Purpose The paper aims to explore the issues surrounding the user conceptualisation of academic libraries. The paper will solidify the role of academic libraries as learning spaces and problematise how libraries are conceptualised by users. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a literature-based conceptual paper and draws on a wide range of literature to challenge the concept of academic libraries and presents how they are becoming reframed as different spaces. Findings The paper argues that the concept of a library is at risk. While libraries have undergone substantial changes, the concept of a library has lingered. This paper demonstrated that libraries need to proactively engage users in this debate. Originality/value The spatial approach taken by this paper demonstrates the complicity behind the user conceptualisation of libraries. Developing an understanding of this process is an important foundation for libraries to develop their user engagement.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the current environment for libraries to consider the value of using data to support decision-making. Design/methodology/approach – This paper contains literature review and commentary on this topic that has been addressed by professionals, researchers and practitioners. Findings – In developing a library’s strategic direction, it is essential that evidentiary data be referenced to supplement the organization’s rationale for decision-making. There is an expectation by stakeholders that libraries are able to generate reports and decisions based on aggregated data for in-demand reporting. Therefore, capturing, analyzing and reporting decisions based on data are indispensable in today’s libraries. Originality/value – The value in addressing this topic is to examine the option by libraries to use data to support data-driven decision-making.
Purpose The purpose of the present study was to examine the outcomes of more collaborative library information literacy instruction for international English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students. Design/methodology/approach This study used action research and employed three different data collection techniques: observations, semi-structured interviews and content analysis of classroom artifacts. Findings The paper concluded that one-shot information literacy instruction was not sufficient for international ESL students to acquire information literacy. Findings suggested that lack of secondary information literacy instruction just prior to the final papers, and lack of one-on-one mentoring opportunities hindered effective information literacy acquisition for the selected cohort of ESL students. Research limitations/implications Results derived from this study were used to design more effective, useful and holistic information literacy instruction for international ESL students beginning next semester at this private NY College. Originality/value This is a case study where the paper has used the participatory action research to present the importance of collaboration between the classroom teacher and the librarian to improve ESL students’ information literacy experience.
Purpose - This research paper sets up a typology of libraries managed by cultural centers abroad. Nearly 2,200 libraries linked to a tens of different cultural organizations not only provide traditional services such as loan and access to printed and audiovisual materials but also approach local citizens, offering help and services in matters of education, literacy, cooperation, social issues or development. These actions may fit under the label of cultural diplomacy actions. This paper aims to analyze the relevance of those cultural centers and offer a classification through a table including networks of institutions of the 30 most significant cultural centers worldwide.Design/methodology/approach - This study includes the analysis of all foreign cultural centers in the world, as well as the situation, description and analysis of libraries belonging to the centers. Enumeration of the 30 largest libraries in the world is also included.Findings - The findings help to view and share with the community the importance and necessity of libraries belonging to cultural centers abroad. Library networks are analyzed, and more than 2,000 institutions that help local communities are discovered.Research limitations/implications - There is some difficulty to list and describe the dozens of library centers. There is no association that brings together this type of institutions.Practical implications - The most important implication, written in the Conclusion section, is need for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions to help such libraries with a specific section.Social implications - Libraries abroad are institutions able to help the local citizens and enable basic and essential services for the growth of society, as you can read in the article, some essential services are limited in some countries. Libraries abroad could work many times as public centers.Originality/value - It is the first time that all library networks abroad are analyzed, and, thus, the value and originality of the article is maximum. The author has focused on the 30 most important libraries that more value give to the society and help citizens.
Purpose - The University of Kansas (KU) libraries has faced increased requests for streaming video in the past five years. While we have provided access to many databases of films, feature films remained a problem. To write a collection development policy, the library undertook three investigations to ensure the outcome reflected the needs of the university.Design/methodology/approach - Film titles included in Swank 300 and Criterion-on-Demand were checked against the CanIStream. it? website to check for availability through streaming, rental or purchase services. Student library users were surveyed to determine if they had streaming subscriptions and, if so, which ones. KU librarians also examined academic library collection development polices to understand how others have addressed this issue.Findings - More than half of the feature films provided by the two vendors are available through subscriptions, renting or purchasing methods. A majority of students subscribe to one or more of these services. Many academic libraries are deciding not to provide streaming feature films.Originality/value - There are no previous studies on students' subscriptions to streaming services linked to availability of feature films offered from commercial vendors to libraries.
Purpose - This paper aims to explore the attractiveness of Library and Information Science (LIS) careers to students and alumni and examine their decision-making process and perceptions of the field with an eye on discerning the best ways to build and develop the recruitment narrative.Design/methodology/approach - The authors reached out to 57 LIS graduate programs in Canada and the USA accredited by the American Library Association through a Web-based survey; the questions presented a combination of multiple-choice, short-answer and open-ended questions and generated a wealth of quantitative and qualitative data.Findings - The online survey has disclosed that students may not have an in-depth understanding of current trends, the diversity of LIS professions and the wider applications of their education. A significant disconnect exists in how the goals of LIS education are seen by certain groups of practitioners, students and faculty members.Originality/value - Creating a program narrative for the purposes of recruitment and retention, departments should not only capitalize on the reach of the internet and the experiences of successful practitioners. They should also ensure that faculty know their students' personal backgrounds, that students empathize with demands of contemporary academia and that a promotional message connects pragmatic educational goals to broader social applications. By exposing and embracing the complexity of LIS education and practice, the paper chooses a discursive path to start a conversation among major stakeholders.
Purpose - This study aims to investigate public library users' perceptions of information professionals. Specifically, it focuses on exploring users' perceptions regarding librarians' status, work duties, performed work and educational background.Design/methodology/approach - The method of questionnaire was used to enquire on the users' perceptions of six different public libraries in the wide area of Attica, Greece. Between November 2014 and February 2015, 320 questionnaires were distributed, and, in total, 291 users participated in the study with response rate 90.9 per cent.Findings - This research revealed that public library users have a positive image of the librarians' status, duties and work performed. Users acknowledge that it is important for librarians to obtain a bachelor's degree in library and information science (LIS) education and specialized LIS knowledge, as well as general, pedagogical and new technologies knowledge to perform their tasks. Overall, "serving of people" predominates as a task and a series of collection-oriented tasks.Research limitations/implications - Perceptions of non-users of public libraries and public librarians themselves were not examined in this study. In addition, some user groups based on level of education (e.g. doctoral degree) had a low level of participation.Originality/value - It is one of the few studies that examined public library users' perceptions of information professionals.
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to draw attention to one specific upper-level government policy document in which a discourse of perpetual innovation and customer service is promoted, and the kinds of questions such discursive interventions raise for the future of work in public libraries; and second, to demonstrate the explanatory potential of the concept of immaterial labour for questions relating to emerging labour processes in libraries. The concepts of “prosumer” and Web 2.0 are included as discursive resources of relevance to any discussion of immaterial labour.Design/methodology/approach– This paper presents a critical discourse analysis of a public policy visioning document for public libraries in Ontario, Canada, with reflections on related literatures.Findings– The concept of immaterial labour provides an additional analytic tool suitable for questions of relevance to public librarians and library scholars. Within the government text under review which deals specifically with the future of the public library to 2020, the identity of the public librarian is alarmingly absent. Conversely, the library patron as a producer and consumer is privileged.Research limitations/implications– Failure to attend to the broader policy arena within which the public library resides creates dangerous blind spots for public library professionals, educators and researchers.Practical implications– This paper demonstrates the value of a discourse analysis for uncovering the ideological dimensions of policy documents, while simultaneously modelling the method using the kind of policy text commonly produced in governments around the world.Social implications– This paper shows how failure to attend to the broader policy arena within which the public library resides creates dangerous blind spots for the public library community.Originality/value– This paper contextualizes the immaterial and volunteer labour of the public library user as producer/consumer in the context of the future of the frontline professional and waged librarian.
Purpose Collection content is no longer the primary distinctive signifier of excellence in the present libraries. In an information market where technology has increased access to content, thereby providing resources at one’s fingertips, the provision of services is increasingly becoming a distinctive signifier of excellence and quality. In such an open/service-oriented marketplace, what are the services that are signifiers of excellence and consequently distinguish a library? This paper aims to review select literature within the USA to identify the services that are signifiers of excellence and that will consequently distinguish a library in the current era and investigate the extent to which said services identified in the review of the literature are provided by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona library, but focus specifically on only those that meet the additional criteria of placing the UWI Mona library as either the first to introduce the service in Jamaica or as the only library in Jamaica with the particular service offering. These two additional criteria provide the added signature or uniqueness essential to being distinguished. Design/methodology/approach Through the use of a mixed methods research, this paper highlights library service offerings considered as distinctive signifiers of excellence within the American literature and also within the UWI Mona Library – that will distinguish a library. Findings This paper reveals services incorporating technology, the library as a place/space, teaching and research and personal attention to users as distinctive signifiers of excellence. In this regard, within the UWI Mona Library, services offered such as the Virtual Reference Service, Extended Opening Service, Halls of Residence Librarian Service, Information Commons Service, Information Literacy Service and the West Indies and Special Collection Research Service were found to incorporate the aforementioned service themes and placed the UWI Mona library as either the first to introduce the service in Jamaica or as the only library in Jamaica with the particular service offering, consequently distinguishing the UWI Mona Library from other academic libraries in Jamaica. Originality/value This paper is of value, as it provides the library and information community with an outline of services that distinguish a library; it offers library managers in Jamaica and the rest of the world the opportunity to compare services in their libraries with that of other libraries as outlined within the literature review as well as within the UWI Mona library; it highlights how the UWI Mona library, an academic library in the Caribbean, compares on the international library scene, with particular reference to the USA; it informs current and potential library users of how the UWI Mona library is trending in service culture and a focus on distinctive services can promote a community of academic library service best practice.
Purpose– The purpose of this study is to determine the present status of the school libraries in Sri Lanka that were not developed under the General Education Project 2 implemented during 1997-2005.Design/methodology/approach– A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 135 school libraries drawn at random from two educational zones in Sri Lanka. The instrument included objective-oriented close-ended questions to be answered appropriately and analysis was done accordingly.Findings– The majority of school libraries in Sri Lanka are run by less qualified school librarians with no professional librarianship qualification. Scarcity of appropriate library buildings, inadequate funding and lack of reading materials and other physical resources were common among the studied school libraries. Unavailability of dedicated timeslots within the school timetable for library and information skills sessions had significantly decreased the library usage by students. It was also found that school librarians had rather negative attitudes concerning their job.Research limitations/implications– Neglecting other stakeholders and taking samples only from school librarians for the study and selecting only government schools by excluding private/international schools and monasteries (Pirivenas) created considerable limitation for the study.Originality/value– This study derived significant findings which could be used to understand the reality of school libraries in Sri Lanka, and these findings could be used to overcome practical issues which may negatively affect school library development.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to extend significantly the technology acceptance model (TAM) of Davis to design an extended TAM model to be used in the evaluation and assessment of e-information services for information research such as e-library services. The present TAM extension is based on two variables of behavioral intention: the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of a system. Furthermore, the user satisfaction, free access, information architecture, content richness, policies and rules, publishers’ quality, system self-efficacy and task technology fit were incorporated into the TAM to extend it with other factors theoretically motivated and would be of interest more generally. Design/methodology/approach The researcher adopted an experimental approach-based comparison between an experimental group (107 researchers) using an electronic information service (the e-library service of the university) and a control group (107 researchers) not registered in this e-information service of the university. Findings The researcher used the effect size values based t-test independent samples at the 0.05 level to adapt the structural model equation to the experimental sample. Principal results show that the behavioral intention was influenced significantly by user satisfaction. The perceived usefulness of the e-library services was influenced significantly by the perceived ease of use, information architecture, content richness, free access, publishers’ quality, task-technology fit and e-library service self-efficacy. Originality/value This paper is useful in advancing a framework for the evaluation and assessment of the electronic information service used for information research and exploring users’ attitudes toward using that service.
Purpose – This study aims to investigate how the transition from print to electronic scholarly communication has affected faculty’s information behaviour and their perception of academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was distributed among academics affiliated to the member universities of the Consortium of University Services of Catalonia. A total of 2,230 replies were received. Findings – Journal articles are the most relevant information resource used for research and teaching purposes. Databases are the preferred starting point for bibliographic searches, although a significant proportion of scholars rely on Internet search engines. The main source for gaining access to documents is libraries, followed by free materials available online. Scholarly journals are the preferred channel for disseminating research outputs, with the open access being a factor of marginal interest when deciding where to publish. Originality/value – The results of this study should be useful to guide policies regarding scientific information and research and, more specifically, policies regarding academic libraries.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the use of Open Electronic Resources (OER) as a supplement or replacement for textbooks or entire courses in higher education teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a literature review and commentary on this topic that has been addressed by professionals, researchers and practitioners. Findings Librarians are in a unique position to offer support for faculty seeking to incorporate OER into their courses. In an overall effort to serve as an important option to the mounting costs of education, librarians can offer up their knowledge, skill and training in the development and evaluation of OER. Originality/value The value in exploring this topic is to examine the library’s use of OER and their benefits and challenges in a higher education classroom environment.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest that holiday libraries have as much design as they have chance. Design/methodology/approach – Generalizability from experiential anecdote. Findings – Though ephemeral, such libraries may have items of value and interest, and can have focus and purpose too. Research limitations/implications – This paper recommends more research based on survey evidence. Practical implications – Chance collections may nevertheless have items of value, can degrade but also be refreshed and may have a pragmatic role for users. Social implications – Most users take such collections for granted: a librarian or bibliographer will find them of interest. Originality/value – This paper is a commentary on an invisible resource.
PurposeWeb-based courses are a practical way to engage in meaningful discussions with learners from a diverse set of communities. By gathering online to learn about a topic, learners can form communities that transcend geographic and political boundaries. This paper aims to investigate a partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) and Wisconsin Library Services, which brought open access online learning to thousands of lifelong learners around the state of Wisconsin. “Changing Weather and Climate in the Great Lakes Region”, a massive open online course the UW-Madison launched in 2015, paired a regional focus with face-to-face discussions at 21 public libraries to deepen learners’ personal connections to the subject matter. Through strategic partnership, targeted course development and marketing of events, intimate local discussion sessions and statewide events provided fora in which Wisconsin residents would explore changing weather and climate with university faculty, staff and students.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a case study approach and firsthand interview feedback from librarians, library staff and university faculty and staff who were leading the effort.FindingsThis paper explores the lessons learned and practical implications from the project and offers insight into libraries and universities looking to engage specific communities in non-credit online learning projects into the future.Originality/valueThis effort was a first of its kind partnership for the University and the State of Wisconsin.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a workshop model for engaging children and parents in mathematics activities in public libraries or other informal education settings. Design/methodology/approach – This paper explores a workshop model for helping the school-aged children learn mathematics outside the school. The model includes five workshop sessions and designs the parent’s role in the mathematics activities. Each workshop session has both a mathematics task activity and a user interface design activity. The model was implemented in a major Canadian city and a major Chinese city over a period of one month. This paper presents the workshop attendees’ experiences and their feedback on the workshop design. It also presents several suggestions on the design of such workshops. Findings – The parents acknowledged that they learned about how mathematics is currently taught in schools and appreciated the opportunities to interact with their children in the workshops. The children participated in the workshops actively and enjoyed the design sessions the most. The potential of using design activities to help children learn mathematics concepts is recognized. Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest that future workshops should provide a structure to the parents’ engagement in design activities, offer one design project that spans several design sessions and set aside time for families to mingle and share experiences with each other. A big limitation of this paper is the small sample size – 12 families participated in the workshops on each site. Although the paper offered rich data about the participants’ experiences, a larger sample would have made the findings more generalizable and conclusive. Practical implications – Computer technologies such as iPad and tablets are increasingly common as public library resources; yet the integration of these technologies into library programs is falling behind. This paper offers one example of how such integration can bring benefits to the patrons, encouraging more considerations to be put on this aspect in library practice. Originality/value – Although many programs are offered in public libraries that facilitate children to learn mathematics concepts, very less research has been reported on the design of these programs. In addition, the existing programs have not considered the inclusion of parent–child design activities for mathematics learning engagement. This paper reports an empirical study that addresses these research gaps. The encouraging results call for more investigations on this workshop model.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the use of Open Electronic Resources (OER) as a supplement or replacement for textbooks or entire courses in higher education teaching and learning.Design/methodology/approach - This paper is a literature review and commentary on this topic that has been addressed by professionals, researchers and practitioners.Findings - Librarians are in a unique position to offer support for faculty seeking to incorporate OER into their courses. In an overall effort to serve as an important option to the mounting costs of education, librarians can offer up their knowledge, skill and training in the development and evaluation of OER.Originality/value - The value in exploring this topic is to examine the library's use of OER and their benefits and challenges in a higher education classroom environment.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the results of continuing professional development sessions delivered to academics on the importance of a properly annotated reading list to the student experience.Design/methodology/approach - As part of the session, the academics were asked to take part in a "pop quiz" providing their interpretation of commonly used reading list labels.Findings - There was quite a broad interpretation of the labels, with several eliciting strongly positive or negative reactions. The similarity of meanings between some reading list labels made them redundant for helping students to prioritise their reading.Originality/value - This case study could be used to provide sessions on reading lists at other institutions, and the results from the quiz can be used to simplify reading list labels.
Purpose The key purpose of this study is to gain an insight into the quality of the scholarly publishing and refereeing system used by Emerald’s Library and Information Science (LIS) journals from the perspectives of the Arab authors who are publishing in this wide-ranging database. It also tries to provide helpful guidance for authors to fit their authorship for publication. Design/methodology/approach Of the total 3,846 papers published in Emerald’s LIS journals in the past five years (the beginning of 2011 to the end of 2015), there were only 81 papers (research/technical/conceptual papers and case studies only) authored by Arabs, representing 2.11 per cent of the whole productivity in the discipline of the LIS in Emerald in this period. Corresponding authors (mostly first authors) (n = 73) were contacted to answer the questionnaire of the study. Five of those 73 authors could not be reached because of the lack of validity of their e-mails. Out of the remaining authors (n = 68), 47 returned their valid questionnaires, representing 69.1 per cent of the total number of the Arab authors. Findings This study revealed that the Arab male authors dominated (78.7 per cent) the publishing in Emerald’s LIS journals in the past five years. Two-thirds of the Arab authors are aged between 36 to 45 years (mostly males with doctoral degrees), followed by those authors (17 per cent) who are aged between 46 to 50 years (mostly males with doctoral degrees) and by those authors (12.8 per cent) aged between 31 to 35 years (all are males and half of them hold a doctorate). The study also found that there was a direct proportionality between the Arab authors’ research experience with the history of publishing in Emerald’s LIS journals because the more research experience they have, the greater the number of their research history of publishing in Emerald. Assistant Professors (44.7 per cent) were found to be the group most frequently publishing in Emeralds’ LIS journals with research experience ranging between 11 and 20 years (mainly with a publishing history of five years), followed by lectures with research experience ranging between 1 and 20 years (mostly with a publishing history of five years) and then associate professors with research experience ranging between 11 and 20 years (mostly with a publishing history of ten years). The findings also found that most Arab authors (80.9 per cent) publishing in Emerald’s LIS journals preferred the sole or single authorship. The co-authorship or co-authored works were not much preferred by many of them. A large number (87.2 per cent) of the Arab authors, who are mainly described as experts and advanced authors in using the Emerald refereeing system, see this system, at least, as good. Regarding the reasons/factors to submit articles to Emerald’s LIS journals, this study revealed that the availability of papers in electronic formats, the journal’s impact factor, the association with the research area, the academic coverage of the journal, abstracting and indexing services, the availability in hard copy, the speed of reviewing, the size of readership, the ease of acceptance and the standing of the editorial board were the most significant reasons and factors to submit articles papers for publication in Emerald. The Arab authors in this study have shown considerable positive attitude and perceptions towards the publishing in Emerald’s LIS journals because all of them, at least, agree that publishing in Emerald can increase the speed of finding information and reduce the use of papers. A very large number of them also showed that such publishing may also help create a wider spread, build confidence, be convenient, secure credibility and be objective. Compared to their positive attitude and perceptions towards the publishing in Emerald’s LIS journals, Arab authors had little negative feelings about the publishing in these journals. A few of them (8.5 per cent) have shown a considerable concern about the time it takes in reviewing their articles because they reported that such publishing requires a long time for the peer review process, and it also needs long communications with the editorial staff; this may affect negatively on the time of the research topic. Not being their first language, a few Arab authors (8.5 per cent) have also shown a considerable concern about the use of English being the publishing language in Emerald, as it requires certain skills needed not only to publish their articles but also to deal with the Emerald system and communicate with editorial staff. Overall, this small percentage did not affect the rest of the authors who described their concerns about this obstacle as modest to some extent. Although there is a lot of enthusiasm for publication in Emerald showed by the Arab authors, there have been also some concerns expressed by them towards that goal. A modest number of the Arab authors suggested that the lack of language skills needed for publishing in Emerald, followed by the lack of patience needed to wait for issuing papers, the technical problems related to the system and its interface and the lack of technical skills needed for publishing, as well as the time needed to be online, were significant to them when looking to publish in Emerald. Research limitations/implications The paper investigates the quality of the scholarly publishing and refereeing system used in Emerald’s LIS journals from the perspectives of Arab authors who are publishing in this wide-ranging database. Such topic, to date, has limited previous research, as well as the limited size of the representation of the Arab authors in Emerald’s LIS journals in the past five years, which is due logically to the lack of their research and scientific contributions in this database during this period. Future research could focus on varied contexts or samples, such as other different disciplines and nationalities. Practical implications The paper provides valuable insight into the perception about the Emerald’s peer review quality by a very significant client group – academic researchers representing 22 Arab countries. Originality/value This study is to be the first one of its kind conducted by one of the Arab authors who has published in Emerald’s LIS journals. Being one of the few studies about the scholarly communication/productivity/collaboration of Arab authors in these journals, this study considers a pioneer one among many studies conducted in scholarly communication, especially with Arab authors.
Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the kinds of resources used by students at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus, to start their research and to find out their perception of the quality of the resources they use. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was distributed manually to undergraduates, and the responses were collated and analysed using Excel software. Findings – The findings revealed that Google was the resource most likely to be used by respondents to start their research, and the resource least used was the librarian (ask a librarian). Originality/value – This represents original research for the Mona Campus. It is important in helping the library to understand an aspect of the research habits and preferences of the undergraduate community it serves and will help the library in further decision-making, as it seeks to build awareness among the undergraduate population, of the library resources available to them.
