Programmatic text analysis can be used to understand patterns and reveal trends in data that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to uncover with manual coding methods. This work uses programmatic text analysis, specifically term frequency counts, to study nearly 10,000 chemistry thesis and dissertation titles from 1911-2015. The thesis and…

This case study presents the development of an asynchronous online module for an engineering undergraduate research program. It includes an overview of the development of the literature research module in Qualtrics and its transition to the campus LMS, Canvas. Assessment of student learning is described. The benefits to librarians of this mode of…

Librarians know that information literacy is much more complex and nuanced than the basic library research skill that it's often portrayed as; in fact, as outlined by the ACRL Framework, research is a contextual activity. But the settings in which we teach often constrain our ability to take a more layered approach. This book not only shows you…

The importance of images and visual media in today's culture is changing what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Digital technologies have made it possible for almost anyone to create and share visual media. Yet the pervasiveness of images and visual media does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to critically view, use, and…

Graduate students across disciplines feel pressure to publish their scholarship, but they are often unsure how to go about it, partly due to a lack of explicit training in this area. This article discusses the collaborative development of a semester-long Publishing Academy, designed to promote knowledge of scholarly publishing and increase the…

This call for action addresses the high-level benefits of adopting a university-wide policy regarding research data management. It identifies the various university stakeholders and suggests that the library initiate a conversation among them in order to get buy-in for a proactive, rather than reactive, high-level policy for responsible data…

Authentication data was utilized to explore undergraduate usage of subscription electronic databases. These usage patterns were linked to the information literacy curriculum of the library. The data showed that out of the 26,208 enrolled undergraduate students, 42% of them accessed a scholarly database at least once in the course of the entire…

The work of collection development in academic video game collections is at a crucial point of transformation--gaming librarians are ready to expand beyond console games collected in disc and cartridge format to the world of Internet games. At the same time, forms and genres of video games such as serious and independent games are increasingly…

The topic of academic/research librarians with subject doctorates remains largely unexplored. Based on survey data gathered from subject-doctorate holders (excluding those with doctorates in LIS) currently working in U.S. and Canadian academic/research libraries, this article extends the analysis published by the authors in the January 2008 issue…

A report about college students and their information-seeking strategies and research difficulties, including findings from 8,353 survey respondents from college students on 25 campuses distributed across the U.S. in spring of 2010, as part of Project Information Literacy. Respondents reported taking little at face value and were frequent…

The objective of this study was to reveal how the national economic recession has affected the nature and extent of support for tenure track librarians at Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions. The authors surveyed 43 ARL Deans and University Librarians to discover the criteria for achieving tenure and the current…

This study examines local research guides created by academic business librarians to assist patrons with researching the communities (towns, cities, and regions) where their schools are located. A key finding is that only 33% of the libraries surveyed provide guides to local research, while 80% provide guides to international research. (Contains 2…

This study is a quantitative analysis of FTE staffing levels at academic libraries at 176 U.S. research universities between 2000 and 2008. Results showed that overall staffing levels at these libraries declined but that the average number of professional librarian FTE positions modestly increased. Other professional staff positions increased at a…

Libraries receiving the corpus of a comics publisher are presented with challenges, especially regarding preservation and access for special and circulating collections. Libraries must consider user research needs and collection relevance. Library literature is consulted and recommendations are made regarding bibliographic description, subject…

Most academic libraries do not yet have gaming collections, let alone gaming services and facilities that support the unique and growing teaching and research needs of campus environments. Academic libraries in particular need to start thinking about developing the next generation of gaming collections and services. This article examines the…