ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Fast Facts

Ann Viles

Information literacy in Italy

The annual report of the Associazione Italiana Editori (AIE) finds only 38.3 percent of Italians in 2000 claimed to “have read at least one non-school book in the previous 12 months.” Commenting on a decline in the “market of committed readers,” the AIE report indicates a need for the “Italian education system to increase the number of citizens capable of accessing, selecting and consulting publishing content and information sources in their adult lives.” According to the AIE, “schools, poorly equipped with libraries and librarians, are unable to spread reading habits, either for pleasure or as a necessity for adult and professional life.”

The Italian Book Market—Report 2002,Milan: Associazione Italiana Editori, 2002. http://www.aie.it/Allegati/Stranieri/ The%20ltalian%20Book%20Market%20-%20Report%202002.pdf. Nov. 26, 2002

Annual wages for librarians

According to estimates of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean annual wage in 2001 was $25,060 for 108,620 library technicians, $43,750 for 150,280 librarians, and $53,520 for 4,040 library science teachers.

2001 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates: Education, Training, and Library Occupations,U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Washington, D.C.: Nov. 8, 2002. http://www.bls.gov/oes/2001/ oes_25ed.htm. Dec. 1, 2002

Carnegie Libraries in the United States

Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie Corporation funded the construction of “1,681 public library buildings in 1,412 U.S. communities between 1889 and 1923.”

George S. Bobinski, "History of the Carnegie Libraries," Carnegie Libraries of California, 1999. http://www.carnegielibraries.org/history.html. Nov. 29, 2002

Web-based technology more important than libraries

The third annual survey of technology use in higher education, conducted by an independent research organization for McGraw-Hill Ryerson, “found that web-based technology is considered by higher education faculty to be the most effective institutional resource in encouraging student success, outweighing traditional resources such as the library and tutoring.”

McGraw-Hill Ryerson: Survey Reveals Computer Technology More Important Than the Library or Tutoring for Student Success in Higher Education, CCNMatthews, Oct. 15, 2002. http://www2.cdn-news.com/scripts/ccnrelease.pl?/2002/10/15/1015016n.html. Dec. 1, 2002

Visually appealing Web site design inspires confidence

A recent study completed by Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab for Consumer WebWatch found that “nearly half of all consumers (or 46.1%) in the study assessed the credibility of sites based in part on the appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size and color schemes. ”

How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility? Results from a Large Study,Consumer WebWatch Research, Oct.29, 2002. http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/news/report3__credibilityresearch/stanfordPTL.pdf. Dec. 1, 2002

Earned doctorates in library science

The 2001 Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) reports the number of doctorates in library science decreasing from 45 in 2000 to 40 in 2001. Twenty-nine of the recipients in 2001 were women. Nine were “Non-U.S. Citizens Temp. Visas.” The recipients classified as “U.S. Citizens and Non-U.S. with Permanent Visas” included 22 “White,” three “Asian,” one “American Indian,” one “Black/African American,” one “Mexican American,” and one “Other Hispanic.”

NSF/NIH/USED/NEH/USDA/NASA, Survey of Earned Doctorates, Prepublication Tables for the Summary Report 2001, Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities, October 2002. http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/issues/ prepub01.pdf. Dec. 1, 2002

Ann Viles is coordinator of reference and instruction at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, e-mail: vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu