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Theft is a serious problem in our neighborhood libraries if the results of the survey described in this article are any indication. The Sacramento Public Library had purchased 455 copies of 26 Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) titles. Only 71 were found to be available. Ten of the others had been lost and paid for but the remaining 374 copies had been billed but not paid. This represents a loss of $8,900. Books by the author Zane were also examined. The losses amounted to $6,700. The effects of these losses are discussed. Recommendations for handling high-risk titles and improving the overdue process are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recession in the American economy touches all of us. Budget cuts, layoffs, and reduced service hours may be among the most obvious signs in our neighborhood libraries. Beneath the surface, however, one finds resilience in the face of adversity. At the Information Desk in the Colonial Heights, Elk Grove, and Rancho Cordova branch libraries of the Sacramento Public Library one encounters people who are full of life and vitality as they struggle to find work, fix what is broken, and complete difficult assignments, whether at work, home, or school. Some of their stories are recounted in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our neighborhoods are full of life. This life flows into and through our libraries. The cares, worries, joys, and pleasures of everyday living accompany these visits. Members of these communities may walk in, be pushed in, and sometimes perhaps, skate in. Those of us who work in their libraries are the beneficiaries. The stories of some of these neighbors as they use the Colonial Heights, Elk Grove, and Fair Oaks branches of the Sacramento Public Library are conveyed in this anecdotal-based article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Those using Sacramento's Colonial Heights Branch Library for the first time encounter a range of issues to which they must adjust. Some of these issues are behavioral and normally relate to the age of the individual. Others are at the skill level. This article describes some of these adjustments based on the age of the first-timer from pre-toddler to computer-averse senior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patron use of the Internet may appear to overwhelm the public library's traditional role. This is often the case at the Colonial Heights Branch of the Sacramento Public Library. Fortunately the services which are required to support Internet use complement those required to assist patrons with the print and media collections. This essay recounts the important, primarily personal ways in which a branch library in a low socio-economic neighborhood reinforces its traditional informational and instructional role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on library user services for newly arrived Chinese students at the University of California, Davis, California. There are two groups of newly arrived Chinese students at this university. The first group includes first generation Chinese immigrants who came to the U.S. in their teen years. Some of them attended a few years of high school in the U.S. and graduated; some of them just arrived from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or the Southeast Asia region having graduated from high school in their countries of origin. Then, they came to study undergraduate programs at this campus. The second group is made up of newly arrived Chinese graduate students who completed their undergraduate degrees in their home countries, in the fall quarter of 2004. Newly arrived Chinese students are unique. They know English and Chinese and they also read and write Chinese very well. Therefore, they use the library's Chinese materials as well as English collection. However, the author learned that newly arrived Chinese students face common difficulties in using library resources in the U.S.

Reports are from a program planned by the Southern California Technical Processes Group (SCTPG) on "Managing the Electronic Monster; The Impact on the Library User" and a program at the University at Buffalo (UB) on the crisis in the scholarly communication system, "Publishing the Future: Scholarly Communication in an Information Age." The Southern California Technical Processes Group (SCTPG) chose "Managing the Electronic Monster; The Impact on the Library User" as an interesting title for the program reported on by Manuel Urrizola. Equating electronic resources with a monster certainly resonates with this column editor, who used the metaphor of battling the Hydra in a presentation at a past Florida Library Association conference. An impressive list of local California speakers addressed such issues as the single versus separate record approach, aggregator-neutral records, acquisitions and licensing of electronic resources, and public service concerns. Former Serials Review editor Cindy Hepfer played a key role in planning the content for the University at Buffalo (UB) program on scholarly communication entitled "Publishing the Future." The purpose of the program was to raise awareness in the UB community, especially among faculty, administrators, and students, to the growing crisis in scholarly communication and to look at some future developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing yet unresolved problem in access services today is controlling user access to resources in a networked environment. This paper describes the history of network authentication, explores the issues involved in selecting an authentication method, discusses the benefits and drawbacks of the various methods, identifies efforts by some integrated library services vendors and academic institutions to address this problem, and makes recommendations for selecting an authentication scheme for a college library. The discussions are based in part upon the results of a survey conducted with California community college libraries, various integrated library system vendors, and online resource companies. Technical terms are defined in a glossary. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Describes the considerations taken into account when designing new buildings and how these shaped the design of two new academic libraries in San Diego. Following the principles that each library should serve its unique group of users; that the surrounding campus or site should influence the design; and that the new building should add to its campus or neighbourhood, the architects produced two very different library buildings. As part of a suburban campus-based community college, Mesa College Learning Resource Center serves a large student body studying a wide range of subjects, and has been designed as a complex abstract composition of energetic forms in raw concrete. In contrast, California Western School of Law Library is on a small city campus and focuses on educating postgraduate law students. The new Library is described as a refined building of classical proportions and subtle detail. Gives details of both the interiors and exteriors of the two libraries and discusses how successful they have been in terms of meeting the differing needs of their users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online access to databases, journal articles, and books has resulted in less frequent contact with our users. As a result, librarians must make greater efforts to reach out to their constituencies to deliver information about new resources, searching tips and techniques, and the state of the library's collections. This article describes and compares the success of two outreach events held by the Science & Engineering Library at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). Practical considerations such as a time, location, and faculty involvement are discussed. A new marketing tool is introduced which involves person-to-person contact to advertise events. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article features the Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library based in San Francisco, California, which promotes universal access to knowledge. It notes that the Archive is planning to digitize and preserve audio and video files of the periodical "Braille Monitor" through a partnership with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). It mentions that the Internet Archive is collaborating with the NFB to help evaluate and maximize the accessibility of its several web sites.

The article presents information about the closure of a public library. Often, when a business closes, it is because business has fallen off and customers no longer want or need what is being sold. When it is a public library that is the subject of a closure, again it is usually because demographics have changed in an urban context, and merely a branch needs to close, or be relocated, or consolidated with another location. Rarely do one find a case where a library is closed solely as a result of a shortage of revenue, but that is exactly what happened recently in Salinas, California. Apparently, facing a 9 million dollars budget shortfall, the library failed to obtain the votes needed to institute. As a result, 33 librarians will be laid off, and three libraries closed indefinitely. The community didn't want the library to close as many users being from lower income families rely heavily on library services. Even the American Library Association adopted a resolution opposing the closure of the libraries.

This article describes how to fairly allocate Internet access workstations once a library decides to have them. The various plans used by the San Francisco Main Library are discussed. After many trials and errors, the San Francisco Main Library has developed a low-tech, low-cost plan for equitably allocating Internet access workstations. Any library with one public Internet terminal to fifty public Internet terminals can use this plan. This plan benefits both staff and patrons by having a compromise in assuming responsibility for monitoring the stations. Computer programs used for this purpose are expensive and are only available from a handful of companies. The faults in these programs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the session about resource access and bibliographic instruction held during the 1993 conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America in California. The session, cosponsored by the Academic Division and the Reference and Information Services Section, concentrated on how to educate library patrons in using automated information resources. The panelists were Jack Robertson, Fred Hillbruner, Jeanne Brown and James Glenn.