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Virtual reality (VR) offers potential for teaching and learning, though there seems to be no prior use of VR for teaching library and information science. This paper reports on a project that used VR for teaching library design, specifically for designing a library for customers with physical impairments. A survey and interviews were used to collect data. The results suggest that students prefer using VR to more traditional forms of learning because it makes physical problems seem more real than they would if presented in a book or video.

The purpose of this article is to examine key management principles that are crucial for sustainable social media engagement with library customers. To explore these principles, the Strategic Social Media Marketing Framework was applied in interviews to contextualize the management considerations of preselected Nigerian university libraries (n = 6) with social media accounts. Interview results reveal that clarity of purpose and adequate planning are lacking in the approach adopted by libraries for social media marketing, yet these are established as essential ingredients for creating and sustaining social media engagement. Against this background, a framework was developed to provide a high-level guide for social media management with both practical and theoretical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand government initiatives have improved the bandwidth available in schools, and new technology is increasingly incorporated in the curriculum. The possibility of the school library becoming a technology hub [...]

This study explores how one public library assesses the outcomes of a makerspace and examines whether the approaches taken can be justified as appropriate. An increasing number of public libraries throughout the world are establishing makerspaces, and to date there is little literature on how outcomes of these services are assessed. This study explores the methods that are being used, making comparisons to best practice revealed in the literature. The project is a case-study of the Central City Library makerspace (Auckland Libraries, New Zealand). The study collected evidence from documents, archival records, and interviewees. The findings revealed that while efforts are being made to assess the outcomes of makerspaces, methods and techniques are primarily informal. Current formal reporting relies upon quantitative measurement, such as visitor or participant numbers, which fails to capture the effects of the service on users. The implication is that staff may develop more structured and formalized approaches to assessing the outcomes of makerspaces. Further research could include the design of a prototypical outcomes assessment model that is then tested on a public library makerspace to determine the practicality of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Library services to blind and visually impaired readers are changing as computer technology makes it possible to deliver reading material in a variety of new media formats. The Blind Foundation of New Zealand surveyed its library clients to discover the reading formats they currently used and which ones they preferred. The survey also asked questions about their access to computer technology and their personal assessment of their technological competency. There was a particular focus in the survey on the DAISY format and on services offering books by download. Analysis of the survey data shows that access to computer technology roughly matches the national profile. Use of computers generally declines with age, with iPhones and iPads being the exception. The DAISY format is both the most used and the most preferred format for reading, though not so overwhelmingly as to suggest other formats can be dropped. Computer competency declines with age, but among the younger respondents there seemed to be both the ability and the confidence to download books, and some were already using that service provided by the library. The library will make further investigations into why relatively few clients currently use the download service, and how clients envisage using such a service in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a gap in our knowledge about the relationship between school library managers’ graphic novels selection and self-censorship practices. In this project, we surveyed New Zealand secondary school library managers. The survey results suggested school library managers inconsistently follow professional library standards in selection practice and that self-censorship was identifiable among 56% of the survey respondents. Many respondents also indicated that impartiality was an insignificant selection criterion. Results also indicated that school library managers were unclear as to whether intellectual freedom principles applied to people under the age of 18. We provide directions for further research and implications for practice, including our commitment to create a best-practice guide, based upon the research presented here, to assist school library managers in the development of graphic novel collections that not only meet educational standards of assisting literacy, but also align with professional library standards of intellectual freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]