Library and Information Science Commons^™

National Agricultural Library (Nal) Search., Leah Everitt, Sonya Lemke

Publications

SEARCH is the USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL)'s main discovery platform that provides integrated access to the NAL Digital Collections, Special Collections, PubAg and AGRICOLA. NAL SEARCH is a valuable tool for health science librarians, students, and professionals seeking veterinary science, nutrition, or animal experiment alternatives. This article aims to give users a comprehensive overview of this resource.

Lesson Plan For Dataone Lifecycle’S “Describe” Stage Using Historical Data From The Alabama Insane Hospital Annual Report (Aihar) Collection, Marla Hertz, Tricia Martone

Libraries Professional Work

This activity will teach the value of documentation in research data management using real data from Alabama mental institutions. During the Describe stage of data management, the why, who, what, when, where, and how of the data is provided to improve the interpretation and reuse of research data. This lesson includes options to complete the activity in an analog or digital fashion and is appropriate for undergraduate students and up.

Learning outcomes:

• Learners will be able to articulate the value of documentation in data creation and sharing.
• Learners will be able to construct a data README to describe their data …

The First Cut Is (Hopefully) The Deepest, Michelle Colquitt

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Keep It 100 @ The Sea*: Navigating The Choppy Waters Of Departmental Change, Michelle Colquitt

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Reshaping Academic Libraries As Dynamic Partners And Knowledge Hubs For Research Productivity And Professional Development For Academics, Abdullahi Olayinka Isiaka, Benjamin Adebisi Bamidele, Adelani Rotimi Ibitoye, Abdullahi Adebola Yusuf, Kaliat Oyindamola Abdulwahab, Ajeigbe Emmanuel Afolami, Ifelayo Esher Bamidele

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Academic libraries have long been regarded as repositories of knowledge, but their roles are rapidly evolving to meet the growing demands of research productivity and professional development among academics. This paper explores how libraries are transforming into dynamic partners and knowledge hubs to facilitate access to resources, tools, and services that enhance research output and academic growth among academics. This study adopted a survey design approach. The population of this study is all the 86 academic librarians from the nine university libraries in Kwara State. Total enumeration sampling technique was used and data were collected via questionnaire from the respondents. …

Teaching Inquiry As Conversation: Bringing Wonder To Life, Barbara K. Stripling, Darryl Toerian

Learning Hub

In Teaching Inquiry as Conversation, Barbara Stripling and Darryl Toerien invite school librarians, classroom teachers, and education leaders into a deeper conversation about what inquiry can make possible for learners. Building on the Stripling Model of Inquiry and Toerien’s FOSIL framework, the book presents reflective inquiry as more than an academic process. It is a whole-child approach that helps students develop curiosity, identity, cultural responsiveness, voice, agency, and lifelong learning skills.

In their ALiVE! Library Project interview with Dr. David Loertscher, Stripling and Toerien discuss inquiry as a communal process of coming to know and understand the world. Their …

Volume 46, Number 2, June 2026 Olac Newsletter, Laura Kane Mcelfresh, Kyla Jemison, Tanesa G. King, Nerissa Lindsey, Amanda Mack, Michael Herrick, Heather Pretty, Lisa Romano, Janelle Zetty

OLAC Newsletters

Digital version of the June 2026 issue of the OLAC Newsletter.

Joining Forces: Enhancing Website Usability Through Ux And Assessment At An Academic Library, Josie Cotton, Liz Bober

Researchers, Instructors, & Staff Scholarship

In this chapter, we show how we used assessment and user experience (UX) methods to improve our library’s website. We conducted usability testing, during which we observed participants complete tasks on our website. To help support our testing, we used our library’s biennial user satisfaction survey, where we included several targeted questions that assessed user engagement with the website. We used the results of both assessments to inform updates to the website. Together, the results of our usability testing and survey provide a full picture of website use and lead to a more user-centered website. While the survey was quantitative …

Field Report: Communicating The Uottawa Library Collection Rightsizing Effort, Mackenzie Kathmann

Collaborative Librarianship

This field report examines the development and evaluation of a communications strategy for an academic university library’s multi-year Collection Rightsizing Effort. Recognizing that weeding projects often provoke stakeholder concerns around transparency and consultation, the project team adopted best practices from the Weeding Communications in the Collections Lifecycle Project Communications Matrix framework, developed by a subgroup of the joint Rosemont/ Partnership Communications and Advocacy Working Group, to guide and assess communication practices. The report outlines the creation, evaluation and improvements made to a comprehensive communications strategy. Survey results from the first year reveal strong awareness of the project and shared print …

Activating Shared Print As A Strategy For Legacy Print Access, Michael M. Brewer, Niamh A. Wallace

Collaborative Librarianship

While most libraries participate in collaborative shared print efforts but tend only to rely on them as a failsafe, this article underscores the timeliness and importance of more libraries “activating” shared print as a core strategy for access to legacy print content. The University of Arizona’s experiences with SCELC and HathiTrust for monographs and the WEST-Internet Archive pilot for serials are discussed as examples of how libraries might choose to pursue this approach.

Trends In U.S. Academic/Public Joint-Use Libraries Since 2000, Karen Tatarka

Collaborative Librarianship

Joint-use academic/public libraries in the United States experienced a surge in popularity at the turn of the millennium following the formation of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose, CA and the Alvin Sherman Library in Davie, FL. These partnerships were met with a mix of enthusiasm and trepidation, and as the number of joint-use libraries grew, a corresponding body of literature developed to help guide prospective partners through the process. Now, twenty-five years after the boom, this article provides a current literature review and examines the existing landscape of academic/public joint-use libraries in the United States. …

What Collaboration Means To Me: From Coordination To Collective Action: Cclp And Cyclops As Infrastructure For Collaborative Collection Stewardship, Boaz Nadav-Manes

Collaborative Librarianship

Academic libraries face growing pressure to manage complex collections under significant resource constraints. While consortial collaboration has long been recognized as a strategic response, existing models remain limited, often failing to influence the full collections lifecycle. This article examines how the Collaborative Collections Lifecycle Project (CCLP) and the Cyclops platform together offer a new model for moving beyond coordination toward genuine collective action in collection stewardship. CCLP provides a community-governed framework structuring collaboration from selection and acquisition through preservation and deaccessioning, while Cyclops complements it with an open, analytics-driven infrastructure that aggregates data across institutions, enabling cross-institutional analysis and translating …

The More Things Change...Reaffirming Our Commitment To Cil’S Core Values, Jane Hammons, Laureen Cantwell-Jurkovic, Jessica Denke, Allison Hosier, Sarah Lemire

Communications in Information Literacy

The new co-editors of Communications in Information Literacy reaffirm their commitment to the journal's values.

Exploring Information Literacy Skills, Attitudes, And Barriers Among Medical And Nursing Students In Bahrain: A Mixed-Methods Perspective, Asif Altaf, Suchita N. Dsilva, Simple Sibi Joseph, Fida Mukhtar, Muhammad Zeeshan, Bindhu Nair

Communications in Information Literacy

Information literacy is essential for evidence-based medical education, yet Gulf-region studies rarely examine student competencies and barriers. This study examines the information literacy skills, attitudes, and challenges faced by medical and nursing students at RCSI Bahrain. A mixed-methods design was employed, combining a quantitative survey (n = 343) with qualitative focus groups (n = 10). Students reported high self-perceived information literacy across domains. Time constraints and information overload were identified as the primary barriers to effective communication. Focus group findings highlighted the late introduction of curricula, technical access challenges, and inequities between medical and nursing programs. Library training attendance, academic …

"An Open Mind And A Critical Stance": A Content Analysis Of Information Literacy Integration Into A Course About Poverty And Discrimination, Ashley Shealy, C. Rebecca Oldham, Clay Oldham, Tara L. Griffith

Communications in Information Literacy

The ACRL Framework argues that infusing curriculum with information literacy concepts can improve students’ attitudes and abilities to navigate complex information landscapes. This paper describes how a librarian and a faculty member integrated an information literacy curriculum into an undergraduate upper-division course about poverty and discrimination. Curriculum efficacy was assessed through directed content analysis of student responses to open-ended questions about engaging with news and social media, forming opinions, and having conversations about controversial topics. Responses were analyzed using a coding scheme based on course objectives derived from Framework dispositions and knowledge practices. Results indicated that exposing students to an …

Critical Information Literacy In Higher Education: An Evolution In Theory, Practice, And Assessment, Dan Williford

Communications in Information Literacy

This article offers a critical synthesis of scholarship on critical information literacy (CIL) in higher education from 2015 to 2026, extending and recalibrating prior longitudinal reviews to account for post-2020 theoretical, political, and technological shifts. Drawing on a corpus of 48 peer-reviewed publications published between 2020 and 2026, the study employs thematic cluster analysis—building on Tewell’s four-domain framework—to examine developments in theory, pedagogy, digital and political engagement, reflexive critique, and assessment. Rather than treating critical information literacy as a settled framework, this review positions it as an evolving and contested practice shaped by the political economy of higher education. It …

The Spectrum Of Authority: A New Approach To Teaching Ai And Primary Source Literacies, Kristen Howard

Communications in Information Literacy

This article presents an information literacy workshop designed for undergraduate history courses that introduces students to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) while strengthening primary source literacy. Anchored in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, “Authority Is Constructed and Contextual,” the workshop employs an innovative pedagogical device, the Spectrum of Authority, to help students critically evaluate information sources. Through comparative analysis and guided discussion, students increased their ability to assess credibility in information sources. Student feedback indicated increased confidence in analyzing primary sources and a greater understanding of GenAI’s capabilities and …

Research Matters: Problem-Setting: A Research Reflection Process, Merinda Kaye Hensley

Communications in Information Literacy

In this inaugural “Research Matters” column, Merinda Kaye Hensley introduces problem-setting as an intentional research reflection process inspired by instructional design. This three-pronged approach invites librarians to examine their research agendas by surfacing prior knowledge, identifying bottlenecks, and creating an assumptions inventory. By interrogating what we think we know and where we struggle in doing research related to information literacy, problem-setting reframes our research processes as a generative, inquiry-driven practice. Drawing on an example from her own research agenda, investigating undergraduate researchers’ understandings of the publication process, Hensley demonstrates how reflective problem-setting can unstick thinking, sharpen questions and energize scholarly …

Review Of Instructional Design For Teaching Information Literacy Online: A Student-Centered Approach, By J. Mattson, D. Lemmons, V. Linsinbigler, And C. Lowder, Kendall Morgan

Communications in Information Literacy

Review of Mattson, J., Lemmons, D., Linsinbigler, V., & Lowder, C. (2025). Instructional design for teaching information literacy online: A student-centered approach. Association of College and Research Libraries.

Reframing Library Instruction Towards Belonging, Vanessa Arce

Publications and Research

A reflection piece about a small, spontaneous adjustment I made to an introductory library session for first year students. In the essay, I reflect on the potential impact of this relatively minor change in the context of the student population at our college.

The Record, Issue 3, Bank Street College Of Education. Archives

The Record

The third quarterly newsletter from the Bank Street Archives

But That’S Not What We Said: Communication Strategies For Digital Project Collaboration, Robert G. Weaver, Matthew Mceniry, Megan Scott

Collaborative Librarianship

The Texas Tech University (TTU) Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL) often collaborates on digitization projects with the Southwest Collection (SWC) archives. Within the past three years the DSL has branched out to new sources of projects, including university research institutions, other colleges and departments, and Lubbock community entities. At times, these partnerships became entangled with the SWC’s collecting goals, resulting in the need for expanded and more effective communication about integrated project management. This paper will look at three examples of communication and collaboration between the DSL and the SWC on unique projects, their results, as well as the interdepartmental enhancements …

Patent Analyses And Technology Forecasting: Advances Into Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Sarah Over, Emma Jiren Wang, M. Shehryar Khan

Journal of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Association

For several decades, patents have been utilized in analyzing technology and forecasting future trends. Historically, this has been done via keywords, citations, and some bibliometric approaches. The efficiency that is promised by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, natural language processing, and related technologies has also heavily entered the domain of intellectual property. There is a growing body of research that is using AI technologies to analyze, learn, and make predictions for patents. Some of the most common applications in practice are those that assist searchers and examiners in review of patents. Journals such as World Patent Information have even developed …

Hallucinations And Hits: Generative Ai Patent Searching Performance, Pitfalls, And Library Best Practices, Aidan J. Whitlock, Denise A. Wetzel

Journal of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Association

One of the most challenging aspects for inventors seeking to obtain a patent is conducting an effective preliminary prior art search. The process requires specialized skills and experience to assess the relevant information that many novice inventors do not possess. However, artificial intelligence (AI) tools and Large Language Models (LLMs) offer potential new ways of accessing legal and technical expertise. This study surveys five popular publicly available LLMs ability to aid in conducting a preliminary prior art search. A list of best practices and strategies for using AI tools to conduct preliminary patent searches are outlined at the conclusion of …

Mass Produced: Using Local Historical Patents And Trademarks As Outreach Tools, Brendan Kelly, Rebecca Reznik-Zellen, Lisa Di Valentino

Journal of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Association

Historical patents and trademarks are an effective way to showcase the industries critical to the development of a region. The UMass Patent and Trademark Resource Center, based out of the Science and Engineering Library of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, created an exhibit focusing on four different industries integral to the development of Western Mass, and the patents and trademarks associated with them. We hosted an opening reception attended by campus members interested in innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as community patrons interested in the industrial history of the region. As many regions around the United States have their own …

To Go Far, Go Together: Force2026 Brings The World’S Scholarly Communication Community To Singapore, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Singapore Management University Libraries (SMU Libraries) hosted FORCE2026, the annual conference of FORCE11, from 3 to 5 June 2026 in our city campus.

FORCE11 is a global community dedicated to advancing how scholarly knowledge is created, shared, and used. The conference commemorated FORCE11’s 15-year journey of building a global community committed to improving scholarly communication and research assessment.

FORCE2026 marked the first time the conference was held in Asia, positioning Singapore and SMU Libraries at the centre of global conversations on the future of research, scholarly communication and research assessment. By bringing the conference to the region, SMU Libraries …

Application Of Information Literacy Skills To Everyday Life Information Seeking In College Students: Implications For Instruction, Stephanie Ward, Rachel Dineen, Darren Ilett

Communications in Information Literacy

Academic librarians who teach information literacy (IL) skills hope students will transfer those skills to their information seeking in everyday life. However, there is little evidence that students are transferring what they learn about research to their lives outside college. This study aims to find out what search and evaluation strategies college students who have had IL instruction apply to their own personal information seeking behaviors. To do this, a talk-aloud protocol was used to record participants’ thoughts and actions as they navigated scenarios that required them to select a source that met a non-academic information need. The findings indicate …

Ahimsa: Finding Unity And Nonviolence In Instruction, Dylan Mcglothlin

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

This chapter describes the connectedness of emergent strategy and the practice of ahimsa, and how these philosophies can be applied to information literacy instruction. It provides a brief definition of yoga, the yamas, and ahimsa; describes the connections between ahimsa and the emergent strategy element of interdependence and decentralization; and shows information literacy instruction examples from the connections between ahimsa and the emergent strategy principles of "trust the people," "there is always enough time for the right work," "move at the speed of trust," and "there is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can …

Navigating Oer Support Without Drowning In Ai, Lydia Burrage-Goodwin, Christine Moynihan

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

This was a presentation at the June 2026 Boston Library Consortium at Connecticut College.

UMB Healey Librarians Lydia Burrage-Goodwin and Christine Moynihan talk about what experiences they have had with faculty using OER and AI, which led them to develop ethics guidelines to support librarians who work with faculty authors. Attendees learned about creating AI use statements for OERs, using AI transparency logos, and applying open licenses to fully AI generated content as well as OER adaptations.

Less Prep, More Presence: Implementing Pattern Teaching In Library Instruction Lesson Planning To Reduce Stress, Liana Bayne-Lin

Faculty Scholarship

As a liaison librarian at an R2 university, I support three STEM departments in their teaching and learning needs. Like many liaison librarians, one of the main activities I do to provide that support is guest lecturing in classes on information literacy topics like finding, using, evaluating, and citing scientific information sources. Like many  liaison librarians, I didn't get a lot of pedagogy instruction in library school, and had to learn by doing during my first year. And, like many teaching librarians, my desire to connect with my students in a genuine, authentic way is deep.

Going into the second …