The library and the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program at the University of Michigan partnered in an investigation of student-faculty research collaboration in the humanities. The authors found that providing early opportunities for undergraduates to collaborate on such projects was highly beneficial for both students and faculty mentors.…

Since 2014, the University Libraries at the University of Oklahoma in Norman has been a member of the Software Carpentry Foundation (now part of "The Carpentries"), a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching basic computing skills to researchers. Through this partnership, we have taught over a dozen introductory programming workshops…

This paper reports on the establishment of an open pedagogy initiative between community organisations and students, facilitated by the Temple University Libraries (TUL) and faculty in the Philadelphia area. The Community-University Research Exchange (CURE) produces community-driven social justice research. Library facilitators solicit research…

Professional development programs have been established in many academic libraries to support the research and scholarly activities of librarians. Continuous assessment can contribute to the sustainability and effectiveness of these programs. This study describes how measures of need, participation, satisfaction, and impact were employed to assess…

Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL's) "2016 Top Trends in Academic Libraries" noted a "shift to the incorporation and integration of more continuous, ongoing, flexible, and sustainable review of collections," and "an increasing need" to align collection development with "institutional research…

This study was borne out of concern about undergraduates' inability to use library and its resources effectively. The major focus of study was to ascertain how undergraduates in the Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan use the library and its resources in spite of the user education given to them. Survey research method was employed, and a…

After three years of collecting electronic resources of troubleshooting tickets in Springhare's LibAnswers at University of Houston Libraries, the author conducted an analysis of over 300 tickets. The type of problem was identified for each ticket and then categorized into a functional area using an existing categorization schema developed at…

The idea of the university has undergone a conceptual evolution that has lasted nearly one thousand years. In inspecting this historical discourse more closely, it becomes clear that it is a conversation led by academics and that some voices in our university communities are in fact absent from the dialogue. This raises a number of interesting…

Ryerson University has grown from a relatively small polytechnical institute to a large comprehensive university, with a focus on innovation. The Library has transformed itself over the last decade by closely aligning strategic planning with University planning; embracing the entrepreneurial culture in its physical expansion and collaborative…

The article written by three librarians who work in the Middle East, recount their experiences as library managers at academic institutions in Qatar, Afghanistan, and Iraq. While trying to provide services to the students and faculty of their academic institutions, they must also contend with security risks, such as kidnappings and bombings. They…

In 2016, Access Services staff attended a professional development course on process improvement offered at Kennesaw State University. Process improvement initiatives have been credited with devising more effective, streamlined practices by identifying and eliminating non-value-added work. The Head of Access Services adapted content from the…

Budget allocation decisions have become far more complex and difficult. One obvious reason is the shift from print to electronic purchases. This along with the lack of increased funding to sustain these collections has created a scenario in which all purchasing decisions need to be made with precise planning. This article examines the fund…

A joke among managers is that managing and leading people is akin to herding cats. People can be fickle and idiosyncratic and do what they want, when they want, in seeming defiance of all tenets of logic. For good or bad, people are led by the emotions in their hearts far more than the critical thoughts in their brains. But this does not mean…

This research project investigates librarians' attitudes toward unions and collective bargaining through data collected from a nationwide survey of 359 academic librarians in the United States. We found that academic librarians have a generally positive view of unions and collective bargaining agreements, a notable result in a national political…

Since the invention of artificial light, people have been working, studying, and playing for longer hours than ever before. They are also sleeping less as a result. This article examines the impact of sleep deprivation on people generally, and specifically on college students. Students accrue a large sleep debt that impairs their ability to…