This study focuses on usage of electronic books (e-books) among advanced researchers, including graduate students and faculty, at a four-year academic institution. The researchers aimed to highlight differences in behavior, perception, and attitude between users and non-users of e-books. The survey findings suggest that, while a majority of these…

This study presents findings from one-on-one interviews with 21 undergraduate students at a large public research university in the southeastern United States. While the preliminary focus of the study was to be students' opinions about and use of Wikipedia as a resource for course-related research, many of the interviews evolved into discussion…

Emphasis on collaboration is a significant thrust in both current school reform and school librarianship. Planning for instruction is generally included in various definitions and models of collaboration. Some research exists about individual planning done in isolation (Warren 2000), but little is known about teachers' planning with other…

2012, the National Year of Reading (NYR), was celebrated in libraries, schools and community centres throughout Australia. At the University of Adelaide, we celebrated our academic culture of literary teaching and research with a range of programmes and initiatives based in the humanities faculty. The Barr Smith Library played an integral part in…

Building a social media profile itself is a rewarding experience for digital librarians, but there is another aspect to social media immersion, and it is a powerful tool for the profession. As librarians establish expert status in the use of popular tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and WordPress, they can add training and even product…

Scholarly journals provide a record of the research, issues, and concerns of a field. Authors have their names associated with their individual articles, while editors are connected with a publication. However, there is another group of individuals who are often left out of the record, although their contributions are just as critical in the…

Enlightened administrators realize that school librarians still play a pivotal role for students, guiding them through search processes and helping them find appropriate, reliable, vetted resources in print and digital format for research and other classroom projects. This article describes how important the role of information navigator is…

While virtual reference services (VRS) are becoming more and more common in academic libraries, implementing and maintaining well-used and effective VRS can be a challenge in the face of competing demands on time, staffing, and funding. Between 2011 and 2012, librarians at Washington State University, Pullman (WSU) have overhauled and reorganized…

Perhaps due to a commitment to lifelong learning, librarians are often willing participants in trying new technologies or service models that may benefit their patrons. Such an opportunity presents itself with massively open online courses, or MOOCs. This educational model, which has been gaining popularity in higher education since the first MOOC…

A study of PhD dissertations in library and information science (LIS) was carried out to investigate which research topics have been of interest in Nordic LIS institutions. Seventy-nine doctoral dissertations from 2005 to 2014, published by 13 different research institutions, were retrieved from the institutions' archives and from library…

Learning to code has been an increasingly frequent topic of conversation both in academic circles and popular media. Learning to code recently received renewed attention with the announcement of the White House's Computer Science for All initiative (Smith 2016). This initiative intends "to empower all American students from kindergarten…

In recent years, the concept "making" has been claimed by "The Maker Movement." While making offers great potential (and resources) for art integration in informal learning sites, maker discourse is often intertwined with a neoliberal mission. For example, movement leaders glorify Steve Jobs and hark on the myth that hobbies…

School librarians are experiencing upheaval and controversy in education today. They are coping with the implementation of (and battles over) the Common Core State Standards, the uncertain future of their jobs, and the rapidly changing nature of school libraries. Despite the flux and instability in education, the importance of intellectual freedom…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") focuses on current and emerging topics that are strategically important to research libraries. The articles explore issues, share information, pose critical questions, and provide examples. This issue includes the following articles: (1) Issue on the Transformation of Scholarly Communications…

This paper explores differences in access to technology and configuration of preferences for learning environments among design students in two universities of technology in South Africa (ISA) and Ghana (IG). Laptops and Smartphones ownership influenced and supported design students' learning. In IG, there was a 97% Laptop ownership as against 69%…