Digital Commons Network^™

Speculative Telephone: Oral Historians And Digital Librarians On How Libraries Could Be, Kae Kratcha

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

In the summer of 2023, librarian and oral historian Kae Bara Kratcha interviewed three oral historians about their relationships to libraries and their dreams for what digital libraries could be. Then they played portions of each oral historian interview for a digital librarian and asked the librarian to speculate about what their jobs and lives would be like if they implemented the oral historians' ideas about digital libraries. “Speculative Telephone: Oral Historians and Digital Librarians on How Libraries Could Be” is eleven edited audio tracks of wide-ranging conversation on topics like public space, online communities, library anxiety, relationships with library …

Let Us Fail: Speculative Futures And Digital Librarianship, Natalia Estrada, Kristina Bush, Stacy Snyder

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

Let Us Fail explores what digital librarianship work might look like if digital library workers were not tied to the technology, infrastructure, or work culture of academia that we currently experience. We explore what work could look like if we were given the agency to play and be creative, support to learn from failure, and freedom from traditional assessment metrics. This podcast dreams about a future in which digital library workers are self-directed, autonomous workers with the capacity to explore, experiment, and iterate.

To stream each episode of this podcast, navigate to JCDL volume 0, issue 2 and click on …

Desire Paths In The Information Landscape, Victoria Van Hyning, Mason A. Jones, Travis Wagner

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

Libraries and archives serve so many different users who come to information institutions with various perspectives, needs, experiences, and desires around accessing physical or digital collections. While our users may find what they are looking for immediately, many have to beat their own paths through complex systems and metadata that doesn’t align with their needs. Their search strategies may leave digital “desire paths”–alternative routes through the information landscape that can show us how to better meet their needs. This article covers three scenarios where users’ desire paths can be seen or where gaps around user experience can be better addressed. …

Editors' Introduction, Leah Powell Duncan, Janina Mueller, Rachel Starry, Sl Ziegler, Emily M. Zinger

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

Editors' Introduction. Special Issue, "Turning it Off and Back On Again: Speculative Digital Librarianship"

Providing Risk Of The Environment’S Changing Climate Threats For Galleries, Libraries, Archives, & Museums (Protecct-Glam) Data File, Edward Benoit Iii, Jill Trepanier, Jennifer Vanos, Haley Moore, Kaitlyn Bailey, Emily Fisher, Annie Waddell, Mandy Hatman, Mary Sidwell, Symonne Russell, Virginia Seger, Paige Boutte, Amanda Latta, Zoe Mohammad, Kyriel Felton, Erin Deliman, Breanna Benson-Pearce, Wendy Johnson, Allyson Russell, Baillie Pretzer, Christopher Reeder, Melissa Mcconnell, Lisa Dahlke, Kaitlynn Melear, Lillian Bodi, Savannah T. Lyle, Zach Lannes, Gwen L. Wells, Benjamin A. Teincuff, Jason M. Straight, Tiffany Rockwell, Shane T. Manthei, Jennifer L. Benner, Jane Fiegel, Amanda Lima, Elizabeth Rininger, Caroline Melinger, Deborah Metz-Andrews, Meryl Roepke, Karen Isaac, Mallory Collins

School of Information Studies Datasets

The data file was created as part of the IMLS-funded project, PROTECCT-GLAM: Risk of The Environment’s Changing Climate Threats for Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums in an effort to gather the identities and georeferences of all galleries, libraries, archives, and museums located within the United States.

The data file includes 22,388 archives, 21,189 libraries, and 29,781 museums.

Mathematics Library News, Aaron Lercher

Faculty Publications

Mathematics Library News is an LSU Libraries newsletter for members of the Mathematics and Experimental Statistics Departments, published roughly once each semester.

Visual Literacy Unframed: Planning An Oer To Improve College-Level Visual Analysis Skills, Marty Miller

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

“Correct Provision Can Be Made For Their Wants: The Reading Rooms Of The Santa Fe Railroad, Suzanne Stauffer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Editors' Introduction, Sophia Ziegler, Leah Powell Duncan

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

Introduction to Journal of Critical Digital Librarian, Vol.2 Issue 1

From Mapping Place To Mapping Space In Library Gis Work, Lena Denis

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

At many academic libraries, library workers run the teaching, general reference consultations, technical troubleshooting, and software and licensing maintenance in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for their institutions. This is very much the case in the Data Services unit of Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries, where staff receive requests for help with a wide variety of mapping projects every semester. Sometimes they are straightforward requests for technical assistance, but sometimes they underpin much deeper investigations into how to situate people and significant events through time and geographic settings. This article discusses these types of requests in the context of the philosophical …

Leveraging Critical Information Literacy To Develop Social Justice-Minded Data Literacy Competencies, Ben B. Chiewphasa, Matthew L. Sisk

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

Librarians who interact with data in different contexts can come together in a community of practice – leveraging each other's perspectives to collectively engage with critical librarianship and reimagine social justice-related learning outcomes for information and data literacy programming. Specifically, this paper explores the overlapping goals of different critical literacies (such as critical information literacy and QuantCrit), showcasing that synergies exist between social justice-oriented librarians with distinctive roles and responsibilities. By leveraging a community of practice as a vehicle for continuing education in inclusive pedagogy, librarians can empower their patrons, students, and colleagues to challenge and act upon surrounding data …

Toward Ethical And Inclusive Descriptive Practices, Shira Peltzman, Kelly Besser

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

This case study describes the context which galvanized our Collection Management unit at UCLA Library Special Collections to collectively craft a descriptive practices statement within a study group focused on an anti-oppressive approach to discovery and access. This paper discusses the planning and design of the study group, our direct engagement at meetings, collaborative iteration, and liberatory pedagogical strategies that enabled the statement’s publication, and its impact within our department, library, and beyond. This work speaks to radical descriptive change and provides a potential path for the development of ethical and inclusive descriptive practices at other institutions.

Burning The Candle At Both Ends: How And Why Academic Librarians Who Are Parents Experience And Combat Burnout At Work, Michael Holt, Amy Chew, Jessica Lee, Robert Taylor

Faculty Publications

Academic librarians already wear many hats, juggling a multitude of skills and duties in order to meet the needs of their patrons. When one of those hats is parenthood, however, balancing work and home life can sometimes seem like an insurmountable task. In this chapter we explore how and why academic librarians who are also parents experience burnout, as well as methods used to combat burnout by examining the results of a nationally distributed mixed-methods survey. The survey also addresses practices to combat and prevent burnout, both on a personal and institutional level, and the perceptions of their effectiveness.

Creating A Public Space For Georeferencing Sanborn Maps: A Louisiana Case Study, Adam Cox

LSU Master's Theses

As institutional archives digitize their historical map collections and make them publicly available online, new methods for engaging with these materials emerge. Georeferencing the maps transforms their content from static images to dynamic map overlays, and allows for the extraction of geographic data like building footprints or place name coordinates. Many organizations have turned to crowdsourcing to georeference their large holdings, and this thesis approaches crowdsourced georeferencing from the perspective of participatory heritage, taking much inspiration from the idea of the archival commons. To test these ideas, a new extension was created for GeoNode—an open source geospatial content management system—that …

Toward Empathetic Digital Repositories: An Interview With Diego Pino Navarro, Sophia Ziegler

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

Diego Pino Navarro is a systems architect and open source software developer from Chile. He is the Assistant Director for Digital Strategy at the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) where he manages the digital services team. Diego is also the Lead Architect of Archipelago Commons, an open source digital library software for cultural heritage materials.

In this interview from October 18, 2021, Sophia Ziegler talks to Diego Pino Navarro about his work with Archipelago, and specifically how he invokes the role of empathy in ongoing digital library software development. Diego talks about his efforts to build a digital library …

The Band Of American Ladies : Children’S Librarians And The Creation Of Children’S Literature In The Long 19th Century, Suzanne Stauffer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Calamity And Resiliency: Reflections On The Past Two Years And Library Responses, Martin Halbert

Library Diversity and Residency Studies

This editorial introduces the second issue of Library Diversity and Residency Studies. It discusses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent phenomena, and how libraries can help support efforts to achieve resiliency in society. It also discusses future plans for the journal and invites contributions.

Using The Book How To Be An Antiracist In Library Dei Community Programs: Bringing Equity, Diversity, And Inclusion To The Community, Nakia Hoskins

Library Diversity and Residency Studies

This brief article provides an overview of a program in which the University of North Carolina at Greensboro library hosted a series of book club conversations about racism utilizing the book How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. The article concludes with some observations and suggestions.

Developing A Plan For A More Diverse, Inclusive, And Equitable Library At A Research 1 Land-Grant University, Jonathan S. Briganti, Brittany Dodson, Inga Haugen, Gail Mcmillan, Ronald Mecham, Andrea L. Ogier, Shannon Phillips, Anthony Wright De Hernandez

Library Diversity and Residency Studies

Using the Virginia Tech strategic plan as a guide, a team of its University Libraries faculty and staff designed a strategic planning approach for the library that directly engaged with University goals and explored two areas: 1) contributing to the equity-, diversity-, and inclusion-related (EDI) goals laid out in the University strategic plan, and 2) expanding upon efforts to broaden diversity and representation in the library. The team identified four major themes: accessibility, climate, employment and professional development, outreach, and advocacy, and used these themes to develop specific recommendations. The process served to shine the light on these topics within …

Ldrs V1 N2 Front Matter

Library Diversity and Residency Studies

No abstract provided.

Better Collections, Better Communities, Anna Snider

Library Diversity and Residency Studies

This article explores a variety of topics and real-world case studies associated with building diversity in collections and the relationship of collection development to communities served. It explores what the ALA Library Bill of Rights has to say on these matters, and applies many of its admonitions to recent examples of censorship. The ALA Code of Ethics is also examined in the context of diversity in collection development.

Ethnic Diversity And Preferred Leadership Attributes: A Quantitative Analysis With Secondary Use Of Qualitative Data, Maha Kumaran, Keith Walker, Samson Wakibi

Library Diversity and Residency Studies

The broad diversity and leadership landscape in the Canadian academic librarianship was assessed using a survey. The survey was designed using REDCap. It was piloted, translated into French, tested again, and electronically distributed via REDCap to English and French-speaking librarians across Canadian academic institutions. This paper represents a secondary analysis of collected data to determine whether the ethnic backgrounds of librarians have any influence on what they view as the most or least essential attributes in a leader. Secondary use of data means using data for a different purpose (from what it was collected for), sometimes by the same researcher …

Using Digital Libraries To Engage The Whole Student: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies, Trauma-Informed Classrooms, And Project-Based Learning, Alejandra Torres

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

Engaging students with an online library does not have to be limited to research purposes only. This essay includes lesson plan ideas that use the Louisiana Digital Library to engage middle and high school students in ways that help amplify their curiosity and explore their identities. To ensure the lesson plans engage the whole student, I ground them in three components (culturally sustaining pedagogies, trauma-informed classrooms, and project-based learning) and seven core values. These lessons could be used alone as writing workshops or can be used to introduce or make connections to other concepts. The activities are adaptable to fit …

Listening, Care, And Collections As Data, Jacqueline Wernimont

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

This paper takes the sonification (the translation into sound) of data from sterilization recommendations made under eugenic laws in the United States as a case study in navigating the terrain between a commitment to caring for and with impacted communities and the potential affordances and perils of using sensitive collections as data. The author discusses ways that feminist care ethics and collections as data research intersect in a digital humanities project.

Centering The Margins In Digital Project Planning, Dorothy Berry

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

This paper uses the example of the development of a digital collections program at Harvard University’s Houghton Library to provide an introduction to building programmatic and equitable collections online. Focusing on why, how, and what goes into programmatic digital collections through examples of ongoing project workflows and special projects workflows, the paper introduces methods for digital project planning that center diverse histories.

It Matters Who Does This Work: An Interview With Tonia Sutherland, Sophia Ziegler

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

Tonia Sutherland (she/her) is assistant professor in the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She serves on the SAA Council, and is author of the forthcoming book Digital Remains: Race and the Digital Afterlife. Dr. Sutherland holds a Ph.D. and an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Computing and Information, as well as a BA in history, performance studies, and cultural studies from Hampshire College. Her work focuses on the interactions of technology and culture, and emphasizes critical work within the fields of archival studies, digital studies, and science and technology studies. …

Editors' Introduction, Sophia Ziegler, Leah Powell Duncan, Gina Costello

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

No abstract provided.

Louisiana Digital Library Collections As Data Outro Survey: Selected Survey Results To Support Reports And Publications, Sl Ziegler, Leah Powell Duncan, Elizabeth Joan Kelly

Faculty Publications

Selected survey results pertaining to the effectiveness of the Louisiana Digital Library Collections as Data grant deliverables.

Delivering Bad News: Crisis Communication Methods In Academic Libraries, Brittany O'Neill, Rebecca Kelley

Faculty Publications

This exploratory study analyzed the specific crisis communication methods of academic libraries. A survey was sent to library staff at Association of Research Libraries-member colleges and universities to describe if, who, when, and how they communicated bad news to their stakeholders for major, minor, and emerging crises. The findings show that respondents used multiple communication strategies, which varied based on the crisis. The data show that libraries communicated journal and database cancellations and health and safety emergencies more slowly than access issues and were more likely not to communicate those crises at all. Respondents also more frequently chose to communicate …

Review Of The Guncle, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.