Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Community Outreach And Engagement In A Time Of Crisis: The Peer Research Consultants Program, Lauren Fralinger, Shatha Baydoun

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

The Peer Research Consultants (PRC) program at the University of Miami Libraries (UML), was formed in 2016 as part of the Learning Commons initiative to collocate and centralize academic services at Richter Library. Although the program had a virtual component in the form of chat and phone services when founded, it was primarily a physical setup where library student workers assisted researchers using a peer-to-peer system. In this paper, we highlight the historical trajectory of the peer research consultant (PRC) program in academic libraries using Richter Library as a case study. We argue that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic …

Rethinking Organizational Structures To Support Digital Innovation, Lindsey Wharton, Devin Soper

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

This paper presents a vision for supporting the growth and development of innovative digital services in research libraries. While libraries have been undergoing digital transformation for decades, we have seen a flowering of new digital services in recent years, from research support services related to data and digital publishing to learning support services that seek to make our pedagogy more accessible, engaging, and suited to the needs of 21st-century learners. The question of how best to support these services structurally within an organization remains an open one, however, and there is little consistency in how this is accomplished across different …

Weaving Open Dialogue Using Canada’S Open Science Roadmap Framework, Heather Cunningham, Christina S.Y. Kim

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Open science (OS) as a movement has transformative potential in making the process of scientific research transparent and collaborative as well as the outputs freely accessible to all in society. However, these opportunities and challenges are subject to biases and entrenched in power disparities. In addition, the very broad nature of open science also invokes challenges in having meaningful discussions. In 2020, the Government of Canada unveiled a national framework, Roadmap to Open Science, which provided overarching principles and recommendations to allow federal science to be open to all. The University of Toronto (U of T) used this national open …

We Are Partners! - Connecting Through Collaboration And Engagement With Communities At Smu Libraries, Wei Xia

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Increasingly today, libraries are competing for attention in the digital world and need to demonstrate their value to their communities. Singapore Management University Libraries (SMU Libraries) proactively initiate, engage, and collaborate with its internal and external communities and expand easy access to relevant, responsive resources that furthers the needs of the SMU community. These initiatives are aligned with the university’s strategies of integration, industry, innovation, and internationalization. Research librarians at SMU Libraries too, are re-inventing themselves by working closely with their faculty, students, and the external community to make significant impact on the quality of research, teaching, and learning. They …

“What’S Up, Doc?”: Selling Digital Literacy To Academics, Marianne Sato, Kathleen Smeaton, Thomas Palmer

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

When academics receive emails that start with “Wassup bro?” and students think digital literacy means “computer skills for old people”, how does the library bridge the gap between students and academics? Increasingly, libraries play a pivotal role in supporting learning in this critical space. However, more could be done. Libraries need to advocate for digital literacy as a legitimate capability that should be embedded into the curriculum rather than an optional extra.

In 2018, The University of Queensland Library undertook a project to create digital literacy modules to enable students to develop digital capabilities that would “fit an individual for …

The Push-Pull Of Digital Literacy, Jo Coldwell-Neilson, Kat Cain

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Digital literacy within higher education was originally grounded in Gilster’s (1997) definition that essentially framed it as information literacy using technologies. This has necessarily evolved over the past two decades in conjunction with rapid technological advances. Digital literacy concepts have attempted to match the changing landscape engendered by ubiquitous and ever more available technologies, where cybersecurity and accessibility, multimodal communication channels, and push-pull models of information delivery impact the way we learn, work and play. A dizzying plethora of digital literacy definitions has emerged, with no common understanding of what it means or what skills and capabilities it reflects. Concomitantly, …

Positioning Academic Libraries For The Future: A Process And Strategy For Organizational Transformation, Erin L. Ellis, Brian Rosenblum, John Stratton, Kathleen Ames-Stratton

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Seeking to more effectively respond to campus initiatives and user expectations, the University of Kansas (KU) Libraries underwent a process of significant organizational review and transformation. Guided by a purposeful, open process, a diverse and representative group was elected to serve on the Libraries Organizational Review Team (ORT) to assess the existing organizational structure, determine major functions and cross-functional areas therein, and identify new and vital activities and positions essential for achieving our strategic priorities. Recognizing, too, the trends and challenges occurring within higher education and academic libraries, ORT sought to redefine professional roles and functions to strategically position the …

Integrated Decision Support System – Idss For Library Holistic Evaluation, Lorena Siguenza-Guzman, Victor Saquicela, Dirk Cattrysse

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

The decision-making process in academic libraries is paramount; however highly complicated due to the large number of data sources, processes and high volumes of data to be analyzed. Academic libraries are accustomed to producing and gathering a vast amount of statistics about their collection and services. Typical data sources include integrated library systems, library portals and online catalogues, systems of consortiums, quality surveys and university management. Unfortunately, these heterogeneous data sources are only partially used for decision-making processes due to the wide variety of formats, standards and technologies, as well as the lack of efficient methods of integration. This article …

Correlation Between Information Needs And The Library Collection: A Citation Analysis Study Of Doctoral Theses At Universidade Federal De Santa Catarina Library, Maria Bernardete Martin Alves, Karyn Munyk Lehmkuhl, Liliane Vieira Pinheiro, Dirce Maris Nunes Da Silva

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

This study aims at measuring the correlation between information needs of patrons and the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) Library collection. The survey was carried out targeting students from a doctoral course in Scientific and Technological Education especially, analyzing the listing of sources and literature of UFSC doctoral theses submitted in 2012. The postgraduate program was selected for its multidisciplinary nature. Theses were chosen for analysis because they are original studies and represent an innovative contribution. Also, they are available at the library collection and general public can access them both in printed or online format. The goal of …

Minimal Resources With Maximum Impact: Low-Cost And Sustainable Means For Library Promotions, Karryl Kim A. Sagun

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

While it is a generally shared fact around the globe that funding for library promotion (and in most cases, libraries in general) be rendered as a pressing concern, the fact remains that this challenge is truer in developing countries such as the Philippines. Librarians in charge of promoting the library can either choose to fight--defend their “rights” for a slice of the budget pie, or take flight--just do away with library promotion altogether. However, results of a low-cost and sustainable marketing strategy employed by the Rizal Library of the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines prove that there is …

Towards A Holistic Analysis Tool To Support Decision-Making In Libraries, Lorena Siguenza-Guzman, Ludo Holans, Alexandra Van Den Abbeele, Joos Vandewalle, Henri Verhaaren, Dirk Cattrysse

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Academic libraries have recently been subjected to continuous budget reductions, mainly due to the increasing costs of information and the global economic crisis. As the primary purpose of an academic library is to provide well-balanced collections and a wide range of services to support education and research, an efficient use and allocation of limited resources is vital. However, allocating resources such as money, staff, time, and infrastructure between the library collection and services represents a challenge due to the multitude of data sources required to consult during a decision-making process.

Academic libraries are accustomed to keeping voluminous statistics on their …

An Exploratory Framework For A Study On Designing A Research Focused Advanced Information Literacy Program For Engineering Postgraduates, Karien Du Bruyn

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Efforts to improve information literacy levels in academic institutions are often focused on undergraduate students, and mostly address the improvement of information retrieval skills. This practice is also evident in information literacy programs offered for postgraduate researchers, if offered at all. Although there have been radical transformations in scholarly communication and practice in recent years, there is still an assumption among many that researchers on postgraduate level are sufficiently information literate to deal with the new challenges. A gradual awareness of the unique needs of postgraduate researchers in a dynamic and demanding academic environment is, however, developing. Literature in this …

An Evaluation Of A Collaborative, Blended Learning Course For Staff At Monash University Library, Steven Yates, Lisa Smith

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Monash University Library contributes to learning and teaching within the curriculum through its information research and learning skills programs. The Library is aligned with the University’s digital education strategic goals; and thus considers the development and delivery of e-learning resources for blended and online learning environments an important strategic undertaking. With complex and dispersed Library, faculty and cross-campus activities, increasing e-learning staff development opportunities is challenging. This paper reports on the second iteration of a blended learning staff development course designed and conducted by the Library. A pragmatic approach was taken, using predominantly social constructivist learning and a mixed methods …