Update Vol. 77 No.9 September 2008
'Like a light going on': the local Living Library project

'There seems to be a stifled thirst for conversation of any kind.' So says this article which looks at the novel concept of encouraging conversations in public libraries by offering 'living books' or borrowable people. I think Library Link had the scoop on this story but with MLA funding it seems to be catching on!

Update on Update

Update Vol. 7 No.4 April 2008
Aggre-culture: what do e-book aggregators offer?

A comparison of the major ebook aggregators and how they are addressing issues in the growth of the ebook market.

Update Vol.7 No.7-8 July/August 2008
The Big Draw

Leeds Met Library did something very unlibrarylike - they invited art students (who, they say sometimes don't feel the library is 'for them') in to create art!

Dates, clothes and federated access management

Aslib Proceedings Vol.60 No.2 2008
Internet dating: a British survey
Research into online dating habits, methods and outcomes which reveals some intriguing gender differences. Disappointingly, no analysis appears to have been done into the search strategy formulation techniques of the participants, nor are there any proposals to develop training in this area.
Featuring clothing and textile collections online
Analyses the use of digital images on the clothing and textile collection web sites of costume and textile museums.

Update Vol.7 No.5 May 2008
Towards the future : federated access management
A look at the challenges academic libraries face in moving away from Athens towards federated access management.

Doing research, communicating with Net Gen students and designing blended learning programmes.

Practical research methods for librarians and information professionals. By Susan E. Back and Kate Manuel. 020.72
Covers a variety of methods and also includes a useful chapter on Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Research such as Asking the Wrong Questions, Seeing What You Want To See and Jumping to Conclusions.

The Academic Library and the Net Gen Student. By Susan Gibbons. 027.7
How social networking, online gaming, mobile devices and more have changed the way a generation lives and communicates, and how we should respond to that. "As our faculty begin to explore the possibilities and pedagogical potential of virtual worlds, it will be important that their libraries and librarians accompany them, lest we are replaced by new knowledge partners in the virtual world."

Blended learning : tools for teaching and training. By Barbara Allan. 025.5
A detailed guide to what blended learning is, the pedagogical theory underlying it, the various tools and technologies that can be used, how to design blended learning programmes and how to work as a tutor within such programmes. All from the perspective of information and library services.

Academic libraries: social, communal or scary?

Journal of Academic Librarianship Vol.34 No.1 Jan 2008
Academic libraries: "Social" or "Communal"? The nature and future of academic libraries.
An article critical of attempts to introduce more social spaces, such as coffee bars and group study areas, into academic libraries on the grounds that such moves threaten to undermine "the environment of serious study and research."

College and Research Libraries Vol.69 No. 2 Mar 2008
A mixed-methods investigation of the relationship between critical thinking and library anxiety among undergraduate students in their information search process.
Mellon coined the term library anxiety in a 1986 study which found that it was experienced by 85% of college students. Many reported feeling lost, helpless and confused, and this study finds students making very similar comments more than 20 years on. One thing that's new is how many students contrast the anxiety they feel about using the library with their feelings of capability and comfort in searching the internet. The author quotes Diane Nahl's affective load theory in which she says that negative affective states disrupt cognitive strategies. I think this means it's hard to think straight when you're scared.

Journal articles about ebooks

Aslib Proceedings. Vol. 59, No.6 2007
What do faculty and students really think about ebooks?
Report of a large scale survey conducted as part of the CIBER SuperBook project at UCL that preceded the current JISC ebooks project that we are taking part in.

Update. Vol. 6 (11) November 2007
Ebooks: setting up the national observatory project.
Caren Milloy on the process of setting up the JISC ebooks project, and why there are so few ebooks in the collection. (Note: there is a typo in the article - there are 36 ebooks in the collection, not 136!)

Serials. Vol.20 No. 2 July 2007
E-textbooks: opportunities, innovations, distractions and dilemmas.
Why do students still rely on printed textbooks and what might replace the textbook in future? Is the idea of an 'ebook' distracting publishers from thinking about the possibilities of alternative forms of digital courseware?

A European view of Google, more on library 2.0, some advice on distance learner support, and a little stress and violence.

Google and the myth of universal search. By Jean-Noel Jeanneney. 025.04
The President of the Biblioteque nationale de France on how Google is organising the world's information and whether efforts should be made to develop a European search engine.

Library 2.0 and beyond. Edited by Nancy Courtney, 025.02
Explores some of the tools and, more importantly, the attitudes that contribute to xcreating a library 2.0 environment.

Going the distance : library instruction for remote learners. Edited by Susan J. Clayton. 025.5
Librarians share their experience of designing, delivering, collaborating and assessing instruction for distance learners.

Managing stress and conflict in libraries. By Sheila Pantry. 023.9
A guide to risk assessment and how to deal with violence and aggression in the library. (A book I thought we should have, but hope we won't need!)