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The article discusses the development of an e-mail reminder system called Library Elf for library patrons that alerts them when an item is due. Requests for similar software updates have come in including patron reading lists and notices when books on these lists become available. Libraries worry that patron privacy will be compromised due to easy access to patron e-mail addresses and other personal information. Some patrons may feel the convenience outweighs the risks. INSETS: Privacy Issues;Polaris and Library ELF;Privacy Statues About Library Information.

The article discusses issues related to online research tools offered by libraries. Despite the marketing attempts by librarians, very few library patrons are using library databases. The author suggests that librarians should emphasize what patrons are missing by relying on the free Internet alone. Databases and vendors are also examined. INSETS: The Vendor Connection;Tips for Librarians.

The article discusses the state of library services after Hurricane Katrina heavily damaged the New Orleans Public Library's main and branch buildings. Flooding destroyed books and other materials, evacuation caused staffing shortages, and lack of funds impede the rebuilding efforts. Overall, however, library administrators and employees are optimistic that they will be better than before and the community is grateful for whatever services is has.. INSET: Beyond the City.

In a society that jealously guards its time, our job-if libraries are to remain relevant-is to get patrons in the door and in front of the materials they want quickly and easily. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Brookdale Library of Hennepin County, Minnesota have remodelled their layouts and labelling to make the libraries easier for those outside the library profession to use. INSET: The Right Direction.

This article discusses how electronic resources have changed the way that library patrons conduct research. Many patrons conduct research using web-based databases. Several publishers also are embracing the electronic age and producing electronic books and resources. Some libraries have made cuts in regards to the amount of print references they house. Economics also play a part in determining what type of resources libraries purchase. Most would like to have both print and electronic resources, but lack the funds for both. It is important to keep the content of both print and electronic resources updated and relevant.

Comments on library blogs. Potential of blogs for promoting library services to the community; Question of how to compel readers to return regularly to the library blog; Observation that there is a technology available to feed blog postings directly into courseware sites; Author's experience starting up a blog for his library; Ways to interest students in reading blog content; Suggestions for successful blogging; Reasons for optimism about library blogs. INSET: Tips for Successful Blogging.

Discusses how libraries can offer the community the information its patrons need. How the majority of community information services fall into two main categories, which are online community directories and community calendars; Way that libraries use their integrated library system (ILS) to manage their community information; Comparison between ILS and homegrown systems; Assertion that calendars require more hands on attention; Encouragement of community members to share their expertise and interests with their neighbors; Need for libraries to question how they present community information. INSETS: Weigh the Decision: ILS vs. Homegrown;Create a calendar if your library...;Buy a calendar package if your library....

Provides information on the Orange County Library System (OCLS) in Orlando, Florida. Small user base problem faced by the library; Budget support received by OCLS according to director Mary Anne Hodel; Percentage of OCLS library card holders in the U.S. INSET: Beam Me Up, Scotty.

Evaluates several databases available for librarians and library users. Features of the Academic Search Elite from EBSCO Publishing; Pros and cons of ProQuest Research Library from ProQuest Information and Learning; Searchability of FirstSearch-Base Package with Full Text from OCLC Inc. INSET: Other sources.

In libraries with newly installed public access computers, patron numbers grew by nearly 25 percent in 2000 and 2002, with many of them new to libraries. They include home schoolers, travelers, and people from low-income families, who are much more likely to depend on library computers. This sampling of updated findings from the ongoing research on the U.S. Library Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation indicates the breadth and depth of the impact of this extensive gift to public libraries. These recent findings, combined with the early results of the program, demonstrate that the program's legacy is substantial. The largest gift to U.S. public libraries since that of Andrew Carnegie, the Gates Program will have brought computer "packages" into the majority of public libraries in all 50 states by the end of 2003. By then the contribution will total 40,000 computers since 1997 in about 10,000 eligible facilities. The program focused on libraries that serve populations where ten percent earn below the federal poverty line; it has reached into nearly every low-income area and isolated public library in America. The number of people in the United States who have at least limited access to computers and the Internet continues to grow, and large increases in the number of patrons at libraries--in some cases more than 100 percent--are part of this overall trend. These increases averaged 23 percent in the early states in 2000 and 24 percent in all the Gates states completed by mid-2002. Libraries provided access to a large number of low-income patrons. About half of adult library computer users have household incomes below $25,000, compared with 30 percent of the population of those states, according to the U.S. census. Internet use, library use, and public attitudes toward libraries as well as public access to computers have all changed positively since the Gates Program began. INSET: OCLC's Gates Portal Project.

Discusses how librarians can protect patron privacy after the U.S. Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act. Ratification of the act after the anthrax contamination scare in 2001; Reasons the law was enacted, including to grant the government greater surveillance powers; Arguments from privacy advocates who belive the Act violates civil rights; Implications for how librarians turn over patron records to federal law enforcement; Discretion that librarians have for the creation and maintenance of records; Detailed description of the statute. INSET: What You Can Do.

Presents a listing and evaluation of news-oriented web sites that are appropriate for students to use in libraries. Details on the offerings of different sites including historical archives. INSET: Other sources.

Examines how the Internet has brought new duties and new organization structures to traditional library jobs. Realization that to meet customer needs, most staff have to be trained to provide resources in both traditional print and digital formats; Examples of how technology has changed the job titles of some librarians; Librarians as computer instructors; Areas in which librarians need help as technology trainers. INSETS: Julie James: Staying Curious;Projecting Librarians' Roles;The Value of Technologies.

Discusses books which will be published in the fall and winter of 2001 that focus on computers and programming. Popularity of the 'For Dummies,' line of books among library users; Increase in the demand for certification guides; Other computer subjects that are of interest at libraries; List of titles to be published.

Focuses on the attraction of Internet and computer access for library patrons in the United States. Findings of the assessment of the Library Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Issue of defining the digital divide; Increase in workload and work-related stress for library staff from increased patronage since the installation of computers; Details of the 'Gates Model' library program; Outreach to the poor and in urban areas.

Offers tips for making public Internet access systems in libraries stable. Choice of hardware; Suggestion for securing the operating system, which is usually a Windows program; Need for good product support to counter computer system failures; Caution in making changes to the basic input-output system (BIOS); Recommendation for the Netscape Navigator 4.08 standalone browser; Use of antivirus software and firewalls in public workstations; Backup for staff workstations; Details of the 'snapshot' concept.

Focuses on selecting library materials for a Spanish-language parenting collection in the United States. Highlights a selection of resources that are available as of September 2000 in the categories of books, audio- and videocassettes, pamphlets, and periodicals; Books such as 'Your Pregnancy Week by Week' or 'Su embarazo semana a semana.'

The author talks about a report released by New America which shows that U.S. libraries' efforts have successfully led to greater online access during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that those efforts failed to fully close the access gap for those need it most. She discusses two major infusions of cash for libraries, the challenge for libraries, and implication of the report for users of color.

The article provides information on a collection of books on African American history. Topics discussed include background on the writing of texts on African American history, a key challenge when collecting 20th-century African American history, and the need of libraries to consider how they classify titles in light of patron browsing behavior.

Stresses the important services an online catalog offers and lists some of the most important trends and changes in library cataloging. The emergence of a trend to link local catalogs to each other; Changes in the way library users search the catalog; Assertion that many librarians lack understanding of the role that catalogers should play; Commitment of the American Library Association to address the recruitment of catalogers; Efforts of librarians to ensure that the bibliographic records created can be used in the catalogs of all libraries; Discussion of MARC formats and ways to order bibliographic records on the online catalog screen; Opinion that a change in the approach to subject cataloging could accomplish a great deal. INSET: The National Coordinated Cataloging Program.

Asserts that the undergraduate library must, as part of its mission in the academic community, serve a multicultural campus. Discussion of the historical role of the undergraduate library and library user education programs; Observation that the undergraduate library became the "teaching library," engaged in teaching, research, and service; Topic of acculturation for undergraduates and the role of the services and collections of all campus libraries; The implications of the 1988 study "One Third of the Nation," from the Commission on Minority Participation in Education and American Life of the American Council on Education and the Education Commission of the States; Ideas on "intellectual capital" and the role of academic community in fostering intellectual capital in college education; View that the needs of minority college students are the greatest area of concern confronting undergraduate education in the next several decades.

Presents the seventh annual Godort "Notable Documents" list, which has been compiled by the Notable Documents Panel of the American Library Association's Government Documents Round Table. Aim of the list, which is to promote the acquisition of government publications by libraries and their use by library patrons; Criteria which are used to select documents for the list, including the extent to which the title reflects the actual contents; Mention of documents which cover military history, U.S. politics and government, economic policy, military conflict, and other topics.

Reports on the architectural library projects of 1989 for academic libraries, public libraries and libraries in progress. Project names, locations, costs and all other pertinent project data; Additions, renovations, new buildings; View that thought must be given to the preservation of library buildings, in light of the destruction of libraries by earthquakes and hurricanes; Mention of the Medgar Evers College Library of the City University of New York in Brooklyn; Projects which have sought to provide access to physically challenged patrons and staff.

Proposes a machine-readable book system for libraries to improve book availability. View that such a system will enable library users to access books from personal computers; Documentation of the extent of unavailability of material with traditional library practices; Calculation of the improvement in availability which a collection of machine-readable books will bring about; View that library bibliographic systems often fail to put a physical package in the hands of a library user; Finding that the best way to improve the availability of books in a library is to reduce the user failure rate in obtaining books; Other ways libraries have increased circulation, including decreasing loan periods, sending overdue notices promptly, and duplicating heavily used materials.

Addresses the role of video in public libraries. Impact of the popularity of video recordings on librarians; History of audio/visual departments in libraries; Difficulties faced in video selection, rating, and borrowing privileges; Topic of library finance and the allocation of library budgets to video acquisitions; Idea that video stores became models for library video collections when video began to be integrated into library collections; Libraries which charge patrons money to check out videos, such as the Baltimore County Public Library. INSET: Not Quiet on the Western Front.

Presents information concerning changes which have been made to the Dewey Decimal Classification system (DDC) by the Decimal Classification Division (DCD) staff at the Library of Congress. System in which libraries may feel that it is useless to report feedback from librarians and library users concerning the system to DCD; Argument that initiatives and surveys concerning the use of the system in libraries have not had an impact on the DCD; Criticism that the index volume needs to be revised; Concern that those in charge of the DDC do not understand the complaints of librarians about the system; View that a revision solution would be to integrate new or expanded topics within existing schedules by adding digits to current numbers, reviving latent notations, or redefining the scope of active numbers.

Describes the Business Information Center (BIC), which is located in the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. The primary aim of the BIC, which is to access business information, to support the integration of information and technology into the curriculum, and to act as a center for research and development for state-of-the-art information technology applications in education and business; Design of the BIC, which serves as an electronic hub for the school, making it the only fully networked business school in the country; Strategy of Dean Roy Herberger in developing the BIC; Online database services which the BIC subscribes to, including DIALOG, DataTimes, ORBIT, and the DOW JONES NEWS/RETRIEVAL; Discussion of reference services which are available to library users.

Reports on the use of online catalogs to stimulate effective library use in the U.S. Improvement of subject searching through coordinated approach of assigned descriptors; Introduction of advances in online catalog design to users; Retrieval of information from the databases.

Presents various types of public library users. Browser or reader; Researcher; Independent learners; Group participant.

Presents findings of the 1982 survey of adult users in public libraries of New York to provide statistical data on current and future library user patterns in relation to the youth services program. Development of library habit in preschoolers, who continued to visit it; Reasons for the public library use; Frequent usage of the library by children of adult users; Need for youth services in the plan of every public library. INSET: The survey methodology..

The article provides information on the premier 85 Queen series of the Kitchener Public Library in Toledo, Ontario, which features various in-depth events to encourage conversations among patrons. Such events include readings by well-known authors as well as interviews conducted by experienced journalists and full concert-style performances with storytelling by musicians. People who attend the events receive emails aimed at enhancing their library experiences.

The article focuses on the ethnographic approaches of customer journey mapping (CJM) and service blueprinting (SB) used in the project at the Edmonton Public Library (EPL) in Alberta which evaluated EPL's customer experience (CX). Topics discussed include reason that CX can be difficult to grasp and evaluate, description of a CJM, and suggestions for public libraries interested in using CJM and SB. The five categories of the SB template are also mentioned.

The article provides information on the Public Libraries Survey (PLS) Report issued by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) on August 2, 2018 which offered a look at public library use, financial health, staffing and resources in the U.S. active public libraries in fiscal year 2015. Findings include total public library visits in 2015, number of collection items made by the library during the period, and how libraries are working to rebound from the Great Recession of 2009.

The author reflects on the search for a vaccine to control COVID-19, as of December 2020. She talks about the interim findings announced by Pfizer for its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, the impact of library patrons' refusal to comply with safety regulations on library staff, and the challenge in conveying information to an audience of patrons who have been targeted with deliberate disinformation.

The author offers opinions on libraries. It is stated that libraries should become platforms for development of ideas based on the principles of the platforms used to create open source computer software. The principal difficulty seen in creating such a library-based platform is said to be balancing the value of its usage data against the privacy rights of its library users.

The article looks at the challenges faced by libraries in managing and organizing their electronic book (ebook) collections. It is noted that a digital collection that is too large or poorly arranged can make it difficult for users to search for content. Topics include using the same criteria for weeding of ebooks as physical books, ebook format changes, and digital collection management tools such as OverDrive WIN (Want It Now), Top Circulation by Subject from B&T Axis 360. INSET: A Hard Look at Database Subscriptions.

The article looks at the use of the data collection-analysis technology collectionHQ (CHQ) created by Bridgeall Libraries in U.S. public library systems. CHQ and its software application allow libraries to evaluate collection usage metrics to track demand, move items between branches, and help make purchasing decisions. Other topics include the Evidence Based Stock Management (EBSM) method, the application of CHQ to electronic books (e-books), and use by the Phoenix Public Library in Arizona.

The article focuses on book distributor Baker & Taylor's launch of its digital media platform Axis 360. Materials management chief Anne Silvers Lee at the Free Library of Philadelphia (FLP) talked about how the PLP is actively investigating electronic book options and pricing models and would be looking at Axis 360. Director Gina Millsap of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library in Kansas talked about issues with popular content availability which library users are demanding and using.

An interview with Jay Jordan, chief executive officer of the nonprofit organization Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) is presented. When asked if he saw the expansion of OCLC's mission as essential to the organization's future he said the founding purpose of OCLC was to promote the evolution of library use. He comments on the question if OCLC has an unfair advantage being a nonprofit while competing with commercial entities and talks about the debate over OCLC rights and responsibilities.

The article discusses mobile library services. According to the article, library patrons are becoming more adept at using wireless communication devices such as smartphones, tablets, and electronic readers. The author also discusses the use of interactive social networking web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr among library patrons. The article also discusses a 2010 survey conducted by the journal concerning mobile library services.

The article presents a discussion of the changing format of book groups since the advent of electronic book readers and ebooks. The author says that although the format of books has changed, what is unchanged is that readers love to discuss books with other readers. She relates how libraries are using online book discussions to attract new users and designing book groups to fit a particular community's needs. She concludes that libraries and books continue to have a powerful effect on society. INSET: Book Groups as Therapy.

This article discusses ways that libraries can improve service and communication with patrons through electronic means. Most libraries now offer e-service through web sites and some even offer blogging to communicate. "Library Journal's" 2007 annual survey of its 100 representative libraries might not be as valid as in previous years because nearly half of the 100 libraries were replaced by new ones. Library budgets have been gradually increasing over the past several years.

The article reports on the state of American libraries in 2007. It is noted that circulation and use of library services is strong. It is suggested that much of the use of public libraries is driven by the desire on the part of library users for Internet services. The book buying trends by libraries are analyzed. INSET: HOT READS IN THE LIBRARY.

The author believes that the police must not be a daily presence if people want African American patrons and staff to feel safe in the library. She talks about the police killing of African American George Floyd which led to protests, some library initiatives that have been shown to reduce the need to call the cops, and her belief on the need of public libraries to aim to drastically reduce their reliance on police presence.

The article profiles emerging technology librarian Nate Gass and reference librarian Haley Samuelson at Cook Memorial Public Library District in Libertyville, Illinois, who were honored in the Movers & Shakers 2000 of the "Library Journal." Topics discussed include their class started to help patrons identify fake news, their effort to reach more patrons, and the Be a Voter initiative they started to prepare patrons for the April 2, 2019 district elections.

The article discusses ways in which libraries often confuse patrons by using professional jargon and designing products and services which are intimidating to users. The author argues that by incorporating aspects of the Web 2.0 revolution (or evolution) libraries can more effectively communicate with patrons and present resources in a more comprehensible way. INSET: DESIGN FOR EXPERIENCE.