An increasing number of references to journal clubs in library literature, and the recent creation of clubs at the authors' institutions, sparked curiosity about how widespread journal clubs are in academic libraries. An online survey announced on library listservs assessed their prevalence and practices. Library journal clubs seem to be a relatively recent phenomenon, and are more widespread than previously thought, though not pervasive. Library journal clubs promote current awareness, analysis skills, group cohesion, and intra-library knowledge, and offer a low-cost professional development opportunity in times of budget difficulties. Practices that sustain journal clubs can maintain these benefits.

This article presents and discusses a class-based approach to more closely tie together reference and instruction services, with the goal of addressing shortcomings of both the traditional reference and instruction models. This project entailed the provision of individual feedback for all students in selected first-year seminar classes and senior seminar classes, in which the librarian was an essential component of the research process. The project's effectiveness was evaluated via surveys of students who received librarian feedback through written comments on annotated bibliographies or reference consultations.

Offering workshops on Google Scholar and Google Book Search, and including them in library instruction sessions, gives librarians a new opportunity to connect with their user communities. By adopting and marketing these and similar databases, librarians can open up new avenues of research for their users, both in Google's domain and in the realm of more traditional library research.

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