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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to discuss the current state of the "paperless office" and explore how likely it is that libraries will be administered by librarians in paperless offices in the near future. Design/methodology/approach -This paper surveys the literature on forecasts for the paperless office to determine whether library operations and offices could be as paperless as some of their collections might be in the near future. Findings -The paperless office was once seen as inevitable, but is looking less far less likely given how we access and organize documents, how we read and understand information, and how we analyze what we read online and in print. Nonetheless, certain routine library operations would lend themselves almost immediately to paperless storage and retrieval processes and systems. Research limitations/implications -More research is required on records management systems in libraries with a view to establishing largely paperless operations in the future. Implications for future research involve the establishment of processes and the testing of systems which would most easily lend themselves to standard library operations. Practical implications -Recent research on reading and cognitive function indicates that there are certain practical implications involved in doing away with paper entirely. Nonetheless, certain routine library functions could be made paperless operations once practical considerations such as the choice of systems, establishment of work flow, policies and processes have been realized. Originality/value -The paper makes the case for more research and exploration of the viability of paperless or near-paperless library operations.

the terms of the Creative Commons-Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License 2.5 Canada (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncsa/2.5/ca/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the same or similar license to this one. AbstractObjective -The term "best practice" appears often in library and information science literature, yet, despite the frequency with which the term is used, there is little discussion about what is meant by the term and how one can reliably identify a best practice.Methods -This paper reviews 113 articles that identify and discuss best practices, in order to determine how "best practices" are distinguished from other practices, and whether these Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 2013, 8.4 111 determinations are made on the basis of consistent and reliable evidence. The review also takes into account definitions of the term to discover if a common definition is used amongst authors.

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