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The purpose of this study is to investigate what semiotic analysis can reveal about how welcoming and inclusive a science library space is for patrons. A space was examined in terms of its messaging to patrons of various genders, abilities, races, ethnicities, nationalities, and disciplines. Findings are presented about the space's messaging regarding the disciplines it serves, inclusion of patrons from minoritized demographics, and general expectations of visitors. Recommendations for library practice and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of ARL libraries' webpages of accessibility information revealed wide variation in terms of these pages' findability, length, and coverage. Overall, most of the content elements that were searched for, based on previous webpage studies and user-centered research, were not present on the majority of the webpages. There is clearly much room to expand the accessibility information most ARL libraries provide, which raises questions about whether this is primarily an issue of documentation or reflects true gaps in available resources, services, and facilities. A guide for auditing these webpages was developed to help libraries assess potential gaps in these webpages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patrons' information consumption behaviors of print materials are influenced by their content and tangible characteristics. This quantitative study incorporates several content-based factors widely adopted in collection management practices as well as two physical dimension-related factors, including book size and number of pages, and applies a series of regression analyses to evaluate the relative impact of these factors on patrons' checkout versus in-library use decisions. The results suggest that shelf time and book size exhibit consistent and significant impact on patrons' use of print materials. These findings can shed further light on collection management practices and policies in academic libraries striving to provide patrons more usercentered collections and space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand the library's role in student success, this research used student survey data to explore students' reported library building use, library resource use, library instruction, as well as student perceptions of the library's role in their success, and how these factors may vary by academic discipline. Cumulative GPAs were also matched with respondents. Quantifying the relationship between library usage and student success is one of the six areas recommended for further research by ACRL. This study focuses on the variation and the uncertainty of the measurement of this relationship across disciplines, using Bayesian multilevel regression methods. Levels of library resource usage and percentages of respondents believing the library contributes very much to the respondents' academic success vary quite a bit by discipline. In this study, cumulative GPA is higher on average for students who use library resources more frequently, but not for students who receive library instruction. Although, for undergraduates, higher frequency of building usage predicted higher probability of believing the library contributes very much to academic success, it did not predict higher GPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This large-scale study was conducted for the purposes of determining how representative library users are compared to the whole student population, to explore how library services contribute to student success, and to position the library to be included in the institution's learning analytics landscape. To that end, data were collected as students at University of Central Florida (n = 25,336) interacted with five library service points over four semesters. Analysis revealed a positive association between students who used one or more library services and higher end-of-semester GPAs. The article emphasizes how results were disseminated and ongoing work to build an interactive learning analytics library dashboard that complements existing institutional dashboards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patron-driven acquisition has been an important, if contentious, topic for decades, with numerous programs having been piloted, adopted, and reported on, largely favorably, in the library literature. Still, questions and doubts persist for academic libraries, especially where the composition of vendor plans and packages and the judgment of patrons are concerned. Past literature has approached the assessment of patron-driven acquisition by analyzing circulation/usage, comparing peer-library holdings, seeking patrons' or librarians' judgments of utility and suitability, looking for evidence of collection imbalances, and testing for overlap in patrons' and librarians' purchases. To contribute to this literature, this study addresses scholarly impact and examines whose selections--approval plans', librarians', or patrons'--have been most heavily cited. For the social sciences, the sciences, and the humanities, the authors gathered topic-matched random samples of books acquired via approval plans and librarian orders during the first five years of operation of their institutions' interlibrary loan purchase-on-demand patrondriven acquisition program and compared their citation counts to the counts of books acquired via the program. Google Scholar was employed to tally citations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telephone interviews were conducted with 18 blind academic library users around the United States about their experiences using their library and its website. The study uses the perspective that blind users' insights are fundamental. A common theme was that navigating a webpage is time consuming on the first visit. Issues identified include the need for "databases" to be defined on the homepage, accessibly coded search boxes, logical heading structure, and several problems to be resolved on result pages. Variations in needs depending on users' screen-reader expertise were also raised. Suggestions for libraries to address these issues are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new model for citation analysis, applying new methodological approaches in citation studies. These methods are demonstrated by an analysis of cited references from publications by the Geological Sciences faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder. The author made use of simple Python scripting, the Web of Science API, and OpenRefine to examine the most frequently cited journals and compare them to library holdings data to discover materials absent from the local collection. Of the more than 20,000 citations analyzed, 80 percent cited approximately 10 percent of all titles (412 journals). A notable finding was the heavy reliance of faculty members upon works between zero and two years of age. The streamlined model presented here removes the constraints of time and effort encountered by academic librarians interested in conducting citation analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic librarians have embraced tools such as e-mail or chat that allow them to deliver reference services virtually, but not many studies have advocated for using social networking sites (SNS) as a medium for answering user questions. Even as reference departments field fewer questions requiring in-depth resources or responses, librarians have not consistently examined how SNS might be employed for simple informational inquiries from university students who already view those sites as information-seeking tools. One such SNS is Yik Yak, a mobile app launched in 2013 that allows users to pose anonymous questions in a limited geographic range, such as a college or university campus. This study is an exploratory analysis of the postings on Yik Yak in the geographic area of a four-year, regional public institution during the 2015-2016 academic year. It argues that libraries should be more intentional about monitoring emerging information ecosystems such as Yik Yak to share their knowledge with users and to identify potential issues with library services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical information literacy is a way of thinking and teaching that examines the social construction and political dimensions of libraries and information, problematizing information’s production and use so that library users may think critically about such forces. Being an educational approach that acknowledges and emboldens learners’ agency, critical information literacy has much to offer librarians. Using a survey and follow-up interviews with thirteen librarians practicing critical information literacy, this paper illustrates some of the many ways that librarians incorporate this vital approach to teaching the complexities of information, as well as the potential advantages and difficulties of doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This journey-mapping pilot study was designed to determine whether journey mapping is an effective method to enhance the student experience of using the library by assessing our services from their point of view. Journey mapping plots a process or service to produce a visual representation of a library transaction—from the point at which the student accesses a service to its final resolution. Service scenarios are identified, and maps are produced that reflect the journey from the student's point of view. The student map is then compared to an "ideal" journey, and the differences are used to explore changes that would improve the service experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether there are relationships between first-year college students' use of academic libraries and four academic outcomes: academic engagement, engagement in scholarly activities, academic skills development, and grade point average. The results of regression analyses suggest students' use of books (collection loans, e-books, and interlibrary loans) and web-based services (database, journal, and library website logins) had the most positive and significant relationships with academic outcomes. Students' use of reference services was positively associated with their academic engagement and academic skills, while enrollment in library courses was positively associated with grade point averages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study connects library user surveys, a common library assessment technique, to institutional data to demonstrate the value an academic library brings to student learning and student outcomes. Using regression techniques, the study identifies multiple significant correlations, both positive and negative, between student use of the library and student learning and outcomes as measured by retention, graduation, and grade point average (GPA). The library factors associated with student outcomes change over the course of the four-year undergraduate experience. Methods used in this study could be a model for other institutions seeking a means for assessing the library's relationship to student learning and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-books constitute major challenges for library collections generally and present fundamental problems for consortial collection development specifically. The Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) and Oxford University Press (OUP) have created a mutually equitable and financially sustainable model for the consortial acquisition of e-books coupled with print titles needed to support instruction and research across the disciplinary spectrum within a transitional framework that is acceptable to users while moving both libraries and publishers to a decidedly electronic environment for monographs. Working with YBP Library Services, TRLN and OUP developed a flexible vending model for systematically increasing e-books acquisitions in tandem with reducing print intake over time and keeping net costs constant that other consortia and publishers would find useful. This article focuses on creating an acceptable and sustainable model that allows libraries to shift to e-books and the implications for traditional cooperative collection development. The research reports on the principles undergirding the pilot, how it developed, challenges encountered and lessons learned, librarian and user reactions to this format shift, and resulting philosophical and practical evolutions in consortial approaches to monographic acquisitions and understandings of what constitutes cooperative collections success in a digital environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Librarians often wish to know whether readers in a particular discipline favor e-books or print books. Because print circulation and e-book usage statistics are not directly comparable, it can be hard to determine the relative interest of readers in the two types of books. This study demonstrates a two-step method by which librarians can assess the appeal of books in various formats. First, a nominal assessment of use or nonuse is performed; this eliminates the difficulty of comparing print circulation to e-book usage statistics. Then, the comparison of actual use to Percentage of Expected Use (PEU) is made. By examining the distance between PEU of e-books to PEU of print books in a discipline, librarians can determine whether patrons have a strong preference for one format over another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the merit of conducting a qualitative analysis of LibQUAL+® survey comments as a means of leveraging quantitative LibQUAL+ results, and using importance-satisfaction matrices to present and assess qualitative findings. Comments collected from the authors' institution's LibQUAL+ survey were analyzed using a codebook based on theoretical insights of customer satisfaction with library features. Qualitative findings extended the quantitative results and yielded key recommendations that were new or unclear from the quantitative results alone. Importance-satisfaction matrices were beneficial in pinpointing primary and secondary opportunities for improvement, areas to place continued emphasis, and areas where expectations were exceeded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seekers of information in libraries either go through a librarian intermediary or they help themselves. When they go through librarians they must develop their questions through four levels of need, referred to here as the visceral, conscious, formalized, and compromised needs. In his pre-search interview with an information-seeker the reference librarian attempts to help him arrive at an understanding of his "compromised" need by determining: (1) the subject of his interest; (2) his motivation; (3) his personal characteristics; (4) the relationship of the inquiry to file organization; and (5) anticipated answers. The author contends that research is needed into the techniques of conducting this negotiation between the user and the reference librarian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the usability of five virtual reference services--instant messenger chat, e-mail, telephone, text messaging, and Skype videoconferencing--by having 31 undergraduate and graduate students evaluate the usability of the virtual reference services of two different universities. The study's results suggest that user preference and satisfaction for virtual reference service are highly correlated with the service's overall usability in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Online chat was rated highest across all measures including satisfaction and seven different usability factors. Major implications of the study suggest that online chat is the virtual reference of choice for university students and that usability metrics are a good predictor of user preferences centered on high return on investment, speed of transaction, convenience, and minimal effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Q-methodology was used to identify clusters of opinions about e-books at Miami University. The research identified four distinct opinion types among those investigated: Book Lovers, Technophiles, Pragmatists, and Printers. The initial Q-methodology study results were then used as a basis for a large-n survey of undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty so that we could have a more complete picture of the demographic and social makeup of the campus population. Results from that survey indicate that academic discipline is strongly associated with the respondents' opinion types. Gender and educational status are also associated with respondents' opinion types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For-profit schools constitute the fastest-growing sector of higher education institutions in the United States.[1] Yet accompanying the phenomenal growth of these proprietary colleges and universities has been considerable controversy over the role that the profit motive should play in higher education.2 The literature of higher education contains increasingly more works about proprietary schools. The library literature, however, offers little in this arena. Through this article, the authors seek to introduce the library readership to U.S. for-profit colleges and universities. We summarize their history and their characteristics, and we explore reasons for their success and present areas in which these schools appear to excel. With regard to their library services and resources, we focus on issues of concern based specifically on our experience with academic libraries in proprietary schools operating in the state of Ohio. Finally, we suggest ways in which these for-profit institutions can address the challenges faced by their libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content-enriched metadata in bibliographic records is considered helpful to library users in identifying and selecting library materials for their needs. The paper presents a study, using circulation data from a medium-sized academic library, of the effect of content-enriched records on library materials usage. The study also examines OPAC search transactions of circulated items to learn how enriched metadata is used. The findings show that enhanced records were overall associated with higher circulation rates and that keyword search was the most frequently used search option directly associated with circulation. Contents data can play a key role in discovery. Libraries should continue to provide and exploit content-enriched metadata. The combination of optimal library system data mining capability, postsearching evaluation, and OPAC display are crucial to achieve content-enriched access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circulation data from the Virginia Tech Libraries were analyzed to determine the extent of continuity or change between the author's study of the use of subject collections in 1982 and the present. Book circulation has declined, largely due to much less use by undergraduates. The overall profile of subject use has changed in ways traceable to changes in the population of active library users. Disciplinary groups who still rely on library monographs do so in ways strikingly similar to their behavior in 1982, and the findings strongly replicate the earlier findings that were most suggestive for library practice and the sociology of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of Mississippi Library created a profile to provide linking from Google Scholar (GS) to library resources in 2005. Although Google Scholar does not provide usage statistics for institutions, use of Google Scholar is clearly evident in looking at library link resolver logs. The purpose of this project is to examine users of Google Scholar with existing data from interlibrary loan transactions and library Web site click-through logs and analytics. Questions about user status and discipline, as well as behaviors related to use of other library resources, are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic communication technologies continue to change the landscape of reference services. For many users, virtual communication is the preferred means of conversing. Synchronous virtual reference, similar to other synchronous means of communication, is an important method for reaching students and for providing teaching and learning opportunities. Grounded Theory (GT) research provides a method for examining the transcripts of synchronous virtual reference. In this study, the library implemented the instant messaging (IM) application known as Meebo. Using the qualitative software ATLAS.ti, Iowa State University Library researchers uploaded, analyzed, and coded the instant messaging transcripts. From the analysis, a snapshot developed of the library's central role in educating the university community about research resources. This paper describes ongoing challenges that occur during synchronous virtual reference interviews and staff training needs that cannot be captured by number crunching alone. Synchronous virtual reference can provide essential teaching and learning experiences that complement the educational mission of most research universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes changes to the definitions of "authorized users" contained in electronic resources licenses and embedded in access control technologies from the mid-1990s to the present. In analyzing changes to the license and technology-based definitions, it tracks shifts in major stakeholders' perceptions of authorized users and describes developments in licensing and access control technologies. The paper demonstrates that the concept of authorized users has been shaped by a mix of social and technical elements, including changes to information providers' and libraries' business models and missions, shifts in norms for license terms, and development of technological tools used to facilitate or constrain access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though the academic library's primary mission is to serve the students, faculty, and staff of its parent institution, would-be users not officially associated with the institution frequently call upon the library to provide services and/or resources. Requests by these nonaffiliated users (some-times called community users) pose a moral quandary for public-service staff. Library personnel must weigh the demand to be helpful against their responsibility to make students, faculty, and staff their top priority. The authors employ W.D. Ross's pluralistic framework of prima facie duties to examine the conflicting obligations at the heart of this ethical dilemma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After one year of providing virtual reference service through an instant messaging (lM) service, Binghamton University (BU) Libraries, under the purview of its Digital Reference Committee (DRC), undertook a study of collected session transcripts. The goals of this work were to determine who was using the IM service and why; if staffing for the service was adequate and met our in-person reference standards; and if improvements to the libraries' existing reference services were needed. The findings revealed that 31 percent of identifiable users were students and 5 percent of users were campus community members. The analyses also revealed that many used the service for complex questions and not just ready reference, policy, and directional questions as had been expected. The most common question types were Web site navigation help (29% of all sessions), research assistance (22%), and instructional questions (23%). The American Library Association Reference & User Services Association (RUSA) Guidelines for the Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers were used to measure quality of service. The findings reveled that approachability, showing interest, and listening were each demonstrated in over 80 percent of sessions, indicating these activities can be demonstrated effectively in a virtual environment. The study also found that questions were correctly answered 84 percent of the time. The study provided valuable insight into how patrons approach and locate information on our Web site and demonstrated a need for additional training, improved site design and navigational aids, and future discussions of staffing alternatives for the lM service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the nature of associations between critical thinking dispositions and library anxiety among 137 undergraduate students. The study was conducted by administering standardized survey instruments and by analyzing the contents of student essays on critical incidents of their library use experience. The results of these quantitative and qualitative investigations consolidated each other by revealing negative associations between the two variables. An interactive model of critical thinking and library anxiety emerged from the investigation, showing how they interact with each other during the library use process. Both theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed within the frameworks of affective information behavior and information literacy, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents changes in library use during the past decade. Data from professional organizations reveal that circulation use has declined slightly, with notable variations in health and law and at individual institutions, including the Ivy League. Reference use has declined more steeply. Electronic use has skyrocketed, but counting use remains problematic. The HOLLIS Plus counting results at Harvard University are highlighted. Electronic Serials expenditures at academic research libraries (ARL) suggest that electronic use will continue to expand unabated. Major studies profiling users are cited. Notable benefits are predicted as the shifted librarian and the elusive user interact in virtual space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dawn of the Internet era has prompted many researchers to investigate changes in the use of academic libraries, but most studies explore student use, rather than faculty use, of library space. In contrast, this study surveys use of the academic library space among faculty and doctoral students and explores the phenomenological differences between using library space and using the library remotely. The authors hypothesized that older scholars (by age and by ‘scholarly age,’ as measured by the year in which the scholar's last academic degree was earned) would report greater use of the physical library and less use of the library's electronic resources and would make more positive statements about the physical space than would younger scholars. In three of the four major themes that emerged from the qualitative survey data, this hypothesis is supported. However, in the fourth theme, ‘conduciveness to scholarship,’ the opposite position was supported. Younger scholars were far more likely than older scholars to make statements reflecting the idea that the physical library is a unique place that facilitates the kind of concentration necessary for doing serious scholarly work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic librarians are challenged to provide instruction to freshmen who demonstrated varied levels of research skills. To investigate how extensively particular information literacy skills are addressed at the secondary level, the authors distributed a nationwide survey to school library media specialists. Results reveal a common set of skills that respondents perceive they teach in depth and a common set of skills that are perceived as neglected. Qualitative data identify hindrances to information literacy instruction in high schools. Avenues for collaboration between academic and school librarians are suggested as a means to closing the knowledge gap between high school and college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pilot study was developed to determine use of the University of Texas at Austin General Libraries' research collections in the fields of civil engineering and educational psychology and to investigate the research behavior of graduate students. First, the authors sampled bibliographic citations from dissertations completed during the years 1997 and 2002 in the above-named fields. Then, a survey was sent to the dissertation writers to gain insight into use and opinions of library services for their graduate research. Analysis of information provided by both collection- and user-centered data-gathering techniques serves to underscore the value of the merged evaluation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online library instruction has not traditionally been designed based on educational learning theories. Rather, much of it has been designed in the structure and format of print, with little thought given to the pedagogical approaches that support Web-based earning. Several relevant multimedia learning theories are surveyed in this article and compared with two versions of the same library tutorial—an HTML tutorial, and a streaming audio and video tutorial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the likely implications of open access on library operations. The context of the examination takes place assuming that the traditional model of publication and open access coexist. Open access presents numerous challenges and opportunities, but entrepreneurial libraries will find new ways to serve their patrons in the new mixed open- access-traditional (MOA) environment. In order to do so, these libraries will need to redesign their organization and this can be expected to stretch both monetary and human resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To be successful in the university environment, a digital library must be able to integrate content from faculty and students, as well as traditional library sources. It must have a robust metadata structure that can accommodate and preserve a variety of discipline-specific metadata while supporting consistent access across collections. As part of the Mellon-funded project, the Visual Image User Study at Penn State, a prototype centralized digital image delivery service was created and explored. In creating a metadata schema for the project, the authors anticipated both a wide variety of content and users across many disciplines. This schema employed three very different standards (VRA Core Categories, Dublin Core, IMS Learning Objects Meta-data). The project validated the need for highly individualized content, the importance of individual faculty collections, the need for editorial intervention to supplement and modify contributed metadata, and the importance of addressing discipline-specific vocabularies and taxonomies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the library surveys of Internet users at Seton Hall University. Importance of the Internet in library services; Role of librarians in teaching Internet searching; Factors affecting satisfaction among library users.

The author reflects on the mission of academic libraries and on the necessary balance between physical and electronic library resources. Concerns regarding the future of print books, the accessibility of library materials stored off-site, and the identification of a library as a social and cultural place are examined. The author notes the importance of acknowledging the concerns of student and faculty library users regarding print and electronic library resources.