Higher Education Commons^™

From One-Shots To Gems: Building Scaffolded Microcredentials In Information Literacy, Layla Barati, Kevin Sebastian

Library Faculty Research

Discover how UNLV Libraries redesigned first-year information literacy instruction into the GEM Knowledge Series—scaffolded microcourses awarding stackable badges. Learn how this model moves beyond traditional one-off library lessons, embeds assessment, and empowers students to Gather, Evaluate, and Make knowledge across academic, professional, and civic contexts.

Notes For The Stalled, V18n06, March 2026, University Of Northern Iowa. Rod Library.

Rod Library newsletter: Notes for the Stalled

Contents:

--- March Book Madness
--- RodCon 2026
--- Research Award
--- Upcoming Events

From The Stacks To Student Success: Findings From A Study Of Faculty Perceptions Of Collection Development, Jessica L. Swaringen, Alyshia K. Bagley, Payton Sapp, James Mayes

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Effective collection development is essential for a library’s ability to support the evolving needs of its academic community. Faculty perceptions of library resources will undoubtedly influence how students engage with and benefit from these collections. This research explores how faculty at Georgia Southern University (GS) Libraries understand collection development practices and how their views shape teaching, research, and collaboration with librarians.

Following a review of existing literature, a mixed-methods survey was distributed to faculty via email. The survey combined quantitative and qualitative questions to capture faculty attitudes toward library collections, their use in course curricula, and their role in supporting …

Promote, Partner & Mentor: Research At Liberty University, Mark Hamilton

Faculty Publications and Presentations

How can you be involved with faculty and student research at Liberty University? Promote your own research through LU Faculty SHARE (the faculty research platform). Partner with Liberty University Journals, encouraging student submissions. Mentor students in the research process.

Objectives

At the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

• Promote your own Research through LU Faculty SHARE 
• Use LU Faculty SHARE to list your own articles, posters, and presentations.

• Partner with Liberty University Journals 
• Serve as an advisor, or editor of an existing journal.
• Create a new journal by completing an interest form and application for a new …

Chemistry + Libraries -> Better Learning, Ashley S. Mcguire, Ellen A. Humphries, Ash B C Curtiss

Libraries Professional Work

The American Chemical Society (ACS) guidelines for chemical literacy, in undergraduate programs, are in three critical areas: information retrieval, information evaluation, and information management. As part of an ACS certified degree (1) students receive instruction in effective methods for performing and assessing the quality of searches using keywords, authors, abstracts, citations, patents, and structures/substructures; (2) students can use chemical identifiers to locate physical and chemical properties in handbooks and databases; and (3) students are assessed in their ability to conduct effective searches by reading, analyzing, interpreting, and citing the chemical literature as applied to answering chemical questions. There is an …

Library News-- February, 2026, Rwu University Library

Library Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Building Engagement And Bringing Joy: Ungrading An Online, Asynchronous Course, Stephanie M. Margolin, Margaret Bausman

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Evolving Roles Of U.S. Academic Librarians: A Snapshot Of Job Responsibilities In 2023, Russell Michalak, Laura Rose Taylor, Michelle Reed, Amanda Koziura, Devon Ellixson

Library Faculty Research

This study examines the evolving roles of academic librarians across North America. Adapting a survey tool published in a prior Canadian study, it surveys over 350 librarians in the United States, analyzing shifts in Research Support, Teaching and Learning, Digital Scholarship, User Experience, and Scholarly Communication. Results indicate significant engagement in information discovery and digital scholarship with a growing need for training in digital tools and data management. The resulting report highlights the crucial role of academic librarians in adapting to technological and educational changes, underscoring the necessity for ongoing professional development.

The Open Knowledge Fellowship: An Opportunity For Transformative Learning At The Doctoral Level, Elvis Bakaitis, Jill Cirasella, Patrick Mcgee

Publications and Research

How can we integrate the principles, practicalities, and complexities of open educational resources (OER) and open access scholarly literature into graduate-level education? At the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), the popular and successful Open Knowledge Fellowship offers a much-needed intervention in doctoral education by addressing these topics and associated debates. Between 2020 and 2025, the intensive six-week Fellowship program was offered 12 times and trained over 200 doctoral students from across the disciplines in the selection and use of openly licensed resources in the courses they teach. These 200+ students then taught their revamped courses …

Designing Ai-Aware Media 101 Curriculum Through Faculty–Librarian Collaboration, Miranda Gale Smith, Elizabeth Oppe

2026 Scholarly Teaching Conference: Concurrent Session Papers

This presentation explores faculty–librarian collaboration as a teaching practice. It will inform attendees about the work done by a faculty member (Elizabeth) and a Student Success & Instruction Librarian (Miranda) to design and implement an AI-aware curriculum into an existing Media 101 course at West Virginia University. This resulted in the careful integration of subject-specific and information literacy expertise into the course’s curriculum. More broadly, this is meant to illustrate that in terms of practice, treating AI-aware curriculum development as a shared, iterative process grounded in mutual respect for distinct but complementary forms of knowledge has the potential to yield …

Generative Ai Peer Tutoring To Support Peer-Reviewed Source Identification And Evaluation, Rae Mair, Michelle Kelley, Taylar Wenzel, Andrea C. Borowczak, Yuqing Li, Mike Borowczak

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This chapter explores the design and evaluation of a generative artificial intelligence peer tutor prompt to support college students in identifying and evaluating peer-reviewed sources for academic research. Grounded in literature on peer tutoring, Socratic dialogue, and AI-supported learning, the authors describe an iterative prompt engineering process designed to transform large language models (LLMs) into Socratic-style peer tutors capable of scaffolding student reasoning without completing tasks for them. Five guiding criteria for an effective peer tutor shaped development and evaluation: cognitive congruence, step-by-step guidance, avoiding giving answers, adaptability to student level, metacognitive transparency, and following assignment directions. Across multiple human-centered …

Peacock Competency Model For Online Library Instruction, Rebeca Peacock

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Academic librarians are an integral part of academia offering niche expertise that benefits faculty and students alike. But they often lack specific guidance on developing competencies for the online teaching that is increasingly expected of them. This article addresses the lack of field specific guidance for academic librarians' online teaching by proposing a competency model grounded in expert practice. The study used semi-structured interviews with 18 academic librarians to address this gap asking: what knowledge, skills, and attitudes are needed for academic librarians to be successful in providing effective online library instruction?

Early Stem Impressions, Student Engagement, And Readiness For Digitalization, Myron Sheu

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This study examines how early impressions of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) shape business students’ learning behaviors and, ultimately, their readiness for organizational digitalization. Focusing on gender differences, subgroup identities, and perceived obstacles, the analysis uses survey data processed through correlation matrices, regression models, and subgroup heatmaps to trace the relationship between initial attitudes toward STEM and subsequent engagement patterns. The findings reveal consistent links between positive early impressions and active participation in structured STEM activities, along with gender-based distinctions in action preferences. Subgroup analyses further uncover nuanced patterns where stereotypes or perceived barriers correspond with reduced engagement. Collectively, …

Friends Of The Library Newsletter, Spring 2026, Hillary Richardson

Fant Library News and Reports

No abstract provided.

Seek In Cuny Archives, Reign Mcconnell

Publications and Research

SEEK in CUNY Archives is an inclusive research guide to archival materials about the Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) program, and College Discovery (CD) program available at CUNY archives. The SEEK Program was established within CUNY in 1965 on the pre-baccalaureate level to integrate Black and Puerto Rican students into the CUNY system and expanded to other senior-level colleges in 1966. The program provides students with academic and financial support, as well as tutoring and counseling services. Currently, the SEEK Program is available at twelve of CUNY’s four-year colleges. College Discovery is a two-year program …

Examining Challenges For Sociology Master’S Degree Students At California State University, David Ortuno

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify the lived experiences of CSU sociology graduate students pursuing a master’s degree. Seven sociology graduate students from six of the eight (75%) total sociology MA programs throughout the entire CSU system were interviewed. Their responses were designed to analyze the support systems and challenges they face while pursuing a master's degree, as well as to investigate whether their experiences correlate with or fail to correlate with the promises in the CSU mission statement, and to answer the study’s research questions and achieve the purpose of this qualitative study.

Four themes emerged from …

Notes For The Stalled, V18n05, January/February 2026, University Of Northern Iowa. Rod Library.

Rod Library newsletter: Notes for the Stalled

Contents:

--- Research Award
--- Howdy Partners!
--- Career Readiness
--- Blind Date with a Book
--- Upcoming Events

Fant Memorial Library Strategic Plan, 2026-2031, Hillary Richardson

Fant Library News and Reports

Fant Memorial Library's vision, mission, and values statements, and its guiding priorities, goals, and objectives for 2026-2031

“We’Re All In The Struggle Together”: The Experiences Of First-Generation Graduate Students During Covid-19, Rebecca Stallworth, Danielle E. Maurici-Pollock, Jade Obler, Rachel A. Starr

Publications

This study explores the experiences of first-generation graduate students (FGGS) during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the positive and negative impacts of the pandemic on their learning experiences and their implications for the design of online graduate programs that foster a sense of belonging.

Plan Your Way To Tenure And/Or Promotion, Wendy Doucette, Jill Cirasella

Journal of Graduate Librarianship

In this editorial, we share our best advice for preparing the dossier necessary for professional advancement. While our advice is unavoidably shaped by the specifics of our experiences and universities, we believe most of it is broadly applicable to academic librarians in general. We cluster our advice into three categories: framework and planning, building your portfolio, and ongoing recordkeeping. We hope this “from the ground up” presentation will help those new to academic librarianship, though it’s never too late for more experienced librarians to (re)consider their own approaches.

Book Review: Academic Coaching: Coaching College Students For Success, Corinne Bishop

Journal of Graduate Librarianship

Book review: Howlett, M. A., & Rademacher, K. (2023). Academic coaching: Coaching college students for success. Routledge. 196 pp. ISBN: 9781032272214 (paperback), 9781032265711 (hardcover), 9781003291879 (ebook).

Becoming A Competent Graduate Librarian, Wendy Doucette

Journal of Graduate Librarianship

Becoming a competent graduate librarian is a cumulative process. This article is a reflective summary of over ten years of evolution as a graduate librarian. By treating real-life encounters with reality-based methods and empathetic teaching and reflection, I have developed personal recommendations and strategies to interact successfully with students, as well as the reasoning behind personal shifts in approaching graduate students and services. This process includes unscripted interactions, the necessity of becoming a scholarly contributor, and providing contextualization and incremental assistance against a framework of empathy and andragogy. Combined with ongoing self-assessment, this results in an evaluation cycle that responds …

Library Guides For Graduate Students: A Content Analysis, Maria Kiriakova, Junli Diao, Joan Kelly Castro

Journal of Graduate Librarianship

This study looked at 117 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) academic library websites and identified 48 library guides that consider graduate students in general as their target audience. The broad and systematic content analysis of these library guides resulted in the discovery of four different types, which we categorized as Checklist, Orientation Module, Directory, and Comprehensive. We identify and describe content patterns that address the different roles graduate students might play as advanced library users, novice researchers, and teaching assistants/instructors. Academic librarians who have already created library guides for graduate students could use the results of …

Opportunities, Challenges, And Realities Of Graduate Student Submissions In Institutional Repositories: One Librarian’S Reflection, Sierra Pandy

Journal of Graduate Librarianship

The role of an institutional repository (IR) is to provide open access publishing and archival services for the institution’s faculty, staff, and students. However, despite the wide range of benefits this creates for university researchers, it can be difficult to communicate that value to graduate students. This article will discuss and reflect upon the various challenges, successes, and opportunities we experienced while promoting and utilizing the IR for graduate students at the University of Wyoming during and after a major platform migration, and touch upon goals for the future.

Make It Shine: Strategies For Improving Academic Journals, Mark Hamilton

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This lightning talk, designed for journal editors and scholarly communication professionals, reviews several strategies for improving academic journals. These include developing best practices for journal publishing, maintaining high editorial standards, establishing regular publishing cycles, and updating the journal platform to a more modern design.

Teaching Note - Embedding The Human Library Experience Within Social Work Curriculum, Emily M. Paine

Social Work Faculty Works

The Human Library is a global initiative designed to challenge stereotypes and foster dialogue through storytelling and presents a unique opportunity for experiential learning within social work education. This teaching note explores how the Human Library framework can be integrated into social work curriculum in alignment with the 2022 Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, with particular emphasis on Competency 3: Engaging in Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practice. When embedded in coursework, the Human Library enables students to engage in brave and authentic conversations with storytellers who share aspects of their lived experiences, promoting mutuality, …

Review Of Information Literacy And Social Media: Empowered Student Engagement With The Acrl Framework, Rebecca M. Mccall

Communications in Information Literacy

Review of Santamaría, M., & Pfannenstiel, N. (2024). Information literacy and social media: Empowered student engagement with the ACRL Framework. Association of College and Research Libraries.

“‘What Is One Takeaway You've Gotten From This Learning Experience?’ Analyzing Student Reflections On Introductory Information Literacy Instruction”, Amanda Nichols Hess, Emily Ruth Benoit, Rebecca M. Krystyniak, Stephanie Williams

Communications in Information Literacy

Reflection is a useful pedagogical tool for both learners in instructional settings and educators seeking to offer meaningful experiences; in this article, a group of academic librarians use the former to engage with the latter. We analyzed more than 830 first-year students’ responses to a reflection question posed at the conclusion of library instruction over the course of the 2023–2024 academic year with a specific eye to the concepts that were and were not resonant, as well as whether there were common areas of confusion. We used a grounded theory approach to make sense of the data and allow ideas …

The Library Instructor As Learner: A Survey Of Reflective Teaching Practices In Us Academic Libraries, Alicia G. Vaandering, Amanda Crego-Emley

Communications in Information Literacy

Reflective practice provides library workers with a critical opportunity to examine professional experiences, question assumptions and approaches, explore new perspectives, and develop innovative solutions to existing problems. When applied to instruction as reflective teaching, this practice better situates library instructors to meet the evolving needs of twenty-first-century library users. This research study explores how library workers engage with reflective teaching in academic libraries across the United States. A survey was distributed to academic library communities, and a total of 153 responses were collected. While 92% of respondents reported participating in reflective teaching practice in a variety of instructional contexts, results …

Teaching Research As An Interdependent Practice: Bringing Alternate Models Into The Scholarly Conversation, Natalia Kapacinskas, Veronica Arellano Douglas

Communications in Information Literacy

The customs and practices of research in academia are often mischaracterized as individualistic pursuits, ignoring the reality that research requires a great deal of collaboration. As teaching librarians, our research instruction often reinforces individualism as a scholarly virtue, even as we simultaneously engage with themes of connection between researchers and their ideas. We propose an approach to teaching research and information literacy grounded in the concept, intention, and practice of interdependence rather than individualism. In doing so, we will call in models of interdependence from critical disability studies, relational-cultural theory, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and the Cite Black Women movement. …