The latest information and news on online databases for librarians from Library Journal.
Hidden Conference Gems By Carol Tenopir - 09/01/2009
After 27 years of writing ten columns per year, starting this month I will be cutting back to just five per year, in addition to the annual Database Marketplace. My next column will appear in January. From now on, I will concentrate on covering e-content conferences that may not be on your radar. Summer is the time for professional conferences.
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The Value Gap By Carol Tenopir - 07/15/2009
It is more important than ever, suggested several companies in the annual Database Marketplace Survey (LJ 5/15/09, p. 22–25), to measure collection use fully and better evaluate the value of the library to its constituencies. Many libraries already emphasize a variety of evaluation techniques.
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A Rough Road Ahead By Carol Tenopir - 06/01/2009
As libraries and the institutions that fund them prepare their 2010 budgets, things look grim. Both the Association of Research Libraries and the International Coalition of Library Consortia have issued statements calling on scholarly publishers to work with libraries to find common ground on materials pricing in a prolonged period of economic downturn.
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Information on the Go By Carol Tenopir - 05/01/2009
Cell phone ubiquity is yesterday's news: now, between PDAs, iPods, ebook readers, tablet PCs, and other handheld devices, all of us are rarely without full-fledged information instruments at our fingertips. So how do libraries and publishers fit into all of this? They're busy redesigning and formatting content while introducing new services to make the best use of handhelds.
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Reaching the Net Gen By Carol Tenopir - 04/01/2009
IT'S tempting to characterize all young people as wired digital masters who use technology in mysterious ways. But broad generalization can be dangerous, and I was especially glad to see caution urged by several speakers at the 2009 annual meeting of the National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services (NFAIS), titled "Barbarians at the Gate? The Impact of Digital Natives and Emergin...
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Visualize the Perfect Search By Carol Tenopir - 03/01/2009
Studies show that people start with a search engine like Google when they need information. As early as 2004, in a focus group for one of my research studies, a college freshman bemoaned, “Why is Google so easy and the library so hard?” Making the library easy The Google interface works so well because of the powerful algorithm that lies behind the simple interface and the massive ...
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Online Databases: A New-Old Role for Libraries By Carol Tenopir - 02/01/2009
In the popular television show Life on Mars, the hero is transported 35 years back in time. At first things seem normal, but then he begins to see odd differences (like no mobile phones or personal computers). Well, I began to feel a bit like that character at the November 2008 annual Charleston Conference: Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition—“The Best of Times, the Worst of Times...
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Design Institute 2007 December 11, 2007 at Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center:Design Institute 2007
Learning Gardens New York's GreenBranches program links the library to the street.
Green Picks: LBD May 2007 Want to reduce your library's carbon footprint? Join the Cradle-to-Cradle revolution. Helen Milling shares the green products her firm is using.
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