2012

2011 AskColorado and AskAcademic Evaluation

June 2012

AskColorado (www.askcolorado.org), a statewide virtual reference service, was launched on September 2, 2003. Colorado libraries joined the cooperative as members to provide 24/7 chat reference service to Coloradans (see Figure 1 for a timeline of the service). Early iterations of the service included queues for K-12 students, general audiences, academic patrons, and Spanish speakers. Over […]

What is the Value of an MLIS to You?

In 2008, LRS conducted the 60-Second Survey What is the Value of an MLIS to You?. It was inspired by heated discussions on the Colorado library listserv Libnet about the value of the MLIS degree. The passion, urgency, and breadth of opinions expressed by Colorado librarians on the subject prompted LRS to provide a forum […]

Change in School Librarian Staffing Linked With Change in CSAP Reading Performance, 2005 to 2011

January 2012

In the September 2011 issue of School Library Journal (SLJ), we presented a national analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) state-level data on librarian staffing and fourth-grade reading scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The results from this study indicated that states that gained school librarians from 2004-05 to 2008-09 […]