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This study examines data from a survey conducted at a U.S. public research university, focusing on students' behaviors and attitudes toward the library, both physical and online. The analysis categorizes student users and nonusers based on demographics such as full-time enrollment, first-generation status, college, and grade point average (GPA). Results indicate that first-generation students were most likely to never use the online library. Low GPA respondents visited the physical library most frequently, whereas high GPA students were more inclined to use e-resources. The discussion section includes suggestions for improving services and resources to support student success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid pace of change and the high cost invested in information technology, it is important for academic libraries to evaluate the information technology solutions they use in their institutions to determine whether they are meeting the needs of their students, faculty, staff, and other users of their libraries and resources. This study presents the results of an online survey of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) academic library members to benchmark the assessment strategies that they used to evaluate their IT activities. This article compares their responses with earlier studies to identify trends and make recommendations for effective assessment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this column, we will share the benefits and challenges of adopting two EdTech tools (Scholarcy and Grammarly) to support library users' research workflows. We share how we introduced Grammarly and Scholarcy to the college community through a marketing campaign via ConvertKit, an email marketing tool, and the benefits and challenges of Grammarly and Scholarcy's vendor-supplied usage statistics to support student success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In early March 2020, a global COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of a large majority of academic institutions including libraries, archives, and cultural heritage institutes in North America and around the world. As we write this article, almost two years later, the situation remains critical, and most universities continue to offer online teaching while most libraries provide remote access to their resources. This article presents the results of a survey that was designed and circulated to faculty and students at US and Canadian universities in the summer of 2020. This article aims to draw a portrait of the state of research in the Summer of 2020 and seeks to understand how libraries and users customized their access to resources during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The article identifies the main challenges faced by scholars in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies to develop, pursue, or complete research projects during the pandemic, and the strategies implemented to make up for the loss of access to primary source materials and field research. The article also highlights immediate initiatives developed by academic and research libraries to support the research community, and demonstrates how these responses to the crisis matched their institution's strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey was performed over all university libraries within the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER) in order to study how different methods of user input are utilized. Libraries using analysis based on explorative methods—such as UX and process mapping—report significantly increased user knowledge and perceived well-function. Over three-fourths of the respondents reported performing general user surveys. Surveys offer ease of collection, effectively gather researcher user group input and generate data suitable for communicating library value to stakeholders. However, it is resource-demanding to transfer findings into service changes, especially for smaller libraries, and results often support stepwise improvements rather than discovery of new services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though there has been much discussion of the connection between libraries and digital humanities (on both sides), a general model of the two has not been forthcoming. Such a model would provide librarians with an overview of the diverse work of digital humanities (some of which they may already perform) and help identify pockets of activity through which each side might engage the other. This article surveys the current locations of digital humanities work, presents a cultural informatics model of libraries and the digital humanities, and situates digital humanities work within the user-centered paradigm of library and information science. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ithaka S+R's Faculty Survey 2009, the 4th iteration since 2000 of this survey of faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States, offers insights into how faculty attitudes about electronic media and technology have evolved over the last decade. In this article, the authors focus on the aspects of the survey that most directly relate to the work of research libraries, including commentary on information discovery and use, the evolving role of the library, and changing attitudes toward access and preservation of journal current issues and backfiles. The responses to this survey point to some of the more valuable services libraries offer (or could offer), as well as highlighting the many challenges facing libraries and putting an exclamation point on the widely shared view that the libraries cannot rely on what have been their traditional strengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To change from collection-centric to user-centered research libraries and to survive in tough economic times, libraries face 2 major challenges: 1st, libraries need to change how they are viewed by their constituencies so they are seen as indispensable; and 2nd, libraries need to help the librarians and staff change their own mental models of their roles to remain relevant in these changing times. Metaphors are one way to help people connect terms in new ways so they develop new images of those terms. For more than 100 years, libraries have used metaphors to seek connections that will help people see libraries as something other than warehouses for books. This article will explore various metaphors being used in the library field and how these metaphors can help libraries introduce change to improve their chances of receiving the support needed to survive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What shapes and extends user expectations? How well is the library positioned to meet and exceed those needs? How are library collections, services, technology, space, staffing, and organization influenced by these developments? What new roles and responsibilities are being embraced and advanced? This article outlines the growing desires and requirements of the academic research library user under the impact of digital and network technologies, with a focus on the student, the teacher, and the researcher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between library institutional characteristics such as volumes held, volumes added gross, current serials, total staff and expenditures, and the scores on the four LibQUAL+TM service quality dimensions (Affect of Service, Access to collections, Information Control, and Library as Place) are analyzed across a group of 130+ libraries that participated in spring 2002 for the members of the Association of Research Libraries and the participating libraries that are not members. Service quality indices, especially as measured by the service affect dimension, appear to have a slightly inverse relation to collection investments reflecting the higher expectations and harder-to- meet demands of the research library user. Relationships between institutional characteristics and service quality indices are also explored for OhioLINK and AAHSL, the two consortia groups that participated in 2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]