Lesley Moyo and Ashley Robinson
Provides an overview of a new information literacy initiative at the Penn State University’s Gateway Library. The Research Mentoring Program was designed to address the individual…
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Provides an overview of a new information literacy initiative at the Penn State University’s Gateway Library. The Research Mentoring Program was designed to address the individual needs of academic library users who are inexperienced in the use of digital/electronic resources and require assistance in identifying, accessing and navigating the myriad digital/electronic resources for their research. Discusses the rationale for such programs, program objectives and activities undertaken to meet these objectives, and program outcomes.
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Discusses how technological developments in libraries have led to the emergence of new service paradigms. Reference services are receiving prime attention as librarians…
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Discusses how technological developments in libraries have led to the emergence of new service paradigms. Reference services are receiving prime attention as librarians strategically position themselves to serve users who are entering the library both through the physical gateway and the electronic gateway. Recent trends in electronic libraries, with particular reference to academic libraries, point to the need to provide value‐added library services to support virtual communities in their access to, and use of the exploding body of electronic sources. Also discusses the dynamic nature of reference services in the context of rapidly changing technologies and heightened user expectations and explores the issues associated with planning virtual reference services in an academic environment. Outlines the service rationale, software and technology considerations taken by the Pennsylvania State University in planning towards on‐line, real‐time reference services and provides an overview of the planned pilot project. Includes a list of links to Web sites with useful resources as well as links to sites of some projects on virtual reference services.
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Developments in information technology have led to changes in the mode of delivery of library services, and in the perceptions of the role of librarians in the information‐seeking…
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Developments in information technology have led to changes in the mode of delivery of library services, and in the perceptions of the role of librarians in the information‐seeking context. In particular, the proliferation of electronic resources has led to the emergence of new service paradigms and new roles for librarians. The Gateway Library at Penn State University (PSU) is an electronic library in transition, with new technology‐based services evolving to address the ever growing and changing needs of the academic community. It facilitates access to and navigation of electronic resources in an integrated technology environment.
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Lesley Mutinta Moyo and Ellysa Stern Cahoy
Many higher education institutions now offer virtual delivery of academic programs via the Internet and the World Wide Web, and cater to the needs of growing numbers of distance…
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Many higher education institutions now offer virtual delivery of academic programs via the Internet and the World Wide Web, and cater to the needs of growing numbers of distance education students. Before an academic library can adequately address the needs, preferences, and expectations of its remote patrons, however, it needs to understand the peculiarities and challenges of serving patrons at a distance. Penn State University’s World Campus (a virtual campus) is one of the leading distance education institutions in the USA, and its libraries are among those actively engaged in ascertaining the needs of remote library users and developing services and resources to meet these needs. A portrait of library resources and services available to World Campus students is presented, and results of a survey conducted to assess Penn State World Campus students’ perceptions, expectations and use of Web‐based library resources are reported. A key finding is that students are pleased with the quality and availability of library services, but not fully partaking of the vast array of services and collections.
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Enabling technologies have led to the transformation of library services from traditional services incorporating card catalogs, printed books and periodicals, bibliographic…
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Enabling technologies have led to the transformation of library services from traditional services incorporating card catalogs, printed books and periodicals, bibliographic instruction, in‐person/face‐to‐face reference, to new services and delivery modes incorporating: electronic collections, such as e‐books, e‐journals and databases; virtual reference services, and other online services. Innovation of new services that are peculiar to the online/Web environment is the trend in modern electronic libraries. During the last decade, many libraries, particularly those serving academic communities, have witnessed the emergence of new service paradigms in areas of information access and delivery, reference, instruction, technology facility and support to patrons. Libraries continue to harness new technologies to offer services in innovative ways to meet the changing needs of their patrons. This paper explores some of these emerging service paradigms in electronic libraries. The concept of “service paradigm” in this paper is used to refer to predominant service patterns.
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Janice Farrelly and David Reid
This paper has been developed from a workshop held at the 2002 LIANZA (Library and Information Association New Zealand Aotearoa) National Conference “Winds of change: libraries in…
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This paper has been developed from a workshop held at the 2002 LIANZA (Library and Information Association New Zealand Aotearoa) National Conference “Winds of change: libraries in the twenty‐first century”. The authors attended the 7th International Interlending and Document Supply Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1‐5 October 2001, where digital topics dominated and several strong themes emerged: the systems needed to find and request document supply (DS); obstacles to finding the items patrons want; the narrowing or widening of access; legal barriers to inter‐library loans (ILL)/DS access; alternatives to ILL/DS for patrons; then finally, the electronic delivery of documents to libraries and to patrons.