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Based on the work of a planning group of staff from across the library representing both technical and public services, a new facility called the Knowledge Navigation Center (KNC) opened. No positions were dedicated specifically to the KNC. Located in the Harland Hatcher Graduate Library, the center housed seven workstations and a mix of Macintosh and Windows platforms with an array of peripheral equipment. The initial software collection, all network mounted, included nearly 100 resources falling into several general categories: Internet tools form browsers to Web design software, imaging tools and multimedia design software, distance learning tools, presentation software, OCR and other tools for text applications, and GIS software and resources. In trying to define focus, and recognizing that no staff member could be expected to develop expertise in all the possible areas users might need, the planning group identified five main specialty areas: GIS, imaging and multimedia, text, distance learning/interactive technologies, and Internet tools. Publicity about the center stressed these five areas and attempted to convey a broad mission for the center in knowledge retrieval and creation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate student propensity to learn library use skills independently, as well as to determine whether learning was enhanced through the use of culturally oriented materials. Seventy‐nine participants of color were studied to measure the impact of such variables as independence, culturally centered exercises, and pass rates when using an independent study bibliographic instruction (BI) packet. All packets included the same library use concepts, half expressed as culturally centered, half as classical exercises. Of this number, 40 participants were given multicultural exercises; the other 39 were given classical examples. Within these two groups, 20 from each group were invited to use the services of a peer counselor for help with questions related to the exercises; the others were not offered this option (in order to test for independence). The opportunity to conduct this study resulted from the library's participation in the Summer Enrichment Program (SEP).

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the twenty‐second to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1995. After 21 years, the title of this review of the literature has been changed from “Library Orientation and Instruction” to “Library Instruction and Information Literacy,” to indicate the growing trend of moving to information skills instruction.

It all began a very long time ago, sometime before 1876, that annus mirabilis of librarianship during which the American Library Association was founded, Library Journal debuted, and Samuel Green published in its pages the first article about reference librarianship. And it continues today. In April 1994, an unidentified library school student from the State University of New York at Buffalo queried the participants of the LIBREFL listserv, asking them, “Can you give a summary of the ‘hot’ library reference issues of the week? I'm working on a project for my Reference course, and would like to find out what is REALLY vital to refernce (sic) librarians out there today.” I was tempted to reply that all of that week's “hot” issues were identified in Green's 1876 article. In that article describing the phenomenon we today call reference service, Green touched on issues such as the librarian's obligation to provide information without injecting personal values, the inability of any librarian to know everything, the need sometimes to refer a patron to another information agency, SDI services, the value of proactive rather than passive service, the challenges of the reference interview, and, of course, what has come to be called the “information versus instruction debate.”

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with orientation to library facilities and services, instruction in the use of information resources, and computer skills related to information gathering. This is RSR's twelfth annual review of this literature and lists items published in 1985. A few references are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for the review.

Reference librarians interact with a broad range of customers and are expected to provide quality service to that clientele. In addition, library collections and services should reflect the community served and meet at least a portion of the information needs of that community. As the populations that reference librarians serve change and become more and more diverse, particularly in the case of those librarians serving academic communities, it is critical that the resulting library environments be conducive to the success of the populations served. As a result, librarians are compelled to become more culturally sensitive and to ensure that the library environment is open to all of those in the target population.

Library instruction has become a public services program at most academic libraries. As such, it has the potential of being a library's most innovative and visible program. Yet, no matter how innovative, such a program cannot become visible without the support of the entire university community. Librarians, administrators, faculty members, and students alike must perceive a need and value for an instructional program if it is to be implemented successfully.

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the seventeenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items, in English published in 1990. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

The reviewer argues that the future roles for academic librarians envisaged by the authors have always been the ideal intention. Librarians, at least in the UK, have long regarded their proper role as being that of partners of academic staff and as facilitators of learning in a research model, resource based, learning environment, rather than merely as providers of information services in a “supporting” role simply reacting to overt demands. Librarians have particular attitudes towards information use and skills within learning yet these cannot be separated entirely from subject content which is the jealously regarded province of academic staff. Librarians must become more like faculty in order to fulfil their role and potential, demonstrating their ability to contribute at all levels in the educational process. The book fails to explore adequately the practical, psychological, human, political and administrative problems involved in reaching this ideal.

Reference librarians in today's academic libraries are typically confronted with a growing array of simultaneous demands. Strained financial resources, staffing shortages, the challenge of adding new services, the explosion of information, and the electronic revolution have complicated (and sometimes compromised) the delivery of quality services. In response to many universities' growing commitment to offer nontraditional degree programs, reference staff are also assuming more responsibility for night and weekend instruction.