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Full-Text Articles in Library and Information Science
Analyzing Service Divide In Academic Libraries For Better Serving Disabled Patrons Using Assistive Technologies, Devendra Potnis, Kevin Mallary
Analyzing Service Divide In Academic Libraries For Better Serving Disabled Patrons Using Assistive Technologies, Devendra Potnis, Kevin Mallary
School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works
Academic libraries invest thousands of dollars in assistive technologies (AT) for enhancing the delivery of information services to disabled patrons. However, offering AT might not result in their use by the patrons who need them, thereby leading to a service divide. The analysis of qualitative responses, including over 1,400 quotations, elicited from academic library administrators and librarians in 186 public universities across the United States, reveals that academic libraries encounter 51 challenges related to the knowledge and skills of librarians, hardware and software concerns, institutional factors, finances, and external actors, when serving disabled patrons with AT. Finally, the researchers propose …
Proposing An Information Value Chain To Improve Information Services To Disabled Library Patrons Using Assistive Technologies, Devendra Potnis, Kevin Mallary
Proposing An Information Value Chain To Improve Information Services To Disabled Library Patrons Using Assistive Technologies, Devendra Potnis, Kevin Mallary
School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works
Information services offered by academic libraries increasingly rely on assistive technologies (AT) to facilitate disabled patrons’ retrieval and use of information for learning and teaching. However, disabled patrons’ access to AT might not always lead to their use, resulting in the underutilization of information services offered by academic libraries. We adopt an inward-looking, service innovation perspective to improve information services for disabled patrons using AT. The open coding of qualitative responses collected from administrators and librarians in 186 academic libraries in public universities in the United States, reveals 10 mechanisms (i.e., modified work practices), which involve searching, compiling, mixing, framing, …