Chinese academic librarianship in transition

Abstract

This study examines reasons for the shortage of qualified academic librarians in China and recommends ways to position Chinese academic libraries to move into the modern era.

Interviews were conducted with 20 academic librarians in China and 20 in the United States, in one library in each country, to collect data for a comparative study. This paper compares Chinese and US academic librarianship in terms of reasons for entering this profession, academic education in library and information science, and requirements for knowledge and information skills.

Chinese librarianship faces great challenges in the recruitment and education of librarians and with the library system itself. It is time for the government, university officials, libraries and society as a whole to learn to promote librarianship and build a powerful librarian workforce, to meet the needs of China's social and economic development.     

Pursuing academic librarianship: Factors affecting job attainment

The purpose of the study is to support library and information science (LIS) students and recent graduates considering academic librarianship so they can strategize their career preparation and job search endeavors based on recent graduates' experiences. The authors accomplished this by quantifying the academic and pre-professional experiences, aspects of the job search, and information about first librarian positions of recent graduates in the United States seeking positions as academic librarians. This article focuses on the factors which significantly influence successful and unsuccessful job search outcomes for different population groups represented in the study. For the overall survey population results show that applying early for jobs, gaining pre-professional employment in an academic library, participating in an internship or practicum at an academic library, and applying for positions out of state are significantly associated with successful job search outcomes. Other factors, such as pre-professional employment in a public library, are significantly associated with unsuccessful job search outcomes. Subsequent data analyses focus on respondents who identify as a person of color and on those who identify as Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish origin. Results for these groups varied in comparison to those for the overall, predominantly white, cisgender female survey population, underscoring the need to obtain robust demographics while seeking study participation in intentional ways to increase representation in the research.     

Academic librarian's transition to blended librarianship: a phenomenology of selected academic librarians in Zimbabwe

This paper explores the shared experiences of practices of blended librarianship among Zimbabwean academic librarians to identify how adequately they comply with their dynamic roles and functions. The paper relies on the theoretical constructs from Bell and Shank's (2004, 2007) blended librarianship and Lave and Wenger's (1991) Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) to understand how Zimbabwean academic librarians practice blended librarianship in the workplace through engagement in legitimate work tasks. The investigators used phenomenology to explore academic librarians' experiences of blended librarianship. They selected a sample of 101 academic librarians and delivered a semi-structured questionnaire to the sample, conducted document research and interviewed key informants from the sample. The researchers collected data from the Bindura University of Science Education, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Lupane State University, Midlands State University, the National University of Science and Technology, and PHSBL80 Library which chose to be undisclosed. Each institution adopted blended librarianship in its way. Four (4) different categories of blended librarianship emerged from the experiences; that is “transcending blended librarians”, “partially blended librarians”, “intermittent blended librarians” and “aspiring blended librarians”, displaying each institution's level of instructional technology and instructional design roles. The study proposes that the “Academic librarian's transition to blended librarianship” two-by-two matrix that developed was in this inquiry needs further refinement. Further enquiries may test the matrix within the same sites or other locales altogether to corroborate if the results are replicable.     

Decisions,decisions, decisions: decision fatigue in academic librarianship

Decision fatigue is the phenomenon in which a large number of decisions or choices made over a period of time hinders the ability to competently make further decisions. While addressed in the literature of other professions, the concept has not been included in the inventory of phenomena that potentially affects librarians. This paper presents the results of a survey which draws attention to decision fatigue and allows academic librarians to recognize the symptoms while suggesting ways to overcome its effects.     

Research data management at an African medical university: Implications for academic librarianship

The study investigates and provides results on the current status of research data management at a medical school in a developing African country. The study focusses on four aspects of research data management: generation; preservation and backup; competencies; and challenges. Quantitative data collected using a questionnaire from 84 health researchers and 16 librarians was complemented by qualitative data gathered through conducting structured interviews with the Director of Research of the university. The study results provide the research community with a better understanding of research data management perspectives amongst health researchers in a developing country. This could help research data management stakeholders to adopt better strategies for championing research data management activities in this particular country and in other developing countries. The study notes that the current research data management status creates an opportunity for an academic library to consolidate and fortify its widely viewed natural role in research data management. In view of the findings, the study proposes that the adoption of research data management policies is essential in inspiring the conceptualisation, popularisation, adoption, and operationalisation of various research data management activities within the African university environment.     

Educating,learning, and growing: A review of the teaching role in academic librarianship

Abstract

This literature review aims to answer three questions: (1) Why is teaching important in the role of an academic librarian? (2) What teaching-related initiatives have been used by academic librarians to acquire teaching competencies? (3) How does teaching in academic libraries relate to the community of practice formed by educators across disciplines at a higher education institution? A review of the literature highlights the importance of teaching in academic libraries. Findings suggest that onboarding processes at academic libraries should accommodate the pedagogical and andragogical gaps of new librarians by implementing mentorship programs and providing ongoing feedback. Establishing such protocols would establish a framework for supporting a community of practice with regard to academic librarianship and teaching.     

Shifting expectations: Revisiting core concepts of academic librarianship in undergraduate classes with a digital humanities focus

ABSTRACT

This article explores best practices for supporting digital humanities (DH) activity and pedagogy in the undergraduate classroom on campuses without a DH center in the library. By examining specific aspects of librarians' curricular engagements, with a particular focus on reference and instructional activity, we discuss how reenvisioning these services aids in the development of effective support for both faculty and students engaged in DH. An included case study illustrates how redefining “traditional” librarian liaison roles and shifting expectations of faculty from one-shot instruction sessions to embedded librarianship models can be put into practice in undergraduate classrooms with a DH focus. The article concludes with a discussion of the librarian as digital humanist and how this role can positively impact undergraduate curricula.     

Graduate theses: An index of graduate work in speech,XXXII

ABSTRACT

Feeling right or wrong about a message frame can be used as a heuristic to infer one’s motivational state and determine the depth of information processing. Two experiments examined how individuals’ regulatory fit/nonfit response to news headlines interact with their motivation to influence information elaboration and information seeking. Under high motivations, regulatory fit confirmed their state and increased time spent on the news, elaboration, and information seeking. However, under low motivation, regulatory fit decreased elaboration and information seeking. Instead, under low motivational states, nonfit headlines increased elaboration and information seeking. The study fills a gap in the cognitive mechanisms of framing effect by demonstrating that there exists a fast and intuitive framing effect through affective responses such as regulatory fit-ness.     

Graduate theses: An index of graduate work in speech,XXVIII

With an 1890 book called The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, Alfred Thayer Mahan had a profound and far‐reaching impact upon subsequent world events. In large measure, Mahan's effectiveness was derived from his style in discourse. Evidence for this assumption is found in the reactions of Mahan's readers, in their correspondence to him or about him. Analysis and synthesis of those situationally bound responses to discourse account for a rhetorical function of style in language as para‐message conducing to ethos.     

Graduate theses: An index of graduate work in speech,XXXIII

Six themes of physicians' relational communication were hypothesized to predict patients' satisfaction and compliance, to relate to strategies used by physicians to gain compliance, and to relate to frequency of physician‐patient contact. Telephone interviews with 234 adults who had seen a primary care physician within the previous six months confirmed that perceived relational communication was strongly related to affective, cognitive, and behavioral satisfaction. More expressions of receptivity, immediacy, composure, similarity, and formality and less dominance by the physician were associated with greater patient satisfaction. Only perceived similarity related to patient‐reported compliance. Several relational message themes were associated with physicians’ use of 17 verbal compliance‐gaining strategies. More prior contact also was associated with more perceived use of immediacy and receptivity messages by the physician and with more satisfaction. Finally, satisfaction was modestly correlated with compliance.     

Graduate theses: An index of graduate work in speech,XXX

This study investigated why conversational participants view their partner more positively than do observers of the conversation. Two factors were hypothesized to account for the positivity bias of participants: self‐presentation concerns and cognitive load. Thirty dyads engaged in a brief conversation and participants subsequently evaluated each other. Observers, assigned to 1 of 4 conditions in a balanced 2x2 (high/low cognitive load by present/absent self‐presentation concerns) design, watched a videotape of one conversation and evaluated one of the conversational participants. Results indicate that cognitive load influenced social competence evaluations yet had minimal influence on affective evaluations. Self‐presentation concerns influenced all evaluations to be more positive; however, its strongest influence was on affective evaluations. Post‐interaction evaluations made by participants and observers were also compared to first impressions of a target (impressions formed after 2—4 seconds of exposure). Evaluations made by participants were significantly more positive than first impressions across all evaluations. Evaluations by observers in the no self‐presentation concerns/low cognitive load condition were more negative than first impressions, although this difference was significant only for the social competence judgments. Implications for theories of person perception and affect are discussed.     

科技学术期刊数据可用性声明规范应用的现状及建议

随着科学数据开放共享及科技学术期刊数据出版实践的开展,数据可用性声明作为一种作者声明机制,日益成为期刊学术规范体系的一部分,并逐渐走向标准化.本文系统梳理数据可用性声明规范的产生,对作者、读者、期刊和资助机构的作用,通用的声明类型及实践开展现状,并对推进数据可用性声明规范的应用提出建议.     

International trends in health science librarianship part 17: a comparison of health science libraries with academic and research libraries

Over the last 4 years this Regular Feature has looked at trends in health science librarianship in the 21st century. Although there are still a few more regions to be covered in this series, this issue explores general trends in academic and research libraries with a view to discovering whether the trends identified for health science libraries are similar. Are health science libraries unique? Or do their experiences mirror those found in the wider world of academic and research libraries? JM