Welcoming Spaces: Supporting Parenting Students at the Academic Library

Academic libraries serve many student constituents, but one often overlooked group is students who are parenting children. Students who, by necessity or volition, bring their children with them to the library have specific needs. Serving these students, who often have difficulty succeeding and graduating at college, should be a priority for academic libraries. Offering assistance can help this group focus on their studies, achieve their academic goals, and thus decrease universities' attrition rates. This article begins by drawing on anecdotal evidence, then reviews existing literature on parenting students. Next, it examines and analyzes policies on children in academic libraries at large American universities. Half of all academic libraries don't have clearly accessible policies, and some have policies that discourage bringing supervised children to libraries, while a few have welcoming policies and facilities. This research shows that academic libraries can still make progress to serve a key constituency. Finally, it offers solutions for how academic libraries can serve parenting students, given varying spatial and financial constraints, as well as diffusing potential concerns that might hold academic libraries back from serving this part of the academic community. This analysis could be supplemented by further inquiry and interviews with libraries on how their policies were developed and are being implemented or with parenting students on what they desire and need from the academic library.     

Use of Dewey Decimal Classification by Academic Libraries in the United States

Abstract

Nearly 25 years have elapsed since the last comprehensive measure of the percentage of academic libraries that employ the Dewey and Library of Congress systems of classification. To provide updated statistics, the researchers surveyed all 3793 academic libraries via their online catalogs. The findings indicate that the use of Dewey has declined over the past four decades. Teachers’ Colleges and Community Colleges in particular have higher rates of Dewey use than large research or professional universities. This information may help support academic library reclassification decisions.     

Standards for vision science libraries: 2014 revision

Objective:

This Association of Vision Science Librarians revision of the “Standards for Vision Science Libraries” aspires to provide benchmarks to address the needs for the services and resources of modern vision science libraries (academic, medical or hospital, pharmaceutical, and so on), which share a core mission, are varied by type, and are located throughout the world.

Methods:

Through multiple meeting discussions, member surveys, and a collaborative revision process, the standards have been updated for the first time in over a decade.

Results:

While the range of types of libraries supporting vision science services, education, and research is wide, all libraries, regardless of type, share core attributes, which the standards address.

Conclusions:

The current standards can and should be used to help develop new vision science libraries or to expand the growth of existing libraries, as well as to support vision science librarians in their work to better provide services and resources to their respective users.The Association of Vision Science Librarians (AVSL)—whose more than 150 members represent ophthalmology, optometry, and industry libraries throughout the world—has defined standards for its libraries since 1976 1–3. AVSL recommends that vision science libraries (VSLs) have at least one active member in AVSL. Standards for this very specialized area of library service have evolved owing to the work of librarians who, since 1937, have been developing and refining standards for their libraries 4. The standards reported here reflect the changes that have taken place during the decade and a half since the last edition of these standards were published. Changes include recommended staffing and technology, and the addition of a section addressing online access to information.AVSL convened a task force to first evaluate whether a standards revision was needed. Once it was agreed to do so, the task force guided the process of the revision, which included member surveys and discussions at meetings over the span of two years.The standards are intended to provide qualitative information such as appropriate staffing levels and collection scope, which can be used to evaluate existing vision science libraries or to develop new vision science libraries. In addition, these libraries should reflect the purpose and mission of the institution to which each belongs, and each library should have policies in place that outline the various areas to support the education, research, and patient care information needs of their institutions.     

价值体系研究视角变迁下的公共图书馆价值

本文梳理了1984年“杭州会议”以来学界关于图书馆价值的研究历程,认为公共图书馆价值研究经历了初探、反思和拓展三个时期。在初探时期,主要以市场经济冲击下的社会价值辨析与计算机技术冲击下的生存价值争论为主;在反思时期,实现了从单一的价值研究向核心价值导向下的价值研究的转变;在拓展时期,制度保障价值、信息中心价值、经济促进价值、空间拓展价值和文化象征价值逐步彰显和确立,成为公共图书馆价值的集中体现。21世纪以来,图书馆发展的实践检验了这五种公共图书馆价值,印证了公共图书馆价值的理论研究。表2。参考文献43。     

The Benefits and Challenges of Working in an Academic Library: A Study of Student Library Assistant Experience

Many college students choose or need to work, and academic libraries offer a potentially convenient on-campus location for employment. Students serving in these roles may benefit from the experience both academically and socially. By examining students' experience as workers in the library, academic libraries have the opportunity to understand the benefits that such work might provide and intentionally plan to enhance learning and demonstrate library value in a novel way. This basic qualitative study sought to explore the experiences of student assistants working in an academic library and identify the benefits and challenges they perceived as a result of enacting the role. Individual interviews were conducted with seven undergraduate student library assistants at a doctoral-granting institution to determine benefits and challenges they noted that resulted from their experiences in this student employment role, and findings reveal opportunities for academic librarians in training and supervising student employees.     

Creating Sustainable Futures for Academic Libraries

ABSTRACT

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For academic libraries, sustainability may well require a radical recalibration of their historic value proposition. The “Great Recession” has accelerated profound changes in higher education funding and in the perception of higher education as a public good. Can libraries use scarcity to fuel the imagination? Can the singular strengths of libraries boost the ability of higher education to thrive, not merely survive? What can be learned from strategies employed in the Great Depression and other periods of severe constraint? Ultimately, how might libraries increase revenue, engender flexibility, foster collaboration, align activities, reduce costs, strengthen infrastructure, and encourage innovation within the framework of a sustainable academic business plan? This article examines these questions by using the University of Washington's 2Y2D (Two Years to Two Decades) initiative and the UW Libraries companion effort, Building Sustainable Futures, as a case study. 2Y2D provides an inclusive framework for near term action (two years) that will realize an aspirational future in the long-term (two decades). Building Sustainable Futures places a library lens over 2Y2D. The Libraries Research Commons exemplifies the synergistic intersection of the two initiatives and may be instructive for other environments and institutions.     

Envisioning the Academic Library: A Reflection on Roles,Relevancy and Relationships

The focus of this article is to reflect on current and near future issues and trends concerning academic libraries. This includes an overview of the literature on embedded librarianship and a focus on the need for more participatory and collaborative approaches to library services.

The core argument is that academic libraries need to continue to adapt their roles and develop stronger relationships across the university in order to maintain and promote their relevancy to all stakeholders. Embedded roles in research and teaching, and an embedded existence through collaboration and outreach will strengthen the academic library's presence within its parent institution.     

Current status of information literacy instruction practices in medical libraries of Pakistan

Objectives:

The research explored the current practices of information literacy (IL) instruction in medical libraries of Pakistan.

Methods:

A semi-structured questionnaire was mailed to the head librarians of all 114 academic medical libraries in Pakistan. It investigated the types of IL instruction provided, topics covered, methods of delivery and assessment, level of integration in the curriculum, and level of collaboration with teaching staff.

Results:

The study revealed that 74% of the respondents had offered some types of IL instruction in their institutions during the previous year, ranging from library orientation to research-level skills. IL instruction is typically only offered to new students or first-time library users or on demand. A majority of the respondents developed IL instruction programs without faculty involvement. Librarians were primarily responsible for offering IL instruction in medical institutions. Face-to-face instruction in computer labs or lecture halls and individual instruction at reference desks were identified as the most common IL instruction delivery methods. The data indicated that oral feedback, written feedback, and searching in a computer lab were the most popular assessment methods that medical librarians used.

Conclusion:

IL instruction activities in medical libraries of Pakistan are in their infancy. Medical librarians also lack systematic approaches to IL instruction.

Implications:

Medical librarians need to develop educational partnerships with faculty for integrating IL instruction into the mainstream curriculum.     

Systems used to automate medical libraries—analysis by type of library

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Challenges Faced by Subject Librarians in an Academic Library and Initiatives Toward Overcoming Them: UPM Library Experience

ABSTRACT

Subject Librarians play an important role in an academic library, a role which it is crucial to study. There have been many published studies that have highlighted the lack of evidence on the competencies of Subject Librarians. This paper discusses the challenges faced by the Subject Librarians of the Universiti Putra Malaysia Library. The aim was to gather information from published documents regarding the experiences and practices carried out in efforts to increase the competencies of Subject Librarians. The outcomes from this conceptual paper serve as an important instructional tool for the training and development of Subject Librarians. The results might also provide guidance for the implementation of a similar program or relevant problem-solving plans for other libraries in the region.     

Purposeful Mentoring in Academic Libraries

ABSTRACT

This article offers statistical information about the future of our profession and the role that mentoring may play in retaining and promoting academic librarians into leadership positions within an organization. An overview of the history and definition of the word mentor and current terminology is offered to provide the reader with understanding of the complexity surrounding the concept of mentoring. Mentoring as process is explained, and both formal and informal mentoring processes are discussed and examples provided. The benefits of mentoring are detailed and include the benefits for mentors, mentees, and academic libraries, with a special focus on minorities and generational considerations now prevalent in libraries. Qualitative methodologies are examined to determine relationships, and the methods used include interviews, questionnaires, and print and online surveys. Case studies from across the nation are analyzed and offered as evidence that mentoring does in fact work well in many academic libraries, but librarians should be mindful that these mentoring processes must be evaluated periodically to remain viable. A brief discussion and future considerations section offer helpful information on gaps in the literature and the challenges that academic libraries face as they create and implement mentoring processes in their respective academic organizations.     

Surviving to Thriving: Advancing the Institutional Mission

ABSTRACT

Academic research libraries can employ several approaches to advance the institutional mission. First, libraries can shift from goals focused on collections and traditional library services and instead align with their campus academic plan and an emphasis on supporting the institution's strategic initiatives. A second approach is for libraries to modify their organizational structures from being function-based on the tasks that traditional libraries performed (e.g., public services, technical services, collection development) and move instead toward organizational units that directly support their university's missions (e.g., undergraduate education; graduate and professional education; research, scholarship, and creative activity; and public engagement). The key is to have library staff engaged in work that contributes to vital institutional outcomes such as student success and faculty research productivity. Academic research libraries should also continue to work towards an assessment program that demonstrates the value of the academic research library in providing quality services that advance the institutional mission.     

高校图书馆核心价值研究

开展对“图书馆核心价值”研究是当前图书馆学基础理论研究的现实课题。文章就高校图书馆核心价值体系构建的现实意义、原则进行了探讨,认为高校图书馆核心价值体系应包括精致服务、保存知识、取用平等、引领学习、尊重隐私和合理使用等方面,并提出提升与实现高校图书馆核心价值的途径与方法。参考文献8。     

Expanding Library Support for Faculty Research in Historically Black Colleges and Universities

ABSTRACT

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Library Alliance conducted a study to assess library services in support of faculty research. Funded by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, and with support from LYRASIS, the study involved two different assessments. The first assessment was of faculty members and their support needs for research. The second assessment was of librarians to understand current capacity and needs related to support libraries provide to faculty. While the HBCU Library Alliance acknowledges that libraries do not have the capacity to address all the challenges to faculty research, the results from this study can serve as a tool to augment the academic infrastructure to support research.     

实证图书馆学的思考

在欧美图书馆界尤其是医学图书馆界的引领和国际图书馆学界、专业图书馆协会的推动下,实证图书馆学正成为图书馆学的主流范式。实证研究这一更注重科学性、实践性的方法,由于符合图书馆学实践性的学科特性,日益受到图书馆学领域的重视而成为图书馆学的常用研究方法。中国图书馆学发展倡导实证研究。但实证研究仍有一定的局限性,需结合其它方法进行运用。而正确认识和评价实证研究方法,可以促进图书馆事业健康发展。     

Trends in Library Systems: Improved Workflow Processes,Greater Collaboration,and Unbounded Openness

The evolution of print, electronic, and digital resources, as well as shifting technology advancements, are significant drivers of change in libraries, including library systems. This article reviews the latest variety of library systems available focusing on the library services platform, ¹ 1. “Library services platform” is a term used by Marshall Breeding. See Marshall Breeding, Contents from the Guest Editor, 24 Information Standards Quarterly 2, 2 (2012). open source solutions, and the hybrid open source library services platform. All of these newer alternatives to the integrated library system are attempting in their own way to address the overarching drive for libraries, including law libraries, to have greater efficiencies in the following ways: (1) more productive business processes, (2) collaboration among libraries, institutions, and vendors, and (3) unfettered access to open code and software in order to customize library systems to their own specifications.     

The Human Nature of Information Work

Though special libraries share concerns with their more general academic, public, and school counterparts, they also have unique characteristics which merit separate consideration. Libraries of all types are evolving, and just as special libraries can learn from the general literature on libraries, practitioners in general libraries can learn from the experiences and methods of special libraries. “The Specialist,” appearing in even-numbered issues of this journal, addresses the administrative concerns of special libraries. The column's scope includes corporate, non-profit, government, and independent libraries as well as the specialized departments and branches of academic and public libraries. Contributions from practitioners and scholars on any aspect of special libraries are welcome. Interested authors are invited to contact the editor at tmurray@stamps.org for submission guidelines.

In library and information science, there is a strong emphasis on technical skills like indexing, database design, and information retrieval. This column shows the importance of interpersonal skills, which reference librarians have traditionally employed, to the current special library environment. Librarians increasingly recognize that people seek information and knowledge from each other just as much if not more so than from databases and documents. Given appropriate mechanisms, experts readily share their knowledge. Decision makers seek information selected and curated by a knowledgeable human being, not just raw data.

At the same time, successful organizations recognize that the most important part of information management is not the library but the librarian, who can employ information strategically. The special library community should worry less about library closures and more about ensuring that librarians understand the work of their clients and deliver relevant information at the appropriate time with context and interpretation, making them an integral part of organizational decision-making.     

Difficult Library Patrons in Academe

Summary

Difficult patrons have been considered primarily from the perspective of the problem behaviours they present in libraries. Many have attempted to define the problem patron and to provide advice and develop guidelines for frontline public service staff. To understand the difficult patron in academic libraries we need to answer three questions-How well do we know our patrons? Do we unwittingly create difficult patrons through our failure to appreciate their needs? Do we regard patrons as difficult because the way they use libraries and conduct their information research does not match our idea of how it should be done? The answers to these questions suggest that we need to reconceptualize both our patrons and the services we provide. Library staff need to see difficult patrons not as problems but as challenges to the service ideas and standards we hold. A paradigm shift is necessary if we are to reconstruct our beliefs about our patrons, their information seeking behaviours, and the services we provide to meet their needs. Some strategies for developing the skills of library staff to work effectively with difficult patrons are presented.