North American Libraries Research Articles

Julius Petzholdt and the North American Library World: Transatlantic Circulation of Bibliothecal Knowledge in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract Despite his many contributions to bibliography and librarianship, the importance of the German librarian Julius Petzholdt (1812–91) has rarely been recognized. This article argues that Petzholdt’s significance becomes clearer when viewed from a transcultural, and specifically transatlantic, perspective. The first part of the article highlights the part played by Petzholdt’s long-lived bibliographical periodical, the Anzeiger für Bibliographie und Bibliothekswissenschaft, in disseminating knowledge of North American libraries and librarianship to a broad scholarly audience in the second half of the nineteenth century. Conversely, the second section of the article illustrates how Arnim Graesel’s 1890 and 1902 editions of Petzholdt’s seminal work on library economy, the Katechismus der Bibliothekenlehre (1856), serve to illuminate bibliothecal themes from Western Europe that were adopted, adapted, and perpetuated by North American librarians during the same period. Overall, the article emphasizes that Petzholdt and his contributions played a key role in the transatlantic circulation of bibliothecal knowledge during a critical period in the evolution of librarianship as a profession.

Studi celtici by Filippo Motta

Reviewed by: Studi celtici by Filippo Motta Joseph F. Eska (bio) Filippo Motta, Studi celtici, ed. Andrea Nuti. Pisa: Pisa University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-88-3339-275-2. xxiv + 518 pages. €32.00. This volume of collected papers by Filippo Motta (FM), Professor of Linguistics and Celtic Philology at the Università di Pisa, edited by his former student, Andrea Nuti, should have a place on the bookshelf of everyone interested in early Celtic philology and linguistics. Many of the 20 included papers (of the 90 that he has published through 2019) were originally published in journals and volumes not commonly found in North American libraries. Some are not found in North American libraries at all. A number of the papers included in the volume are among FM’s best known works, including ‘Per un’interpretazione della Faccia B del bronzo di Botorrita’ (1980), in which he identifies the onomastic character and structure of Face B of this most important of Celtiberian inscriptions. Other well known works include ‘I Leponti. La documentazione epigrafica e linguistica’ (2000), a collection and linguistic commentary, with excellent photographs, of the Lepontic epigraphic corpus as known at the time; ‘Sulla declinazione celtica dei temi in -ā’ (1988), occasioned by the discovery of novel ā-stem inflexional morphemes in the Transalpine Celtic inscription of Larzac; and ‘Tipologie dell’onomastica personale celtica nell’Italia antica’ (2009), which examines the types of idionyms, patronymics, and onomastic formulae found in the Celtic of ancient northern Italy. Others papers are not as well known (but should be), at least in North America, but this is a question of accessibility. These include ‘Brevi note sulle bilingui ogamico-latine di Britannia’ (1988) and ‘La sala del convivio dei fabbri gallici. Per l’etimologia di gall. celicnon’ (2001), in which FM convincingly demonstrates that the well known Transalpine Celtic forms celicnon (RIG L–13; acc. sg.) and celicnu (RIG L–13; dat. sg.) are to be connected to the Celtic stem */kheːljo/-attested in OIr. céile and MW kilyd ‘fellow, companion,’1 thus superseding an earlier proposal of my own and providing a ready explanation for the phonology of the Gothic borrowing kelikn (in which 〈e〉 represent /eː/). We should also be grateful for the inclusion of two papers on the rock inscriptions from Carona (Bergamo), ‘Val Brembana Golasecchiana. Nuove testimonianze epigrafiche da Carona’ (2008) and ‘Sulle ultime campagne di studio delle epigrafi preromane di Carona’ (2016), which originally appeared in the magazine Terra Insubre aimed at a non-academic audience, but which contain useful information on these understudied inscriptions. [End Page 261] Other papers by FM included in this collection touch upon issues pertaining to Celtic culture and anthropology, etymology, and the historiography of the Italian Celticists Tristano Bolelli and Graziadio Isaia Ascoli. This well produced volume also includes FM’s bibliography through 2019 and indices of cited forms and names. One only wishes that more could have been included. ABBREVIATIONS RIG L–1–16 Lejeune 1988 RIG L–18–*139 Lambert 2002 Joseph F. Eska Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University Joseph F. Eska Joseph F. Eska [eska@vt.edu] is Professor of Language Sciences in the Department of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. His research interests focus upon all aspects of the historical linguistics of the Celtic languages. He is the editor of the North American journal of Celtic studies and co-editor of Indo-European linguistics. References Lambert, Pierre-Yves. 2002. Recueil des inscriptions gauloises ii/2, Textes gallo-latins sur instrumentum. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Google Scholar Lejeune, Michel. 1988. Recueil des inscriptions gauloises ii/1, Textes gallo-étrusques. Textes gallo-latins sur pierre. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Google Scholar Russell, Paul. 2013. From compound to derivative. The development of a patronymic ‘suffix’ in Gaulish. In Continental Celtic word formation. The onomastic evidence, ed. Juan Luis García Alonso, 201–214. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca. Google Scholar Footnotes 1. Subsequently discovered independently by Russell 2013: 208–209. Copyright © 2022 The Ohio State University Press

The New Public Library: Design Innovation for the Twenty-First Century

The New Public Library: Design Innovation for the Twenty-First Century

“Librarianship as Citizenship”: The Promise of Community-Based Learning in North American Library and Information Science Education

This article argues for the usefulness of experiential learning as a vehicle for democratic civic engagement in North American library and information science programs. First, we explore the literature on service learning, traditionally the primary type of experiential learning in LIS. We define and provide historical context and scrutinize service learning’s benefits and challenges for students, faculty, LIS programs, and parent institutions. Second, we trace the evolution of experiential learning from service learning to community-based learning (CBL); we underline the ways in which such an approach in its epistemology and its practice transcends the traditional service-learning model. Finally, we unpack the novel ways in which one iSchool’s LIS program is implementing community-based learning, namely by embracing data science and design thinking in its pedagogical approach to a new three-course, twelve-credit post-Bachelor’s certificate (PBC). We discuss the institutional context for the certificate, the project partners, the 12 PBC Fellows, and the curriculum, which includes three new courses (Design Thinking for Digital Community Service, Data Analytics for Community-Based Data and Service, and a capstone).

Integration of Information Behavior into Reference and Information Services Education: A Syllabus Study

Information behavior is an important area of conceptual knowledge for reference service providers, as it provides structure for understanding users’ information seeking and use. This study explores the extent to which information behavior theories, models, and concepts have been integrated into professional education for reference and information service (RIS) through a syllabus study and textbook review. In addition, the study identifies specific information behavior theories, models, and concepts used in introductory RIS courses. Syllabi for introductory RIS courses taught at North American library and information science programs were analyzed for information behavior content, as were the textbooks required by the syllabi. Results show that about two-thirds of introductory RIS courses include instruction in information behavior theories, models, and concepts. Overall, the most impactful information behavior theories and models from the literature are introduced.

The common cosmopolitan reading culture of eighteenth-century Europe and North America: new digital perspectives

This article uses a range of digital historical bibliometric resources to explore how far it is possible to speak of a common reading culture across Western Europe and North America in the later eighteenth century. It looks at the holdings and borrowing records of British and North American libraries and edition count data drawn from the Eighteenth-Century Collections Online and the English Short Title Catalogue and compares them with French and Swiss evidence drawn from the publishing records of the Société Typographique de Neuchâtel, Parisian stock sale and confiscation records, and records of print runs and provincial legalisations of counterfeit stock. From this preliminary survey, the article suggests that there was a strong enough overlap between elite reading of novels, travel literature, and history to suggest that Britain and English-speaking North America shared a common reading culture with much of Western Europe. Further research in coming years is expected to flesh out and clarify this picture.

Where Do We Stand? Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in North American Library and Information Science Education

The field of LIS continues to face a vexing paradox. Its longstanding ideal of and concomitant commitment to serving diverse communities and users equally has failed to translate into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the profession or in LIS education. This article analyzes efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in North American LIS programs between 1971 and 2018. First, it addresses change and continuity in diversity-centered LIS scholarship over time. Second, it unpacks key terms such as diversity, equity, and inclusion. Third, it underlines the importance of and mandate for diversity, adducing demographic change and social justice, and suggests cultural competence as a key vehicle for DEI work. Fourth, it examines recruitment and retention efforts and their results, strategies to weave DEI and social justice topics into the curriculum, and barriers to such efforts. Finally, areas for further research are suggested.

Gonzalo Núñez, Rubén Darío y el manuscrito Los arcanos de la música

We examine the history and circumstance in the life of Puerto Rican composer Gonzalo Núñez (1850-1915) during the period from 1900 to 1903. During his second sojourn in Paris he maintained a close personal relationship with Rubén Darío and Amado Nervo, joined by other poets, writers and artists. An extensive on-site research work, conducted in various European, North American and Caribbean libraries and archives, permitted us to gather documentation about the nomadic life of the musician in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Europe and North America. We show that Núñez’s unpublished manuscript Los arcanos de la música, housed in the Archive of Music and Sound of Puerto Rico, is the main source of two important articles by Rubén Darío.

A Meditation on the Translation of Our America

This translation of José Martí's Nuestra América (Our America) and accompanying essay offer English-speaking readers a new version of his seminal text, situating it more firmly within the realm of literary and translation studies, and decentering it from the world of Latin American history or politics, where the extant English translations tend to live in North American libraries. The translator’s meditation focuses on some of the more poetic aspects of Martí's language and the logic he employs to create interconnected evolving metaphors and metonyms, while also explaining some of the lexical and syntactic choices made in key areas that have traditionally caused difficulty with previous translations of this essay.

The Vatican School of Librarianship in a Time of Change: Current Organization and Future Perspectives

Founded in 1934, the Vatican School of Librarianship, in its early days, aimed at forming both secular and religious librarians following the North American library tradition. Later on, teaching has been largely based on international standards. A brief outline of the initial setting of the School is provided. Presently, the School includes eight courses, ranging from those having a more historical approach to ones which focus on specific more technical skills, such as cataloguing, metadata and data management, reference services, document delivery and information literacy, library services, networking and digital libraries, preservation of printed material, and digital archives. In order to maintain the native hands-on approach, theoretical teaching is backed by lectures and laboratory lessons with practical exercises and teaching on the field. Moreover, internships have been agreed with libraries and educational institutions. To keep up pace with job-market requirements, a series of workshops aiming at providing students with soft skills is organized each year. By taking active part in these workshops, they are confronted with the need to rely upon common sense, the ability to deal with peers, and the need to develop a positive and flexible attitude. In order to assess their satisfaction and to get some useful feedback for further enhancing the quality of teaching, a survey was carried out among current and previous students.

Free and for all? A comparative study of programs with user fees in North American and Danish public libraries

PurposeAs a research topic within the field of LIS, programs in public libraries are underexplored, and the question of user fees for programs has not previously been addressed.Design/methodology/approachThis article compares data collected from two individually conducted studies of public library programs in North America and Denmark to enrich our understanding of user fees in relation to programs.FindingsThe comparative analysis shows both similarities and deviations regarding the levying of fees for library programs. While paying a fee to attend a program is rather normal in Denmark, it is more of a fringe idea in North America.Research limitations/implicationsBy exploring a previously understudied facet of contemporary public librarianship, this article opens up new avenues for inquiry regarding how the relative accessibility and availability of programs relate to theoretical discussions about programs as public library services.Practical implicationsThis article provides library managers with needed information about how to conceptualize the roles of programs as public library services.Social implicationsAs programming surges to the fore in contemporary public librarianship, the levying of user fees has social implications in terms of social equity and the public library ethos of free and equal access for all.Originality/valueThis article is the first study of user fees for public library programs, as well as among the first cross-national comparisons of programming as a dimension of public librarianship.

Social justice in library science programs: A content analysis approach

In an increasingly globalized world, social justice issues dominate the news. Libraries are often viewed as places where social justice ideals are upheld and promoted. This paper uses a content analysis methodology of 10 North American library and information science program websites to discover how social justice education is marketed to potential students through an examination of open access course descriptions, mission statements, and core learning objectives where available. Findings indicate that social justice is embedded in library and information science programs, but there are limited opportunities for prospective students to seek out these courses due to a lack of open access course descriptions and mission statements and shortage of integration in required courses. If library and information science educators want to attract future librarians with strong social justice agendas, then the promotional materials will need to be more explicit in regards to how these programs can aid students in building a social justice mindset.

Knowledge Organization For Open Scholarship

This introductory piece explores the role that subject description—the work of determining an object’s aboutness and assigning relevant terms—has in creating infrastructures for open scholarship. Of particular concern is the potential to adopt the dominant, universalist systems common across North American libraries and databases, or to shift to situated and accountable systems that take care to describe objects consistent with the values of local communities of creators and readers.

A cohort study of how faculty in LIS schools perceive and engage with open-access publishing

This article presents results from a survey of faculty in North American Library and Information Studies (LIS) schools about their attitudes towards and experience with open-access publishing. As a follow-up to a similar survey conducted in 2013, the article also outlines the differences in beliefs about and engagement with open access that have occurred between 2013 and 2018. Although faculty in LIS schools are proponents of free access to research, journal publication choices remain informed by traditional considerations such as prestige and impact factor. Engagement with open access has increased significantly, while perceptions of open access have remained relatively stable between 2013 and 2018. Nonetheless, those faculty who have published in an open-access journal or are more knowledgeable about open access tend to be more convinced about the quality of open-access publications and less apprehensive about open-access publishing than those who have no publishing experience with open-access journals or who are less knowledgeable about various open-access modalities. Willingness to comply with gold open-access mandates has increased significantly since 2013.

Recent American Library School Graduate Disciplinary Backgrounds are Predominantly English and History

A Review of:
 Clarke, R. I., & Kim, Y.-I. (2018). The more things change, the more they stay the same: educational and disciplinary backgrounds of American librarians, 1950-2015. School of Information Studies: Faculty Scholarship, 178. https://surface.syr.edu/istpub/178
 Abstract
 Objective – To determine the educational and disciplinary backgrounds of recent library school graduates and compare them to librarians of the past and to the general population.
 Design – Cross-sectional.
 Setting – 7 library schools in North America.
 Subjects – 3,191 students and their 4,380 associated degrees.
 Methods – Data was solicited from every ALA-accredited Master of Library Science (MLS) program in the United States of America, Canada, and Puerto Rico on students enrolled between 2012-2016 about their undergraduate and graduate degrees and areas of study. Data was coded and summarized quantitatively. Undergraduate degree data were recoded and compared to the undergraduate degree areas of study for the college-educated American population for 2012-2015 using the IPEDS Classification of Instructional Programs taxonomic scheme. Data were compared to previous studies investigating librarian disciplinary backgrounds.
 Main Results – 12% of schools provided data. Recent North American library school graduates have undergraduate and graduate degrees with disciplinary backgrounds in humanities (41%), social sciences (22%), professions (17%), Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) (11%), arts (6%), and miscellaneous/interdisciplinary (3%). Of the humanities, English (14.68%) and history (10.43%) predominate. Comparing undergraduate degrees with the college-educated American population using the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) classification schema, recent library school graduates have a higher percentage of degrees in social sciences and history (21.37% vs. 9.24%), English language and literature/letters (20.33% vs. 2.65%), computer and information science (6.54% vs. 2.96%), and foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics (6.25% vs. 1.1%). Compared to librarians in the past, there has been a decline in recent library school graduates with English language and literature/letters, education, biological and physical sciences, and library science undergraduate degrees. There has been an increase in visual and performing arts undergraduate degrees in recent library school graduates. 
 Conclusion – English and history disciplinary backgrounds still predominate in recent library school graduates. This could pose problems for library school students unfamiliar with social science methodologies, both in school and later when doing evidence-based practice in the work place. The disciplinary backgrounds of recent library school graduates were very different from the college-educated American population. An increase in librarians with STEM backgrounds may help serve a need for STEM support and provide more diverse perspectives. More recent library school graduates have an arts disciplinary background than was seen in previous generations. The creativity and innovation skills that an arts background provides could be an important skill in librarianship.

Low Morale in Ethnic and Racial Minority Academic Librarians: An Experiential Study

Library and information science (LIS) literature about workplace bullying and burnout in academic libraries continues to grow, and a recent study has revealed the experience of low morale in the same environment. Concomitantly, research focusing on continuing recruitment, promotion, advancement, and retention problems for ethnic and minority librarians; links between North American library values and workplace abuse; and historiographies on the historic marginalization of minority librarians has also appeared in LIS literature. Citing aforementioned developments in LIS literature and the racially homogenous participant make-up of Kendrick's 2017 study of low morale in academic libraries, this follow-up qualitative study focuses on racial and ethnic minority academic librarians to understand this group's experience of low morale. Emerging data validate the development, trajectory, and health-related consequences of low morale; center the load of additional impact factors; and highlight the impact of low morale on recruitment and retention efforts of racial and ethnic minority librarians employed in North American colleges and universities.

Munich to Manhattan: German Bibliothekswissenschaft and the Beginnings of North American Library Science Education

Abstract The achievements of German librarians in establishing Bibliothekswissenschaft—the science of libraries—were internationally acknowledged in the nineteenth century. The first part of this a...

How Public Libraries are Keeping Pace with the Times: Core Services of Libraries in Informational World Cities

AbstractIn a survey of 31 informational world cities, we investigate the state of the art public library core services. For this study, we applied the core service catalog developed by (Mainka, A., S. Hartmann, L. Orszullok, I. Peters, A. Stallmann, and W. G. Stock. 2013. “Public Libraries in the Knowledge Society: Core Services of Libraries in Informational World Cities.”Libri63 (4): 295–319. 10.1515/libri-2013-0024), counted the services offered by the libraries and compared findings with the results from 2013, allowing us to calculate a score for each library and rank them accordingly. An overall improvement of the range of services was observed, with North American libraries taking the top three positions in the ranking. To get a clearer picture of the challenges facing libraries today, personal interviews were also conducted with (chief) librarians, especially concerning developments such as maker spaces, increasing demand for information literacy instruction and the changing role of physical library space. The results presented in this paper highlight best practice examples of library services in prototypical cities of the knowledge society.

Research Support in Health Sciences Libraries: A Scoping Review

Background:As part of a health sciences library’s internal assessment of its research support services, an environmental scan and literature review were conducted to identify research services offered elsewhere in Canada. Through this process, it became clear that a more formal review of the academic literature would help libraries make informed decisions about their services. To address this gap, we conducted a scoping review of research services provided in health sciences libraries contexts.Methods:Searches were conducted in Medline, Embase, ERIC, CINAHL, LISTA, LISS, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Google for articles which described the development, implementation, or evaluation of one or more research support initiatives in a health sciences library context. We identified additional articles by searching reference lists of included studies and soliciting medical library listservs.Results:Our database searches retrieved 7134 records, 4026 after duplicates were removed. Title/abstract screening excluded 3751, with 333 records retained for full-text screening. Seventy-five records were included, reporting on 74 different initiatives. Included studies were published between 1990 and 2017, the majority from North American and academic library contexts. Major service areas reported were the creation of new research support positions, and support services for systematic review support, grants, data management, open access and repositories.Conclusion:This scoping review is the first review to our knowledge to map research support services in the health sciences library context. It identified main areas of research service support provided by health sciences libraries that can be used for benchmarking or information gathering purposes.

The Role of the University Library in Supporting International Student Transition: Insights From an Australian-American Case Study

As an outcome of the Libraries and Information for International Students Project (LIISP), this paper presents insights into first year international students' experiences of using library resources, services and spaces at their host university. It focuses on a collective case study conducted between 2014 and 2016 at one Australian and three North American libraries, with 320 first year international students. The research design was informed by the Project Information Literacy study of US first year domestic students' library use (Head, 2013). Data were collected via survey and semi-structured interviews, and analyzed thematically. Findings of the four cases were compared with each other, and with the PIL study. Four key insights emerged:•International students are characterised by their diversity and individuality.•First year international students' library and information use, and associated challenges are generally similar to those of US domestic first year students transitioning from high school to university.•The challenges international students experience generally relate to unfamiliarity of the socio-cultural environment and academic and library practices at their host university, rather than generalised educational deficit.•The library is vital to supporting international students' transition to life and study at a host university.The findings inform library space design and inclusive transition support that integrates informed learning and transition pedagogy. They are relevant to university administrators, librarians and educators in culturally diverse higher education.