Library and Information Science Commons^™

Accessibility Analysis Of Academic Library Epubs - Spreadsheets 1 To 3, Adina Mulliken

Publications and Research

These spreadsheets are associated with the article "Accessibility Analysis of Academic Library EPUBs" in Library Resources & Technical Services.

Lacuny Interlibrary Loan Roundtable Meeting Minutes, December 2025, Karen Okamoto

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

1 Repository, 26 Campuses, 10 Years: Strength (And Chaos) In Numbers, Jojo Karlin, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

In the ten years since its inception, the CUNY Academic Works repository has grown to house and provide public access to more than 33,000 scholarly, pedagogical, and creative works by affiliates of the City University of New York, the largest urban public university in the United States. Representing all 26 CUNY campuses — community colleges, four-year colleges, and graduate/professional schools, with legacies as old as 1847 (The City College of New York) and as young as 2018 (CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies) — CUNY Academic Works has flourished thanks in large part to a system that combines central …

Red Scare At Cuny: A Research Guide, Wilhelmine Coste, Scout Zabel, Erin A'Hearn, Patrick J. Mcgee

Publications and Research

The Red Scare at CUNY is a comprehensive guide to archives documenting anti-communist political repression of faculty, staff, and students at CUNY, primarily from the 1930s-1960s. Organized by repository, it highlights relevant collections within CUNY, evaluated by the authors in consultation and collaboration with archivists at Brooklyn College, City College, Hunter College, and Queens College in 2025. Each entry is accompanied by a description that incorporates information from finding aids and other published research. These collections include faculty personal and professional papers, student activist materials, and oral histories. The guide also includes collections from other repositories within New York City …

Lessons From Tiktok: Using Popular Social Media Platforms To Engage Gen Z, Debra Bernstein

Urban Library Journal

This study looks at how academic libraries in the New York City metropolitan area are using TikTok to engage with their communities, particularly students. It analyzes the most popular videos from five active library accounts, categorizing content types and measuring engagement through TikTok’s built-in metrics. Results indicate that humorous and lighthearted content consistently receives the highest engagement, while instructional or “how-to” videos tend to underperform. These findings suggest that while TikTok may not be the most effective platform for instructional outreach, it holds potential as a tool for visibility, community engagement, and humanizing the library’s presence. As students increasingly turn …

Notes From The Editor, Derek Stadler

Urban Library Journal

I am very pleased to welcome you to the first issue of the 31^st volume of Urban Library Journal. This issue includes articles about history and archives, training programs in librarianship, recommendations on how to improve the onboarding of librarians, and the social media platform TikTok.

Local And Community History – Ten Blocks, Johnathan Thayer

Open Educational Resources

Description

Walk or otherwise move through physical space ten blocks (or its equivalent) in any direction from wherever you call home. Take note of the component parts that make up your locality, including the weekly topics on our syllabus (nature, parks, cemeteries, burial grounds, buildings, restaurants, bars, theaters, temples, schools, and governance). Make a list of the histories of these components that you know, and a list of the histories that you wish you knew more about.

Where I plan to use this resource

In my LBSCI class Local and Community History Methods. This will be the first assignment of …

Analysis Of Libraries’ Onboarding Documentation At A Metropolitan University Consortium, Sonali Sugrim, Eric Silberberg

Urban Library Journal

This study investigates the extent to which onboarding documentation for academic librarians prioritizes long-term employee success. The authors applied content analysis to the onboarding documents from a consortium of libraries in a major metropolitan area in the United States. Study findings reveal that the onboarding documents prioritize introducing new hires to organizational structure rather than integrating them into the workplace culture. Most documents are checklists; however, some libraries provide comprehensive manuals, particularly regarding the tenure process. Notably, only half of the libraries include information about mentorship programs. Based on these findings, this study offers recommendations for improving onboarding documentation, including …

Covid-19 Asian American Oral History Project: Reflecting On Identity And Oral History At A Community College, Thomas Cleary

Publications and Research

In this article, I share narrators’ stories from the Covid-19 Asian American Oral History Project based at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, to illustrate how Covid-19 and increased anti-Asian hate during the pandemic shaped Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) identities in Queens, New York. Narrators’ stories shed light on how Black Lives Matter impacted their own understanding of race and racialization, particularly as AAPI identity and race relate to the Model Minority Myth. This project also laid the groundwork to develop a broader oral history culture at the college, developing faculty pedagogy to incorporate oral history interviews and interviewing into …

From Weberian Rationalization To Javascript Components: Modularism In Academic Library Software, Mark E. Eaton

Publications and Research

This paper considers modular approaches to building library software and situates these practices within the context of the rationalizing logics of modern programming. It briefly traces modularism through its elaboration in the social sciences, in computer science and ultimately describes it as it is deployed in contemporary academic libraries. Using the methodology of a case study, we consider some of the very tangible and pragmatic benefits of a modular approach, while also touching upon some of the broader implications. We find that the modularism is deeply integrated into modern software practice, and that it can help support the work of …

Open Educational Resources (Oer) Workshop Slides For The Center For Teaching & Learning Annual Seminar, Ian Mcdermott, Rena D. Grossman, Emma Handte

Open Educational Resources

LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York (CUNY) began receiving funds from a New York State Open Educational Resources (OER) grant in 2017. Since 2020 we have offered a spring OER Seminar through the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). The seminar invites instructors and staff to explore their past, current, or desired use of OER at LaGuardia. Seminar co-leaders present and discuss a variety of experiences with OER, from authoring a textbook to implementing OER in high enrollment courses. The five workshops have been co-led by the library in collaboration with faculty in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics, …

Critique, Postcritique And Libraries, Mark E. Eaton

Publications and Research

This paper, adopting a perspective from the recent literature of “postcritique”, finds that criticism in librarianship can be constructively supplemented with other methodological approaches. Instead of exclusively using criticism to analyze, dismantle and find fault with texts, librarianship can expand its perspectives to find new reparative possibilities of care. Following the work of Nicholas Holm, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Bruno Latour, Rita Felski and others, we can see that while criticism has thrived as a disposition in librarianship and elsewhere, recent scholarly interventions suggest that it is not the only possible approach. This paper ultimately argues that a postcritical disposition can …

Making Alma Analytics Work For Resource Sharing: A Discussion & Demo, Tokunbo Adeshina, J. Silvia Cho

Publications and Research

In this workshop, we explored how to query, reconcile, and create visualizations for Alma statistics, both separately and in combination. Key takeaways included techniques for building queries to obtain actionable data that could be used in conjunction with data from other platforms.

Evidence-Based Shared Agendas For Scholarship On Teaching With Primary Sources: Reflections On A Bibliometric Analysis, Jen Hoyer, Anne Bahde

Publications and Research

This article explores how scholarship about teaching with primary sources (TPS) has evolved over time and what future directions past work might suggests. Using bibliometric analysis and visualization tools, we examined how TPS work has grown; what fields and disciplines focus on this work; key themes and issues; and what scholarship has been influential to the field. These insights led to reflections on disconnects across the field, considerations for publishing about TPS, and the potential of pedagogical standards and guidelines. Finally, this article concludes with recommendations on how this analysis points to possibilities for shared education, space, conversation, and products.

Living Heritage, Resilience And Ethically Informed Infrastructures In Malawi, Martha B. Lerski, Frank Puluputu Mwale

Publications and Research

Rooted in a rural community’s needs, this paper explores how historically, and ethically informed infrastructures can support community engagement towards identification, documentation, and dissemination of local, traditional, and indigenous knowledge relating to climate change. The paper examines climate adaptation and sustainability issues through the lenses of community organizing and Library & Information Science best practices. It draws on a growing body of literature identifying a role for expanded epistemological and subject discipline perspectives. While the impacts of climate on material culture are increasingly recognized, intangible, and biocultural heritage have not received as much attention. Living heritage traditions and knowledge systems …

Getting It Right: Common Alma Mistakes And How To Fix Them, Kristen Fredericksen

Publications and Research

In this session, we will explore common issues faced by Alma users and offer practical solutions to address them. Attendees will gain valuable insights into the inner workings of Alma and leave equipped with the knowledge to optimize their Alma experience. This presentation is tailored for librarians, system administrators, and anyone seeking to enhance their proficiency with the Alma library management system.

Training Programmes And Staff Development: A Survey Of Library And Information Science (Lis) Professional Bodies In Nigeria, Scholastica C. Ukwoma Phd, Rebecca Chidimma Ojobor (Corresponding Author) Phd, Victoria N. Okafor Prof., Ezinne Njoku Phd

Urban Library Journal

This study explores the training programs provided by the Librarian Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN) and the Nigerian Library Association Information Technology Section (NLAIT). It evaluates their scope, relevance to the field of librarianship, challenges faced, and strategies to enhance participation. A mixed-methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods was utilized. From a target population of 600 librarians, a sample size of 120 respondents was randomly selected following the guidelines of Gall, Gall, and Borg (2003). Data collection was carried out through a questionnaire, achieving a 66.7% response rate (80 respondents). The collected data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, …

Increasing Global South Knowledge Representation With Oa And Library Resource Sharing, J. Silvia Cho

Publications and Research

In this peer-review session, I present ideas to study and overcome barriers to digital interlibrary loan exchange with Latin America under Fair Use (and equivalent provisions). Materials published in Latin America and the Caribbean are more difficult to discover and access from the United States, creating silos and under-representation of points of view from these regions in Global North scholarship. Open Access is key towards overcoming barriers to access, but much of Southern knowledge continues to be in non-Open Access publications with traditional copyright. As a result, library resource sharing and interlibrary loan must facilitate a greater flow of Southern …

The Library Is Open: Making The Case For Academic Libraries As The Planning Hub For Frederick Douglass Day, Shaina V. Anderson

Urban Library Journal

This case study showcases the value of having a library act as the central planning and event location at a public, land-grant university. Frederick Douglass Day is a hybrid day of “…collective action for Black history” (Center for Black Digital Research, n.d.) that was founded by Dr. Jim Casey, an African American Studies faculty member at Pennsylvania State University. It is a day where students and community members from higher education institutions, archival institutions, and museums from around the world log onto a transcription program and participate in transcribing historical documents. Some of the participants are assigned to be “transcribers” …

Arts-Based Sustainability: From New York To Malawi, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Recognizing that libraries serve multiple constituencies and subject areas, this chapter documents and advocates for development of transdisciplinary arts-based research (ABR) and culture-related projects linked to environmental challenges. Libraries contribute collections and spaces, as well as the research of library and information scientists. Libraries are currently among invisible contributors to sustainability planning and services. The chapter will link this invisibility to the value of what visual arts refer to as negative space elements in subjects ranging from traditional ecological knowledge to environmental science. Library collections, projects, and research contribute to education for sustainable development (ESD) as required to achieve the …

Not Meant To Be Read: The Stories They Silence, The Resistance That Speaks, Cristina Onea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I trace the evolution of surveillance from overt state violence to the more insidious forms of ideological policing embedded in everyday life. Through lived experience, oral history, and critical autoethnography, I explore how surveillance moves through bodies, families, institutions, and memory—not simply as external control, but as internalized rhythms of fear, vigilance, and self-surveillance. I move between my father's life under Romanian dictatorship, my own embodied inheritance, and the contemporary struggles of librarians facing ideological suppression to reveal surveillance as a structure that persists through generations, mutates across contexts, and demands new forms of resistance.

I argue …

Making Sense Of All Your Data: Working With Statistics Across Systems, Tokunbo Adeshina, Silvia Cho

Publications and Research

The City University of New York (CUNY) relies on multiple resource sharing solutions to meet user information needs. How library users interact with resources and submit information requests helps shape library processes for interpreting statistics, ensuring that resource sharing services remain accessible, discoverable, and user friendly. With 21 library institution zones sharing collections and operating a robust inter-campus lending system within its consortium, ensuring uniformity in data reporting is essential. This session presents an overview of how we reconcile data from all our resource sharing programs to get a more accurate and descriptive picture of all our resource sharing activities. …

Common Challenges Faced By Early-Career Researchers In Latin American And Small U.S. Universities, Daniela Cejas, Fatima Rodriguez Acosta, Juan Rivera-Correa

Publications and Research

Early-career researchers from Spanish-speaking Latin American countries and small U.S. universities are underrepresented in international scientific databases. They have geographical importance, infectious disease endemicity, and exceptional researchers in microbiology, but these factors do not translate to representation in high-impact scientific publications. Many reasons could be involved, including financial burdens such as the inability to pay article processing charges. Additional teaching, institutional, and service responsibilities also highly influence their research productivity. Despite this, they are expected to publish high-impact articles, and their career development highly depends on it. There is an opportunity for global peer collaboration to tackle this inequity and …

Building A Professional Learning Community To Improve Technical Services Librarians’ Teaching Preparedness: Assess, Act And Reflect, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

This action research was conducted to address the gap between having all librarians prepared to teach and technical services librarians’ unpreparedness to teach in a university library system. The implemented intervention was developing a professional learning community among technical services librarians with a variety of teaching experiences to improve teaching preparedness by sharing, discussing, and reflecting. The learning topics covered library teaching basics, motivating students, self-assessment, planning to teach, using Wikipedia for critical thinking, embedded librarianship and credit-bearing courses, teaching and research, and building a teaching portfolio and librarianship portfolio. A qualitative approach, including the implementation journal, reflective writing, and …

Artificial Intelligence In The Library: Assessing Chatbots And Chatgpt Handout, Michelle Ehrenpreis, John P. Delooper

Publications and Research

In Spring 2023, the Leonard Lief Library at Lehman College (CUNY) conducted an assessment of its library chatbot which uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT API with the goal of improving its functionality and performance. This presentation highlights the assessment’s findings, including types of questions asked, and areas where the chatbot succeeds and where it struggles. Additionally, the presenters will detail the creation of a rubric to measure the accuracy and completeness of the chatbot’s answers for users. Through this presentation, the authors will showcase best practices for libraries looking to implement or experiment with chatbots at a time when use of artificial …

Artificial Intelligence In The Library: Assessing Chatbots And Chatgpt Presentation, Michelle Ehrenpreis, John P. Delooper

Publications and Research

In Spring 2023, the Leonard Lief Library at Lehman College (CUNY) conducted an assessment of its library chatbot which uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT API with the goal of improving its functionality and performance. This presentation highlights the assessment’s findings, including types of questions asked, and areas where the chatbot succeeds and where it struggles. Additionally, the presenters will detail the creation of a rubric to measure the accuracy and completeness of the chatbot’s answers for users. Through this presentation, the authors will showcase best practices for libraries looking to implement or experiment with chatbots at a time when use of artificial …

Lbsci 700 / Info 7001. The Technology Of Information., Brandon K. Jeffries Mr.

Open Educational Resources

This course will introduce the student to the conceptual and practical elements of visual and computer literacy for the library and information science profession. Particular attention will be paid to the place and role of libraries and information centers. A laboratory session following each class will give students the opportunity to apply some of the concepts learned in class.

Interview: Deborah Parker On Becoming Belle Da Costa Greene, Jen Hoyer

Publications and Research

In November 2024, Deborah Parker and I spoke in detail about her new book, Becoming Belle Da Costa Greene, for an episode on the New Books Network Library Science podcast. We are grateful to RBM for letting us put together a complementary written interview that explores a different set of broader themes. While our audio interview is focused on Parker’s analysis of Greene’s correspondence with Bernard Berenson, this print discussion looks at the bigger picture of Greene’s place in special collections librarianship, her growth as a professional, and how we might do research on important individuals in the history of …

Lbsci 700 / Info 7001. The Technology Of Information., Brandon K. Jeffries Mr.

Open Educational Resources

This course will introduce the student to the conceptual and practical elements of visual and computer literacy for the library and information science profession. Particular attention will be paid to the place and role of libraries and information centers. A laboratory session following each class will give students the opportunity to apply some of the concepts learned in class.

Everyday Life Information Behavior, Health Information Seeking, And Hiv And Sti Awareness Among People Who Inject Drugs (Pwid), Nafiz Z. Shuva, Radia Taisir, Parvez Sazzad Mallick

Publications and Research

This study aims to explore the everyday life and health information behavior of people who inject drugs (PWID) in Bangladesh, as well as the effectiveness of HIV and STI informational programs in promoting safe injecting and sexual behavior. The study received 97 completed survey responses and conducted two focus group discussions (FGDs) with 13 PWID. Using de Certeau's everyday life practices framework, the study aims to understand the tactical information strategies of PWID in the context of a developing country where access to government services and trust in authorities may be significantly limited among marginalized populations. PWID's information needs focused …