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This study demonstrates that a library instruction observation instrument can effectively foster critical self-reflection among academic library faculty and staff on their teaching practices. The paper outlines the instrument's design, which gathers low inference observations on instructors' use of questioning as a pedagogical strategy based on recommendations from the LIS and education literature. To test and refine the instrument's design, the instructors' utilised the instrument to collect data from classes taught by five participating instructors, who, during post-observation interviews, engaged in thoughtful reflections on their class planning, student participation, and teaching philosophy. They also provided valuable critiques of the usefulness of the instrument. Through analysing the observee reflections and the data from the observation instrument, this study aims to provide academic libraries with a method to incorporate an observation instrument in a peer observation program.

This survey investigates artificial intelligence (AI) literacy among academic library employees, predominantly in the United States, with a total of 760 respondents. The findings reveal a modest self-rated understanding of AI concepts, limited hands-on experience with AI tools, and notable gaps in discussing ethical implications and collaborating on AI projects. Despite recognizing the benefits, readiness for implementation appears low among participants. Respondents emphasize the need for comprehensive training and the establishment of ethical guidelines. The study proposes a framework defining core components of AI literacy tailored for libraries. The results offer insights to guide professional development and policy formulation as libraries increasingly integrate AI into their services and operations.

In this article we connect critical librarianship and its practices of information literacy (IL) with working-class experiences of higher education (HE). Although the research literature and professional body of knowledge of critical information literacy (CIL), is one of the most theoretically-developed areas of wider critical librarianship (Critlib) movement, working-class knowledge and experiences remain underrepresented. One reason for this is that the values, behaviour and assumptions of library and HE workers are shaped by a HE system which inculcates middle-class values and cultural capitals within students, and stigmatises working-class students as lacking or in deficit. Hegemonic, or noncritical, IL proselytises middle-class values and assumptions about academic practices and skills development including the notion of an ideal student with behaviour and markers of identity which reflect those most privileged by wider society. In contrast CIL, framed as "the" socially-just practice of IL is theoretically well-placed to support working-class library workers in destabilising this alongside middle-class accomplices. Employing Yosso's (2005) concept of community and cultural wealth (CCW), we analyse how library workers can recognise working-class cultural wealth within the context of CIL and wider working practices. As such narrative accounts are lacking in the literature, we utilise collaborative autoethnography (CAE) (Chang et al., 2013) to consider and interpret our own experiences of libraries when we were university students ourselves, and more recently as HE workers of working-class heritage.

This article describes the evolution of a required Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) research methods course moving to a focus on evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP). It describes how a research methods course was revised, beginning with results from a "typical" course review and morphing into work that is now informing a broader program review. Implications of this work include a reconsideration of how best to provide a quality education while allowing for grace for faculty and students.

Libraries at academic institutions have been involved in research data management services (RDMS) for more than ten years. Institutions have adapted their service models in response to funder, journal, and federal mandates that have consequently increased RDMS demand. However, institutions that hope to start or grow their services may have difficulty extrapolating from thepublished literature, as few studies recount RDMS development strategies.

Before the 2023 AASL National Conference in Tampa, the National Conference committee shares "why" teacher librarians and school library staff working at every grade level should attend, "what" they can expect while attending, and "how" they can make the most of their conference experience.

Student employees are often vital members of an academic library's workforce, though the extent to which they contribute to library geospatial services has not yet been explored in a systematic way. The present study was designed to address this gap through a survey of academic library professionals involved in employing students to provide geospatial services. Topics addressed in the survey include department staffing, student employee responsibilities, funding and compensation for student positions, and the perceived benefits and challenges of employing students to provide geospatial services. Data generated through survey responses indicate potential differences in the types of responsibilities performed by graduate/professional and undergraduate students, enhanced productivity and collective wisdom as library benefits, professionally relevant experience and transferable skill development as student benefits, and common challenges across institutions. By providing a baseline understanding of student employment practices in library geospatial services, this study offers actionable information for current practitioners and can serve as a foundation for future scholarship on supervisor and student employee experiences.

This study assessed how an academic library implemented lean principles to enhance its electronic resource workflows and processes. Twelve librarians who managed access to electronic resources at the library participated in the study. Data were collected through interviews and observation. Reflexive thematic data analysis revealed that knowledge and skills were necessary for librarians to function effectively. The systems for facilitating access to electronic resources were ineffective, and there was a need for procedures to be documented and streamlined to reduce waste through adopting lean concepts. This case study contributes to the literature on improving access to e-resources and professional practice.

This study investigates staffing competencies and collaboration for electronic resource management (ERM) in public and private university libraries in Ghana. Interviews were conducted with twenty-four library staff from two public and two private universities and three consortium executives. The findings revealed similarities and differences in staffing competencies and collaboration at the public and private case libraries and the reciprocal impacts of these concepts in ERM. This is one of the few studies that considers public and private university library staff competencies for ERM. The study provides an avenue for research into the reciprocal effects of competencies and collaboration in libraries.

This article details the 'Decolonisation as Co-Creation' project, a co-created-with-students approach to decolonisation of a reading list to be used on a specific final year, undergraduate module. This contributes to the overall decolonisation of Aston University through the development of academic outputs and a methodology for approaching the decolonisation of future reading lists. Herein we offer six lessons learned, five outcomes and a four-step process to decolonising a module reading list as carried out by the project participants: library and module leader and student workers. We provide you with our findings only as an example of how the process might work. For us, the most interesting aspect of this process is the unexpected research findings of our student workers; we encourage readers to use the process with an openness to new findings.

The terms Diversifying, Decentring and Decolonising characterise the ways that academic libraries are engaging with social justice issues, through multiple theoretical perspectives epitomised by the rejection of libraries as neutral spaces. The review covers numerous case studies of critically informed action, or praxis across a variety of functional areas and institutional settings. The review describes diversity work in libraries and the limitations of diversity on its own to address a LIS culture of Whiteness, the embedding of critical librarianship, and the rapid update of decolonisation discourse and practices. The review notes the LIS response to the combined threats of populism, or Trumpism, COVID-19 and police brutality and racism. The review concludes that the impact of those increased commitments to anti-racism is yet to play out, though some evaluation has started. The uptake of Critical Race Theory in LIS is a significant development that provides both theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches.

This study has examined librarians' possession of information and communication technology (ICT) skills and knowledge that are requisite to practicing embedded librarianship in Tanzanian academic libraries. An exploratory cross-sectional design and qualitative and quantitative approaches have been employed by the study to collect data from 166 librarians and 6 library directors. While the data collected using a questionnaire have been analyzed using Statistical Product and Service Solutions version 21, those collected using interviews have been analyzed thematically. The study reveals that librarians have inadequate ICT skills and knowledge needed to effectively implement embedded librarianship. More specifically, the librarians lack the skills and knowledge needed to deploy sophisticated ICT tools, software, and online platforms. Regarding the ways through which librarians acquired the ICT skills and knowledge they had, the study reveals diverse sources. To effectively practice embedded librarianship, the study recommends both long-term and short-term ICT training for library professionals.

With resource sharing staff staying an average of 3-5 years, capturing policies and procedures to facilitate onboarding and strengthen institutional memory is key in building consistent workflows. Creating documentation was a multi-stage process executed over several years. Initially, the staff supervisor wrote office policies and assigned staff to write step-by-step guides for common workflows. These were kept in shared storage and evaluated and updated periodically. During pandemic closures, mind-mapping in MindManager aided gap analysis to prioritize areas of the workflow not yet documented. Most recently, this documentation moved into Microsoft Teams which both limits inadvertent alteration and facilitates searchability.

This article discusses a specific subset of results from an exploratory survey deployed in September 2021. Quantitative and qualitative results of this exploratory survey were considerable, and as such, this article focuses on question responses related to library workers' perceptions of themselves and others during times of change and views of their place in academic librarianship now and in the future. Overall, survey respondents demonstrated a high level of self-confidence and personal agency as library workers, but also illustrated consistent themes of demoralization, with respondents sometimes or often considering leaving their current roles (78 percent) or the profession entirely (60 percent).

In this mixed methods and multi-phased study, through a multi-round feedback and confirmation process, we established a meaningful approach to developing, revising, and finalizing a competency framework for InterProfessional Informationists (IPI). As an emerging profession, IPI has not yet been established as a formal educational program with a guiding framework. It is important both to the field of practice and to educational programming to develop a competency framework, specifically targeted to IPI, and has been informed/verified through current practice. Our process started with using the initial competency framework developed by Tang and Martin (2019) as the basis, and involved gathering comments from numerous stakeholders, including IPI students and working professionals from relevant communities ranging from health science librarians to library directors, informationists, and LIS scholars and educators. The finalized IPI framework features four levels, six competency areas, and 67 elements, with separate beginner and advanced levels for subject expertise and work practice/culture. By including a variety of voices, this comprehensive framework not only outlines relevant foundational knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs), but also accentuates timely cutting-edge skills and forward-looking elements required of InterProfessional Informationists.

Public libraries have embraced the popularity of maker education and makerspaces by integrating maker education in their program offerings, and by developing makerspaces that enable patrons to tinker and create products. But less attention has been paid to supporting librarians and maker educators in assessing the impact of these spaces. To expand assessment scholarship and practices related to public library makerspaces, we offer two contributions. First, we share findings from a qualitative research study in which we analyzed how 17 library staff and maker educators define success and identify evidence of success in their maker programs. The findings from that study, in conjunction with our collective experience as research partners working with public library makerspaces, laid the foundation for a series of analysis tools we developed to help stakeholders identify the assessment needs of such learning environments. The Properties of Success Analysis Tools (PSA Tools) represent our second contribution; these tools invite library staff and maker educators to reflect on and unpack their definitions of success in order to identify what features a relevant assessment tool should have.

Libraries in Nigeria have long struggled to adequately serve the information needs of visually impaired individuals, particularly those who are literate. Despite this, scholarly research addressing these issues in South-Eastern Nigeria is lacking, highlighting the urgency of investigating predictors of user satisfaction among visually impaired students in SLMCs. The research design utilizes a survey methodology across four states in South-Eastern Nigeria, encompassing a total population of 95 individuals. Data collection involves administering questionnaires to visually impaired students and SLMC personnel, followed by comprehensive data analysis using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Findings reveal a positive correlation between information needs, library accessibility, and user satisfaction, while library services and media-format availability did not significantly influence user satisfaction. Impediments to user satisfaction include inadequacy of media formats, contents, outdated materials, lack of equipment, and recording studios. Addressing these challenges is crucial to improving library engagement and user satisfaction among visually impaired students in South-Eastern Nigeria, ultimately fostering more inclusive and supportive educational environments.

This paper provides a snapshot of United States academic libraries in 2020 and explores longitudinal trends in staffing and expenditures for 1996 to 2020. The authors merged and analyzed academic library data from the National Center for Education Statistics from over 4,000 postsecondary institutions. Characteristics are explored by region and maps are provided. Total inflation-adjusted library expenditures have increased steadily for all regions from 1996 to 2020, including in the two major expenditure categories of staffing and collections. In the Northeast and West, averages are markedly higher in staffing and total expenditures than the other two regions.

Over the past decade, the financial crisis has led to reduced government funding for academic libraries in Greece. Now more than ever, it is imperative for library managers to improve their knowledge and understanding of cost behavior, in order to effectively deliver high quality services at decreasing costs. To do so, they need to apply clearly-defined costing methods, such as Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC), that allow them to identify the various costs involved in the library processes. In our study, we applied the TDABC method at the medium-sized library of the University of Macedonia (UoM), in Thessaloniki, Greece, to evaluate the costs of the Inter-library Loans (ILL) services. Since the library managers did not adopt a cost allocation method, the cost estimation of the UoM ILL services was rather simplistic and rudimentary. Our research provides empirical evidence of the advantages of TDABC in an academic library setting. Namely, the TDABC method can help library administrators decide how to successfully allocate the available resources and improve the efficiency of the library processes.

Over 100 chat providers in academic libraries were surveyed in a premier study measuring experiences of sexual harassment among library workers providing online chat reference. The anonymous survey measured the prevalence and frequency of 11 sexual harassment behaviors across three sexual harassment dimensions: gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion. The study also examined chat providers' responses to harassment, the impact of harassment, and the role their organizations played in how they responded. Of our 119 respondents, 61.3% experienced at least one sexual harassment behavior on chat reference within the last 5 years. Responses to harassment were influenced by the existence of organizational policies on how to handle harassment and whether organizations were having open discussions about harassment on chat.

Academic librarian hiring processes are designed to allow hiring institutions to learn about candidates through a multiple-round process, but often these processes are not designed with the candidates in mind. This paper uses a qualitative approach to interpret and understand how the attitudes of search committee members shape on-campus interview practices, with a particular focus on how interview practices create barriers to inclusivity. Library employees who recently served on academic librarian hiring committees were recruited to respond to a questionnaire, and a text analysis of responses to open-ended questions was performed to identify themes in academic librarian hiring.

The idea of "reading the room" borrowed from the business world applies to how school library professionals can identify and responsively meet the needs of users. By stepping up to do work even when it is not requested, and yet in alignment with our mission, we can help sustain our library programs.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of leadership skills (technical, human and conceptual) on organizational citizenship behavior in Vietnamese libraries and the role of organizational culture as the mediator. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach was chosen to gather data from 356 participants working in various libraries in Vietnam. The validity of the measures was assessed through regression analysis and SPSS software. Findings: The results showed that leadership skills do have a significant impact on organizational citizenship behavior, but only human skills had a significant effect on bureaucracy culture. The study also revealed that bureaucracy culture played a significant role in affecting organizational citizenship behavior of organizations. Furthermore, bureaucracy culture was found to mediate the relationship between human skill and organizational citizenship behavior of organizations. Originality/value: This study makes a valuable contribution to the field by exploring the influence of three types of leadership skills on organizational citizenship behavior and the role of leadership in promoting organizational culture. The findings of this research can help organizations understand the importance of leadership skills and organizational culture in promoting good citizenship behavior among employees. The research implications are discussed and can be used to inform decision-making and future research in the field.

Student employees are essential to academic libraries on college and university campuses. The employment programme at this mid-sized university library intentionally seeks to engage students in work that not only benefits the library, but also provides students the opportunity to learn and hone skills that can contribute to academic and professional success. The pandemic had a significant impact on the student employment programme. The pivot to remote and hybrid services changed how library supervisors worked with student employees. In order to continue to offer students meaningful work, library staff conducted an evaluation of the programme, using a survey and focus groups. The evaluation team implemented programme changes and improvements based on student feedback in regard to scheduling and career preparation, with more plans to follow. This article describes how academic library staff can work with student workers on developing a meaningful employment programme, beneficial to both students and library services.

Can LIS curricula dedicated to makerspaces provide an authentic learning experience for future librarians interested in makerspace-adjacent careers? This article presents a case study in which an authentic learning framework is applied to a newly developed LIS graduate-level course on makerspaces. We detail how one class project--entitled "Bibliocircuitry: Old Books, New Ideas"--challenged students to use their newly learned skills to upcycle a hardcover book into a personalized artifact. This article outlines emerging patterns and themes from an analysis of survey responses from 13 of the 15 students in the course. Findings reveal the project readily maps to authentic learning standards, encourages learning, and facilitates reflection (including the negotiation of uncertainty, overcoming debilitating perfectionism, and transformative joy). The study broadens curricular design interventions for LIS educators, highlights the need for deep learning with technologies, and offers an opportunity to narrow the preparation gap between information professionals and the technical and social competencies required in makerspaces. The implications of these findings for the field of LIS pedagogy emphasize the importance of an authentic learning project both to disrupt the absence of LIS maker curricula and to reimagine current one-shot, pressured, makerspace training.

This is the second article in a two-part SWOT analysis of academic libraries. The purpose of this research is to guide strategy development, decision making and advancement of positioning by identifying and analyzing the key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats impacting academic libraries. Its premise is that an understanding of these elements, their overlap and the interplay between them is an essential foundation for the effective development of strategy. The research is unique in applying SWOT analysis to academic libraries collectively. The second article focuses on weaknesses and threats. Weaknesses are identified as conservatism, stakeholder misperceptions, economics and diversity. Declining position, identity blurring, competition and uncertainty constitute the key threats. Examination of these factors is followed by a discussion of the whole analysis and a proposed framework for future strategy development and positioning, based on ten strategic directions emerging from the analysis. These are: active positioning; knowing the territory; being politically attuned; prioritizing outward engagement; maximizing social capital; communicating value and identity; embracing uncertainty; addressing diversity deficits; leveraging change in scholarly communications; and maintaining long-term perspective.

Student partnership, a growing phenomenon in higher education, has transformed the way universities collaborate with students. Yet, to date, the academic library has rarely been examined as a place for student and staff partnerships to thrive. In this article, we present findings from a national students as partners benchmarking survey conducted across Australian academic libraries, with responses from library staff representing 35 universities across six states (n = 210). Our findings highlight that while many library staff see the potential benefits to student partnership, this potential is largely unrealised. Our findings further tackle the commonly perceived barriers to partnership specific to the library context, such as staff understanding of student partnership and its corresponding practices as well as challenges and barriers to student engagement. We conclude with a recommendation for more reflection in academic libraries on how to create a connected and relationship-rich culture of partnership.

This study aims to investigate university library directors' perceived importance of antiplagiarism practices through plagiarism software and guidance-based programs. The study also qualitatively explores the barriers faced by university librarians in combating plagiarism practices. The authors used a mixed-method research design to examine their research questions. The findings showed that the library directors placed equal importance on both types of antiplagiarism practices, that is, software-based and guidance-based antiplagiarism practices and that libraries should provide both of these services effectively. The library directors indicated a lack of awareness regarding plagiarism issues, lack of motivation among librarians, lack of information literacy training programs, and administrative issues as the key barriers. This study fills the gap in the existing literature by exploring university library directors' perceptions of antiplagiarism practices and barriers in combating plagiarism practices, particularly in the South Asian context.

This article uses bibliometric tools to analyze the peer-reviewed publications of academic librarians from 32 accredited higher education institutions in Norway--10 university libraries and 22 college libraries--associate members of Universities Norway (UHR). The period 2016-2020 was chosen to enable us to better understand publication patterns among this academic group over a meaningful timeframe. Research outputs were examined in terms of productivity by institution, document types, publication years, subject categories, open access status, and collaboration patterns. The findings indicate that publishing amongst this community is growing; librarians choose the most highly regarded publication channels in the same way as other faculty members, and they publish in partnership with other researchers. The analysis found that academic librarians frequently select Open Access publication pathways.

Open records requests can be an important tool in obtaining valuable information to use in negotiations with content providers. This paper examines the opportunities libraries have in requesting public information through open records requests to better support their purchasing decisions. The case is made for investing time up front to better understand contract terms and pricing already secured by public entities, using that knowledge to improve their position in the negotiating process.

With the advent of the big data internet era, the corresponding multimedia technology is also developing. At the same time, as an important place for students to improve their cognitive level and expand their knowledge coverage, the construction of knowledge and information in university libraries will have an important impact on the growth of students and the development of the library itself. Big data not only brings specific challenges to the intelligent information construction of libraries, but also provides opportunities for the further development of intelligent information construction. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the intelligent informatization construction of university libraries in the multimedia big data environment, make suggestions for the further development of library intelligent informatization construction, and provide reference materials for library intelligent informatization construction.

This study surveyed librarians and staff at Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions to determine who assembles social justice guides (that is, LibGuides), what motivated the creation of such guides, and how these guides are deployed. Additionally, the survey gauged employee perceptions of library and institutional responses to social unrest. Sociopolitical events, perceived educational need, and work assignments to develop such a guide were the primary reasons motivating the creation of the guides. Social justice guides are seldom incorporated or deployed into wider library or institutional programming, however. Overall, library and institutional diversity statements and responses to social unrest were perceived as words without action. Results from this survey shed light on library employee perceptions, on the emotional labor involved in the development of anti-racist resources, and on library and institutional responses to social unrest.

Improvisation is an effective tool for developing actors' skills. It can also be a powerful and unique means for enhancing customer service skills in the contemporary academic library environment. Interactions between library users and librarians / library staff can often be complicated and require excellent listening and communication skills. This article explores how improvisation training can help reinforce customer service skills while also enhancing team building, team cohesion, and interpersonal engagement skills for these library employees. Such exercises are not only enjoyable and entertaining for library employees, they also help develop essential skills which enhance their customer service interactions.

During this research, the author attempted to locate institutions and background information about spaces that would be similar in scope to a digital scholarship lab (or scholar's lab being proposed in a university library. The information is meant to serve as a guide for the space design project, but it will be an important benchmarking tool for existing spaces. A framework is provided as a planning document for other libraries that are considering the development of such a space in an academic library.

Academic libraries face mounting pressure to demonstrate their value to stakeholders, yet traditional assessments of their financial value ignore the work of librarians and library staff in producing usable collections and services for patrons. Through a survey of US academic library workers, we examine the range, scope, and financial value of labor performed in US academic libraries. Our findings reveal ways in which traditional assessment mechanisms render this labor invisible to stakeholders. We argue that making this labor more visible will help better communicate the value of academic libraries and ignite conversations about reducing workload and stress for library workers.

This case study discusses the implementation of formal organizational learning activities at the Richard G. Trefry Library, which serves the American Public University System, an accredited, for-profit, asynchronous institution of higher education. Discussed are the challenges and solutions throughout the implementation processes along with the issues faced by a virtual library staffed with a distributed workforce. Practical pointers on implementing a virtual peer-to-peer learning webinar series are included in the Appendix. This paper also addresses a gap in the literature representing organizational learning at virtual, for-profit academic libraries.