How Do We Market to Distance Populations,and Does It Work?: Results From a Longitudinal Study and a Survey of the Profession

This article discusses the results of a longitudinal survey conducted by Kansas State University Libraries to assess the marketing of library services to the university's distance education population. The latest implementation of the survey revealed overall similar or increased awareness of and satisfaction with library services compared to the previous survey. Also included are results of a survey of library professionals on best practices for distance education librarians. Findings include the importance of developing relationships with campus distance education offices and faculty and the need to be persistent with marketing efforts to a changing population.     

“Actually,I Don't Eat Meat”: A Multiple-Goals Perspective of Communication About Vegetarianism

Engaging in non-mainstream behavior can be challenging to negotiate communicatively, especially when it involves the simple but necessary task of eating, a lifelong activity that is often done in others’ company. Through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews of 20 vegetarians, this study used a multiple-goals perspective (Goldsmith, 2004 Goldsmith , D. J. ( 2004 ). Communicating social support . Cambridge , England : Cambridge University Press .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Goldsmith, Gumminger, & Bute, 2006 Goldsmith , D. J. , Gumminger , K. L. , & Bute , J. J. ( 2006 ). Communication about lifestyle change between cardiac patients and their partners . In R. M. Dailey & B. A. LePoire (Eds.), Applied interpersonal communication matters: Family, health, and community relations (pp. 95 – 117 ). New York , NY : Peter Lang . [Google Scholar]) to examine the communicative dilemmas faced by vegetarians. This investigation suggests unique self-presentational challenges for vegetarians (e.g., being true to oneself yet fitting in; talking about vegetarianism without judging others) and identifies strategies that “healthy deviants”—people who violate society's norms in relatively healthy ways—can use to discuss their lifestyle choices. Findings offer practical implications for how communication can help people enact or sustain potentially stigmatized healthy lifestyles while maintaining their relationships.     

Educating Zoo Visitors about Complex Environmental Issues: Should We Do It and How?

Modern zoos are committed to environmental education and thus have a mandate to inform the public about biodiversity and conservation. Historically, zoos have avoided complex topics like biodiversity loss from overpopulation and overconsumption in their educational materials, for fear of being offensive or creating a sense of hopelessness. To measure visitor attitudes towards educating about such topics and to help determine effective presentation techniques, we assessed people's knowledge of and attitudes towards the commercial hunting and consumption of wildlife in West and Central Africa (the bushmeat crisis) and examined how the use of different types of images affected these variables. Zoo visitors were exposed to one of six series of photographs, each accompanied by the same text. Photos in three of the series contained explicit, disturbing images of dead animals. The other three series presented benign images related to the bushmeat crisis (i.e., logging, changes in hunting practices). While 83 percnt of visitors had never heard of the bushmeat trade, 98 percent felt zoos should be educating about the topic. Ninety‐seven percent felt the disturbing images were appropriate for zoo visitors except for children under the age of 12. While people spent significantly more time looking at the disturbing images, this did not lead to increases in knowledge (factual or conservation‐related) on the topic. However, visitors who saw the disturbing images were significantly more likely to report being influenced by the images. While the type of image did not affect the frequency of conservation‐related behaviors, significantly more people engaged in a conservation‐related behavior when an opportunity was provided on‐site rather than off‐site. The results demonstrate that the public believes zoos should educate about bushmeat, and that realistic images influence people's perception of an issue. However, visitors' lack of knowledge gains, even when disturbing images are used, suggests that a static display of text with photographs may not be the most effective method for educating about complex issues like bushmeat. Finally, the results show that zoos should provide on‐site opportunities for people to turn their conservation interests into action.     

Communication Practices and Advice in Later-Life Widowhood: “We Just Talked about What It Is like to Not Have Your Buddy”

The present study addressed the question of how interactions with social networks influence the experience of widowhood for later-life widowed individuals, and what aspects of these experiences the participants wish others could know. I interviewed 23 widowed individuals. Four themes emerged revolving around the need to prepare for death through communication, the importance of supportive interactions, the value of remembering and sharing the good times, and the significance of finding a balance with grief and maintaining an active life.     

Who Do We Think We (and They) Are? The Audience and the Researcher as Participants in Sociomaterial Practice

The article problematizes the ontological and epistemological separation of the audience researcher from the very audience the researcher wishes to investigate. After all, every researcher co-constitutes the research outcome, and every researcher can potentially be articulated also as audience participant. The text consequently suggests conceptualizing the researcher as well as the researched as participants in and contributors to sociomaterial practice by building on insights from Critical Psychology. Thinking audience research in the light of such an understanding challenges widely accepted divisions between those who do research and those who are being researched, as well as between theoretical and empirical work, between qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Finally it is argued that the researcher's perspective on the sociomaterial relations of concern is necessarily situated and limited. Hence, engaging in audience research as social research calls for investigating other practice participants' perspectives on these relations so as to collaborate on tackling problems of shared concern.     

“Without Flirting,It Wouldn't be a Marriage”: Flirtatious Communication Between Relational Partners

Exploratory qualitative interviews were used to gather data from nine married couples concerning flirtatious behaviors within the marriage. Interviews were utilized to understand functions and motivations when flirting while dating and married. Data revealed motivation differences between dating and married couples and sex differences between individuals. These findings expand the existing research on flirtation motivations and explore a traditionally ignored context in flirting.     

They Paved Paradise: School Librarians and School Libraries Are Disappearing and We Won’t Know What We’ve Lost Until It’s Gone

Abstract

Many schools in the U.S. have eliminated school librarian positions. This column explores how we got to this crisis point, details several successes in the fight for school libraries, and makes a few suggestions for what school librarians can do to preserve libraries for the sake of our students and teachers.     

“Communication,” “Critical”

Despite the proliferation of critical studies of communication, the meanings of the words “communication” and “critical” remain deeply contested. Attending to the history of the use of these terms inside and outside of the academy offers a broader perspective on some of the most pressing issues confronting scholars of communication today.     

“But,We Don't Have a Library”: Exploring Approaches to Addressing Branch Campuses’ Library Needs

Librarians at Central Oregon Community College's Barber Library explored how to best serve the needs of three satellite campuses across a large geographic region. While initially intending to start an embedded librarianship program, a pair of surveys showed the relationships and awareness necessary for the foundation of such a program were lacking. Using the information gathered in the surveys, the authors attempted to identify and implement methods for building better relationships and greater library awareness across all campuses.     

Electronic Serials Cataloging: Now That We're Here,What Do We Do?

Summary

Many aspects of electronic serials cataloging have not yet developed standard practice, or are still in transition. This article will explore some problematic issues in electronic serials cataloging first by presenting current CONSER policy in these areas and then by examining the practices of three institutions who are cataloging electronic serials. For brevity, the term “electronic serial” will be used to mean “remote access computer file serial” unless the more specific term is needed for clarity. The five topics covered in this discussion are: Access and Location Information, Multiple Versions, Definition of Electronic Serial, Bibliographic Access Points and Display of Computer File Characteristics.     

“We want to do more,but…”: New Jersey public library approaches to misinformation

External disciplinary fields and popular discourse have called upon libraries to explain and address the phenomena related to the prevalence of false and misleading information. The authors provide a critique of this call based in primary research on public libraries in the state of New Jersey during the COVID-19 pandemic. To compliment reviews of public library websites across the state of New Jersey for listed tactics to address misinformation, library staff were surveyed and interviewed on strategies they employ to stem the tide of misinformation and what they might need to work more effectively in the context. The findings reveal tactics employed by the libraries, ranging from active to passive interventions, and literacy-driven to topic-driven tactics, as well as what library staff articulated as impediments to their ability to address misinformation, including the lack of resources, the perception that the library should be a neutral arbiter in these discussions, and that they are “speaking to the choir” with their efforts. The findings can be useful in evaluating existing methods of addressing misinformation within public libraries and developing new tactics and partnerships that can be leveraged to achieve these goals.     

The Structuration of Information and Communication Technologies and Work–Life Interrelationships: Shared Organizational and Family Rules and Resources and Implications for Work in a High-Technology Organization

Research is equivocal about whether, in the context of work–life interrelationships, newer information and communication technologies (ICTs) primarily increase individuals' control over work and mitigate work–life conflict or help organizations extend the work-day and their control over employees. Informed by social theory and empirical research that views employees and their families as dynamic shapers of technological practices, this study presents empirical evidence of these practices in relation to ICT-mediated work–life management. Using a structurationally informed technologies-in-practice perspective as a boundary spanning framework, the study approaches ICTs as emergent from the interconnected practices and values of employing organizations, employees, and their families. Five forms of recursive structuring are identified that describe ways in which technologically mediated work-at-home and home-at-work (re)produce and transform rules and resources from both home and work at both home and work. Implications for employing organizations, employees, and family members are discussed.     

Academic Libraries and Autism Spectrum Disorder: What Do We Know?

This paper examines the rising rates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children in the United States (1 in 59), and explores the role academic libraries can play in helping college students with ASD. A literature review of how different types of libraries (school, public, academic) support students with ASD indicates research in this area in general is lacking. Findings point to lack of adequate training and awareness for librarians and staff, resources, services and spaces are universal challenges. Several initiatives that academic libraries and librarians may consider in helping students with ASD are identified and described.     

We May Be Teaching Information Literacy,but Are the Design First Year Students Actually Getting It?

The purpose of this study was to examine the outcomes of information literacy instruction for the Design first year students at the Temasek Polytechnic Library. Also of interest was whether or not the librarian was being seen as easily approachable, and if the students were deeming the lessons to be worthwhile. A participant action research approach was used, with the data being collected from multiple choice tests delivered via the institutional learning management system, group exercises, and a diagnostic assessment that was delivered before the workshops. It was found that the students did see the librarian as someone who was eminently approachable, and the majority of them found the lessons to be of value. It was concluded that the use of a diagnostic tool can be very useful in highlighting the gaps in students' knowledge, and that it would be beneficial to use it for all information literacy instruction at TP. Suggested future research could include a study of how much the students retain of IL skills into their third year of study.     

Work Spouses: Defining and Understanding a “New” Relationship

Despite a spate of media attention in recent years and implications for both work and family relationships, communication scholars have yet to study work-spouse relationships. Since popular press sources have often focused on the nature of and propriety of such relationships, the purpose of this study was to empirically examine how work spouses characterized their relationships. We analyzed 269 participants’ open-ended responses to a survey, which yielded five categories: (a) characteristics of a work spouse, (b) conditions for the work-spouse relationship, (c) characteristics of the work-spouse relationship, (d) functions of work spouses, and (e) ways of managing the work-spouse relationship. From this analysis, we construct a definition of the relationship and chart a course of future research for communication scholars.     

Writing for Publication and the Role of the Library: “Do Have a Cow,Man!” (“Don't Have a Cow,Man”-Bart Simpson)

The aim of this small-scale research project was to identify the main concerns of editors, academics, researchers, and librarians involved in the writing for publication (WfP) process. This would provide library and information services (LIS) staff with a clearer understanding of the process to enable them to articulate and develop their own role in supporting this activity. A novel “one thing” approach was used to determine the perspectives of editors, researchers, librarians, and research students on key issues surrounding WfP. The results indicate that there are many opportunities for LIS staff to contribute to the WfP process. One major concern which emerged was just how isolated researchers could feel. Suggestion: Having a CoW (Community of Writers) in the library could provide a potential LIS role. Another best practice to support WfP is also identified.     

The Way We Were and What We “B”

Abstract

This article describes the changes over the past 20 years in the job of reference librarian. Using typical reference questions and quotes from leading law librarians in the early '80s, the author compares current practice and explains the differences in the time, place, and manner of legal reference. Although answering questions may be done today more quickly and efficiently than 20 years ago, the increase in demand and expectations make the job more challenging than ever.     

Do We Have It? A Comparative Analysis of Library Journal Holdings and Works Referenced in Faculty Publications

Libraries often wonder if their collections can support their faculty’s research. Large citation databases, such as Scopus or Web of Science, can help automate such a review process. This session will present findings about to what extent faculty were able to complete their journal publications without utilizing interlibrary loan. Using data gathered from Scopus, the range and date of journals referenced by faculty at my home institution will be compared with holdings from my library’s electronic resources knowledge base to determine the level of overlap. Results will be presented by journal discipline to highlight any variation among the science, social science, and arts and humanities divisions. Special emphasis will be given to using this data to inform decisions about purchasing journal backfile collections.