An ethnographic research project undertaken by the libraries of the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Cambridge sought to understand the impact of academic/library relationships in a devolved institutional structure. The results of the research provided clear evidence of the high regard in which academic engagement with libraries…

Performance appraisal of professional librarians in academic libraries is important because of the critical role these employees play. Professional librarians ensure that the library's resources and services are effective, relevant, and integrated within the parent institution. Performance appraisal and job feedback have been understudied in the…

Australian universities are operating in a complex, dynamic and competitive global market. Increasingly university administrations are seeking the competitive edge over rival institutions. In order to support their institution's strategic agenda and maintain their relevance to their institution, libraries will need staff who are highly skilled and…

The pivot to online teaching caused by the COVID-19 pandemic enabled science and engineering librarians at Vanderbilt University to expand their teaching roles within graduate-level courses in biomedical engineering, chemistry, and physics. In addition to addressing traditional information literacy skills related to information retrieval and…

People with disabilities have been among the most marginalised groups both within society and within post-secondary/higher education. Over the last two decades, an increasing number of inclusive educational programmes have come into existence both nationally and internationally for this group of learners. The Trinity Centre for People with…

In the United States, many academic institutions are plagued by a history of anti-Black racism. Today, librarians from different racial backgrounds who work at libraries at predominantly White colleges and universities are given the important task of describing materials related to African American cultural heritage. This task has the potential to…

The author, the new associate university librarian at Arizona State University (ASU) Library, discusses the "New Media Consortium Horizon Report: 2017 Higher Education Edition," an annual report that identifies and describes emerging technologies for learning and teaching. She highlights a major theme of the report--digital equity--and…

Demonstrating academic library value is crucial in this era of budget cuts and freely available online resources. This article provides a unique complement to existing research on library value. The author uses a qualitative approach known as narrative inquiry to evaluate patron experiences during the temporary closure of an academic branch…

The study aimed at investigating distance learners' use of, and satisfaction with academic library services. It is a case study that employed a survey method to solicit the views of distance learning students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Findings revealed a fairly satisfactory use of the library services…

This review offers a critical analysis of the library and information science (LIS) literature on first-generation students (FGS) from the last 40 years. This literature demonstrates an interest in understanding the needs of FGS to serve them better, but it is often grounded in a deficit model of education that focuses on what first-generation…

Teaching is a primary responsibility of many academic librarians. However, despite the job duties, many academic librarians do not see themselves as teachers. To determine how participation in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) impacted academic instruction librarians' teacher identity the authors conducted an explanatory sequential…

Distance librarians working with an online doctoral program at Johns Hopkins University are asked by both students and faculty to provide a large amount of library support -- without being embedded into the curriculum or the individual courses. Program administrators and faculty were resistant to allow librarians into the course management system…

Sometimes users need to be asked if they need help. This is difficult with online users, because in-person cues cannot be used to engage when the users need assistance. Proactive chat widgets help to solve this problem as the chat box slides out onto the screen and prompts the user for help. The need for the proactive chat widget was also seen as…

Usability testing that includes people who are fluent in assistive technology is an important way to ensure that digital products meet the needs of all users. In settings such as universities, with highly distributed content creator networks and vast differences in project sizes and scopes, it can be challenging for non-experts to find and use the…

As part of a research study to examine first-year college students' preparation for college-level research, students at six U.S. institutions of higher education were surveyed in the spring semester of 2021. The pandemic continued to affect the delivery of information literacy (IL) instruction and library services across the United States…