This article presents a substantive grounded theory that shows how senior library leaders can achieve the library's strategic alignment with the university. The theory suggests that increasing uncertainty causes the library's leadership to consider how the library's strategic contributions can support the university's core priorities while also…

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…

The online catalog, commercial discovery layers, the open Web, and books available for browsing in libraries all aid in the process of discovery of resources. An absence of books means one fewer discovery method available. It is important, therefore, that libraries retain physical books in open stacks to offer communities a hands-on opportunity to…

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…

In response to strategic and administrative goals, a large R1 public university with 24 campuses developed a programmatic embedded librarian pilot in 2016. This pilot provided high-level embedded librarianship to a growing online education program with learners located domestically and abroad. Embedded teams included librarians at regional…

Collaborative work spaces within academic library settings are becoming increasingly important as libraries consider their roles in the twenty-first century. This paper considers the value of implementing a room reservation effort as part of the larger drive toward creating viable collaborative work spaces and discusses how to effectively manage a…

In this work we examine youth learning in an informal computing program implemented through a library-university partnership. In particular, we introduce and illustrate a culturally responsive computing framework which served as a foundation for the design of the program. Subsequently, we examine youth collaboration as well as affective and…

Libraries and librarians have dealt with patron privacy issues since their inception, often serving as educators and advocates. In today's social media-filled landscape, patron privacy has moved from the safeguarding of traditional library records to the creation, use, and ownership of information maintained in an online world. As the core…

In this article, we introduce the case of a makerspace program that provides a "systemwide approach to making" rather than a singular face-to-face or online place. This makerspace, called Bubbler, extends across a public library system of a mid-sized Midwestern city (Madison, Wisconsin) and incorporates nine neighborhood libraries 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…

Academic institutions invest significant sums of money to serve their students and to influence their decisions to stay. This study sheds light on the challenge for academic institutions to allocate their investments to keep students and enhance their retention rates. This study aims to investigate whether or not providing academic services has…

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…

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…

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…