Library and Information Science Commons^™

Tracking Removed And At-Risk Government Information, Molly Blake, Sanga Sung, Ben Amata, Jenny Mcburney

SJSU Open Access Conference

The current U.S. administration is intentionally undermining public access to information as well as scholarly research by removing documents, reports, datasets, images, and language from government websites. In doing so, this administration is withholding publicly-funded information that we have a right to access, including data from government-sponsored research, historical information about marginalized groups, and speech transcripts. In removing these materials, the government is also deliberately sabotaging research related to topics it does not like, such as LGBTQ health, COVID, and climate change.

It is difficult to grasp the scope of this problem: how do we know when something is gone, …

Access Denied: Defending Research In A Shrinking Scholarly Landscape, Emily Kingsland

SJSU Open Access Conference

In early 2025, the U.S. Department of Education announced a reduction in the indexing of key journals in the ERIC database. As government censorship increasingly threatens the accessibility of educational research, librarians are emerging as critical defenders of open access and research transparency. This presentation reports on the proactive efforts of a Canadian academic librarian who developed actionable workarounds to address the disappearance of articles from ERIC. These missing records pose a significant challenge to researchers conducting knowledge syntheses, who face a reporting and reproducibility crisis when search results fluctuate or shrink without explanation. The implications are profound: systematic reviews …

Navigating Nih’S Revised Public Access Policy: On-The-Ground Experiences From Librarians And Researchers, Anneliese Taylor, Katie Fortney, Tim Vollmer

SJSU Open Access Conference

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) rolled out its revised Public Access Policy on July 1, 2025, in accordance with the 2022 Office of Science and Technology Policy Nelson Memo. The Nelson Memo calls on all U.S. federal funders to implement a policy requiring immediate public access to published articles and supporting datasets resulting from federal grants. On the surface, NIH’s new policy is a public good, ensuring that federally funded research outputs will no longer be held back from public access for 12 months after publication. But the implementation mechanisms of this new policy for researchers and publishers …

Predator-Prey Population Distribution, Robert Robinette, April Sheppard

Staff and Faculty Scholarship

Determining the extent of the predatory publication problem at an R2 research university, Robert and April share their discoveries as well as how that impacts library services. This was presented at the Arkansas Library Association (ArLA) conference on October 19, 2025.

Changes To Utah State University's Open Access Fund, David Advent, Yassin Nacer

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Utah State University (USU) Libraries established an open access (OA) fund in 2012 with the goal of helping USU authors offset the costs of publishing OA articles. The fund proved to be enormously popular, and funds were expended quickly each year—most recently being exhausted in less than 72 hours. In recognition of this unsustainability, as well as concerns about the rapidly changing role of OA and copyright in scholarly publishing, USU Libraries initiated significant changes to the fund. This lightning talk will share how we identified and assessed challenges with the existing OA fund, the modifications we implemented, our plans …

Enshrining Library And University Values Through The Creation Of A Policy Committee, Brian Sullivan, Rebecca B. French

Faculty Scholarship

As interprofessional organizations operating within the context of higher education, academic libraries find themselves pulled between competing forces with regards to both policies and values. Departmental, unit, library, division, university, and professional interests all hold sway over a library's decision-making and its implementation of policies and procedures, making balancing these tensions a complex endeavor. When faced with a backlog of needed policy revisions and a campus-wide review by the Provost's office that resulted in additional policy update requests, the authors formed a policy committee within their library's faculty governance body. This chapter details how we kept organizational values in mind …

Behind The Scenes Of A Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon, Rebecca Giver Johnston

Librarian Publications

Syracuse University Libraries hosted a student workshop that explored Wikipedia, its history, and its modern challenges. After a conversation and Q&A with a Wikipedia expert, librarians worked with students to make their own updates to Wikipedia, focusing especially on making improvements to pages for folks from the Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities. This lightning talk will explore how staff prepared for this event, how it went, and some takeaways from running it.

Who Let The Dogs In? Hosting A Therapy Dog Event At Your Library, Bradley P. Tolppanen, Janice Derr

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Different Perspective: Maslow's Hierarchy & Information Literacy, Amy Odwarka, Brian Keith

All Faculty Scholarship

This poster offers an innovative conceptual framework for intellectual freedom and explores information literacy as a developmental journey for learners, aligning it with stages of student experience and growing ability drawn from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The adapted system positions information literacy in a progressive journey tied to a student's academic growth, evolving from basic participation to advanced knowledge creation and intellectual independence. With this guide, libraries and instructional librarians can tailor information literacy supports based on the progression of student needs at various stages of information literacy development, some of which are foundational to success in library instruction settings. …

“Literally Made Me Cry”: The Results Of The Student Course Materials Cost Survey, Stephen Krueger, Brandon Bradley

Library Presentations

In 2024, over 300 UK students took a survey on how the cost of textbooks and other course materials impacted their academic experiences. The presenters will share highlights from the results and resources for finding solutions.

W&L Law Fall Scholarship Celebration 2025, Andrew Christensen, Michelle Cosby, Brandon Hasbrouck, Jennifer Mitchell, Melanie D. Wilson

Library Events

On October 9, 2025, the Washington and Lee Law Library hosted the fifth W&L Law Fall Scholarship Celebration. The event was co-sponsored by the Frances Lewis Law Center and took place in the Law Library's main reading room from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

On display were dozens of scholarly articles, books, chapters, and court briefs authored by the W&L Law faculty and student body between October 2022 and October 2025. Additional works were accessible online via QR codes to W&L Law Scholarly Commons institutional repository. A selection of vintage scholarship by former W&L Law professors was also on display, courtesy …

Reference At A Remote Field Station: A Case Study Of Ecology, Environmental Science And Geology Fieldwork At An Embedded Library, Thomas Gerrish

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Purpose Field station libraries, particularly those serving biological and marine research stations, represent a unique but understudied class of special libraries. This case study investigates reference services at the remote University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) to provide a baseline assessment of how such services support the information needs related to research in ecology, geology and environmental science.

Design/methodology/approach The study recorded, coded and analyzed 209 reference transactions from the 2022 and 2023 summer sessions, revealing trends in patron inquiries and the role of the reference desk. Further, the case study examined the organizational structure, community interaction and mission of …

"Appalachian Pop Culture Fairs", Heather A. Lauer

Librarian Research

This presentation explores the development, impact, and challenges of pop culture conventions in West Virginia and the implications on the broader Appalachian region. Through in-depth interviews with organizers of eight regional conventions—including HerdCon, Tsubasacon, Causeacon, and the Mothman Festival— Lauer examined the motivations behind organizing such events, the cultural and logistical hurdles faced, and the personal and communal rewards experienced by those involved. By investigating how these events foster community, promote regional tourism, and provide inclusive spaces for fandoms, the presentation highlights the importance of pop culture in shaping identity and engagement in rural Appalachia. Special attention is given to …

What Do Students Read? Let’S Talk About Data-Informed Library Collections Planning For Student Success, Nat Gustafson-Sundell, Heidi J. Southworth, Evan Rusch

Library Services Publications

Do students read? What do they read? What kinds of information resources are most used by students? What subject areas are most used by students? What do they need from their library if they are going to complete assignments? How can the library plan ahead to meet student needs? The modern academic library is mostly online and highly data driven. The MSU Library Services Collection Management Technology team briefly demonstrated some of the tools they’ve developed to understand student needs. They showcased some of the instruments they’ve used to communicate collections plans to administration, as they’ve strategized to conform to …

"There And Back Again": An Archives Story, Laurinda Weisse, Jenny Haddon

Posters, Proceedings, and Presentations: CTR Library

UNK Archives and Special Collections has been required to pack and move their holdings no fewer than four times in the past two and a half years. In late 2022, work began to pack and move the holdings of UNK’s Archives and Special Collections in advance of a 2-year multi-phase renovation of the Library building. Organization was maintained via a carefully curated numbering system and associated spreadsheet. Access was challenging throughout and reference services significantly limited while collections were in temporary storage. The collection returned to the partially renovated archival stacks in late 2023. Unfortunately, problems were immediately apparent. A …

Strengthening The Future: Sparking Growth And Connection Among Early Career Librarians, Alex Henigman, Brandon Kennedy

Library Staff Publications

Description: This presentation highlights innovative programming created to support early career librarians as they develop and grow in their professional roles. Using a case study of an Early Career Librarian Task Force specifically for medical librarians, led by early career librarians themselves, it will showcase the programs developed, share lessons learned, and offer preliminary insights into the unique needs of early career librarians. Learning Objectives: The audience will gain insight into the needs of the next generation of librarians, learn about ways to support early career librarians at their library, and leave with practical guidance for creating their own social …

Helin Board Of Directors Report 10.8.2025, Dawn Emsellem

HELIN Board of Directors reports

Minutes of the HELIN Board of Directors meeting 10.8.2025

Rehearsing For Future Scholarship: A Literature Review Elective For Medical Students, Jenny Mills, Sarah Keil

Library Faculty Scholarship

Objective This poster presents a four-week literature review elective for medical students, co-designed and co-taught by library and medical faculty. We will share course materials, including session topics, readings, assignments, and feedback from both instructors and students.

Methods The elective was first offered in June 2025 and taught by two library faculty members, one basic science faculty member, and one clinical faculty member. Five rising second year medical students enrolled, working in two groups to develop focused research questions and complete review protocols within the four-week time frame. Instruction emphasized literature review methodology, particularly systematic approaches applicable across review types. …

Lanthorn, Vol. 60, No. 05, October 6, 2025, Grand Valley State University

Volume 60, August 4, 2025 – current

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Klik Klik Boom [Book Review], Sierra Schuman

Disability in LIS (DisLIS)

This review covers Doug Warner's comic series Klik Klik Boom. The review discusses how the non-speaking protagonist is depicted, and there's also discussion of how post-traumatic stress manifests in the protagonist and a supporting character. The review also covers the plot and illustration of the comic.

Livingness As A Liberatory Framework For Decolonizing Lis Praxis, Sarah Appedu

School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship

The fields of library and information science (LIS) are in a pivotal moment. While the stakes may seem higher than ever, Indigenous, Black, and queer communities have long anticipated this moment, demonstrating how libraries and archives are not yet equipped to meaningfully participate in the project of decolonization. I build on existing calls for decolonization in our discourse and practices by drawing attention to the living/non-living dualism in our ontologies and the ways it constrains our ability to reconcile with our fields’ colonizing origins. I contemplate what it would mean to treat all information as endowed with a sense of …

Imposter Phenomenon In A New Library Position, Karlene T. Clark

Librarian Posters and Presentations

This past year, Karlene moved into a reference position and went through a period of self doubt. This presentation will provide resources for others going through transitions at work, including academic resources and ways to calm and reassure yourself.

Social Media Prevalence: Information Anxiety Among The Librarians: Survey Study, Muhammad Yousuf Ali, Wasim Shahid Khawaja

Libraries

Library and information professionals also use social media platforms through computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones due to the excessive use of social media and health issues faced by library professionals. The primary purpose of this paper is to bring up the issue of information overload and its impact on the professional lives of librarians. It is a quantitative study, and survey methodology is used as the data collection source. A total of 162 library professionals participated in this study. The findings of this study showed that excessive use of social media anxiety has effects on the health of library …

Metadata Wrangling At Scale: One Librarian's Quest To Tame Our Electronic Theses Collection, Zeineb Yousif

Librarian Posters and Presentations

What does eight years, partnerships with your ILL and Cataloging departments, and several student workers get you? Amazing progress on your quest to digitize 140 years worth of theses and dissertations completed at your university! But also...real quality control struggles. This presentation will share lessons learned from a large scale retrospective digitization project including how to coordinate across departments and staffing changes, avoid duplicating effort, and use digital tools like Excel and OpenRefine to identify and correct metadata errors after the fact.

Leadership And Advocacy In Technical Services: A Conversation With Melanie Mcgurr, Christina Beis, Jessica Morales

University Libraries Faculty Publications and Presentations

Technical services in academic libraries are often misunderstood or not widely known, yet they play a critical role in supporting research, teaching, and discovery. As libraries evolve to meet the demands of digital collections, AI-assisted metadata, and inclusive cataloging practices, technical services professionals are at the forefront of these challenges and opportunities. In this interview, Melanie McGurr, Associate Dean of Collections and Technical Services at Michigan State University, shares insights from her career journey, discusses the most pressing issues in technical services, and offers advice for those considering a leadership role.

6 Essential Booth Library Updates For Fall 2025, Anna Nelson

Library Publications

No abstract provided.

Library News-- October, 2025, Rwu University Library

Library Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Himmelfarb Library Liaison Letter - October 2025, The George Washington University, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library

Himmelfarb Library Liaison Letters

No abstract provided.

Open Access Week: What's New In Open Access Publishing At Utrgv, William Flores

University Library Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Understanding Faculty Engagement With Transformative Publishing Agreements, Andrea Goldstein Shipper, Marlowe Bogino, Daniel G. Kipnis, Benjamin H. Saracco

Libraries Scholarship

Transformative agreements, also known as read and publish agreements, are a journal subscription model used to facilitate both access to scholarly content and Open Access (OA) publishing for researchers. The Rowan University Libraries (RUL) have adopted 17 of these agreements in addition to supporting an OA publishing fund. This research study aims to discover how the use of these agreements has influenced perceptions of OA publishing and publishing decisions of faculty.