The Engaged Librarian:
Libraries Partnering with
Campus and Community
October 7–9, 2014 iHotel & Conference Center
University of Illinois Champaign, Illinois
Twenty-first century librarianship has witnessed new forms
of cooperation between librarians and the communities they
serve. This conference will bring together academics and
practitioners, including faculty and graduate students from
library schools and iSchools, and academic, public and school
librarians. The conference will focus on how collaboration and
cross-disciplinary research can create new knowledge and
chart a course for partnerships with deep and lasting impact.
Hosted jointly by the University of Illinois Graduate School of
Library and Information Science, the University Library, and the
Library Research Round Table of the American Library Association.
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 1
2 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
Sponsors
Platinum
L I B R A RY A D M I N I S T R AT I O N
Gold
Silver
Bronze
University of Missouri
School of Information Science
and Learning Technologies
Dominican University
Graduate School of Library and
Information Science
General
San José State University
School of Library and Information Science
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 3
Welcome
Message from the conference co-chairs
Dear Colleagues,
We welcome you to the Library Research Seminar VI Conference and to the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign campus! The Library Research Seminar (LRS) Conference occurs periodically, and is sponsored
by the Library Research Round Table of the American Library Association. The theme of this year’s conference is “The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community.” This theme resonated
with the Program Planning and Organizing committees for LRS VI due to the tremendous pace of change
occurring in the ways librarians engaged with the diverse communities in which we work, live, and interact.
Twenty-first century librarianship has witnessed new forms of cooperation between librarians and the communities they serve. The conference planners sought to bring together in one forum cutting-edge research
that crosses boundaries within and beyond the field of library and information science. Further, in this new
world of engagement, there is clear focus on the process and products of collaboration: lessons learned and
best practices that establish librarians as full research, teaching, and learning partners in academic or community settings.
This conference brings together academics and practitioners, including faculty and graduate students from
library schools and iSchools, along with academic, public and school librarians. During the next couple of
days, we will have a rare and welcome opportunity to focus on how collaboration and cross-disciplinary
research can create new knowledge and chart a course for partnerships with deep and lasting impact. With
members drawn from both the University Library and the Graduate School of Library and Information
Science (GSLIS), this year’s Program Planning and Organizing committees themselves further enhance the
spirit of collaboration that we hope pervades the conference.
We are especially delighted to present a rich program with over 75 presentations of juried research papers,
panels, workshops, and posters representing topics such as the national impact of library public programs;
libraries’ role in community health and safety; the quality and impact of virtual reference; engaging students;
and providing enhanced access to primary resource collections. The conference program is framed by the
presentations of two excellent plenary speakers—Barbara J. Ford (University of Illinois Library Mortenson
Center for International Librarianship), whose work speaks eloquently to the role of libraries in supporting
the global advancement of research; and, Kara Malenfant (Association of College and Research Libraries),
who articulates how action research can serve as a bridge between academic scholarship and practice.
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to a number of people without whom the LRS VI conference
would not be a success. They include: the Organizing and the Program Planning Committees for their vision,
support, and hard work; the Library Research Round Table of ALA; Deans Allen Renear (GSLIS) and John
Wilkin (University Library); Robin Woodall (University Library) for her spectacular support in conference
planning; Wendy Shelburne (University Library) for her assistance communicating with publisher sponsors;
Claire Bolyard and Sveta Stoytcheva (University Library) for architecting the conference web site; Scott Randall
and Nancy Simpson (Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning), for their support of conference registration and logistics. Special thanks to the vendors and institutional sponsors for their generous support.
We hope that you are inspired by the research that is shared by your colleagues at LRS VI, and that you leave
with a renewed spirit of inquiry, an action plan to further your own research, and an enriched network of
potential collaborators.
All the best,
J. Stephen Downie
Beth Sandore Namachchivaya
GSLISUniversity Library
Co-ChairCo-Chair
4 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
Contents
Sponsors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Message from the conference co-chairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Conference at a Glance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community . . . . 9
Poster Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Plenary Speakers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Papers and Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Posters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 5
General Information
On Site Registration
Program Planning Committee
Registration will be open outside the Chancellor Ballroom
Beth Sandore Namachchivaya, Chair
Tuesday, 9:00 am–3:00 pm
Susan E. Searing
Wednesday, 7:00 am–10:00 am
J. Stephen Downie
Sponsors’ Information Table
Located next to registration table outside the Chancellor
Ballroom
Nicole A. Cooke
JoAnn Jacoby
Jennifer Weil Arns
Tuesday, 9:00 am–3:00 pm,
Ixchel Faniel
Wednesday, 7:00 am–10:00 am
John Budd
Lost and Found
Library Research Round Table
(LRRT) Officers
The lost and found checkpoint will be at the conference
center front desk located next to the north exit
Cancellation Policy Questions
Nancy Simpson
Ph: 217-244-9687
nsimp1@illinois.edu
I Hotel and Conference Center
Jennifer Weil Arns, Chair
Karen W. Gavigan, Chair-Elect
JoAnn Jacoby, Past-Chair
Organizing Committee
J. Stephen Downie, Chair
Susan E. Searing
1900 South First Street
Champaign, IL 61820-6914
JoAnn Jacoby
p 217.819.5000
f 217.819.5010
Tonyia J. Tidline
Houlihan’s Hours
Sunday–Thursday: 11am–10pm Friday–Saturday: 11am–11pm
Linda C. Smith
Susan M. Lafferty
Special Thanks to
Wendy Shelburne
Claire Bolyard
Sveta Stoytcheva
Robin Woodall
6 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
Conference at a Glance
Tuesday
Event
Room
9:00 am–3:00 pm
Registration and Sponsors’ Information Table
Outside Chancellor Ballroom
1:00 pm–1:30 pm
Welcome
Beth Sandore Namachchivaya and J. Stephen Downie, Conference Co-chairs
Allen Renear, Dean, Graduate School of Library and Information Science,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Chancellor Ballroom
1:30 pm–3:00 pm
Session 1: Programs and Papers
1A: Addressing Information Needs in Our Communities
Loyalty
1B: Insiders’ View of the Research Process
Lincoln
1C: Collaboration: Variations on a Theme
Technology
1D: Workshop: “Librarians: A force for positive change”
Excellence
3:00 pm–3:45 pm
Break
Outside Chancellor Ballroom
4:00 pm–5:30 pm
Plenary
Mortenson Lecture: Barbara J. Ford, Professor Emerita, University of Illinois
Library and Mortenson Center for International Library Programs
Chancellor Ballroom
5:30 pm–7:30 pm
Reception
Outside Chancellor Ballroom
Wednesday
Event
Room
7:00 am–8:00 am
Breakfast
Chancellor Ballroom
7:00 am–10:00 am
Registration
Outside Chancellor Ballroom
8:00 am–9:30 am
Session 2: Programs and Papers
2A: Innovative Collaborations
Loyalty
2B: The Power of Collaboration in LIS Education
Lincoln
2C: Panel: “Cultivating influence: Campus collaboration to embed information
literacy in a new core curriculum”
Technology
2D: Panel: “Indigenous knowledge and the United Nations: The university
libraries as a focal point for community discussions”
Excellence
9:30 am–10:00 am
Break
Outside Chancellor Ballroom
10:00 am–11:30 am
Plenary
Kara Malenfant, Senior Strategist for Special Initiatives, Association of College
and Research Libraries
Chancellor Ballroom
11:30 am–12:30 pm
Lunch
Chancellor Ballroom
12:30 pm–2:00 pm
Session 3: Programs and Papers
2:00 pm–2:30 pm
3A: Panel: “The Public Library Research Collaboratory: Creating digital space
for the intersection of practitioners, scholars, and educators”
Loyalty
3B: Focusing on Young Adults
Lincoln
3C: Librarian-Faculty Collaboration: Case studies
Technology
3D: Workshop: “Researching information literacy and library instruction:
Engaging the formal research agenda”
Excellence
Break
Chancellor Ballroom
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 7
2:30 pm–4:00 pm
Session 4: Programs and Papers
4A: Libraries’ Role in the Health and Safety of Communities
Loyalty
4B: Building Awareness of and Access to Primary Source Collections
Lincoln
4C: Workshop: “Evaluating leadership training in an international context”
Technology
4D: Panel: “National impacts of library public programs assessment: A report
on the 2014 development of a national research agenda”
Excellence
4:00 pm–4:30 pm
Break
Chancellor Ballroom
4:30 pm–6:30 pm
Poster Session/Reception
Chancellor Ballroom
6:30 pm–8:30 pm
Dinner
Outside Chancellor Ballroom
Thursday
Event
Room
7:00 am–8:00 am
Breakfast
Chancellor Ballroom
8:00 am–9:30 am
Session 5: Programs and Papers
5A: Panel: “Making LIS real: Rewards, challenges and contradictions in
community engagement”
Loyalty
5B: The Big Picture: Organization- and institution-level views
Lincoln
5C: The Quality and Impact of Virtual Reference
Technology
5D: Panel: “Engaging students through innovative partnerships: Exploring
multimodal instruction”
Excellence
9:30 am–10:00 am
Break
Chancellor Ballroom
10:00 am–11:30 am
Session 6: Programs and Papers
11:30 am–12:00 pm
6A: New Ways of Engaging in the Academic Library
Loyalty
6B: Engagement in the Academic Library
Lincoln
6C: Workshop: IMLS Grant Preparation, Sandra Toro, IMLS
Technology
6D: Workshop: “Workout with a syllabus”
Excellence
Close
JoAnn Jacoby, Past Chair, Library Research Round Table (LRRT)
Jennifer Weil Arns, Current Chair, Library Research Round Table (LRRT)
Chancellor Ballroom
8 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
LIBRARY RESEARCH SEMINAR VI
The Engaged Librarian:
Libraries Partnering with Campus
and Community
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
9:00 am–3:00 pm
Registration and Sponsors’ Information Table | Outside Chancellor Ballroom
1:00–1:30 pm
Welcome | Chancellor Ballroom
Beth Sandore Namachchivaya and J. Stephen Downie, Conference Co-chairs
Allen Renear, Dean, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
1:30–3:00 pm
Session 1A | Loyalty
Session 1B | Lincoln
Session 1C | Technology
Session 1D | Excellence
Addressing Information
Needs in Our
Communities
Insiders’ View of the
Research Process
Collaboration: Variations
on a Theme
Workshop
J. Stephen Downie, Chair
JoAnn Jacoby, Chair
“From grad student
to professional: One
librarian’s experience as a
research mentee,” Kerby
“Scholarly collaboration
and linked data in the
digital humanities,”
Schuster
“HELP! I need a reference
librarian, an archivist,
and a website guru—
and I found them all in
Belk Library!” Pollitt,
Orkiszewski, and Leonard
“Professional mentorship
and the recruitment
of MLIS students,”
Campbell-Meier and
Hussey
Susan E. Searing, Chair
“Health equity through
health literacy in New
Orleans: Assessing
information needs and
training outcomes,” Hicks
“Information, technology,
and older adults:
Creating information use
environments that work,”
Kazmer, Anderson, de La
Cruz, and Glueckauf
“Librarians: A force for
positive change,” Witczak
and Thiel
3:00–3:45 pm
Break | Outside Chancellor Ballroom
4:00–5:30 pm
Plenary | Chancellor Ballroom
Introduction: Paula Kaufman, Interim Director, Mortenson Center for International Library Programs
Speaker: Barbara J. Ford, Professor Emerita, University of Illinois Library and Mortenson Center for International
Library Programs
“Supporting global research: Libraries, access, and social responsibility”
5:30–7:30 pm
Reception | Outside Chancellor Ballroom
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 9
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
7:00–8:00 am
Breakfast | Chancellor Ballroom
7:00–10:00 am
Registration | Outside Chancellor Ballroom
8:00–9:30 am
Session 2A | Loyalty
Session 2B | Lincoln
Session 2C | Technology
Session 2D | Excellence
Innovative Collaborations
The Power of
Collaboration in LIS
Education
Panel
Panel
“Cultivating influence:
Campus collaboration
to embed information
literacy in a new core
curriculum,” JohnsonGrau, McLean, and Massa
“Indigenous knowledge
and the United Nations:
The university libraries
as a focal point for
community discussions,”
Sheehy, Paster, Maretzki,
and Dumas
Jennifer Weil Arns, Chair
JoAnn Jacoby, Chair
“A librarian for residents:
Collaborating with
residence life at a large
public university,”
Campbell
“The first year library
research experience at
New York University
Shanghai: Cultural
challenges and learning
opportunities,” Ge and
Pun
“Embedding immersive
informatics research data
management within the
iSchool curriculum: A
laboratory-based action
research case study,”
Lyon and Webster
“Training future library
professionals via
community informatics
research, teaching and
service with seniors
and senior-serving
“The role of librarians in
closing the justice gap: A organizations, including
case study of the People’s local libraries,” Lenstra
Law Library of Maryland,” and Williams
Gorham
“Engaged in education:
An exploration of
teacher/librarian
collaboration in the
context of professional
preparation,” Gross and
Witte
9:30–10:00 am
Break | Outside Chancellor Ballroom
10:00–11:30 am
Plenary | Chancellor Ballroom
Introduction: Linda C. Smith, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, GSLIS
Speaker: Kara Malenfant, Senior Strategist for Special Initiatives, Association of College and Research Libraries
“Action research to bridge academic scholarship and everyday practice”
11:30 am–12:30 pm
Lunch | Chancellor Ballroom
12:30–2:00 pm
Session 3A | Loyalty
Session 3B | Lincoln
Session 3C | Technology
Session 3D | Excellence
Panel
Focusing on Young Adults
Librarian-Faculty
Collaboration: Case
Studies
Workshop
Linda C. Smith, Chair
J. Stephen Downie, Chair
“The Public Library
Research Collaboratory:
Creating digital space
for the intersection of
practitioners, scholars,
and educators,” Latham,
Joo, McCleer, Park, and
Barniskis
“Science Café at
Oklahoma State
University: Library,
campus and community
engagement,” Neurohr
“Librarian and faculty
collaborations to make
available 100 years of
research,” Paster and
Scholl
“Collaboration and
its discontents: Why
librarians do and do
not partner with high
school science teachers,”
Latham, Gross, Julien, and
Witte
“A Librarian-Faculty
partnership at the
University of North
Dakota,” Drewes and
Zidon
“Let’s Facebook it!
Promoting library
services to young adults
through social media,”
Phillips
10 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
“Local and international
collaborations with the
Japanese Area Studies
Department at the
University of Hawaii’s
Hamilton Library,” Conner
and Bazzell
“Researching information
literacy and library
instruction: Engaging the
formal research agenda,”
Tracy, Hinchliffe, and
Avery
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 cont.
2:00–2:30 pm
Break | Chancellor Ballroom
2:30–4:00 pm
Session 4A | Loyalty
Session 4B | Lincoln
Session 4C | Technology
Session 4D | Excellence
Libraries’ Role in the
Health and Safety of
Communities
Building Awareness of
and Access to Primary
Source Collections
Workshop
Panel
Jennifer Weil Arns, Chair
Beth Sandore
Namachchivaya, Chair
“A commitment to
supporting firefighters’
dynamic information
needs: Experience-Based
knowledge management
services at the Illinois
State Fire Academy
Library,” Ruan and
Ehrenhart
“Spanning boundaries to
identify archival literacy
competencies,” Weiner,
Morris, and Mykytiuk
“Evaluating leadership
training in an
international context,”
Susan Schnuer, JenChien Yu, Paula Kaufman,
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
“National impacts of
library public programs
assessment: A report on
the 2014 development
of a national research
agenda,” Fournier,
Beharry, and Golden
“Collaborating with
public libraries to
promote community
health: Preliminary results
of pedometers and pedal
power,” Flaherty
“Community collections
as documentary
archaeological sites,”
Copeland
“Developing interactive
exhibits: Supporting
faculty research
through collaboration,”
Mandernach, Fletcher,
Nandi, and Oliszewski
“Three communities
in the Tohoku region:
What happens when the
library is washed away?,”
Vårheim
4:00–4:30 pm
Break | Chancellor Ballroom
4:30–6:30 pm
Poster Session / Reception | Chancellor Ballroom
6:30–8:30 pm
Dinner | Outside Chancellor Ballroom
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 11
Thursday, October 9, 2014
7:00–8:00 am
Breakfast | Chancellor Ballroom
8:00–9:30 am
Session 5A | Loyalty
Panel
Session 5B | Lincoln
The Big Picture:
Organization- and
Institution-Level Views
Beth Sandore
Namachchivaya, Chair
Session 5C | Technology
The Quality and Impact of
Virtual Reference
Susan E. Searing, Chair
Session 5D | Excellence
Panel
“Making LIS real:
Rewards, challenges
and contradictions in
community engagement,”
Besant, Kaplan and
Amado
“Identifying institutional
trends in collaborative
and interdisciplinary
research,” Youngen
“Collaboration and
crowdsourcing:
Synergistic solutions
for sustainable virtual
reference, an analysis
of critical incidents,”
Radford, Connaway, and
Mikitish
“Engaging students
through innovative
partnerships: Exploring
multimodal instruction,”
Brown, Valk, and
Bracewell
“Innovation in
research libraries:
How management and
technical innovations
impact organizational
performance,” Jantz
“Public libraries and the
ACA: Unequal access,”
Bossaller (Schuster)
“Understanding patron
information needs
through semantic
network analysis,” Kern,
Stangl, and Diesner
“Aligning reference with
teaching and learning: A
study of chat reference
services to students in an
introductory composition
course,” Jacoby, Ward,
Avery, Marcyk, and Kern
9:30–10:00 am
Break | Chancellor Ballroom
10:00–11:30 am
Session 6A | Loyalty
Session 6B | Lincoln
Session 6C | Technology
Session 6D | Excellence
New Ways of Engaging in
the Academic Library
Engagement in the
Academic Library
Workshop
Workshop
Linda C. Smith, Chair
JoAnn Jacoby, Chair
“What else do librarians
know? A new approach to
partnering with teaching
faculty,” Smith
“Uncommon commons:
Building community
through interdisciplinary
salons,” Murphy,
Fullington, and Solis
IMLS Grant Preparation,
Sandra Toro, IMLS
“Workout with a
syllabus,” Bivins
“Implementing a culture
of creativity: Engaging
events and making in the
academic library,” Lotts
“Faculty-Librarian
collaborations in new
media ecosystems:
Developing an
assessment rubric for
digital literacy in the
humanities,” Green
11:30 am–12:00 pm
“Listening to many
voices: Engaging the
academic community,”
Kranich, Palumbo, and
Sauceda
“Collaborating with
faculty and MDEI students
to determine how to
teach information literacy
to the next generation,”
Ireland, Doherty, and
Bredahl
Close | Chancellor Ballroom
JoAnn Jacoby, Past Chair, Library Research Round Table (LRRT)
Jennifer Weil Arns, Current Chair, Library Research Round Table (LRRT)
12 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
Poster Session
Wednesday, October 8, 4:30–6:30 p.m. | Chancellor Ballroom
“Beyond the campus: Engaging the use of special collections,” Hollis
“Closing the app gap,” Mabbott, McDowell, and Stevenson
“Expatriate Japanese families as unexpected users of public libraries: A case study in a college town community in the United
States,” Komaki, Imai, and Okabe
“ExploreCU: A community generated digital humanities project,” Christensen
“Healthy futures: A collaborative virtual internship program,” Harrington
“‘I felt like such a freshman’: Integrating first-year student identities through collaborative reflective learning,” Dempsey and
Jagman
“Identifying library user characteristics and looking beyond the demographics,” Yu
“An interdisciplinary approach to community-based participatory research-the case of library and social work students and the
Westside of Chicago,” Huggins and Kok
“The library as place for scholarly practice,” Falciani-White
“Library involvement in faculty publication funds,” Monson
“Marine mammal research and rescue: A collaboration between scientists and librarians” Plocharczyk and Arrieta
“Measuring academic library outreach programming success,” Margolis and Magnus
“Metadata workflows for remixed cultural heritage content,” Wittenberg
“Minding the gap: eBook coverage and availability across disciplines,” Trei and Kerby
“Opening the archival doors: A framework for evaluating crowdsourced digital archive collection policies,” Locke
“Pro se patron policy: Show it to the World Wide Web,” Berns and Vogel
“Shaping places and shaping discussions through collaboration: James Madison University’s JMuse Café,” Kiser, Constantin,
Feitosa, Giles, Newman, Peterson, Reed, Stewart, and Trocchia
“University of Central Florida’s Campus Connections Program,” Mendelsohn
“Using course design to create significant learning in one-shot sessions: How pedagogical research applies to librarians,” Snapp
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 13
Plenary Speakers
Plenary 1: Tuesday, October 7
4:00 pm–5:30 pm | Chancellor Ballroom
“Supporting global research: Libraries, access,
and social responsibility “
Barbara J. Ford
Distinguished Professor Emerita
Mortenson Center for International Library Programs
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library
International networks of librarians can integrate the global
context into research to support knowledge production for a
globalizing era. Much research is inter-disciplinary and cross
cultural and is best done with a diverse, knowledgeable, and
socially responsible worldview. Librarians can help by building networks that provide access to collections, services, and
people for researchers globally despite cultural and linguistic
differences.
The research context experienced by many librarians in transitioning and developing countries can be challenging. Equity
in access to knowledge is essential to ensure researchers work
in a world that supports social responsibility and benefits
everyone. A number of international organizations are helping
to make sure that librarians have the skills and knowledge to
be fully engaged in research in their communities as well as
support other researchers.
Through the development and implementation of leadership
training programs worldwide, the Mortenson Center collaborates with partners to develop librarians who can support
research in action for libraries and library education around
the world. Mortenson Center projects in Africa with university
libraries and in Asia with university and public libraries will
be used to illustrate some approaches to work with others to
support cross-disciplinary research to create new knowledge
and to develop partnerships to support global research.
14 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
Barbara J. Ford, Mortenson Distinguished
Professor Emerita, retired from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Library at the end of May 2014. She joined
the Mortenson Center as its director in 2003
and led the Center as it expanded its activities in developing library professionals
worldwide and providing opportunities to
learn from and share with librarians globally.
The American Library Association (ALA), Chinese American Librarians Association, and University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign have recognized Ford with awards for
her significant contributions and dedication to international
librarianship. Both Illinois Wesleyan University and the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information
Science have given her distinguished alumna awards.
Ford was the 1997-1998 president of the ALA; her theme was
“Libraries: Global Reach, Local Touch.” She was president of
the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division
of ALA, from 1990-1991. From 2005-2009, she served as an
elected member of the International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Governing Board. From
2011-2013 she served on the U.S. National Commission
for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).
Ford previously worked as assistant commissioner at the
Chicago Public Library and in leadership roles in libraries
at Virginia Commonwealth University, Trinity University
in Texas, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was a
Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama and Nicaragua. She earned
degrees from Illinois Wesleyan University, the Fletcher School
of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and the Graduate
School of Library and Information Science at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Plenary 2: Wednesday, October 8
10:00 am–11:30 am | Chancellor Ballroom
“Action research to bridge academic scholarship
and everyday practice”
Kara J. Malenfant, Ph.D.
Senior Strategist for Special Initiatives
Association of College and Research Libraries
While a traditional academic view holds that the only “real”
scholarship is driven by theory and testable hypotheses (subsequently applied to practical settings), action research recognizes important insights which come from practice to theory.
Action research is distinguished from other research forms
not by how it is done but why. It aims to address worthwhile
and practical concerns by taking up urgent problems facing
communities now. As such, it is a participative, democratic,
and emergent process. As is typical of research approaches that
are becoming part of the academic mainstream, confusion and
debate exist about what action research is and to what standards
of rigor it should be held. In this plenary, learn more about
action research as an approach to scholarship, see examples
of fruitful action research studies, and hear possible topics
within libraries that are ripe for an action research approach.
Understand how champions are describing action research as
a legitimate, appropriate, and rigorous way of knowing and
generating knowledge. Consider your own perspective on
the validity of action research as scholarship. Develop your
own ideas about problems that are challenging members of
your community right now and how action research could
help them flourish.
Kara J. Malenfant is Senior Strategist for
Special Initiatives at the Association of
College and Research Libraries (ACRL)
where she coordinates government relations
advocacy, scholarly communication activities, ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries
initiative, and co-leads the ACRL Consulting
Services program. Prior to coming to ACRL
in 2005, Kara was an academic librarian for 6 years and worked
in the international humanitarian aid sector after serving as
a Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Armenia. She
earned a Ph.D. in leadership and change from Antioch University, with her dissertation using action research and futures
research, a M.S. in library and information science from the
University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, and a B.A. in
English from Allegheny College. Kara is a Minnesota native
and lives on Chicago’s far north side with her husband Dirk,
who imports and distributes dance music, her son Ian, who
is an avid gamer and third grader, and a puppy who loves to
lick chins.
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 15
Papers and Programs
Tuesday, October 7
SESSION 1: 1:30 pm–3:00 pm
Session 1A | Loyalty Room
Addressing Information Needs in Our
Communities
Chair: Susan E. Searing, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
1A.1 “Health equity through health literacy in
New Orleans: Assessing information needs
and training outcomes”
Elaine R. Hicks, Tulane University
The Rudolph Matas Library of the Health Sciences is actively
engaged in developing health literacy outreach projects
designed to improve assessment of and access to authoritative health information among medically underserved area/
population in metropolitan New Orleans. Each project seeks to
improve the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic
health information and services needed to make appropriate
health decisions. (Institute of Medicine, 2004) All projects
use technologically-appropriate evaluation instruments to
generate quantitative data about intentions to use National
Library of Medicine (NLM) resources as a result of training
and exhibiting. This information is used to develop even
more effective strategies for increasing self-reports of access
to authoritative health information. These projects have
been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the
National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of
Health, under Contract No. HHSN-276-2011-00007-C with
the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center
Library (the National Network of Libraries of Medicine South
Central Region). Since May, 2011, projects have included two needs assessments
(youth information seeking behavior and information needs
of secondary school media specialists), subsidized document
delivery services for the unaffiliated public health professionals, conducting several training workshops, a train-thetrainer project for volunteers and community health workers
affiliated with a fresh food access development project and
exhibiting NLM resources to help the Library achieve its goal
“to ensure that all people in the U.S. have a known, accessible,
understandable, and affordable source of current, authoritative
16 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
health information.” Workshops include “mHealth and Public
Health Practice” for the Louisiana Public Health Institute,
training secondary school students and media specialists to
use National Library of Medicine K-12 resources, and training
care givers, seniors, and professional women to use MedlinePlus and other NLM resources. Exhibits include the 2015
Louisiana Environmental Education Symposium, the 2015
annual meeting of the Louisiana Public Health Association,
and provide booth assistance to NLM at the annual meeting
of the American Public Health Association in New Orleans. All outreach projects support the concept that increasing
health literacy results in creating health equity: reducing
differences in the “presence of disease, health outcomes, or
access to health care”. (Whitehead, 1992) We seek to foster
health equity by improving health literacy, thus contributing to the achievement of national health and health literacy
objectives. (Koh, Piotrowski, Kumanyika, & Fielding, 2011;
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 03/04/2011;
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011a;
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, March 01,
2012) Additionally, we have focused on participating in the
achievement of two Healthy People 2020 Objectives: Public
Health Infrastructure-2 (PHI-2)(U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 2011b) and Health Communications/
Health Information Technology-9 (HC/HIT-9). (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, March 01, 2012) Our
work is also grounded in Goal 4 of the National Action Plan to
Improve Health Literacy: Support and Expand Local Efforts to
Provide Adult Education, English Language Instruction, and
Culturally and Linguistically-Appropriate Health Information
Services in the Community.(U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion, 2010) References Koh, H. K., Piotrowski, J. J., Kumanyika, S., & Fielding, J. E. (2011). Healthy
people: A 2020 vision for the social determinants approach. Health Education & Behavior: The Official Publication of the Society for Public Health
Education, 38(6), 551-557. doi:10.1177/1090198111428646
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (03/04/2011). Health equity
& disparities–National Partnership for Action. Retrieved 11/22/2011.
Retrieved from http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/templates/browse.
aspx?lvl=1&lvlid=34
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2011a). HC/HIT-1 Improve
the Health Literacy of the Population - Healthy People 2020. Retrieved
6/24/2011. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/objectiveslist.aspx?topicId=18
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2011b). PHI-2 Public
Health Infrastructure–Healthy People 2020. Retrieved 6/24/2011. Retrieved
from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/objectiveslist.
aspx?topicId=35
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (March 01, 2012). HC/
HIT -9 Increase the Proportion of online health information seekers who
report easily accessing health information- Healthy People 2020.Retrieved
3/8/2012. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/objectiveslist.aspx?topicId=18
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion(Ed.). (2010). National Action Plan to Improve
Health Literacy Executive Summary (http://www.health.gov/communication/hlactionplan/ ed.). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Whitehead, M. (1992). The concepts and principles of equity and health.
International Journal of Health Services, 22(3), 429.
1A.2 “Information, technology, and
older adults: Creating information use
environments that work”
Michelle M. Kazmer, Amelia Anderson, Florida
State University; Justin de la Cruz, Blake Library,
Stuart, Florida; Robert L. Glueckauf, Florida State
University
Interdisciplinary research between the School of Information and College of Medicine at Florida State University has
implications for infrastructure, training, and programming
for older adults in libraries. Our approach involves librarians partnering with their communities, with universities,
and with funding sources to provide innovative and appropriate technology services to older adults. Combining our
experiences in library practice and research, we identify key
factors to consider as inputs to designing information and
technology programming, deployments, support, and grants
for older adults.
Kazmer, working with Glueckauf, has conducted research
across multiple studies over 7 years that has helped to conceptualize the information use environments of older adults(Kazmer,
Glueckauf, Ma, & Burnett, 2013; Lustria et al., 2010). Kazmer
also teaches a course on “Information, Technology, and Older
Adults” to graduate students in LIS and IT programs. Anderson,
a doctoral student, has worked as a public librarian in rural
and urban libraries in Florida, where the percentage of the
population comprising persons 65 years and older (>18%) is
higher than the US as a whole (<14%). During her time as a
professional, Anderson focused on outreach and advocacy
for public library services. De la Cruz, manager of the Blake
Library in Stuart, Florida (where the population of persons
65 and over is >25%), has worked on technology instruction
for older adults, which included receiving a grant from Best
Buy to acquire robotics equipment for the public library.
Our combined research findings and practice experiences have
led to our developing a set of factors to consider in designing
information services for older adults. These factors, which we
explain and discuss in detail in the paper, include: —Breadth
of information needs: health-related information is important
to many people including older adults, and is the focus of a lot
of existing research, but it is not the only type of information
needed by older adults. It is important to understand empirically the full spectrum of their information needs. Genealogy,
travel, cooking, finances, and lifelong learning opportunities
are examples that emerged to us, but ongoing research within
specific service populations is needed (O’Connor, 2013; Piper,
Palmer, & Xie, 2009).
—Technology: among older adults, access issues are sometimes
compounded by unfamiliarity and reluctance to engage with
new technologies. Exploring the true range from technophobe to technophile and from reluctant to eager user when
technology is available, and considering how to assess and
ameliorate practical naiveté among many older adults about
phishing, malware, and other social engineering, are vital
(Grimes, Hough, Mazur, & Signorella, 2010).
—Religion and spirituality: in some service populations, religion and spiritual practices are intrinsically intertwined with
people’s information behaviors. From the church community
as an information world, to the role of divine messages as an
authoritative information source, it is important to consider
how (or whether) we wish to, or are able to (or not), meet
our older adults’ information needs in ways that are aligned
with their religious and spiritual preferences.
—Physicality of sources and space: considering the needs of
older adults with information sources and provision of technology has long been a strong suit of libraries. Continuing
to focus on signs, seating, lighting, and other aspects of the
physical environment and materials is important.
—Older adults as resources: Older adults can be effective
leaders who bring expertise to projects such as creating community histories, teaching classes, facilitating game events,
and guiding makerspaces.
The full paper will present the empirical bases for these factors,
anchor them in the existing scholarly literature, and provide
examples of how each has strong and specific implications for
ongoing collaborative research among librarians, information
faculty, and scholarly researchers from disciplines outside LIS.
References
Grimes, G. A., Hough, M. G., Mazur, E., & Signorella, M. L. (2010). Older
adults’ knowledge of Internet hazards. Educational Gerontology, 36(3),
173–192. doi:10.1080/03601270903183065
Kazmer, M. M., Glueckauf, R. L., Ma, J., & Burnett, K. (2013). Information
use environments of African-American dementia caregivers over the course
of cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression. Library & Information
Science Research, 35(3), 191-199. doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2013.02.003
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 17
Lustria, M. L. A., Kazmer, M. M., Glueckauf, R. L., Hawkins, Robert P.,
Randeree, E., Rosario, I., McLaughlin, C., & Redmond, S. (2010). Participatory design of a health informatics system for rural health practitioners and
disadvantaged women. Journal of the American Society for Information
Science and Technology, 61(11), 2243-2255.doi:10.1002/asi.21390
O’Connor, L. G. (2013). The information seeking and use behaviors of
retired investors. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 45(1),
3–22. doi:10.1177/0961000611434761
Piper, D., Palmer, S., & Xie, B. (2009). Services to older adults: Preliminary
findings from three Maryland public libraries. Journal of Education for
Library and Information Science, 50(2), 107–118. doi:10.2307/40732568
Acknowledgements: This work was supported in part by grants from the
National Institute of Mental Health (R34MH078999), Florida State University
College of Medicine, University of South Florida Health Byrd Alzheimer’s
Institute, VALIC, Inc., Best Buy, and the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research
Program of the Florida Department of Health.
Session 1B | Lincoln
Insiders’ View of the Research Process
Chair: J. Stephen Downie, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
1B.1 “From Grad Student to Professional—One
Librarian’s Experience as a Research Mentee”
Erin Kerby, University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign
Having a meaningful professional mentorship experience as a
graduate student can be invaluable to a new librarian, and there
are a number of studies in the library literature to support this.
However, most experiences are told from the perspective of the
mentor or a third-party researcher. First-hand accounts from
the mentee tend to appear in newsletters, blog posts, or social
media, and they often describe semi-structured relationships
facilitated by any number of professional groups or programs.
While informal mentor relationships can provide support and
guidance on a personal level, a more formalized situation such
as a job or internship can provide an opportunity for mentoring in research. A key element in this type of relationship is
the development of a research project(s) with a designated
supervisor(s) also acting as mentor(s). Many academic librarians have described their difficulties in developing a research
agenda due to lack of guidance once they secure a professional
position. This paper describes the research experience of one
librarian as she moved from library school graduate student,
to student employee in an academic health sciences library,
to securing a position as a tenure-track academic librarian.
In particular, it provides an example of several projects that
led into a professional research agenda and suggests that
the importance of providing research opportunities to new
librarians has been underestimated.
18 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
1B.2 “HELP! I need a reference librarian, an
archivist, and a website guru—and I found
them all in Belk Library!”
Phoebe Pollitt, Paul Orkiszewski, Andrew Leonard,
Appalachian State University
This paper demonstrates what happened when a Nursing Professor and a Health Sciences Librarian joined forces to build
a nursing history website. At Appalachian State University’s
Belk Library it sparked what became an ongoing collaboration
with a snowball research effect involving website gurus, an
archivist, graduate assistants, and more librarians. Five years
later, multiple research products contributing to the history of
nursing and health sciences have been produced: a successful $12,500 planning grant; statewide travel to repositories,
archives, libraries, and museums; an award winning (twice!)
nursing history website; video and audio oral history projects;
an article on the founding of health institutions submitted
for publication; and a nursing history digital collection. As a
result of our work, several of us have presented at conferences
and meetings such as at the North Carolina Public Health
Association Meeting, North Carolina Nurse Association
Convention, Western Carolina University, East Tennessee
State University VA Medical Museum, Appalachian Studies
Association Conference, and the North Carolina Association
of Historians. Many of the oral histories on the website were
the result of work performed by an ASU history graduate
class. The research that went into creating the website was
the foundation for a recently published book, “History of
professional nursing in NC 1902-2002” by Dr. Phoebe Pollitt.
We will share our experiences, the ups and the downs, with
project planning, lessons learned, best practices for librarians
as partners in the academic research process, and our hopes
for further research and collaboration.
Session 1C | Technology
Collaboration: Variations on a Theme
Chair: JoAnn Jacoby, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
1C.1 “Scholarly collaboration and linked data
in the digital humanities”
Kristen Schuster, University of Missouri Columbia
This paper will explore an ongoing project to develop a digital
edition of Vetusta Monumenta, an antiquarian text originally
published by the Society of Antiquaries of London. Currently
funded by an interdisciplinary innovation grant provided
by the University of Missouri Columbia (MU) collaboration
between faculty and students has presented an opportunity
to balance scholarly research with technological innovation.
In particular, the project has encouraged the exploration of
content management systems that visualize relationships
between data in order to support scholarship about Vetusta
Monumenta.
This paper will specifically address the challenges the project
has negotiated in building a framework capable of synthesizing visual and textual resources. One of the primary goals
for the project is establishing an interactive framework for
evaluating, exploring and accessing content about and from
Vetusta Monumenta and by negotiating diverse technological
and scholarly backgrounds it has been possible to re-imagine
the potential uses of well-organized and curated data. The
goal of this paper is to highlight how collaboration across
academic and professional interests has made it possible to
implement linked data within a particular digital framework.
As an ongoing project the experience of participants offer
insight into the benefits and challenge of collaboration when
a scholarly project relies on an emerging digital system to
represent it.
1C.2 “Professional mentorship and the
recruitment of MLIS students”
Jennifer Campbell-Meier, University of Alabama;
Lisa Hussey, Simmons College
Students choose graduate programs for a variety of reasons.
For some, a mentor may help guide or focus interest in a
program or specialization. This is particularly important for
masters programs in library and information science (LIS),
an interdisciplinary degree that combines theoretical and
practical components to educate information professionals
for work in a technologically oriented and knowledge-based
society. Mentors can help bridge the gap between enjoying
libraries and entering LIS as a career.
Mentoring is seen as an important process in LIS, particularly in the development of new LIS professionals. A LIS
professional meets the information needs of a community
or organization. During a master’s program, the LIS student
develops relationships with faculty, students and professional
organizations that may last throughout one’s career. There is
a plethora of research and articles discussing the importance
of mentors, the majority of which focuses on mentoring new
LIS professionals. However, there is also some discussion of
the mentoring process of students in LIS programs. Many of
these articles stress the importance of helping students with
the transition into LIS professionals. It is clear that there is a
real concern about the professional development of LIS professionals and that mentors can play an important role. In spite
of this research, there is little to no discussion of the role of
mentorship on the recruitment of current library and archives
paraprofessional staff or student workers. Yet, these are the
individuals the profession hopes to cultivate and develop. It
would seem that mentorship would be as important in recruitment as it is at any other stage of professional development.
Professional LIS staff have the ability to positively influence
staff and student workers and recruit excellent candidates
into LIS professions. Identifying professional mentors and
providing mentoring opportunities may be the key to recruiting diverse students into the profession. Mentoring, however,
is not a simple or easily defined process. Mentorship is an
intentional act that establishes a relationship that requires
the mentor to assist in the development and education of the
mentee. It is based on a mutual attraction, a willingness to
spend significant time together, and openness to ideas and
sharing. Mentoring also requires commitment from both the
mentor and mentee.
For this study, surveys of MLIS students at the University
of Alabama and Simmons College were administered in
2013, with 343 responses. More than 50% of respondents
had a mentor, however, more than 70% of students worked
in an LIS environment prior to entering a program, which
implies that either staff are not mentoring student workers
or that the students do perceive their interactions with fellow
staff as mentoring. Hence, it begs the question: Who are LIS
student mentors? Are they colleagues, supervisors or library
leaders? Do they hold traditional LIS position titles? Does
the type of library environment make a different in perceived
mentorship? How does this mentoring relationship influence
students’ career choices and expectations? This paper examines the job titles of the mentors identified by students, the
environments in which the students have worked and their
identification with LIS.
Session 1D | Excellence Room
Workshop: “Librarians: A force for positive
change”
Andi Witczak, Sarah Thiel, University of Kansas
Trusted relationship builders, community leaders, change
agents—librarians have long been known to reach out, to
support and to assist their communities. Now we are being
asked to harness that positive energy, encourage open honest
conversations and transform our communities, helping them
to reach their goals and aspirations. But challenges confronted by communities across the country
are too complex to be addressed by any one profession. They
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 19
require interdisciplinary innovation teams representing multiple perspectives. The Librarians: A Force for Positive Change workshop will
uncover the “librarian mindset” by considering the following
questions: what does it mean to think like a librarian? What
are our strengths and values? And it will suggest a holistic,
transdisciplinary approach to community engagement by
merging the “turning outward,” community-facing communication method for gathering public information, as outlined
by the Harwood Institute, with Design Thinking, the design
process which generates imaginative and creative solutions
to complex challenges. The goal of the workshop is to help
librarians identify shared missions, visions and values and
learn to creatively and empathically determine high-impact
opportunities that speak to the aspirations of their communities and move those aspirations into actions. Attendees will learn and practice a set of tools in order to
develop a narrative that engages community and creates the
“Engaged Library.” For librarians to become a “force for positive
change,” a paradigm shift in attitudes among all disciplines
and stakeholders must begin. What if librarians are an integral
component of an innovation team from the beginning? What
if librarians are relied on for leadership in civic imagination
and not only support and assistance? What if the first person
considered for a community team is a librarian? This change
will require a compelling narrative from the library profession
to the various communities in which they engage. Facilitators Thiel and Witczak will discuss the opportunities
created when the Harwood approach, a way to gather direct,
public information, identify shared aspirations, recognize
challenges and determine areas of greatest impact is partnered with design, defined by economist and Nobel Laureate, Herbert Simon as “concerned not with the necessary but
with the contingent, not with how things are, but how they
might be. Design devises courses of action aimed at changing
existing conditions into preferred ones.” An improved future
is the result of both. Participants will practice basic design thinking tools and learn
how the toolkit works in various contexts. Two simple tools
will be introduced, the associative word list and the infinitive
statement. From the raw material generated through the toolkit,
participants will then contextualize that material by engaging
with a series of powerful questions. To orient to purpose, participants will question or interrogate a community challenge
and search for insight within the challenge by asking “what
is?” Second, imagination is the cognitive capacity to ask, “what
if?” or to think about something as if it could be otherwise.
Unless we possess the capacity to conceive of what does not
yet exist, there is nothing to direct our will and resources
towards. Third, to ask “how might we?” which is to begin the
creative process, or imagination applied. And fourth, to give
20 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
ourselves permission to move forward by asking, “hey, why
not?” This question emboldens us to innovate. Innovation
is the product or outcome of imagination and creativity, or
creativity enacted. The goals of the workshop: • to understand how the Harwood approach and the design
thinking process form a powerful framework for moving
positive change forward and how that framework facilitates
an integrated/holistic perspective of community challenges
and opportunities; • to practice using the design thinking toolkit, learn the
various contexts in which it can be deployed, and to begin
to craft a compelling narrative of the importance of “thinking like a librarian” in community creation; • to practice synthesis and pattern recognition with the raw
material generated through the design thinking toolkit; • to understand the differences between divergent and convergent thinking; • to learn how to visually and experientially describe your
“engaged library” strategy through prototyping and
iteration. Participate in this positive, high energy, innovative workshop
to learn how librarians can harness their collective strength
and professional commitment to turn outward, take action
and, indeed, be a force for positive change! Wednesday, October 8
SESSION 2: 8:00 am–9:30 am
Session 2A | Loyalty Room
Innovative Collaborations
Chair: Jennifer Weil Arns, University of South
Carolina
2A.1 “A librarian for residents: Collaborating
with residence life at a large public
university”
Doug Campbell, University of North Texas
A dynamic marketing campaign tailored to promote Doug
as the “go to” librarian for University of North Texas (UNT)
residential community was created to combat library anxiety
among students and encourage them to contact Doug instead
of impersonally telling them to simply, “Go to the library” for
research help. A vibrant collaboration between Residence Life/
Housing and the Libraries formed because of their mutual
commitment to successful student learning. In August 2012,
Doug Campbell, UNT Research and Instructional Services
Librarian, moved into Kerr Hall, the largest residence hall,
as Faculty-In-Residence. He lived among 1000 undergraduates, organized special and on-going events, and established
a weekly roving reference service that continues today. Kerr
Hall’s staff promoted Doug’s outreach initiatives, and Senior
Director of Housing, Dr. Elisabeth Warren, advocated Doug’s
efforts. Doug’s time in Kerr ended in May 2013 when he and
Dr. Warren evaluated the year’s successes and challenges. The
roving reference service was popular with students, so Doug
continued it during the 2013-2014 academic year, expanding
it to two additional residence halls and a classroom building.
The uncommon cooperation between UNT Libraries and
Residence Life serves as a model for nontraditional avenues
for outreach to students in addition to the classroom and,
more traditionally, faculty collaboration. Doug has compiled
data on his interactions with students during these embedded
librarianship opportunities in residence halls. He has noticed a
trend in increased reference transactions, outreach opportunities, and anecdotal stories where students recognize his face
and they stop him to chat about their research problems and
topics of a more personal nature that perhaps reduces library
anxiety in students’ educational experiences.
2A.2 “The first year library research
experience at New York University
Shanghai: Cultural challenges and learning
opportunities”
Helen Ge and Raymond Pun, NYU Shanghai
New York University Shanghai is the first Sino-U.S. higher
education joint venture university in the People’s Republic of
China. As part of NYU’s “Global Network University,” NYU
Shanghai is an important portal campus for NYU students.
Approximately 300 freshmen students attended NYU Shanghai during the 2013-2014 academic year. Among them, 150
were international students from the U.S., Australia, Canada,
Europe, Latin America, India, and other countries, while
the other half were Chinese students from various parts of
China. This hybrid of student body makes the university a
very diverse and distinctive community in the landscape of
higher education. During the past two semesters, librarians at NYU Shanghai
played a critical role in collaborating with the Writing Department to teach all 300 freshmen on how to conduct library
research. From the librarians’ perspectives, the international
students experienced less difficulty in conducting library
research compared with the Chinese students who were yet
unfamiliar with the concept and practice of “library research.”
This paper explores the observations, opportunities, and challenges in teaching and engaging with 300 students, particularly
Chinese students at NYU Shanghai. It describes the librarians’
effort to adapt to a new hybrid setting. It further summarizes
the librarians’ role as teaching partners with the faculty from
the Writing Department and demonstrates how librarians
can enhance their instructional services and maximize the
strengths of the collaboration for future opportunities.
References
See Yu-Hui Chen and Mary K. Van Ullen, “Helping International Students
Succeed Academically through Research Process and Plagiarism Workshops,” College and Research Libraries, May 2011, v. 72: 209-235. See Elizabeth Redden’s essay on “Chinese Students in the Classroom,” Inside
Higher Education, April 9, 2014. Accessed May 20, 2014. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/04/09/new-research examineshow-chinese-students-respond-challenges-classroom#sthash.jYjO40LC.dpbs
2A.3 “The role of librarians in closing the
justice gap: A case study of the People’s Law
Library of Maryland”
Ursula Gorham, University of Maryland
Over the past ten years, steady increases in the number of
self-represented litigants (SRLs) in courts throughout the
U.S. have brought renewed attention to the persistence of a
“justice gap” in this country. In response to this phenomenon,
a growing number of courts and other institutions (e.g., state
bars, legal aid organizations, and libraries) began to develop
both formal and informal self-help programs in an effort to
address the legal needs of SRLs. As community access points,
legal aid organizations and libraries connect individuals with
the legal information they need, often removing barriers created
by geography, literacy, language, and technology. While this
was not always the case, there are now a growing number of
collaborations among libraries and providers of legal services
that play an increasingly significant role in expanding access
to justice for those individuals who most need it. The paper will present a pilot case study of one of these collaborations–the People’s Law Library of Maryland (PLL)–that
is part of the author’s ongoing dissertation research focused
on statewide legal information websites in the U.S. PLL is an
award-winning legal information and self-help website maintained by the Maryland State Law Library (MSLL), an agency
of the Maryland Judiciary. As Maryland is the first state to
organize and maintain its legal information website through
the state law library, this pilot study examines a particular
type of collaboration among libraries and providers of legal
services that has not been extensively studied to date. Based upon data collected through interviews with PLL
stakeholders and a review of documents related to the development and implementation of PLL, this paper will describe
the key elements of this innovative collaboration among the
MSLL, non-profit legal services providers, pro bono attorneys,
and the legal academic community. The twelve stakeholder
interviews conducted in connection with this case study (two
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 21
MSLL staff members, seven members of the site’s Content
Advisory Committee [comprised of judiciary personnel and
legal services providers working throughout the state], and
three circuit court law librarians) explored various topics,
including: 1) their role vis-à-vis PLL, 2) their use of PLL, 3)
their observations about how PLL helps SRLs, and 4) their
suggestions for improvement of the site itself, as well as of the
administration of the program. By highlighting how the skills and expertise of librarians can
contribute to the success of access to justice initiatives, this
case study demonstrates an important connection between
the fields of law and library science—namely, that access to
information is a key component of access to justice. Moreover,
although libraries and providers of legal services can work
together in this space in a variety of ways, this pilot study is
a definitive step towards identifying both best practices and
challenges to implementation that can guide individuals currently developing collaborative access to justice initiatives. Session 2B | Lincoln
The Power of Collaboration in LIS Education
Chair: JoAnn Jacoby, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
2B.1 “Embedding immersive informatics
research data management within the iSchool
curriculum: A laboratory-based action
research case study”
Liz Lyon, University of Pittsburgh; Keith Webster,
Carnegie Mellon University
Introduction and Focus
Academic libraries are repositioning, restructuring and reskilling staff to take on new roles in research data management
(Lyon 2012, Webster 2012). These roles embrace elements of
data stewardship, data management, data science and data
visualization (Lyon & Takeda 2012). iSchools and Library
Schools are introducing data curation into the curriculum,
to prepare students for these roles. This paper presents a Case
Study where an “immersive” approach to teaching research
data management (RDM) constructs is embedded within a
Doctoral Seminar Program and an MLIS Special Topic at the
University of Pittsburgh iSchool.
The methodology builds on the initial immersive informatics
pilot study, where a novel RDM training course was developed and delivered in a partnership with the University of
Melbourne (Shadbolt et al., 2014).The immersive informatics concept is based on the placement of students within a
research environment i.e. faculty science laboratory, during
the course. The placement facilitates a bilateral exchange of
RDM experience, questions and knowledge, between the LIS
student and the practicing research scientist.
The paper also provides reflections on the relevance of this
education for future service development, within the Carnegie
Mellon University Libraries.
Methodology
The paper focuses on the collaboration, preparation and
implementation of the immersive placements in the University
of Pittsburgh Departments of Public Health and Medicine,
and specifically within the Renal-Electrolyte and Epidemiology laboratories. Student pairs were allocated to a researcher
(doctoral student, instructor, post-doctoral researcher). The
lab settings provided each student pair access to live data-sets,
laboratory notebooks, sophisticated instrumentation and
observation of day-to-day research workflows.
Feedback and analysis from the participating students and
from the faculty research team were collected through a focus
group and semi-structured questionnaire. Students also had
the opportunity to draw on their laboratory placement experience in subsequent coursework assignments.
Results
The development of the RDM course will be presented, noting
the fusion of theoretical constructs with disciplinary data practice and institutional exemplars. Course participants include
iSchool PhD students and practicing librarians from University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University Libraries.
The focus group and questionnaire feedback provided qualitative evidence of the broad scope of student-researcher conversations, the lessons learnt about the data challenges faced
by researchers, the complexity of laboratory workflows, data
sharing practices and culture. Participants identified ways to
enhance the experience from each perspective.
Contribution to Body of Knowledge
Key outcomes:
• Critical importance of extending library-faculty partnerships
by taking library and informatics expertise and knowledge,
into the laboratory, to work alongside practicing researchers
• Advantage of first-hand understanding of the laboratory
setting, bench-based workflows, instrumentation outputs
and day-to-day data challenges faced by researchers (Ferguson 2012)
• How faculty researchers can learn from librarians, gaining
guidance on software, methodologies and data-handling
• How the knowledge can empower LIS students and library
staff to adopt new RDM roles
22 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
• Potential benefits for library senior managers when considering how best to structure their organization to deliver
research data services
• Wider applicability of the immersive approach within
iSchool courses.
In conclusion, we will briefly report on progress with the
research follow-up study.
References
Lyon, L. (2012). The Informatics Transform: Re-engineering Libraries for
the Data Decade, Int J Digital Curation, 7, 126-138.
http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/210
Webster, K. (2012). The evolving role of libraries in the scholarly ecosystem.
In R. Campbell, E. Pentz and L.Borthwick, Academic and Professional
Publishing, Chandos.
Lyon, L. & Takeda, K. (2012). What is a data scientist? (Data scientists in the
wild). Microsoft eScience Workshop presentation, Chicago, October 2012.
http : / / w w w. u kol n . a c . u k / u kol n / st af f / e. j. lyon / pre s e nt at i ons .
html#microsoft-escience-2012-10
Shadbolt, A., Konstantelos, L., Lyon, L. & Guy, M. (2014) Delivering
innovative RDM training: the immersive Informatics Pilot Programme.
IDCC14 PracticePaper, (Presentation available at:http://www.dcc.ac.uk/
sites/default/files/documents/IDCC14/Parallels/Shadbolt_parallelA2.pdf)
Ferguson, J. (2012) Lurking in the Lab: Analysis of Data from Molecular
Biology Laboratory Instruments. J eScienceLibrarianship 1, 148-158. http://
escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/vol1/iss3/5/
2B.2 “Training future library professionals via
community informatics research, teaching
and service with seniors and senior-serving
organizations, including local libraries”
Noah Lenstra, Kate Williams, University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign
At the University of Illinois GSLIS, one innovative project
for training future librarians is community informatics. CI
studies how local communities are navigating the disruptions
of the information revolution. It searches for best practices
to accelerate everyone’s transitions. Our contribution to
library education and to libraries is to place undergraduate
and graduate students in community settings as volunteers
and researchers-in-training. Students have been posted to
community computer labs to teach and help people. They
have built, contributed to, marketed and studied rich collections of local documents, multimedia and text in the form of
eBlackCU.net and CUWiki. They have worked at local libraries
and CBOs and documented each organization’s technology
use, skills, and support. They have participated in community
meetings tackling the digital divide and steering the recent
federal broadband stimulus project. To do this, GSLIS has built
stable community collaborations that incorporate professional
priorities into the research questions. This year CI research
and teaching has entailed students and community-based
professionals working side-by-side with local older adults to
study their digital information practices while also intervening
into the “grey digital divide” that prevents people from being
as digitally literate as they would like to be.
Our driving question is how to define an information city
from the bottom up, centered on public libraries, community
organizations, local government, local history and culture,
and people in their everyday lives. Our presentation will
summarize several years’ findings, including more than
five years in partnership with a public library and a library
in a senior community. We will then focus on our current
campus-community study of seniors and senior-serving
organizations, including public libraries. We find that as all
societies age, older adults and the agencies that serve them
are a valuable lens through which to conceptualize a broad
and inclusive information city. We identify best practices for
the community-based social support systems that older adults
rely on to build and maintain digital literacy. Methods include
interviews, ethnographies, and engaged observation with 35
seniors and 3 organizations. By experimenting with us in new
ways to video chat, by sharing their experiences and ideas,
older people are in fact helping to invent an information city
that works for everyone. Before our study was complete, the
library director involved invited us to report to her library
board so that emerging knowledge could be cycled quickly
back into the community as innovative library practice. We
are also reporting to the local broadband governance group
so that their policy can be data-driven.
Our LRS6 presentation will include analysis and findings,
reflections on method, and comments from the local activists
and young librarians on the team. We rely on an extensive
multi-disciplinary literature focusing on older adults’ digital
information practices, including from gerontology. We theorize
that the individual and institutional gap in digital literacy can
be traced back to historical and structural inequalities in the
local community, suggesting that intervening into the grey
digital divide requires community-level transformations and
interventions. 2B.3 “Engaged in education: An exploration
of teacher/librarian collaboration in the
context of professional preparation”
Melissa Gross, Shelbie Witte, Florida State
University
Teachers and librarians are both integral to student learning
and when both are present in schools, student learning is
enhanced (Kaplan, 2010; Lance, 2002; Lindsay, 2005). Many
studies identify teacher/librarian collaboration as one of the
important variables that correlates with this outcome (Kaplan,
2010; Lance 2002). Although collaboration with teachers is a
topic of interest in library programs, pre-service teachers are
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 23
less likely to be taught about the role of librarians in educational
environments. One way to increase teacher awareness of the
role of librarians in learning and the benefits of collaboration is
to incorporate teacher/librarian collaboration into pre-service
education (Small, 2002). In order to investigate pre-service
teacher/librarian collaboration, two master’s level classes
(one in library and information studies and one in teacher
education) studying young adult literature were tasked with
collaborating on an assignment working in small teams. This research seeks to contribute to the fields of teacher
education and library and information studies in regards to
methods of employing teacher/librarian collaboration to ensure
the attainment of information skills among adolescents. This
study addresses the lack of current research on educating preservice teachers and librarians to collaborate in professional
practice as well as inform new methods to improve collaborative opportunities in the field. It assumes that students who
are taught to collaborate and who are aware of the benefits
of collaboration will expect and pursue collaborations once
they are working in schools. The believed benefits of this study
include helping researchers and educators to increase their
understanding of opportunities for pre-service educators to
work with pre-service librarians. The research questions addressed in the study are: RQ1: In what ways do students in teacher education and
library and information studies collaborate to form common
assignments for adolescents? RQ2: What are students in teacher education and library and
information studies perceptions of collaboration on common
assignments for adolescents? RQ3: What factors facilitate collaboration between students in
teacher education and library and information studies when
required in an assignment? RQ4: What factors limit collaboration between students in
teacher education and library and information studies when
required in a common assignment? Team reports, the collaboration assignment, reflection essays,
and peer evaluations allow for observation of the process,
content, and perceptions that students in teacher education
and library and information studies bring to teacher/librarian
collaboration. Data from this study will increase understanding
of the perceptions of pre-service teachers and librarians when
collaborating virtually to develop common assignments for
adolescents and will inform how teacher/librarian collaboration can best be modeled in pre-service courses. All data
has been collected and data analysis is currently underway. 24 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
References Kaplan, A. (2010). School library impact studies and school library media
programs in the United States. School Libraries Worldwide, 16(2), 55-61. Lance, K. C. (2002). What research tells us about the importance of school
libraries. Knowledge Quest, 31(1), 17-22.
Lindsay, K. (2005). Teacher/teacher-librarian collaboration–A review of
the literature. School Libraries in Canada, 25(2), 8-21. Small, R. V. (2002). Collaboration: Where does it begin? Teacher Librarian, 29(5), 8-11. Session 2C | Technology
Panel: “Cultivating influence: Campus
collaboration to embed information literacy
in a new core curriculum”
Glenn Johnson-Grau, Lindsey McLean, Laura
Massa, Loyola Marymount University
This panel will discuss the intra-campus partnerships and
collaborations that resulted in sequential, cumulative information literacy outcomes distributed throughout the recently
adopted Undergraduate Core Curriculum at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). Glenn Johnson-Grau, Head of Acquisitions and Collection
Development, will discuss his role as a librarian serving on
LMU’s University Core Curriculum Committee (UCCC) and
the adoption and implementation process of the new core. This
multi-year process involved both aligning the Library with the
University’s strategic goals and simultaneously shaping those
goals. As information literacy became a key priority for LMU’s
accrediting body, the Library was able to build upon a base of
existing university relationships to achieve both library and
university goals. The Library made itself an active and trusted
collaborator through the faculty-driven process of curriculum
development and made sure that librarians were at the table
as the inherently political process unfolded. Lindsey McLean, Instructional Design Librarian, will represent the Library’s Reference and Instruction Department
to discuss the initiatives taken in meeting the information
literacy learning outcomes through new collaborations with
faculty, departmental curriculum support for discipline specific
information literacy integration, and the development of innovative instruction to achieve the information literacy learning
outcomes. These initiatives include, but are not limited to, the
creation of a developmental information literacy instruction
program, a university wide curriculum mapping project to
identify areas for advanced, discipline specific information
literacy instruction, and instructional support for faculty less
familiar with information literacy learning outcomes. While
all of these initiatives were instigated by the library, each was
highly collaborative as these initiatives overlapped with the
interests of many campus stakeholders. Laura Massa, Director of Assessment, will discuss the focus
on information literacy skills as part of the outcome-driven
development of the new core curriculum, and the initiatives
led by LMU’s Office of Assessment to understand and improve
student achievement of the learning outcomes. Examples of
such initiatives include working with the UCCC assessment
subcommittee to design and carry out an assessment plan for
information literacy skills developed by freshmen through
completing the first year of the new core, helping the UCCC to
generate reports of the evidence collected, and providing educational resources to help those teaching in the core to utilize
the evidence of learning to guide changes for improvements.
In addition, Dr. Massa teaches a First Year Seminar course
within the new core, and will speak about the experience of
incorporating information literacy education into the course. Panel participants will come together at the end of the discussion to talk about the lessons they have learned from the entire
process. The panelists will discuss topics including keeping the
number of learning outcomes to a manageable set, building
in structured program review to facilitate potential revisions,
and navigating institutional politics throughout the process. Panel attendees will be provided with a short list of reflective questions they should be thinking about as the panelists
share their experiences. Questions will center on providing
an environmental scan of their home institution, the role of
librarians on campus, responsibility for information literacy
education, and setting realistic goals within the local context. After each panelist discusses their role, they will open up the
discussion to attendees. The questions listed above will serve
as conversation starters, but panelists will be open to any line
of discussion that relates to the panel topic. Session 2D | Excellence
Panel: “Indigenous knowledge and the United
Nations: The university libraries as a focal
point for community discussions”
Helen Sheehy, Amy Paster, Audrey Maretzki,
Charles Dumas, Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University as a land grant institution
has a long tradition of outreach. The Penn State University
Libraries in particular have a long history of engagement with
both the academic and local communities. This panel will discuss the partnership between the Pennsylvania State University Libraries, the Penn State Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK), and the
United Nations Association of Centre County (UNACC) and
the ways in which this partnership brings together members
of the academic community, and local townspeople. Leadership crossover between ICIK, the Libraries and the UNA, and
mutual interest in indigenous rights led naturally to jointlysponsored programming. The University Libraries provide
support services and a venue for many of the programs and
outreach activities. Additional activities include collection
development, support for research grants, participation in
credit instruction, hosting and managing the ICIK website,
as well as the promotion of indigenous knowledge at national
and international conferences. The Libraries are also part
of an interinstitutional collaboration with the Smithsonian
Institution. This panel will describe how the collaborative relationship
developed, the scope of the projects jointly undertaken, and
the advantages of partnerships between a university library,
campus research institutes and the local UN Association whose
membership includes AAUW, League of Women Voters, 3
Rotary Clubs, 2 Lions Clubs, Altrusa International, Soroptimist
International, Hadassah and five faith-based organizations. Background on UNACC and ICIK The UNACC was formed in 1994 with the goal of increasing
understanding of and support for the ideals of the United
Nations among Centre County residents and to provide a
forum that allows townspeople to have a global impact through
local activities. UNACC is managed by a Board of Directors
with members of the local community, many of whom are also
Penn State faculty members. UNACC works closely with grass
roots community groups to coordinate UNACC activities. ICIK, established in 1995 by two Penn State faculty members
from the Colleges of Agricultural Sciences and Education, is
one of a handful of indigenous knowledge centers worldwide.
Its goal is to bring together faculty, students and townspeople
interested in place-specific knowledge generated through ways
of knowing not generally acknowledged by Western-trained
academic scientists. In 2010 the University Libraries assumed
much of the responsibility for ICIK programing, maintaining
the ICIK website, and most recently, management of the Margaret Grant Whiting Endowment for Indigenous Knowledge. Collaborative Projects Programming The largest area of collaboration has been programming.
The Libraries have the facilities to host large events with
the technology to offer these presentations beyond central
Pennsylvania. The Libraries also have an expert Publicity
and Marketing Team that has effectively promoted the events
across Pennsylvania. Since 2010, the University Libraries has
co-sponsored over 40 events with these two organizations
drawing in hundreds of members of the academic and local
communities. The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 25
In 2008 the Libraries hosted its first UNACC event, a community discussion of the importance of the UN Declaration
on Human Rights. The event, drew a capacity crowd of over
120 people, including students, faculty, and townspeople. Since
that time UNACC has cosponsored many events on and off
campus with ICIK and the University Libraries. Early on, ICIK initiated seminar series, conferences, and workshops to bring together individuals interested in indigenous
knowledge activities. Since 2010 those programs have been
hosted by the University Libraries and broadcast worldwide
via the Libraries’ Media Site Live platform. SESSION 3: 12:30 pm–2:00 pm
Session 3A | Loyalty
Panel: “The Public Library Research
Collaboratory: Creating digital space for the
intersection of practitioners, scholars, and
educators”
Joyce Latham, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee;
Soohyung Joo, University of Kentucky; Adriana
McCleer, Hyoungjoo Park, Shannon Barniskis,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Collections University Libraries has worked with ICIK to expand the
collection of indigenous knowledge materials, including the
acquisition of a 2000+ collection of materials from Iowa State
University. The United Nations collections are used extensively
to support programing for UNACC. Research/Endowment support The University Libraries recently assumed responsibility for
the management of the Margaret Grant Whiting Endowment
which supports programming and provides research grants to
graduate and undergraduate student research in indigenous
knowledge. In addition, the University Libraries are part of the
Penn State/Smithsonian Institution collaborative discussions. Website Management In 2010 the Libraries assumed responsibility for management of
the ICIK website, moving it to the Libraries’ servers, providing
website design assistance and expanding and updating content. Credit Courses ICIK also helped develop an award-winning cultural engagement course that enables students to spend 3 weeks each spring
with Anishinaabe communities in Northern Minnesota. This
course is now taught as a 3-6 credit course with a librarian
embedded to assist with research. The panel will elaborate on these initiatives and engage the
attendees in a discussion of how these types of activities can
benefit libraries and their various communities. Information concerning the public library as a public institution
is available, but it is scattered throughout the various states
and local government agencies. There is no central resource
that draws all elements relevant to public library structure,
governance, funding and services into one location in support
of comparative study of the institution across multiple venues.
While the Institute for Museum and Library Services provides a
statistical imprint of public libraries based on contributed data,
there is no similar co-location of documentary or qualitative
research findings that would support broader interpretations
of the quantitative data. Given the multiple roles of the public
library in society–educational, informational, recreational,
and cultural–access to a digital venue developed to address
that multiplicity of functions is critical to supporting research
on the scope and value of the public library mission, so often
misrepresented today.
This panel presentation outlines the development of a digital
venue dedicated to the support of research about the public
library as an institution within a transitioning informational
and cultural environment to be known as the Public Library
Research Collaboratory (PLRC). Lassi and Sonnenwald (2013)
appropriate the definition of collaboratory as offered in the
UC, Irvine workshop “Science of Collaboratories” (2003): “a
network-based facility and organizational entity that spans
distance, supports rich and recurring human interaction
oriented to a common research area, fosters contact between
researchers who are both known and unknown to each other,
and provides access to data sources, artifacts and tools required
to accomplish research tasks.” The PLRC will expand this
definition to include practitioners and educators focused on
public libraries. The initial database of the collaboratory is
housed at the School of Information Studies (UWM), which
supports a public library concentration in the Master’s degree
program and also sponsors doctoral students engaged in public
library research. The development of the PLRC will build on
the core collection of legal documents and interpretations
in several ways: • identifying and incorporating into the legal collection
materials related to significant topics affecting public
26 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
libraries such as civil service requirements, unionization
of librarians, open records law, etc.; • identifying and collecting research publications, including
pre-prints, related to the public library as an institution; • developing collections of related materials, such as public
library mission statements, library board training materials, patron relations manuals, collection policies, local
user studies, etc. that may inform the process of policy
development for library operations; • supporting a community of discourse engaged in the
exploration of issues that affect the current practices and
development of public librarianship, as identified by those
currently engaged in practice; • expanding and deepening the visibility of the public library
as a valid focus of research; • enabling embedded scholarship for doctoral and master’s
level students. The panel presentation will discuss the technical structure
of the collaboratory and anticipated areas of expansion, as
well as how the project will advance partnerships, provide
opportunities for research and pedagogy related to public
libraries, and generate new knowledge through the dissolution
of artificial geographic boundaries. Informal discussions of
the PLRC have generated significant interest; LRS-VI constitutes the first formal presentation of the project. The panel is
interested in critiques and commentary to be gleaned from
the observations of others attending the conference. The panel
includes five members of the research team.
All panel members are interested in exploring questions such
as: methods for evaluation of contributions to the collaboratory, copyright strategies (Creative Commons), incorporation
of pre-existing data sets, ensuring grass roots participation,
strategies for information dissemination. References
Lassi, M. & Sonnenwald, D.H. (2013). “The socio-technical design of a
library and information science collaboratory “ Information Research, 18(2)
paper 576. [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/18-2/paper576.html]
Session 3B | Lincoln
Focusing on Young Adults
Chair: Linda C. Smith, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
3B.1 “Science Café at Oklahoma State
University: Library, campus and community
engagement”
Karen Neurohr, Oklahoma State University
The Oklahoma State University Library has a long history
of outreach and partnerships at the local, state, and national
levels. Some partnerships are ongoing while others are short
term. Science Café OSU, a fairly new endeavor, is a community
engagement project designed to highlight interesting, relevant
and current science-related research. Since October 2012
public programs have been held monthly during the fall and
spring semesters. Spearheaded by the OSU Library, Science
Café OSU offers an opportunity for the audience to participate
in lively and engaging conversations about science. Programs
are held in the Library and feature an informal presentation
by one or more science researchers, along with refreshments,
fun activities, and time for audience discussion and questions. The target audience for Science Café is undergraduate students; however, audience members include graduate students,
faculty, staff, postdoctoral students, community members,
and high school students. Collaborative partners for Science
Café OSU are the OSU Library, the OSU Chapter of Sigma Xi
Scientific Research Society and the Office of the Vice President
for Research and Technology Transfer. Additional campus partners are invited for specific programs
that align with their interests. A recent Science Café topic,
hydraulic fracturing, proved to be of such high interest oncampus that we will partner with the public library and
repeat Science Café off-campus. We are dividing the topic
into a series of four weekly programs to be held at the public
library this summer. Although our primary goal for Science Café is to engage the
undergraduate student population, we have been pleasantly
surprised to discover how much Science Café OSU appeals
to faculty and graduate students. Faculty have communicated
their appreciation for the programming and indicated that
these events have re-energized their research efforts. In fact,
one investigator said that the programs remind her why she
became a scientist in the first place. Science Café OSU also
provides faculty an outreach opportunity which may benefit
impact statements for federal funding applications. Visiting
international professors have attended and are so enthusiastic
about the project they have expressed an intention to take the
concept back to their home country. The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 27
From year one to year two, we have tweaked the Science Café
format slightly based on evaluation results. Evaluations are
distributed at the conclusion of every program and results from
twelve Cafes will be shared in this presentation, which will
also feature how we plan and execute Science Cafes. Science
Café OSU features well-respected educators as it engages the
campus and local community and conveys the importance of
scientific research. The culture of the Library mirrors that of
our land-grant university: community engagement is part of
our mission and ethos. Science Café OSU is one noteworthy
project that the Library has implemented. 3B.2 “Collaboration and its discontents: Why
librarians do and do not partner with high
school science teachers”
Don Latham, Melissa Gross, Florida State
University; Heidi Julien, University of Buffalo;
Shelbie Witte, Florida State University
This paper reports the findings of a research project, sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, to
investigate experiences and practices related to collaboration
among public and school librarians and high school science
teachers. The project itself represents a collaboration among
LIS and education faculty. Background
The importance of 21st Century Skills is evident in the various
frameworks that have been developed to promote such skills,
including the Association of College and Research Libraries’
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000), the American Association of School Librarians’
Standards for the 21st Century Learner (2007), the Partnership for 21st Century Skills’ Framework for 21st Century
Learning (2009), and the Common Core State Standards
Initiative (NGA Center & CCSSO, 2012). In addition, there
has been an increasing emphasis on STEM education at all
levels, K-20. It would seem that both goals could be achieved
through teacher-librarian collaboration, yet evidence suggests
that collaboration is spotty at best. The topic of collaboration in general has received a great deal of
attention in the LIS literature (see, for example, Hartzell, 1997;
Lance et al., 2010; Miller & Shontz, 1993; Williams, 1996), as
has the topic of collaboration for the purpose of integrating
21st Century Skills into STEM content areas specifically (see,
for example, McGriff, 2012; Schmidt, Kowalski, & Nevins,
2010; Schultz-Jones, 2010; O’Sullivan & Dallas, 2010). The
topic, however, has received far less attention in the education
literature (Cooper & Bray, 2011; Lance, Rodney, & Schwarz,
2010; Montiel-Overall, 2010). As a result, there is no model of
teacher-librarian collaboration that has been widely adopted
by practitioners or by educators in LIS and education, and
this is particularly true with respect to STEM education. A
28 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
starting point in developing such a model is to gain a clearer
understanding from teachers and librarians about best practices
in, as well as barriers to, successful collaboration.
Method
Focus groups have been conducted with public librarians, high
school librarians, and high school science teachers to gather
baseline data about the perceptions of and experiences with
teacher-librarian collaboration in promoting 21st Century
Skills in science education. Each focus group was asked about: • Their perceptions of and experiences with establishing
and maintaining teacher-librarian collaborative relationships; and • Their perceptions of, experiences with, and/or ideas about
teacher-librarian collaborations that can facilitate the teaching and learning of 21st Century Skills within the context
of science courses.
The data gathered in the focus groups is being analyzed for
both common themes and divergent themes. Findings
Data collection has been completed, and data analysis will
occur during June and July. The paper will focus on best
practices related to teacher-librarian collaboration and the
barriers to effective collaboration. Connection to Conference Theme
This project is focused on helping librarians engage more
effectively with science teachers in order to promote 21st
Century Skills instruction. Specifically, it will examine “the
process . . . of collaboration: lessons learned and best practices
that establish librarians as full research, teaching, and learning
partners in academic or community settings.” References
American Association of School Librarians (AASL). Standards for the 21st
century Learner. Chicago: American Library Association, 2007. http://
www.ala.org/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/standards.
American Association of School Librarians (AASL). Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs. Chicago: American
Association of School Librarians, 2009.
Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Information Literacy
Competency Standards for Higher Education. Chicago: Association of
College and Research Libraries, 2000. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/
informationliteracycompetency.
Cooper, O., and Bray, M. “School Library Media Specialist-Teacher Collaboration.” TechTrends 55, no. 4 (2011): 48-54.
Hartzell, G. “The Invisible School Librarian: Why Other Educators Are
Blind to Your Value.” School Library Journal 43, no. 11 (1997): 24-29.
Lance, K. C. “The Mind of a Researcher.” Teacher Librarian 37, no. 4
(2010): 81-82.
Lance, K. C., Rodney, M. J., and Schwarz, B. “Collaboration Works –When
It Happens! The Idaho School Library Impact Study.” Teacher Librarian
37, no. 5 (2010): 30-36.
McGriff, N. “Collaboration in Health and Science.” Library Media Connection 30, no. 6 (2012): 32-34.
Miller, M. L., and Shontz, M. “Expenditures for Resources in School Library
Media Centers, FY 1991-92.” School Library Journal 39 (1993): 26-36.
Montiel-Overall, P. “Further Understanding of Collaboration: A Case
Study of How It Works with Teachers and Librarians.” School Libraries
Worldwide 16, no. 2 (2010): 31-54.
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center)
and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). Common Core
State Standards Initiative. 2012. http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy.
O’Sullivan, M. K., and Dallas, K. B. “A Collaborative Approach to Implementing 21st Century Skills in a High School Senior Research Class.”
Education Libraries 33, no.1 (2010): 3-9.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Framework for 21st Century Learning.
2009. http://www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&i
d=254&Itemid=120.
Schmidt, R. K., Kowalski, V., and Nevins, L. “Guiding the Inquiry Using
the Modified Scientific Literature Review.” School Libraries Worldwide
16, no. 1 (2010): 13-32.
Schultz-Jones, B. “School Librarians, Science Teachers, + Optimal Learning
Environments.” Knowledge Quest 39, no. 2 (2010): 11-18.
Williams, T. J. “Creating Partnerships between the Library Media Specialist
and Classroom Teachers.” Indiana Media Journal 18, no. 2 (1996): 1-18.
3B.3 “Let’s Facebook it! Promoting library
services to young adults through social
media”
because young adults are now turning to these sites to satisfy
their information needs. Research into young adults and their
social media use has the potential to improve library services
targeted to this age group.
This paper discusses the preliminary findings of a study that
will be completed by August 2014. This study investigates the
perceptions and attitudes of librarians towards social media
as a tool for libraries. The purpose of this study is to better
understand how librarians interact with young adult patrons
through their library’s social media profiles. Additionally, the
professional roles and responsibilities young adult librarians
portray to their young adult patrons through their library’s
social media presence will be examined. This paper investigates
the what, how, and why of social media use by libraries and
librarians through a mixed method approach. Combining
online surveys and interviews of professional librarians, this
study is one of the first of its kind to examine the ways in which
librarians engage with young adults through social media.
This paper demonstrates how research can be used by practitioners to improve the services that they already provide
young adult patrons. Along with adding to the literature
on librarianship, this paper fills the existing knowledge gap
regarding attitudes and perceptions of librarians towards social
media. Collaboration between librarians and LIS researchers
is increasingly important as library budgets become tighter
and libraries’ use continues to grow. This type of high quality
and thoughtful research demonstrates the important role of
libraries and librarians in communities across the United
States and beyond.
Abigail Phillips, Florida State University
References
With social media now a normal part of the everyday lives of
young adults, libraries have begun to use this online tool to
promote library services to this age group. According to a recent
study by the Pew Research Center (2013), 67% of young adults
visit social networking sites daily, with 21% visiting weekly
(p. 23). These sites provide libraries with an excellent tool to
engage with their young adult patrons more frequently and
in ways that had not been possible before. With a multitude
of social networking sites already in existence and more on
the horizon, it is essential that librarians, particularly those
working with young adults, understand how to use these sites
to reach out to young adult patrons.
Madden, M., Lenhart, A., Cortesi, S., Gasser, U., Duggan, M., Smith, A.,
& Beaton, M. (2013). Teens, social media, and privacy. Pew Internet and
American Life. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//
Files/Reports/2013/PIP_TeensSocialMediaandPrivacy.pdf.
There is a significant lack of scholarly research that focuses
on library marketing and promotion through social media.
Not only do librarians need to know how to use social media
to reach patrons, but they also must understand what types
of patrons they are reaching and what services are more
appealing to social media savvy patrons. Understanding this
is particularly relevant for the young adult population who is
increasingly active on social networking sites. Additionally,
an awareness and understanding of these sites is important
Session 3C | Technology
Librarian-Faculty Collaboration: Case studies
Chair: J. Stephen Downie, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
3C.1 “Librarian and faculty collaborations to
make available 100 years of research”
Amy Paster, Jan Scholl, Pennsylvania State
University
Throughout the 20th century, agricultural administrators
attempted to locate a research base of studies to determine the
value of 4-H youth and family-oriented Extension programs.
Until recently, the perception was that these studies did not
exist. However, with the increased availability and sophistication of research tools the discovery of Cooperative Extension
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 29
4-H and EFNEP (Expanded Food and Nutrition Education
Program) research became much more feasible. Extension faculty and librarian collaborations allowed for
studies to: locate, analyze and make available 4-H and EFNEP
research information, so that: 1) Extension faculty and other
youth development practitioners would have a basis for
developing programs, 2) administrators and legislators could
allocate funds and support programs with confidence, and 3)
graduate students and other researchers could build on the
findings of the past. A librarian and College of Agricultural Sciences faculty member
from Penn State coordinated the project. Other faculty and
staff constructed a template for record creation. The faculty
member initially located the information by visiting the
National Agricultural Library, and scanned relevant articles for
bibliographies related to the research data. She also contacted
college registrars to complete the data entry (and continues
to supply much of the current information for the project.) The librarian also searched out sources and was instrumental
in obtaining information published in professional literature.
She also worked with the library Information Technology staff
and the National Agricultural Library to allow the 4-H Youth
Development site to be included in AgNIC (agnic.org). Other
collaborators came on-board, including the national 4-H
research program leader at USDA. Because the 4-H website
was so successful, a 40+ year national EFNEP research base
was also created. A bibliography of Extension family and
consumer sciences studies was also published. Both librarian and faculty member answer questions posed
on the website and by e-mail. Both team coordinators were
involved in the analysis of the studies published in two refereed articles. The websites have reached over 15,000 users
from every state and the four 4-H and EFNEP databases were
completed for less than $14,000 dollars due to exceptional
collaboration. Youth development researchers, Bialeschki
and Conn (2011) said that the 4-H research databases were
the only ones of their kind among youth organizations. Helen
Chipman, National USDA Program Leader, noted that the
EFNEP research databases of graduate and professional
studies were a contribution that would be built upon for
many years. As of 2014, ten individuals have been involved
in the collaboration. The project is on-going and has received
several national awards including the Oberly Award (2013)
for best bibliography in the agricultural or natural sciences,
the AgNIC 2013 partner of the year award and one of four
national USDA Partnership awards given in 2011. The paper will address the process and results of the collaboration and lessons learned. The national program leaders
support and assist in obtaining additional research studies
from students and the professional communities. 30 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
3C.2 “A Librarian-Faculty partnership at the
University of North Dakota”
Mary Drewes, Margaret Zidon, University of North
Dakota
Our paper deals with our work within a course taken by
master’s degree students in education. We–a librarian and an
associate professor in education–describe our collaborative
work, begun in 2012 when the librarian was invited to participate in a graduate-level online course, Action Research. The
teacher educator immediately realized the benefit of having an
embedded librarian in a research course. Prior to this opportunity, she had arranged for a 2-hour lesson for the students,
provided by a librarian assigned to work within the area of
education. While this approach aided in making students aware
of various research engines, the majority of students reverted
to trade journals, rather than searching for first-hand research
studies, something that is expected of scholarly inquiry. As
we developed our collaborator process, the embedded librarian became a partner in the online course, providing lessons
of how to search for related literature over a period of seven
weeks of a 16-week semester. Students were required to write
an introductory note to the librarian regarding their library
skills, to submit a research-based, peer-reviewed article on
ethics in research, and to participate in a library discussion
board through the Blackboard system. The librarian instructed
students in how to find and use library resources through
online tutorials as part of class assignments, and responded,
as requested, to individual questions and concerns about
library information and resources. Although alternative methods of library instruction such as
moving librarians out of the library and embedding them into
the classroom began in the early 2000s, ongoing research and
studies continue to develop. Librarians utilize various strategies
to embed themselves in both on-campus and online courses,
but a successful approach taken by one library does not necessarily translate into success for others. The importance that
librarians place on moving away from more traditional methods
of library instruction is to provide assistance at the students’
point-of-need when and where they require it rather than
instructing them in the more traditional “one shot” 50-minute
class period. Moreover, if students see themselves as incompetent when they ask for help in the library (Lee, Hayden,
and Macmillan, 2004) then librarians could better serve the
students when the students are more receptive to learning the
research process and using informational resources. The paper focuses on analysis of discourse between the
embedded librarian interacting with students in both face-toface and online discussions, the administration of a pre- and
post-survey, analysis of student/librarian/faculty interaction
during the course, and students’ final action research projects
and their reflection papers. The librarian and faculty will
share the results of their work and describe future action and
improvements.
3C.3 “Local and international collaborations
with the Japanese Area Studies Department
at the University of Hawaii’s Hamilton
Library”
Matthew Conner, University of California Davis;
Tokiko Bazzell, University of Hawaii
This paper analyzes the work of the Japan and Okinawa
Disciplinary Centers at the University of Hawaii (UH) as
an illustrative case of an organizational system that enables
extraordinary outreach and collaboration at both the local
and international level. The organization of UH must be
understood in the unique context of Hawaiian history. In
the late 19th century, Hawaii’s position as a crossroads of
trade and strategic location in a rapidly globalizing world,
led to the influx of waves of immigrants mostly from Asia.
In the course of developing robust communities in the 20th
century, various ethnic communities made sure to preserve
a historical record of themselves in the land grant university
that was created in 1907. Long before area studies came into
vogue after WWII, UH was far advanced in its teaching of
Asian cultures and languages and its collecting of relevant
materials in its library. While unquestionably unique, Hawaii’s distinctive environment
can be turned to account for the consideration of the library
profession now as libraries contemplate forms of embedding
themselves and reaching out through new technology. The
Japanese Area Studies department illustrates how UH librarians
have realized many of the fondest goals of outreach prior to
information technology. A Japan Studies Disciplinary Center
(joined recently by a new Okinawa Center) combines the
faculty who are teaching Japanese studies across traditional
disciplinary boundaries. Regular conversations and forms of
scholarly communication are not only underway but institutionalized. Where academic librarians elsewhere struggle to
build relationships with faculty or even engage in conversation,
the UH area specialists have a prominent place in disciplinary
centers often holding permanent seats on executive boards.
As a result, librarians are at the center of faculty interaction.
Outreach has expanded beyond the walls of the university as
well. Tokiko Bazzell, Japan specialist, has developed a relationship with the local Japanese Karate Museum. While not a
traditional academic specialty, martial arts was an important
cultural force for the local Japanese community. Bazzell has
also developed international contacts in Japan as a result of
regular trips. She has been invited to the exclusive museum
of the Japanese Imperial Household with its distinctive treasures going back centuries. To perpetuate these connections
and disseminate knowledge, Bazzell and her colleagues have
developed extensive techniques within their administrative
matrix. Library space is readily used for displays that draw in
community audiences. Symposia publicize knowledge and pave
the way for additional symposia, grants and funding through
the audiences that they attract. In its unique environment, UH
has developed tools and practices for communal outreach of
great interest to the library profession. Session 3D | Excellence
Workshop: “Researching information literacy
and library instruction: Engaging the formal
research agenda”
Daniel G. Tracy, Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, Susan
Avery, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This workshop will prepare participants for research on topics
related to information literacy and library instruction. By the
end, they should understand key areas of research in this area,
be able to identify appropriate methods for research questions
in the field, and anticipate expectations by publication reviewers
in a popular and increasingly rigorous field of LIS research.
As librarians who hope to partner with campus and community, we need to be aware of the communities we serve and the
library research community of which we are a part. One of
the biggest challenges for the librarian new to research comes
from the fact that she or he is entering an ongoing conversation. Novice researchers often fear that what may seem like an
interesting research question may already be well covered by
literature they are not aware of or may simply be uninteresting
to others. A key aspect of professional development in this
area, then, is the ability to recognize an interesting research
question in the context of a research community of practice.
Compounding this challenge is the lack of required research
methods courses in most MLS degree programs, which
means that even those who are familiar enough with an area
of librarianship to feel comfortable identifying an interesting
question may feel less comfortable creating a research design
to investigate it.
As an area of library research, library instruction and information literacy is relatively unique because it has an organizationally endorsed research agenda, created by the Association of
College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Instruction Section
(IS) Research and Scholarship Committee. Revised only three
years ago, this document poses important questions and offers
a strong framework for discussion and for training of new
librarian researchers. This workshop will take advantage of
this formal agenda by organizing conversations around the
four general areas covered by the ACRL/IS agenda: Learners,
Teaching, Organization Context, and Assessment. These four
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 31
areas have several subcategories and a full discussion of the
questions outlined by the agenda would take more time than
a single workshop. However, we will provide an opportunity
for participants to reflect on each of these four areas in discussion and through small group collaboration. An initial activity will initiate discussion by having participants
take questions they have about instruction and information literacy at their own institutions and connect those to
the four broad areas of the research agenda document. The
workshop leaders will then discuss some methodological
approaches and their importance in these areas of research:
for example, assessment of actual student work is increasingly
important to advancing research productively in the Learners
and Assessment categories of the research agenda. Breaking
into smaller groups will then allow participants to pursue in
greater depth questions related to specific topics: each group
will work to create a hypothetical research design that could
help to address a particular research question from the agenda.
Finally, groups will share ideas in order to provoke discussion
and reflection on method and strategy. This collaborative
planning environment and shared opportunity for feedback
will be used to communicate the importance of research
within a particular community of practitioners who need
to find research methods compelling and who are valuable
sources of peer feedback long before a researcher writes up a
project—indeed, from the very beginning.
SESSION 4: 2:30 pm–4:00 pm
Session 4A | Loyalty
Libraries’ Role in the Health and Safety of
Communities
Chair: Jennifer Weil Arns, University of South
Carolina
4A.1 “A commitment to supporting
firefighters’ dynamic information needs:
Experience-Based knowledge management
services at the Illinois State Fire Academy
Library”
Lian Ruan, David Ehrenhart, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
What types of information do fire service professionals seek
and how do we collect that information and make it accessible?
To support Illinois firefighters’ dynamic information needs
and based on Dr. Lian Ruan’s research findings, the Illinois
Fire Service Institute (IFSI) Library at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, which serves the statutory State Fire
Academy, has developed the innovative experience-based
32 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
knowledge management services—“IFLODD: The Illinois
Firefighter Line of Duty Deaths Digital Image Collection
Database,” the “Illinois Firefighter Medal of Honor and Medal
of Valor Database,” and the “Reflections Oral History Proj
ect.” Working with the fire departments throughout Illinois,
IFLODD documents 869 Illinois firefighters who died in the
line of duty over the past 150 years by collecting, organizing,
and providing web access to a multiple dataset of incident
summaries, photographs, oral interviews, and fire department
records. It is the most comprehensive database of Illinois
firefighter line of duty deaths in existence and serves as both
a memorial to those who have fallen and a way to learn from
past tragedies. Building upon the success of IFLODD and
striving to celebrate the successes of firefighters, the Illinois
Firefighter Medal of Honor and Medal of Valor Database
contains information on 219 Illinois firefighters who have
earned these awards for acts of heroism. The Illinois Firefighter
Medal of Honor and Illinois Firefighter Medal of Valor are the
highest awards granted to firefighters in Illinois. Prior to the
creation of the database, no publically accessible database of
the recipients existed, making it difficult to properly honor
and learn from these heroic actions. The “Reflections Oral
History Project” collects the oral histories of experienced
firefighters from Illinois who have been selected by the Illinois Fire Service Institute and the Chicago Fire Department
administration. Interviewees share their experiences collected
over a career in the fire service and detail what they think
would be valuable advice to current and future firefighters.
This presentation will report the development, maintenance,
and management of these databases through grant funding,
in-house administrative support, and especially community
partnership. It will discuss how the IFSI Library worked
closely with its user base to develop a culture of trust and
thus facilitating the sharing of personal experiences. It will
also discuss how the experience-based knowledge management services contribute to teaching, training, and research
efforts at the Illinois Fire Service Institute and in the state’s
fire service and how the services and the librarians have been
recognized in the fire service communities.
4A.2 “Collaborating with public libraries
to promote community health: Preliminary
results of pedometers and pedal power”
Mary Grace Flaherty, University of North CarolinaChapel Hill
Public libraries across the United States are in the process of
expanding programs and services in order to remain responsive
to their user communities. A number of studies have identified
public libraries as settings for health information provision
(1); additionally, research has shown that patrons are using
public libraries for their health information needs (2). Beyond
providing access to health information, can public libraries
play a role in community health promotion activities? This paper will report on preliminary results of efforts in four
public libraries in North Carolina to promote community
health through provision of new materials and programming.
Three public library directors volunteered to participate in a
feasibility study to test pedometers as a “loanable” item for their
communities of users. Thirty-five low-cost pedometers were
supplied to each of the three libraries in April 2014. Library
directors agreed to keep a journal of activities related to the
pedometer initiative, including items such as staff “product
testing,” record of promotional efforts, staff input on the
process, patron reactions, programs developed in response to
having the pedometers, etc. Activity journals will be analyzed
and their content summarized. Additionally, approximately
four months after the libraries receive the pedometers (August
2014) qualitative interviews will take place with the library
directors who participated in the feasibility project to elicit
information on how the project was implemented and the
participating communities’ reactions. In a fourth setting, the ImaginOn Center (a collaborative
venture between the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library
and the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte), a power-generating
exercise bike is scheduled to be installed (June 2014); the
bike installation will be combined with programs to support
STEM learning initiatives during summer 2014 kids’ and teen
programming. In this way, the potential interaction between
physical activity, library programs, and school curricula will
be explored. Usage statistics will be recorded and library
personnel involved in the project will be interviewed (Sept.
2014) to determine how the new material was received, used,
and any challenges encountered during the process.
The report and preliminary analysis of these community
health promotion efforts will not only inform our knowledge
of what challenges public library personnel encounter as they
explore new materials provision and programming efforts, but
will elucidate the feasibility of introducing such initiatives. References
1 Becker et. al., 2010; Calvano & Needham, 1996; Chobot, 2003: Guard et
al., 2000; Martin & Lanier, 1996; Spatz, 2000
2 Flaherty & Roberts, 2009; Linnan et al., 2004
4A.3 “Three communities in the Tohoku
region: What happens when the library is
washed away?”
Andreas Vårheim, University of Tromsø
Disaster recovery research suggests that both immediate
help and long term recovery processes are heavily influenced
by the level of local community social capital (Takazawa &
Williams, 2011; Aldrich, 2012). Several studies show the
importance of public library information services in disaster
(Jaeger, Langa, McClure, & Bertot, 2006). There are also many
studies indicating a role for libraries in creating trust and
social capital in local communities (Johnson & Griffis, 2013;
Johnson, 2010; Vårheim, Steinmo, & Ide, 2008; Vårheim, 2011,
2014a, 2014b), and thus making libraries triply important for
recovery processes. Firstly, by contributing in generating local
community social capital; secondly, by being one of the most
highly trusted local community institutions. Thirdly, by being
a physical local community information hub.
This paper researches the role of three public libraries in
disaster recovery. The libraries were located in three cities in
two prefectures of the Tohoku region of eastern Japan. The
three library buildings were among the eight libraries totally
destroyed in the Great East Japan Earthquake of 3/11/11
(National Diet Library, 2012). Japanese colleagues and the
author interviewed personnel in the three libraries, the two
prefectural social education divisions, the two prefectural
libraries, and officials in the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), in the fall of 2012.
In many countries the future of physical libraries are questioned. Is it reasonable to expect that their role in disaster
recovery can become superfluous? At least three questions
are important: Can the immediate face-to face information transfer be replaced by advanced technology, and in
particular when the infrastructure for this technology is
down? The solving of basic here and now practical problems
are rarely as important as in a totally changed life situation
where prompt and relevant action is required of the service
provider. Second, can people trust that extra-community relief
organizations do a good job without local intermediaries?
Third, can survivors even trust the help of local people, e.g.
their neighbors? From the literature it seems that all three
questions, also the last question depending on the level of
local community social capital, often have a negative answer
(Aldrich, 2012). Public libraries are on the spot, in general
people very much trust libraries as institutions, and people
trust their local library. That is, libraries are both trusted and
can provide both valuable information and help as needed. For
local communities to be integrated, contact between people
is vital, contact reduces prejudice and builds trust (Marschall
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 33
& Stolle, 2004; Pettigrew, Tropp, Wagner, & Christ, 2011;
Pettigrew & Tropp, 2011). Public libraries are places where
people from for example segregated neighborhoods meet;
therefore libraries can build trust within the local population
(Putnam, Feldstein, & Cohen, 2003). Within disaster research,
many scholars lately have described the importance of local
institutions creating neighborhood resilience, creating social
networks, providing information services, and generating
trust and social capital (Aldrich, 2012). Many types of local
institutions are mentioned as creators of this resilience, but
interestingly enough not public libraries.
Of course, libraries are not primarily set-up for disaster recovery purposes, and neither for building social infrastructure
in the form of community social capital. However, when
libraries exist, they provide information, they are trusted in
themselves, they are local community hubs for all kinds of
informal meetings; and they provide meeting places for local
voluntary organizations. What we know is that the roles of
libraries in disaster recovery are not negligible. Replication
of case studies of disasters under different circumstances can
help specifying the mechanisms through which the impact
of libraries in disaster recovery is affected.
Takazawa, A., & Williams, K. (2011). Communities in Disasters: Helpless
or Helping? Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, 10(3-4),
429–440. doi:10.1163/156914911X610394
Vårheim, A. (2011). Gracious space: Library programming strategies towards
Immigrants as tools in the creation of social capital. Library & Information
Science Research, 33(1), 12–18. doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2010.04.005
Vårheim, A. (2014a). Trust and the role of the public library in the integration
of refugees: The case of a Northern Norwegian city. Journal of Librarianship
and Information Science, 46(1), 62–69. doi:10.1177/0961000614523636
Vårheim, A. (2014b). Trust in Libraries and Trust in Most People: Social
Capital Creation in the Public Library. The Library Quarterly, 84(3),
258–277. doi:10.1086/676487
Vårheim, A., Steinmo, S., & Ide, E. (2008). Do libraries matter? Public
libraries and the creation of social capital. Journal of Documentation, 64(6),
877–892. doi:10.1108/00220410810912433
Session 4B | Lincoln
Building Awareness of and Access to Primary
Source Collections
Chair: Beth Sandore Namachchivaya, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
References
4B.1 “Spanning boundaries to identify
archival literacy competencies”
Aldrich, D. P. (2012). Building resilience: social capital in post-disaster
recovery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sharon Weiner, Sammie Morris, Larry Mykytiuk,
Purdue University
Featherstone, R. M., Lyon, B. J., & Ruffin, A. B. (2008). Library roles in
disaster response: an oral history project by the National Library of Medicine. Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 96(4), 343–350.
doi:10.3163/1536-5050.96.4.009
Jaeger, P. T., Langa, L. A., McClure, C. R., & Bertot, J. C. (2006). The 2004
and 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes: Evolving Roles and Lessons Learned for
Public Libraries in Disaster Preparedness and Community Services. Public
Library Quarterly, 25(3-4), 199–214. doi:10.1300/J118v25n03_17
Johnson, C. A. (2010). Do public libraries contribute to social capital? A
preliminary investigation into the relationship. Library & Information
Science Research, 32(2), 147–155. doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2009.12.006
Johnson, C. A., & Griffis, M. R. (2013). The effect of public library use
on the social capital of rural communities. Journal of Librarianship and
Information Science. doi:10.1177/0961000612470278
Marschall, M. J., & Stolle, D. (2004). Race and the city: Neighborhood context
and the development of generalized trust. Political Behavior, 26(2), 125–153.
National Diet Library. (2012). The Great East Japan Earthquake and Libraries (No. 13). Tokyo: National Diet Library.
Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2011). When groups meet: the dynamics
of Intergroup contact. New York: Psychology Press.
Pettigrew, T. F., Tropp, L. R., Wagner, U., & Christ, O. (2011). Recent advances
in intergroup contact theory. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(3), 271–280. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.03.001
Putnam, R. D., Feldstein, L. M., & Cohen, D. (2003). Better together: Restoring the American community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
34 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
The focus of this paper is a collaborative research project
identifying competencies undergraduate history majors should
have to find and use archival materials. The boundary-spanning
work involved archivists, librarians, and history faculty. This project is a substantial contribution to the body of
knowledge in the fields of archives, librarianship, and history.
Historians rely upon archives as essential source material.
However, there is no standard list of the archival research
competencies that college history students should attain.
Without such a list upon which history faculty, archivists,
and librarians agree, teaching about archives research is often
inconsistent or non-existent. The purpose of this study was to
develop a list of “archival literacy” competencies that could be
incorporated into the undergraduate history curriculum and
utilized by history faculty, librarians, and archivists. This is relevant to the conference theme because it demonstrates collaborative knowledge building between librarians,
archivists and disciplinary faculty, bringing each profession’s
unique perspectives and roles in the learning process towards
the creation of archival competencies. There is a rapidly growing
need for teaching archival literacy, with the promulgation of
online archival sources and enhanced focus on use of primary
sources in teaching. The project created new knowledge by
identifying competencies that can be systematically integrated
into curricula through partnerships between archivists, librarians, and history faculty. It charted a course for collaboration
with a deep and lasting impact because the next steps will be
for all stakeholders to work together to integrate the competencies. Crossing the boundaries of archives, library science,
and history, the project demonstrates the roles of archivists
and librarians in the creation of research competencies.
Methods
There were two phases to the mixed-methods study. Phase 1
occurred at a large public research university, consisting of
a review of the literature; compilation of a draft of archival
competencies; review of course syllabi for inclusion of archival
competencies; interviews with history faculty analyzed for
expectations relating to finding and using archival sources;
and comments from faculty and graduates on a second draft
of competencies. The study population in Phase 2 expanded
to history department faculty, archivists, and librarians at a
stratified random sample of U.S. baccalaureate, masters, and
doctoral/research institutions. They were asked whether
undergraduate history majors should master all of the competencies on the draft list and to recommend competencies
to be added. These responses were organized by competency
and considered for a final list. Results
The report on Phase 1 of this study has been accepted for
publication in late 2014. The data for Phase 2 of this study
were collected from February through April 2014. Data
analysis for Phase 2 resulted in a final list of archival literacy
competencies developed in summer 2014. This list will be
shared for comment at the conference.
4B.2 “Community collections as documentary
archeological sites”
Andrea Copeland, Indiana University
This proposed project continues my research on public libraries and the creation of digital community repositories. Previously, I examined the values public library users associate with
personal digital information deemed worthy for preservation
and how public libraries can help users achieve this goal [1-2].
Secondly, I examined the values librarians and public library
users associate with personal information shared to public
web spaces [3]. Lastly, I explored the possibility of public
libraries serving as community archives and the legal and
social challenges they could face [4-5].
With this new study, I will be exploring and conducting inquiries from within existing community collections rather than
interviewing individuals within a public library community.
The three community collections to be analyzed are:
The archive of the Bethel AME Church of Indianapolis: This
archive is loosely organized, primarily composed of paper and
physical artifacts, and the narrative is kept in the memories
of church elders. This archive documents a shared heritage
and a living community [6].
The Ten Years project of photographer Zoe Strauss: From 2001
to 2010 Strauss documented lives and landscapes within her
own community in South Philadelphia. This project documents a community through snapshots of street life from the
perspective of one individual [7].
The Neighborhood of Saturdays is a digital collection documenting a community that no longer exists, but once was a
vibrant multi-ethnic community on the south side of Indianapolis. The collection is a collaboration of the University
Library and the Department of Anthropology at Indiana
University Purdue University Indianapolis and several community groups [8].
Throughout the summer and fall of 2014, I will analyze the three
collections using the methodological framework developed
from one of the first significant community archaeology projects in Quseir, Egypt [9]. While this framework was designed
to guide community control of archaeology projects, I believe
it can guide community documentary projects as well. I will
search the three community collections for evidence of 1)
communication and collaboration, 2) employment and training, 3) public presentation, 4) interviews and oral histories,
5) educational resources, 6) photographic and video archive
and community controlled merchandizing.
Through this analysis, I will attempt to answer the following
questions: What types of information and physical artifacts
are included? What do they represent? What story do they
tell about the community? How can these collections be
connected to the mission of public libraries? Are community
participants invited to partake in collection creation? Does
there appear to be equity among community members and
formal organizations with regards to authority and power?
To what extent are they truly community collaborations or
community based?
This analysis will help to describe community archives in the
public library context; it will also help determine the kinds
of questions and planning to consider when working with
community groups in order to best tell a community’s story.
Further, this analysis will guide future research, as I interact
with community members and collections experts from
formal organizations to better understand their perceptions
of community based documentary collections.
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 35
References
1. Copeland, A. (2011). Analysis of public library users’ digital preservation practices. Journal of the American Society for Information Science &
Technology, 62(7), 1288-1300.
2. Copeland, A. & Barreau, D. (2011). Helping people to manage and
share their digital information: A role for public libraries. Library Trends,
59(4), 637-649.
3. Copeland, A. (Forthcoming, 2014). The use of personal value estimations
to select images for preservation in public library digital collections. Future
Internet. Special Issue on Community Archives.
4. Lipinski, T. & Copeland, A. (2013). Look before you License: The Use
of Public Sharing Websites in building Patron Initiated Public Library
Repositories. Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture, 42(4), 174-198.
5. Copeland, A. (In Review/Press). Public library: A place for the digital
community archive. In Supporting Digital Humanities for Knowledge
Acquisition in Modern Libraries. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
6. National Park Service. Aboard the Underground Railroad: Bethel AME
Church: http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/in1.htm
7. International Center of Photography. Zoe Strauss: 10 Years.
http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/zoe-strauss-10-years/
8. Center for Digital Scholarship. University Library. Neighborhood of
Saturdays. http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/digitalscholarship/collections/NoS
9. Moser, S., et al. (2002). Transforming archaeology through practice:
Strategies for collaborative archaeology and the Community Archaeology
Project Queseir Egypt. World Archaeology, 34(2), 220-248.
4B.3 “Developing interactive exhibits:
Supporting faculty research through
collaboration”
Meris Mandernach, Erin Fletcher, Arnab Nandi,
Alex Oliszewski, Ohio State University
This paper details a library-faculty partnership and the corresponding development, process, and products of an interactive exhibit at Ohio State University Libraries. The projection
project, a non-traditional grant-funded exhibit, highlighted
research, and interactive technology. The project’s goals were
twofold: 1) to showcase the research that happens in the university libraries in such a way that users can better understand
their relationship to the generation of knowledge and 2) to
present information in an innovative and engaging way that
users would seek to interact with. This partnership grew out of work between the head of research
services in University Libraries and two faculty researchers
from Computer Science and Engineering, the Advanced
Computing Center for the Arts and Design, and Theater. The
team identified common interests of examining the overlaps
between the arts and sciences and highlighting research
outputs. They also recognized an opportunity to represent
interdisciplinary faculty research in an academic library on
campus. As the team coalesced, the exhibits coordinator was
36 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
brought into discussions because the Libraries was interested
in exploring non-traditional exhibits for greater user engagement and increased openness to faculty interested in exhibit
development. This project presented a unique opportunity
for a meta-view of the research happening within the library
system as the subject of display, instead of merely invisible
work which inevitably goes into the final exhibit product. To
visualize this subject in a dynamic and accessible presentation for users, the exhibit was influenced by the large number
of contemporary art works using interactive and projected
technology, whose numbers have been growing worldwide
since the 1990’s. Technically, this project took a large set of library data and
interpreted it with a code that highlighted semantic connections, topical affinities, and areas of sustained research interest.
In doing so, meaningful patterns emerged and researchers
could draw connections between usage, descriptive metadata,
and analytics across library resources. To protect privacy and
create an attractive interface the data was abstracted into a
visual language, and projected on a wall in the library. This
projection was on a human scale in a high-traffic area. Using
interactive technology, those walking by the projection affected
changes to the display through their movements. This was
meant to show users that they can discover and interact with
the library as a place as well as the library as a container of
knowledge. This project supported further understanding of the usage
of the OSU libraries, provided faculty with a platform for
continuing their research, and supported future publishing in
regards to overlaps between library research and exhibitions. This paper will address the genesis of the project, influences
on creation, the process of collaboration between research
faculty and the library, highlighting research on campus, and
the challenges faced when navigating both the evolution of
the research and library policies for supporting innovative
projects. It will also detail how collaboration and crossdisciplinary research can create new knowledge and chart a
course for partnerships with the library that bring about deep
and lasting impact on campus. Session 4C | Technology
Workshop: “Evaluating leadership training in
an international context”
Susan Schnuer, Jen-Chien Yu, Paula Kaufman,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Founded in 1992 with a mission to strengthen ties among libraries and librarians worldwide for the promotion of international
education, understanding, and peace, the Mortenson Center
for International Library Programs has hosted professional
development programs at the University of Illinois in which
over 1000 librarians from more than 90 countries have participated. Despite its more than 20-year-long history, no formal
evaluation had ever been done on the impact of its programs
until 2013, when with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the Mortenson Center worked with Arabella
Advisors to develop an evaluation framework that fit the
Center’s mission and work. In this workshop, the presenters
will take the participants through the process of developing
the right framework and implementing an evaluation plan,
and will share the results of the evaluation as well as future
plans based on the Report’s findings.
Session 4D | Excellence
Panel: “National impacts of library public
programs assessment: A report on the 2014
development of a national research agenda”
Mary Davis Fournier, American Library Association;
Sean Beharry, New Knowledge Organization Ltd.;
Janine Golden, University of Southern California
The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs
Office (PPO) received IMLS planning grant funding to support
development of a comprehensive research agenda and fiveyear implementation plan to understand and document the
characteristics, audiences, outcomes, and value of public
programming in libraries at a national level. The aim of the
project was to ensure that this timely and relevant data would
be available to help strengthen the role of libraries as core
service providers in their community learning world. This
presentation will focus on the final results of this project to
support strategic long-term advancement of understanding of how library programs increase broad public access
to knowledge and foster support for lifelong learners across
diverse geographic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds,
including those with special needs or those underserved by
services in their communities. Over the past two decades, library programming has become
an established part of library service for all ages, in all types
of libraries, even though libraries have experienced unprecedented change in the variety and breadth of their collections,
the types of services they offer, how they support their users
and communities, and how their programs are reaching out to
new users and community leaders. Today, the library programs
community of practice is in need of comprehensive support
to help them access and develop targeted, community-wide
research and evaluation specific to their shared goals, objectives, and learning needs. This presentation will provide an
overview of these recommendations for the field and the ALA
strategy for scaffolding the first phases of this plan.
ALA undertook this work as a collaborative process with
researchers and practitioners from around the country. ALA
committed to this effort to the support of libraries as places
of cultural and civic engagement, where people of all backgrounds gather for reflection, discovery, participation, and
growth through programming grant opportunities, professional
development events, model programs, and online resources
for librarians and libraries. The effort built on research that
started in the 1990s, and has provided useful benchmark
assessment of adult cultural programming in public libraries
to support planning, modeling and evaluation strategies that
are still being used. While that resource has given some useful
information, societal, economic and organizational changes
prevented follow-up, and now that information and the techniques used to collect that data are out-of-date and no longer
reflect the full breadth of library programs and communities
of practice today. Another highlight of the presentation will be
the summary literature review and briefing tools developed by
ALA and its research partner New Knowledge Organization
Ltd into current directions and thinking about library practice. The first speaker, presentation chair and Principal Investigator will outline the planning phase structure and focus. ALA,
its partners and advisors pursued an open, transparent collaborative process to examine general trends emerging from
recent evaluation and used that data to create a framework
for describing public programming in libraries, to identify
gaps in current knowledge and one month before the conference convenes, will have published a recommended research
strategy to serve the field.
The second speaker, a student completing his MLIS degree
at Queens College of City University New York, will present
an overview of the findings and offer a personal commentary
on how participation in this project influenced his thinking
about library practice and future potential in the field.
The third speaker, a library journal editor and Associate Professor of USC’s Marshall School of Business teaching in the
MLIS program, and contributor to the development of this
plan will offer her reflections on how this newly published
research agenda is situated in the larger field and its impact
on how collaboration and cross-disciplinary research using
this plan will develop new knowledge or alter the course that
partnerships may take both within communities and between
communities and their libraries.
The program chair will conclude with a few thoughts on what
this plan might offer to library supporters and funders. She
will devote the last 20 minutes of the presentation to encouraging a lively discussion of the possible opportunities for new
research partnerships that may increase the skills of library
programmers in serving the needs of diverse publics and offer
resources and web links to the final outputs to continue the
work. Outputs available will be the project position paper and
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 37
briefing tools and strategies to help participants dig deeper
and choose their own directions for future exploration and
study of library-based public programming and opportunities to expand the national dialogue about what libraries can
contribute to our culture.
Thursday, October 9
SESSION 5: 8:00 am–9:30 am
Session 5A | Loyalty
Panel: “Making LIS real: Rewards,
challenges and contradictions in community
engagement”
Michele Besant, Allison Kaplan, Robin Amado,
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Committed to The Wisconsin Idea, “the principle that the
university should improve people’s lives beyond the classroom,”
the School of Library and Information Studies, the I-School
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been participating in partnerships across the state since the inception of the
School in 1906. Through teaching, research, outreach, public
service and more recently community engagement, we strive
to 1) provide sustainable first-hand practical community
experience opportunities for our students; 2) learn from our
partners; and 3) put into practice the idea of social justice in
information services.
Panelists will present an overview of several current community engagement projects and feedback from students
and partners on project impact. We ask attendees to join in a
discussion of a central question: how do we make community
collaboration, learning and our contributions to social justice
through practice real? Additionally, we’ll facilitate an idea
exchange about sustaining partnerships on a limited budget,
developing institutional anchors to survive frequent change,
and the seemingly contradictory need for self-promotion in
a mutually beneficial community partnership.
The three projects highlighted include: • The Jail Library Project (JLP). JLP connects SLIS graduate
students with inmates in the county jail as well as with two
county agencies, the Dane County Sheriff ’s Office and the
Dane County Library Service (DCLS). A student group,
Jail Library Group (JLG), provides recreational and educational print materials to inmates in two downtown county
jail facilities. In addition JLG with DCLS offers the “Kids’
Connection,” which allows inmates to record themselves
reading a book for their children. 38 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
• The Allied Drive Literacy Time (ADLT). ADLT connects
SLIS graduate students with children enrolled in an afterschool program at a neighborhood center in a “geographically isolated,” generally low income neighborhood with
little access to public libraries. The mission of ADLT is
to support the development of literacy skills by creating
a strong and resilient connection between reading and
positive growth for children. • Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums Project(TLAM).
TLAM is a tri-part effort that includes a graduate course on
indigenous information topics, a student group, and a series
of mini-conferences and IMLS-funded institutes through
SLIS Continuing Education Services. TLAM brings together
SLIS students with American Indian communities through
service-learning project and professional development and
networking opportunities with tribal “culture keepers” in
the Western Great Lakes region.
Session 5B | Lincoln
The Big Picture: Organization- and institutionlevel views
Chair: Beth Sandore Namachchivaya, University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
5B.1 “Identifying institutional trends in
collaborative and interdisciplinary research”
Author: Greg Youngen, Indiana State University
Research output, in the form of peer-reviewed journal articles,
is analyzed to assess the collaborative and interdisciplinary
nature of work performed at a select group of US universities.
Using Thomson-Reuters Web of Knowledge, articles authored
by university faculty over the past 13 years (2000-2012) are
analyzed to identify co-authorships, inter-institutional affiliations and cross-disciplinary collaborations. The resulting data
can be used to identify trends in publication, research, and
funding. The data may also be used to identify potential areas
of research for future endeavors. The methodology employed
in this study can be easily applied to other institutions. Methodology: Web of Knowledge (WoK) is an interdisciplinary database of peer-reviewed journal literature that includes
enhanced, detailed indexing of articles published in the major
journals of most academic disciplines. A search strategy is
formulated to identify all the authors from a given institution. This can be as simple as a zip code search in the author
address field. The search results are downloaded from WoK,
then imported into an Excel spreadsheet. Each article record
includes subject heading, source title, institutional affiliation
of the authors, country, and other citation information. The
records are then compiled and standardized for uniformity in
Excel. Textual analysis tools and visualization tools—including
word clouds, maps, and bubble charts— are employed to
clarify the data through illustration. • Tools: ISI Web of Knowledge / Microsoft Excel / Data
visualization software • Process: Download and compile an institution’s combined
peer-reviewed journal article output over a period of time • Analyze: Co-author data for internal and external
collaborations • Identify: Areas of strength as indicated by total publication records • Identify: Subject areas of interdisciplinary research based
on author home departments Results: Data analysis identifies trends and varying degrees of
interdisciplinary work across most schools and departments
at any given university. Visualizations are used to compare
the disciplines and identify trends over time. The publishing
output highlights the differing degrees of collaboration within
the disciplines, identifies institutional partnerships, and the
subject areas of research output. Conclusions: WoK identifies three broad areas of research: 1)
Science/Technology/Medicine (STM); 2) the Social Sciences;
and 3) the Arts/Humanities. As might be expected, most
inter-institutional and inter-disciplinary collaboration occurs
within STM. Likewise, the Social Sciences mostly collaborate
among their related disciplines. The Arts and Humanities
have the least amount of interdisciplinary collaboration
and co-authorship, but that’s not to say it doesn’t exist. This
study found a significant number of papers that were cross
identified in at least two broad areas, and a few papers were
included in all three. 5B.2 “Innovation in research libraries: How
management and technical innovations
impact organizational performance”
Author: Ronald Jantz, Rutgers University
The research reported in this paper is focused on a specific
type of change in an organization–an innovation. Many
library leaders have stated that it is essential for libraries to
make major changes in order to meet the information and
research requirements of the modern 21st century university.
Although innovativeness is generally assumed to be a desirable
trait for social organizations, researchers and practitioners
have long questioned the relationship of innovativeness to
organizational performance. Many studies of the for-profit
sector appear to support findings that the innovativeness
of an organization is positively related to the performance
of the organization (Rosenbusch et al., 2011). However, the
nature of the nonprofit organization and related contextual
factors are substantially different from that of the for-profit
manufacturing or service firm. The goal of the nonprofit is to
advance the public good and the ultimate product is “a changed
human being” (Drucker, 1990, xiv). In nonprofit institutions
such as the research library, organizational effectiveness and
performance are much more nebulous concepts, made more
challenging by goal ambiguity, an entrenched bureaucracy,
and the norms of the library profession. As a starting point, this paper introduces the concepts of
organizational innovation, types of innovations, and organizational performance. Innovations are classified as either
technical (new products or services delivered to the client or
end user) or management (focused on how the work of the
organization is conducted–strategy, administrative procedures,
and structure) (Damanpour & Aravind, 2011). The results of
an earlier study on technical innovations in research libraries will be briefly reviewed (Jantz, 2014). In this study, it was
found that factors such as the structure of the organization
and the integration of the senior team had a significant impact
on the innovativeness of the library. An underlying premise
of the research proposed here is that the library must engage
in both management and technical innovations in order to
survive and thrive in a more uncertain and rapidly changing
external environment (Damanpour & Evan, 1984). To support
this perspective, propositions are put forth regarding the
relationship between management and technical innovations
and the impact of these innovations on the performance of
the research library. The propositions are supported by theory
and earlier studies and form the basis for a proposed empirical
study of management innovation in research libraries. Becoming more innovative results in conflicts and inconsistent organizational structures, a condition identified as
an organizational paradox (Smith & Tushman, 2005). By
applying theory and empirical results from organizational
studies, this paper clarifies this paradox within the context of
the research library and addresses the challenge of creating a
more innovative library culture. References Damanpour, F., & Evan, W. (1984). Organizational innovation and performance: The problem of “organizational lag.” Administrative Science
Quarterly, 29, 392-409. Damanpour, F. & Aravind, D. (2011). Managerial innovation: Conceptions, processes, and antecedents. Management and Organization Review,
8, (2), 423-454. Drucker, P. (1990). Managing the nonprofit organization: Practices and
principles. New York: Harper Collins. Jantz, R. (2014). The determinants of organizational innovation in research
libraries: An interpretation and implications for library leadership and
an innovative culture. (Manuscript accepted for publication in College &
Research Libraries). The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 39
Rosenbusch, N., Brinckmann, J. & Bausch, A. (2011). Is innovation always
beneficial? A meta-analysis of the relationship between innovation and
performance in SMEs. Journal of Business Venturing, 26, 441-457. Smith, W., & Tushman, M. (2005). Managing strategic contradictions: A
top management model for managing innovation streams. Organization
Science, 16, (5), 522-536. 5B.3 “Public libraries and the ACA: Unequal
access”
Jenny Bossaller, University of Missouri (delivered
by Kristen Schuster)
At ALA Annual 2013, President Obama addressed over a
thousand librarians, calling on them to help their communities learn about the ACA. In the following months, librarians
across the United States obtained print materials, created
websites, and trained staff on what they should and should
not do in relation to the Act. This research will explain the
findings from a study that sought how are librarians helping
their communities find out about their health-care options
under the ACA?
We called seventy-two libraries in fifty states at the beginning
of the rollout of the ACA–between October 2013 and February
2014. Our original goal was to find out how librarians were
responding to the call for participation in the ACA. We soon
realized that there was great variation in how the libraries
were responding to the President’s call. Some librarians were
collecting materials and others were producing their own
ACA materials. Some were cultivating relationships with
healthcare and social service providers to make referrals.
Some were collaborating with agencies and nonprofits for
programming. Others were not doing anything at all. This
paper will give an overview of the findings, but will focus on
outliers and surprises.
The majority of librarians we talked to said that their libraries
were working with outside agencies (from hospitals to the
AARP to insurance agencies) and making referrals when
the need arose. A very common response was that, despite
their preparations to work with the ACA, there were very few
requests for information–“it was like we threw a party and
nobody came.” Some librarians said that they were unable to
help because they were concerned about liability, and others
were unwilling to because of the partisan nature of the law.
Some of the more interesting conversations we had were with
librarians who were not doing anything because they were
threatened by the public if they did participate, or that they
did not want to work with for-profit businesses. At the other
end of the spectrum, one librarian reported that she had sent
seven librarians for federal navigator training so that they
could directly help their community in the library.
While outliers do not represent statistically significant data,
they do raise important questions for new research. This study
40 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
focused on a specific government act that affects both individual citizens and corporate bodies. Libraries’ interaction with
the various groups demonstrates either their embeddedness
in their community, or conversely, their separation from it.
This research raised another important area for a future study:
the differences in how states implemented the Act, and how
the differences in implementation affected libraries. Our goal
was to explore this question rather than to create a statistically
accurate picture, which meant that we could not make any
meaningful connections between state politics and librarians’
reactions to the law. This presentation will demonstrate a need
to look further into how politics affect libraries’ ability to serve
the public in this complicated intersection of e-government,
business, and health care.
Session 5C | Technology
The Quality and Impact of Virtual Reference
Chair: Susan E. Searing, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
5C.1 “Collaboration and crowdsourcing:
Synergistic solutions for sustainable virtual
reference, an analysis of critical incidents”
Marie Radford, Rutgers University; Lynn Connaway,
OCLC; Stephanie Mikitish, Rutgers University
Technological adaptation and librarian ingenuity in times
of decreasing budgets have shaped the provision of Virtual
Reference Services (VRS). While VRS consortia provide most
users with reference service beyond offerings of individual
services, funding cuts have forced disbandment of several
VRS consortia and questioned other’s sustainability (Radford
& Kern, 2006). Recently, online social question and answer
(SQA) sites have gained popularity in providing answers to
user questions while incurring minimal costs, despite some
drawbacks centering on authority and accuracy. The IMLS,
Rutgers University and OCLC funded project: Cyber Synergy:
Seeking Sustainability through Collaboration between Virtual
Reference and Social Q&A Sites (Radford, Connaway, & Shah,
2011-2014) investigates VRS and SQA to suggest ways in
which each can be more effective and sustainable. The Cyber Synergy project included structured telephone interviews with 50 VRS librarians and 50 VRS and/or SQA users,
based on the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) (Flanagan,
1954). The research team entered answers into Survey Monkey,
capturing demographics, and verbatim answers to qualitative
questions in three areas: 1) successful and unsuccessful VRS
interactions from librarian and user perspectives, 2) VRS
librarian collaborations with librarians or non-librarians, and
3) instances when VRS users answered questions using SQA. Qualitative analysis followed the constant comparative method
(Charmaz, 2006, Glaser, 1965) and emergent themes uncovered similarities from librarians and users regarding VRS
expectations and experiences. Both groups agreed that finding
and receiving useful information, convenience, community
engagement, and the ability to give and receive instruction
were key in defining successful VRS interactions (see also
Connaway, Dickey, & Radford, 2011). Analysis of unsuccessful incidents identified online system problems and time
constraints as being sources of frustration. Librarians and SQA answerers also had similar perceptions
of providing answers and the communities in which they
operated. Librarians most frequently described encounters
in which they collaborated face-to-face, but also mentioned
e-mail and chat. Collaboration most often was initiated to
provide a comprehensive answer, but sometimes because
of the inability of the librarian to answer a question. These
responses indicate a willingness of librarians to collaborate
with trusted others and a commitment to provide high quality
answers. Although those answering SQA questions generally
did not express expectations to collaborate, some participants
mentioned that a feeling of belonging to an SQA community,
based on general or specific topics (e.g., health) motivated
them to answer questions. Like librarians, most were comfortable answering questions in which they had extensive
content knowledge. These findings reveal the importance of opening up collaborative and possibly crowdsourced opportunities to provide
more complete or authoritative answers in increasingly social
and mobile online environments. The ability to refer a VRS
or SQA user within a trusted community can compensate for
lack of knowledge or technological difficulties (e.g., trouble
navigating another library’s web site). Most librarians were
open to collaboration with other librarians, as well as with
authoritative subject experts (e.g., professors, those with
advanced degrees). This paper explores provocative avenues
for creating a more sustainable future for VRS, including
exploring directions and paths that already exist in SQA. References Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide
through Qualitative Analysis, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Connaway, L.S., Dickey, T.J., & Radford, M.L. (2011). “If it is too inconvenient
I’m not going after it:” Convenience as a critical factor in informationseeking behaviors. Library & Information Science Research, 33(3), 179-190. Flanagan, J.C. (1954). The critical incident technique, Psychological Bulletin, 51(4), 327-358. Glaser, B.G. (1965). The Constant Comparative Method of Qualitative
Analysis. Social Problems, 12(4), 436-445. Radford, M.L., Connaway, L.S., & Shah, C. (2011-2014). Cyber Synergy:
Seeking Sustainability through Collaboration between Virtual Reference
and Social Q&A Sites. Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library
Services (IMLS), for the period of 10/01/11 to 9/30/14. [Available at http://
www.oclc.org/research/activities/synergy/default.htm] Radford, M. L. & Kern, M. K. (winter, 2006). A multiple-case study investigation of the discontinuation of nine chat reference services. Library &
Information Science Research 28(4), 521-547. 5C.2 “Understanding patron information
needs through semantic network analysis”
M. Kathleen Kern, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign; Angela Stangl, University of Minnesota
Morris; Jana Diesner, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
The process of fulfilling an information need is a network
between people, information sources, and tools that support
information retrieval. Virtual reference transcripts provide
an embodiment of the information-seeking process at the
point where a user has determined the need for help from an
“expert” and made a librarian part of that network. Can a network derived from reference interview transcripts
represent the information-seeking process as a connection
between the patron, librarian, information objects, and the
actions and attitudes of the patron during the search process?
Will these methods be an effective way to analyze the rich
datasets of our virtual reference transcripts to inform us
about our user communities’ search processes? In what ways
can a network visualization of online reference interactions
enable librarians to discover points of frustration and failure
to improve not only librarian-patron interaction in the reference interview, but to improve our websites and information
retrieval systems? Of particular interest are relationships between the affective
expressions of an information need and the type of information
that is sought or the tools that are being used. This representation uncovers links between parts of the search process defined
by users in negative terms (e.g. problem, trouble, cannot), the
actions (e.g. find, search, login) and the tool or resource being
used (e.g. articles, catalog, website.) This methodology can
be used to find differences in both affect and search process
between our different user communities of undergraduates,
graduate students, and faculty. Using sentiment analysis
provides a gateway into those transcripts where the patron’s
sentiment is negative at the beginning but positive at the
end, to determine the turning-point in the search process
and interaction with the librarian. Dividing the data between
“librarian” and “patron” utterances in the conversation allows
an examination of differences and similarities in the terms to
describe the information need and the search process with the
aim of better understanding the patron’s perspective. The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 41
This research is a partnership between a librarian, graduate
student, and an LIS faculty member to explore the application
of semantic networks and sentiment analysis that are little
used by library practitioners and is a novel use as applied
to reference transcripts. The collaboration was both a test
of the methodologies in a new area and the ease of use of
the software tools by library practitioners. We will describe
our application of these tools and methodologies as well as
highlights from our research findings. 5C.3 “Aligning reference with teaching and
learning: A study of chat reference services
to students in an introductory composition
course”
JoAnn Jacoby, David Ward, Susan Avery,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Emilia
Marcyk, Michigan State University; Kathleen Kern,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Academic libraries are increasingly attentive to the ways
library services directly engage the campus community and
support broader institutional missions (Oakleaf 2010, Lougee
2009, Simmons-Welburn, Donavan and Bender 2008). This
paper expands on the growing body of research on how
library services contribute to undergraduate student success
by comparing student, instructor, and librarian perceptions
of the educational opportunities afforded by chat reference
services. This question is explored in the context of a research
assignment for an introductory composition course, Rhetoric
(RHET) 105 by using a mixed methods approach involving a
survey, peer focus groups, and individual interviews administered in spring 2014. Twenty-four RHET 105 students and
five instructors participated in the study by responding to an
anonymized transcript of a chat reference interaction with a
RHET 105 student working on their research assignment for
that course. Twenty-three librarians, staff, or graduate assistants who provide virtual reference services also responded
to the survey (n=15) or participated in peer focus group
sessions (n=8), allowing comparison of student perspectives
to those offered by librarians and instructors. Analysis of
the data is underway and already provides insight into how
these reference interactions did—and could better—support
student learning, as well as the elements of the chat reference
interaction students found most salient, such as asking the
right questions and quickness of initial response. Overall,
students were surprisingly willing to receive instruction in
order to learn more effective steps in the research process,
even at the cost of greater speed and efficiency. Results of this
analysis will inform the ongoing development of best practices
for utilizing chat reference as a teaching tool in support of
undergraduate education, as well as point to issues that may
warrant further exploration.
42 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
Session 5D | Excellence
Panel: “Engaging students through innovative
partnerships: Exploring multimodal
instruction”
Sherri Brown, Alison Valk, Joy Bracewell, Georgia
Institute of Technology
In today’s college classroom, students are increasingly given
opportunities to create multimodal projects that move beyond
traditional thesis-driven essays. These innovative projects
can include public-facing artifacts such as websites, posters,
wikis and more. The projects often require that students
utilize writing and design processes in ways that foster educational partnerships on multiple levels for both students and
instructors. Libraries, too, are adapting to remain not just
relevant but forward-thinking in our support and initiation
of such projects. At a large 4-year public research university,
librarians are working with campus faculty to develop innovative multimodal classroom projects that foster creativity
and encourage student engagement with the library and the
community. These transformative endeavors are changing
the way faculty view librarians and are allowing instruction
librarians to move beyond their traditional roles as providers
of information literacy skills to become academic partners
who are essential to teaching, learning, and scholarship. For
this panel, two academic instruction librarians and a faculty
member in the Institute’s specialized Writing and Communication Program will focus on two such collaborative projects
that led to new levels of synergy between the library, campus,
and the extended community.
The panelists will begin by discussing two partnerships at
their institution that have fostered and sustained relationships
between faculty, librarians, archivists, and the community,
thus enhancing students’ learning experience. The presenters
will explain how they implemented strategic connections,
developed instructional programming, and secured funding
sources. Panelists will also encourage session attendees to
respond with questions and will encourage discussion in
order to help attendees formulate pragmatic approaches for
creating similar partnerships at their own institutions.
The first partnership will focus on the library as client. Through
this initiative, one of the panelists partnered with a campus
faculty member to craft a project that involved undergraduate
students working with library staff to learn about and analyze
library resources as part of a course on digital media and
interaction design. The end result of this project benefitted all
involved: the library garnered student recommendations on
how specific library resources could be made more accessible
and user-friendly, and students had the opportunity to engage
in usability testing and practice their presentation creation
and delivery skills with a real client audience. The second partnership involved two of the panelists, an
academic librarian and a faculty member. In order to foster
and support a well-rounded education on a campus focused
primarily on STEM education, the partners forged innovative
methods to incorporate the visual arts into the campus curriculum through library programs. Along with artists from
a local community arts center, the two panelists developed a
series of library workshops for an English class in which the
students had to first design a digital draft of a poster depicting the dynamics of a major event in labor history, and then
create a print version of that draft. The workshops ranged
from design theory principles to implementation through
the printmaking process. Following the success of this pilot
project, the librarian was able to acquire grant funding to
further investigate community partnerships, opening the
door to continued library programming and specialized
workshops of this nature.
In addition, this project dovetailed with a campus archives
collaboration in which students mined primary physical
and digital sources to construct narratives of the lives of key
labor dispute participants. The students produced a wiki site
documenting historical figures they researched in the archival
records. The site was ultimately submitted to the archives as
a seed contribution to further research activities with the
collection. Student presentations were juried by an archivist,
a librarian, and an information specialist. The professional
panel provided feedback and constructive criticism of the
students’ work to aid in the construction of the final product. In this session, librarians and faculty will discuss their collaborations, how the partnerships were structured and assessed,
the use of library space and resources, and the implications of
these initiatives on academic library instructional programming. Attendees will discuss how they can implement similar
strategies for fostering and sustaining campus and community
connections; learn how to develop instructional programming
in conjunction with campus faculty; and brainstorm funding,
marketing and outreach opportunities that contribute to
innovative library programs.
SESSION 6: 10:00 am–11:30 am
Session 6A | Loyalty
New Ways of Engaging in the Academic
Library
Chair: Linda C. Smith, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
6A.1 “What else do librarians know? A new
approach to partnering with teaching faculty”
Author: Rochelle Smith, University of Idaho
Librarians have for years advocated for greater collaboration
with teaching faculty on college campuses (Smith; Tucci);
embedded librarianship, for example, has gained popularity
as a concept (Pritchard). But even the librarians most strongly
championing this approach still tend to confine their efforts to
being seen as authorities on the research process (McCluskey;
Meulemans). In this paper I demonstrate that there is room
for a different approach to librarian/teaching faculty collaboration, in which the librarian provides not a supplementary if
important skill set (information literacy), but subject-based
knowledge as well. Subject-based guest lectures and interdisciplinary colloquia both present unparalleled opportunities
to move beyond the areas in which librarians are usually seen
as having expertise, and to give students and the university
community at large the opportunity to experience librarians as
full partners in intellectual curiosity and research excellence.
There is precedent for this approach in special collections
and archives departments, where librarians and archivists
discuss content as much as access (the nature of incunabula,
for example). But library liaisons in other areas are generally
called on exclusively to share information gathering and
evaluation techniques, which is of course essential but which
renders the librarian’s subject expertise largely invisible to
students and teaching faculty. Librarians can play many roles
in a college environment: research consultant, syllabus advisor,
mentor and more. But, especially as so many librarians come
to the profession with other academic degrees and experience
(or gain these while in the profession), we are well placed
to partner with teaching faculty and to share the range of
our knowledge with the college community, enhancing that
community’s sense of what libraries and librarians bring to
the university in the process. The author’s experiences as a
colloquium co-presenter have borne this out. Partnering with
professors in the English and Theater departments, we have
presented colloquia on the social and cultural implications
of the DIY movement at the turn of the millennium, and on
mounting a Shakespeare production in a university setting.
Other librarians have co-presented similar programs on data
collection by citizen scientists (with Extension faculty), and
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 43
the history of jazz (with music faculty). The author has also
guest-lectured in undergraduate classes, leading discussions
of Shakespeare and of the creative writing process. These
collaborations with teaching faculty move the librarian’s role
beyond the confines of traditional library instruction. And
in the process teaching faculty gain a co-teacher and possibly a pedagogic research partner. Expanding the practice of
academic librarianship in this way models for students and
faculty that librarians’ knowledge extends beyond teaching
search strategies and even beyond imparting critical thinking skills, vital as those are, to subject expertise and, arguably
more crucially, to participating in the passion for learning and
for sharing knowledge that is what is best about institutions
of higher education. References
Meulemans, Yvonne Nalani, and Allison Carr. “Not At Your Service:
Building Genuine Faculty-Librarian Partnerships.” Reference Services
Review 41.1 (2013): 80-90.
McCluskey, Clare. “Being An Embedded Research Librarian: Supporting
Research By Being A Researcher.” Journal of Information Literacy 7.2
(2013): 4-14.
Pritchard, Peggy A. “The Embedded Science Librarian: Partner in Curriculum Design And Delivery.” Journal of Library Administration 50.4
(2010): 373-396. Smith, Meggan D., and Amy B. Dailey. «Improving and Assessing Information Literacy Skills Through Faculty-Librarian Collaboration.» College &
Undergraduate Libraries 20.3/4 (2013): 314-326.
Tucci, Valerie K. «Faculty/Librarian Collaboration: Catalyst For Student
Learning And Librarian Growth.» Science & Technology Libraries 30.3
(2011): 292-305. 6A.2 “Implementing a culture of creativity:
Engaging events and making in the academic
library”
Megan Lotts, Rutgers University
This paper will explore the importance of engaging events
within Academic Libraries that feature an interactive or making
aspect. The author will include a review of innovative programming happening in Academic Libraries throughout the United
States. As well this paper will look briefly at Makerspaces and
how to create low budget creative making activities. This paper will present four interactive making projects
coordinated by the author including: Woodblock Woodstock,
Holiday Card Maker Space, Edible Books, and a Polynomiography event for Rutgers Day. The author will discuss
the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration and how
these events bring value to the creative culture within the
Library. Engaging making events can be educational, fun, and
encourage individuals to embrace the library as an important
innovative place within their community. This paper will be
44 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
of interest to individuals who create engaging events within
any library, museum, or classroom. 6A.3 “Faculty-Librarian collaborations in new
media ecosystems: Developing an assessment
rubric for digital literacy in the humanities”
Harriett Green, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Introduction Digital humanities offers librarians the opportunity to embed
themselves in the classroom and engage students in learning
outcomes around digital literacy and the skills that integrate
information literacy with new media tools. This paper reports
on the development of an assessment rubric for digital literacy
that librarians can utilize in their work with digital humanities
courses and digitally oriented student projects in humanities
courses. Methods and Data Summary Drawing upon the Rubric Assessment for Information Literacy
Skills (RAILS) framework, this paper explains the structure
and pedagogical theory that influenced the creation of a
learning outcomes rubric for digital humanities and digital
literacy. The rubric is based on the author’s three years of collaborative teaching and embedded instruction for courses in
Media Studies, History, Architecture, and English that used
Omeka, Wordpress, and Scalar platforms for students’ final
research projects. In particular, the paper focuses on two case studies co-taught
by the author with Media Studies and English faculty. The
author explains her analysis of the scholarly work of students
in two courses in both classroom interactions, students’ written
responses, and the final produced projects. The case studies
will examine the processes by which the author taught students
how to use the digital platforms, the challenges encountered
by students in their work, and the process of evaluating the
student work in collaboration with faculty. Then the author
explores how digital literacy outcomes intersect and/or align
with course and disciplinary outcomes. Analysis Drawing upon these case studies, the paper explains a proposed rubric for learning outcomes in digital literacy. For the
purposes of this paper, digital literacy is defined as “the awareness, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use
digital tools and facilities to identify, access, manage, integrate,
evaluate, analyze and synthesize digital resources, construct
new knowledge, create media expressions, and communicate
with others” (Aviram and Eshet-Alkalai, 2006). The paper will
explain how in an instruction environment oriented around
digital technologies, the rubric offers a structure that enables
both teaching faculty and the librarians to evaluate how digital
humanities tools assist in the attainment of course outcomes.
The paper examines, via the case studies and rubric, how to
promote digital literacy outcomes such as understanding of
copyright, retrieval and synthesis of digital content, and use
of tools to produce scholarly work. This paper offers an innovative examination of how librarians can engage in digital pedagogy through collaborative
teaching with faculty, and ultimately explores how digital
literacy intersects and expands upon information literacy
outcomes to provide a new avenue for integrating librarians
into the multi-modal learning environment at the heart of
digital humanities.
References Aviram, Aharon and Yoram Eshet-Alkalai. ‘’Towards a Theory of Digital
Literacy: Three Scenarios for Next Steps.’’ European Journal of Open, Distance
and E-Learning (2006): http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2006/
Aharon_Aviram.htm Session 6B | Lincoln
Engagement in the Academic Library
Chair: JoAnn Jacoby, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
6B.1 “Uncommon commons: Building
community through interdisciplinary salons”
Laurie Murphy, Lee Ann Fullington, Eimmy Solis,
New York University
In many academic libraries, talks and events are typically
centered around and sponsored by Special Collections departments; while these departments typically offer a rich program
of collection-focused events, at a large metropolitan University those offerings are now supplemented by our Reference
departments’ recently initiated interdisciplinary “salon” series,
unCOMMON @ the Research Commons. Salons are a unique
and innovative outreach program that can be replicated at
any size institution and can cultivate a community of scholars
while also drawing attention to library services. Sponsoring
events to promote research on hot topics and to create a new
informal space for scholarly interaction is a way to creatively
channel the intellectual curiosity inherent in librarians. The key mission of the salon series was to open up the library
as a space for scholarly conversation and engagement, to foster
a sense of collegiality and community in the library, and to
inspire creativity through discussions of ideas in an informal
setting. In addition to the success of these salons as outreach
events, there have been a number of unexpected benefits.
Hosting salons is a type of grassroots effort by librarians that
can transform the perception library users have of reference
services by showing them that the librarians (and the library)
are not just for research assistance, but are also partners in
promoting and providing services for cutting edge research at
the university. This poster / presentation will discuss the history,
development, outcomes, and assessment of the salons. It will
incorporate the methods used for evaluating the success of the
salons, such as number of attendees and participant feedback
gathered through a post-salon survey. In addition, images of
recent salons will be included. After attending the session,
participants will be inspired to plan their own library salons. 6B.2 “Listening to many voices: Engaging the
academic community”
Nancy Kranich, Laura Palumbo, Jonathan
Sauceda, Rutgers University
A team from the Rutgers University Libraries has convened
kitchen-table style conversations to engage a broad crosssection of the Rutgers community in authentic and meaningful
discussions about their shared aspirations and concerns for
undergraduate and graduate education. These conversations
have enabled us to listen to our community so we can shift our
thinking to turn outward and recognize new opportunities
and connections and then act on what we hear. It has helped
us recognize our value by uncovering where we fit, and the
challenges we can address. And, it has abetted our efforts to
become more authentically rooted in Rutgers life and occupy
a more purposeful and strategic space within the community.
Finally, the conversations opened up opportunities to deepen
relationships and collaborate with others on campus. This work has helped us uncover a sense of common purpose
with our colleagues on campus. We are using it to: • Set realistic goals; • Engage more deeply with graduate students; • Act intentionally to reflect aspirations and concerns; • Align our strategies with the work of others on campus; • Partner with the Rutgers community in meaningful and
relevant ways; and • Demonstrate our value and significance more effectively. Our approach to campus engagement is based on the practice
of the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation—an organization that has formed “The Promise of Libraries Transforming
Communities” partnership with ALA to help libraries turn
outward by strengthening their external relationships and
increasing their relevance and significance with their communities. The initiative grew out of our effort to redefine the
role of library liaisons at Rutgers to encompass a broader
set of responsibilities, including partnering with faculty and
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 45
administrators, facilitating research, and deepening engagement with the campus community. This paper will illuminate what we have learned by applying the
Harwood approach of turning outward toward our academic
community, as well as provide a framework to consider when
engaging more deeply on campus. The work has provided us
tools for gaining “public knowledge” about our community
and a springboard for action that can result in varying levels
of engagement, depending upon assets, audience, partners
and capabilities. Our experience and framework can help
others shift their roles and determine what space they want
to occupy in their campus communities. As boundary spanning units on campus, libraries are faced
with making choices as to how they will engage, innovate,
partner, and change. As we pioneer the application of the
Harwood approach to deepening our impact on campus, we
are eager to spread the practice and offer others a framework
for leveraging their assets to open up new possibilities to go
beyond informing to engaging campus communities. This repositioning of Libraries within the University requires
strategic thinking and new practices for working more holistically with the community, collaborate more closely with
others, and embed staff and services at the right places. By
turning outward, we have tested how the Harwood tools and
practices can leverage opportunities for greater impact in the
lives of students at Rutgers. 6B.3 “Collaborating with faculty and
MDEI students to determine how to teach
information literacy to the next generation”
Timothy Ireland, University of Waterloo; Paul
Doherty, University of Waterloo-Stratford Campus;
Laura Bredahl, University of Waterloo
In January 2014, librarians Tim Ireland and Laura Bredahl
visited the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus to propose
a potential partnership between the Library and the students
in Dr. Paul Doherty’s Project Management course for the
Master of Digital Experience Innovation (MDEI) program.
Our pitch to the class was a simple challenge: Help students to
develop their research skills online. The caveat; we presented
the students with the standard definition of information
literacy (IL) from the Association of College and Research
Libraries, a definition which is often unclear and confusing
to students. Therefore, we further challenged the students to
define what information literacy meant to them. As librarians,
we know that the term information literacy is a catch phrase
that generally does not mean a lot to students, therefore it was
46 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
important for the students to reinterpret information literacy
in their own terms and use this understanding to come up
with cutting-edge solutions for transferring these skills. They accepted our challenge! And we quickly discovered we
chose the right group of students to partner with; this challenge unleashed a tidal wave of awe inspiring ideas. They
came up with ideas that reached far beyond the walls of the
library. As students they were not constrained by library traditions or past history, they were free to imagine information
literacy in a new light. This cooperative effort to develop new
online solutions for libraries showed the strength of building
relationships across our campus community and the value in
partnering with a class filled with minds focused on digital
media and innovation in order to create opportunities to
enhance our library users’ experiences. As part of the requirements for the course the students divided
up into groups and had to come up with project proposals
that culminated into an end-of-term presentation where
they highlighted their interpretation of information literacy,
what they chose to focus their solutions on and why and their
proposed solutions to the challenge. The students came up
with ideas that included aspects of storytelling, creating user
personas, User Experience (UX), Gamification, mobile apps,
information resource evaluation tools, Course Management
System (CMS) integration, academic certifications, physical
library spaces, and cloud computing. This paper will highlight the innovative solutions posed by
the students from the MDEI Project Management class and
how we fostered and nurtured the partnership throughout the
term. Some of the ideas develop by the students could be ready
for immediate implementation within libraries, while others
seem to project possible library integrations for the future.
This paper hopes to inspire ideas and create a foundation for
generating solutions alongside and in partnership with the
student audience the library is always striving to connect with.
Session 6C | Technology
Workshop: IMLS Grant Preparation
Sandra Toro, Senior Library Program Officer, IMLS
In this workshop, to be presented by Skype, participants
will review IMLS National Leadership Grant guidelines and
discuss approaches to preparing successful grant proposals
that focus on compelling questions that are within scope for
this grant program.
Session 6D | Excellence
Workshop: “Workout with a syllabus”
Yolanda Gilmore Bivins, Atlanta University
This workshop will specifically demonstrate to librarians
how obtaining a course syllabus will give your library a true
workout. When executed properly, using all four phases, the
librarian is guaranteed to create a more dynamic and comprehensive library experience for faculty and their students. The
four phases are: Warm Up, Light Cardio, Full Workout, and
Cool Down. During the Warm Up librarians should define
their teaching strategies. This includes getting the syllabus,
confirming date/time/location, and discussing outcomes
and/or assignments with faculty. After the warm up librarians should move into Light Cardio. Light Cardio is where
the curriculum is designed. This includes creating a lesson
plan, create online teaching tools using course management
software and/or LibGuides, matching ACRL information
literacy competencies with the learning outcomes from the
syllabus, and tailoring the research strategy sheet or create an
assignment. Following Light Cardio librarians should prepare
for the rigorous phase of the Full Workout. The full workout
is the actual classroom engagement of students. This includes
live library instruction or one-on-one research assistance,
followup sessions with individual students or small research
groups, and assessment. After the Full Workout librarians
should engage in a Cool Down. The Cool Down will allow
librarians to identify other ways that they can enhance and
complement courses. This includes collection development
and targeted programming. In the end, this workout will be
an invaluable benefit to you and your students. Librarians will be asked to bring at least one syllabus, sample
email to their faculty, spring or fall library event calendar and
list of non-university groups that utilize their library. They will
work out how to use a faculty syllabus for library instruction,
collection development, community outreach/programming,
faculty recognition and exhibits/displays. The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 47
Posters
Wednesday, October 8
POSTER SESSION: 4:30 pm–6:30 pm
“Beyond the campus: Engaging the use of
special collections”
Deborah Hollis, University of Colorado Boulder
University of Colorado Boulder special collections librarians
engage students young and old in addition to the campus
student body. This paper will present how teaching K-12
educators about available university resources for lesson
planning, introducing young students to rare books and
primary sources, conducting instruction and outreach to
community colleges and state universities, and serving as an
adult education resource, makes a university library inviting
and assists in the college recruitment process. These types of
collaborations plant the seeds for future partnerships in the
state’s secondary and higher education arena.
CU-Boulder special collections personnel teach that rare
works offer creative possibilities in the curriculum. Front
Range teachers have visited with their high school students
for hands-on sessions with primary source materials. Primary
and secondary education teachers explore ideas for the use of
artists’ books in art, history and writing assignments. These
educators see how time spent with artists’ books can inspire
their students’ creativity in art or writing projects and their
students learn that rare book rooms contain a range of primary
resources for educational use. Visiting a rare book room is a
professional development opportunity for educators in which
rare artworks and artifacts, combined with the use of digital
collections, results in lesson planning ideas. Special subject
collections are also resources for Front Range community colleges and universities lacking a rare book room. Local college
art students study alternative photographic processes and
original photographic works. The University’s unique holdings include original photography, photobook collections, and
teaching collections of artists’ books and disbound medieval
leaves. Adult botanical illustrators visit to examine medieval
leaves, herbals, and botanical illustrations.
Academic resources should not be regarded as being out of
the reach of young or adult education students. Teachers
are inspired to develop new approaches to writing, history,
and art curriculum by collaborating with special collections
librarians. A current special collections instruction method
involves working with a doctoral candidate in the CU School of
Education who in turn trains undergraduate education majors
48 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
to design lesson plans using facsimiles and high-end digital
copies of primary resources. Deborah Hollis will discuss how
collaborations with local, and future, educators are two-fold and
achieve varied objectives: teaching and learning, in addition to
making the idea of university attendance a consideration for
primary and secondary education students. She is currently
assessing the impact of special collections instruction to K-12
educators and non-CU college and university students.
“Closing the app gap”
Cass Mabbott, Kate McDowell, Deborah
Stevenson, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
This poster will discuss our IMLS-funded Closing the App Gap
research project, which examines the use of tablet computers,
apps, and e-books in public libraries as a tool against summer
reading loss in primary-grades children in underserved communities. Our study recently focused on a partnership with
the Douglass Branch Library in Champaign, IL, which serves
a low-income, predominantly minority population. We collaborated with the children’s librarian at Douglass, Amanda
Raklovits, to create appropriate data-gathering programs. As the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading notes, “Reading
proficiency by third grade is the most important predictor of
high school graduation and career success.” Of fourth-grade
students without an economic disadvantage, 77% achieved the
grade-level standard of reading, while fourth-grade students
eligible for a lunch subsidy, only 46% achieved the standard of
reading. Children in low-income families are less likely to meet
important reading milestones, and they are particularly likely
to suffer from summer reading loss, the setback of skills over
the long summer vacation. As we already know, this loss can
be addressed by summer reading programs in public libraries. Additionally, as digital media grows in importance, the resource
disparity between affluent families and lower-income families becomes even more pronounced, with a digital divide
effect that shapes the experience of emergent readers. One
2011 study indicated that 55% of children eight and younger
from families earning $75k or more per year have access to a
smartphone, iPod/phone, or tablet, while in families earning
$30,000 or less, only 22% of children have similar access. With
apps a growing part of the educational landscape, increased
access is advantageous. We are hoping with this project to combine the public library’s
traditional summer reading strengths with a technology-based
approach. We think this approach brings new tools in the fight
against summer reading loss, enhances technological literacy,
and mitigates the effect of the digital divide on children in
lower-income families. In our paper, we will discuss the various
aspects of our research, including, our greatest challenges, the
creation of a model that can help other public libraries use
apps and tablets with children, and our proposed multi-site
project that expands our partnering with public libraries and
builds on what we’ve learned. References
Allington, R. L., McGill-Franzen, A., Camilli, G., Williams, L., Graff, J.,
Zeig, J., & ... Nowak, R. (2010). Addressing summer reading setback among
economically disadvantaged elementary students. Reading Psychology,
31(5), 411-427. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2010.505165
Becker, S., Crandall, M., Fisher, K., Kinney, B., Landry, C. & Rocha, A.
(2010). Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits from Internet
Access at U.S. Libraries. (IMLS-2010-RES-01). Institute of Museum and
Library Services. Washington, D.C.
Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.
http://gradelevelreading.net
Champaign Public Library. (2011). Champaign Public Library Strategic
Plan 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.champaign.org/resources/
pdfs/cpl_strategic_plan_11-12-1.pdf
Chicago Public Library. (n.d.). YOUmedia Chicago: Youth-powered 21st
century learning. Retrieved from http://youmediachicago.org/ Common
Sense Media. (2011). Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America: A
Common Sense Media Research Study. Retrieved from http://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/zero-eight-childrens-media-use-america
Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library. (n.d.). Media mashup: Public
libraries, youth and 21st century literacy. Retrieved from http://www.hclib.
org/extranet/MediaMashup/mediamashup_narrative.pdf
Hutchison, A., Beschorner, B., & Schmidt-Crawford, D. (2012). Exploring
the use of the iPad for literacy learning. Reading Teacher, 66(1), 15-23. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/TRTR.01090
Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., boyd, d., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lange, P.,…
Tripp, L.(2009). Living and learning with new media: Summary of findings from the digital youth project. Cambridge, MA & London, England:
The MIT Press. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/14495847/
Living-and-Learning-with-New-Media-Summary-of-Findings-from-theDigital-Youth-Project
Kim, J. S. (2007). The effects of a voluntary summer reading intervention
on reading activities and reading achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(3), 505-515. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.99.3.505
Roman, S., Carran, D.T., and Fiore, C.D. (2010). The Dominican Study:
Public Library Summer Reading Programs Close the Reading Gap. River
Forest, IL: Dominican University Graduate School of Library & Information Science. Retrieved from http://www.dom.edu/newsroom/innews/
readingstudyfull.pdf
Samtani, Hiten. (2012). Libraries use iPads and apps to ramp up storytime,
but concerns remain. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.
thedigitalshift.com/2012/12/k-12/libraries-app-up-storytime-librariesuse-ipads-and-apps-to-engage-kids-and-parents-but-concerns-remain/
United States Census Bureau. (2012). State and county quick facts: Champaign County, Illinois. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/
states/17/17019.html
Vollmer, Timothy. (2010). There’s an app for that! Libraries and mobile
technology: an introduction to public policy considerations. ALA OITP
Policy Brief No. 3. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/offices/sites/ala.
org.offices/files/content/oitp/publications/policybriefs /mobiledevices.pdf
Whiteblom, K. (2012). Building the ultimate summer reading app. Retrieved
from http://dp.la/2012/03/13/building-the-ultimate-summer-reading-app/
“Expatriate Japanese families as unexpected
users of public libraries: A case study in a
college town community in the United States”
Ryuta Komaki, Washington University in St. Louis;
Fukuji Imai, Shirayuri College; Yukinori Okabe,
Doshisha University
This poster discusses the use of local public libraries by expatriate Japanese families staying in a micro-urban, universitycentered community in the United States, with a specific focus
on their reading and information gathering practices. The data
used for this study was collected through semi-structured
interviews the authors conducted in 2013. The expatriate
families in this study consist of those who temporarily live
in the area with clear prospects of returning to Japan. All
of the families the authors interviewed included a member
who was either a corporate transferee (i.e. an employee of a
transnational corporation assigned to work in a U.S. office)
or a degree-seeking international student, and had concrete
plans to move back to Japan after a few years of stay in the
United States. Dali (2012) identifies “immigrant readership”
as one area in the library and information science scholarship where more research and evidence-based discussions
are desired. Reading and information gathering activities of
short-term transnational residents of the United States, such
as the Japanese families in this study, are similarly less well
documented or understood. Furthermore, due to the transient
nature of their stay, border-crossing families of corporate
transferees and international students have traditionally been
less visible as members of “local communities” while public
libraries sought to reach out to diverse and diversifying bodies
of local residents. “Trailing” family members of international
workers and students have also been outside of the scope of
the service of academic and research libraries. This study
finds that despite not being seen as a potential patron group,
the non-employee or non-student members of the expatriate
families frequently used local public libraries. Highly used and
desired items centered on audio-visual titles and children’s
books, due largely to their limited ability to read in English, but
they were enthusiastic users of the public libraries, who actively
chose materials to borrow based on their mobility prospects
and (self-)educational needs. In addition, the study finds that
in spite of obvious benefits to border-crossing families, the
adoption of e-books was extremely low. This was partly due
to a mismatch between the families’ language preferences and
local libraries’ digital lending collections, and partly due to
limited circulation of e-books published in Japan outside of
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 49
the Japanese market. Drawing on the new mobilities paradigm
(Sheller and Urry 2006) that posits different population groups
and material objects ride the flow of globalization at much
different rates, the authors argue that public libraries in the
21st century face challenges of developing effective strategies
to engage with patrons with different levels of social, physical
and transnational mobilities, as well as differentially mobile
materials. The paper also discusses possibilities of future, more
full-scale studies, as well as possibilities of building partnerships with public libraries based on the findings. “ExploreCU: A community generated digital
humanities project”
Sarah Christensen, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
ExploreCU is a website and mobile app that seeks to curate
the arts, culture, and history of a city or town through community generated content. Built using Omeka and the innovative Curatescape tool, developed by the Center for Public
History and Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University,
ExploreCU allows users to browse collections and learn about
the places and events that have shaped the community in
which they live. ExploreCU is designed for iOS and Android platforms, as well
as web browsers. It is designed to “curate the city” through
geo-located items, which can contain text, archival film and
images, oral histories, audio files, and videos. Users can browse
items by curated virtual tours or by location. For example, a
user wanting a tour of local landmarks would find numerous
historically significant sights organized into a “landmarks”
tour, or might browse the map for locations. This project is the first of its kind to be developed by a library,
and serves as an extension of existing instruction and service
activities by providing a platform for students, scholars, and
community members to develop and add content that is
relevant through their lens of the community. This project
encompasses myriad library activities including community
engagement, mobile application development, digital content
creation, and literacy development, and also strengthens them
by serving as the platform to engage all of these activities at
once. Using Curatescape, we were able to deploy a branded, locally
managed application using mobile technology to bring together
library collections while fostering community engagement.
Content generated by the academic and public communities
will enable our mobile application to become sustainable
while becoming increasingly ingrained within the community
experience. In addition, it is serving as a pedagogical tool in
classrooms where students are developing information and
visual literacy skills through research, writing, and media
inclusion. 50 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
“Healthy futures: A collaborative virtual
internship program”
Eileen Harrington, Universities at Shady Grove
Although a few ALA-accredited library schools in the US now
offer master’s degrees or specializations in health informatics,
opportunities for students interested in health librarianship
remain limited in the majority of programs. In addition, a
shortage of librarians with a background in health or life sciences exists, but the need for health information professionals
continues to grow. Recognizing these challenges, the College of
Information Studies (iSchool) at the University of Maryland,
College Park (UMD), the Priddy Library at the Universities
at Shady Grove (USG) and the National Library of Medicine
(NLM) partnered to establish a virtual internship program,
which was launched in the fall of 2013. Since its inception,
four interns have participated in the program, and two more
will be starting in the fall of 2014.The goals of the program
are to foster the development of future health information
professionals; provide students with real-world experiences
in the field of health informatics; and develop leadership and
project management skills in students. These semester-long
internships are open to iSchool students at both College Park
and USG, as well as any student in any degree program at USG.
Opening it to a broader audience allows undergraduates in
public health or biological programs who might be thinking
about pursuing a career in librarianship to have experience
working in the field. It also addresses the shortage of librarians with a science- or health-related background working
in the field by encouraging students to join the profession.
This type of program could be adapted and implemented
in other ALA-accredited library schools possibly through
collaborations with NLM’s National Network of Libraries of
Medicine and/or local governmental or non-governmental
health-related agencies. This poster outlines the challenges,
successes and benefits of developing and implementing this
virtual internship program, as well as a discussion of future
research directions.
“‘I felt like such a freshman’: Integrating firstyear student identities through collaborative
reflective learning”
Paula Dempsey, University of Illinois at Chicago;
Heather Jagman, DePaul University
This poster reports on an information literacy exercise designed
collaboratively by four academic support units at DePaul
University in fall 2013. Working as an ACRL Assessment in
Action team, the library, writing center, Office for Academic
Advising, and Center for Students with Disabilities integrated
a library experience into an academic skills unit led by peer
mentors. First-year students were asked to consider a topic of
personal or academic interest, use the library discovery tool
to identify an item, physically find the item in the library, and
check it out. Data are essays reflecting on the experience by
97 students in a random sample of course sections.
Using a symbolic interactionist approach, qualitative analysis reveals patterns in how students used the opportunity
to weave past experiences, present goals, and interactions
with others into their emerging identities as college learners
(Scanlon, Rowling, and Weber 2007). Learning outcomes in
evidence include:
• Connecting intellectual interests with student life activities
• Planning for academic success
• Awareness of size/collection scope of an academic library
• Habits of mind (creativity, persistence, curiosity, learning
from mistakes)
• Affective gains (self-efficacy, confidence)
• Positive interactions with librarians and library staff
While exploratory, these findings provide a sound empirical basis for the value of designing early interventions as a
campus team.
References
Scanlon, Lesley, Louise Rowling, and Zita Weber. “’You Don’t Have like
an Identity ... You Are Just Lost in a Crowd’: Forming a Student Identity
in the First-Year Transition to University.” Journal of Youth Studies 10.2
(2007): 223–241.
vs. Faculty) but on an individual level? How can researchers
test and discover the unobserved user characteristics? Method: In spring 2014 the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign conducted the LibQUAL+(r) Lite Survey, an online
survey for assessing library service quality. Initially descriptive statistical analysis was conducted (e.g. cross-tabulation
by demographics). However, it was unclear if there were
significant relationships between User Groups and particular
questions under investigation. General Linear Models were
used to identify correlation in the data and some hidden user
characteristics (latent variables) emerged. Conclusion: When studying library users, one should look
beyond the demographics. For demographics are predefined
ways of characterizing populations we are studying. Utilizing
statistical models that can investigate relationships among
survey questions and their responses is needed to explore
hidden user characteristics that are not revealed through
demographic information. “An interdisciplinary approach to communitybased participatory research­—The case of
library and social work students and the
Westside of Chicago”
Sujin Huggins, Adrian Kok, Dominican University
Objective: Discuss how the commonly used demographic
information collected through polls and user surveys, while
descriptive, may have limitation in identifying library user
characteristics. Describe statistical models that can improve
our knowledge about library users. In Spring 2014, as part of a university-wide Community Based
Participatory Research Initiative at Dominican University,
the students of the Community Informatics course, offered
through the Graduate School of Library and Information
Science (GSLIS) and the students of the Community and
Evaluation course, offered through the Graduate School of
Social Work (GSSW), worked collaboratively on a research
project for the community-based organization, Austin Coming
Together (ACT), based on the Westside of Chicago. The
ACT was most interested in surveying organizations serving
youth (defined as age 12-24) in the Austin neighborhood to
determine the range of programs offered; the quality of these
programs; and the degree of collaboration that exists among
these organizations. Background: Library surveys often ask demographic questions such as age, user type or library use. However these
demographic questions are created by researchers’ preconceived notions which were formed based on existing library
statistics, user profiles, or simply by the researchers’ observation of the survey population. What if the demographics is
not a factor in survey responses? For example, if the average
library facilities satisfaction scores from two demographic
groups (Graduate Students and Faculty) are similar, does that
indicate the Graduate Student and Faculty respondents are
satisfied with library facilities the same way? What if there
are significant differences among the Graduate Students and
Faculty respondents not on group level (Graduate Students
It was determined by the lecturers that an interdisciplinary
approach to this project would be most beneficial to library
students and social work students, and ultimately most beneficial to the collaborative nature of the community-based
project given the different approaches, yet similar intent, of the
two disciplines. There was also a sense that there is a certain
degree of underpreparedness on the part of GSLIS students in
the area of research in general, and community-based research
in particular, in the current curriculum, while the GSSW
students were deemed to be less familiar with the range and
variety of technological tools that would enhance the research
that they are called upon to perform in communities and their
understanding of the impact of digital inclusion and exclusion
“Identifying library user characteristics and
looking beyond the demographics”
Jen-Chien Yu, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 51
on underserved communities. The main challenge, therefore,
was to deliver the content for each individual course in a condensed period of time and share content that addressed the
identified gaps, while simultaneously allowing the students
enough time together to learn about one another’s discipline
and their roles in community work as they developed and
implemented the survey in research teams. challenges faced, and the role of open access in shaping the
initiative. The poster will focus primarily on what the study
reveals about the ways in which these initiatives allow academic librarians to partner with faculty and administrators
on campus in novel ways, engage as funders of scholarly publishing, and create a new niche for themselves in the scholarly
communication lifecycle. Consequently, many lessons were learned along the way by all
involved: the lecturers, students, and the ACT, and this poster
presentation will highlight the most informative aspects of
those lessons. We will make available the syllabi used for each
course, which clearly outlined the goals and content of the
individual course; the goals of the collaboration; and the goals
of the project, as well as the content delivered separately and
collectively. We will also share the results of the inventory of
skills and experience that was administered at the start and
the end of the course; as well as the final survey instrument
that was developed and administered by the students; in
addition to student and lecturer feedback/reflections on the
research process and product. We fully intend to continue
our collaboration between the two schools and build upon
the lessons learned. The study found that librarians are embracing this new role
and being met with success in the form of positive reactions
from faculty and increased awareness and acceptance on
campus of alternative publishing models like open access.
The collected data reveals that librarians bring significant
expertise to the table, including a broad understanding of the
publishing landscape that encompasses journal economics,
intellectual property issues and copyright, authors’ rights, and
measurements of journal quality. Respondents reported that
library involvement in faculty publication funding encouraged faculty and administrators to view the library as a change
agent as well as an ally and trusted partner in navigating the
oftentimes complicated world of scholarly publishing.
“Library involvement in faculty publication
funds”
Jane Monson, University of Northern Colorado
The faculty publication fund is a fairly new concept in scholarly communication, and academic institutions across the
country have started experimenting with such programs as
a way to ease the financial burden for faculty who face prohibitive publication charges from both traditional and open
access scholarly publications. These charges typically come
in the form of article processing fees, which can range from
hundreds to thousands of dollars. Increasingly, the college or
university library is involved in these initiatives; in many cases
it is the library that administers the funds (often as a way to
encourage open access publishing). Libraries are therefore
poised to take a leading role on college and university campuses by developing and championing this emerging step in
the scholarly communication process.
Little research has been conducted to date on the role of college
and university libraries in the development and implementation of faculty publication funds at US institutions. The poster
reports on findings from a targeted, survey-based study of 11
small- and medium-sized academic libraries that have been
involved in the creation and/or administration of faculty
publication funds at their institution. The study, completed
earlier this year, looked at a variety of factors related to each
institution’s program, including primary catalysts for creating
the fund, disciplinary differences in funding awards, attempts
to market the program, faculty reaction to the fund, general
52 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
“The library as place for scholarly practice”
Nancy Falciani-White, Wheaton College
Current literature on “library as place” focuses on the library as
having intrinsic value, which portrays the library in a passive
light, and limits the ways in which it can market, advocate,
and engage with the academic community. A college or university campus comprises scholars at various
stages along a continuum ranging from internationallyrenowned researchers to incoming freshmen with little academic training or ability. The full range of scholarly activities
that exist along this continuum includes information seeking,
retrieval, and organization, concepts often considered the
traditional domain of any library. But also included on this
continuum are social engagement with others within the
discipline and in the broader community, teaching, and the
dissemination of research. These additional components
of scholarly practice are vital to the continued growth and
development of scholarship. Faculty members and established researchers typically have a
community within their discipline where much of this sharing
can occur. They attend and present at conferences, teach, and
submit articles for peer-review. All of these activities provide
opportunities feedback, critique, formal responses, and informal dialog. All of this feedback and social interaction feed
into a scholar’s research, allow it to mature, and provide some
reward to the scholar for the time they spend researching,
reading, writing, and experimenting. Students, particularly
undergraduates, often have much more limited access to the
full range of scholarly opportunities. A class may require a
15 minute presentation upon completion of a project, but
otherwise no one sees the result of their hard work except for
an overworked TA or professor. This gives students a narrow
view of research and academic work. Because students do not
have opportunities to participate in the social and community aspects of research, they miss out on significant pieces
of scholarly practice and thus are unable to take advantage
of opportunities for growth. The library has a vital role to play in providing space and
opportunities for these community and social aspects of
scholarly practice. It is perfectly positioned to provide a home
to interdisciplinary conversations, symposia, presentations,
and other social activities. While the library has always been
about information and will undoubtedly continue to play
a significant role in the management of information, there
is more to scholarship then information. Libraries need to
understand the work of scholars in order to partner more
fully with faculty, and better meet their needs and the needs
of the “scholars-in-training” who are our students. Engagement with scholarly practice allows the library to be more
than resources and access to resources, but full and active
participants in the work of their institution. Additionally, the library science outreach committee’s members
assisted in trainings, held monthly meetings, and in the future
will do field work by attending stranding events. These activities
attracted faculty, students, and a wide variety of community
citizens who formed a strong volunteer network. To date, the
total number of volunteer members is 65. The network held
three complete Level A Data Collection certification workshops and eight monthly meetings from January–April 2014.
The demographic make-up of the group includes faculty and
students from the main and branch campus sites, and volunteers from seven counties throughout the state of Florida. The second phase of this initiative is ongoing and will come
to fruition this summer. The program’s objective is to provide
an additional qualified marine mammal researcher for Taras,
with the possibility of student interns, to continue the Taras
Palm Beach Dolphin Project. For the first time, Palm Beach
County is the focus of a long-term effort to assess the conservation status of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and
related ecosystems. The short term goal of the research is to
obtain critical baseline data of the dolphins and their habitat,
and to create a photo-ID catalogue of all individual dolphins.
This poster will briefly outline scholarly practice as it was
defined and identified in my dissertation research, and explore
specific ways in which a full understanding of scholarly practice
impacts libraries and the ways in which they engage with the
academic community. The data upon which this definition is
based has already been collected and analyzed as part of my
completed dissertation research. These collaborative projects between the library and the
science community provide new outlets for student, staff,
and community learning, that enhance the current science
curriculum of the University’s Honors College, while promoting conservation for our ecosystems and marine mammals.
Certain learning outcomes include but are not limited to: “Marine mammal research and rescue:
A collaboration between scientists and
librarians”
• Promoting new research in marine biology and ecosystem
health
• Learning how to bridge involvement between a campus
library and the community
Leah Plocharczyk, Diane Arrieta, Florida Atlantic
University Libraries, MacArthur Campus at Jupiter
• Providing opportunities for unique student internships
that do not require travel outside of Palm Beach County
As an initiative to enhance student opportunities in the sciences, and to broaden the scope of staff learning activities, the
campus library’s science outreach committee partnered with
the Taras Oceanographic Foundation in Palm Beach County,
FL to create two new programs.
• Improving staff enrichment Program one’s aim was to assist the Director of Research at
Taras Oceanographic Foundation, with the launching of a new
marine Mammal Stranding Network in Palm Beach County.
Taras applied for the letter of authority (LOA) with the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to act
as lead organization responsible for any cetacean strandings
that would occur in the area. The campus library provided
Taras with a venue to hold volunteer training workshops and
monthly meetings for the network, and built a core volunteer
group that is professionally trained and able to respond to all
cetacean stranding events on our local beaches.
• Expanding the role of academics to reach beyond the
borders of the University
• Interdisciplinary partnering between library and information science with marine science
“Measuring academic library outreach
programming success”
Deborah Margolis, Ebony Magnus, Michigan State
University
In spring semester 2014, the Michigan State University Libraries hosted Let’s Talk about It: Muslim Journeys, a five session
lecture-and-book discussion series funded by a grant from
the National Endowment for the Humanities and administered by the American Library Association’s Public Programs
Office. In this paper, the liaison librarian who served as the
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 53
project director and user experience librarian present their
evaluation of the series. An anonymous feedback survey including both closed and
open questions was delivered to participants in printed form
at the end of each session, and also emailed to participants
(within one week of program date) for online completion. Data
has been gathered, and literature review, analysis, discussion,
and implications for libraries will be complete by August 15. Key questions for discussion include: how did the role of
community partners (local Islamic Center, local clergy association, state Humanities Council) and campus partners
(project scholar, academic units) impact enrollment? What
influence does personal recommendation have in recruiting
participants? How can diversity of audience in terms of age,
university affiliation, and religion (or other group identification) be measured without making participants feel uncomfortable? How successful was the programming in meeting
stated learning outcomes? How did programmatic choices
affect program accessibility and participant experience? Can
a feedback survey be helpful as both formative and summative evaluation tool? The researchers will discuss implications
for future outreach programming at their institution, and
share lessons learned about evaluating library/community
partnerships.
“Metadata workflows for remixed cultural
heritage content”
Jamie Wittenberg, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Increasingly, cultural heritage institutions have been working
to incorporate features into their collections and websites
that empower users to take ownership of cultural narratives.
Annotation tools, crowd-sourced tagging, and greater social
media presences are characteristic of libraries, archives, and
museums. Some institutions have begun to offer digital content
to patrons that they are encouraged to remix. Endorsement of
remixing as a way of engaging with cultural heritage material
requires a metadata infrastructure that can support description
of remixed content in a way that is comprehensive, interoperable, and scalable. The movement towards enabling remixes
of cultural heritage materials threatens existing metadata
models because it requires systemic change in the granularity
of descriptive metadata and in metadata creation workflows.
remain troublesome for libraries and publishers alike. A
number of the larger publishers continue to offer package deals
with a large number of titles ranging across subject areas, primarily with the aim of reducing the cost per title. While these
eBook packages can appear to be a good fit for ever-shrinking
library budgets, many libraries are noticing that these packages tend to have significant gaps in their coverage of many
subject areas. This study analyzes the coverage of several large
eBook packages from Cambridge, CRC Press, Elsevier, Sage,
and Wiley with the purpose of identifying which subject areas
are included, as well as the number of titles included in each
area. The study will reveal those subject areas well served in
eBook publishing and those that have a lot of room to grow.
With this information, selectors can better gauge gaps they
might need to fill with title-by-title purchasing or with print
purchasing. Furthermore, overlap between related disciplines
will become clear, empowering collaboration between selectors
as they make important eBook collection decisions.
“Opening the archival doors: A framework
for evaluating crowdsourced digital archive
collection policies”
Brandon Locke, Michigan State University
Over the last decade, cultural heritage institutions have worked
with a variety of technologies and methods to include the
knowledge and labor of the public in heritage collections.
These projects have typically included the addition of novel
keywords and tags and have had mixed success. They have also
largely failed to better include the knowledge and materials
of diverse and underrepresented communities. Srinivasan et
al. argues that in order to do so, cultural heritage institutions
must “...fundamentally [change] the philosophy with which
[they] approach documentation and description.”(2009, 275) Kelli Trei, Erin E. Kerby, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
One potential method for this is the creation of a digital archive
of materials contributed by members of the community.
Crowdsourced collections allow for the inclusion of community knowledge, and place determination of significance
in the hands of the community. Doing so allows the public
to determine historical significance in their own terms, gives
individuals the opportunity to describe materials in their
own terms, increases the size and variety of collections from
these communities, and includes the different perspectives
and multivocality within any given community. However, the
creation of an archive that draws upon the expertise of the
community can run counter to traditional archival practices,
which prize authority, control, and appraisal. Institutions
wishing to crowdsource materials in this way must carefully
consider the impacts of polices on inclusion, description,
and organization. While the availability of eBooks has increased significantly in
the past several years, the models for pricing and purchasing
I have selected four notable crowdsourced digital archives
for study: “Minding the gap: eBook coverage and
availability across disciplines”
54 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
• The September 11 Digital Archive, organized by the Center
for History and New Media at George Mason University
and the American Social History Project/Center for Media
and Learning at CUNY. • Bracero History Archive, organized by the Roy Rosenzweig
Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, the Smithsonian National Museum of American
History, Brown University, and the Institute of Oral History
at the University of Texas at El Paso. • History Harvest, organized by the Department of History
at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. • Our Marathon: The Boston Bombing Digital Archive &
WBUR Oral History Project, organized by the Northeastern University NULab, Northeastern University Libraries,
WBUR, Globe Lab, Digital Public Library of America,
WCVBTV, The Center for the History of Medicine at
Harvard, Iron Mountain, and the City of Boston. These archives employ various methods for balancing the
openness and freedom of crowdsourcing alongside notions
of control and organization required for archives. With this
poster, I seek to study the different policies in place for each
archive, including policies on inclusion and selection, factchecking, metadata creation, and intellectual property, and
develop a framework for evaluating these policies and their
effect on inclusion, description, and organization in crowdsourced digital archival collections. References Srinivasan, Ramesh, Robin Boast, Jonathan Furner, and Katherine M.
Becvar. “Digital Museums and Diverse Cultural Knowledges: Moving Past
the Traditional Catalog.” Information Society 25, no. 4 (July 2009): 268-279.
doi:10.1080/01972240903028714. “Pro se patron policy: Show it to the World
Wide Web”
Artie Berns, Corrine Vogel, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
This study is intended to help law libraries assist local community members who seek legal reference assistance. Unlike
librarians in other types of libraries, law librarians are in
a unique and often difficult position because they are not
permitted to give direct answers to many questions which
might be posed by members of the general public. Given
the number of persons unable to afford to pay attorney fees
coupled with the limited funding available for public legal
aid, the number of persons representing themselves (or pro
se litigants) in civil cases who arrive at a law library seeking
help is bound to increase.
Based on an assessment of ABA accredited law schools’ law
library websites, Berns and Vogel will present their findings
on the trends of official pro se patron policies. They recommend the adoption of official pro se patron policies in law
libraries and call for the conspicuous display of these policies
on each library’s primary webpage. Since the promulgation
of such policies would help define the law librarian’s role in
assisting self-representing patrons, this topic relates directly
to the American Association of Law Libraries’ Core Organizational Values including:
• Equitable and permanent public access to legal information
• Continuous improvement in access to justice
• Community and collaboration
• The essential role of law librarians within their organizations and in a democratic society
“Shaping places and shaping discussions
through collaboration: James Madison
University’s JMuse Café”
Paula Kiser, Anca Constantin, Klebert Feitosa,
Kelly Giles, Sheila Newman, Mark Peterson,
Jon Reed, Anne Stewart, Michael Trocchia,
James Madison University
JMuse Café was established by the James Madison University
(JMU) Libraries to provide an informal and lively forum for
students, faculty, staff and our local community to examine
topics of public interest together. JMuse Café is designed after
two concepts: a model of social knowledge sharing in scholarly
cafes and the model of expert knowledge sharing that has
long been the purview of libraries and academia. The result
is a bold initiative that engages diverse participants across the
university and broader community in robust conversations
about important matters.
The committee is comprised of JMU Libraries faculty and staff
and instructional faculty from several academic departments.
Each event hosted by JMuse Café features a panel discussion
by experts from the business, academic, or non-profit worlds,
followed by small group discussions at mixed tables of faculty,
staff, students, and community members, and finally a large
group discussion with each table reporting what they discussed.
Since Fall 2011, JMuse Café has partnered with a different
campus organization to explore a new theme, promoting discussion of public issues and public life. This past year, JMuse
partnered with JMU’s Institute for Visual Studies to examine
how communities remember, think about, and create places.
We hosted five discussions covering topics from how we
honor spaces that no longer exist to how to create new public
spaces that foster community. Each event was a collaborative effort between the university and the wider community.
Panelists from both the university and the local community
contributed their expertise. These events were well-attended
with an average of 67 people at each event and sparked lively
The Engaged Librarian: Libraries Partnering with Campus and Community 55
discussion among students and community members as well
as creating a public space for thoughtful engagement. JMuse Café also hosted two poetry readings that embodied
the spirit of collaboration across campus and community.
These readings featured faculty and student poets from JMU,
poets from the local community, and visiting poets from
other institutions. These readings highlighted the strength of
our community poets and provided many attendees with the
opportunity to attend their first reading by professional poets.
A JMU professor incorporated the JMuse Café programming
into her poetry course, with many of her students giving their
first public readings at our events.
We will be continuing our collaborative momentum into
the future by partnering with two faculty members from the
Department of Physics and Astronomy next year to present
programs designed to demystify the scientist using humor,
bridging the worlds of comedy and academia. In times when
so many forces seek to divide, we believe a JMuse Café poster
describing our innovative interdisciplinary and cross sector
experiences to create meaningful engagement with diverse
partners would contribute to the conference’s success.
“University of Central Florida’s campus
connections program”
Hal Mendelsohn, University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida’s John C. Hitt Library created
a program called Campus Connections in 2008. It was and
continues to be part of the library’s outreach program to educate
the student body on the various organizations and groups that
are available to them on campus. The Campus Connections
Program was organized to bridge the gap between university
services and the needs of the students. The Campus Connections Program offers an alternative compared to other campus
activities (i.e. orientations, campus fairs) for the students to
learn about organizations that help them in their educational,
professional, and personal development. Campus-wide fairs/
meetings/orientations are usual methods of bringing students
to one central place and alerting them to services found on
their university campus. Even though the library participates
in similar campus wide activities, the organizer wanted to
enrich the connection between students and the services on
campus by making it more personal.
“Using course design to create significant
learning in one-shot sessions: How
pedagogical research applies to librarians”
Heather Snapp, Florida Gulf Coast University
As First Year Experience Librarian at a university, one of my
main functions is teaching one-shot information literacy
56 L I B R A R Y R E S E A R C H S E M I N A R V I
sessions to freshmen students. Like most teachers, I sometimes
struggle to find new ways to keep the information engaging
for students. With only 60-75 minutes, I face the additional
challenge of providing students with a plethora of information
in a short time while trying to keep lecture-style instruction
to a minimum and capture assessment data at the end. Then I participated in a six-day Course Design Academy
through the Professional Development Center at my university. The course was rooted in the text Creating Significant
Learning Experiences by L. Dee Fink, who draws on and
goes beyond the developmental and pedagogical research of
Bloom, Anderson and Krathwohl, Chickering, Bruner, Wiggins,
and others. Fink identifies six categories in the taxonomy of
significant learning: foundational knowledge, application,
integration, human dimension, caring, and learning how to
learn—and we were challenged to apply these to the activities
in our course, for starters. The essential question of the course was: What do you want
your students to remember in two to five years? I obligatorily
answered this question in my journal but felt that it didn’t
really apply to me as an instructor of one-shot information
literacy sessions. After all, one of my main goals is for students
to remember how to use a database next week—or even just
remember how to get to it—so they can successfully complete
a research project. Going in, I felt like so much of course
design didn’t apply to the teaching I do with students; after
all, I didn’t have a course, per se, nor did I have a traditional
syllabus, the focus of the first day of the academy. I would
soon learn, however, that more of course design applied to
what I do than not. Working with education professors, e-learning designers,
and colleagues from a variety of disciplines, the experience
transformed the way I think about teaching and what I do with
students in the classroom. I started to realize, for example,
that hands-on activities during my sessions could serve as
assessments. I also started to see teaching beyond my session
and am starting to integrate activities and support before and
after my instruction through our online course management
system. Another pedagogical model I didn’t think applied
to the one-shot instruction sessions I did was the flipped
classroom concept.
In this poster, I will share some preliminary assessment data
comparing my previous two years of instruction with the new
curriculum I have created. Several examples of significant
learning practices will be presented, and further resources
such as book titles and web sites will be shared. My poster
will give conference participants some tools to transform their
teaching so they can create more significant learning experiences for their students—and be inspired to carry them out.