The Plugged-in Reference Librarian: Who Do We Think We Are?

In recent years, academic reference librarians often find themselves working in closer proximity to computer workstations, labs, and information commons. They are spending a greater portion of their time assisting library users with the vast array of software and hardware used to access library resources. This study examines whether an increased demand for technological knowledge and proficiency is reflected in job expectations for academic reference librarians. Researchers compared randomly chosen academic reference librarian job advertisements from 1999 to those from 2011, examining both job responsibilities and candidate qualifications. Results were mixed, with some variables gaining prominence but others declining. There was no apparent increase in demand for technological skills and responsibilities overall.     

Do You See the Signs? Evaluating Language,Branding, and Design in a Library Signage Audit

Signage represents more than directions or policies; it is informational, promotional, and sets the tone of the environment. To be effective, signage must be consistent, concise, and free of jargon and punitive language. An efficient assessment of signage should include a complete inventory of existing signage, including an analysis of the types of signs, its location, language, and its design. This article outlines the steps involved in a comprehensive signage audit, which along with a literature review, provides the foundation for creating a signage policy, best practices guidelines, and a branding strategy for future signage.     

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.     

Are You Ready for Your Close-Up? Creating a Library Promotional Video

Learn how to create a promotional library video for your library using the multimedia software Camtasia. Challenges and lessons learned are explored by detailing one reference librarian’s efforts at creating a Ask A Librarian video.     

Remember Me? Content Development in a User-Centered Services Library

As a response to the University of Kansas' (KU) strategic planning process and the need to identify budgetary efficiencies, the KU Libraries created a strategic plan and underwent a structural reorganization. In the new structure, the libraries went from thirty librarians doing collection development to seven selecting library materials for the core collection. The new, smaller, more agile department is responsible for all tasks related to collection development as the library moves from being a collection-centered institution to being user-centered. The new organization shifts the collection development paradigm from one based on academic disciplines to one that embraces a holistic view.     

Is There a Role for the Library in a Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Program?

ABSTRACT

With unique historical resources, academic archives can and should play an active role in support of the teaching and research missions of a college. Not only can archival teaching and collaborative learning teach students the importance of primary resources and how to use them but they also can provide support for the archives. Through partnership with faculty and students, the collaborative research program at Rollins College provides a viable means for enhancing the awareness and use of the unique historical collections, and, therefore, enriching students' appreciation of the liberal arts heritage of the institution while also providing students with a meaningful research experience.     

Are Library Science Programs Preparing New Librarians? Creating a Sustainable and Vibrant Librarian Community

Recent studies show a growing sense of frustration for new library and information science (LIS) graduates who struggle to gain employment, as well as for hiring libraries who find the skills of entry-level employee candidates to be lacking. This study endeavors to discover the origins of this troubling juxtaposition by examining the perceptions of recent LIS graduates. The researchers administered a large-scale survey with over 575 respondents, analyzed and coded the data, and compared codes using a Cohen's kappa calculation. The responses indicate that LIS graduates feel that their LIS education would have been more valuable had it given them more opportunities to gain experience, more courses in technology and instruction, more guidance in which courses to take, and more mentoring opportunities with practicing information professionals.     

How Well Are We Preparing Them?: An Assessment of First-Year Library Student Assistants’ Information Literacy Skills

Most libraries have fully integrated cadres of student assistants into their daily operations, including helping at points of service. As libraries rely more and more on student assistants, we must maintain exceptional customer service to our users. This requires our student assistants to possess information literacy skills that exceed those of our users. This assessment investigates the information literacy skills of first-year library student assistants when compared to the general first-year student population, and it examines if first-year library student assistants’ information literacy skills increase more than those of their peers during their first semester at college.     

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.     

LibGuides and Web-Based Library Guides in Comparison: Is There a Pedagogical Advantage?

This study investigates whether the platform used to deliver a tutorial matters in online information literacy instruction and assesses the overall quality of an information literacy tutorial assignment given to an undergraduate survey class. The study asks whether there is any pedagogical advantage between information literacy tutorials created in the LibGuides library guide creation software and tutorials created as Web pages. This research question is relevant to current studies of online information literacy tutorials, particularly given the increasingly dominant but under-researched position of LibGuides in the academic library world for delivering guides and tutorials. Two separate groups of students completed LibGuides and Web page versions of the same information literacy tutorial assignment in a university undergraduate communication course. Survey results of these 89 students indicated that both the LibGuides and Web page platforms deliver online instruction content effectively and achieve learning objectives almost equally well. Results also indicated content areas within the assignment that could be strengthened.     

Square Peg in a Round Hole? The Framework for Information Literacy in the Community College Environment

Column Editor's Note. Community college libraries are deeply underrepresented in the professional literature and organizations of academic librarianship. As a result, the challenges and successes that take place in the community college world are largely invisible to others. This JLA column lifts the curtain to reveal the uniqueness of community college libraries as described by their most passionate advocates: the librarians who work there. Articles in this column pay tribute to the commitment and creativity of community college librarians by providing a platform where they can share their professional perspectives and stories. Want to write for this column? Interested authors are invited to submit articles to the editor at kimreed@cwidaho.cc.

Standards, frameworks, or threshold concepts? The Association of College &; Research Libraries’ efforts to update and revise the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000) have opened extensive dialogue not only about the content of the new standards, but about the very nature of the document. Its proposed replacement, The Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education (2014) took a more theoretical path to describing what an information literature individual understands and how they behave. One common objection to the Framework, however, is that it is too advanced to be applicable in the undergraduate environment, and particularly in community colleges. In this essay, a community college library director takes a critical approach to the Framework to assess its relevance to the two-year college curriculum, grounding the discussion by mapping Knowledge Practices to Performance Indicators in the original Standards. The author recommends that community college librarians take an à la carte approach and integrate relevant elements of the Framework where they are useful without trying to address the entire document.     

The Archival and Library Viewpoints of a Collection in a Digital Environment: Is There Any Room for Compromise?

ABSTRACT

This article explores the archivists' and librarians' definition of a collection, and how they respectively arrange their collections in the context of collection development and collection management issues in a digital library. It centers on possible cooperative solutions and highlights, as a case study, the efforts of the Auburn University Digital Projects Committee to meet these challenging collection issues.     

How Do We React When Our Favorite Characters Are Taken Away? An Examination of a Temporary Parasocial Breakup

This study examined reactions to a temporary parasocial breakup situation during the television writers’ strike of 2007–2008 when many television shows stopped airing new episodes. Past research on parasocial breakups and uses and gratifications theory was used to predict emotional and behavioral reactions. Questionnaire results revealed that participants with stronger parasocial relationships experienced greater distress—even after controlling for the number of favorite programs that went off the air. Moreover, those with greater television affinity reported greater distress when their favorite show was disrupted, although television viewing motives also played a role in this process. Finally, when their favorite shows were no longer airing new episodes, viewers primarily replaced television viewing time with other media exposure rather than increasing nonmedia activities such as social interaction. However, a number of these activities varied by gender.     

Who Needs a Terrestrial Signal? Internet Audio Streams Make Waves in Two Kansas Radio Markets

Among American audio listening options is live streaming, and it is becoming a major component in the competitive local and national marketplace. While “playlist generators” like Spotify and Pandora have been well covered, little attention has been given to individual entrepreneurs who are using streaming as a means of attracting audiences and advertising dollars. This comparative case study provides a contrast in the business models used by two former broadcasters who are using streams in lieu of terrestrial radio signals to compete in two Kansas markets.     

What They Are Telling Us: Library Use and Needs of Traditional and Non‐traditional Students in a Graduate Social Work Program

A survey was conducted in Fall 2008 to determine the library use and needs of Master of Social Work students at Marywood University. Full-time, Part-time, Weekend, and Satellite students were surveyed. Survey results and implications for Marywood Library's service to nontraditional students and for the academic library community are discussed.     

How Do I Get a Campus ID? The Other Role of the Academic Library in Student Retention and Success

Academic libraries have long gathered data at the reference desk to facilitate informed development of services and collections, and have long known that regardless of whether questions are related to doing research, the library is a safe place a student may go to find answers. This article highlights the role of the library and information commons service desks as valuable windows into the student experience. The authors suggest that librarians share with campus stakeholders information about students’ non-research-related questions to aid in the development of programs and services designed to help students adjust to campus life and, ultimately, succeed.