Digital Commons Network^™

An Analysis Of Hybrid/Remote Work Eligibility In Academic Librarian Job Advertisements, Ruth S. Connell, Meris Mandernach Longmeier

Library Faculty Publications

This paper seeks to capture changing policies and approaches to hybrid and remote work in academic libraries following the COVID-19 pandemic. For this study, job advertisements were gathered and those hiring managers surveyed. Results show hybrid/remote positions have competitive salaries, many types of academic library positions have hybrid eligibility, and campus and library policies regarding hybrid/remote work and their inclusion in job postings continue to evolve. Despite the potential recruitment benefits of these flexible work arrangements, many who offer them are not including this information in their job advertisements; therefore, job candidates should ask or negotiate for this benefit.

"I Don't Think Librarians Can Save Us": The Material Conditions Of Information Literacy Instruction In The Misinformation Age, Amber Willenborg, Robert Detmering

Faculty Scholarship

This national qualitative study investigates academic librarians’ instructional experiences, views, and challenges regarding the widespread problem of misinformation. Findings from phenomenological interviews reveal a tension between librarians’ professional, moral, and civic obligation to address misinformation and the actual material conditions of information literacy instruction, which influence and often constrain librarians’ pedagogical and institutional roles. The authors call for greater professional reflection on current information literacy models that focus on achieving ambitious educational goals but which may be unsuitable for addressing the larger social and political crisis of misinformation.

Along For The Journey: Graduate Student Perceptions Of Research, Alissa Droog, Kari D. Weaver, Frances Brady

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications

Graduate student identities and personal lives are heavily tied to their experiences of research, and many struggle to find, understand, and use information for research purposes. Using a drawing exercise rooted in visual research methods combined with semi-structured interviews, a research team in the United States and Canada explored graduate student perceptions of research with 19 participants. Thematic analysis identified six themes: research is abstract; research is an odyssey; social support makes or breaks the student experience; research is an emotional continuum; interplay between identity/values; information is problematic. The study has implications for how librarians support graduate student research.

Disciplinary Differences And Scholarly Literature: Discovery, Browsing, And Formats, Chad E. Buckley, Rachel E. Scott, Anne Shelley, Cassie Thayer-Styes, Julie A. Murphy

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This study reports faculty experiences regarding the discovery of scholarly content, highlighting similarities and differences across a range of academic disciplines. The authors interviewed twenty-five faculty members at a public, high-research university in the Midwest to explore the intersections of discovery, browsing, and format from diverse disciplinary perspectives. Although most participants rely on similar discovery tools such as library catalogs and databases and Google Scholar, their discovery techniques varied according to the discipline and type of research being done. Browsing is not a standard method for discovery, but it is still done selectively and strategically by some scholars. Journal articles …

Recommendations Of Research Articles By Experts: Visualizing Relationships And Expertise, Peiling Wang, Scott Eugene Shumate, Pinghao Ye, Chad Mitchell

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

The paper applied data analytics and network visualization to show the potentials of employing Faculty Opinions beyond literature recommendations by domain experts. Based on a set of highly recommended articles by at least four experts with a sum of 10 or more stars (A recommended article is assigned a score between one to three stars by the recommender.), this study tests the new ideas and methods of identifying and visualizing relationships between scientific papers, experts, and categories. Despite of the available dataset in the study is small, the findings show that a platform designed for recommending and retrieving publications has …

All Zoomed Out: Engaging Students With Remote Outreach, Maria Atilano

Library Faculty Presentations & Publications

This poster will describe how one academic library reset their engagement priorities and connected with students via the use of remote outreach programs. While more effort may go into implementing these events and activities, the opportunity to engage with new or wary users more than paid off in the quality of relationships built. Over the course of two academic years, library staff created, hosted, and assessed more than two dozen asynchronous remote outreach programs for students, including many who had never stepped foot on campus. What began as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in conjunction with the campus’s move …

Uniting For Impact: A Journey Of Partnerships - Chapman University Case Study, Essraa Nawar, Taylor Greene

Library Articles and Research

This presentation highlights a decade-long collaboration between the Assistant Dean for Development and the Performing Arts Librarian at Chapman University's Leatherby Libraries, resulting in over $3 million in transformative contributions. Central to their success is the acquisition of the Henri Temianka Archives, a treasure trove of 20th-century classical music history. Through strategic stewardship, they secured this significant gift, enhancing research and cultural exchange. Additional achievements include the Ronald B. Broadwell Antique Musical Instruments collection, a Legacy gift, and an Endowed Fund for Music Collections. This partnership exemplifies the strategic impact of librarian-fundraiser collaborations, bridging divides and yielding enduring benefits for …

Picture Yourself Here: Sources For Exhibits And Programs, John H. Barnett

Faculty and Staff Publications

This document lists sources for free to no-cost exhibits and programs that have been carried out by personnel at the library at the University of South Carolina Upstate. The document accompanies the presentation, "Picture Yourself Here: Using Exhibits and Programs to Attract and Interact with the Campus Community."

Picture Yourself Here: Useful Equipment And Tools, John H. Barnett

Faculty and Staff Publications

This document provides a list of useful equipment and tools to help print, frame, mount, and display posters and other exhibits. The document accompanies the presentation, "Picture Yourself Here: Using Exhibits and Programs to Attract and Interact with the Campus Community."

Picture Yourself Here: A Slideshow Of Exhibits And Programs, John H. Barnett

Faculty and Staff Publications

This document shows some of the programs and exhibits hosted by the University of South Carolina Upstate Library during the period 2021-2024. The document accompanies the presentation, "Picture Yourself Here: Using Exhibits and Programs to Attract and Interact with the Campus Community."

Library Portion Of External (Academic) Program Review: An Outline, John H. Barnett

Faculty and Staff Publications

This document provides a suggested outline for the library portion of the academic program review/external review/academic self-study. The outline is aimed at providing a more holistic view of academic library services, collections, and initiatives that support disciplinary programs at universities.

Boilerplate Language For Library Portion Of External (Academic) Program Review, John H. Barnett

Faculty and Staff Publications

This document provides boilerplate or common language to consider using when preparing the library portion of the academic program review (also known as the external program review or academic self-study). The document illustrates how academic librarians can provide information on services, collections, and initiatives to provide a more holistic view of the library's support for the academic discipline.

More Or Less?: Telling The Library's Story Through The Academic Program Review, John H. Barnett

Faculty and Staff Publications

Academic libraries regularly provide information to support the accreditation, certification, and periodic review of degree programs. The library portion of the academic program review has traditionally focused on detailing the number of titles and volumes of books in the collection, the age of the collection, and the amount of money the library spends to support the degree program. Employing a "more instead of less" approach, the USC Upstate library uses both narrative and data about collections, services, and initiatives to share the library's story.

This presentation explores what prompted our change in focus and the variety of information we provide. …

Evaluating The Accessibility And Usability Of Electronic Resources In Mizoram University Central Library: A User’S Perspective, Anudha Lepcha, Abhishek Rai, Manendra Kumar Singh

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

No abstract provided.

Variegated Order: Making Space For Neurodiverse Perspectives In Archives, Sophie Penniman

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This article aims to envision how archives could better reflect and represent neurodivergent records creators—people whose brains function in ways that diverge significantly from dominant societal standards of “normal". It discusses how neurodivergent records creators and their recordkeeping behaviors often do not fit within traditional archival paradigms which center verbal, written, and linear documents in specific organizational systems. The article then brings together sources from disability studies, feminist and gender studies, library studies, literary analysis, and archival scholarship to imagine ways in which the principle of provenance could be expanded to fit the archives of neurodiverse creators (and archives that …

How Accessible Are European Public Archives? An Assessment Of The Compliance With The Council Of Europe Recommendation R(2000)13 On A European Policy On Access To Archives, Michael Friedewald, Ivan Szekely, Murat Karaboga

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This paper takes as its starting point the lessons learned from the second pan-European study on access to archives conducted 20 years after the first one – with the understanding that these results may also provide global lessons. The principal aim of the study was to assess the European archives' compliance with the Council of Europe Recommendation No. R(2000)13 on a European policy on access to archives, which was adopted in July 2000 and was the first international norm in this field. Although the overall access situation in Europe has significantly improved over the past 20 years, several practices still …

Graduate Students' E-Book Awareness And Usage At A Public Research University In The U.S.A., Denise Brush, Daniel G. Kipnis

Libraries Scholarship

Purpose

This study aims to understand the level of graduate students’ awareness and usage of e-books purchased by the authors’ university library since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors created a Qualtrics survey with 13 questions that was sent to the university’s graduate student email list. The survey was sent in the fall of 2023 and was open for one month. The list had 3,318 subscribers; 113 complete responses were received, for a response rate of 3.4%.

Findings

The results found that doctoral students (80%) are more aware than master’s students (64%) of e-book availability through the library, and usage …

Dkll Annual Report 2023-2024, Duquesne University

Miscellaneous Pamphlets

No abstract provided.

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 …

Technological Methods And Promotion Of Open Educational Resources In Rivers State Owned Libraries, Patrick Chimmeri Ordu, Clementina Clement-Abraham, Onyema Nsirim

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The integration of technological methods, such as institutional repositories, databases and library websites holds the potential to significantly enhance the accessibility, customization, and collaborative development of Open Educational Resources (OER), transforming the landscape of open education. This study investigated Technological Methods and Promotion of Open Educational Resources in Rivers State Owned Libraries. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The populations of the study was 22 librarians in Rivers State Owned University Libraries. Census sampling technique was used since the population was not large. Questionnaire was used for data collection. A total of 19 copies of the questionnaires were found …

Reckoning With An Institution’S Past: Challenges And Opportunities In Archival Storytelling, Edward Junhao Lim

UConn Library Presentations

How can we best tell the story of our institution’s racist past? Two uncoordinated exhibitions about the racist past at a public research university happened in the same month. The first exhibit commemorates the direct action taken by Black and Brown students to challenge structural racism in higher education by sitting in at the library on April 22, 1974. The second highlights a racist incident against Asian American students on December 3, 1987, and its repercussions. Shared from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with archival materials, this presentation will address the challenges of invisibility in the archives and exhibiting a …

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. …

Effect Of Inclusiveness And Contemporary Teaching And Learning Environments On Students With Learning Disability, Emmanuel Chidiadi Onwubiko

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This work is an overview of the effect of inclusiveness and contemporary teaching and learning environments on students with learning disability. The paper looked at learning disability, inclusiveness in education and contemporary teaching and learning environment from the conceptual perspective as well as the effect of both inclusiveness and contemporary teaching and learning environments on students with learning disability. It was ascertained based on reviewed literature that inclusive education is in tandem with the United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goal (UN-SDG) 4 which stipulates that no child should be left behind in education with special reference to students with learning disability. …

Data Visualization, Licensing, And Other Generative Ai Initiatives At Minnesota State University Mankato, Evan Rusch, Nat Gustafson-Sundell

Library Services Publications

At Minnesota State University Mankato (MNSU), we’ve undertaken several experiments and initiatives focused on Generative Artificial Intelligence. At the start of the fall semester, we collaborated with university Information Technology Services to present a professional development session for returning faculty through the MNSU Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning on “5 Tips for Teaching with AI.” We also presented to librarians across the regional consortium, Minitex, on “The Library & Generative AI.” This presentation included several demonstrations. It was offered as an introduction to Generative AI focused on topics most relevant to librarians, including information literacy, as well as …

The Roles Of Academic Librarians In Promoting Gold Open Access To Faculty: A Review Of The Literature, Olivia Chin

UT Libraries Faculty: Peer-Reviewed Publications

Since the advent of Open Access (OA) publishing as a response to the serials crisis in scholarly communications, academic librarians have often served as OA guides for faculty as they navigate the research process. However, as more studies have emerged on faculty perceptions of gold OA, the roles of librarians in promoting OA have come into question. This literature review article aims to examine articles and book chapters published from 2010 to 2023 with a geographic focus on North America that discuss how and why librarians have promoted gold OA to faculty. The literature reviewed suggests that librarians should focus …

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"

Exploring The Awareness And Usage Of Electronic Library Resources Among Students At College Level In Assam, Krishna Hazarika Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The current research paper explains how familiar and frequently students at College in Assam used electronic library resources. A descriptive survey method gathered information from 150 students via a questionnaire. Findings indicated a significant lack of awareness among students regarding electronic resources, with 61% of respondents expressing unawareness due to a lack of prior knowledge. Consequently, many students continued relying on traditional library systems for their research needs. Furthermore, only a small fraction (16%) of students knew about the existence of electronic library resources but rarely utilized them for academic purposes. Among these aware students, 37% used these resources once …

This Be The Beloved Curse: Learning To Love Ever-Evolving Born-Digital Description, Ruth E. Bryan, Megan M. Mummey, Andrew Mcdonnell

Library Presentations

The title of the presentation, “This be the beloved curse” is taken from Philip Larkin’s poem “This be the curse.” In it, Larkin describes the cycle of life where children are messed up by their parents, who, with the best intentions, “...fill you with the faults they had/and add some extra, just for you.” He goes on to explain, though, that our parents, in their turn, were equally messed up “...by fools in old-style hats and coats…”, handing on what Larkin terms “misery” from one generation to another.

As archivists, and especially as archivists working with digital formats, our “beloved …

The Wicked Problem Of Climate Change And The Challenge Of Engagement: Exploring Educational Approaches And Possibilities For Information Literacy, Andrea Baer

Libraries Scholarship

Climate change is a prime example of a “wicked problem”: it is characterized by complexity and unboundedness and has no complete or simple solutions, though communities can develop constructive interventions that address particular aspects of the problem (for example, in cities increasing green spaces that have a cooling effect). Because the problem of climate change is so expansive and the answers to it remain limited in scope and impact, engaging with the topic inevitably evokes difficult emotions like uncertainty, overwhelm, despair, and grief. So it is understandable that a common response to the realities of climate change has been denial …