Volume 21, Issue 1

This paper details three projects utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) in the assessment of public libraries. The benefits of GIS include the abilities to generate maps to convey more information than through other means and to allow for spatial analysis of library services. This paper includes specific examples of uses implemented by the authors. GIS allowed the authors to display data related to library service and identify various disparities across service areas. In addition, this paper discusses practical issues of GIS for library researchers and practitioners based upon the knowledge gained through the development of the three GIS projects discussed here.

The purpose of the study is to identify how library and information studies educators are refining curricula to ensure students are learning the knowledge and skills necessary to work in our rapidly changing field. This study, utilizing a mixed-method approach, interviewed and surveyed over 100 participants from a broad cross section of graduates, employers, senior administrators, faculty, and students at a library and information science/studies (LIS) department in a mid-size university in the southeastern United States. The results suggest a continued tension between teaching library and information science curricula, the continued importance and value of accreditation, the need for closer relationships with employers, and emphasis on courses that teach both technical and intellectual content especially in the areas of communications and customer service within the context of library and information science. The primary limitations of the study include a low student sample size (19%) and that it represents a single case study, which lowers its overall external validity and the ability for the results to be generalized. Implications of the study centers on how one program is evolving to redefine itself and the significant role played by the accreditation process within the context of a larger systems framework that attempts to ensure collaboration is taking place between major constituencies of an LIS department to ensure appropriate alignment between expectations and its curriculum. The major significance of this study is a rich, descriptive overview of how one LIS department is dealing with the changing field and expectations from its diverse constituents. These expectations are articulated both in terms of policy and expected skills covered in its curriculum.

This paper is the second installment in a two-part series on the physicality of archival material in the context of the digital age. The first part reviewed key lessons in the history of new technologies that have affected archival practice. Part two will explore a holistic understanding of paper-based knowledge transmission in the context of the digital access movement. The intent is to provide a more expansive context to the shift from a physically, place-based activity to one of ubiquitous access to secondary materials. The investigation emphasizes two notions: archives as thing and archives as experience. Issues of authenticity, evidence, and sensory engagement are seen as potential knowledge elements of original material. Furthermore, physical archives are considered in their environmental context, through physical processes in the embodied act of using, and through their meaning to the user. The purpose of this article is to highlight the tacit, assumed and taken-for-granted aspects of using original archival material to better understand the conversion from physical to digital.

There has been a continuing discussion in library literature on the library as place and on the image of librarians in popular media, but there is little information on the librarian as person. The discussion on librarianship as a profession tends to focus on technology and not so much the people, other than the people skills needed in reference or teaching skills needed for instruction. The worth of the individual librarian tends to get lost in the shuffle. Before we disappear into the machine, it is useful to look at other future scenarios and similar occupations, either reality based or fiction. In this particular case, it is interesting to compare librarians to those in an occupation created by a renowned science fiction author.

In LIBRES Vol 19, 1, 2010 Linsay Reece-Evans reported research which examined a bibliometric analysis of gender and citation in two LIS E-Journals: LIBRES and Information Research.
Reece-Evans makes the salient point that women outnumber men at a ratio of approximately 4:1 in the library and information science (LIS) field as a whole and 3:1 in academic librarianship. It is also noted that past studies suggest that male-authored LIS print journal articles outnumber female-authored articles both in number and in citations received. This is an important consideration in an environment where the amount of citations received can serve as an indication of status within the LIS profession and can affect chances for professional advancement.