Where the private meets the public: Results of a survey of library professionals’ observed student use of academic library spaces for prayer

Abstract

Reports of college students using the library for spiritual practices, including prayer and meditation, consist mainly of anecdotal observations, news stories, or press releases about the creation of such spaces within academic libraries. Driven by their own experiences with students using library spaces for prayer, the authors examined how prevalent this was across US academic institutions. Using a large-scale national survey, this study found library professionals observe a wide range of student prayer behavior in a variety of library spaces, regardless of institutional or campus demographics. The results provide academic libraries with evidence to support accommodating students’ spiritual needs in library spaces.     

Popular with whom? Usage demographics of popular science nonfiction at an academic library

Abstract

There is a large body of nonfiction written for a general audience which is infrequently promoted in popular reading collections at academic libraries. The aim of this research is to look at the usage of nonfiction science literature at a large university library in comparison to the science collection as a whole. This information can help librarians to not only determine how best to prioritize the collection of nonfiction science literature, but it can also be used to provide insight into how popular nonfiction science books can be most effectively promoted to library patrons.     

A case study: the evolution of a ��facilitator model�� liaison program in an academic medical library

Question:

What type of liaison program would best utilize both librarians and other library staff to effectively promote library services and resources to campus departments?

Setting:

The case is an academic medical center library serving a large, diverse campus.

Methods:

The library implemented a “facilitator model” program to provide personalized service to targeted clients that allowed for maximum staff participation with limited subject familiarity. To determine success, details of liaison-contact interactions and results of liaison and department surveys were reviewed.

Results:

Liaisons successfully recorded 595 interactions during the program''s first 10 months of existence. A significant majority of departmental contact persons (82.5%) indicated they were aware of the liaison program, and 75% indicated they preferred email communication.

Conclusion:

The “facilitator model” provides a well-defined structure for assigning liaisons to departments or groups; however, training is essential to ensure that liaisons are able to communicate effectively with their clients.     

Borrowing trouble? The impact of a systematic review service on interlibrary loan borrowing in an academic health sciences library

Background:With the mandate to review all available literature in the study''s inclusion parameters, systematic review projects are likely to require full-text access to a significant number of articles that are not available in a library''s collection, thereby necessitating ordering content via interlibrary loan (ILL). The aim of this study is to understand what effect a systematic review service has on the copyright royalty fees accompanying ILL requests at an academic health sciences library.Case Presentation:The library created a custom report using ILLiad data to look specifically at 2018 ILL borrowing requests that were known to be part of systematic reviews. This subset of borrowing activity was then analyzed to determine its impact on the library''s copyright royalty expenditures for the year. In 2018, copyright eligible borrowing requests that were known to be part of systematic reviews represented only approximately 5% of total filled requests that involved copyright eligible borrowing. However, these systematic review requests directly or indirectly caused approximately 10% of all the Spencer S. Eccles Library copyright royalty expenditures for 2018 requests.Conclusion:Based on the sample data set, the library''s copyright royalty expenditures did increase, but the overall financial impact was modest.     

Weed to achieve: a fundamental part of the public library mission?

Weeding or deselection of materials has become an integral part of library management. Based on a nineteen-question survey about weeding practices in public libraries, this article discusses the personal perspectives of public librarians on weeding as well as the weeding practices of their institutions. The three most common criteria for weeding are circulation, physical condition, and accuracy of information. Librarians overwhelmingly believe that weeding increases use of books and patron satisfaction. In addition, the public library was framed as a venue that offers safe, clean, and fresh “product lines” with various natural life cycles and expiry dates. This discursive formation raises questions about the extent to which public libraries and their collections are becoming commodified, homogenized, and ephemeral, and whether such ephemeralness and homogenization serve the interests of all community members.     

Faculty–library collaboration: A model for University of Colombo

Faculty–library collaboration paves the way to make students information literate and finally to make them life-long learners. In traditional universities, the faculty–library collaboration is an emerging phenomenon as these two entities are driven by separate agendas; teaching and providing services. Rapid development in information and communication technologies has built a platform for these two institutions to work collaboratively and for making synergies. The purpose of this paper is to describe the conceptual model for faculty–library collaboration based on the extensive literature review and some strategies used by librarians at University of Colombo to collaborate with the academics.     

Ethical issues and learning analytics: Are academic library practitioners prepared?

Academic libraries are participating in the collection and analysis of student data. Under the umbrella of learning analytics, these practices are directed toward developing an understanding of how libraries contribute to student learning, the educational experience, and efficient operations of academic institutions. Learning analytics, however, is loaded with ethical issues, which are made more complex by the high ethical bar library practitioners espouse as part of their professional values. This article discusses findings from a survey of academic library practitioners. The survey identifies what ethical issues practitioners associate with learning analytics and the degree to which they are prepared to address such issues. The discussion suggests pathways forward for filling knowledge and practice gaps.     

Environmental factors in professional development activities: Does type of academic library affiliation make a difference?

The importance of continuing professional development activities for academic librarians is generally acknowledged, but differences in activity levels according to type of academic institution have received little examination. This study compares academic librarians in a single state on the basis of type of employing institution: 2-year institution, predominately 4-year college, or doctorate-granting institution. Demographic profiles of librarians and institutional support for professional activities did not vary significantly across type of institution, but a number of notable differences emerged when the professional behavior of the three groups was compared. Librarians at doctorate-granting institutions belonged to more professional associations, were more active in those organizations, and published more. However, in other activity areas, different comparative patterns were discovered.     

Exploring best practices in public–private partnership (PPP) in e-Government through select Asian case studies

e-Government has emerged as a popular governance reform in recent years, to improve the productivity of the government and quality of services provided by it to various stake-holders. However, e-Government implementation is hampered by certain roadblocks such as lack of financial resources, lack of technical and soft skills, etc. Public–private partnership (PPP) has emerged as a viable model to counter these factors, apart from improving the economic sustainability of e-Government projects. PPP essentially implies sharing of risks and rewards of a venture. Successful implementation of PPP in e-Government requires the adoption of some key best practices, and incorporation of the learning obtained from previous PPP experiences. Four successful “PPP in e-Government” projects, implemented in Asia, are discussed to highlight the best practices and key learning obtained from each project. This is intended to highlight the necessary steps to be taken, especially in an Asian setting, to implement a successful PPP in e-Government.     

How do public libraries create social capital? An analysis of interactions between library staff and patrons

In this qualitative study exploring the content of social interactions between library staff and patrons, interviews were held with 15 library staff members in three neighborhood branch libraries in a large American midwestern city. An analysis of the interviews suggests that public libraries may contribute to social capital through the relationships and interactions that occur between staff and patrons. Some of the ways in which these relationships and interactions may contribute to social capital include: building patrons' trust in the library and its staff, connecting people to both community and library resources, providing social support for patrons, reducing social isolation, helping patrons gain skills to function in an increasingly online world, and providing a positive place for neighborhood residents to gather. The kinds of social interactions occurring in libraries that may help to build social capital are highlighted.     

A Selective Bibliography on the Evolution of CATV 1950–1970

A full bibliography on one of the most active areas of broadcasting —CATV—is long overdue. Don Le Duc originally prepared this compilation while working on his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin. It is based on an extensive clipping file collected by Kenneth Lichty of India, California, and by the author's major professor, Lawrence W. Lichty of the University of Wisconsin. Support for completing the collection came, in part, through a fellowship awarded by the Department of Communication Arts and a travel grant from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Le Duc is a member of the State of Wisconsin and United States Supreme Court Bars, and is on the publications committee of the Federal Communications Bar Association and the communications committee of the American Bar Association. Formerly on the faculty of the University of Maryland, he will be assistant professor in the Department of Speech at the Ohio State University starting this fall.     

What do academic libraries tweet about,and what makes a library tweet useful?

People spend an increasing amount of time using social media systems to network, share information, learn, or engage in leisure activities (e.g., gaming). Libraries too are establishing a social media presence to promote the library and provide services to user populations through the social media systems the users frequent. This study explores Twitter uses by six large academic libraries and factors that make library tweets useful. 752 tweets were analyzed by topic to develop a subject typology of library tweets. In addition, tweets and Twitter user characteristics were analyzed to explore what makes library tweets useful, as measured by the number of retweets and favorites received. Content analysis of the samples of library tweets revealed nine content types, with the event and resource categories being the most frequent. In addition, the analysis showed that tweets related to study support services and building and maintaining connections with the library community were the most frequently retweeted and selected as favorites. The presence of a URL in the tweet was positively associated with the number of retweets, and the number of users followed was positively associated with the number of favorites received. Finally, a negative correlation was found between the account age and number of favorites.     

Research complexity increases with scientists’ academic age: Evidence from library and information science

With the continued aging of the scientific workforce, the impact of this trend on scientists’ research performance has attracted increasing attention. The literature has predominantly focused on the productivity, impact, and collaboration pattern of scientists of different ages. A research gap is found in investigating the differences in the research topics studied by junior and senior scientists. This study focuses on the complexity of a scientist's research portfolio (RPC). Based on the concept of economic complexity, RPC was measured to characterize the capability of scientists to study complex research topics. An economic algorithm was adopted to estimate RPC on heterogeneous author-topic bipartite networks using bibliographic data from the field of Library and Information Science between 1971 and 2020. Through comparisons among scientist groups, RPC shows promise in distinguishing outstanding scientists from peers who have similar values of other indicators (e.g., citations and H-index). The change in RPC was further probed across scientists’ careers and an increasing trend with academic age was found, even after removing the accumulated advantages of senior scientists. Moreover, top-ranked scientists distinguish themselves from their peers by a higher RPC in the first year and a greater growth rate during their careers. While many researchers have their highest RPC in the first year, most top-ranked scientists reach their peak RPC later in their careers. The results provide helpful references for studies on the aging effect in academia.     

PDQ‐professional development quarterly: Productivity,financial management and the public library

For this last tutorial Turock has elected to identify the goals and roles of fiscal officers in public libraries and to suggest work measurement as a means of supporting funding requests.     

The CSR green halo effect on the corporate–public communication: an experimental study

Environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a popular practice among corporations. However, the mechanism and effectiveness of environmental CSR in affecting corporate–public communication are still unclear. Against the theoretical backdrop of the ‘halo effect’ and through a controlled experiment with 742 participants from Hong Kong and mainland China, we find that: if a company’s environmental CSR activity receives higher support from the consumers, it is less likely for consumers to avoid advertisements endorsed by the company. The CSR green halo effect therefore exists. Moreover, consumers’ nationality and their three preexisting attitudes (general environmental CSR support, environmental beliefs, and favorability of products’ country of origin) are important moderators of the green halo effect and need to be considered in practice.     

Examining six modes of relationships in a social-mediated crisis in China: an exploratory study of contingent organization–public relationships (COPR)

ABSTRACT

The relationship management theory and contingency theory of conflict management, as two dominant approaches in the field of public relations, bolstered by a tapestry of literature from cross-disciplinary fields, were brought together to conceptualize the concept of contingent organization–public relationships (COPR). To generate the theoretical robustness of COPR and test its practical applicability, we selected a social-mediated crisis occurring in China and collected data through mixed-methods, including both content analysis and in-depth interviews. Quantitatively, content analysis of 338 Red Cross’s press releases and 4003 media coverage and 136,754 public posts during a 3-year time range provided a natural history of the application of COPR in crises. Qualitative interviews also offered in-depth information on the perceptions of stances and relationships from each party in this incident. Findings concluded that COPR addressed the dynamic and contingent multi-party relationships in contemporary China.     

Leading campus OER initiatives through library–faculty collaboration

With the rising costs of tuition and textbooks, Open Educational Resources (OERs) are becoming increasingly important. The university library, in collaboration with faculty, is a natural leader of OER initiatives at institutions of higher education. Cleveland State University's Michael Schwartz Library embraced this leadership role by assisting a faculty member with developing an OER, which involved balancing the workload between librarians and the faculty member, determining successful modes of communication, taking advantage of graphic design skills, and more. The success of this initial collaboration has led the Library to expand its support of OER initiatives on campus.     

Use of Facebook fan pages in Polish academic libraries (2009–2022)

The article presents the results of a quantitative comparative analysis of the activity of 59 Polish public university libraries on the social networking site Facebook (2009–2022). The study aimed to assess the use of Facebook by university libraries of different types and to evaluate the popularity of the content shared by these institutions based on the number of posts shared and the users' reactions to them. Fanpage Karma, a commercial online tool for monitoring social media monitoring was used to collect and statistically analyze the data from individual fan pages. The findings showed that overall, the degree of social media activity was not dependent on the type of library. Although the existence of Facebook is not new in the area of social networking, its use in Polish libraries has not yet become widespread. The phenomenon of the lack of library fan pages on social media is worrying given that several of these tertiary level libraries had no fan pages on any kind of social media. Nevertheless, for those that had a Facebook fan page, it was discovered that it was one of the primary tools for communicating with users, promoting library and information services, and other library activities.