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.     

Librarians as Mentors in an Undergraduate Research Program

Projects in undergraduate research programs differ from assignments in courses in that they are independent of an institution's curriculum, and faculty mentoring plays a more important role. These programs can be fertile ground for librarians interested in participating. Whether such librarians would make good mentors for undergraduate researchers depends largely on their experience and education. Texas Tech University has two of these programs, but library support for them has been sporadic. The time is overdue for librarians involved in campus outreach and instruction to examine how they can best support Texas Tech's undergraduate research activities, and, in particular, whether they are adequately prepared to provide effective mentoring to undergraduate research students. This article reports on such an examination.     

Text Analysis of Communication Faculty Publications to Identify Research Trends and Interest

Text analysis has been widely used to identify research trends in many disciplines. However, little has been written about using this method to discover a department’s research trends and faculty research interests in the library setting. This study examined 107 faculty publications from the School of Communication at the University of Houston. It analyzed word and phrase frequencies from titles and abstracts using Voyant tools. The analysis was performed on both the department level and the individual faculty level. This article demonstrates a new way for librarians to understand faculty research. The method can be replicated by subject librarians to analyze their own departments.     

When Life Hands You Lemons: Overcoming Obstacles to Expand Services in an Embedded Librarian Program

ABSTRACT

Having launched a pilot program of embedding librarians in faculty Blackboard courses, a team of university regional campus librarians reviewed their library services to faculty teaching online, off-campus, and traditional courses, and returned for Round 2. Just as the library services offered in this collaborative effort were taking off, conditions worsened. A storm of staff reductions, budget cuts, and administrative reorganization hit. Despite the climate of uncertainty and challenges, the embedded librarians persevered as they are convinced of the value of collaborating with faculty in Blackboard as active academic research consultants to further students’ information literacy skills. Project Information Literacy's findings validate this strategic solution. Consequently, the embedded librarians assessed users and implemented sustaining practices to the program to maximize its impact. Moving in the right direction is essential and doable, no matter the difficulties.     

The Impact of Library Support on Education Faculty Research Productivity: An Exploratory Study

The authors surveyed college and university faculty members in the field of professional education to gauge their perceptions pertaining to the impact of library services on their research. The purpose was to illuminate faculty perceptions in a postsecondary education environment that emphasizes research productivity and requires libraries to provide ever more compelling evidence of their institutional value. Survey results showed that faculty members continue to rely on traditional discovery and collections-based library services, but that additional support for grant activity, data management, intellectual property management, and bibliometric analysis is needed. Implications for transforming library research support are discussed, and areas for further study are proposed.     

How Law Schools Benefit When Librarians Publish,Teach, and Hold Faculty Status

Many nondirector academic law librarians publish and teach legal research classes. Some hold faculty status as well. Law librarians have expertise in the development and delivery of legal research instruction methodologies and are developing a body of literature documenting their efforts to create and share a pedagogy of legal research instruction. Principles of shared faculty governance entitle library faculty to contribute to the development and delivery of a curriculum of legal research instruction. Encouraging law librarian participation in the shared governance of law schools should lead to increasing opportunities for the successful reform of legal education curricula with respect to legal research instruction.     

Manifestations of deference behavior in teaching-focused academic librarians

This mixed methods study examined the manifestations of deference behavior in teaching-focused academic librarians in higher education. The study highlights examples of why teaching-focused academic librarians engage in deference behavior particularly when working with disciplinary faculty colleagues in the classroom. Findings indicate that despite being extremely qualified and competent, teaching-focused academic librarians often engage in deference behavior, and yield power to their disciplinary faculty colleagues out of fear of losing their jobs or being regarded as necessary, as well as a strategy to keep their jobs and maintain access to classrooms. Understanding the perspectives of teaching-focused academic librarians is crucial to advancing and sustaining the library profession, in addition to expanding the discourse of how disciplinary faculty can work with their librarian colleagues to dismantle the current structures and systems in place that uphold inequitable practices. Implications for research and practice are provided in order to bring awareness to the underlying reasons for deference behavior in teaching-focused academic librarians, and garner support for teaching-focused academic librarians who continue to navigate rocky terrain with their faculty colleagues.     

Learning how to teach unfamiliar subjects: developing training on writing for publication and presentation of research for health libraries

Academic librarians with teaching responsibility have traditionally delivered training in discovering and organising information. However, in recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on supporting researchers through all stages of the research lifecycle. While librarians are ideally placed to provide training in writing for publication and presentation of research, very few in the United Kingdom appear to be doing so. However, there are clear benefits to teaching these subjects. Based on feedback from faculty on user needs, the University of Cambridge Medical Library’s training programme was expanded to include training and support in the publication and presentation of research outputs. This article recounts the process by which the new courses were developed, and the techniques used by the library’s teaching staff to gain understanding of conventions and requirements of forms of written communication with which they were unfamiliar. It also evaluates the impact of the new courses, discusses next steps and provides advice for other librarians wishing to develop similar courses. D.I.     

Transitioning Online Reference Staffing Models: Assessing and Balancing Needs of Patrons and Practitioners

ABSTRACT

As staffing models evolve for academic library service points, online chat reference services require strategic analysis to improve efficiency and effectiveness. This paper will examine the perception of chat reference before and after staffing changes from faculty librarians, staff, and graduate assistants to non-MLIS library professionals and graduate assistants at Florida State University’s a large, public research university library. Our survey explores satisfaction levels and perception of both patrons and library personnel before and after the staffing change.

Our analysis of 197 patron survey results determined that patrons are equally satisfied with non-librarian provision of chat reference services and found chat interactions to be comparable in quality and timeliness to chats staffed by librarians. Our research into staffer survey results revealed a slight decrease in satisfaction with operation of the service, notably in terms of confidence after the staffing transition even though this was not reflected in the patron satisfaction levels. This assessment indicates that library workers are equally as competent in staffing chat reference services as librarians from patron perspectives. As academic libraries continue to measure the value of staffing service desks with librarians, this study will provide relevant insight into how patrons and staffers are affected by changes in staffing models.     

The academic library: Structure,space, physical and virtual use

This mixed-methods study aims to characterize the appropriate structure of the academic library in the information age according to the perceptions of the faculty members who use the library and the academic librarians operating it. Two main issues were addressed: centralization versus decentralization, and the provision of physical versus virtual services. The study population included members of the faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences in three academic institutions in Israel and academic librarians working in these institutions. Qualitative data was collected through interviews with 20 faculty members and 15 librarians, while quantitative data was collected through questionnaires filled by 191 faculty members and 50 librarians in the above-mentioned institutions. Analysis of these data reveal that faculty members generally prefer a concentration of materials—rather than decentralization—and they show a similar preference toward a faculty library model, a combined faculty/departmental library model, and a central library model. Similarly, the academic librarians prefer either faculty or combined faculty/department libraries, but their preference toward a central library model is lower than that of the faculty members. The decentralized, departmental library model was the least favored by both groups. In addition, our findings indicate that both the faculty members and the librarians appreciate the virtual services that the library provides as well as its physical presence, although fewer faculty members than librarians perceived the latter as an important role of the library. Taken together it appears that the preferred model for the academic library in the information age is of large, multidisciplinary libraries that contain materials from a variety of fields and provide comprehensive virtual services.     

Library-Led Faculty Workshops: Helping Distance Educators Meet Information Literacy Goals in the Online Classroom

ABSTRACT

At University of Maryland University College (UMUC), librarians have designed and led a number of multiday, asynchronous online workshops for faculty. The workshops teach faculty how to meet information literacy goals in the virtual classroom. Through hands-on activities and discussion among their colleagues, participants in the faculty workshops learn about the university's information literacy standards, library resources and services, free Web tools, and how best to design class assignments involving library research. Library-led faculty workshops at UMUC have increased library visibility and furthered collaboration between faculty and librarians. This article discusses 5 workshops, detailing workshop content and logistics and demonstrating how librarians can help distance faculty further information literacy goals for students.     

Library Support for Distance Learners

Abstract

In 2001, Texas Tech University Library surveyed faculty who taught distance learning courses. This article reports the findings of the survey. Implicit in the article is the belief that a clear understanding of the needs and expectations of faculty serves as a foundation on which librarians can build a solid program of support for distance learners. This clear understanding may also serve as the basis for better strategies to educate faculty on how librarians can help improve distance learning courses. Unfortunately, what faculty think about library support for distance learning courses is not always clearly understood. To a significant extent, this limited understanding is due to the dearth of information in the professional literature on the subject. More surveys need to be completed and the results published so that distance learning librarians can better understand faculty and better inform them, optimizing support for distance learners.     

Collaborating in Research: Embedded Librarianship in the Learning Management System

Academic librarians engage students in the learning management system to provide information literacy instruction and answer individual reference questions related to scholarly research. When collaborating with faculty, embedded librarians deliver the library’s authoritative electronic resources to students working on research projects. Trends in academic publishing and technological innovations make possible online search for a generation reliant on mobile devices. Although students are able to access much digital content available through academic libraries and open access initiatives, they still appreciate guidance from embedded librarians who visit their learning management system courses to explain the complexities of scholarly research and suggest solutions.     

Bibliographic Instruction:

The intent of this paper is to reinforce and demonstrate the necessity for: (1) integrating instruction into the research process; (2) achieving a balance between faculty, students, and the library to meet that goal. This goal can only be met by addressing a number of issues that have traditionally been associated with the instrinsic value of BI integration into a curriculum, the institution's support for this move, and the attitudes of faculty and librarians toward BI, and the strengths which each can bring to the research process to benefit students.     

Building Alliances:

College librarians are convinced that using the library is an essential part of a college education, a conviction not necessarily shared by faculty. Integrating library research into courses can be especially difficult at community colleges where faculty have heavy course loads and the curricula are very practical. However, at Hudson Valley Community College, library skills are now part of the College Objectives as well as the English Composition syllabus. Library assignments occur in most general education courses and are the means for adding general education concepts to courses in technology, sciences, business, etc. The librarians have found that by building alliances with the faculty, they can take advantage of opportunities to build library skills into the curricula.     

Music Reference Sources: Analog in a Digital World

ABSTRACT

Do we need print reference collections at all? In the case of music reference materials, the answer is definitely “yes.” At the University of Memphis, reference titles in the music library are used at about three times the rate of reference materials in the main library. This paper leverages local reference and reserve book usage to investigate how print reference sources support music research of various kinds, how music faculty integrate reference sources into their courses, and how librarians can make finding and using these resources easier for users accustomed to accessing materials online without an intermediary.     

Boundary Spanners and Serials Deselection

Periodic serials deselection projects are an economic necessity, especially for academic libraries that serve predominantly undergraduate institutions. The dialogue between teaching faculty and librarians accompanying the serials deselection process may be an important learning experience for both, especially if thc library uses subject specialist librarians as "boundary-spanners," a concept explored in the essay. Nonetheless, even the most skillfully conducted cancellation program will reduce a library's ability to support scholarship and impair the working relationship bctween the library and its teaching faculty.     

On the Edge: How to Provide Course- and Program-Integrated Library Support Without Being Embedded

Distance librarians working with an online doctoral program at Johns Hopkins University are asked by both students and faculty to provide a large amount of library support – without being embedded into the curriculum or the individual courses. Program administrators and faculty were resistant to allow librarians into the course management system (CMS), denying them access to discussion boards, assignment updates, and course content, but still expected a high level of student support. Over a three-year period, librarians respond by creating a “halo” of library services to support students at point of need that existed outside of the CMS, but was still highly integrated into the program. Librarians explore the importance of scaffolding and linking disparate services to complement each other, building a halo of support. Student need is at the center of the plan, focusing on collaborative teaching and reflection as well as student centered learning.     

Information and Research Support Services:

Organizing reference services to use paraprofessionals as information providers can help academic libraries adapt to new technology, provide staff support for resource sharing, and assist reference librarians in developing new and enhanced roles on campus. It is a staffing alternative that can facilitate the integration and use of electronic reference resources, such as Online Catalogs, CD-ROM databases and end user searching by providing more assistance to users. Placing responsibility for teaching library clients how to use document delivery with the same staff who help users identify needed materials makes access easier for requestors, and resource sharing more readily accepted by students and faculty. And by separating Information and Research Support activities and sharing the workload between staff at different levels, reference librarians can provide an advanced level of research assistance, spend more time on support for faculty research collection development, classroom instruction, and the development and improvement of programs. Training of the paraprofessional staff and practice of the referral process are essential to the librarian-paraprofessional partnership this model requires. This article describes how paraprofessionals have been used in reference at a new academic library, and how the role of the reference librarian has been redefined as a result.     

高校图书馆档案编研工作探讨

图书馆档案编研工作是高校图书馆工作的一个重要组成部分。文章指出了图书馆档案编研工作的意义,总结了档案编研的特点、内容及形式,并针对编研工作重＂编＂不重＂研＂和编研人才缺乏的现状,从提高认识、寻求合作、从实际出发选择编研内容和形式三个方面,提出了做好高校图书馆档案编研工作的看法。