Digital Commons Network^™

Colloquium Series: A Study In Library Faculty Engagement, Dana Haugh, Jamie Saragossi

Dana Haugh

It's A Marathon, Not A Sprint, And Other Lessons For Supporting Librarianship And Motherhood, Alexandra Gallin-Parisi

Alexandra Gallin-Parisi

Academic library administrators may struggle with how best to support librarians who are also mothers of young children. Using both qualitative interviews with librarian-moms and the current literature on how academic faculty balance work and family, this article highlights four key lessons for library administrators to use to help librarian-moms succeed in the workplace.

The Joy Of Combining Librarianship And Motherhood, Alexandra Gallin-Parisi

Alexandra Gallin-Parisi

While there is a rich literature about how academic faculty manage to balance work and family life, there is a surprising paucity of research centered on academic librarianship and motherhood. In this phenomenological study based on interviews, the lived experiences of 21 librarians who are also mothers of young children are explored. Six themes focused on the benefits and rewards of combining librarianship and motherhood emerge.

Professional And Public: Shaping Our Online Professional Identities To Tell Our Story, Marni R. Harrington

Marni Harrington

What was personal and private is now public and permanent. How can we use this permanence to our advantage? How do we ensure our public profile is accurate and tells our professional story, not only the story of our library or institution? Proactively creating and managing our own online professional identities can help us control our story, and the content we create for our profiles can improve the awareness and communication within and beyond our library communities. Our online presence also offers another way to present our work, find collaborators, connect with colleagues, and establish professional credibility. As practitioners in …

“You Can’T Learn It In School”: Field Experiences And Their Contributions To Education And Professional Identity, Kristin Hoffmann, Selinda Berg

Selinda Adelle Berg

Field experiences are uniquely positioned at the intersection of education and the workplace, making them key sites for the development of professional identity, which results from socialization processes that occur in both education and work environments. To explore how field experiences complement, diverge from, and intersect with classroom experiences, this research analysed interviews with and reports of Canadian library and information science students who did coop placements in academic libraries. The findings confirm that field experiences are important for linking classroom learning to practice and that they help illuminate the realities of librarianship and clarify the implications of classroom learning …

“You Can’T Learn It In School”: Field Experiences And Their Contributions To Education And Professional Identity, Kristin Hoffmann, Selinda Berg

Kristin Hoffmann

Field experiences are uniquely positioned at the intersection of education and the workplace, making them key sites for the development of professional identity, which results from socialization processes that occur in both education and work environments. To explore how field experiences complement, diverge from, and intersect with classroom experiences, this research analysed interviews with and reports of Canadian library and information science students who did coop placements in academic libraries. The findings confirm that field experiences are important for linking classroom learning to practice and that they help illuminate the realities of librarianship and clarify the implications of classroom learning …

Academic Libraries Supporting Visual Culture: A Survey Of Image Access And Use, Jennifer Mayer, Cheryl Goldenstein

Cheryl Goldenstein

Academic library collections have largely reflected the dominance of text for teaching and scholarship, though our culture is increasingly visual. The authors developed a survey to answer questions about the demand for images in academic libraries and how librarians are adapting services and collections to a more visual culture. The survey was distributed to nine electronic mailing lists related to academic librarianship, resulting in 225 unique responses from diverse institutions. Survey responses indicate librarians embrace images and are finding creative ways to access both individual images and collections, though aspects of visual resources pose challenges.

A Needs-Driven And Responsive Approach To Supporting The Research Endeavours Of Academic Librarians, Ken N. Meadows, Selinda Berg, Kristin Hoffmann, Margaret Martin Gardiner, Nazi Torabi

Nazi Torabi

In this article, the authors describe a grassroots model for research support and explore the success and evolving directions of this model based on three iterative needs assessments administered by the Librarian and Archivist Research Support Network (LARSN) Steering Committee at The University of Western Ontario. Needs assessments were identified as a critical tool to ensure that LARSN programming is relevant to librarians’ and archivists’ changing research needs. In the first four years of LARSN, three needs assessments were administered: in fall 2007, fall 2009, and spring 2011. The iterative needs assessments aimed to capture how the environment and research …

A Needs-Driven And Responsive Approach To Supporting The Research Endeavours Of Academic Librarians, Ken N. Meadows, Selinda Berg, Kristin Hoffmann, Margaret Martin Gardiner, Nazi Torabi

Kristin Hoffmann

In this article, the authors describe a grassroots model for research support and explore the success and evolving directions of this model based on three iterative needs assessments administered by the Librarian and Archivist Research Support Network (LARSN) Steering Committee at The University of Western Ontario. Needs assessments were identified as a critical tool to ensure that LARSN programming is relevant to librarians’ and archivists’ changing research needs. In the first four years of LARSN, three needs assessments were administered: in fall 2007, fall 2009, and spring 2011. The iterative needs assessments aimed to capture how the environment and research …

Copyright And Canadian Academic Libraries, Alan G. Kilpatrick, Marni R. Harrington

Marni Harrington

A current review of the state of copyright in Canadian Academic Libraries will be presented. In recent years, copyright has become a major issue for universities and colleges in Canada. Many institutions have had to confront copyright issues and make serious decisions about the future of copyright in their libraries. Successful information literacy and instruction is dependent on librarians' ability to access and share information. Alternatives to licensing and publishing will also be discussed in relation to copyright. This poster will review and present copyright issues from 2010 to present.

Ethnographic Study Of Information Literacy Librarians’ Work Experience: A Report From Two States, Celene Seymour

Dr. Celene L Seymour (retired)

This chapter reports on an ethnographic study of the experiences, practices and feelings of academic librarians who teach information literacy. Based on in-depth interviews with nine librarians who have information literacy responsibilities – five in West Virginia and four in Colorado – it examines the real-life work of practitioners in a wide variety of instructional environments. The research considers participants’ preparation for their instructional role, ambiguity about the concept of information literacy, instructional challenges and professional practices. The authentic voices of instructional librarians provide insights into the roadblocks they face, success they experience and their expectations for the future.

Reframing "How We Done It Good" Research Publications, Lise Doucette, Bruce Fyfe, Marni R. Harrington, Kristin Hoffmann, Courtney Waugh

Kristin Hoffmann

"How I done it good" research papers, while important, often focus on a specialized local case. Added value comes from placing research results within the wider community of library research. Using citation analysis as an example, we share strategies for communicating results in a way that is replicable and comparable. (Poster presentation)

Reframing "How We Done It Good" Research Publications, Lise Doucette, Bruce Fyfe, Marni R. Harrington, Kristin Hoffmann, Courtney Waugh

Courtney L. Waugh

"How I done it good" research papers, while important, often focus on a specialized local case. Added value comes from placing research results within the wider community of library research. Using citation analysis as an example, we share strategies for communicating results in a way that is replicable and comparable. (Poster presentation)

Reframing "How We Done It Good" Research Publications, Lise Doucette, Bruce Fyfe, Marni R. Harrington, Kristin Hoffmann, Courtney Waugh

Marni Harrington

"How I done it good" research papers, while important, often focus on a specialized local case. Added value comes from placing research results within the wider community of library research. Using citation analysis as an example, we share strategies for communicating results in a way that is replicable and comparable. (Poster presentation)

Five Librarians Walk Into A Bar... Keeping Librarianship Vital, Marni R. Harrington, Courtney Waugh, Lise Doucette

Courtney L. Waugh

Often, the most important discussions are not the ones you have in scheduled meetings. In this session we will talk about informal ways to keep librarianship vital, especially in a large multi-library university setting. Take an active approach to shaping the future of our profession, by debating the issues facing librarianship, having uninhibited discussions, and being willing to disagree with colleagues. (This was presented as a Pecha Kucha session - 20 images x 20 seconds each.)

The Professional Development Of Academic Librarians: How Should Institutions Contribute To The Process?, Gregory A. Smith

Gregory A. Smith

Professional development is universally recognized in education and librarianship as imperative for ongoing effectiveness. Most—though not all—academic libraries support professional development through financial assistance and release time. However, while funding and release time are necessary to professional growth, they are not sufficient. The role of the leader as a steward of organizational culture suggests that academic library administrators should concern themselves with fostering an environment conducive to their subordinates’ professional development. Innovative professional development programs in place at a number of academic libraries stand as a corrective to the seemingly haphazard practices of many libraries and librarians. Further research on …

Making It Happen: Librarian-Faculty Collaboration To Improve Student Learning, Tammy Sugarman, Mary Lyn Thaxton

Tammy Sugarman

Presenters offer ways to initiate, improve and sustain productive collaborative efforts between teaching faculty and academic librarians, taking into account the similarities and differences of the personality types of these two groups. Tips for achieving faculty buy-in and marketing basics are included.

Academic Librarians, Professional Literature, And New Technologies: A Survey, Skye Hardesty, Tammy Sugarman

Tammy Sugarman

Keeping abreast of professional literature and the latest trends is critical for academic librarians to be successful, but in a time of information glut, are librarians achieving this? Over seven hundred academic librarians responded to this survey and inform us about their use of both traditional methods and new technologies to stay current.

Thinking Style Differences Among Academic Librarians, Linda M. Golian-Lui

Linda M. Golian-Lui

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether differences in thinking styles exist between senior level library administrators working in public and technical service areas in libraries with an institutional membership in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). To facilitate this investigation, the Inquiry Mode Questionnaire (InQ) and a demographic data form were distributed in a nation-wide survey. The study achieved an 80.3% (106) return rate, with a total of 97 surveys used for data analysis. The literature review is organized in three segments: definitional dilemma, theoretical framework, and review of previous research. The definitional dilemma addressed issues concerning …