Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Alarming Literacy Rates In One Of America’S Largest Cities: What Can Be Done In The City Of Detroit?, Hermina G.B. Anghelescu

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Regarded as a major cultural and industrial center, Detroit is known for its contributions to art, architecture, design, and music, which led to its "Motown" nickname, in addition to its ties to the birth of the auto industry, which brought it the nickname of "Motor City." Despite hosting several higher learning institutions and a national research university, Detroit has been facing a continued decline of its adult literacy rates that amount to 47.00%, meaning that half of the City's population are functionally illiterate. Low literacy skills can profoundly affect adults' ability to fully participate in daily activities and contribute to …

Ukraine’S Libraries Under Russian Fire: The First Fifty Days Of Aggression, Hermina G.B. Anghelescu

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

The unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, has turned into a bloody war with no end in sight. Towns have been brought to ruins by heavy shelling that destroyed the infrastructure. The country’s cultural heritage, along with its own national identity, is under threat. Libraries, archives, museums, and monuments have become war casualties. This article examines the destruction of libraries during the first fifty days of conflict based on articles, press releases, and statements published in international media outlets and on librarians’ accounts posted on social media. The loss of human lives is ongoing while millions are …

The Global Drumbeat: Permeations Of Hip Hop Across Diverse Information Worlds, Kafi D. Kumasi, André Brock

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

This article outlines the scope and significance of a special issue of The International Journal of Information, Diversity & Inclusion dedicated to exploring the intersections of hip hop and the field of library and information sciences. The co-guest editors, Kafi Kumasi and André Brock, describe their respective research trajectories to help illuminate what constitutes a hip hop epistemology of LIS knowledge. This issue demonstrates that there are many robust conceptual access points for better understanding the LIS field through the lens of Hip Hop including areas like computational neuroscience, copyright and data science. The research articles are complimented by: two …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Reference Services: A National Survey Of Academic Health Sciences Librarians, Deborah H. Charbonneau, Emily Vardell

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Objectives:

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the scope and adaptive nature of reference services provided by academic health sciences librarians over a one-year period (between March 2020 and March 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods:

In March 2021, academic health sciences librarians in the United States were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey about their experiences providing reference services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The online survey was developed, pretested, and distributed to various listservs.

Results:

A total of 205 academic health sciences librarians and other information professionals with health sciences liaison …

School Library Media Specialists: An Evolving Profession In A Pandemic, Heather Kapanka

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

In March 2020, Michigan’s school library media specialists, along with the entire educational community, found themselves facing unprecedented challenges brought by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. As learning shifted online, the roles of school library media specialists shifted as well. Three southeast Michigan school library media specialists were interviewed to obtain their perspectives regarding the adaptation to distance learning, as well as how they predicted educational practices will evolve going forward. The educational practices of learning commons, guided inquiry, co-teaching, and information literacy were found to be particularly valuable during the shift to distance learning. The increased dependence on …

Michigan Teachers Transitioning To School Librarianship, Kafi Kumasi, Gwenn Marchesano

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Pursuing additional degrees and certifications can be a costly proposition in terms of money, time, and return on investment that results in gainful employment. In this article, we take a look at how a group of Michigan teachers perceive the value of the knowledge gained in a graduate certificate program towards school library certification compared to their prior knowledge and level of importance they assigned to the learning standards.

"Getting Inflomation": A Critical Race Theory Tale From The School Library, Kafi D. Kumasi

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Using Critical Race Theory's storytelling method, this chapter weaves a tale set in a school library setting told through the eyes of Jamal, a 17 year old Black male Harvard -bound scholar athlete. Using artifacts to build the plot, the story shines light on places where diversity and inclusion initiatives fail, where unchecked privilege and whiteness do harm to everyone touched by them, where inequality ruins lives and where libraries might be spaces of hope and possibility.

A Preliminary Study Interrogating The Cataloging And Classification Schemes Of A K-12 Book Discovery Platform Through A Critical Race Theory Lens, Kafi D. Kumasi, Cynthia Jimes, Amee Evans Godwin, Lisa A. Petrides, Anastasia Karaglani

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

This article presents the results of a preliminary study to examine the cataloging and classification schemes and ideological factors that play out in book discovery platforms for children’s and young adult books. Using Critical Race Theory and a Rapid Contextual Design approach to exploring the curatorial behaviors of school librarians when searching for diverse books, the study offers design ideas for retooling discovery platforms in ways that bridge the cultural disconnect that young adults from historically marginalized racial backgrounds experience in their libraries. The article concludes that in order for school librarians to find, recommend and teach about books that …

Transformational Leadership Practice In The World’S Leading Academic Libraries, Patrick Lo, Bradley Allard, Hermina G.B. Anghelescu, Yawei Xin, Dickson K. W Chiu, Andrew J. Stark

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

This article analyzes 12 semi-structured interviews within the framework of transformational leadership, using a set of open-ended questions addressed to 12 directors (six men and six women) of academic libraries in high-ranking universities in four different countries (Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America). It also investigates the interviewees’ approach to managing and leading their library organizations within the context of the opportunities and challenges facing their organizations as well as their parent institutions. The interpretation of the participants’ responses is based on the four ‘I’s, the four dimensions of the concept of transformational leadership: …

What Does Cultural Competence Mean To Preservice School Librarians? A Critical Discourse Analysis, Kafi D. Kumasi, Renee F. Hill

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

In order to provide culturally responsive instruction to all students, school library professionals need to recognize the various discourses around cultural competence that exist in the field of library and information science (LIS) and understand the broader meanings that are attached to these discourses. This study presents an evaluation of the underlying ideologies that are embedded in the textual responses of a group of LIS students reporting on their perceived levels of cultural competence preparation.

Search Strategies For Finding Reports Of Research: How Academic Librarians Can Support Student Success, Deborah Charbonneau, Dian Walster, Kafi Kumasi

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

The purpose of this study was to test various search strategies for locating reports of research in the extant literature. Implications from the findings of this study are generalized into recommendations for how academic librarians can apply their professional skill sets to aid students whether undergraduate, graduate, profession or doctoral to effectively find reports of research. More specifically, the concept of “research hooks” is presented as a way for librarians to help students craft more effective database search strategies. Research hooks are complementary words to leverage database searching and identify reports of research in the literature. This recommended search strategy …

Prologue [To Conversations With Leading Academic And Research Library Directors: International Perspectives On Library Management], Hermina G.B. Anghelescu

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Inflo-Mation: A Model For Exploring Information Behavior Through Hip Hop, Kafi D. Kumasi

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

This paper explores the insights that hip hop might afford young adult library researchers who study information behavior, particularly in online environments. A Critical Race Theory (CRT) approach was used to explain how existing information behavior models describe youth experiences in ways that mask their unique racialized experiences and culturally specific information-creating behaviors. Using CRT’s counter-storytelling method, a new model called INFLO-mation is introduced, featuring a continuum of information behaviors captured within three descriptive categories of creativity: Rhythm, Rhyme, and Remix (R³). Findings include a discussion the INFLO model, its classification scheme, and illustrative examples from contemporary teens’ …

Macro-Level Diffusion Of A Methodological Knowledge Innovation: Research Synthesis Methods, 1972-2011, Laura Sheble

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Use of research synthesis methods has contributed to changes in research practices. In disciplinary literatures, authors indicate motivations to use the methods include needs to (a) translate research-based knowledge to inform practice and policy decisions, and (b) integrate relatively large and diverse knowledge bases to increase the generality of results and yield novel insights or explanations. This review presents two histories of the diffusion of research synthesis methods: a narrative history based primarily in the health and social sciences; and a bibliometric overview across science broadly. Engagement with research synthesis was strongly correlated with evidence-based practice (EBP), and moderately with …

Let The Dodo Bird Speak: A Rejoinder On Diversity In Children's Books, Kafi Kumasi

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Using Course-Subject Co-Occurrence (Csco) To Reveal The Structure Of An Academic Discipline: A Framework To Evaluate Different Inputs Of A Domain Map, Peter A. Hook

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

This article proposes, exemplifies, and validates the use of course-subject co-occurrence (CSCO) data to generate topic maps of an academic discipline. A CSCO event is when two course-subjects are taught in the same academic year by the same teacher. 61,856 CSCO events were extracted from the 2010-11 directory of the American Association of Law Schools and used to visualize the structure of law school education in the United States. Different normalization, ordination (layout), and clustering algorithms were compared and the best performing algorithm of each type was used to generate the final map. Validation studies demonstrate that CSCO produces topic …

Teaching Race In Cyberspace: Reflections On The “Virtual Privilege Walk” Exercise, Kafi D. Kumasi

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Teaching for Justice describes the efforts of LIS faculty and instructors who feature social justice theory and strategies in their courses and classroom practices

Their Eyes Are Watching Us: Serving Racialized Youth In An Era Of Protest., Kafi D. Kumasi, Sandra Hughes-Hassell

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

This article comes at a critical juncture in US's history as racialized people continue to fight for protection of their human and civil rights, many of which were legally gained only with passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voter Rights Act. Despite decades of legislative promises to end discrimination in educational opportunities, employment, housing, and the judicial system, racialized youth are more likely to attend schools that lack quality resources, including credentialed teachers, rigorous courses, qualified guidance counselors, and extracurricular activities; to face harsher disciplinary actions; and to drop out of school. The unemployment rate for …

Shifting Lenses On Youth Literacy And Identity, Kafi D. Kumasi, Sandra Hughes-Hassell

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Racialized youth, especially those who attend chronically underperforming schools in US's poor and urban communities, can be likened to singing canaries. These young people risk their lives by entering educational institutions that are not equipped to properly prepare them for the future. Historically, the canary served to warn coal miners of the presence of dangerous gases. When the canary stopped singing or was found dead, the miners knew a serious problem required immediate attention. Like canaries, racialized youth in inner-city schools are a litmus test for the health of the entire educational system in the US. In this article they …

Random Ramblings — Why Don’T Public Librarians Brag More About One Of Their Greatest Successes: Providing Pleasure Reading For Their Patrons?, Robert P. Holley

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

The article offers the author's insights on various aspects related to public libraries. Topics discussed include various services offered in libraries such as reading and online searching, librarian courses offered at the Wayne State University, and several field covered in library courses such as history of public libraries, culture of library, and job responsibilities of librarians.

Search Committees: When Members Disagree On The Relative Importance Of Candidate Qualifications, Robert P. Holley

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

A factor not often mentioned in advice to job hunters is that members of search committees may be looking for different types of candidates even with an agreed upon job description and may also have dissimilar views on the importance of the search. This article describes a role playing exercise that I devised to demonstrate this point in my management class. The five members of the search committee, each representing a librarian stereotype, must decide between two candidates with diametrically opposed skills. Candidates will learn that this factor means that no one set of qualifications may satisfy everyone on the …

Finding And Reading Reports Of Research: How Academic Librarians Can Help Students Be More Successful, Dian Walster, Deborah Charbonneau, Kafi D. Kumasi

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Random Ramblings — Scholarly Publishing In Retirement, Robert P. Holley

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

In the article, the author discusses whether it is easier for academics to continue publishing scholarly articles when they retire, particularly in the U.S. He cites his own experiences to discuss the issue. He also cites his retirement as faculty at Wayne State University, his membership to the American Library Association (ALA) Retired Members Round Table (RMRT), and the survey he conducted on the issue.

Finding “Diversity Levers” In The Core Library And Information Science Curriculum: A Social Justice Imperative, Kafi D. Kumasi, Nichole Manlove

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

In this exploratory study, the researchers examined the core library and information science (LIS) curriculum, looking for diversity levers, or conceptual access points, where transformative academic knowledge related to diversity and social justice could be meaningfully integrated. Multicultural curriculum reform, conceptualized as a social justice approach, was the guiding framework for the research design and analysis. The researchers began by establishing what constitutes the core curriculum and essential knowledge taught across thirty-six ALA-accredited master’s of library and information science degree programs. These data were then used to construct a survey that went to one hundred LIS faculty at ALA institutions …

Prologue, H.G.B. Anghelescu

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Introduction, H.G.B. Anghelescu

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

The Challenges Of Teaching The Introductory Lis Management Course, Robert P. Holley

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Teaching the introductory LIS management course may be the most challenging assignment for LIS professors because of the breadth of the subject, the probabilistic nature of management principles, and the differing management environments of LIS organizations. The best teaching strategy is to describe honestly to students the benefits and limitations of the course and to focus on the achievable objectives of introducing students to core management concepts, providing skill enhancement, and encouraging them to evaluate their management potential. The article discusses the difficulties of teaching leadership skills, the limits imposed by student competencies, and the impact of the professor's background …

Why Don’T Library Science Students Want To Become Managers?, Robert P. Holley

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Very few students who have taken Wayne State University's required management course from me have any interest in library careers in management. Some are even more firm in their decision after taking the course though most graduates will have management responsibilities in their first library position and some will manage a small library. I polled current students and recent graduates about this reluctance. The sixteen responses considered the following possible causes: personality traits, a preference for traditional library activities, a dislike of managerial responsibilities, prior management experience, and salary. Additional, more systematic research is needed to test this hypothesis.

Review Of "The Scholarly Kitchen," By David Crotty, Robert P. Holley

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Op Ed — Random Ramblings — Don’T Forget About Small Libraries, Robert P. Holley

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Bob expands on the fact that small libraries don’t get the respect that they deserve.