Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Challenging The "Good Fit" Narrative: Creating Inclusive Recruitment Practices In Academic Libraries, Jennifer Stout, Sojourna Cunningham, Samantha Guss

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

As a profession, we talk the talk of valuing diversity and inclusion, but do we walk the walk with our hiring practices? The profession stresses the importance of “a good fit” when hiring, but we rarely interrogate the fact that “a good fit” can be a reflection of our implicit biases. Academic librarians conducted a survey of hiring policies with a focus on the processes (or lack thereof) of recruiting candidates from underrepresented groups. This session will report on their findings and recommend the implementation of specific practices designed to create an inclusive candidate pool and an equitable search

Professional Development In Libraries: One Size Does Not Fit All, Patricia D. Sobczak, Agnes K. Bradshaw

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

With the constantly changing landscape in 21st century libraries, it would seem that professional development would be more important than ever. However, research indicates that few libraries have formal professional development programs and there are mixed messages from library leaders regarding the necessity and importance of professional development. It is no secret that libraries always seem to be facing budget cuts and funding for professional development is often seen as a low priority. We were curious to understand how professional development is viewed and executed in other academic libraries.

Professional development means different things to different people. To some, professional …

Creating A Sustainable Graduate Student Workshop Series, Bettina Peacemaker, Martha Roseberry

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Purpose - This paper reports on librarians’ experience creating and sustaining a workshop and webinar series for graduate students over the course of four years.

Design/methodology/approach - Difficulties hosting and promoting stand-alone graduate workshops and a collaborative method for planning workshop days and webinars are described in this case study. Attendance data were collected and recorded for each event and additional quantitative data were collected via registration forms and post-event surveys.

Findings - Working collaboratively as a department eased planning and promotional responsibilities, allowing for a sustainable workshops series. Focusing on a limited number of events per semester and developing …

Keytag It: An Exploration Of A Creative And Customizable Research Guide Promotion, Martha Roseberry, Bettina Peacemaker

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

The research guide is a common tool librarians use to communicate with and instruct their audiences. Despite their prevalence and value to users, research guides remain underused. There are many examples of efforts encouraging guide use, but few studies have measured the effectiveness of that promotion. Academic Outreach librarians at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) promote research guides through inexpensive and small keytags--similar to retail customer loyalty keychain tags. Findings of a quantitative analysis suggest the keytags have positively influenced guide use and support anecdotal reports of increased interaction with intended audiences.

Connecting Best Practices In Public Relations To Social Media Strategies For Academic Libraries, Bettina Peacemaker, Sue Robinson, Emily Hurst

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Academic libraries worldwide use social media to inform and connect with users. VCU Libraries is no different and must keep up with rapidly evolving platforms and user expectations. When our presence stretched across 22 channels, we needed to ensure social media efforts were managed in the most effective and efficient manner possible. To develop a research-based, unified vision for communication for new media, we scanned the literature in the library and public relations fields and then surveyed librarians to address identified gaps. Based on results, we offer recommendations focused on best management practices and strong content strategies.

Moving Users, Moving Results: Exploring Customer Engagement For Deeper Relationships, Bettina Peacemaker, Jill Stover Heinze

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Successful businesses know that customers make purchase decisions based on a complex bundle of rational and emotional factors that vary in degree and importance depending upon the context. In crowded markets where potential customers have many comparable options, it is often the emotional relationships that they have with businesses that influence where they spend their dollars. Recognizing this reality, businesses have been shifting from transacting with customers to “engaging” with them. This paper outlines the need for librarians to understand engagement more fully, and it points to guidance from the business literature on how to define and create engagement.

Research Data Management On A Shoestring Budget, Margaret Henderson, Regina Raboin, Yasmeen Shorish, Steve Van Tuyl

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

In response to mandates from the federal government, many academic librarians face a new challenge to become service providers for research data management. A panel at RDAP14 convened representatives from Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University and a collaboration of seven New England libraries to discuss their strategies in response to the regulations when faced with limited resources. A common theme was to take advantage of work already done by others, including faculty surveys and existing data management resources such as DMPTool and Data Curation and Profiles Toolkit. Spreading the word on data issues to spark collaboration and gaining the …

Help Your Students Land A Job With Career Services, Bettina Peacemaker, Kim Hanneman

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Nothing is more relevant for students than the job search. It is also an area where business librarians can easily add value with their broad knowledge of company and industry resources and research strategies. With this in mind, a business librarian and career adviser partnered to create and promote research guides to help students land a job.

Beyond Description: Converting Web Site Usage Statistics Into Concrete Site Improvement Ideas, Julie Arendt, Cassie Wagner

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Web site usage statistics are a widely used tool for Web site development, but libraries are still learning how to use them successfully. This case study summarizes how Morris Library at Southern Illinois University Carbondale implemented Google Analytics on its Web site and used the reports to inform a site redesign. As the main campus library at a research university with about 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students, the library included resources from multiple library departments on a single site. In planning the redesign, Morris Library's Virtual Library Group combined usage reports with information from other sources, such as usability tests …

Growing Adult Readers: Promoting Leisure Reading In Academic Libraries, Renée Bosman, John Glover, Monique Prince

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This article provides an introduction to the recreational reading promotion tools at VCU Libraries, including a book review blog, book swap, and bulletin board, as well as the libraries’ involvement with VCU’s summer reading program and Richmond’s citywide “One Community One Book” initiative. Policies and operating procedures will be examined, and these services will be discussed in the context of other libraries’ offerings. We will also discuss why there is a need for these services–which have traditionally been the purview of the public library–on a college campus. Reading among American adults is in dramatic decline, and the academic library is …

Designing Search: Effective Search Interfaces For Academic Library Websites, Susan Teague Rector, Jimmy Ghaphery

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Academic libraries customize, support and provide access to myriad information systems, each with complex graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The number of possible information entry points on an academic library Web site is both daunting to the end user and consistently challenging to library Web site designers. Faced with the challenges inherent in designing online search interfaces and the ever-growing amount of resources available online, VCU Libraries sought to explore how to build effective search interfaces that, at the same time, support a wide variety of computer users and provide comprehensive access to assorted collections of electronic resources. Over a 9 …

Too Quick? Log Analysis Of Quick Links From An Academic Library Website, Jimmy Ghaphery

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Since the summer of 2001, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries has offered a “Quick Links” menu in the top right-hand side of many of its pages. Transaction log files have been run in order to analyze the use of the Quick Links, and several changes have been made based on those logs. This article will discuss those findings and offer contextual ideas for the use of Quick Links in comparison to the rest of the library website.

My Library At Virginia Commonwealth University: Third Year Evaluation, Jimmy Ghaphery

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

My Library is a personalization tool that allows the library user to consolidate frequently used library resources and services. Since 1998, My Library has been available as a web page to users of the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries. An evaluation of My Library use at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) was completed and published in 2000. This article reports on a follow up study that took place between March 2000 and December 2001. The article also discusses the value of My Library as a teaching tool at VCU.

Vcu's My Library: Librarians Love It. . . . Users? Well, Maybe, Jimmy Ghaphery, Dan Ream

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Virginia Commonwealth University's My Library project (circa 1998-1999) has chosen "ease of use" as its primary design criteria. The development of this tool using Perl scripting is described, and reports derived from usage logs are analyzed here. My Library tends to appeal a great deal to a small number of users as a personal tool. Librarians have found it popular as a class teaching tool, with pages designed for specific classes in library instruction receiving the heaviest use.