Digital Commons Network^™

Lgbtq+ Content In The Ala Top Most Challenged Books, Kaelynn Edmondson, Mlis

SLIS Connecting

2,571 titles were challenged in 2022, double what was recorded in 2021, but it was noted that 45.5 percent of all those titles were LGBTQ+ books (Perfas, 2022). The rise in challenges and the fact that almost half the books contained LGBTQ+ topics indicates that, within recent years, there has been a shift in the type of content and the speed at which challenges are happening in the United States. Books like Obie is Enough by Schuyler Bailar are banned in states that do not allow books that discuss gender identity, and in turn, these books cannot reach the audiences …

Graphic Novel Censorship, Tiffany Buono, Mlis

SLIS Connecting

Graphic novels have been growing in popularity and demand since they were first introduced as a format in 1978 by Will Eisner with his publication of A Contract with God (“Will Eisner”, n.d.). Graphic novels (GN) are a format of writing and illustration that spans fiction and non-fiction genres with many classic works being adapted into the format to encourage more young adult engagement. Yet, many libraries nationwide, including school and public libraries, lack a strong graphic novel collection. The American Library Association (ALA) is a national authority on issues related to intellectual freedom including the increase of challenges and …

Historical Use Of Libraries In Inpatient Psychiatric Treatment In The United Kingdom, Jessica Buckey, Mlis

SLIS Connecting

In the 19th and 20th centuries, libraries were a common amenity in psychiatric hospitals, particularly private ones. This paper sheds new light on the history of these libraries in inpatient psychiatric treatment centers. The prevailing medical philosophy held that occupation and moderate intellectual stimulation were important for recovery, a mode of thought culminating in the 20th century bibliotherapy movement. This is not a clinical study, and it assumes no stance on the therapeutic value of reading. Instead, it is a historical study of libraries in inpatient psychiatric centers: how these libraries were curated; how patient libraries, throughout their history, responded …

Mental Health And Well-Being In Academic Libraries: A Bibliometric Survey Of Scholarly Publications, 1994-2024, Rebecca Arthur, Mlis

SLIS Connecting

Academic libraries are crucial pieces of the higher education system; national accreditation standards for colleges and universities require the existence of accessible library collections and knowledgeable, trained staff. Traditionally, the academic collections, both physical and digital, of these libraries have been their focal point, and the importance of the academic library on campus has been derived from its ability to provide instructional materials and support to students, faculty, and staff. However, the educational paradigm of academic librarianship has shifted as higher education has evolved throughout the twentieth century. Previously long-established pedagogies have become insufficient in the face of changing technologies …

From The Gas: Publications, Congratulations, And Presentations, Stacy L. Creel, Ph.D., Teresa S. Welsh, Ph.D.

SLIS Connecting

Includes book reviews by the graduate assistants for Gigi Shin Is Not a Nerd, Wild Dreamers, and The Blonde Dies First. Highlights what SLIS faculty are reading, alumni updates, faculty publications and presentations, and student congratulations.

Spotlights: Faculty, Alumni, Festival, Stacy L. Creel, Ph.D., Mary A. Osborne, Ph.D.

SLIS Connecting

Meet Dr. Kaeli Gretter, alum Miranda Loper, and learn about the keynote speakers for the 2025 Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival.

Slis Director's Report, Stacy L. Creel, Ph.D.

SLIS Connecting

Welcome to the Spring/Fall issue of SLIS Connecting.

Book Review: Decentering Whiteness In Libraries: A Framework For Inclusive Collection Management, Andrea Jamison, Shala K. Howell

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review : The Digital Environment: How We Live, Learn, Work, And Play Now By Pablo J. Boczkowski And Eugenia Mitchelstein, Devi Swamy

School of Information Student Research Journal

The Digital Environment: How We Live, Learn, Work, and Play Now by Pablo J. Boczkowski and Eugenia Mitchelstein examines how digital technologies shape modern life, presenting the digital environment as a distinct sphere alongside natural and urban environments. Drawing on expert interviews, the authors explore its defining features—totality, duality, conflict, and indeterminacy—and their impact on society. The book highlights both the potential of digital tools to perpetuate inequities and their capacity to promote equity, offering insights particularly valuable to library and information science professionals.

Book Review: Creating Inclusive Libraries By Applying Universal Design: A Guide By Carli Spina, Katrina Williams

School of Information Student Research Journal

Creating Inclusive Libraries by Applying Universal Design: A Guide is a practical and useful resource for improving libraries so that they are accessible to the broadest range of people possible. The format is well organized, and the case studies illustrate principles in engaging and recognizable ways. A reader who starts with no knowledge of Universal Design would acquire a working knowledge and be able to assess their own spaces with the guidance provided through examples and checklists. Rather than focus on resources for disabled patrons, Spina encourages readers to adopt a reflective practice for considering the needs of all library …

Academic Librarians With Invisible Disabilities Carry An Invisible Workload That Limits Their Career Potential, Katrina Heiderich Williams

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Redefining Reference Services In The 21st Century, Johanna Tunon

School of Information Student Research Journal

The role of reference services in libraries has evolved significantly in the 21st century, driven by technological advancements and changing user needs. This paper explores how reference services have transitioned from traditional, desk-centric interactions to encompass a wide array of platforms and tools, including digital innovations and generative AI. The decline in reference transactions has prompted librarians to adapt, shifting focus towards more complex consultations and instructional roles, while also navigating the blurred boundaries between reference assistance and formal instruction. The paper also examines the updated definitions and limitations of reference services by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), …

The Importance Of Graduate-Student-Led Academic Journals Within Library And Information Science, Odin Halvorson

School of Information Student Research Journal

Graduate-student-led academic journals play a crucial role in fostering early career researchers' engagement with scholarly discourse within the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). This paper highlights the significance of these journals by examining their contributions to professional development, peer review practices, and inclusivity. Through a case study of the Student Research Journal (SRJ) at San Jose State University’s iSchool, I demonstrate how student-led journals provide invaluable experiential learning opportunities in leadership, organization, and research skills. The SRJ exemplifies these benefits by achieving international recognition with minimal resources, showcasing its impact-to-cost ratio. This paper also discusses the journal's role …

Ischool Student Research Journal, Vol.14, Iss.2

School of Information Student Research Journal

Article citations within.

An Examination Of Academic Library Platforms And Systems During Covid-19, Cole Hudson, Paul Gallagher

University Libraries Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper examines the use and subsequent trajectory of academic library technologies due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking a broad view of technologies, the systems and services discussed will center around resource use because COVID restrictions shuttered many in-person technologies. The two academic libraries compared in this study show a similar pattern of use and signal growth of certain platforms and technologies for the future.

Coding With Those Who Show Up: Two Methodologies On Technical Committee Work, Mark E. Eaton

Publications and Research

This paper considers our library’s attempt at applying a “laissez-faire leadership” model to technical committee work. Since its introduction in the 1990s, scholarship on laissez-faire leadership has historically viewed the concept very negatively. However, we argue here that many of these perspectives are straw man arguments that do not adequately consider the possibilities of a laissez-faire model. Following some dissenting voices in the literature, we would like to reclaim the laissez-faire model as a way to facilitate library technical work under certain very specific circumstances. This paper will describe the organizational context where these laissez-faire methods worked for us. Our …

Neo-Documentation’S “Copernican Revolution” Upon Information Science, Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The article discusses neo-documentation's "Copernican Revolution" upon information science from the aspect of Heideggerian phenomenology and a documentality of relation and emergence.

Conceptual Curiosity: Sense(Un)Making, Rebekah L. Cowell

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Across disciplines, sensemaking is a theoretical and methodological research program, over forty years in development, that has been treated as a framework for understanding how humans behaviorally respond to external information sources and interpret to construct and actualize actionable outcomes; however, sensemaking is an interlinking process that does not operate in singularity–behaviorally or actionably–it is neurobiological (autonomous drive), cognitive (perceptual and predictive), and psychological (congruency in meaning).

This paper enlarges the conceptual framework for studying sensemaking and redefines it by addressing what sensemaking is, does, and needs. At the core of this conversation is addressing the absence of knowledge and …

Conversations On Cultural Heritage: Confirming The Family Home As An Archive, Vanessa Reyes, Vanessa Irvin

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Family archives, as repositories of cultural heritage, play a crucial role in preserving multi-generational knowledge. The family is the first collaborative unit in which community memory-keeping is operationalized. The family home is an archive or library of data for generations of family members living through historical movements, patterns of migration, and technological advancement. Thus, 'home' is a data-rich repository of local history. Memory-keeping tasks, such as recording events in family Bibles and maintaining photo albums, scrapbooks, and journals, are multi-generational literacy practices. The stories within a family archive endure, but the narrators may change over time. Archiving family cultural heritage …

Time And The Catalogue, Alec Mullender

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper explores the multiple ways in which concepts of time are incorporated in cataloguing and classification to see how these temporal concepts influence how material is organised in library space. It discusses multiple concepts, including the structural influences of the capitalist ‘exchange-view’ of time in how the discipline is organised and its incorporation into the so-called ‘universal’ cataloguing systems. The continued issues of obsolescence within cataloguing systems as language and concepts constantly evolve, and how these are integrated into the systems themselves. The paper also discusses the semantic difficulties with how time itself is expressed within cataloguing systems, as …

Thinking With Our Grandmothers: Past, Epidata, And Future In Designing A Proximity Affordance, Laurie J. Bonnici, Brian C. O'Connor, Gary Samson

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper examines the limitations of historical documentation, focusing on the lives of mill girls in Manchester, New Hampshire’s textile mills through photographic images and family memories. While photographs, like those by Lewis Hine, provide insight into the physical conditions and harsh realities faced by young workers, they do not capture the inner lives of child laborers or the broader social context shaping their experiences. The authors highlight the shortcomings of traditional archival practices, particularly the subject headings applied to Hine’s photographs, which fail to reflect the complexities of mill girls' lives. Drawing on personal perspectives from the authors—whose grandmothers …

The Norwegian Public Library Of The Future – What Are The Challenges To Meet?, Roswitha Skare

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article examines the future challenges facing Norwegian public libraries in light of legislative changes and evolving societal needs. Since the Public Library Act of 1986, with updates in 2014, libraries are mandated to be accessible cultural and educational centers. The 2019 national library strategy further emphasizes their role in public enlightenment and community engagement, particularly in the digital age. Despite high usage rates, challenges remain in attracting non-users and enhancing digital services. The article highlights the need for libraries to adapt to an aging population and to expand their role in public health, digital literacy, and community resilience. It …

Imagining The Future Of Records Management: An Analysis Of The Srikandi In Indonesia Through Documentation Studies, Suprayitno Suprayitno, Rahmi Rahmi, Zulfatun Sofiyani

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The SRIKANDI application, a cornerstone of Indonesia's digital records management initiative, embodies the nation's commitment to modernizing governance through electronic systems. This study employs Niels Windfeld Lund’s Complementary Documentation Analysis Model to dissect SRIKANDI'S evolution (diachronic analysis) and its current state (synchronic analysis), offering a comprehensive understanding of its role in Indonesia's e-government landscape. Diachronically, SRIKANDI'S development reflects a strategic shift from fragmented, standalone applications towards a unified, interoperable platform, as mandated by Presidential Regulation No. 95 of 2018. This transition aims to streamline government processes, reduce redundancy, and enhance budget efficiency. Synchronically, SRIKANDI is evaluated as a digital platform …

A Longitudinal Analysis Of Navigating Ethical Reflections Through The Evolution Of Information Profession Dreams, Rahmi Rahmi, Rusdan Kamil

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This study presents a longitudinal analysis of the ethical reflections and evolving professional aspirations of students in the Information Profession course at Universitas Indonesia. Through reflective writing exercises, 192 students explored their future career goals and addressed ethical challenges related to professional documentation, focusing on issues such as privacy, integrity, and responsibility. Using corpus analysis tools like AntConc, the research tracked changes in ethical concerns as students progressed in their studies, revealing an increasing awareness of ethical complexities, particularly in roles like archivist and data analyst. These findings offer valuable insights for developing profession-specific ethical guidelines for information professionals.

Relevance, Works And Context Engineering, Michael K. Buckland, Wayne De Fremery

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Relevance is regarded as centrally important in documentation and information science but has resisted satisfactory definition. The literature presents vague, subjective descriptions and/or operational definitions based on untenable theoretical assumptions. The “work” is a similarly central and poorly defined concept in bibliographic theory and cataloguing. This short essay summarizes previous scholarship that reformulates concepts of relevance in information science as functions of use and works in bibliographic theory as useful sets of objects. Conceptual utility in both cataloging theory and information science is sought by developing descriptive models that attend to the positionality and temporality of “works” and “relevance” as …

The Mutability Of Personal Documents And Mediated Memories As We Age: A Collaborative Reflection, Vanessa Reyes, Bhuva Narayan, Annemarie Zijlema, Mary Anne Kennan

Proceedings from the Document Academy

How do our personal documentation practices change as we age, and how can we create and save personal evidence of ourselves for our family’s future? All of us continually accumulate information about ourselves in our everyday lives, intentionally, incidentally, or otherwise, for self-presentation, self-fulfillment, reminders of our past, reinforcing identity, as a hobby, for personal documentation, or for peace of mind. Increasingly, this evidence is in digital form, and often in the cloud. The authors use a collaborative autoethnography and narrative methodology, as outlined by Ford (2020), to document how aging affects our personal documentation and our memories. In the …

One Object, Fluctuating Trajectories: Harnessing The Document Future Of Premodern Manuscripts, L.P. Coladangelo, Rose A. Mccandless

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Using copy theory as a framework to explore document surrogacy and simulation, this paper discusses premodern manuscripts as a case study for understanding relevant aspects of temporality and materiality in the experience of documents to speculate on the nature of immersive documents of the future. This speculation is powered on mapping and synthesizing the paths of interconnected temporal and material change manuscripts have followed by examining multiple “versions” of these documents based on various contexts of use and access and technological innovations. As hand copied documents of similar texts, premodern manuscripts are posited as both copies and originals depending on …

Review Of Decolonial Archival Futures, Taylor F. Henning

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This review of Decolonial Archival Futures asserts that the book is about colonial roots of Western archival practice, challenging traditional archival standards, and archival power. The book provides case studies from the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to demonstrate examples of recentering archival recordkeeping practices on Indigenous communities and post-custodial models of recordkeeping. Decolonial Archival Futures is highly recommended for any archivists working with records by our about Indigenous communities, as well as any information professionals interested in learning about challenging traditional archival paradigms.

Concierge: How The Pandemic Lockdown Changed The Face Of Access Services, Stephen J. Walker

Urban Library Journal

This article addresses the changes made in Access Services in an urban college library after reopening during the Covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic the library witnessed a downturn in patron visits and physical textbook usage as classes remained mostly online. Access Services moved from being a fast-paced, high demand service desk of print textbooks and laptops to a slower user assistance library services unit. Reopening the library to the college community and creating a safe study space for students required preparation. Various key resources such as study rooms, calculators, phone chargers, and headsets became a higher priority for students post-lockdown. …

Libraries On The Front Lines: The Imperative For Disaster-Ready Information Professionals, Feili Tu-Keefner Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Libraries, particularly local public libraries, have evolved into hubs for community-first services, extending beyond traditional roles. Library personnel are now expected to act as first responders and crisis leaders during times such as natural disasters. This report documents the critical crisis leadership qualifications required for library personnel, identified through comprehensive research from 2015 to 2023. Findings from these situation-specific case studies call attention to the community’s needs for library services during emergencies, underscoring the requirement for LIS education to include disaster management. Continuing education (CE) is also critical in preparing information professionals for these essential roles.