Rather than focusing on orienting new and first-year students to print and electronic resources, the event instead addresses students' affective feelings about using the library. A colorful party theme, decorations, and fun activities break down barriers between students and library faculty and staff, and encourage students to return to the library when they need help. This article offers a blueprint for plan- fling and hosting a program like this, discussing the value of this high-touch, user-centered approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joining the movement toward personalization of the Internet, many colleges and universities across the country are redirecting their traditional campus Web sites toward marketing while developing Web portals for use by their students, faculty, and staff. These Web portals offer new and promising ways to access a variety of campus services including services and resources of the campus library. The authors discuss implications of campus Web portal development for academic libraries. The authors urge librarians to get involved in campus Web portal development to ensure a library presence on the portal that is both functional and relevant to library patrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites questions from the library survey of the journal "College and Undergraduate Libraries." One question is about the approximation of the number of linear feet of surveys a respondent would have if all past library surveys would be compiled. Respondents are also asked on the other factors that irritated them about library surveys. Other queries include the number of survey follow-up experienced by the respondent, reasons for filling out library surveys and respondents' plan on how to respond to the next library survey.