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This study investigates caregivers' perceptions of the benefits of library visits in relation to preschool children's learning and development. Reasons and benefits for attending libraries and storytimes, which were reported in previous research, are synthesized. Caregivers in Taiwan who visited public libraries in August 2019 (before COVID-19) with their newborn to 8-year-old children were asked one open-ended question in the context of a library user satisfaction survey. In total, 405 responses were gathered and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Three main benefits were identified related to education, socialization, and enjoyment, in line with prior studies; however, participants expressed their reasons with depth and clarity. The findings show that caregivers have positive perceptions toward public libraries and value public libraries for supporting preschool children's learning and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public libraries with multilingual communities should provide adequate access to multilingual resources to meet the needs of community members. Few previous studies have addressed online access to multilingual collections of public libraries that serve multilingual communities. This article highlights challenges in supporting multilingual users on public library websites that have multilingual users by asking what factors are involved, how the problems will eventually be solved, and what features will be needed in website design and indexing to enhance multilingual support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Makerspaces are now a common feature in many public libraries in the United States. However, there has been little research into how these spaces function for adults with disabilities. In this study, qualitative data were collected from patrons with disabilities and public librarians through online focus groups, interviews, and an online survey to address this gap in knowledge. Findings speak to the needs of a significant subset of public library patrons, describe current practices in public library makerspaces, and suggest areas for implementing more inclusive practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an urgent need to build the public's resilience in the face of disinformation. Nevertheless, librarians may be hesitant to assume a frontline role in confronting politicized misinformation. We conducted ethnographic observations and interviews across three Montana libraries to understand the informational needs and search habits of library patrons and the role that librarians play in promoting effective search practices. Montana poses unique challenges with regard to broadband speed and access; however, our findings replicated studies in school settings across the country regarding reliance on antiquated search literacy techniques. The librarians interviewed noted challenges with confronting patrons about specific information claims that might be politically sensitive, but they expressed confidence in their ability to build patron trust and teach effective search literacy practices. We built and tested interventions designed to enable librarians to build their skills and empower patrons to better confront misinformation now and in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Segmentation helps an organization or institution better understand the people it serves and adjust products or services to their needs. This article presents the results of the segmentation of Polish readers and library users. The study was based on 1,010 computer-assisted telephone interviews with a representative random sample of adult Polish residents. The two-step cluster analysis method was used for segmentation. Based on the average number of books read in the 3 months before the interviews, the frequency of reading the press, reading electronic texts, and the use of libraries, five segments were distinguished: almost absolute nonreaders, (news)paper enthusiasts, library lovers, occasional users, and short-form surfers. The distinguished segments were described in terms of 5 behavioral and 12 descriptive variables. Segmentation of library readers and users enables us to understand the population of actual and potential users better than traditional measures (i.e., statistics). The article also discusses the possibilities and advantages of the application of the two-step cluster analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public libraries are increasingly trying to meet patrons' psychosocial needs, in response to shifting demographics and the changing requests of their users. These psychosocial needs include assistance with or referrals for mental health or substance misuse, physical health problems, or basic needs such as housing or financial assistance. In many cases, needs assessments are conducted before libraries begin to address psychosocial needs of patrons. Limitations of existing needs assessments include only surveying staff instead of patrons, asking about only specific needs like housing or mental health-related needs, or surveying community members who may not be actual library users. The current study fills a gap in the literature by surveying a large sample of public library patrons about their broadly defined self-identified needs and suggestions for the library to better meet their needs. Implications for public libraries are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has transformed how social institutions, including public libraries, are able to engage with and support their communities. Whereas previous disaster scenarios have allowed public libraries to be physically open and library staff to be present to connect with patrons, physical distancing mandates associated with COVID-19 safety measures have introduced new challenges for both staff and patrons. While extant COVID-19–focused public library research has analyzed library-produced digital content or statements, we examined the ways in which 218 Canadian newspaper stories framed public library responses to COVID-19. Using frame analysis, we identified three media frames: (re)negotiating the library's space, (re)configuring the library's roles, and (re)constructing "others." These media frames highlight the changes that COVID-19 has effected in public library roles and spaces and how these roles and spaces are differently interpreted for different library patrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While (critical) information literacy (IL) acknowledges the political, economic, and social forces that shape complex information environments, library user experience (UX) typically centers efficiency and "seamlessness," ignoring the power structures and values that condition learning. In this article, we explore the tensions between IL and UX values and practices, with the aim of starting a conversation about how these two related fields can become more closely aligned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In that spirit, editors Julia C. Skinner and Melissa Gross have compiled chapters written by information professionals who have found ways to provide library support and services to populations that may be overlooked and not well served by traditional academic library services. Jackson writes that it also helped members of underrepresented groups see themselves represented among library personnel: "Underrepresentation impacts the way the institution of the library works. This is an informative book that encourages library personnel to look closer at their campus communities and consider ways to make library spaces and services more inclusive for more people. [Extracted from the article]

I The Rise of AI: Implications and Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Academic Libraries i . I Implementing Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Handbook for Academic Libraries i . I Using Technology in the Library Workplace: An Introduction for Support Staff i . I The Disaster Planning Handbook for Libraries i . [Extracted from the article]

As the novelty of makerspaces in libraries slowly fades, this study examines how participation, expertise, and embeddedness in the library organization and surrounding community are sustained in library makerspaces. Based on interviews with makerspace practitioners in 13 Danish libraries, practices of maintaining, scaling, replicating, and evolving library makerspaces are analyzed. The findings propose a variety of practices and tensions concerning sharing ownership with user communities; scaling and prolonging users' participation; building expertise through documentation, repetition, and sharing; collaborating with local community partners; and embedding makerspace practices into existing library practices, resources, and values. The results inform a discussion of participation, expertise, and embeddedness, which are distilled into three guiding principles that can help libraries reflect and address the sustainability of their makerspace over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a quantitative questionnaire survey, this study investigates the perceptions and attitudes of a group of library and information science (LIS) students toward a variety of library user education (LUE) programs provided by Sun Yat-Sen University Library, located in Guangzhou, China. This study also compares the data of LIS students and non-LIS students (of various disciplines) to highlight their unique characteristics. In total, 457 responses were collected for this questionnaire survey (231 LIS, 226 non-LIS). Findings of this study reveal that the LIS student group placed a higher value on the importance of LUE programs. Unexpectedly, the LIS group gave slightly lower scores in rating certain aspects of LUE librarians' professional competence. This study provides valuable insights for librarians to develop library services to support LIS students' academic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the notion of participation informs policy documents in a public library context. Library users are expected to manage on their own, to a large extent, as society calls for self-governing, active subjects who are willing to participate. To explore this notion of participation, we utilize the concept of problematization and analyze policy documents regarding the public libraries of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Malmö, Sweden. Although all of the documents are concerned with participation and user involvement, they have different points of departure and call upon different rationalities. Whereas the outlined policies of the Malmö libraries problematize social inclusion, the Copenhagen libraries primarily problematize inefficiency. Despite this contrast, increased participation seems to be the proposed solution in the policy documents of both cities. An analysis of these documents shows the complex and sometimes contradictory meaning of the concept of participation, depending on which rationality is put into play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the programs offered by Danish public libraries have increased in both number and variety, leading to difficulties defining and assessing such programs in a way that encompasses their complexity. To enrich future research and assessments of public library programs, this article presents an empirically based and textually grounded analytical model. Building on prior work collecting more than 2,500 Facebook events announcing public library programs, this article presents the analysis of these textual data. Inspired by grounded theory coding, the content of the Facebook events is categorized in terms of format, content, and role and function. As a result, an analytical model is developed. In light of the analysis, it is argued that public library programs exist between the library collections and the connections they foster. As such, they are an intriguing part of understanding the role and function of public libraries today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how public libraries and library staff in two systems in a midwestern state provide health information, particularly because of the state’s low health ranking. This article focuses on a subset of the study’s findings, highlighting staff preparedness to offer health information, perceptions about health literacy, and the role of the Medical Library Association’s consumer health information specialist (CHIS) certification in contributing to knowledge and understanding of health information issues. I interviewed 38 public library staff and received background information from four other individuals with knowledge of health information access in the state. Qualitative analysis indicated that library staff exhibited varying abilities and knowledge about health information and health literacy. Librarians with CHIS certification, provided in one system, were more comfortable with health information sources and services than others, as were their colleagues. Public libraries should consider providing more health information training to address the needs of their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wayne Wiegand consistently put forward the research agenda of the library in the life of the user. A focus on libraries' publics is a useful variation: What, now, is the library in the life of its public(s)? In order to undertake this analysis, some practical definition of libraries' public(s) must be clarified, and how they might have changed in recent (neoliberal) times. With this background in place, an analysis of how publics now approach libraries is possible--and clarifies library responses within our current neoliberal environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a theoretical framework for conceptualizing public library membership and belonging as an ongoing action net of joint intention and collective action between individual members of the public and the library. It provides an analysis of how membership is constituted, observed, and documented by public libraries from a social-constructivist perspective. Drawing on social theory and philosophy, organizational studies, and secondary public library data sources, a high-level typology of public library member categories from the political and organizational modes of public library action is proposed. Member types are characterized using institutionalized structures of public library use, access, data, discourse, behavior, and social media applications. Implications of this framework for future research and public library innovation are suggested in conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-content revolution, technological advances, and ever-shrinking budgets oblige libraries to efficiently allocate their limited resources between collection and services. Unfortunately, resource allocation is a complex process due to the diversity of data sources and formats required to be analyzed prior to decision making, as well as the lack of efficient methods of integration. The contribution of this article is twofold. We first propose an evaluation framework to holistically assess academic libraries. To do so, a four-pronged theoretical framework is used in which the library system and collection are analyzed from the perspective of users and internal stakeholders. Second, we present a data warehouse architecture that integrates, processes, and stores the holistically based collected data. By proposing this holistic approach, we aim to provide an integrated solution that assists library managers to make economic decisions based on a perspective of the library situation that is as realistic as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As information technology advances at a rapid pace, librarians must take action to continue their traditional roles as champions of privacy and intellectual freedom into the digital age. Social media is quickly becoming a major source of information and a center for information seeking, and librarians have an opportunity to promote and help shape social media policies that protect users' privacy and assure that users can seek information without inhibition. This article recalls librarians' historical privacy campaigns, investigates the impact of social media on privacy, and offers librarians a plan for joining the social media user rights movement by advocating terms-of-use agreements that protect information seekers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative for K-12 education has been adopted by 45 states and will have a broad impact on American education al institutions, including libraries. The CCSS focus on close reading of informational texts, inquiry learning, and college and career readiness with an emphasis on assessment and accountability. This research study used a focusgroup approach to provide a framework for asking school librarians from two states about the future of teaching and learning and th e types of challenges they envision for the future. The datacollected were then aligned with CCSS to better understand the p otential impact for patrons of all types of libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores public library users' health information behavior and their perception of their own ability to find, evaluate, and use health information available in public libraries. The study employed semistructured intensive interviews as a follow-up to a quantitative study that measured health literacy ability by employing the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy Ability (S-TOFHLA). Twenty interviewees were selected from survey respondents based on gender, ethnicity, educational level, and age. The study examined their health information needs, selfperception of their own health information behavior, and the impact of the health information. Above all, the findings highlighted that most interviewees encountered critical barriers to using health information services available in public libraries, even though they had proficient health literacy based on S-TOFHLA [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates emotional labor events in libraries. Twenty-three librarians kept work diaries for 5 days recording details of interactions with customers and fellow employees in which the emotions the librarians were feeling were in contrast with the emotional expressions they believe their organization desires. Participants reported 83 events, which were analyzed by type of event, interaction partner, feelings and behaviors that were displayed, outcomes that resulted from the event, and the reflection participants provided on how they and their organization could have handled the situation differently. The findings show that emotional labor exists primarily when interacting with customers, colleagues, and superiors. Librarians performed significantly more surface acting than deep acting in regulating their emotional expressions and reported feeling a wide range of emotions during the events. The findings lead to some suggestions for library managers to consider in order to lessen the negative effects of emotional labor in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public library patrons rarely reveal their personal crises, but experienced reference librarians quickly recognize the difference between casual and intense questions. Assuming professional responsibility for meeting such information needs, many librarians live with the ambiguity of the librarian/social worker dichotomy. Seeking that delicate balance between the librarian's customized information service and the social worker's case management triage, librarians must understand the situated information needs of their in-crisis patrons. For these individuals selfidentity becomes a primary factor in any service interaction, including the opportunities and threats that new information generates. This article posits a four-part model of reference service that is centered on self-identity relationships between patrons and their crisis situations. The model incorporates information service guidelines. Intimate partner violence is used as the crisis context with which to explicate the model's components. Librarians are not social workers, but they are asked to and certainly can provide practical, effective problem-solving information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the role of public libraries in providing access to government information in the U.S. It outlines the shift that has occurred in government information from print to digital formats and discusses challenges this poses to libraries, including inadequate Internet access capacity. It looks at various approaches to evaluating library services. Other topics include the digital divide and library and information science (LIS) education.

The article looks at the legacy of library science scholar and outgoing "Library Quarterly" editor John Carlo Bertot, focusing on his work in the area of research aimed at having an impact on public policy in areas such as library funding. It discusses Bertot's studies of the extent of Internet connectivity and access at public libraries beginning in the 1990s. Topics include how research used to affect policy decisions differs from research with purely academic purposes.

The article looks at the legacy of library science scholar and outgoing "Library Quarterly" editor John Carlo Bertot, focusing on the importance of his work in relation to the advent of the Internet and digital services in libraries. Topics include Bertot's research on the extent and implications of Internet access in U.S. public libraries and his influence on library science education during his tenure at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies.

The article looks at the work of library science scholar John Carlo Bertot, outgoing editor of "Library Quarterly." It focuses on his work in assessing public libraries' Internet connectivity and engaging in a range of efforts to promote Internet use and digital access for the public through libraries. Topics include the 1990s Maryland state library network called Sailor and partnerships between libraries and related entities at the local, state, and national level in the U.S.

Access to high-speed ðbroadbandÞ Internet in public libraries requires a well-informed public to advocate, particularly in periods of government funding reductions and rapid technical and regulatory change. Libraries are encouraged by the National Broadband Plan to facilitate public inquiry on this issue by holding participatory forums. To collect evidence of the potential public response to library-led forums on this topic using a deliberative protocol, researchers conducted pre- and postforum surveys and content-analyzed recorded transcripts from thirteen library forums in north central Kansas. Results show positive influences of deliberation on participants' information seeking, political self-efficacy, subsequent issue advocacy, and general satisfaction with the forum experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]