Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of French School Regulation theory for questions of relevance to researchers and practitioners working in the field of information policy in general and public librarianship in particular. Design/methodology/approach – The paper...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to review UK government policy on public libraries since 2003, and to examine its relationship to other forms of demand for public libraries Design/methodology/approach – The published literature from government and professional bodies is reviewed,...

Purpose – In a 31‐month period, 1,184 questions addressed to the Internet Public Library's (IPL) reference service remained unanswered on the grounds that they were “out of scope”. This paper aims to analyze the questions as artifacts of users' expectations to better chart the...

Purpose – Library online public access catalogues (OPACs) are considered to be unattractive in comparison with popular internet sites. In 2000, the authors presented some suggestions on how library catalogues should change. Have librarians actually made their OPACs more user‐friendly by...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature on the information behavior of practicing visual artists to determine if a consistent model emerges and what further research is necessary. Design/methodology/approach – Works dealing with the information needs and uses...