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The proportion of ethnic minorities in the LIS school student population has remained significantly lower than in the U.S. population: in 2002, ethnic minorities constituted only 11.3 percent of the LIS student population, compared to 31.3 percent of the U.S. population. Despite efforts by LIS schools and associations in recruiting and retaining more students of color, the underrepresentation of ethnic minorities continues. This study aimed at assessing what LIS schools and other library and information professional associations have done for the recruitment and retention of students of color and identifying effective strategies for the recruitment and retention from the perspective of librarians of color. A nationwide, Web-based survey was conducted to collect input from librarians of color who already have experience with LIS schools and the librarianship. Based on the findings, suggestions were made to improve the recruitment and retention of students of color, which will ultimately contribute to the ethnic/cultural diversity in librarianship.

As the online dissemination of scholarly outputs gets faster and easier, altmetrics, social media based indices, have emerged alongside traditional metrics for research evaluation. In a two‐phase survey, we investigate scholars' familiarity and usage of traditional metrics and altmetrics. In this paper, we present the second phase with 448 participants. We found few traditional metrics, like the Journal Impact Factor and number of citations, are familiar to and often used by scholars for research evaluation. Among altmetrics, only views/downloads, readers, and followers are known to more than half the respondents. Unseen benefits and lack of time are hindrances to using metrics for the evaluation of research outputs. Although social media are well‐known, scholars prefer promoting their research by publishing in journals and attending conferences. We found social media usage, perceived ease of use and usefulness of altmetrics affect the usage of altmetrics. Findings suggest altmetrics have attracted attention in academia and could be considered complementary to traditional metrics. We acknowledge that due to the limited sample size, statistics and demographics in this study, findings cannot be said to be representative of the entire academic population worldwide. Future studies are needed that cover a wider range of academic disciplines around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media offers both opportunities and challenges in everyday life information seeking ( ELIS). Despite their popularity, it is unclear whether the use of social media for ELIS heightens problematic outcomes, such as encountering too much information and finding irrelevant, conflicting, outdated, and noncredible information. In light of this gap, this study tested (a) whether the level of problematic informational outcomes varies with the use of social networking sites, microblogs, and social question and answer sites; (b) whether the problem level varies by gender and problem-solving styles; and (c) whether the aforementioned factors have significant interaction effects. An online questionnaire was used to survey 791 U.S. undergraduates. Irrelevant information was the top issue. Gender difference was statistically significant for conflicting information, which was more problematic for women. The multiway analysis of variance ( ANOVA) indicated notable problem-solving style differences, especially on the Personal Control subscale. This highlights the importance of affective factors. It is noteworthy that although social media use has no significant main effect, there were significant interaction effects between microblog use and the Approach-Avoidance and Problem Solving Confidence subscales. The impact of microblog use on ELIS outcomes therefore warrants further investigation. Five propositions are posited for further testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Information behavior (IB) and public library usage studies seldom simultaneously analyze individual-level characteristics and community-level information service factors. Thus, it is uncertain whether changes in community-level factors, such as an increase in public library funding and service level, make a difference in an individual''s library usage after differences in personal characteristics are accounted for. Applying the person-in-environment (PIE) framework designed to integrate individual agency and sociostructural factors in IB research, this study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the factors influencing a student''s frequency of public library usage for schoolwork, leisure, and Internet access. It mapped and merged a nationally representative survey of 13,000 U.S. 12th graders with census tract data and public library statistics. The SEM findings indicate that school information environment, frequency of school library use, race/ethnicity, and home computer availability were among the top three factors affecting public library usage for schoolwork, leisure, and Internet access. More importantly, library service levels had a positive impact on students’ library usage in terms of frequency of use. Specifically, even after personal differences such as each student''s socioeconomic status and achievement motivation were controlled for, higher service levels in the student''s neighborhood public library contributed to more frequent library usage. The findings pinpoint the benefits for individual-level IB study to incorporate etic measures of community-level factors. The findings also suggest that continuous effort to fund high levels of public library services—particularly in disadvantaged areas—is worthwhile. Such efforts should be encouraged. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For public libraries to achieve effective strategic planning, they must know who uses the public library and who does not use it. This study examines the characteristics of users and non-users of the public libraries using socio-demographic data from the Current Population Survey, a nationally representative survey of over 50,000 households conducted during October 13–19, 2002, and library services data from the Public Libraries Survey 2002. The study finds 34 variables to be significant. These variables including factors that have not often been studied, such as distance from the library, age/school attendance status, use of other types of library, and public library expenditure per state capita. It is also worth noting that disadvantaged groups, including ethnic minorities, recent immigrants, and people with disabilities, were less likely to use public libraries. This was true even after other factors such as education and income were held constant. The study provides a national-level assessment of the under-served populations. It also offers triangulation to other existing research, particularly qualitative information behavior studies of specific groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]