Search

This study examines data from a survey conducted at a U.S. public research university, focusing on students' behaviors and attitudes toward the library, both physical and online. The analysis categorizes student users and nonusers based on demographics such as full-time enrollment, first-generation status, college, and grade point average (GPA). Results indicate that first-generation students were most likely to never use the online library. Low GPA respondents visited the physical library most frequently, whereas high GPA students were more inclined to use e-resources. The discussion section includes suggestions for improving services and resources to support student success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the increasing trend of medical professionals to publish academic articles in online medical journals and the implications of this for the study of citation patterns in scholarly medical publishing. The authors discuss citation patterns in print and online editions of medical journals in the fields of dentistry, nursing, and pharmacy. Their research suggests that the number of articles cited by each of the three disciplines increased from 1996 to 2008, but that the use of physical print journals has decreased. The implications of these trends for academic health sciences libraries and librarians are discussed, including the licensing of electronic journal packages, reducing print collections, and maintaining a collection of print journals for use in research purposes.

The article presents information on a study of the usage of reference services at the University of Illinois Crawford Library of the Health Sciences at Rockford (CLHS-R) with the aim of helping reference librarians plan for future usage. The study addresses the increase in usage of the Internet in research and electronic reference services as well as the decrease in usage of traditional reference services and suggests that continuing education of library staff benefits library patrons. The author presents statistics on the use of the CLHS-R library reference services by faculty members, students, and nonaffiliated patrons between 1990 and 2009.

As libraries succeed in making journal literature seamlessly available through internet searches, faculty may be less aware of the library's role in their intellectual output. This research project explores how publication patterns of faculty at a public research university changed over time in relation to collection size, literature use, productivity, co-authorship, grant funding, and faculty demographics. Correlations among data points demonstrate how the availability and use of the literature is associated with faculty productivity. Use of the literature varies by discipline, co-authorship, and grant funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]