he Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) announces the release of a new digital publication, "The Kaleidoscopic Concern" by Kaetrena D. Davis-Kendrick. This annotated bibliography on racial and ethnic diversity in librarianship focuses on new areas of study such as gender issues and white privilege with regard to racial minority and ethnic librarians. "The Kaleidoscopic Concern" is available on the ACRL Web site as a free downloadable digital publication

This report looks at these questions from the point-of-view of college students and 14- to 17-year-olds. In the original study, we found that college students are more aware of and use libraries’ information resources more than other survey respondents. In addition, the more educated the respondents, the more they continue to use libraries after graduation. Awareness does not always translate into high usage.

Overall, respondents have positive, if outdated, views of the “Library.” Younger respondents—teenagers and young adults—do not express positive associations as frequently. These findings, and more, are valuable insights for anyone seeking to know more about the library usage and perceptions of college students and young people.

The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition report was produced for OCLC’s worldwide membership to examine the significant issues and trends impacting OCLC, libraries, museums, archives and other allied organizations, both now and in the future. The scan provides a high-level view of the information landscape, intended both to inform and stimulate discussion about future strategic directions.

EDUCAUSE REVIEW | March/April 2005, Volume 40, Number 2

Useful overview of new ways of thinking about the role of library discovery systems in the context of the networked environment.  Highlights the necessary changes to the function of library catalogs now that discovery, location, request and retrieval can be separated from one another. 

 

"Much of the discussion is about improving the catalogue user's experience, not an unreasonable aspiration. However, we really need to put this in the context of a more far-reaching set of issues about discovery and about the continued evolution of library systems, including the catalogue, in a changing network environment. In this environment, users increasingly discover resources in places other than the catalogue."

A Columbia Librarian posted a long article about tagging systems and their use in libraries. Interesting reading.

Paper proposals due on May 10.