Library and Information Science Commons^™

From Data To Discovery: Empowering Research With Comprehensive Library Services At Smu Libraries, Redzuan Abdullah

Research Collection Library

Academic libraries face increasing challenges in supporting complex research data needs across multiple financial and business databases. These challenges are amplified by the diverse nature of data sources, the intricacy of data extraction processes, and the varying levels of research support required by different user groups. While data quality issues persist, commercial databases in finance, accounting, and economics remain of significant interest for academic research (Liu et al., 2024; Reiter, 2020).

This presentation presents SMU Libraries’ comprehensive research & data services, particularly our specialized Data Discovery support, which emphasizes three distinctive offerings: expert guidance on data navigation and retrieval across …

The Language Of Space: Rhetorical Insights Into Academic Library Design And Redesign, Jessica L. Swaringen, Kelli Anne Gecawich

Georgia Library Quarterly

Spaces are arguably an academic library’s most important physical resource. As more coursework and published materials move online, students are seeking out academic libraries for where they can study and be successful, not only for what concrete resources the library can offer them. With that knowledge in mind, academic librarians are called to, as Spencer & Watstein (2017) write, “understand and appreciate that spaces not only inspire creativity, reflection, exploration and innovation but also impact learning” (p. 389). It is with this thought in mind that a couple of academic library professionals in southeast Georgia sought to research what our …

Beyond Information Literacy: Exploring Ai's Impact On Labor In Academic Libraries, Nicole Murph

Librarian Publications & Presentations

This semi-autobiographical essay explores the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on academic libraries and in particular, information literacy instruction. In exploring the ethical implications of AI and the importance of (re)imagining how AI will affect labor in academic libraries, the author utilizes sociological and historical approaches. The author also reflects on the parallels between past and current technological disruptions and transformations.

What We Talk About When We Talk About First-Generation Students: Exploring Definitions In Use On College And University Websites, Danielle E. Maurici-Pollock, Rebecca Stallworth, Sasha Khan

Publications

First-generation students (FGS) are a population that has received increasing attention, but the term has been inconsistently defined. Such inconsistency creates challenges not only for research, but for students themselves, many of whom may find they meet the FGS definition in one institutional context, but not another. In this study, we analyze how the term first-generation student is defined on the public websites of colleges and universities in the United States and Canada and discuss implications for students and academic libraries.

Library Experience Day: Fostering Student Engagement And Recruitment Through A Community Partnership, Melissa Dennis, Amanda T. Osborne

The Southeastern Librarian

This study explores the creation of a community engaged partnership between a university librarian and high school librarian. The article underscores the significance of university-school collaborations in ad-vancing K-12 education, offering insights for academic and educational institutions seeking to strength-en community engagement and recruitment initiatives. The authors discuss how the collaboration helped bolster an academic library’s strategic initiative to foster community engagement, particularly with local K-12 schools, and advance college readiness skills for area students. Collaborating with four high school librarians, the authors designed an interactive day on campus with activities and tours high-lighting the diverse roles within an academic …

Recruitment And Retention Challenges In Southeastern Us Academic Libraries, Christopher Stewart, J.B. Hill, Louise L. Lowe, Jenna Eastwood Hill

Faculty Scholarship

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify challenges to recruitment and retention in academic libraries in the southeastern United States and to identify possible solutions that can be shared with other academic library recruiters.

Design/methodology/approach – This study reports on a survey of academic library administrators that investigated the challenges to recruitment and retention in academic libraries in the southeastern United Statesafter the pandemic.

Findings – The study demonstrates that elements of the workplace, such as compensation, diversity efforts, work arrangement accommodations and external factors, impact recruitment and retention. Originality/value – This study broadens the current research …

We Are What We Maintain—Including Ourselves: Infrastructure And Interdependence Of Library Work In The Midst Of Disruption, Mary J. Snyder Broussard, Joel M. Burkholder, Jeremy Mcginniss, Donna Witek

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Library workers need a language and a framework for advocacy that effectively names and makes visible the key elements and interconnected nature of our work. This article proposes Burkholder’s and McGinniss’s (2020) maintenance schema, which consists of resources, platform, energy, and vision, as a viable language and framework for this kind of advocacy. It does this by analyzing several major issues facing academic libraries that were exacerbated by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic: declining budgets, inequalities in academic libraries, and wide-spread exhaustion among library workers. The application of the maintenance schema to these specific issues demonstrates how the schema …

Fourth Industrial Revolution And The Future Of Nigeria Academic Libraries In The 21st Century: Review Of Literature, Esther Motunrayo Ekeh

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

As the world is experiencing technological development, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is taking prominence in the provision of information to library users. This study covers the prospects and complications facing the academic libraries in Nigeria and the future of Libraries professionals. Reconnoitering this matter is crucial since 4IR has essentially altered how information is received and used by personages. Library professional is described as having knowledge of resources in all of their forms as well as the ability to acquire, organize, and disseminate these materials. The fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is characterized by a greater degree of interconnection …

Drivers And Impediments In The Adoption Of Artificial Intelligence By Academic Libraries In Nigeria, Oluyinka Titilope Afolayan

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by academic libraries globally is not without its challenges despite its diverse benefits for efficient library operations and services. This paper examined the drivers of AI adoption and the likely impediments in its adoption by academic libraries in Nigeria. The methodology adopted for this paper was a documentary/literature review search to determine the trends and patterns in the extent of AI adoption by academic libraries globally and in particular Nigeria. This paper discussed the concept of AI, application areas of AI, and impediments to the adoption of AI categorized under institutional, personal and technological …

Tracking Social Media Platform Shifts In Academic Libraries, 2019-2025 [Dataset], Holly M. Surbaugh

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The author created this supplementary data file during a research study completed in January 2025. For a sample of 233 university libraries located in the United States, the author examined current and archived versions of the organizations’ websites and noted changes in links to library-specific accounts on popular social media platforms. The goal of this research was to explore how academic libraries have responded to a period of significant change and disruption in the social media landscape. The Excel file contains the final version of the compiled data, including URLs for the reviewed websites and Internet Archive Wayback Machine captures …

Digitizing Pre-1978 Dissertations At Binghamton University Libraries, Erin Rushton, Caitlin Holton, Jamey Mcdermott

Library Scholarship

In 2023, Binghamton University Libraries initiated a project to digitize its pre-1978 dissertations and make them available in its institutional repository. This Communication on Practice provides an overview of the key decisions made before embarking on the project, the workflow, and the challenges encountered. We drew upon the experiences and lessons learned from other institutions to guide our process, and hope this paper will serve as a resource for those considering similar projects at their institutions.

Enhancing Discoverability: Transitioning A Board Game Collection From A Libguide To A Collectionbuilder Site, Hanwen Dong, Perri Moreno, Tyler Rodriguez, Julia Stone

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

As board game collections continue to grow in popularity at academic institutions, the University of Idaho Library wanted to establish an accessible and easy-to-use discovery tool for its physical game collection. At the collections’ origins, a LibGuide was created by librarians for this purpose, but as the collection records continued to grow into the triple digits, something more adaptable and customizable was necessary. In the summer of 2023, a team of librarians came together to build a custom site to house the game collection’s information using CollectionBuilder, an open-source framework for digital collections and exhibits websites that are driven by …

Assessing The State Of Archives And Archives Workers In The California State University, Stef Baldivia, Tanya M. Hollis, Ellen E. Jarosz, Laura Sorvetti, Heather M. Steele Gajewski, Diana Wakimoto

Journal of Western Archives

This article presents findings from an environmental scan of archival work at California State University (CSU), the largest public university system in the United States. Using an online survey to collect qualitative and quantitative data, the researchers were able to create a snapshot of the current state of the archives across the CSU system's campuses. This included information about staffing, compensation, collections, duties and responsibilities, and budgets, as well as challenges. While all of the archival workers are part of the same university system, there were many differences in staffing levels, staff and faculty ranks, budgets, and duties assigned to …

Pdxscholar Multi-Year Annual Report (2022-2024), Julia Stone, Sherry Buchanan, Bertrand Robinson, Stacey Schlatter, Carolee Harrison

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

We are excited to share our 2022-2024 PDXScholar Multi-Year Annual Report. This multi-year report covers the period between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024. PDXScholar, Portland State University's institutional repository, provides access to the scholarly and creative output of PSU faculty, students, and staff. In this report, we aim to highlight PDXScholar’s growth and impact through readership data, new content and collections, and feedback from our users.

The Southern Miss Bower Academic Center: A Recent Academic Library-Athletics Partnership, Blake Denton

Faculty Publications

In 2019, A. Blake Denton published a literature review that identified and described 35 partnerships between academic libraries and athletics programs at higher education institutions in the United States, 20 of which were established for library marketing and development purposes. Recognizing that the literature documenting marketing and development partnerships was dated, he published a study in 2021 that provided updated, more comprehensive accounts for eight participating institutions and an analysis of the evolving nature of their relationships over time. This third article analyzes the partnership at the University of Southern Mississippi that resulted in the relocation of the athletics program’s …

Celebrating 25 Years Of Meaningful Impact At Singapore Management University, Pin Pin Yeo, Salihin Mohammed Ali

Research Collection Library

SMU Libraries has launched a digital preservation system to store, curate, and preserve the institution’s heritage and memories. This centralized repository aims to collect content from across Singapore Management University (SMU), ensuring it is properly archived, described, and maintained. Additionally, a publicly accessible website, SMUseum (https://smuseum.smu.edu.sg/), was created to showcase the rich history of SMU.

From The Stacks To Student Success: Understanding Faculty Perceptions Of Collection Management And Its Impact On Student Use Of Library Resources, Alyshia K. Bagley, Jessica L. Swaringen

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Effective collection management is vital for a library’s ability to support the evolving needs of its academic community. Faculty engagement with library resources plays a crucial role in how students access and benefit from these collections. This research seeks to identify gaps between faculty understanding of collection management practices and their influence on student use of library resources.

This study will explore how faculty perceive collection management at GS Libraries, examining factors that shape their views and their subsequent impact on teaching, research, and collaboration with library staff. Following a review of existing literature, a survey containing quantitative and qualitative …

Harnessing The Power Of Chatgpt To Streamline Reference And Research Librarian Workflows: Sample Productivity Use Case Scenarios And Their Roi, Ladislava Khailova

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

After the public release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022, GenAI systems have been applied and tested in a wide variety of contexts, including those aimed at increasing workplace productivity. In fact, some studies estimate the GenAI enhancements to work functions to generate a shocking additional trillions of dollars annually in the nearest future, with the knowledge work industry especially likely to be impacted. This presentation uses these predictions to look into the potential of ChatGPT to enhance reference and research librarian workflows. The specific explored productivity use case scenarios include harnessing the power of the chatbot to streamline …

Beyond A Chapter: Libraries As Key Characters In Smu’S Sustainability Saga, Shameem Nilofar Maideen

Research Collection Library

No abstract provided.

Usability, Visibility, And Style: Libguides Usability Testing To Support Students’ Needs, Tera A. Ray

The Southeastern Librarian

The study aimed to discover the level of knowledge students have regarding LibGuides, the preferred navigational layout, and how students use guides to conduct research. Ten undergraduate students par-ticipated in a mixed-methods study consisting of semi-structured interviews and usability tasks. The study revealed that the usability test was the first time any of the participants had interacted with a guide, resulting in data free from bias or previous experience. Participants did not exhibit a clear prefer-ence for navigation style, and an emphasis was placed on the importance of an aesthetically pleasing design and a functional search bar. The study's findings …

Investigating The Lived Experiences Of Graduate Students At The University Of New Mexico, Holly M. Surbaugh, Olivia Baca, Liz Cooper, Mark Emmons, Teresa Y. Neely

Journal of Graduate Librarianship

Researchers at the University of New Mexico used a modified critical incident technique study to explore the lived experiences of graduate students in their roles as students, researchers, and teachers. The authors interviewed 20 graduate students in 2022 and then evaluated transcribed responses through two stages of qualitative coding. The students described their multiple roles during their graduate programs and the support they seek for their academic success and overall lives, along with common themes of struggling to secure adequate resources, both financial and social. Analysis of their responses will help align practitioner strategies and library service offerings with their …

Toward Positive Retention In Academic Libraries: A Conceptual Framework, Jennifer Stout, Sojourna Cunningham, Samantha Guss

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

It’s been nearly 25 years since ACRL and ARL named recruitment and retention of BIPOC librarians a priority for the profession, but the numbers have stagnated or even decreased. One reason for this could be that research on "recruitment and retention" in academic libraries tends to conflate these concepts and focus on recruitment, which can be more easily quantified. As a result, less attention has been paid to defining, measuring, and improving retention. Here, the researchers present a framework to better define the multiple dimensions of retention and how retention is related to organizational culture in academic libraries.

The Invisible Default: Examining Representation In Digital Collections, Kaylee P. Alexander, Dorothy Terry, Jasmine Kirby, Rachel Jane Wittmann, Anna Neatrour

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

This mixed-method study investigates the representation of race and ethnicity within the J. Willard Marriott Digital Library at the University of Utah. The digital collections analyzed in this study come from the Marriott Library’s Special Collections, which represent only a fraction of the library’s physical material (less than 1 percent), albeit those most public facing. Using a team-based approach with librarians from various disciplines and areas of expertise, this project yielded dynamic analysis and conversation combined with heavy contemplation. These investigations are informed by contemporary efforts in librarianship focused on inclusive cataloging, reparative metadata, and addressing archival silences. By employing …

"I’Ll Wait Zero Seconds": Faculty Perspectives On Serials Access, Sharing, And Immediacy, Rachel Elizabeth Scott, Anne Shelley, Chad E. Buckley, Cassie Thayer-Styes, Julie A. Murphy

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This study explores how faculty across disciplines access and share scholarly serial content and what expectations they have for immediacy. The authors conducted twenty-five in-depth, semi-structured interviews with faculty of various ranks representing all Illinois State University (ISU) colleges. The findings, presented in the words of participants and triangulated with data from local sources, suggest that faculty use a variety of context-specific mechanisms to access and share serial literature. Participants discuss how they use library services such as databases, subscriptions, interlibrary loan, and document delivery, coupled with academic social networks, disciplinary repositories, author websites, and other publicly available sources to …

Accessibility In The Academic Library: Assessing The Web Accessibility Of Neflin Member Library Websites, Cody Michaels

Publications

Web accessibility has been a topic of discussion in organizations for decades. Much ink, physical and digital, has been spilled urging developers, designers, and web administrators to build their online environment so that users of all abilities can access their content. Despite this, web accessibility remains out of reach across swathes of the Internet. The organization WebAIM conducts annual studies reviewing the accessibility of the 1,000,000 most popular websites’ homepages.1 The results for 2025 found that these pages had an average of 51 errors per page. While this represents a decrease from the previous year, there remains much work to …

Best Practices Checklist For One-Shot Library Instruction Session, William H. Hannon Library Reference & Instruction Department

Librarian Publications & Presentations

The Best Practices Checklist for One-Shot Library Instruction is a practical tool designed to help librarians implement inclusive, accessible teaching practices within the constraints of one-shot instruction sessions. Developed by the Reference & Instruction Department at the William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University, this checklist uses a two-tier structure: Essential Practices (must-do items for every session) and Enhanced Practices (recommended when time and context allow). The checklist is organized chronologically across five key areas that mirror the natural preparation and delivery flow: Pre-Session Information Gathering, Materials & Access, Content & Search Instruction, Teaching Strategies, and Classroom Environment. Grounded in …

International Students' Information-Seeking Experiences With A Library Discovery Tool, Kristen Jacobson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this parallel convergent mixed methods study was to assess how international students from non-native English-speaking backgrounds that represent significant subgroups of the U.S. international student population interact with an academic library website with a discovery tool, and the usability of the tool for these students. It explored the information-seeking behavior of a group of international students (n=14) from Asia, Saudi Arabia, and Africa, who were enrolled at a Midwestern National University. It provides usability information about the issues those students encountered and their experiences when completing 10 common academic research tasks using the university library’s discovery tool. …

Profiles Of First-Year First-Generation Students’ Library Perceptions And Use: An Intersectional, Mixed Methods Study, Megan Hodge

Theses and Dissertations

To effectively support first-generation students, academic libraries must understand their needs. However, limited library research has been conducted into how these students, who often embody multiple structurally disadvantaged identities, perceive and use academic libraries or how their intersecting identities manifest in differing library needs. This study aimed to build understanding of first-year first-generation students’ perceptions and use of academic libraries. To do so, the researcher used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. First-year first-generation students at Virginia Commonwealth University were surveyed using Winkler and Sriram’s (2015) Academic Capital Scale and Anwar et al’s (2012) AQAK: Library Anxiety Scale for Undergraduate Students. …

Fostering Future Librarians: Best Practices For Remote Internships In A Post-Pandemic Library, Yoko Ferguson, Helena Marvin

Urban Library Journal

Remote library internships in cataloging and digital scholarship can be valuable for both librarians and students. Leveraging online tools, we provide learning opportunities to library school students regardless of their time zone. In this presentation we share best practices for post-pandemic internships that nurture future librarians while tackling challenging projects. This presentation, delivered at the 2024 LACUNY Institute, explored the implementation and benefits of remote internships in academic libraries. Provided here as conference proceedings is a PDF of the slides.

An archival version of the recorded presentation can be found at https://irl.umsl.edu/library-faculty/26/.

Using Academic Librarians And The Academic Library: Survey Results From Mathematics Faculty In United States And Canada, Elizabeth Novosel, Daniel G. Kipnis, Jenni Burke, Rasitha Jayesekera

Libraries Scholarship

Presented at STEM Librarian South Conference, November 6, 2024

Despite our diligent outreach and relationship-building efforts, certain groups of faculty within STEM disciplines remain hesitant to engage with academic librarians and utilize library resources. This challenge raises a critical question: How can librarians effectively support a department when faculty members are unresponsive?

Our research team, composed of three frustrated mathematics librarians and one mathematics faculty member, recognized the need for a fresh approach. Mathematics, a department known for its independence, has received limited attention in scholarly Library and Information Science (LIS) literature. To address this gap, we embarked on a …