Library and Information Science Commons^™

Notes From The Editors, Derek Stadler, Leila Walker

Urban Library Journal

We are very pleased to welcome you to the second issue of the 25^th volume of Urban Library Journal, which is a collection of proceedings from the LACUNY Institute held on May 3, 2019. The theme of the Institute was “Students Are Evolving, Are Libraries Adapting?” It addressed how today’s academic libraries face challenges to the traditional model. As students are using technology, social media, and academic spaces in new ways, how are librarians educating the students of today and supporting their needs?

Community College Librarians And The Acrl Framework: Findings From A National Study, Susan T. Wengler, Christine Wolff-Eisenberg

Publications and Research

This study explored community college librarians’ engagement with the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. A national online survey with 1,201 community college librarian respondents reveals limited familiarity with and integration of the Framework into community college instruction to date. Findings indicate an openness to future adoption, as well as substantial interest in targeted professional development and a version of the Framework adapted for community college campuses. These results contribute benchmark instructional data on an understudied section of academic librarianship and add to the growing body of research on how librarians have updated teaching practices in response to …

Cultivating Belonging: Diversity And Inclusion Initiatives At The Leonard Lief Library, Lehman College--Cuny, Joan Jocson-Singh, Alison Lehner-Quam, Rebecca Arzola

Publications and Research

For the library profession, diversity and inclusion have increasingly become part and parcel of upholding the fundamental values that librarianship promotes. As the ACRL Diversity Standards state:

"Diversity is an essential component of any civil soci- ety. It is more than a moral imperative; it is a global necessity. Everyone can benefit from diversity, and diverse populations need to be supported so they can reach their full potential for themselves and their communities."*

For librarians at the Leonard Lief Library, Lehman College, a new Diversity and Inclusion Working Group (DIWG) was created in early 2018 to foster and cultivate an …

Are We Represented As Who We Are? An Assessment Of Library Faculty Online Profiles Within The City University Of New York, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

Academic librarians have been wrestling with faculty status and rank for many decades and their dual identities as professionals and faculty made their identity representations in the online profile environment designed by colleges and universities even more complicated. Misrepresentation or insufficient representation of academic librarians’ identities could lead to jeopardy of their public images within colleges and universities, or even trigger suspicion that academic librarians bring an impediment to academic standards by achieving less or none. Therefore, this study surveyed library faculty’s online profiles within the libraries of the City University of New York and tried to assess whether library …

Determining Shelving Accuracy Via Sampling In A Community College Library, John P. Delooper, Devika Gonsalves

Publications and Research

During the Fall 2017 semester, staff at the Hudson County Community College (HCCC), Library began to notice that many books listed as available in the catalog were often not being found on the shelves when patrons attempted to retrieve them. This situation puzzled library leadership because HCCC had recently conducted an inventory and removed all missing items from its holdings. To determine the cause of this discrepancy, HCCC staff decided to sample the library’s collection to determine if books were available at the expected locations. From this, the library found that a high percentage of its books were not present …

Using Visual Prompts In Research, Maura A. Smale, Mariana Regalado

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Sas Data Curation Primer, Qiong Xu

Publications and Research

This primer was created as part of the "Specialized Data Curation" Workshop #3 held at Washington University in St. Louis, MO on November 5-6, 2019. Exploring SAS application and how researchers generated, stored, and shared their SAS data sets, this work summarized the key features of SAS data and explained how to curate SAS data in institutional data repositories. This primer can be used as a manual for research data curators or librarians to document SAS data for the purpose of data preservation and sharing.

Professionalism Reconsidered, Emily Drabinski

Publications and Research

A review of the article "Professionalism Reconsidered" by Bundy & Wasserman.

Reciprocal On-Site Access: Sharing Information By Sharing Library Spaces, Beth Posner, Dennis Massie, Jennifer Devito, Katharine Haldeman

Publications and Research

On-site reciprocal access to libraries is a valuable benefit of consortial membership. This article details its advantages, offers a sample of some ways in which consortia facilitate such access and reviews the work of the authors, within the SHARES consortium, in this area. Relevant challenges to creating policies, as well as suggestions about how to determine best practices, will also be offered for librarians and their partners to consider and build upon.

Getting Your Bearings: Understanding Organizational Culture, Linda Miles, Susanne Markgren

Publications and Research

What do you know about your institution’s organizational culture? How do individuals, collaborative partners, and teams get work done? How are decisions really made? How is change introduced and implemented? How do you know when to go with the flow and when and how to resist or stand your ground? Every workplace is different, but awareness of some common challenges, a set of questions to help librarians interpret what they observe around them and profiles of organizational dynamics in action will support those working to cultivate a professional practice in often complex library environments.

Gathering And Lending Support: Relationships, Linda Miles, Susanne Markgren

Publications and Research

What roles can professional relationships play across a career? How do overlapping and networked relationships help an individual develop professionally, succeed, get ahead, and provide satisfaction and meaning? And what can a librarian do to foster these connections in their own practice? In this chapter, we consider the why, what, who, and how of networking and relationships.

Validating And Developing The User Engagement Scale In Web-Based Visual Information Searching, Qiong Xu

Publications and Research

Guided by the theoretical frameworks of interactive information searching and user engagement (UE), this study proposed sense discovery (SD) as a UE attribute and suggested a refined four-factor user engagement scale (UES) model for the measurement of users’ psychological involvement in web-based visual information searching. Using a mixed-methods approach based on a survey, this study confirmed the inter-item reliability of the original six-factor UES in three visual contexts—a general visual context, image searching on Google (ISG), and video searching on YouTube (VSY). Principal component analyses (PCA) partially confirmed the internal consistency of the original six UE subscales and suggested conceptual …

The Labour Of Austerity: Absurdity, Performative Resistance, And Cultural Transformation, Nora Almeida

Publications and Research

This essay explores the social-psychic toll of prolonged austerity on academic librarians and the range of strategies that have (or could) serve as tools of resistance. Using a combination of theoretical analysis and autoethnography, I examine the emotional impact of bottomless and invisible labour imposed by austerity and the ways institutions use emotional coercion to promote self-surveillance, meta-work, and hyper-productivity. Following this analysis, I discuss the ways that oppressive institutional cultures silence dissent and absorb common resistance tactics advocated by educators. Finally, I introduce several examples of performance-based resistance projects and explore how creative, personal, and absurd forms of protest …

Four Legs Make A Table: Service And Identity In Academic Librarianship, Maura A. Smale

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Libraries And Their Publics In The United States, Maura A. Smale

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Say You Want A Renovation: Using Instagram To Document A Library Renovation At Lehman College, John Delooper, Michelle Ehrenpreis

Urban Library Journal

This paper discusses how the Leonard Lief Library at Lehman College is documenting its renovation via the social media platform Instagram. It discusses the origin of project, why we chose Instagram and how we chose to highlight that social media platform on our Library’s web page. We explain what choices we have made and what strategies we chose to effectively document the renovation. We also discuss the challenges we have encountered, and how we overcame those challenges to reach student audiences in new and engaging ways.

Say You Want A Renovation: Using Instagram To Document A Library Renovation At Lehman College, John P. Delooper, Michelle Ehrenpreis

Publications and Research

This paper discusses how the Leonard Lief Library at Lehman College is documenting its renovation via the social media platform Instagram. It discusses the origin of project, why we chose Instagram and how we chose to highlight that social media platform on our Library’s web page. We explain what choices we have made and what strategies we chose to effectively document the renovation. We also discuss the challenges we have encountered, and how we overcame those challenges to reach student audiences in new and engaging ways.

Twitter Use By Academic Libraries In New York State, Sheena Philogene

Urban Library Journal

Twitter can be a productive tool for academic libraries to use when sharing information, marketing services, and building relationships with students, yet it is difficult to know whether academic libraries are utilizing this platform by creating an independent library account. Furthermore, if academic libraries do have accounts, it is valuable to understand what academic libraries use Twitter for, and what kinds of media they share. The purpose of this study then is to investigate whether academic libraries in New York State (NYS) use Twitter, and if they do, how and why. Based on a sample of 226 academic libraries of …

Information Literacy In Place-Based Interdisciplinary Teaching And Learning, Anne E. Leonard

Publications and Research

This chapter explores the role of information literacy in virtual or hybrid place-based interdisciplinary courses. Whether teaching as a guest lecturer or as a co-instructor, I infuse information literacy competencies into assignments, relying on the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Four of the six frames of the Framework map especially well to interdisciplinary teaching and learning: information has value, authority is contested and contextual, research as inquiry, and searching as strategic exploration. Through searching in special collections and archives and integrating digitized primary sources into research projects students engage in a virtual exploration …

Scaffolded Research Skills Series For Nutrition And Dietetics Students: A Collaboration, Lee Ann Fullington

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Reflection Toolkit: Strategies For Facilitating Reflection In The Classroom, Meghmala Tarafdar, Elizabeth Digiorgio, Alison Cimino, Sebastian Murolo, Miseon Kim, Ilse Schrynemakers

Open Educational Resources

This Reflection Toolkit, compiled by the faculty inquiry group (FIG), includes classroom strategies for integrating reflection into one's existing syllabi. The lesson plans highlight how to encourage effective student reflections.The toolkit includes best practices to facilitate reflection in classes across the disciplines in the context of a variety of student-centered activities (including group-work, online learning, and interactive modules).

Supporting The Changing Practices Of Teaching In Business At Queens College, City University Of New York, James Tasato Mellone, Edward F. Wall Iii, Qiong Xu

Publications and Research

This investigation sheds light on the teaching practices of Queens College (QC) faculty in Business. It identifies the Business faculty’s teaching support needs in order to develop ideas for improving Library services to them. This report is the result of research conducted under the guidance of Ithaka S+R, and in accordance with Office of Regulatory Compliance procedures at QC. Using a grounded theory approach to qualitative research, the investigators conducted in-person audio-recorded semi-structured interviews of seven full-time QC faculty who teach Business courses. Evidence derived from the transcribed interviews informed analysis of the current state of QC’s Business teaching experience, …

Academic Librarians Serving Diverse Populations Of Multilingual Students, Alexandra A. De Luise, Kanu A. Nagra, Bernadette M. López-Fitzsimmons, Michael W. Handis, Jeremy Czerw

Publications and Research

A group of academic librarians working in community and four-year colleges, graduate programs and other settings present strategies and approaches for serving diverse multilingual populations. Multilingual students improve their awareness and understanding of United States academic libraries and higher education when librarians are cognizant of their needs. Encounters can occur at the research desk, in classroom instruction, and during research consultations. Also included are tips on how academic librarians can assist multilingual and international students, including how to improve communication. Based on an ACRL 2019 panel discussion of the same title.

Innovative Collaborations: Social Work Student Interns At Public Libraries, Sarah C. Johnson

Publications and Research

While the collaborative trend among professional social workers and librarians is garnering much-deserved attention, literature about social work students partnering with public libraries is virtually non-existent. In fact, there are at least 73 partnerships yet a scarcity of academic literature addresses social work interns within public libraries. While there are students at Canadian libraries, this research focuses on the bulk of known partnerships based in the United States. Emerging from a mix of interviews and public resources, the author’s inquiry fosters this call to action: Social work educators must initiate interagency collaboration with libraries in order for students to expand …

The Burgeoning Information Universe: Implication For Social Work Education And Practice, Sarah C. Johnson Mslis, Lmsw, Margaret Bausman Lcsw-R, Mslis, Sarah Laleman Ward Mlis, Ma

Publications and Research

The information universe is fierce and ubiquitous, replete with a 24 hour news cycle, trolls, bots, fake news, predatory publishers, and paywalls. The exponential acceleration in access to information during these nascent years of the 21st century is simultaneously a victory for egalitarianism and promotion of social equity as well as a daunting hotbed for scurrilous and obfuscated resources requiring discerning and supple information literacy skills to efficiently and effectively navigate an ever burgeoning wealth of knowledge. If, as the above quotations imply, life-long learning and contribution to the knowledge foundation is an ethical standard for professional social workers and …

Supporting The Changing Practices Of Teaching In Business - Baruch Summary, Ryan Lee Phillips, Louise Klusek, Charles Terng

Publications and Research

This report details the results of a study examining the teaching practices of business faculty at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, City University of New York. The contents within cover how instructional resources and services are developed and used to support business faculty and their pedagogy. This report is the local results of Baruch College and the Newman Library’s portion of a larger suite of parallel studies with several other institutions of higher education in the U.S., coordinated by Ithaka S+R, a not-for-profit research and consulting service. Conclusions and recommendations detail targeted library programs and potential collaborations …

Lacuny Interlibrary Loan Roundtable Meeting Minutes, October 2019, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Citations Needed: Wikidata And The Scholarly Publishing Ecosystem, Megan Wacha

Publications and Research

Since Wikidata’s launch in 2012 as an open, collaboratively edited knowledge base, it’s held great promise for the library and scholarly communication community more broadly. Institutions and individual information professionals turned Wikidatans are using Wikidata to build a community-owned infrastructure for the bibliographic ecosystem, including open source tools that generate profiles of scholars, organizations, and publications. This workshop will introduce participants to Wikidata and its linked data infrastructure, including opportunities for hands-on editing and an overview of tools that facilitate data contribution and use. Participants will leave prepared to connect with existing Wikidata initiatives, and with entry points to launch …

Digital Collaborations: A Survey Analysis Of Digital Humanities Partnerships Between Librarians And Other Academics, Jessica Wagner Webster

Publications and Research

The present study will investigate the perceptions of information professionals about their role in the work of digital humanities scholars, as well as the perceptions of digital humanities scholars on the role of information professionals in their research. While other scholarly literature has considered collaborations between these groups via surveys or interviews with small project teams, the present study will provide a large-scale analysis of collaborations using survey responses from more than 500 scholars, librarians, and archivists. Questions sought to determine the extent to which these groups collaborate with one another on project teams; how these collaborations unfold and who …

Special Issue Introduction: Labor In Academic Libraries, Emily Drabinski, Aliqae Geraci, Roxanne Shirazi

Publications and Research

Labor in academic libraries has reemerged as an area of critical interest in both academic library and archives communities. Librarians and archivists have long worked to counter the diminishment of their labor within an academy that centers the concerns of disciplinary faculty who may, in turn, see knowledge workers as a footnote to the scholarly enterprise. Recent years have seen a renewed attention to the social and economic conditions of our work, as researchers turned to topics such as affective labor in libraries and archives, attitudes toward labor unions, and information work under capitalism (Sloniowski 2016; Mills and McCullough 2018; …