Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use the sociology of time to understand how time is perceived by academic librarians who provide reference and information service (RIS). Design/methodology/approach This study is a qualitative secondary analysis (QSA) of two phenomenological studies about...

We propose a model of search term selection process based on our empirical study of professional searchers during the pre-online stage of the search process. The model characterizes the selection of search terms as the navigation of different discourses. Discourse refers to the way of talking...

Purpose – In an increasingly competitive field of socially mediated information and knowledge available online, the public library's traditional services are increasingly questioned for relevancy. Drawing on the core premises of contemporary practice theory to ground the methodological and...

Purpose – Librarians have traditionally followed a model of service based on a professional ethic. Attempts to introduce a retail model of service have generally met with staff resistance. The study aims to ask librarians about their attitudes to the retail and professional models of service...

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to encourage public librarians to consider replacing two service desks with one. Design/methodology/approach – The author interacts with his experience of providing library services from a two‐story Carnegie library and a multi‐desk one‐story...

Purpose – This study aims to provide insight on the meaning of communication overload as experienced by modern academic librarians. Communication is the essence of reference librarianship, and a practically endless array of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools (ICTs) are available...