Best Practice in Disability Provision in Higher Education Libraries in England Specializing in Art,Media, and Design

Academic library provision for students with disabilities has become an important issue in the UK as a result of legislation enacted in recent decades. Successive studies have investigated current practice in relation to legislation such as the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA), but none has specifically surveyed disability provision in higher education libraries supporting Art, Media, and Design (AMD) students, a group generally thought to include higher prevalence of disabilities, particularly dyslexia. The current study reviewed related literature to gain understanding of the area and inform the design of research instruments. Structured observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify best practices and key challenges in disability support at a purposive sample of eight libraries in England serving AMD students. All the institutions had specialist disability provision and many demonstrated innovative best practice. Participants confirmed high levels of disability among the target population, but did not make specific provision for AMD students, though measures linked with dyslexia support were prominent. The results mostly supported findings from the literature and were used to develop recommendations of best practice that should be of value to schools and further education colleges, in addition to higher education institutions. Supplemental materials are available for this article.     

Providing Staff Training and Programming to Support People with Disabilities: An Academic Library Case Study

This case study explores services academic libraries provide to students with disabilities and the impact these can have on the success and experience of these students. The study focuses on staff training and outreach programming. The authors examine the academic library literature surrounding these topics, provide examples of programming initiatives at the University of Tennessee Libraries, and include a curated list of local and national resources for supporting people with disabilities. Strategies are recommended for working with local and campus organizations to provide training and resources within the library along with suggestions for strengthening support services for this growing population.     

Navigating the hidden void: The unique challenges of accommodating library employees with invisible disabilities

Academic libraries have a long history of commitment to diversity, inclusion, and accommodation and are frequently models for other academic departments and outside industries. For example, libraries often consider users with disabilities and work to adapt services, collections, and technologies to increase accessibility for as many users as possible. Libraries also take care to accommodate employees with disabilities, but like many other industries, often unintentionally perceive disabilities only as ones that are immediately visible. This column will discuss the unique challenges that library employers may face when needing to accommodate employees with invisible disabilities, provide a selected overview of the literature surrounding invisible disabilities and library employees, and give selected tips to help library employers and employees better understand and accommodate employees with invisible disabilities.     

美国高校图书馆残疾读者服务现状及对我国的启示

美国高校图书馆普遍重视残疾读者服务,设有专门的管理部门,提供服务场馆,服务设施完善,服务细致入微。我国高校图书馆为残疾读者的服务与美国存在很大差距。我国相关政府部门应完善法律法规,高校图书馆应建立残疾读者服务办公室,关爱残疾读者,加强馆藏及设施建设,开展适合残疾读者的服务。     

Students' Perceptions of Academic Librarians

Summary

Academic librarians, eager to participate in the education of college students, have been researching library anxiety, students' aversion to asking questions, and other problems with interactions between students and library staff for decades. Misconceptions about librarians' professional status, teaching roles, knowledge and expertise, and attitudes toward students are often proposed as causes of dysfunctional interactions and as reasons why some students don't ask questions. It is important for students to know that librarians are willing and able to help, so that they feel free to ask questions that will help them advance their education. This study reports the findings of a survey of 48 undergraduate students regarding their perceptions of academic librarians, and discusses ideas for addressing existing misconceptions.     

Examining Undergraduate Students' Priorities for Academic Library Services and Social Media Communication

Academic libraries can effectively plan and market their services by identifying the value users perceive in their services and in their social media communications about those services. This study reports on findings of a survey of 104 undergraduate students in information technology courses at a large research university. Results of an ordered logistic regression analysis indicated that students considered access to information and computer resources and study support services as the most important library services offered. Likewise, students perceived library social media postings related to operations updates, study support services, and events as the most useful. Future related research will investigate the needs and priorities for library services of other key user populations of academic libraries, such as graduate students and online students, to assemble service repertoires that are tailored to individual user groups. In addition, future research will examine whether and how libraries can use the analysis of users' engagement with a library's social media postings to inexpensively gauge the value they perceive in library services.     

Library Anxiety among Undergraduate Students: A Comparative Study on Egypt and Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study of library anxiety among a group of Arab students in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The paper also investigated the factors that affect the students' level of anxiety while using academic libraries. The study tried to compare the difference in the level of anxiety in the two countries using a scale (LLPB) developed by the researchers which fit the culture in the Arab region. The study adopted a mixed methods approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with several students in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to determine the main factors that lead to having a level of anxiety in the libraries. In the second stage, a questionnaire was sent to students to measure what factors have a greater impact on the level of anxiety. The data showed that Egyptian students are more anxious about using the libraries than the Saudi students. The results also indicated that there is a need to train students on how to use the libraries and also change students' perception regarding the library to reduce the level of anxiety. This study was conducted in Egypt and Saudi Arabia the level of library anxiety and the factors that may affect the students may vary in other countries.     

Latino Students' Perceptions of the Academic Library

Library use is strongly linked with student persistence in higher education, and Latino students have lower rates of academic library use and proficiency than other racial/ethnic groups of students. This study explores Latino undergraduate students' perceptions of the academic library and library staff and identifies the conditions which impede or facilitate the students' use of the library. Using a multiple case study design, this study describes the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate students who identify as Latino and attend a four-year public research-intensive university in the Midwest. The findings suggest that Latino students use the library through the influence of peers, interpret the library as a space for cultural support based on their experiences with public libraries, and do not fully understand the range of resources and support available.     

Library services for persons with disabilities: twentieth anniversary update

In recognition of the twentieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), this survey updates the progress and reflects on the status of academic health sciences library services for people with disabilities since the Nelson study in 1996. The results of this survey extend beyond academic libraries to hospital libraries and include areas where all libraries can improve disability access. Based on a 24% response rate, libraries have addressed accessibility of technology in cost-effective and relatively easy ways. Libraries are reactively rather than proactively making changes to services for persons with disabilities.     

What is a Library?: International College Students' Perceptions of Libraries

This study presents findings from an online survey and series of one-on-one interviews with students at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) regarding their perceptions of libraries. With an international student population, NYUAD represents a unique opportunity to gain insight into a wide variety of student opinions and experiences of libraries. The goal of the study was to develop a student-based perspective of libraries, which can be used to improve library services and outreach. The student responses ranged from intense engagement with libraries to little or no experience. In general, students had a limited view of the role of librarians in the library. Interestingly, many students have a lofty view of libraries and see them as repositories of knowledge for humanity.     

Teamwork and change

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Perceptions of Public Library Accessibility for People with Disabilities

More than 5,000 households with a person identified as having a physical, mental, or emotional condition that impairs participation in activities were surveyed about their opinions concerning barriers to public library use and opinions about efforts by public libraries to be useful to people with disabilities. Results showed that perceptions of accessibility, collections, and presence of assistive or adaptive devices for people with disabilities were slightly more positive if someone in the household had used the public library in the past year. Data used for the study were from the October 2002 Current Population Survey, a federal survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.     

Changes in Rural Libraries and Librarianship: A Comparative Survey

This article offers a repeat of a 2000 survey of rural librarians and how they view librarianship, libraries, and the future of both. The purpose of the 2007 survey was to look for changes and ask questions about community partnerships, staffing, and financial information. The researchers found many similarities between the surveys but a number of distinct changes in behavior and attitudes emerged. These included the shift towards viewing the library as more of a service than a repository of materials, increased dissatisfaction with pay and economic issues; an increase in MLS degree holders; and a trend towards the library being viewed as less vital to the community. The 2007 results showed that almost half of rural libraries engage in community partnerships and that the average rural librarian earns less than $12/hour and has an operating budget of less than $30,000. The changes and results are analyzed along with suggestions for future research.     

Social media as a platform in academic library marketing: A comparative study

Social media like Facebook have become popular tools for different organizations like libraries in marketing practice. To build relationships with library users, libraries hope social media can engage its user communities actively with their collections, services, and activities. This paper aims at evaluating the effectiveness of using social media as a platform in marketing through a questionnaire on the Facebook page of the University of Hong Kong Libraries (HKUL), comparing the perspectives of students and faculty members. Both the current situation of HKUL's Facebook page and the reasons affecting users' interest and participation in the page are evaluated, in order to suggest better strategies for the library to deal with the needs of library users in the future. Other university libraries can also gain new insights from the study.This research has the following key findings: 1. The marketing practices of HKUL's Facebook page generally did not receive adequate attention and reactions from users; 2. Students were more engaged than faculty members in HKUL's Facebook page, as students use more varieties of library services than faculty members; 3. User needs, social media content, and interactions generally affected user acceptance of the library's Facebook marketing.     

Academic Library Services for Users with Developmental Disabilities

Students with developmental disabilities are being increasingly included in college life. As this occurs, academic libraries will be providing more services to this population. This discussion of services to users with developmental disabilities attempts to help fill a gap in the literature and provide information that can be useful for libraries to build on as they develop services. Furthermore, by focusing on students with developmental disabilities, there are opportunities to improve services for all students.     

Circulation policies in health science libraries

There is general agreement that library policies have considerable influence on the use of libraries. Medical school (health science) libraries of this country were surveyed as to their policies in respect to whether faculty and student use were regulated by a single policy, circulation regulations, hours library was accessible to users, accessibility of reserve material, interlibrary loan, policy on overdue material, and exit control.THE LIBRARIES WERE THEN DIVIDED INTO THREE GROUPS, HIGH, MIDDLE, AND LOW ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS: size of student body, size of faculty, size of holdings, size of library staff, annual budget, and annual circulation.Our findings would indicate that schools falling in a high category based upon these criteria tend to be more restrictive in their policies and to have different regulations for faculty and students than do schools in the low category.These findings warrant further study.     

Improving ADA Access

Summary

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) motivated libraries all over the United States to evaluate their accommodations and services to patrons with disabilities. This article presents a case study of the Texas Tech University Libraries project to meet the needs of their patrons in relation to ADA. The study focuses on including adaptive technologies in the library environment to aid blind, hearing, visually and physically-impaired patrons and increasing library staff awareness of the needs of patrons with disabilities. Findings from the study will also benefit school, public, and special libraries that are evaluating their access for patrons with disabilities.     

Higher education libraries and SENDA

Reports selected results of a Masters research project which examined provision of higher education library and information services for students with disabilities within the context of the new disability legislation, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA), which came into force on 1st September 2002. Five HE libraries were selected as case studies and provision was evaluated via staff interviews, student questionnaires and an accessibility audit. The results are presented under three themes: policies; procedures; and practices. Both good and bad practice was identified. All libraries had a disability representative, demonstrating a commitment to disability issues, and many staff had received disability awareness training. Libraries were often well supported by the institutions’ student support services. Accessibility of the built environment was often inadequate for the needs of people with disabilities. Often, lighting was poor, shelving was of inappropriate width and height and signage was far from ideal. Recommendations to improve provision are given covering policies, training, publicity and promotion, co‐operation and liaison.     

Improving Library Services for Distance Learners: A Literature Review

Academic libraries offer many services to distance learning students. The sources of literature reviewed here offer information that shows relevant similarities and differences between library services offered to traditional students and distance learning students. Likewise, the associated findings from the literature offer insight that is applicable for a project to modify and improve library services for distance learners in higher education.     

A university library management model for students’ learning support

Abstract

This research was aimed at developing a university library management model that would support students’ learning. The research was conducted in three phases: 1) an investigation into the requirements of a university library service of instructors; 2) an investigation into the attitudes of librarians, libraries’ administrators, and university’s administrators toward the roles of library and policy concepts relating to university library management that promote students’ learning; and 3) the development of a university library management model for students’ learning support. A mixed research method was applied comprising qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data was collected using in-depth interviews and questionnaires. The findings have led to a proposal of a university library management model that supports student learning, which is comprised of five components: 1) management policy and system; 2) learning resources; 3) learning support services; 4) learning environments; and 5) the competency and roles of information professionals. It can be stated that studies into Thai university library implementation, strategic plans, and self-assessment reports under the quality assurance system showed that even though libraries have updated resources and services following changing situations in policies, technologies, and users’ needs, there is no clear indicator that Thai university libraries have any strategy for acquiring roles to support students’ learning with practical outcomes. Through reliable research work, this study into a model for university library management would result in a means of developing university libraries that truly supports university student learning based on information from instructors, library administrators, and librarians.