Leadership Reflections: Who Are Your Peeps?

Leaders need to surround themselves with colleagues, mentors, and individuals who will support, challenge, and encourage development. Forming a network will aid a library leader in their individual growth as well as provide informal consultants who can see the broader pictures or tease out an issue that might not be evident to the leader. Colleagues who share the same vision or goals will encourage each other and provide support during personal and professional challenges. A library leader should be strategic about selecting and curating a network that will meet a variety of needs as well as being a resource. Doing so, a leader will have a sounding board to consider ideas and strategies while gaining different perspectives. The end result is that a library leader will build professional relationships that will enhance personal and professional success.     

Presidential Spotlight: Reflection and Advocacy—Creating and Addressing Elements Central to Leadership and Higher Education

Drawing from my experiences as President of the Central States Communication Association, I examine how service allows for opportunities to create relationships, identity, and leadership in profound ways. I then consider how Communication scholars can unite to resolve ongoing economic issues that threaten both communication pedagogy and research. The academy as a whole faces serious economic challenges; this essay identifies some of these specific problems and potential action steps that academic associations can take in an advocacy role on this front. This is done in the hope that associations or even individuals begin (or continue) thinking about what they can do to help address the economic issues in higher education that so many face across the academy.     

Reflections and distortions: Canadian folklore as portrayed in children’s literature

Abstract

In Great Britain and the United States common developmental issues have resulted in the evolution of two very different models of school library provision. In the United States, school libraries are integrated media centers, separate from public library influence, staffed by specialists with dual training in teaching and librarianship, and dedicated to an educational mission. British school libraries are contested terrain with two patterns of staffing, support by Public Library Services, and incomplete formulation of mission and rationale. This article discusses five factors which have facilitated or retarded school library development in the two countries (standards, staffing and certification, government support, rationale, professionalization) and generalizes about development factors and the successful promotion of school libraries.     

Data Privacy and Academic Libraries: Non-PII,PII, and Librarians’ Reflections (Part 2)

Abstract

Using personally identifiable information (PII) (patron data) to make informed decisions in academic libraries through learning analytics programs has increasingly become more commonplace. In this column, we discuss how libraries around the world have used PII to make informed decisions about hours (gate count), electronic resources (collection usage and authentication), and research assistance (virtual reference). In addition, we discuss the use of learning analytics in library environments including the benefits and concerns associated with its use. Finally, we discuss how we have used PII at our institution’s library and the data metrics we plan utilize at some point in the future.     

Data Privacy and Academic Libraries: Non-PII,PII, and Librarians’ Reflections (Part 1)

In this editorial, we discuss the benefits and challenges of working with library data that contains non-Personally Identifiable Information. Despite not containing identifiable information, non-PII data can still be analyzed and used to inform decision making. We are presently using several non-PII data points to inform decision-making in our library: Gate Count, Book Checkouts, Customer Searches, Search Terms Reports, Article and Abstract Downloads, Customer Service Interactions, and One Question Surveys. While non-PII data can inform decision-making in libraries, we have found this type of data to be limited in the ways we outline in this editorial.     

Curating the Library Exhibit “Russian Revolution: Actors and Witnesses” at Harvard University: A Collaborative Experience

ABSTRACT

Tasked with organizing and promoting an exhibit of Russian Revolution-related materials from Harvard University’s vast library holdings in a relatively small space, the curators faced both advantages and challenges. This article describes the curatorial choices and logistical solutions reached via a collaboration between staff at several units across the university: Houghton, Widener, and Fung Libraries, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the Weissman Preservation Center.     

Diasporas and Audience Studies: A Fruitful Match? Reflections From a Media Ethnographic Study on Turkish and Moroccan Film Audiences

Diasporic communities, especially in urban multicultural settings in the West, have emerged as one of the major sites for innovative audience research. This growing body of research connects media sociological questions with the study of global and transnational media flows. In this contribution, some of the main studies on diasporic audiences are revisited, exploring in which ways diaspora studies and audience studies have turned out to be a fruitful match. This is linked to and further exemplified by the discussion of a media ethnographic study of film reception among the Turkish and Moroccan communities in Antwerp, Belgium. It is demonstrated how the ‘diasporic turn’ reformulates traditional boundaries in audience research, proposing banal yet meaningful engagements with media texts. Finally, it is argued that a focus on diasporic audiences has revealed that ethnicity and nationality intersect with other social and cultural determinants such as gender, generation and religion, putting the diasporic proposition itself into perspective.     

Electronic Books in the 2003–2005 Period: Some Reflections on Their Apparent Potential and Actual Development

This paper, based on PhD research, reflects upon the market for electronic books in the general trade sectors of UK and US publishers during the early years of the 21st century. The paper reports on interviews carried out with publishers between 2003 and 2005, and reflects upon four areas which presented and still present challenges to the uptake of e-books—negative perceptions from consumers; formats; pricing and issues regarding digital rights. The paper concludes that the development and uptake of electronic books has some way to go in the general trade/mass-market sectors.

Covid – 19 pandemic and the future of Nigeria's university system: The quest for libraries' relevance

The paper examined the role of academic libraries in the evolving paradigm shift in teaching methodologies in Nigerian universities as a result of the outbreak of Covid-19. It x-rayed the current global trends in online education and significant roles libraries can play. Responsive library website design and adoption, adoption of blended librarianship model and use of social networks among others were identified as best practices to adopt in order to secure a place for libraries in Nigeria in the face of the eminent change in teaching methodologies post Covid-19. Furthermore, the study considered perceived challenges libraries may be confronted with in deploying relevant ICT infrastructures geared towards transitioning from traditional to online provision of services in support of teaching and learning. The paper recommended dynamism in library service delivery, urgency in the acquisition of new skill sets by academic librarians in Nigeria, while also calling on relevant stakeholders to provide adequate funding for libraries in order to be able to deploy relevant ICT infrastructures needed to adequately support teaching and learning in a virtual environment.     

“This Is Our Library,and It’s a Pretty Cool Place”: A User-Centered Study of Public Library YA Spaces

This study sought to collect data from teens and librarians about their preferences and recommendations for the effective design of physical library spaces for teens. Librarians and teens at twenty-two U.S. public libraries filmed narrated video tours of their young adult (YA) public library spaces. The researchers used qualitative content analysis techniques to analyze the video data and to develop a framework for guiding the design of effective YA public library spaces. In addition to providing specific recommendations for user-centered YA library space design, this study highlights the need for continued user input into the design and maintenance of YA public library spaces as teens’ needs evolve and vary across time and from community to community.