Karen G. Lawson

Libraries in the USA as traditional and virtual third places

Traditional “third places” provide physical places for human contact and social experience outside of the home or workplace/school. Institutions as disparate as fitness centers, libraries, and beauty salons are examples of third places: locations where people gather and often talk about things that are important to them. Libraries have a long tradition of connectedness and community that has put them in the forefront of traditional third places. As library Web sites are created and evolve, the sense of place provided by physical third places will become increasingly important online. Much about connectedness and community online can be learned from the concept of third places and their importance in real life and in cyberspace. The traditions inherent in libraries as physical third places provide predictions, projections, and inspirations for continued good service in the online presence of libraries.

Using eclectic digital resources to enhance instructional methods for adult learners

Purpose – To demonstrate that adult learning can be improved through the use of eclectic digital resources to enhance instructional methods rather than through learning skills in isolation.Design/methodology/approach – During the past two decades, a significant research has focused on adults as learners. Many adults take classes for skills improvement, job advancement, and personal understanding. The demand for training programs to help workers keep current and competitive is growing. It is likely that more adults from all walks of life will be continuing their education in a variety of settings. For example, librarians do instruction for their communities in the areas of internet searching, electronic database use, and personal computing skills. Many of their students are adults, including other library staff members, community members, and non‐traditional students.Findings – A learning program that includes digital resources helps provide the opportunity for instructors to help their students make conne...

The Past, Present, and Future of Demand-Driven Acquisitions in Academic Libraries

Demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) programs have become a well-established approach toward integrating user involvement in the process of building academic library collections. However, these programs are in a constant state of evolution. A recent iteration in this evolution of ebook availability is the advent of large ebook collections whose contents libraries can lease, but not own only if they choose to do so. This study includes an investigation of patron usage and librarian ebook selection by comparing call number data generated by usage of three entities: (1) an ebrary PDA; (2) Academic Complete, which is a leased collection of ebooks; and (3) subject librarian selections based on the YPB approval plan at Iowa State University. The context is provided through a description of the development and evolution of demand driven acquisitions programs with an analysis of where libraries have been and where they are going with enhancing the collection development in academic libraries.

Interdisciplinarity on campus: how the publishing world is responding

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to explore how the publishing world is responding to library collection development challenges posed by the growth of interdisciplinary studies programs.Design/methodology/approach – The first step in this study was a survey of the websites of selected ARL and all Oberlin Group university and college websites to determine those institutions that have a clearly identified Interdisciplinary program or majors. The authors then investigated the status of interdisciplinary collection development practices at these institutions. Finally the websites of reviewers, publishers, and vendors were surveyed to explore what tools are available to help librarians identify new interdisciplinary monographs.Findings – Rather than supplying formal interdisciplinary collection development support, most librarians rely on external resources to help identify interdisciplinary materials. As technology evolves publisher/vendor websites can provide librarians with the tools needed to condu...

Small Scale: Using a Regional Pilot Project to Explore the Potential of Shared Print

The long-standing cooperative culture within the research library community should serve as a useful foundation for building regional cooperative agreements to support repositories of print journal backfiles. Serious storage constraints facing Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison mandated an effort to tackle this problem in a deliberative and coordinated way. An inter-institutional Task Force was formed to design and implement a process with a selected group of titles as a pilot project. The immediate goal was to liberate shelf space with an eye toward the future development of a consortial collection management plan for the storage of print journals among the three institutions.