Faculty are often identified by librarians as the key to a successful bibliographic instruction program. Nevertheless, considerable evidence suggests that most faculty have not widely adopted bibliographic instruction in their teaching. This article examines the nature of faculty culture and how certain aspects of it impede bibliographic instruction efforts. Despite attributes of faculty culture that support the development of large libraries, the wide-scale acceptance by faculty of bibliographic instruction has not occurred. Continued initiatives by librarians to understand and to reach out to faculty are essential if academic libraries are to achieve their potential in contributing to the educational process.

Faculty Culture and Bibliographic Instruction: An Exploratory Analysis

In order to understand the patterns of use of electronic books, total netLibrary usage for one year for five academic institutions was collected. Ranked use by number of titles closely fit the power curve, a model known to describe modern developments such as airport hubs and Internet links. A chi-square test of independence compared subject use by library and showed a modest institutional effect. Subjects were ranked by popularity. Computers, technology, and specific sciences were more popular than traditional social sciences and humanities. Implications for acquisitions decisions are reviewed.

Patterns of use of electronic books

At the root of all library acquisition decisions is the goal to add to the collection those materials that meet users’ needs. Compiling circulation statistics is one way of assessing users’ needs. This project seeks to assess the current collection development practices at Stetson University with respect to the circulation of books purchased in support of selected departmental curricula. Circulation statistics for books selected by five academic departments over a five-year period are compared with those of librarian selections in corresponding subject areas.

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Circulation as Assessment: Collection Development Policies Evaluated in Terms of Circulation at a Small Academic Library

Numerous publications on patron-driven acquisition (PDA) for print books and similar materials have reported that patron-requested materials circulate more. Tying circulation to selector may be failing to address the complex of factors that contributes to items' circulation. In the present study, the authors revisit a PDA program's data and to determine whether PDA print books' circulation advantage persists when the potential interactions of several additional variables are taken into account. As with prior studies, library patrons were significantly better predictors of circulation than were librarians or approval plans. However, librarians proved to be significantly better predictors than were approval plans.

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Patron-Driven Acquisition and Circulation at an Academic Library: Interaction Effects and Circulation Performance of Print Books Acquired via Librarians’ Orders, Approval Plans, and Patrons’ Interlibrary Loan Requests

There has been a flurry of interest in programs for collection development through patron-initiated requests However, some librarians have been concerned that such methods run the risk of producing idiosyncratic collections with poor usage and poor use value The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries have operated such a program through the Interlibrary Loan Department over a five-year period The following study assesses the relative performance of the program's interlibrary loan–acquired monographs in terms of prices paid per rates of annual circulation, relative use at the topical level, and annual rates of circulation

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Just How Right Are the Customers? An Analysis of the Relative Performance of Patron-Initiated Interlibrary Loan Monograph Purchases

The 1978 University of Pittsburgh library materials has received considerable attention. Nevertheless, few librarians have replicated the study. This article reports on a partial replication at a small liberal arts college. The author found a similar book use pattern at the undergraduate institution studied as at the University of Pittsburgh and DePauw University. He concludes that the book use pattern exhibited may be typical among academic libraries and suggests close cooperation between librarians and classroom faculty in selection and use of undergraduate books.

Larry Hardesty

Papers

Use of Library Materials at a Small Liberal Arts College.