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This survey of graduate students' and faculty's use and non-use of ebooks is a follow-up to the data captured in 2011 from the same mid-sized public university in southeast Texas. In addition to providing a change comparison of faculty and graduate students' ebooks usage over the past decade, the study also aims to contribute to the growing ebook literature examining faculty and graduate students' perception and use of ebooks for different academic activities. Survey results showed that while the proportion of respondents who are library ebook users had increased significantly over the past decade, both ebook users and non-users' attitude towards e- and print books remained consistent. Most ebook users appreciated features such as keyword searches and copy and pasting, but the majority also valued the option to print out pages and chapters. Respondents' format preferences also shifted based on their academic needs, although some of the feature limitations that prompted some users to switch from or avoid library ebooks were caused by DRM restrictions that could be removed by publishers. The findings have implications beyond the institution for academic library ebook acquisition and communication with local user populations. Other marketing and future research implications of the findings are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reference services have been developed in China for nearly a century; however literature shows that very little research has been done on users' perception of reference services in Chinese academic libraries. To fill the research gap, this study aims to examine how Chinese undergraduates perceive, understand and use the reference service. A survey was employed and conducted in a comprehensive Chinese university with about 19,000 undergraduate students. 433 valid questionnaires were received. ANOVA was adopted to examine overall reference service satisfaction variation among respondents in different programs. The study reveals that library resources and reference services have been improved in China during the past twenty years, especially with the great support of Project 211 and Project 985 by the Ministry of Education of China. However, there is still more to do to change libraries from book repositories to modern user-centered information services and to improve historically underdeveloped user services in Chinese libraries. Libraries and librarians in China need to more actively embrace the philosophy that library resources are to be used and librarians are there to serve, to thoroughly promote reference services and render them more visible, and to diligently learn, adopt and apply technology to provide quality reference services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preface: Not So Quiet On the Set: The Jazz Singer is arguably the most disruptive film of all time. Released in 1927, it launched the transition from the silent film era into the talkies. Much more than an incremental improvement, this musical introduced a radically new technology (synchronized dialogue) resulting in a game-changer for the film industry. While silent movies didn't disappear overnight, it was obvious that “living pictures” were the future of the box office. By the end of 1929 nearly all films were talkies (Griffith & Quick, 1971). Consider the impact on the established order. The musical Singin' In the Rain (1952) depicts this critical point where movie stars from one era struggled to adapt in the new environment (Sunset Boulevard, 1950). Actors had to reinvent themselves, and many headliners simply could not adjust. The production side was similarly upended, demanding new processes and workflows. Sound engineers, technicians, screenwriters, and voice coaches were now in high demand. The industry's support infrastructure was transformed as well (Eyman, 1999). Cinemas outfitted their buildings with new audio and projection systems. Studios developed new marketing and distribution models. Film critics altered criteria by which motion pictures were evaluated. The Academy Awards added additional categories. A new art form had emerged. Talkies opened creative possibilities that had previously been unavailable and even unimaginable. Academic libraries are encountering a similar inflection point. In our case it isn't a single technology that is disrupting our established system, but a barrage of advancements in publishing, pedagogy, and user preferences. Higher education itself is in trouble. Both Moody's and Standard and Poor's recently issued troubling outlooks for public and private institutions. The landscape is shifting around us, and the future of scholarship requires us to develop new skills, design new environments, and deliver new service capacities. In short, we need new models. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Auraria Library, which serves the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver and the Community College of Denver, collaborated with several academic courses on its campus to investigate some aspects of Participatory Action Research and Service Learning. The goal was to have students (the largest library user group) formulate questions, analyze data and provide suggestions that would help the library make evidence based decisions. The projects would provide student produced information that would be used to renovate the library. Unexpected benefits included the valuable relationships that developed between the Auraria Library, students and teaching faculty. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Among specialized applications of the well-known SERVQUAL scale for measuring perceptions of service quality, the LibQUAL+™ survey system has found widespread use in assessment of the quality of libraries. Three main dimensions of library quality have been identified: Information Control, Library as Place and Affect of Service. Using data from an application of the LibQUAL+™ survey, we investigate the relative difficulty of answering questions in each of these three areas, estimate the importance of each dimension in contributing to overall satisfaction with the library, and study differences in responses between user groups. We determine that Affect of Service (AS), similar to empathy in the general scale, is the most difficult dimension to evaluate. This is unfortunate because we find that AS is also the most important dimension in determining overall satisfaction with the library. We find that user characteristics are relevant in influencing both response rates and ratings of the AS scale items. In a follow up experiment to the LibQUAL survey we study the effect of user characteristics, such as type of user (student or faculty) and experience (length of association) on Affect of Service ratings. We determine that there is an interaction effect with experience moderating the impact of user type on perceptions of AS. Similar results are found in the case of another university service, a computer help desk. Our findings have implications for the administration and interpretation of LibQUAL surveys. The results also have implications for front line library staff members who should be mindful to provide individual, caring attention to undergraduates who are not favorably disposed towards their library services until they are both experienced and familiar with the library. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

2007 data from LibQUAL+™ and the ACRL Library Trends and Statistics database were analyzed to determine if there is a statistically significant correlation between library expenditures and usage statistics and library patron satisfaction across 73 universities. The results show that users of larger, better funded libraries have higher expectations for information resource availability, but not higher satisfaction scores. Furthermore, the data show no significant correlation between library usage statistics and user satisfaction. The researchers conclude that the lack of expected correlations could be attributed to limitations in the LibQUAL+™ method of measuring patron satisfaction, or the difficulty of using the quantitative measurements found in ACRL statistics to try and accurately predict user satisfaction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]