Digital Commons Network^™

Resilience And Reality: Exploring The Lived Experiences Of People Living With Hiv In Texas During The Covid-19 Pandemic – A Qualitative Study., Ahmed F. Alanazi

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

This study investigated the lived experiences of individuals living with HIV (PLWH) in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area of Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic, using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) framework. The research examined the intersection of health, social dynamics, and psychological resilience among PLWH, who faced compounded vulnerabilities due to systemic inequities and the dual public health crises of HIV and COVID-19. Through semi-structured interviews with ten participants from diverse backgrounds, the study captured the profound impacts of disrupted healthcare systems, heightened stigma, and social isolation on this marginalized population. The findings reveal that the pandemic exacerbated existing inequities …

Interaction Mechanism Between Health Anxiety And Information Seeking Behavior From The Perspective Of Phenomenology, Yanfeng Zhang, Minqian Yu

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance]To analyze the evolution characteristics of health anxiety before and after information search behavior from the perspective of phenomenological graph analysis, and to explain the internal mechanism of the interaction between health anxiety and information search behavior. [Method/process]By using the phenomenological qualitative research method, the interactive mechanism between health anxiety and information search behavior was deeply explored. Based on the I-PACE theoretical model framework, the model elements of users' health anxiety and information search behavior were analyzed from the four dimensions of "Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution". To construct a mechanistic relationship model between health anxiety and information search behavior. [Result/conclusion]The research results revealed …

Adding Libraries To The Equation: Mathematical Sciences’ Underutilization Of Academic Librarians, Jennifer Lc Burke, Elizabeth C. Novosel, Daniel G. Kipnis, Rasitha Jayesekere

Scholarship and Professional Work

Academic librarians do not engage with all disciplinary departments equally. Despite equal or even greater efforts, some departments are less responsive to librarian outreach. One such department is mathematics. To understand mathematics departments’ relationships with their academic librarians, three mathematics librarians created a 20-question survey that was disseminated to mathematics faculty, instructors, and instructional staff in the United States and Canada. Of the 188 survey participants, more than a third reported that they never engage with their librarians, approximately half only do so occasionally, and a mere eight percent of participants collaborated with librarians to provide information literacy instruction (IL) …

2025 Winter - Friendly Correspondence Newsletter, Courtright Memorial Library

Friends of the Library

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

• Archive Renovation Fundraiser
• LSP Migration
• New Art Gallery Pieces
• Otterbein Singers
• Spring Library Events
• Common Book 2025

Creating And Implementing An Inclusive Metadata Policy, Nicole Lewis, Jeremy Myntti

Faculty Publications

The BYU Library developed an Inclusive Metadata Policy for metadata creators to use when creating and remediating descriptions to be more inclusive. Accompanying the policy is a companion document with recommendations and examples, including links to many external resources. In addition to working with stakeholders in the library to develop the policy, we consulted with the University’s Office of Belonging. This presentation will describe the process we used to create the library policy and recommendations document and share information about how the policy has been implemented.

Information Literacy & Library Research Skills: What Faculty Think Fy Students Know - A Pilot Study, Julia Warga

2025 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

The Invisible Default: Examining Representation In Digital Collections, Kaylee P. Alexander, Dorothy Terry, Jasmine Kirby, Rachel Jane Wittmann, Anna Neatrour

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

This mixed-method study investigates the representation of race and ethnicity within the J. Willard Marriott Digital Library at the University of Utah. The digital collections analyzed in this study come from the Marriott Library’s Special Collections, which represent only a fraction of the library’s physical material (less than 1 percent), albeit those most public facing. Using a team-based approach with librarians from various disciplines and areas of expertise, this project yielded dynamic analysis and conversation combined with heavy contemplation. These investigations are informed by contemporary efforts in librarianship focused on inclusive cataloging, reparative metadata, and addressing archival silences. By employing …

Digital Chinese Medicine In The Western World: A Conceptual Framework, David C. Mainenti

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Digital technology plays an increasing role in Chinese medicine and Western modalities alike. This research uses content analysis and grounded theory for developing a conceptual framework for a digital health system in the Western world termed Digital Chinese Medicine (DCM). Four research questions were proposed: • What are the functional requirements of a DCM system? • What inputs, processes, and outputs are necessary for a DCM system to be both effective and efficient? • What components and features are most desired in a DCM system? • What will a graphical representation of a DCM system look like? Over 475 publications …

Neurodivergent Students And Higher Education: Barriers, Challenges, And Supporting Measures, Courtney Tricarichi-Funk

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

When neurodivergent students attempt to go to colleges and universities, they often face barriers in accessing higher education and encounter challenges post-admission. This study explores what measures higher learning institutions can develop and implement to make postsecondary education more accessible and less challenging for neurodivergent students by answering the following questions: • What barriers do neurodivergent students face when planning to access higher education? • What challenges do neurodivergent students encounter in higher education after they are admitted? • What measures can be developed and implemented to help neurodivergent students access and succeed in higher education? To address these questions, …

Cuny Academic Works: A Basic Guide For Authors, Jojo Karlin

Open Educational Resources

These basic slides provide steps to submit your work to CUNY Academic Works. These slides are intended for CUNY affiliates to demonstrate basic steps for uploading works.

Bridging Gaps: Librarians Fostering Intellectual Freedom Across State Lines, Harley Rogers, Lindsay Decker

Library Publications

No abstract provided.

Spring 2025 Oer Seminar, Pamela Thielman, Katherine Tsan

Open Educational Resources

This slide presentation was created by Pamela Thielman and Katherine Tsan for the Baruch College Center for Teaching and Learning.

Understanding The Determinants Of Blockchain Adoption: An Empirical Study, Amarpreet Kohli, Nihar Kumthekar, Piyush Shah, Rebecca Jauch

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Blockchain technology (BT) has the potential to enhance security and robustness of transactions through a distributed ledger bookkeeping process. This study employs technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework and threat-rigidity theory (TRT) to examine whether perceived disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the adoption of BT, and inclination to adopt BT in the US. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique backdrop, as it affected businesses across all industries, sizes, and geographies. Results show a non-significant effect of perceived pandemic disruption on the current stage of BT adoption and intention to adopt BT. However, disruption readiness positively influences the current stage of BT …

Open Access And Citation Impact: Modality, Funding, Publisher, And Disciplinary Trends At The University Of Kentucky, Ben Rawlins, Mitchell Scott

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

As publishers and libraries attempt to align business models and collection strategies to an ever-increasing open access (OA) publishing landscape, both have found that the message of open access citation advantage (OACA) resonates with current and prospective authors. Despite its widespread promotion and acceptance, however, OACA is not universal and is subject to ongoing debate. This quantitative study contributes to the OACA debate and research with a longitudinal focus on citation data from journal articles published 2018-2021 by University of Kentucky affiliated authors. The article and citation data for University of Kentucky affiliated authors are supplemented with University of Kentucky …

Three Lesser-Known African American Poets, Authors, And A Publisher In Kentucky, Reinette F. Jones

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This article highlights the work of some lesser known historical poets who were African American, including Frances Carter DeBerry, Lawrence Harris, Sr., and Phil H. Brown.

The Tiny Library And The Mini Library, Reinette F. Jones

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

Ask a librarian to describe a tiny library and a general answer will be a facility that is smaller than a small library. A more contem-porary description is a little library in a small wooden box that is attached to a stand and placed in a neighborhood to support reading and free book exchange. Both are good answers and added to these definitions is the centuries-old backstory when the tiny library was whatever an individual meant for it to be.

Framing Large Language Models: Teaching Foundational Concepts Of Generative Ai And Information Literacy For Critical Student Engagement, Isaac Wink, Jennifer Hootman

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This chapter situates the emerging scholarly conversation around AI literacy within the established Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. We apply three frames in particular: 1) Authority Is Constructed and Contextual, 2) Information Creation as a Process, and 3) Research as Inquiry, considering competencies relevant to students encountering generative AI applications in educational contexts and addressing ways that both students and instructors may seek to engage productively with such tools.

This chapter primarily focuses on tools such as ChatGPT that are built atop large language models (LLMs)—systems trained on massive text corpora—rather …

Storage Media Prioritisation With Technical And Archival Appraisal, Andrew Mcdonnell, Megan M. Mummey

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This spreadsheet tool is designed to provide archives and libraries a means of prioritizing the order in which data is migrated from physical media carriers and other sources in their collection in need of preservation. It is an adaptation of work from the Archives and Special Collections at the University of Glasgow, who developed a methodology for prioritizing archival processing of digital collections stored in physical storage media.

The original tool (downloadable here: https://researchdata.gla.ac.uk/1634/ ) permits users to calculate a priority score by weighting the following factors: the DPC BitList Endangered Digital Media score, the age of the media, its …

Just What Is Equity And What Is It Doing In A Nice Field Like Assessment, Julene Jones, Glenn Phillips, Ciji Heiser

Library Presentations

This presentation outlines a literature review on equity and assessment, drawing from the article Making a Grand Contribution: Professional Development Resources for Leveraging Assessment Data to Advance Equity. The review will explore how assessment practices can promote equity, identifying professional development strategies that support equitable data use in higher education. The findings will inform institutional leaders, faculty, and assessment professionals on embedding equity within assessment processes. This session will engage participants in discussions about the history of equity in assessment and its current uses, equipping them with tools to advance equitable assessment practices and institutional change.

International Students' Information-Seeking Experiences With A Library Discovery Tool, Kristen Jacobson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this parallel convergent mixed methods study was to assess how international students from non-native English-speaking backgrounds that represent significant subgroups of the U.S. international student population interact with an academic library website with a discovery tool, and the usability of the tool for these students. It explored the information-seeking behavior of a group of international students (n=14) from Asia, Saudi Arabia, and Africa, who were enrolled at a Midwestern National University. It provides usability information about the issues those students encountered and their experiences when completing 10 common academic research tasks using the university library’s discovery tool. …

Don’T Do More With Less: Sustainable Work As A Management Value, Amanda Koziura

Library Faculty Research

Discusses a series of decisions a middle manager made to keep the work of her department sustainable and how she incorporated her values into her process.

Fostering Success: How Cross Campus Partnerships Can Improve Accessibility, Engagement, And Inclusion For Autistic Undergraduate Students, Mercedes Rutherford-Patten, Luna Nombrano Larsen

Library Scholarship

The academic library, with its long history of student support and social justice advocacy, is the perfect organization to lead the way in dismantling systemic barriers to student success. Research shows that college students who regularly use library services are more successful academically (Shea & Derry, 2022). Another vital support the library can provide is community. Inclusion and belonging are integral to the success of autistic college students: “feeling like part of a community” and “to always feel like I’m welcome [on-campus]” were ways students measured their own success in a study by the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (2020, p. …

Searching Effectively: Basic Principles And Practical Tips For Better Results, Roy E. Brown

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This handout updates Doing a Good Search: Basic Rules and Search Tips, originally published in 2024. It outlines the basic principles of doing a good search, from identifying a topic and formulating a clear question to selecting and searching at least two databases. It also includes information on Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), subject headings, and Google Scholar. New to this iteration of the document are best practices for using artificial intelligence in literature and evidence searches.

Remember: Searching is an iterative process, which involves repeated cycles of refinement. Your approach will shift depending on the specific question you're trying …

Book Challenges And Censorship Attempts In Louisiana: A Case Study, Jennifer E. Steele

Faculty Publications

Book challenges and censorship have long played a significant role in the cultural and educational landscapes of the United States. In recent years, Louisiana has become a focal point in national conversations about intellectual freedom, public and school library governance, parental rights, and the political pressures surrounding children and young adult literature. This dynamic environment has led to significant debates about what materials should be accessible to young people, how libraries should be managed, and what role the state and local governments should play in determining the availability of information. The rise in book challenges across Louisiana reflects national trends …

Identifying Intangible And Biocultural Heritage Elements Toward Environmental Understanding: Engaging Stakeholders Through Art, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Grounded in a case study in Barbuda in the Caribbean, this research examines sustainability from the perspective of what arts and heritage can contribute to community engagement and local and broader understandings about the environment. This article documents a growing body of literature recognizing the role of arts and culture, including local knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), in climate change endeavors. Art and TEK present expansive world views. Contextual information situates research done on the island of Barbuda pre- and post-Hurricane Irma. Visual arts workshops engaged community members in mixed methods research. Results documented cultural elements, particularly intangible and …

Urgent Expertise, Explored Together: A Scholarly Communication Peer-Mentoring Group, Alex Crowley, Lily Susman, Rosemary Farrell, Michael Kahn, Carrie Jedlicka, Eric Silberberg, Michelle Ehrenpreis, Marta Bladek, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

In Spring 2025, the authors participated in a structured peer-mentoring program designed to deepen their knowledge of scholarly communication topics and issues. In this article, based on our panel at the 2025 LACUNY Institute, we share our perspectives on the program and discuss how current events are making scholarly communication expertise more essential than ever.

Dominance Of Leading Business Schools In Top Journals: Insights For Increasing Institutional Representation, Rodrigo Romero-Silva, Erika Marsillac, Sander De Leeuw

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

The competitive push for business schools to publish in prestigious journals has resulted in a disproportionate number of papers in prestigious Management and Operations Research/Management Science (OR/MS) journals coming from a select group of institutions. Our analysis shows the Matthew effect of prestigious journals favors established schools with 51.2% of papers in 18 Management ABS 4* journals and 61.3% of papers in 3 OR/MS ABS 4* journals involving authors from the 100 top business schools identified by the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Citation patterns are similarly concentrated among papers authored by scholars from UTD-listed business schools, with nearly …

Getting Heard, Irene M. H. Herold

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

"Getting Heard" summarize Herold's experience with legislative advocacy in her career as a librarian.

"I’Ll Wait Zero Seconds": Faculty Perspectives On Serials Access, Sharing, And Immediacy, Rachel Elizabeth Scott, Anne Shelley, Chad E. Buckley, Cassie Thayer-Styes, Julie A. Murphy

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This study explores how faculty across disciplines access and share scholarly serial content and what expectations they have for immediacy. The authors conducted twenty-five in-depth, semi-structured interviews with faculty of various ranks representing all Illinois State University (ISU) colleges. The findings, presented in the words of participants and triangulated with data from local sources, suggest that faculty use a variety of context-specific mechanisms to access and share serial literature. Participants discuss how they use library services such as databases, subscriptions, interlibrary loan, and document delivery, coupled with academic social networks, disciplinary repositories, author websites, and other publicly available sources to …

How Do Selected Biomedical And Health Sciences Journals React To Submissions Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Assisted Manuscripts?, Misa Mi, Lin Wu, Yingting Zhang, Wendy Wu

Library Scholarly Publications

Background and Objectives: Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) increasingly impacts research and scholarly communication. Given the evolving application of ChatGPT and other AI tools in scholarly communications, health sciences librarians must become cognizant of any existing journal publishing guidelines for AI-created or assisted manuscripts. The study aims to examine how scholarly biomedical and health sciences journals and publishers respond to submissions of these manuscripts and what requirements or policies have been put in place to guide and instruct authors on AI use.

Methods: We first retrieved and consolidated a list of journals representing disciplines in biomedical and health sciences from four …