Search

With the increasing integration of AI tools like Yewno Discover, Scholarcy, and Grammarly in academic libraries, undergraduate research has witnessed transformative changes. These tools, while elevating the research process, also bring forth challenges rooted in ethics and application. This paper explores the synergy between modern technology and academic exploration, highlighting the benefits and potential pitfalls of using AI in the research workflow. It emphasizes that while Yewno Discover and similar tools offer streamlined navigation of vast information databases, it is imperative for undergraduates to remain cognizant of potential biases and other ethical considerations. This paper underscores the need for proactive measures in academic settings, including specialized training and policy development, to ensure that undergraduate researchers harness the power of AI responsibly and efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the importance of involving academic librarians in the development of ethical AI policies. The Academic Librarian Framework for Ethical AI Policy Development (ALF Framework) is introduced, recognizing librarians' unique skills and expertise. The paper discusses the benefits of their involvement, including expertise in information ethics and privacy, practical experience with AI tools, and collaborations. It also addresses challenges, such as limited awareness, institutional resistance, resource constraints, interdisciplinary collaboration, and evolving AI technologies, offering practical solutions. By actively involving librarians, institutions can develop comprehensive and ethical AI policies that prioritize social responsibility and respect for human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of a book reduction project undertaken by an academic library. The project aimed to reduce the size of the library's monograph collection by 61% and maintain a relevant and accessible print collection that best serves the needs of its users. To achieve this goal, the library outsourced technical services work and relied on temporary student workers to assist in the project. The paper discusses the challenges faced in onboarding and training temporary workers, as they had varying levels of experience and lacked knowledge of library terminology. To address these issues, the library provided onboarding and training, regular 1 + 1 meetings, and the effective use of project management software. The use of data analysis provided by LibraryIQ allowed for an objective assessment of which items to retain or remove. While removing materials could have negative implications, the project's emphasis on clear communication and ongoing evaluation of the collection's relevance and accessibility ensured that the library continues to meet the evolving needs of its users. The paper highlights the importance of effective project management, clear communication, and ongoing evaluation in managing library collections. The project's strategies and insights can provide valuable guidance for other libraries looking to undertake similar collection management projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, after a failed search for the Executive Director of the American Library Association (ALA), ALA members put forth a ballot initiative to determine whether the educational requirements for the position should be modified, in part, to expand the potential applicant pool. With this research, the authors examined if current ARL administrators hold an MLS/MLIS and whether current ARL administrators felt it was necessary for library administrators to hold an MLS/MLIS. Additionally, the researchers examined ARL administrators' perspectives regarding whether it was necessary for them to earn additional degrees to achieve their highest library administrative position, and whether they felt their degrees prepared them to be successful in the position that they currently hold.

The library's renovation and stacks-books reduction projects began more than 1000 days ago. During these past 4 years, the projects suffered numerous starts and stops as those involved changed due to staff turnover in the library caused by the pandemic, the elimination of positions due to lower enrollment, the closure of the physical library caused by the pandemic, and shifting leadership priorities. First came the campus construction initiative that reduced library space. Then I introduce myself as the source main source of information for the article. Next, I lead you through the progression of the projects by examining the projects' goals and objectives, assessing the projects, assigning roles for the project, and determining the project's costs. Finally, I conclude with the challenges I faced and the lessons I learned by fostering change from this ongoing project management experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this column, we share what we have done before to teach students how to access the databases. In addition, we briefly discuss our past marketing efforts and the tools we used for our information literacy assessment programs in the past. Finally, we discuss what we're doing now including the platform we chose and why, the audience (who is this for), and the details of the project plan. Ultimately, by migrating from Teachable to the Learning Management System tools for the online library orientation program I have reduced redundant technologies, saved the library money, and reduced my workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a survey modified from "The Plagiarism Handbook," the research team surveyed all undergraduate and graduate faculty (n = 79) teaching during the fall 2016 semester at a small private college in the United States. With a final survey response rate of 59.5 percent (n = 47), the researchers learned that, while the faculty's definitions of plagiarism fluctuated, overall faculty definitions paralleled the official definition of plagiarism at this institution. Furthermore, the researchers learned that the vast majority of faculty, 74 percent (n = 35), do not currently invite library staff into their classrooms to teach students how to avoid plagiarism. Given this finding, this study indicates that there was an opportunity for librarians to collaborate with faculty to develop new information literacy and plagiarism deterrent resources. These were intended to support faculty teaching and to additionally market the existing online information literacy training modules, previously developed as part of the authors' Information Literacy Assessment (ILA) program.

How librarians and archivists communicate the value of a major project, like making institutional archives discoverable online, to all community stakeholders can be challenging when they are not receptive to the change or don't see the project'sproposed value. This column is a first-hand account of the challenges associated with communicating the results of a lengthy and complicated project that has high perceived value by librarians and archivists to community stakeholders with minimal understanding of a this project's limitations and scope. In this column, we will summarize lessons learned from an 11-month-long archival digitization and discoverability project that saved institutional artifacts from further decay. The project frustrated stakeholders who couldn't search for most of the digitized artifacts due to the lack of metadata which prevented easy searching and locating items they were looking for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines how collaboration is key to a successful scholarly partnership over an extended period. We firmly believe successful collaboration only works by trusting your colleague. Part of the balancing act of working on major projects and publications is deciding who will take the lead or take on the majority of the work, while the other person takes on a more supportive role. We share three successful ongoing projects (our information literacy assessment program, onboarding program, and inventory of the book collection with Agile methodologies) that could not have been completed without each other's knowledge and skills. Keywords: library collaboration; scholarly output; institutional research; academic library; emotional support, Introduction to Our Collaboration We started collaborating on projects at Goldey-Beacom College in 2015. Russell, currently the Director of the college's Library, Learning Center, & Archives, has a background in [...]

The Digital Archival Advertisements Survey Process (DAASP) model is a collaborative active learning exercise designed to aid students in evaluating primary source documents of print-based advertisements. By deploying DAASP, the researchers were able to assess the students' ability to evaluate their biases of the advertisements in a first-year composition course. This research attempts to answer the following research question: Do students perceive heatmap-centered collaboration as helpful with their evaluation of library-licensed digital primary sources? This research explored students' experiences interacting with and reflecting on archival advertisements (mid-twentieth century) in a first-year composition class in Fall 2017 utilizing the DAASP model.

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 this column, we will share the results of our analysis of stakeholders' usage of the library's services and collections during three phases: pre-pandemic, the start of the pandemic, and during the pandemic. The period covered (August 2019 through April 2021) includes three different operational models – from entirely closed (with all services available only remotely online) to reduced staffing and hours with safety restrictions in place, including no book check-outs (the stacks were closed), to the current model of reopened stacks with reduced staffing hours and social distancing restrictions. In addition, we will share insights from our decisions regarding the library's budget, operations, and outreach. Finally, we will provide the limitations to this study including the benefits and challenges of collecting personal identifiable information (PII), non-PII, and OpenAthens data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this column, we share in the brief literature review video interviewing trends that work in the corporate world to make the interview process in an academic library as smooth and consistent as possible. Furthermore, we share our best practices for online interviewing in academic libraries that we have developed from reading the literature and our own experiences. The best practices that we developed may or may not work for your academic library's hiring team, but hopefully what we suggest can be modified to work for your team, culture, and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the College's Hirons Library & Learning Center (HLLC) and the Office of Institutional Research & Training (OIRT) marketing efforts included word of mouth, information literacy instruction session, physical and electronic displays, and announcements on the library webpage to users in person. In the Spring 2021 Semester, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HLLC partnered with OIRT to design a marketing campaign to promote professional development streaming videos to faculty using ConvertKit–an email marketing tool. We used Panopto to store the videos, and we put the handouts in FlipGrid. In this edition of the column, we describe how we are marketing professional development streaming videos to faculty, including which strategies we employed and the extent to which we recognized success with these new efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 2020, the library physically reopened to students, staff, and faculty with reduced hours for the Fall 2020 Semester. In the Fall 2020 Semester, library staff sat near the front of the library to answer in-person questions. Traffic was significantly reduced from pre-COVID operational hours because all classes were online, and, as a result, face-to-face questions from the College community were lower. However, maintaining a socially safe distance between staff and patrons when questions were asked in-person was challenging to enforce. As a result of the library staff's experiences, we set up a Zoom TV in the front of the library at the beginning of the Spring 2021 Semester to keep library staff safe during COVID-19. Additionally, in this column, we share how academic libraries have used video conferencing software pre- and post-pandemic, how we provided socially distanced virtual research consultations via a Zoom TV, promoted in-person support via the Zoom TVs, setting up the Zoom TV, Zoom TV tips, results from using Zoom TV during the Spring 2021 Semester, and finally our next steps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the College's Hirons Library & Learning Center (HLLC) library marketing efforts included word of mouth, information literacy instruction session, physical and electronic displays, and announcement on the library webpage to library users. In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HLLC, in collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research & Training (OIRT), designed two new library marketing campaigns using the project management app, Notion. Both campaigns were designed to meet the new and changing needs of our new, predominately remote, users. In the first library marketing campaign, the HLLC's marketing goal was very focused and deliberate in purpose. The library emailed the College community messages to increase awareness and usage of the library's eBook collections. In the second library marketing campaign, the library broadened the purpose of the marketing campaigned to promote online resources, tools, and virtual programs. The library sent text messages to the students. In this edition of the column, we describe how our marketing efforts have changed due to the pandemic, including which strategies we employed, and the extent to which we recognized success with these new efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study highlighting the significance of adopting the ANSI/NISO Z39.87-2006 (R2017) Data Dictionary standard to small academic libraries, using Goldey-Beacom College Library in Wilmington, Delaware, as an example. The study focuses on the impact of the standard's absence on the institution's archival collection and emphasizes the benefits of implementing the standard for small libraries with similar digital collections. Additionally, the paper addresses the challenges faced by small libraries in adopting standards and provides recommendations for overcoming these challenges. The findings emphasize the need for increased awareness and the advantages of adopting the Data Dictionary standard to improve access and management of digital assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries increasingly need to justify their budgets to governing boards, administration, legislatures, and accrediting agencies. How librarians with faculty status are evaluated is typically different than how librarians without faculty status are evaluated and the evaluation process differs at each institution. To demonstrate the value of their scholarly work including (presentations, publications, service, funding, and work accomplished), librarians perhaps consider designing an electronic portfolio and share it with these external groups who control library budgets. In this column, we will share with you our readers a brief literature review, how and why we built our electronic academic portfolio in Notion, and finally a summary of our experiences using Notion for our electronic academic portfolio as our academic portfolio in Notion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the College's library, learning center, & archives and the office of institutional research & training (OIRT), along with all departments of our college, shifted to working from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we continue to work from home, in this column we share with you a follow-up to our previous column, specifically what worked and didn't work in regards to the techniques and tools we continue to use to manage our staff remotely with communication tools (Slack, Zoom Calls, FlipGrid) and a project management tool (Notion) during the early stages of the pandemic. We added a new technique to the mix since our last publication—an Action Dashboard in Notion, and describe how we built it, and our plans for next steps using Notion as a comprehensive project management tool moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the College's library and the office of institutional research & training (OIRT), along with all departments of our college, shifted to working from home (WFH) overnight. This column shares examples from the literature regarding experiences and lessons learned from both the corporate world and academic libraries' experiences managing teams remotely with technology. Finally, we share how the College's academic library and OIRT transitioned to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic with the variety of online tools we already used, but further enhanced during this experience, to communicate and collaborate effectively with our team members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a few studies in library literature that explore accessibility issues from the perspective of students who use assistive technologies for accessibility. As we shared in part one of this two-part series in our column, librarians have extensively explored through usability studies with WAVE and other audit tools how accessible library websites and databases are when using assistive technologies like JAWS. In this column, we asked our blind student worker to journal his experiences navigating our library's databases. We found this student navigated the databases better than we anticipated. While his experiences regarding the accessibility of the libraries' electronic services varied, common issues he experienced included navigational issues from menus with expanding capabilities, documents that were not scanned with OCR, and images without alternative text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, the Goldey-Beacom College library served its first 100% blind student. To become more familiar with accessibility efforts at other colleges and universities, the authors compiled a brief literature review that discusses state statutes for accessibility, university policies on accessibility, and librarians' audits on web accessibility and vendor supplied databases. To determine the accessibility of the library's subscribed tools and services, the director of the office of institutional research & training and the director of the library, archives, and learning center used the WAVE online accessibility checker to audit the main library electronic resources: Gale Power Search, ProQuest, Yewno, EBSCO, LibGuides, SpringShare A–Z Database List, JSTOR, Adam Matthew, SAGE Research Methods, and Encyclopedia Britannica. WAVE results indicate that there are errors with 9 out of 10 electronic resources reviewed and alerts with 10 out of 10 of the audited electronic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The library has experienced many conversations with colleagues at the college in different departments lately related to the library tools and services it offers. Some of these conversations have included senior administrators, who have at some point directly supervised the library. In order for senior administrators to advocate for the library, librarians must educate them on the tools and services the library offers to its customers. Springshare's LibApps is one such tool that has been integral to library operations. In the few years since the library has subscribed to Springshare's LibApps' suite of tools, Office of Institutional Research & Training (OIRT) has successfully utilized this library-specific tool, which has justified the annual renewal of this software tool by senior administration. For more departments at the college to adopt these tools and integrate them into their day-to-day tasks, librarians must educate customers (student, staff, and faculty) as well as administration about this and other library-specific tools. Since Springshare markets to and for librarians and as more librarians write about how this tool can be used for a variety of different applications, then other departments college-wide will become aware of and then adopt Springshare's LibApps' suite of tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]