Digital Commons Network^™

From Guesswork To Great Collections: Using Ai To Build Engaged, Faculty-Informed Libraries, Tracy Gilmore, Tiffini Travis

POC in LIS Summit

Struggling to build collections that truly reflect your campus’ teaching and research needs? You’re not alone. With limited face time with faculty, hybrid schedules, and shrinking budgets, librarians often work in the dark—relying on guesswork, legacy requests, or one-size-fits-all tools.

This hands-on workshop introduces an innovative, AI-powered method developed at CSU Long Beach for creating faculty user profiles using publicly available data and tools like ChatGPT. Inspired by customer profiling strategies in the business world, this approach helps librarians move from reactive to proactive collection development.

Learn how to turn online faculty biographies, Curriculum Vitas, and publication data into actionable …

It’S A Different World: #Hillmantok And New Frontiers Of Information Sharing In Bipoc Communities, Michael Mungin

POC in LIS Summit

HillmanTok is a free online learning community featuring Black educators and experts using TikTok to create video lectures and livestreams that teach a vast array of topics, from practical skills like gardening, cooking, hair care, and wealth building, to humanities, like histories, Black arts and entertainment, and mental health. Beginning, almost accidentally, on Jan. 20, 2025 with a 3-minute TikTok video by Dr. Leah Barlow, welcoming her students to her African American Studies class, HillmanTok rapidly became an educational movement with a massive following in the hundreds of thousands.

Simultaneously, the Trump administration began issuing numerous directives and executive orders, …

Unequal Access: The Challenge Of Palestinian Representation In Libraries, Yael Noble, Raida Gatten, Rani J

POC in LIS Summit

This presentation brings together four librarians from public and academic institutions who have navigated significant challenges while developing collections, programs, and resources focused on Palestine during the past year. As information professionals, these panelists will share their experiences and the experiences of others with institutional resistance, external pressures, and threats that emerged specifically around Palestinian-focused work.

Presenters will explore the stark contrast between institutional approaches to Palestinian narratives compared to other diversity initiatives. Why are Palestinian perspectives subject to what scholars call the "Palestine Exception" in otherwise progressive spaces? How does this censorship and intimidation reflect a form of neo-McCarthyism …

Teaching In Authentic Ways: Exhibit Work And Student Curators In Special Collections, Rebecca Fitzsimmons

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

Engaging students in exhibit work offers them a chance to learn new skills and grow as scholars while producing a tangible and public-facing project outcome from their coursework. From learning to communicate complex ideas to making research connections between rare and primary sources, exhibit curation relies on building research skills, sharpening writing and communication techniques, and developing critical thinking skills. Pushing and refining ideas is an essential part of the iterative process of research, and exhibit curation invites students to learn this practice in a real-world, project-based way. More specifically, it requires students to read, review, compare, and analyze more …

Tank Chair [Book Review], Jj Pionke

Disability in LIS (DisLIS)

We are introduced to Nagi our wheelchair using assassin, and his adorable younger sister, as they try to figure out how improve the amount of time where he is awake.

Marketing Culture Of Award-Winning Secondary School Librarians: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study, Cynthia Martin Schmidt

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences developing, understanding, and implementing marketing culture for award-winning secondary school librarians in the United States. The conceptual framework guiding this study was marketing culture, which explores the context of marketing attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors of organizations, purportedly leading to organizational success. This study used a phenomenological approach with secondary school librarians who had won an award for their work as a school librarian. Data collection consisted of individual semi-structured interviews, artifact analysis, and reflective journal prompts. Data analysis consisted of a hermeneutic epoché-reduction followed by a manual …

A User Experience Approach To Technical Editing Of Academic Library Digital Resources, Krista Sarraf, Danielle Daugherty, Morgan White, Madelyn Cruz

Library Scholarship

This paper reports on a teaching practice that integrates user experience and technical editing instruction to improve academic library digital content and support students' learning of technical editing as an exercise in user experience. Students, faculty, and academic librarians at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) worked to improve the accessibility and usability of their library's digital interfaces. The paper shares preliminary findings from a study of the teaching practice, exploring how a pedagogical framework for library and technical and professional communication partnerships can be designed, implemented, and evaluated to enhance student learning in technical editing and …

A Cancer Education Needs Assessment: Informing Middle-Aged Female Patients About The Relationships Between Obesity And Women’S Health Concerns In The Reproductive System, Breast, And Endometrial Health, Batul Mirza

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Obesity significantly impacts women’s health, particularly among middle-aged women, by increasing the risk of hormone-sensitive cancers such as breast, endometrial, and reproductive system cancers. This study examines the educational needs of this demographic group regarding obesity-related cancer risks and explores effective intervention strategies. Obesity-induced mechanisms – hormonal imbalances, chronic inflammation, and insulin resistance – drive cancer susceptibility, emphasizing the need for targeted health education. The study employs a qualitative design, which includes interviews with subject matter experts (SMEs) and surveys of middle-aged women. The goal is to assess awareness, perceived barriers, and preferred learning methods. Findings suggest that with many …

Integrating Digital Archives And Scholarship: Raising Awareness Of Library Historical Collections, Alice W. Sherwood

Library Staff Publications

The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is home to the largest concentration of medical professionals and experts anywhere in the world. Collectively, the Texas Medical Center is the largest employer in Houston and the 8th largest business district in the United States. The TMC includes 50 medicine-related institutions, including 21 hospitals and two specialty institutions, two medical schools, six nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, and pharmacy. The TMC Library plays a vital role for the institutions inhabiting the 2.10 square mile campus that is the TMC. The Texas Medical Center Library has been around since 1915, way before …

Review Of Averting The Digital Dark Age: The Future Of Digital Literary Heritage, Rebecca L. Hastings

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

In Averting the Digital Dark Age: How Archivists, Librarians, and Technologists Built the Web a Memory, Ian Milligan explores the efforts of technologists and information professionals to develop means of preserving information shared on the World Wide Web. The web lacks a built-in archiving function, raising fears of a “digital dark age,” an unprecedented gap in the historical record as information sharing via the web increases. Milligan tracks the development of web preservation debates and activities from the anxiety and turmoil of the early to mid-1990s to the coming of age of web preservation in the wake of the …

Featuring Ir Collections With Monthly Snapshot, Alice W. Sherwood

Library Staff Publications

Join Alice for this lightning round talk on how she has developed snapshots of her collections to highlight special topics and notable cultural events.

Better Together: Collaborative Approaches To Teaching Primary Source & Information Literacy, Rebecca Fitzsimmons

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

Special collections librarians and their research & instruction colleagues discuss collaborative approaches to primary source and information literacy instruction in the university classroom. Through presentations and panel discussion they cover the types of classes where they collaborate, including a representative example class; how they work with teaching faculty; their favorite learning objectives; and how their partnerships have made them better teachers.

Panelists represent public universities in Arkansas, Illinois, and Maine, and a private college in Ohio.

Navigating Your Boundaries: Transitioning From Egs To Pure4egs Without Altering Your Job Description, Jessea Young

Librarian Publications & Presentations

Loyola Marymount University’s William H. Hannon Library recently transitioned from Expert Gallery Suite (EGS) - Selected Works to Pure4EGS. Previously, EGS was managed by authors with support from the scholarly communications librarian when they deposited works into our institutional repository, Digital Commons @ LMU & LLS. EGS was a secondary, but underutilized component, of our scholarly communication services. However, the migration to Pure4EGS gave the library an opportunity to be part of the reporting workflow of research activities and publication data for administrators, faculty, and staff across campus.

Our Pure4EGS platform, Scholars @ LMU, is managed by a single librarian …

How Could You [Book Review], Sierra Schuman

Disability in LIS (DisLIS)

This book review will cover How Could You, the debut graphic novel by Ren Strapp. Although disability is not the main focus of this graphic novel, disability depiction is discussed, alongside the art style, overall narrative, and queer representation.

Sustainable Business, Sustainable Instruction: Using Scopus To Support Aacsb Sdg Reporting, Lumarie Guth

Midwest Business Librarian Summit (MBLS)

As business schools expand their focus on sustainability, librarians can play a key role in connecting research discovery tools with accreditation and curriculum goals. At Western Michigan University, I’ve worked closely with faculty teaching sustainable business practices. I’ve seen the growing need to assess how faculty research aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly as part of the AACSB accreditation process and the incorporation of sustainability into strategic plans.

In this talk, I’ll share how I introduced the SDG mapping in Scopus to faculty preparing the Continuous Improvement Review Report. They’ve since incorporated these tools into their …

Alma Link Resolver Subject Report 2024-2025, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Statistics for 2024-2025 on the number of OpenURL requests by Library of Congress classification code made to the Ex Libris Alma link resolver for items held by the University of Rhode Island Libraries.

Information provided includes Classification Code, Classifications, Number of Requests, Number of Clicked Requests, and % Clicks from Requests.

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.

Fy 2023-2024 Annual Report (Lwlc), Lwlc Faculty And Staff

LWLC Publications

No abstract provided.

Nurturing Change Makers: Best Practices From Smu Libraries, Shameem Nilofar Maideen

Research Collection Library

No abstract provided.

Pulse: The Monthly Newsletter Of Nnlm Region 2, July 2025, Network Of The National Library Of Medicine, Regional Medical Library 2

NNLM Region 2 Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Uni Scholarworks Readership Snapshot, June 2025, Bepress

Library Documents & Reports (entire collection)

No abstract provided.

Credible Or Constructed? Citation Quality And Undergraduate Student Perceptions Of Generative Ai, William Bowman, Chelsea Carroll, Kaylee Erdos, Suzanne Odom, Wanda Perez

Evans Library Publications

This study aimed to evaluate students' perceptions of the reliability of generative AI tools in academic work, with a particular focus on the accuracy of citations produced by ChatGPT and the frequency of citation hallucinations. The study consisted of two instruments: a feedback survey and an assignment worksheet. The study was completed over the 2024- 2025 academic year and was administered to students enrolled in a for-credit information literacy course offered by the Florida Institute of Technology’s Evans Library. It gathered survey responses from 156 students and received assignment worksheet submissions from 188 students. These submissions yielded 512 AI-generated citations …

2025-2026 Global Feedback Report: Uni Scholarworks, University Of Northern Iowa, Rod Library

Library Documents & Reports (entire collection)

This library report was prepared by the Digital Scholarship Librarian at the University of Northern Iowa as part of assessment efforts demonstrating the reach and impact of departments and programs at the University of Northern Iowa. The global input is related to specific works found in UNI's institutional repository, UNI ScholarWorks (http://www.scholarworks.uni.edu.)

Research On The Evaluation Of Information Ecological Environment Quality For Online Health Communities, Qingwei Li, Yan Xu, Xueqin Zhao

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance] To evaluate the information ecological environment quality of online health communities, reveal the problems existing in the information ecological environment quality of online health communities, and put forward specific suggestions, in order to provide reference for the healthy development of online health communities.

[Method/process] Firstly, the evaluation index system of online health community information ecological environment quality was constructed through literature investigation and expert investigation. Secondly, AHP is used to construct the evaluation index hierarchy model of online health community information ecological environment quality and calculate the weight of each index. Finally, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used …

Beyond Chatbots: The Emergence Of Autonomous Ai Agents In Libraries, Nikesh Narayanan

All Works

This chapter explores how generative AI and agentic AI are redefining library services through enhanced interactivity, personalization, and scalability of support. The rise of machine learning, and specifically natural language processing (NLP) with large language models, brought a new wave of capabilities to library chatbots. Moving beyond single-turn question-answering chatbots, the concept of autonomous AI agents (or agentic AI) in libraries represents a significant leap in capability. An autonomous agent is an advanced form of AI that can understand and respond to inquiries, then take action without human intervention. When they are given an objective, they can generate tasks for …

Redefining Rural Representation In Short Story Anthologies: Using Short Stories To Highlight Rural Counterstories, Brittany Gargano-Smith, Jenna Spiering

The Rural Educator

This article explores the importance of incorporating diverse rural short stories into English language arts (ELA) curricula to foster empathy, understanding, and connection among students. It addresses underrepresentation and lack of variety in rural stories within publishing and traditional curricula, which affects rural students’ sense of identity and belonging. Through exploration of rural short story anthologies, the authors highlight the significance of counterstories that depict the intersectional dimensions of rural life, including geography, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and abilities. By amplifying contemporary rural voices and complicating stereotypes, educators can create more inclusive learning environments that validate diverse experiences.

Information Literacy In Charter Schools: An Institutional Ethnography, Katherine Klein

Theses and Dissertations

A strength of US charter schools is their opportunity to carve out an educational niche. Without the same regulation and district control present in traditional public schools, a charter school’s approach can seriously impact how the school addresses information literacy. In our current culture, we are saturated with media and technology, and students learn about navigating, evaluating, and using information responsibly and creatively at school. However, there is currently no published research on how charters do this critical work with their students, particularly with fewer libraries and librarians in the sector. This study uses institutional ethnography to map ruling relations …

Willa Cather’S Uneven Ground: Guest Editor's Introduction, Emily J. Rau

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Guest editor's introduction to the summer 2025 issue of Western American Literature, a special issue on resettling Willa Cather’s West.

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

Faculty and Staff 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.

Under Siege, Michael Fernandez, Rachel E. Scott

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

[In the absence of an abstract, the opening of the editorial is presented.] There isn’t any other way to put it: libraries are being attacked by the current US presidential administration. The latest salvo is part of a broader culture war strategy to dismantle institutions supporting education, research, and knowledge sharing, all of which are core principles of the library’s mission. As we prepare this issue for publication in the spring of 2025, daily executive orders, directives, and announcements have led to unprecedented levels of uncertainty. Given the rapid deluge of attacks, the outlook could be markedly worse by the …