Sets out to describe the development of an assessment program at UNLV Libraries and current assessment activities.
Abstract
Purpose
Sets out to describe the development of an assessment program at UNLV Libraries and current assessment activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Assessment activities are first placed in organizational context, distinguishing between assessment initiated by departments, and assessment done library‐wide. Common expressions of resistance to assessment are noted, followed by the library and campus context relating to assessment. The impact of technology and of the LibQual+ survey is discussed.
Findings
Assessment activities at UNLV Libraries have strengthened and diversified over the last several years, thanks to several factors including the guidance of its dean, the development of technology and human infrastructure, the impact of implementing the LibQual+ survey, and other factors. Signs of its place in the Libraries can be seen in the Libraries' Strategic Plan and a recent review of the Strategic Plan's effectiveness and continued relevance.
Practical implications
Provides insight into the factors affecting the implementation of an assessment program.
Originality/value
This article is useful to those interested in the formation of a “culture of assessment.”
Details
Keywords
Jeanne M. Brown, Jennifer L. Fabbi and Cheryl Taranto
To explore the interactions between branch libraries and a new main library, in the area of technology equipment and services.
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the interactions between branch libraries and a new main library, in the area of technology equipment and services.
Design/methodology/approach
Following an introduction which highlights the major elements in place at UNLV Libraries for networking and equipment, each branch situation is described and evaluated.
Findings
The advantages of UNLV Libraries' philosophical approach to consistent patron access at all points of service are found to be substantial, and include regular equipment and software upgrades, as well as systems expertise. The major disadvantage proves to be flexibility in approaching patron needs.
Practical implications
Provides a philosophical basis and concrete examples of branch efforts to provide adequate technology and services to their patrons.
Originality/value
Useful to branch librarians making a case for enhanced resources, or discussing possible configurations of responsibility regarding technology equipment and services.
Details
Keywords
To provide an introduction to a two‐volume special issue on Lied Library at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas that focuses on major changes, new services, and technology issues…
Abstract
Purpose
To provide an introduction to a two‐volume special issue on Lied Library at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas that focuses on major changes, new services, and technology issues four years after the opening of the new main library.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 18 articles are featured, including a graphical time line of events, post‐construction thoughts, web site redesign, organizational change, the automated storage and retrieval system (LASR), and a virtual branch library, among other topics. Nine articles each will be published in Vol. 23, No. 1 and Vol. 23, No. 3 (2005). Readers should also access articles written three years previously in Vol. 20, No. 1 (2002) of Library Hi Tech titled “The New Lied Library at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas: focus on the planning and implementation of technology and change”.
Findings
Technology and change in the construction of a new main library can assist and guide others contemplating similar library construction, reorganization projects, and technology and digital implementations.
Originality/value
An introduction to the two‐part special issue.
Details
Keywords
Need information on programs for homeless persons? On policies and costs for treating persons with AIDS? On groundwater contamination? Waterfront development? Rent control? How…
Abstract
Need information on programs for homeless persons? On policies and costs for treating persons with AIDS? On groundwater contamination? Waterfront development? Rent control? How about requests for extensive narrative and statistical information on a distant community or metropolitan region? The Index to Current Urban Documents and its accompanying Urban Documents Microfiche Collection are excellent resources for these types of questions. Unfortunately, many libraries that subscribe to the index and microfiche collection fail to use them. In fact, underuse of these resources is probably the norm in most libraries. In a 1986 study of northern Illinois public libraries identified as receiving requests for local government information at least biweekly, none of the librarians interviewed reported having used the Index to Current Urban Documents.
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…
Abstract
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 twentieth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1993. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.
Only recently have significant art and architecture Internet resources been made available. As a reference librarian in a fine arts library, I try to keep track of important…
Abstract
Only recently have significant art and architecture Internet resources been made available. As a reference librarian in a fine arts library, I try to keep track of important resources for my patrons. Managing Internet resources is a challenge: Internet sites with images require high‐end computers and connections, and evaluating the quality of Internet resources is often more difficult and time‐consuming than evaluating print sources. Simply identifying potentially valuable resources amid all the flashy insubstantiality on the Internet is enervating.
Efforts to initiate cooperative collection management have evolved from two distinct networking contexts in Illinois. The earliest was the Illinois Library and Information Network…
Abstract
Efforts to initiate cooperative collection management have evolved from two distinct networking contexts in Illinois. The earliest was the Illinois Library and Information Network (ILLINET), a statewide network that has grown into a multitype resource‐sharing network of libraries of all kinds and sizes. The second network context was the Library Computer System (LCS), which is based at the University of Illinois, Urbana‐Champaign but includes the holdings of some 30 public and private academic libraries in Illinois. LCS was selected by the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) as the unified database on which to build its program for cooperative collection management in Illinois academic libraries.
The Internet has exciting potential in education. In Higher Education this can lead to new ways of teaching. This can only be achieved if efforts are made to use and develop…
Abstract
The Internet has exciting potential in education. In Higher Education this can lead to new ways of teaching. This can only be achieved if efforts are made to use and develop local, as well as national and international initiatives on the Internet. The University of Westminster saw the potential of the Internet and wanted to provide open access for staff and students. To speed access to useful information on the Internet, the University had to have a strategy for its use. This paper is about that strategy: about the training of computer and library staff, the provision of subject guides, the introduction of the Internet to academic staff and the use of the Internet by students.
Allen S. Lee and Xin Luo
– The purpose of this paper is to make instrumental recommendations on how to conduct high-quality business-school research in China.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to make instrumental recommendations on how to conduct high-quality business-school research in China.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper offers four fundamental questions to guide business-school research in China.
Findings
By offering answers to these guidance questions, this paper hopes that business-school research in China will reject the single path of the natural-science model of basic research and choose to also travel the path of the professional-practice model of pragmatic research.
Originality/value
The following is an edited version of Professor Allen S. Lee’s keynote address at the Fourth Symposium on Financial Intelligence and Risk Management and the Fifth International Workshop on Electronic Payment and Electronic Commerce in China (FIRM-EPECC 2012), on June 2, 2012, at the Sichuan Key Lab of Financial Intelligence and Financial Engineering (FIFE) of the Southwestern University of Finance of Economics (SWUFE), in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, People’s Republic of China.