As the international student population continues to grow, librarians must adjust their instruction to meet the needs of students who are adapting to a new country, culture, and language. This study assesses first-year international students as they engage in the research process through the completion of concept maps that precede database…

The field of LIS continues to face a vexing paradox. Its longstanding ideal of and concomitant commitment to serving diverse communities and users equally has failed to translate into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the profession or in LIS education. This article analyzes efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in North…

In this article the authors provide an overview of the concept of a digital branch library and the manner in which it can be used to enhance academic library community engagement. As the front door to the branch, the library's Website is key to going beyond service provision toward sustaining relationships with faculty, students, staff, and…

Personas, stemming from the field of user-centered design (UCD), are hypothetical users that represent the behaviors, goals, and values of actual users. This study describes the creation of personas in an academic library. With the goal of leveraging service-generated data, the authors coded a sample of chat reference transcripts, producing two…

The economic downturn of 2007-08 forced many academic libraries in the United States to cancel journals. We surveyed life sciences librarians from ARL libraries to find out about their experiences with journal cancellations during 2008-12. Overall, we discovered that two factors were essential in decision-making: faculty consultations and data.…

As librarians take on more instructional responsibilities, the need for classroom management skills becomes vital. Unfortunately, classroom management skills are not taught in library school and therefore, many librarians are forced to learn how to manage a classroom on the job. Different classroom settings such as one-shot instruction sessions…

In this article, high school librarian Beth Ebenstein Mulch describes how she used iPads to introduce students at T. C. Williams High School (Alexandria, Virginia) to the school library. Her goal was for the library to come to life in front of new students and for them to learn from peers about all the great resources and services their library…

The growing importance of the Internet in our society requires that university graduates be skilled in critical evaluation of the messages and sources present in the online world. Traditional efforts to teach these skills have relied on specific, checklist-like tools; recently, these approaches have rightly come under criticism for being…

In an age of assessment and accountability, academic libraries feel much pressure to prove their value according to new university measurements of student success. This study describes a methodology for how libraries may examine student interactions with services to assess whether library usage impacts student grade point averages (GPAs) and…

We test whether and how well the presence of an embedded librarian improves the quality of student research. Students in introductory-level courses tend to have very low levels of research skills and experience. Though faculty are frustrated by this lack of skills, both students and faculty tend to have only a peripheral knowledge of the role…

With online education options more ubiquitous and sophisticated than ever, the need for academic librarians to be conversant with digital resources and design thinking has become increasingly important. The way forward is through collaboration with instructional designers, which allows librarians to gain a better understanding of digital resource…

Identity is the core of who we are as individuals. It shapes how we present ourselves, our expectations of how we interact with others and their treatment of us, and forms the basis of what we believe are our capabilities and potential. Identity is not limited to individuals, but also includes groups, such as clubs, organizations, and professions.…

Literacy is a fundamental human right. When exercised it improves an individual's life chances by achieving their personal, social, occupational and educational goals, and opening opportunities for social, economic and political integration. In an information and knowledge society, there is a salient need for Information Literacy (IL). IL can be…

Graded readers can be an optimal resource to help language students improve and personalize their learning experience. An extensive reading library with graded readers and well-defined levels of reading difficulty increases language students' chances of having a successful reading experience and become independent readers. However, when it comes…

Learning object repositories, a form of digital libraries, are robust systems that provide educators new ways to search for educational resources, collaborate with peers, and provide instruction to students in unique and varied ways. This study examines a learning object repository created by a large suburban school district to increase teaching…