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A survey concerning perceptions of academic librarians was conducted at a large, 4-year university with three populations: librarians, faculty, and undergraduate students. This paper presents results from the student population, with comparison to the librarian and faculty samples. The major research questions address perceptions about what librarians know (expertise and skills), what librarians do (role and duties), and what librarians are like (motivations and affective characteristics). Respondents showed a little more awareness of librarians' professional duties than in previous studies; however, librarians' duties related to organisation, reference, and teaching remained more hidden from view. And, many students still assume librarians do clerical work, and still underestimate librarians' salaries and required degrees. Most students still don't consult with librarians, as they do not believe librarians' help is needed by them—perhaps because they strongly associate librarians with books. Yet, students' value for librarians' expertise was high, and their value for librarians' knowledge and skill with resources rivalled that of faculty. Gaps among the three groups related to the definition of "research" seem important to address. The study also points to an ongoing need for research into specific populations of students, how prior experience affects college library use, and the potential for disciplinary differences among students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey concerning perceptions of academic librarians was conducted at a large, 4-year university with three populations: librarians, faculty, and undergraduate students. This paper presents results from the faculty population, with comparison to the librarian sample. The major research questions address perceptions about what librarians know (expertise and skills), what librarians do (role and duties), and what librarians are like (motivations and affective characteristics). Results showed faculty perceptions to be more in-line overall with librarians' perceptions of themselves than the literature might otherwise indicate, at least in domains where the faculty are actively engaged. Faculty also identified a role not explicitly mentioned on the survey: that of librarians as conduits between students and faculty. Gaps between librarian and faculty perceptions still exist relating to the extraordinary extent and diversity of librarian knowledge, skills, duties, and capacities, and with respect to the extent of librarians teaching. The study points to an ongoing need for marketing of library services and continued demonstration of library value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Query letters may offer an effective way to increase author engagement in the scholarly communication process, yet they are not a common practice in library and information science (LIS). A survey and interviews were conducted with LIS journal editors to explore experiences, attitudes, and opinions concerning query letters. Results indicate query letters can be of great benefit to both authors and editors, if approached properly. Yet editors expressed varying levels of enthusiasm and offered some divergent opinions. Such editorial inconsistencies may contribute to authors' uncertainty and anxiety. Thus, this article concludes with ideas for empowering authors and improving editor-author communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored differences in how undergraduate students of different genders and academic disciplines perceived academic librarians at a U.S. public university. No evidence indicated differences between students identifying as male or female, and few statistically significant differences were found among four Subject Areas (Arts, Humanities + Social Sciences, Business, Health + Education, and STEM). Our results have implications for local practice though they are not generalizable to other institutions. Despite a lack of significant findings, librarians should continue to explore ways to measure how students of different disciplines perceive academic libraries and/or librarians as valuable to their academic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey concerning perceptions of academic librarians was conducted at a large, 4-year university with three populations: librarians, faculty, and undergraduate students. The high response rate and the use of an instrument based on previous studies offers the possibility of longitudinal comparison and the identification of relationships between groups within one environment. This article focuses specifically on academic librarian perceptions about what librarians know (expertise and skills), what librarians do (roles and duties), and what librarians are like (motivations and affective behaviors). Twenty librarians employed in James Madison University Libraries responded to an online survey (62.5% response rate); four follow-up interviews and card sorts were conducted later to provide context to the data. Results have implications for libraries specifically in the areas of outreach, instruction, management, and collaboration. Differences in the responses of liaison and nonliaison groups are not generalizable to the population, but patterns were found that suggest future research in this area should include examination of differences related to the type of librarianship or focus on specific aspects of librarianship. Subsequent articles will situate these findings with those from surveys of faculty and undergraduate students and discuss implications for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey concerning perceptions of academic librarians was conducted at a large, 4-year university with three populations: librarians, faculty, and undergraduate students. The high response rate and the use of an instrument based on previous studies offers the possibility of longitudinal comparison and the identification of relationships between groups within perceptions of librarians. Subsequent papers will present results from the three surveys and offer analysis across the three groups. The literature review focussed on research studies of perceptions of librarians. Subsequent papers will present results from the three surveys and offer analysis across the three groups. The literature review focussed on research studies of U.S. and Canadian academic libraries since 2000 with relevance to these major research questions: perceptions about what librarians know (expertise and skills), what librarians do (role and duties), and what librarians are like (motivations and affective behaviours). Librarians' perceptions of themselves as critically important yet underappreciated seem to have persisted, perhaps because they are the only group to see the university-wide scope of their jobs, whereas, non-librarian faculty and students have a more limited views of the profession. In contrast to previous studies, recent literature suggests that course-integrated information literacy (IL) instruction has increased the visibility of librarians as educators to both faculty and students. The influence of popular media on students' perceptions seems less powerful, opening the door wider for library marketing and branding programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ACRL Library Trends and Statistics survey data from two years were analyzed to explore relationships among variables thought to predict full-text article requests. Five different regression models predicted full-text article requests from variables including reference transactions, library instruction, Web site visits, database searches, and ongoing expenditures. Full-time student enrollment and Carnegie classification were included as covariates in all five models. All regressions supported using enrollment as a covariate; four of the regressions supported using Carnegie classification as an additional covariate. Results suggested that reference transactions, library instruction, and ongoing expenditures increase the number of database searches and full-text requests beyond these covariates. Ongoing expenditures made the largest contribution in all models, but did not always contribute the most unique variance. Furthermore, a mediation analysis showed a significant indirect effect of library instruction on full-text requests through database searches. This study suggests most ACRL data may need log transformation before using regression analyses, and offers one approach to interpreting results. Future research could investigate the meaning of ongoing expenditures after controlling for institutional size and Carnegie classification. Additional variables such as interlibrary loan usage or whether the library has a discovery tool might be interesting to include in similar models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the demand for library assessment grows, academic libraries are becoming more interested in Web analytics. Data are automatically gathered and provide information about a wide variety of online interactions. Libraries have long used simple counts such as visits and page views, but have more recently begun to choose strategic benchmarks, also known as key performance indicators (KPIs). Many common KPIs were created for commercial websites and are challenging to adapt for libraries. However, the underlying concepts are sufficiently valuable that libraries should explore their use. By evaluating the validity of web metrics, libraries can further the development of standards and benchmarks to support future investigations. This article discusses how commercial web metrics might be adapted for use in academic libraries. First, the limitations of web analytics are presented. Major key performance indicators used in the commercial sector are reviewed in the academic library context. Finally, the article discusses how the various indicators might support specific library website goals and decisions and uses local data to illustrate one example case. As libraries choose web analytic methods, they should deliberately evaluate their validity. Over time, this will slowly build the profession's ability to use web analytics more effectively for library assessment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Faceted browsing is a common feature of new library catalog interfaces. But to what extent does it improve user performance in searching within today's library catalog systems? This article reviews the literature for user studies involving faceted browsing and user studies of "next-generation" library catalogs that incorporate faceted browsing. Both the results and the methods of these studies are analyzed by asking, What do we currently know about faceted browsing? How can we design better studies of faceted browsing in library catalogs? The article proposes methodological considerations for practicing librarians and provides examples of goals, tasks, and measurements for user studies of faceted browsing in library catalogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual search interfaces have been shown by researchers to assist users with information search and retrieval. Recently, several major library vendors have added visual search interfaces or functions to their products. For public service librarians, perhaps the most critical area of interest is the extent to which visual search interfaces and text-based search interfaces support research. This study presents the results of eight full-scale usability tests of both the EBSCOhost Basic Search and Visual Search in the context of a large liberal arts university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports the expansion of the digital reference services of libraries in the United States. Features of instant messaging reference systems; Offer of digital reference through electronic mail and online Web form; Implementation of a Web site search categorizing results by resource types.

Making scholarly information visible to web search engines is an ongoing challenge, and undergraduate research is no exception. Using a sample of award-winning undergraduate history papers and journals, the authors searched Google, Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, and the authors' institutional repository to gauge the difficulty of locating these works. Given that many of these works were not easily found, results suggest that libraries and their institutions could be doing more to increase the discoverability of undergraduate research. Based on the success stories observed in this study, we offer strategies to libraries and librarians for increasing the visibility of undergraduate student research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Link resolver software and their associated knowledge bases are essential technologies for modern academic libraries. Because of the increasing number of possible integrations involving link resolver software and knowledge bases, however, a library's vendor relationships, product choices, and consortial arrangements may have the most dramatic effects on the user experience and back-end maintenance workloads. A project team at a large comprehensive university recently investigated link resolver products to increase efficiency of back-end workflows while maintaining or improving the patron experience. The methodology used for product comparison may be useful for other libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The LibQUAL+ instrument has been widely adopted by libraries to evaluate user perceptions of library service quality. Studies combining groups (e.g., Lane et al., 2012) have shown high correlations between two factors, suggesting the possibility that a two-factor model may fit as well as the three-factor model theorized by the developers. Also, previous studies have not closely examined residuals to analyze local misfit in the context of theory but instead have often correlated error terms to improve model fit. This study uses LibQUAL+ responses from undergraduates at a public, comprehensive university to test three-factor, two-factor, and one-factor models of user perceptions of library service quality. Global fit indices indicated that both two-factor and three-factor models were empirically supported, but the three-factor model had better theoretical support. Furthermore, this article adds to the literature the unique perspective of residual analysis and builds theoretical arguments in the interpretation of the final model. Areas of local misfit suggest the need for independent studies to examine residuals. If areas of misfit repeat across institutional populations, that could suggest the potential for further instrument development, while if areas of misfit are unique to institutional populations, this could target areas for institutions to investigate more closely. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This bibliography introduces sources composing the Black Athena debate, which is now hi its seventeenth year. Issues in the debate include not only the origins of Western civilization and its history, but legitimacy of scholarship, historical methodology, racism, and ethnocentrism. Libraries will want to include the major sources not only for their intrinsic scholarship, but also as an illustrative example of a colorful, multifaceted, scholarly argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instant messaging (IM) reference is gaining in popularity but still faces resistance. Some librarians agree with some researchers in the field of computer-mediated communications (CMC) that it can never approach the complexity of face-to-face communication, and is therefore an unsuitable medium for reference. Librarians in face-to-face reference use nonverbal communication skills such as a welcoming expression and an interested tone of voice to encourage patrons to approach the desk and discuss their topic; they also interpret the nonverbal cues of patrons. This analysis of online reference conversations shows how online skills can substitute for many of these nonverbal cues. Some skills are unique to computer-mediated communication while others involve written language skills to encourage exploration of the topic, increase clarity, demonstrate approachability and empathy, and instruct. The study illustrates communication problems and solutions using actual conversations, giving particular attention to the reference interview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study that analyzed the search engine logs of the Web site of the Morris Library at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale to discover how patrons used the site search. Methodology of the study; Results and discussion on the study; Conclusions.

Describes a framework for designing a self-directed training program for entry-level reference librarians. Enumeration of goals and activities in the program; Assessment of individualized training program; Preparation of practical activities.

The article discusses two usability studies conducted by researchers at James Madison University (JMU) that focus on finding journal articles and titles on academic library websites. It examines retrieving citations via online search engine Google Scholar (GS), link resolver software, and journal portals. Topics discussed include JMU's library websites and their Periodical Locator (PL) and Check for Full Text (CCFT) interfaces. The author also explores changes made to JMU library websites and library systems to improve information retrieval.