Three Early Academic Library Surveys

Evolving academic library specialties

Questionnaire surveys to discover academic staff and library staff perceptions of a National Union catalogue

During the feasibility study into a National Union catalogue for the UK (UKNUC), a questionnaire survey was undertaken of the needs of both academic staff in higher education and library staff. A response rate of 40-50 per cent was achieved, 846 questionnaires being returned for academics and 724 for librarians. The analysis suggests that a UKNUC would be highly valued and heavily used by all c...

Book Availability: Academic Library Assessment

In the climate of increasing calls for academic assessment, the authors undertook a study to ascertain book availability in an academic library. The study described here uses the methodology pioneered by Tefko Saracevic, W. M. Shaw, Jr., and Paul Kantor and is a follow-up of earlier research reported in College & Research Libraries in 1987. The authors designed the study to identify any improve...

Terms for Academic Library Directors

IN 1973, ARTHUR MCANALLY AND ROBERTDOWNSauthored a seminal article on the changing role of the university library director. This article takes a look at McAnally and Downs’s findings twenty years later to determine whether the changes outlined in 1973 are still valid today. Additional sources of strife for university library directors are outlined and requirements for today’s library directors ...

Quality assessment of academic library performance: the case of an Iranian academic library

The present research aims to assess the performance of libraries at the Islamic Azad University, Sciences and Research Branch (IAUSRB) through gap analysis. To do this, a researcher-developed questionnaire which is based on available standards and quality assessment tools including ACRL standards, LibQUAL and ISO 11620, and some criteria included in the related literature was designed and distr...