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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how quality information materials are maintained in Kenyan museum libraries by examining collection development policy, skills and processes used by librarians in acquisition. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 137 respondents, which included 130 registered library users and seven members of staff, completed the questionnaires. This included the principal librarian, for whom an interview schedule was used to collect the required data. A pilot study to ensure data validity and reliability was carried out at the Kenya Medical Research Institute Library. Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyze the research data. Findings: The findings, which were presented both textually and graphically, show that the National Museum of Kenya library lacks a collection development policy to guide the acquisition process, as well as a diverse set of information resources that are both comprehensive and current to meet the current user information needs. Furthermore, the key impediment to the acquisition of information materials was revealed to be financial constraints, and there was a positive effort to involve library users in the acquisition process. Research limitations/implications: The study focus on library users and library staff at the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) library in Nairobi, it may not be, therefore, representative of the acquisition processes at all Kenyan museum libraries. Although NMK has other branches across the country, they were not included in this study. Practical implications: This paper purposes to provide the Kenyan museum library with important information about maintaining quality information materials from the perspectives of librarians and library users. Despite efforts to improve information materials, the management faces financial challenges. Social implications: The study unveils underlying picture in selection and acquisition practices which will inform on meeting library users information needs. Originality/value: The paper is of value as a case study of Kenya Museums Library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to elucidate the value of opening up digital collections for end-user development of mash-ups and to evaluate the suitability of libraries' infrastructure for this purpose. Design/methodology/approach – The author surveyed ARL members' digital collection platforms to assess the terms of use statements and options for programmatic access. Findings – The findings show that 17 per cent of the institutions surveyed offer some means for mashing up digital collections, and that, while more than half the collections surveyed have some form of terms of use or rights statements, they were not written to support this type of use case. Research limitations/implications – Results of the research suggest that a mashable digital collection service is feasible for most libraries. Originality/value – This paper will be of interest to librarians who are considering providing application programming interface (API) access to their digital collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to emphasize some of the qualitative results from the data collection throughout the second year of the Biblionet Program in Romania. Design/methodology/approach – Concentrated here are the conclusions drawn from reports of the County Coordinators, online questionnaires, quantitative and qualitative research reports, and information from colleagues in the Biblionet team. Findings – The results and findings have been grouped under the four key objectives of the Biblionet Programme: the citizens' information needs are better fulfilled with the help of public libraries; librarians provide better services to communities; for the National Association of Librarians and Public Libraries in Romania (ANBPR) to improve its capacity to provide services to members; and public authorities to increase their support for library development. Originality/value – A wide range of improvement examples are provided that can be easily transferred to other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – While the great recession may have concluded more than a year ago, the lingering effects of state and local budget contraction and austerity are having a highly negative impact on libraries and librarians. The future for publicly funded libraries as institutions that promote learning, literacy, knowledge creation and entertainment is increasingly doubtful as publicly funded libraries across the country are seeing unprecedented levels of budget cuts. While the immediate cause of such reduced funding seems rooted in budgetary pressures, the reality is that library financial support is traditionally premised upon a publicly held assumption of goodwill for libraries and the societal benefits they represent. In order for libraries to survive the economic downturn and austerity measures put in place by government budgets, they need to rethink the role, purpose and benefits of library marketing in favor of a more sophisticated approach that conveys the unique value of their library and its offering to their specific user population. This paper aims to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach – Informed by the author's extensive experience in marketing information services, the paper discusses the current trends in library marketing, especially those aimed at conveying the value of libraries, and ties them to relevant scholarship in the areas of services marketing and value creation. Findings – Assumed goodwill is inadequate to the task of competing for financial support in a post-recessionary environment where expenditure of public funds is highly scrutinized. In order to survive long term, libraries of all kinds must take on a more sophisticated view of library marketing that focuses on value creation. Eliminating the old model of presumptive value in favor of one that utilizes the marketing process in order to communicate the competitive viability of libraries as place and content providers to their users in the form of targeted benefits that convey value, is critical. Simply put, if libraries hope to receive continued support in today's challenging fiscal climate they must elevate marketing to a critical operational function while focusing that marketing effort upon communicating the library's benefits and value to the users it serves. Practical implications – As a librarian, adjunct professor of marketing and former sales and marketing manager for a large information company, the author relies on his years of experience to convey a more purposeful sense of library marketing that is directed at communicating a library's unique value or worth to its users based upon an understanding of their needs, the benefits to them specifically as well as the competing options available to them in terms of information acquisition. Originality/value – The paper shares specific ideas regarding the purpose, role and benefits of library marketing that are connected to improving perceptions of the worth of libraries and the perception of value to a specific community as a means of engendering future support for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show that libraries are facing challenging environments in which services and content must be delivered into the users' workflows and "lifeflows". Design/methodology/approach - An understanding of linguistic codes and language games, and similar concepts, will help librarians to appreciate the enormous challenge of becoming an accepted member of each user community. Findings - In order to assess performance in this changing environment, much greater emphasis will need to be placed on qualitative methods, including ethnographic approaches, externally-moderated, reflective self-evaluation and narrative-based practice. Originality/value - Libraries themselves are changing, and most of all are being challenged to reinvent themselves within the workflows and lifeflows of their users. If this challenge is to be met then innovative yet robust methods need to be developed to assess performance in this new milieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to develop a multiple regression model that can be used to predict the number of patrons that seek assistance at the reference desk of the library. This will facilitate the scheduling of the reference desk librarians. Design/methodology/approach - A multiple regression model is developed, where the dependent variable in the regression model is the number of patrons that seek assistance at the reference desk of the library and the predictor variables (independent variables) are the door count and the semester under study. Data were gathered at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for an entire year. Using these data, a multiple regression model was formulated and tested for significance. Then, the model was used for forecasting the required staff at the reference desk for a period for which data was available. Findings - The regression model, with the addition of daily variations, proved to be a good predictor of the number of patrons seeking assistance. Hence, the staffing need was estimated. Overall, the regression model with the added daily index proved to be a very good predictor. Originality/value - It is crucial to be able to predict the number of clients at the reference desk that seek assistance per day. With the use of a sample of data, it was possible to predict the number of clients seeking assistance at the reference desk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines that breakthroughs in news relating to dinosaurs will affect library collections much like ripples in a pond. Specifically, news releases on dinosaur discoveries in China. The news from China emphasized once more that the science of paleontology is not set in stone--it is merely written there. The first discovery, and arguably the more important of the two for librarians, is that a fossil of an early ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex shows the existence of protofeathers--precursors to the feathers on modern birds. The new species, named Dilong paradoxus, marks the first time feather-like structures have been directly observed on a tyrannosaurid, and supports earlier predictions by several paleontologists. The second discovery is that of a sleeping dinosaur. From what is described as one of the most complete skeletons discovered, this dinosaur died a peaceful death while curled up with its head tucked under the forearm, similar to how modern birds sleep. These two discoveries are important because they expand our understanding of dinosaur behavior and appearance.

The article presents the author's views on Google Inc.'s right to digitize and disseminate copyrighted text. The author states that Google should digitize entire books for superior access and indexing. Michael Keller, Stanford University' head librarian, states that when a university digitized its card catalog, use of the collection jumped 50 percent.

The article presents the author's view about providing for library services to library users. He stated that major changes like what the Library of Congress has done affects many of the catalogers since creating for series authority records would be time consuming and problematic especially when it comes to older materials. He would rather encourage that every library would evaluate its process, considered the costs and benefits and has to decide that its effort was worth the expense in order to serve its users. He has also observed that librarians do not bind to strict standards, creating authority records, controlled vocabularies and classification schemes.

The article focuses on the ever-increasing demands of library users. In this ever-changing environment, some of the things one can be certain of are the need for more staff, space, and money for libraries. Libraries are ever striving to do more and more while, at best, maintaining current levels of staff and resources. The two most important goals are to increase library funding, or make the use of current resources more efficient. Jerry Nichols' contribution in this issue draws attention to a situation in New York State where revenue, collected to support local libraries for years, was left unrealized. Similarly, Andrew Itedjere's article brings to light what can happen when a Nigerian university doesn't support its library--monetarily or intellectually. While a system has been implemented requiring library users to pay a registration fee, the deemphasized importance of library collections for research has imposed a barrier to the library to realize fully needed funds to support service, collections, and technology. Khalid Mahmood and his colleagues suggest another approach in their article, which is charging library visitors for services rendered.