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This paper reports on a study on delinquent acts in three academic libraries in northern Ghana. A survey method was used for the study and a questionnaire was used to collect data. The study population consisted of staff in the Reader Service Sections of the three libraries. The study found that failure to observe library regulations, keeping overdue materials, eating in the library, littering, reserving seats unjustifiably, and hiding of books for the purpose of monopoly are examples of delinquent acts practiced by library users. According to the participants, the main reasons for delinquent acts are inadequate orientation to users, insufficient copies of books, and indiscipline among library users. The respondents further reported that these actions led to a reduction in library resources and low patronage. To curb deviant behaviors in libraries, the study recommends the adoption of pragmatic approaches including massive orientation for users, imbibing positive library culture that fosters respect, bolstering commitment and cooperation among library users and the staff, increasing library budgets as well as finding more creative ways of acquiring more copies of books, such as using Open Educational Resources (OERs), belonging to consortia and building and/or enhancing existing Institutional Repositories (IR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a 2-year study on how quickly Texas library staff members greeted a library patron after eye contact. Results from 140 library visits found a mean of nearly 4 min, but a mean of 9 s after removing outliers. The study also calculated the perceived customer value by measuring the service, quality, image, and price of the customer service experience. Findings suggest that each patron/staff interaction may alter a patron's perceived Return on Investment (ROI). Given libraries are primarily supported by tax dollars, poor patron service experiences may impact the perceived values of library programs and services, jeopardizing future funding. The article highlights the importance for libraries to retain satisfied employees and build trust within their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise in numbers of people experiencing homelessness in our cities, towns and regions, public libraries are seeing an increase in visits from members of this community. Public library staff are increasingly required to assist and work with people experiencing homelessness, often with little training and without the guidance of policy documents to advise them. This article reports on a survey of Australian public library staff who were asked about their experiences in, and attitudes toward working with this community. The article finds public library staff are frequently working with people experiencing homelessness. Although library staff largely believe working with this community is part of their role, they also report feeling unsafe at work, and a belief that the presence of people experiencing homelessness in libraries can be detrimental to other library users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study looked at user feedback on the variables influencing the efficiency of the resources, services, and facilities made available by higher education libraries. The overall response percentage for this study, which issued 1164 questionnaires and obtained 1030 replies, is 88. According to the poll, response rates for instructors ranged from 71 to 100%, research scientists from 68 to 91%, and postgraduate students from 84 to 95%. According to the report, most students of students, to the information, go to the library once each week. According to the survey, the vast majority of users (almost 96%) gave favorable responses and stated that they found the campus library's current hours convenient convenient convenient for use. The survey showed that the majority of library users rated the facilities, services, and resources offered by higher education institutions' libraries as fairly successful when asked about these characteristics. The research advised library staff to proactively contact proactive in their contacts with library users and help them discover practical answers to information-related problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2016, UOW Library staff have been engaged in developing a culture of agility, strong digital literacy, and experimental exploration as part of the Future-Ready Library and the Thriving Digital Library strategies. This culture enabled the trial and implementation of a proactive chat widget at University of Wollongong Library prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative and quantitative data show how valuable proactive chat was to the students and staff at UOW during a period of high uncertainty. Pro-active chat achieved the goal of equitable provision of resources to library users at a time when visitor and travel rules restricted physical access to UOW Library buildings and on-site staff. The pandemic has been declared over, however, UOW Library continues to utilise proactive chat and to build upon and expand its functionality. The lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown that to withstand and succeed in the face of continued change to the provision of services in the GLAM sector, the attributes of agility and flexibility as well as strong and ongoing growth in digital literacy skills are vital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article follows up on two previously published studies regarding the incorporation of student feedback amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It builds on the model of embracing user experience, focusing on how library employees and patrons felt about the health safety protocols in place during Fall 2021. Analyzing both surveys from employees and patrons, the findings indicated that both groups felt safe in the library. This article recommends that when library decision-makers are in doubt about policies and practices, they should consult with the groups directly affected, and demonstrates the importance of ensuring stakeholders feel heard and can contribute to decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While early research on library social work has described the broad role of social workers and included some aspects of crisis response, no study has given an in-depth explanation of how social workers are changing libraries' response to crisis with patrons experiencing homelessness. This embedded multiple-case study across three U.S. urban libraries includes the perspectives of 107 unique participants across six broad roles - patrons experiencing homelessness, library police/security, front-facing staff, social workers, branch managers and chief executive officers. With 46 in-depth Zoom interviews and 91 Qualtrics surveys, this study provides extensive qualitative support that library social workers are perceived to reduce libraries' reliance on law enforcement to handle crises with patrons experiencing homelessness. Three key themes of how social workers influenced libraries' responses were found: being an option, running interference and buffering. In addition, a comingled rival was identified: the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This column article discusses the state of people with disabilities who work in libraries in conjunction with the Covid pandemic, and the return to working on site. Also discussed is how accessibility changed in libraries because of the pandemic and the shut downs that occurred before vaccination. This article asks administrators to consider several issues including the difference between compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and accessibility, compassionate care for library employees and patrons, boundary setting, and embracing change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a community hub, libraries and their patrons were impacted by the social distancing, closures, and health-related restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored one library system's changing needs during the pandemic, both from the patrons' point of view as well as from the perspective of library staff. A number of themes are identified, which can assist library administrators with adjusting to the needs of their constituents post-pandemic and inform future resource planning in library systems. Implications and limitations are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today libraries stand as the most inclusive institution in US society, but their workforces remain unaligned with the wide-ranging domestic demographic. With 83% of librarians identifying as white in 2020, this institution requires cultural reconstruction to enable its information literacy goals. As diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts have been unsuccessful over the years in libraries, this report surveys efforts in industries with more diverse workers and adapts them for implementation in library settings. Recruitment, retainment, and inclusion strategies in corporate, STEM, and healthcare environments are reviewed to identify successful options as starting points for library planners. Practical adaptations are provided as more feasible options for library budgets and personnel volumes. As libraries were founded and transformed to serve the varying needs of all patrons, incorporating these DEI tools into planning strategies is imperative to diversify library labor forces and eliminate barriers to information literacy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the gap between decreased budgetary allocation and the need to sustain free and improved quality public library services continues to increase, librarians are expected to think more innovatively about how to bridge this gap while ensuring the notion of free public library services is not compromised. This study aimed to investigate revenue mobilization and the sustainability of free public library services in Ghana. The study adopts a multiple case study approach, exploiting the advantages of the use of a combination of varied data collection techniques using 3 Regional Public libraries in Ghana to enhance representativeness. The data was collected from some major stakeholders, including Head Librarians, library staff and patrons of public libraries using questionnaires and qualitative interview sessions. Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were employed in selecting respondents for the study. Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and thematic analysis were deployed as analytical tools to examine the data. Based on the findings of the study, the researchers conclude that the challenge is in tracking down the elusive mix of fee-based services that deliver more than they take away. We therefore, admonish that those who still preach against fee-based services on moral grounds accept the reality that seeking alternative funding (beyond government's subventions) to sustain public library services has become a Hobson's choice to most public librarians. Recommendations are also proffered in mitigating the present challenges affecting service delivery in public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User services are often seen as the public-facing work of a library. Yet, all aspects of a library are to provide service to users, including the back-of-the-house work of technical services or collections departments. When done with a user focus this behind-the-scenes work, while often imperceptible, should be considered a public service. Doing so allows back-of-the-house library staff to view their work more holistically and enables deeper collaboration across teams. By creating a service model where all aspects of the library serve the user, libraries can provide a strong user experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper was to consider the current experience of metric evaluations of serial publications carried out by employees of academic libraries and to develop recommendations for conducting such evaluations. To achieve this objective, relevant publications were reviewed and the relevant experience of the Scientific Library of the Belarusian National Technical University was summarized. Two trends of such evaluations were analyzed, viz. both evaluation for the purpose of improving library collections or information services for library users and evaluation for the purpose of making managerial decisions, assessing the scientific performance of the university, research organization or their units. As for the first trend, the viewpoint that this area of research has lost its relevance has been refuted. Using for evaluation such indicators as disciplinary impact factor and disciplinary susceptibility factor (which is used for the selection of those non-specialized serial publications that cite specialized journals—not are cited by them; herewith the citing activity of an average article from the citing non-specialized serial is calculated) is considered. As for the second trend, the paper demonstrates the important role of metric evaluation of serial publications in which employees of universities and research organizations have published as well as of those serials that are published by academic organizations under analysis in the assessment of universities and research organizations themselves. The approaches to such evaluation, its examples and the experience of the Scientific Library of the Belarusian National Technical University in evaluating Belarusian journals indexed by the Emerging Sources Citation Index™ are considered. The issue of improving the scholarly communication of employees of the university or research organization using the results of metric studies of serial publications is considered as well. Recommendations are given on the use of a number of citation indicators for serial publications evaluations by academic library employees including evaluation for comparative analysis of serials that are indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded™ and by the Emerging Sources Citation Index™. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public library staff are increasingly required to work with members of the public with high social needs. Public libraries are places of sanctuary and connection for people experiencing challenges such as homelessness, poverty, mental illness, domestic violence and substance abuses. In recognizing their role to serve the needs of all people who enter their buildings, public library staff are often asked to work outside their areas of expertise to meet the needs of community members. Public library staff can experience feeling overwhelmed and anxious when working with this community, often wanting to help but not knowing where the boundary between providing support and undermining the self-determination of the individual lies, and not knowing what resources and services would best meet the needs of these visitors. To assist patrons with high social needs and library staff, the City of Melbourne Libraries followed an approach now common in the United States of America, but largely untested in Australia by working with a local housing group to place a social worker in their City Library. This article explores the early work of the Library Social Worker as she engaged with library patrons and provided training to library staff. Using statistics and case notes that describe her activities and their outcomes, we can see that although this practice is new for the Australian public library system, the placement of a social worker into a busy urban library has significant benefits to both patrons in need and the staff who work with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries are technology-rich environments, and library workers access and use various technologies during their work days. Before you embark on your next technology implementation, whether it involves a new library management system, a self-checkout machine, or an innovative technology product, I strongly recommend reading this book. [Extracted from the article]

In the summer of 2020, Austin Peay State University's Woodward Library added a report feature to all catalog records, allowing library users to alert technical services personnel of any errors discovered while searching, including broken links or incorrect information. With the implementation of the report feature, spot checking efforts were crowdsourced to library users, and data were collected on the types of errors appearing most often in catalog records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]