Features of the Month

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), the Government's agency for museums, libraries and archives, has recently announced the closing date for the NIACE Adult Learners' Week Awards. The awards recognize the commitment, interest and passion that adults bring to their learning and celebrate the achievements of learners. Museums, libraries and archives can also put forward the nominated adult learners for the Intergenerational Award, sponsored by the MLA, which will be presented by MLA chief executive Roy Clare. Early bird nominations submitted by December 15 2009 will be entered for a free prize draw. Read on for more details. This announcement is freely available to view.

The application period for the Reference and User Services Association's (RUSA) Emerald Research Grants is now open. The award consists of two grants, each worth US$5,000, which will be awarded to two applicants seeking support in conducting research in business librarianship and may be used at the discretion of the award recipients. Find out more and how to apply. This announcement is freely available to view.

Hiring the wrong person in a key position within an organization can be one of the most critical decisions that an organization can make. In this viewpoint, Elisa F. Topper, library consultant, Northbrook, Illinois, USA, gives her advice on hiring interim leadership for an organization when the administrator leaves.

Just some of the latest news this month: Duke University's digital library collections are now viewable on researchers' iPhones; WorldCat Mobile pilot, a programme that makes collections from libraries visible through mobile devices, has been extended to Europe; and Serials Solutions Summon discovery service moves out of beta. Read on for all this and more!

Text messaging presents a new and exciting opportunity for libraries of all types to provide information to people of all ages on the go, where they are, on their cell phones. Alliance library system, a regional library system in central Illinois, is spearheading an effort to provide the nation's first collaborative text message reference service – InfoQuest – inviting libraries of all types across the country, and internationally, to work together to increase coverage, reference expertise, and to allow libraries to test the service and the software before venturing out on their own. This paper describes the project.

September's round up of some of the latest developments of interest to LIS professionals includes: updates on recent advancements in e-book readers, news on current activity at OCLC, and information on the Library of Congress' innovative online project.

Pictures to Share, the social enterprise established to provide stimulating books for people with dementia, has launched three new books in time for Christmas. The innovative books have been specifically designed, illustrated and edited to cater for those with dementia, either at home or in a care home setting. This announcement is freely available to view.

This book consists of 18 contributions, most of which raise intriguing and disturbing questions about the digital lives so many of us live. It is a book about broken promises, media hype and some of the dark sides of the Internet and its dire consequences.

Sarah Jackman reports on the 17th Annual Bobcatsss Conference which was held in Portugal. Bobcatsss is unique in that it is an entirely student-run international conference of library and information science. The theme of this year's event was "Challenges for the new information professional", with sub-topics including the interdisciplinality of information science, professional information management, information literacy, the rise and fall of physical libraries and archives, and "Librarian 2.0".

Some of the most noteworthy developments noted for July include the launch of the World Digital Library, a report from Association of Research Libraries on the research library's role in digital repository services, and information on Indiana University's release of open source software to create a digital music library system.

The first International Bielefeld Conference took place in 1992, and since then it has proved to be one of the most popular forums for library and university managers from Europe and beyond. This year's conference focused on the "e-library" and discussed essential current and future developments towards enhanced libraries and information infrastructures meeting the emerging demands of e-science and e-learning. The conference was accompanied by an exhibition of more than 35 leading and well-known service providers, publishing houses and producers of library software and communication technology.

This important book brings together a number of contributions from distinguished academics and researchers, who look at the reality, rather than the hype or the anguish, relating to people's use of the Internet. While there is an emphasis on the implications for the information professions throughout, the book looks at searching habits that are wider than just identifying and retrieving information of use in a professional or learning context, as it covers the use of the Web for purchasing as well. The contributors are experts in their fields and their contributions are (with one exception) well written. This book deserves to be read by everyone – practitioners, consultants, academics and students alike.

Website reviews on useful, reference resources including Reference Universe, Quoteland.com and Global Voices Online. These reviews will be of interest to reference librarians and both public and academic audiences.

You cannot open a computer magazine these days without seeing an article about netbooks. At least one library blog says that: "This year's top technology may be netbooks; tiny laptops could soon be as ubiquitous as mobile phones" (Schnell, 2009). The question is: What can libraries use them for?

What's new in the library and information science field? Catch up here with the latest LIS research and developments, including news on Google, IBM, the Library of Congress and the Association of American University Presses.

In this review, Bruce Madge gives us a flavour of the 2008 IFLA World Library and Information Congress held in Quebec City, Canada. He outlines the issues, content, speakers, participants, social networking and location of the conference. Bruce found the event informative and useful as well as providing wonderful international networking opportunities.

A collection of 11 articles divided into three sections, this work offers both immediately practical overviews and suggestions regarding specific problem areas and highly speculative projections of future issues, and also addresses more centrally the context of academic libraries. All articles in the collection are interesting, but quite varied in style, scope and intensity.

The first of 58 "Lotto" libraries revamped through a Big Lottery Fund (BIG) £80 million share-out opened in Leicestershire on Friday 3rd April 2009. BIG's Community Libraries programme has funded the transformation of the libraries which, together with traditional library services, will enable services such as learning centres, one stop shops, credit unions and space for community activities, all under one roof (this item is freely available to view).

Emerald presented its collection of books and book series at the Library and Information Association of New Zealand (LIANZA) Annual Conference in Auckland, New Zealand, November 2-5 2008. To celebrate, delegates were invited to the Emerald booth for a champagne and cake reception. In addition, Angela Gilbey, Business Manager, presented an Emerald sponsored research award to Nicola Rawnsley, a library student of Victoria University, and an iPod to our business draw winner, Viv Kerr, librarian at Hawke's Bay District Health Board.

Gale/Cengage Learning has announced the release of State Papers Online, a cornerstone digital resource for all historians and students of early modern Britain and Europe. The equivalent of today's papers from the Home and Foreign Offices and the Royal Archives, Gale/Cengage Learning describe these historic State Papers as the most valuable and reliable records available for understanding every aspect of Tudor and Stuart government and society. Click on the link above to view more details (this item is freely available to view).

Emerald Group Publishing Limited is delighted to announce the launch of Emerald Bookstore. This new facility allows visitors to browse through over 2,000 books by subject area and to order securely online at http://books.emeraldinsight.com. Read this freely available notification for more details!

One of the major tasks a digital library project manager faces is getting their project approved and in the queue for development. This paper fills a gap in the digital project management literature by providing a step-by-step process for developing compelling business cases for digital library projects.

Promoting library services to people who have disabilities is an important topic. Martin Guha reviews the book, Improving Library Services to People with Disabilities edited by Courtney Deines-Jones, which is a compendium of articles focused on serving adults with disabilities in an international setting.

An indispensible column alerting readers to pertinent, wider journal literature on digital information and research. Save time finding information on the latest developments and initiatives by using our guideposts to some of the very best articles available.

April's most recent newsworthy developments in library and information science include ground-breaking initiatives from the British Library, Institute for the Future of the Book, the Library of Congress and Stanford University.

Library services at Aberdeenshire Council have improved their front desk cash management with Talis' accounting and payment handling solution. Seamlessly integrating into their Talis Alto workflows, Income Manager provides Aberdeenshire Libraries with discrete till drawers and receipt printers in their larger branch libraries to create space at their circulation desk and make standalone tills obsolete.

Dean Jessa Shera once likened librarians to the unshod sons of the proverbial shoemaker. In their professional pursuits of keeping others updated with current information they have neglected themselves and their ilk. As a result, not many current awareness services were available for library and information science (LIS) professionals at that time. Since those days, many positive developments have taken place to feed LIS professionals with current literature – the Web has proliferated such services to the extent that we need to keep constant track of them. This book describes such alerting services.

Librarians and information professionals need to know about new devices which might influence their work environments. In this piece, Mitchell Brown, co-editor of LHTN and the chemistry and earth systems science librarian at the University of California, reviews some new technology "gadgets" and personal electronics that may address both work-related functions and the entertainment interests of library service providers and users. Products covered include a series of smartphones, charging stations and USB-powered devices.

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Conference was held in June 2007 in Denver, Colorado, USA. This annual conference aims to provide attendees continuing professional education, vendor presentations, invited papers and social events. Exhibits from library vendors included technology, information materials and services. This article is an abbreviated version of Nevenka Zdravkovska and Mitchell Brown's conference report, "Special Libraries Association Annual Conference: 2007 conference report" which originally appeared in Library Hi Tech News, Volume 24 Number 7, 2007 pp. 21-25.

This month, we bring you some of the most recent newsworthy developments in library and information science. Read up on the Open Library project; the VUFind Open-Source Library Catalog Browser; the new version of the preservation metadata extraction tool and other recent initiatives.

Bradford Lee Eden reviews Thomas W. Leonhardt's Handbook of Electronic and Digital Acquisitions. This book is a practical guide for librarians involved in the process of evaluating, choosing, managing, and purchasing electronic resources for their libraries. Read the full review.

Rick Wallace is the Chief Learning Officer for APC/MGE, Mr Wallace has the global responsibility of developing and implementing all aspects of APC/MGE’s talent development and learning architecture for over 13,000 employees. His responsibilities include integrated leadership development, succession management, organizational learning, training and performance management.

Keep up with the latest developments in your field and make a note of the the most recently published library and information literature.