OCLC has released its annual report for 2014-15. The report details the organization’s progress in meeting its goals, including sharing knowledge, connecting users, delivering value, and transforming spaces. Several of the major projects that OCLC has undertaken to reach these goals include helping national and regional institutions in Spain, China, and the Netherlands add millions…
Category: Studies on Library Trends
Digital Inclusion and Health Literacy
The Information Policy & Access Center has released its Digital Inclusion Survey, which was compiled last year. The survey acknowledges the crucial role that public libraries play in providing access to digital resources, particularly to members of the community who would otherwise be cut off from the online environment. The study was intended not just to…
2015 Report on Digital Use Worldwide
The company comScore has released the 2015 edition of the Global Digital Future in Focus Report. The report examines trends across the entire globe, while also analyzing data at the regional level and putting it into a broader context. The major topics covered in the report include the characteristics and behaviors of various digital users, including…
2015 Report on Use of Mobile Apps in the U.S.
The company comScore has released the 2015 “U.S. Mobile App Report”. The study tracks app use across a number of devices (desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones) and also includes findings from a survey on the user habits of smartphone owners. A number of areas of use were analyzed, including audiences, user habits, the most popular…
Report on Libraries and Community Engagement
OCLC Research recently released the report IMLS Focus: Engaging Communities. The document is a summary of last summer’s Institute of Museum and Library Services conference, “Engaging Communities”. The conference drew participants from a wide cross-section of libraries-academic, government, public-and focused on a number of the current barriers to community engagement. Topics discussed included understanding the various…
University of Maryland Report on the Future of the Library Science Degree
Last month, the University of Maryland’s iSchool and the University’s Information Policy & Access Center released a report on the future of the master’s degree in library science, at least in the degree’s current form. The report is the result of a year-long collaborative effort, including discussions with the broader community, to determine how an…
Information-Literacy Standards for Students in STEM Disciplines
Ten years ago, a joint task force made up of representatives from ALA, ACRL, and STS-put together a set of information-literacy standards for students in the hard sciences, including engineering and technology. The standards were based on the ACRL Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education and were modified to fit the specific needs of students…
ACRL Report on Library Trends, Part III
A summary of the remainder of ACRL’s 2015 Environmental Scan is below. The full report can be read at http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/whitepapers/EnvironmentalScan15.pdf. Discovery Services Shared Integrated Library Systems (ILS)/Resource Management Systems (RMS) In an effort to make all parts of the collection as accessible as possible, regardless of the type of item (print, electronic, media, etc.), libraries are…
2015 ACRL Report on Library Trends, Part II
An overview of the middle section of ACRL’s 2015 Environmental Scan is below. (The full text of the document can be found here.) I’ll have an overview of the last part of the report later this week. Research Data Services Responses to U.S. Government and Funding Agencies’ Policies Recent years have seen increased efforts by the federal government,…