For members of the dominant culture, libraries produce largely positive affective responses (Farkas). However, researchers and practitioners in the field of library science have identified a need to make library resources more accessible to patrons from marginalized communities who are excluded from library spaces by institutional policies and…

The Digital Talking Books Program was developed between the 1990s and the 2000s to replace the Analog Cassette format, which had been developed during the 1960s to allow people with disabilities to access reading material. The Digital Talking Books Program was built around flash memory technology. The reasons for which the National Library Service…

Public libraries throughout the United States are increasingly using technological platforms to provide information resources to students across socioeconomic environments. Advances in technology have affected the way in which we learn with the advent of online learning, e-learning and shared learning experiences that have become ever present in…

This paper explores treatment effects in three different contexts: an extended school year pilot program in an urban school district, a library summer reading program serving twenty-one urban school districts, and states passing the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s and 1980s. Estimates generated using two years of intervention data along…

This study investigated the collection development process in school libraries and the environment of school libraries as it pertains to the collection of materials with LGBTQ+ themes and characters. The study determined the willingness of school librarians to purchase materials with LGBTQ+ themes and characters and surveyed their purchases of the…

This mixed-method study explored teachers' perceptions of the Living Libraries (LL) professional development program. The study investigated the program's perceived effectiveness and impact on students' reading skills. Additionally, the researchers sought to understand how LL trained teachers perceived the program as aiding their reading…

This mixed-method study explored teachers' perceptions of the Living Libraries (LL) professional development program. The study investigated the program's perceived effectiveness and impact on students' reading skills. Additionally, the researchers sought to understand how LL trained teachers perceived the program as aiding their reading…

This mixed-method study explored teachers' perceptions of the Living Libraries (LL) professional development program. The study investigated the program's perceived effectiveness and impact on students' reading skills. Additionally, the researchers sought to understand how LL trained teachers perceived the program as aiding their reading…

The academic library's contribution to the institutional mission and goals is something library administrators have been striving to communicate to administrators since 2010 when the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) released their report entitled "The Value of Academic Libraries." The purpose of this study was to…

As our society continues to evolve at an ever-increasing rate, our higher education institutions, and the services they provide, must keep pace with societal changes in order to ensure that those services stay current and relevant. This program evaluation examines one such service, the research consultation model in University Libraries at the…

The role and functions of an academic library have evolved drastically as the result of a new social, economic, and technological reality. Libraries are responding to these developments by changing focus from collection and storage of information to becoming active partners in students' educational journey. The learning commons model of service is…

Among researchers, educators, and other stakeholders in literacy education, there has been a growing emphasis on developing literacy pedagogies that are more responsive to the ways young people experience literacy in their everyday lives, which often make use of digital media and other technologies for exchanging meaning. This dissertation project…

This study explores how libraries mediated interactions between black readers and texts in twentieth century South Africa. By situating libraries as vital infrastructures of reading, I critically examine how librarians tried to build the habit of reading within black communities. Beginning in the 1930s with the Carnegie Corporation of New York's…

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether adding gamification to a doctoral level class would improve 1) students' self-reported feelings of motivation, competency, and engagement, and 2) knowledge of the library resources available to complete research. Twenty-one students agreed to participate and completed the pretest survey.…

Living inside built environments--infrastructure--it is easy to take for granted the things that we do not need to engage, but are at work behind the scenes nonetheless. Well-designed systems become invisible, but to engage them, how do we know which perspectives, objects, and relationships are useful? I examine the University of Michigan Digital…