Library and Information Science Commons^™

Now More Important Than Ever: Understanding Censorship, Fighting Book Challenges, And Celebrating Banned Books Week, Rachel Hooper, Stephanie White, Jennifer Long

The Southeastern Librarian

Although censorship is an international problem with a long history, American public and school libraries have faced increased censorship efforts from parents and politicians concerning materials available to children over the past few years. Just this past year, book challenges resulted in heated debates and book removals from the library shelves across the U.S. Now more than ever, it is important to understand censorship, keep abreast of recent legislation and developments, fight book challenges, and celebrate Banned Books Week. While there have been some setbacks in fighting book challenges, library advocates are encouraged by recent success stories. The American Library …

The Life And Music Of Booker “Bukka” White: Recalling The Blues, Tim Dodge

The Southeastern Librarian

David W. Johnson Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2024 ISBN: 9781496817518 260 p. $99.00 (Hbk)

In Memory Of Dr. Gordon N. Baker: A Life Of Service, Leadership, And Love For Libraries, Crystal Gates

The Southeastern Librarian

Dr. Gordon N. Baker, Dean of Libraries Emeritus at Clayton State University, passed away after a lifetime of unwaver-ing dedication to libraries, library workers, and the communities they serve. Affectionately known as “Mr. Library” throughout Georgia and beyond, Dr. Baker’s life was a powerful testament to servant leadership, advocacy, and an enduring commitment to ad-vancing the library profession.

Anatomy Of A Purple State: A North Carolina Politics Primer, David W. Young

The Southeastern Librarian

Christopher A. Cooper Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2024 ISBN: 9781469681719 216 p. $22.00 (Pbk)

Unpalatable: Stories Of Pain And Pleasure In Southern Cookbooks, Adam Johnson

The Southeastern Librarian

Carrie Helms Tippen Jackson: University Press of Mississippi , 2024 ISBN: 9781496854803 264 p. $30.00 (Pbk)

An Interview With Dan Leach, Author Of Junah At The End Of The World, Melissa Lockaby

The Southeastern Librarian

Dan Leach Spartanburg: Hub City Press, 2025 ISBN: 9798885740494 217 p. $17.95 (Pbk)

News From The States

The Southeastern Librarian

No abstract provided.

I Hate It Here, Please Vote For Me: Essays On Rural Political Decay, Peter R. Dean

The Southeastern Librarian

Matthew Ferrence Morgantown: West Virginia Uni-versity Press, 2024 ISBN: 9781959000273 228 p. $21.99 (Pbk)

Digital Commons: Publishing Scholarship For Open Access, Madison Price

Faculty Submissions

A presentation created and given by Madison Price for the 2025 Faculty Professional Development Day.

Session description: This session will introduce and discuss Open Access and Open Educational Resources and the university's online repository Digital Commons. We will cover what open access means, the benefits of it, what Digital Commons has to offer, and current concerns regarding publishing research in the age of AI.

Committed: Remembering Native Kinship In And Beyond Institutions [Book Review], George E. Gottschalk

Disability in LIS (DisLIS)

Committed is a nuanced history of the Canton Indian Insane Asylum.

Shrink: Story Of A Fat Girl [Book Review], Jessica Luetger

Disability in LIS (DisLIS)

Armed with research, personal experience, and stunning art, Rachel M. Thomas shows readers the experience of being a fat woman and how society regularly views, fears, and tries to control fat bodies.

Counter-Cartographies [Book Review], Jessica Schomberg

Disability in LIS (DisLIS)

An examination of the work of performance artists as that art relates to pre-DSM 5 diagnostic concepts of autism. French anti-institutionalization activist and experimental filmmaker Fernand Deligny is the artist under primary discussion. Some attention is also paid to the art of Pope.L and Mel Baggs.

For Researchers In Literature, This Database Offers A Vast Array Of Resources, Janice Schuster

Library Faculty and Staff papers

Despite some gaps in coverage and shortcomings in the user experience, EBSCO’s LitBase impresses with the size and diversity of its collection.

The Impending Blindness Of Billie Scott [Book Review], Jj Pionke

Disability in LIS (DisLIS)

The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott by Zoe Thorogood is the story of a young artist who is unexpectedly going blind due to retina detachment. She has about two weeks to create ten paintings for an exhibition and she goes on a journey to do just that.

Extremity [Book Review], Sierra Schuman

Disability in LIS (DisLIS)

This review covers the Extremity comic series by Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer, and Rus Wooton. In addition to discussing disability representation (as the protagonist, Thea, has her right hand forcibly removed), this review will also focus on the comic's themes, visual style, and hyperviolence.

Reviewing The Need For Subject-Specific Regional Professional Development Opportunities For Business Librarians, Annette Bochenek, Heather A. Howard

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This paper reviews the need for regional professional development opportunities for business librarians, examining the benefits and drawbacks that business librarians experience when attending national, subject-specific, and regional conferences, from the perspective of the creators and organizers of the Midwest Business Librarian Summit (MBLS). Using information gained regarding what benefits librarians seek when considering conference attendance as well as the obstacles or challenges experienced, this paper offers information about extant regional conferences for business librarians as well as suggestions for developing an in-person, subject-specific regional conference targeted toward business librarians.

Social Media Fragility Indicators: A Framework For Evaluating Social Media As Fragile States, Caroline A. Haythornthwaite

iSchool - All Scholarship

Social Media Fragility Indicators: A framework for evaluating social media as fragile states

Presented at the Media Sociology Symposium, August 7th 2025

In the uncharted domain of cyberspace, social media platforms have stepped in and stepped up as state-like entities – social states – enacting governance structures supporting a variety of state services: security to safeguard user data, public services such as content moderation, regulations for civil behavior laid out in platform standards, and policing and sanctioning behavior. As social media has increasingly become the site for public discourse, platform policies are establishing these social media as ‘de facto regulators’ …

From Policy To Pedagogy: Applying Infodemic Governance To Instructional Design, Bethany S. Mcgowan

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This article presents a Delphi study that defines key ethical and regulatory principles underpinning Finland’s national strategy for managing infodemics. Drawing on three rounds of consultation with Finnish experts from health, policy, and library sectors, the study surfaces foundational elements of national infodemic management—including transparency, accountability, inclusion, and adaptability—as well as gaps in digital equity, curricular responsiveness, and cross-sector collaboration. These expert-defined priorities are analyzed alongside the World Health Organization’s Infodemic Management Agenda, which serves as a pedagogical scaffold for identifying instructional tensions in health information literacy education. Findings are further interpreted through four information diplomacy anchors: agenda-setting, persuasive framing, …

Interview With Paul Castle On Adoroscopes, Jj Pionke

Disability in LIS (DisLIS)

JJ Pionke interviews Paul Castle about his book Adoroscopes and his creative process as a visual artist who has a degenerative eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa.

Innovating Digital Library User Experience: A Student-Led "Learn By Doing" Collaboration, Heather L. Cribbs, Camille L. Paradis, Danielle T. Daugherty

Library Scholarship

This case study presents a year-long user experience (UX) research project that redesigned Cal Poly’s Kennedy Library website for the first time in over a decade. Grounded in the university’s “Learn by Doing” pedagogy, students led all phases: identifying top user tasks, validating usability methods, and testing a WordPress prototype. The project emphasized real-world skill-building, with students serving as UX researchers, designers, and developers. Findings from a campus-wide top tasks survey shaped the development of usability tests, revealing critical pain points and guiding iterative improvements. Students conducted and analyzed usability testing with Loop11, uncovering user needs related to search functionality, …

Acquisitions Unit Annual Report 2024-2025, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Annual Report of the Acquisitions Unit, University Libraries, University of Rhode Island for FY2025. Covers personnel, work flow, special projects, and serial, monograph, and e-resource acquisitions. Supplemental files include data on library materials expenditures by a number of variables as well as important working documents from the year.

Lanthorn, Vol. 60, No. 01, August 4, 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.

Mississippi Libraries Volume 87, Number 1 And 2

Mississippi Libraries

Complete issue of Vol. 87, Nos. 1 and 2 of Mississippi Libraries

Book Reviews, Melissa Brooks, Justin Easterday

Mississippi Libraries

Reviews of:

Watson, J. and J. Thomas, Jr., eds., Faulkner's Families. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2023. 247 pp. $30.00 (Paperback).

Lemco, A. (2023). Wading In: Desegregation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Univ. Press of Mississippi. 206 pp. $22 (Paperback).

First Regional Library Celebrates 75 Years, David Brown

Mississippi Libraries

In 1947, the Citizen’s Library Movement of DeSoto County was formed to advocate for public libraries in the communities of Northwest Mississippi. These early visionaries saw the advantages of having a regional library system to share resources and materials. The Movement’s efforts led to the Supervisors of DeSoto, Lafayette, Panola, and Tate Counties to form First Regional Library in 1950, the first multi-county library system in Mississippi. In 1968, Tunica County joined the library system.

These communities have shown much growth in the past 75 years, and First Regional Library has grown with the communities it serves.. When First Regional …

Mla Annual Conference 2024 Recap, Janessa Ullendorf

Mississippi Libraries

Recap of the 2024 Mississippi Library Association Conference held in Natchez, Mississippi on October 9-11, 2024.

Bridging The Gap: Fostering Collaboration And Professional Development With University And School Librarian Partnerships, Melissa Dennis, Melody Dale

Mississippi Libraries

In 1999, the Mississippi State University Libraries established the MegaResource School Librarian Workshop, a technology-focused workshop that provided K-12 librarians an opportunity to earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs). Over the past 25 years, the workshop has evolved to meet the ever-changing needs of school librarians, however, the popularity of the workshop and limited spacing meant there was often a waiting list, creating an opportunity for other institutions to help fill this need. In 2022, academic librarians and deans from Mississippi universities met to discuss ways that the University of Mississippi Libraries and others could create more outreach opportunities, specifically for …

Looking Ahead: Evolving Technology And Service In Mississippi Public Libraries, Gabriel Morley

Mississippi Libraries

Over the past two decades, Mississippi public libraries have experienced a significant shift in how patrons access technology and information. Once central to bridging the digital divide, public computers and in-person reference services are now in decline, reflecting broader trends in digital access and self-service information seeking. Between 2013 and 2023, computer use sessions in Mississippi libraries dropped by 75%, while reference transactions decreased by over 50% from 2003-2023. This article explores the evolution of library technology services in Mississippi public libraries and offers a forward-thinking vision for the future. It argues that adaptability, innovation, and strategic partnerships are key …

Slis Notes: The Ai Elephant In The Room, Stacy Creel, Andrew Sims

Mississippi Libraries

Notes and updates from the Director of the School of Library and Information Science at The University of Southern Mississippi. This column discusses the emergence of new AI tools and their potential effects on libraries.

President's Page, Matt Gully

Mississippi Libraries

Updates from the President of the Mississippi Library Association.