Types Of Academic Libraries Research Articles

Chat Reference

Chat reference services have become increasingly important in libraries providing remote reference assistance to users. The success of these services depends on several factors, including staffing and training. This literature review examines the relationship between question types, the staffing model, and the areas of improvement related to these issues. It draws on various sources, including qualitative and quantitative studies on chat transcripts from different types of academic libraries. Regarding question types, chat reference services are best suited to straightforward and factual queries, while more complex or subjective questions may require other assistance. Chat reference providers should also know the medium's limitations, such as difficulties displaying images or lengthy texts. In order to provide high-quality service, chat reference providers should ensure that staff have the necessary skills and knowledge, as well as appropriate levels of support and supervision. The review explores the advantages and disadvantages of student staffing in particular. Clear and effective communication strategies are also essential, including managing user expectations, providing timely responses, and following up as needed. Overall, this review provides a comprehensive overview of the literature around best practices for chat reference service providers, highlighting the importance of careful planning, implementation, and ongoing assessment.

Patterns of Two-Year College Library Websites

Trends in website design among libraries of two-year academic institutions have been under-studied. These libraries are a unique population because they have different goals and challenges than other types of academic libraries. Data were gathered from the library websites of 264 randomly-selected, two-year, nonprofit colleges in the United States. The data were then analyzed to assess the frequency of multiple basic web design elements. Some were common across the sample, such as database lists, and some were infrequent, such as social media integration. The data also showed some relationships between features, for example the presence of a database list tended to be a good indicator of whether a website would have course guides or subject-specific research guides.

Using a TeachMeet model to enhance collaboration in an information literacy instruction program

At Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus, an environmental scan revealed the need for a more focused approach on sustaining partnerships, pedagogical approaches, implementation of teaching technology, and assessment. This necessitated increased cooperation and communication among library faculty located at various campus libraries regarding participating in the information literacy instruction program. Therefore, a TeachMeet series was developed for sharing expertise, providing input on instruction and assessment techniques for undergraduate students, and for fostering more teamwork among librarians.The CIPP Evaluation Model was employed to determine the impact of the TeachMeets. It revealed an effective, impactful, and sustainable vehicle for communication and thereby for enhancing an instruction program. TeachMeets reached unexpected constituents and the term has now become common at the libraries, conveying the notion of professional development. This type of gathering allows for a wide range of topics, engages varied groups, and is adaptable to different types of academic libraries.

2016 top trends and issues in Jamaican academic libraries

PurposeBiennially, the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association, publishes a report on the top trends and issues affecting academic libraries in higher education. Harris (2016) used the trends and issues reported by the ACRL to inform a document and thematic analysis of publications written on Jamaican academic librarianship 2010-2016, to investigate the trends and issues in Jamaican academic librarianship. Harris’ (2016) paper however noted that a survey of the chief librarian in each library, regarding their perceptions of the trends and issues would be a useful follow-up to her study, and cited this as a limitation/implication of her paper. The purpose of this paper is to address the above limitation and is therefore the follow-up to Harris’ (2016) paper.Design/methodology/approachThe chief librarians in five of the six local university libraries were surveyed to provide insights into the trends and issues in Jamaican academic libraries at the university level.FindingsAcquisitions, budget, staffing, communicating value, digital preservation and curation, mobile environment, collaboration, scholarly communication, information technology, space, higher education, user behaviour and expectations and information literacy are the top trends and issues in Jamaican academic libraries at the university level.Research limitations/implicationsThis survey seeks to complement rather than contest Harris’ (2016) research. Perhaps a useful follow-up to both papers would be biennial updates. Additionally, a survey of the trends and issues in all types of academic libraries throughout the English-speaking Caribbean would be a useful follow-up.Originality/valueThis paper is of value, as it is the first survey of trends and issues in Jamaican academic librarianship. It enriches the existing document and thematic analytical research on trends and issues in Jamaican academic libraries by adding an empirical component. It also increases the number of publications, on trends and issues in Jamaican academic librarianship, from one to two, and allows voices from the English-speaking Caribbean (Jamaica) to be incorporated into the literature dedicated to trends and issues in academic libraries.

OhioLINK – recent developments at a United States academic library consortium

Purpose This paper aims to provide an update to Tom Sanville’s 2007 overview of OhioLINK, a renowned US academic library consortium, and describe the current state of activity and services. Design/methodology/approach The approach used is descriptive. Findings OhioLINK’s main collaborative services include document delivery, resource sharing and the establishment of digital libraries, including electronic journals, electronic books and open-access materials such as electronic theses and dissertations. This update to Tom Sanville’s 2007 overview of OhioLINK issues and developments describes the current state of collaborative library services and resource sharing a decade later, including the challenges of hosted institutional repositories and the implications of shifting from shared print to e-book collections at the network level. Originality/value OhioLINK trends provide a snapshot of changing activity and sustainability in library resource sharing at network scale across many different types of academic libraries.

Circulation Policies in Academic Medical Libraries: A Comparative Study of Allocation Strategies, Demographic Analysis, Service Offerings, and Implications for Practice

The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of current academic medical library circulation polices and examine methods libraries utilize to meet patron needs. Key informants were selected from five states. Statistics regarding financial practices, users, services, space access, and circulation practices were collected via survey instrument. Findings were analyzed to identify current services and differences in practice. Circulation practices among academic medical libraries vary, but common trends exist. Further study should compare strategies and policies in academic medical libraries with practices in other types of academic libraries to enhance service development and identify unique variables.

Measuring the Quality of Contributions of Saudi Authors to LIS Journals Using Journal Impact Factor (JIF), SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), and Google Scholar Metrics (GSM)

This research study evaluates the quality of articles published by Saudi and expatriate authors in foreign Library and Information Science (LIS) journals using three popular metrics for ranking journals—Journal Impact Factor (JIF), SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), and Google Scholar Metrics (GSM). The reason for using multiple metrics is to see how closely or differently journals are ranked by the three different methods of citation analysis. However, the 2012 JIF list of journals is too small, almost half the size of the SJR and GSM lists, which inhibited one-to-one comparison among the impact factors of the thirty-six journals selected by Saudi authors for publishing articles. Only seventeen journals were found common to all the three lists, limiting the usefulness of the data. A basic problem is that Saudi LIS authors generally lack the level of competency in the English language required to achieve publication in the most prominent LIS journals. The study will have implications for authors, directors, and deans of all types of academic libraries; chairmen and deans of library schools; and the Saudi Library Association. Hopefully these entities will take necessary steps to prepare and motivate both academics and practicing librarians to improve the quality of their research and publications and thus get published in higher ranked journals.

Maternity and Paternity Policies Available to Academic Librarians

This study examines how frequently parental leave and other related childcare policies are available to academic librarians across the United States. It also looks at the relationships between policies offered and types of academic libraries that offer those policies. The author surveyed administrators at academic libraries serving baccalaureate, master’s, and research institutions and discovered that benefits available to academic librarians are not as generous as those available to faculty, and that tenured and tenure-track librarians fare better than counterparts who are not eligible for tenure.

Measuring Effectiveness in a Virtual Library

Measuring quality of service in academic libraries traditionally includes quantifiable data such as collection size, staff counts, circulation numbers, reference service statistics, qualitative analyses of customer satisfaction, shelving accuracy, and building comfort. In the libraries of the third millennium, virtual worlds, Web content and remote customer populations mean that traditional measures of quality service are no longer complete. Applying methods to quantify effectiveness is vital to future success, and is a necessary precursor to examining quality of service. This case study of a small, virtual academic library, created to serve a non-traditional student population, faculty, and community, illustrates the use of measures such as the saturation rate of student population, the percentage of bibliographic sessions and orientations compared to number of courses offered, and Web site traffic patterns. As library services are affected by factors such as self-sufficient customers, declining physical collections, staff cuts, and increases in virtual traffic, all types of academic libraries may find it useful to implement the relatively uncomplicated data analysis explored in this article, in addition to established methodologies.

Larger, Higher-level Academic Institutions in the US Do Not Necessarily Have Better-resourced Library Web Teams.

A Review of:
 Connell, Ruth Sara. "Survey of Web Developers in Academic Libraries." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 34.2 (2008): 121-29.
 
 Objective – To discover how library Web teams’ staffing, backgrounds, tools, and professional development differ among various types of academic libraries.
 
 Design – Survey.
 
 Setting – Academic libraries in the United States.
 
 Subjects – Academic library Web team members.
 
 Methods – A systematic sample of every twelfth institution on The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education list was used to establish a sample group. A Web search was carried out to identify each institution’s library Web site and contact information for the Web site designer or most appropriate alternative person. Institutions were excluded from the sample if they had no Web site at all, had no library Web site, had a Web site that did not mention a library, or had a Spanish-language Web site.
 
 In September 2006 an e-mail was sent to the contact for each institution in the sample group asking them to participate in an online survey. A follow up e-mail was sent two weeks later and the survey closed after one month. The survey respondents were asked to identify their institutions so that analysis of the results in relation to the size and type of institution could be carried out. The researchers used a simplified version of the Carnegie classification to sort the responding institutions into five main groups.
 
 Main Results – The systematic sample consisted of 288 institutions (sample size 6.5%).
 The profile of the responding institutions was as follows: associate’s colleges (35.5%), baccalaureate colleges (18.2%), master’s colleges and universities (20.9%), doctorate-granting universities (9%) and special focus institutions (15.5%). A total of 110 institutions completed the survey, yielding a response rate of 38.19%, although not all respondents answered all the survey questions. The final sample of 110 was 2.5% of the total 4384 institutions on the Carnegie list.
 
 Seventy-one per cent of institutions with multiple libraries shared Web teams, with two-year colleges more likely (91.7%) to share a Web team than four-year or above institutions (60.9%). The majority of responding institutions (94.4%) used in-house library Web site design, with only 5.6% of respondents outsourcing this task. Nearly half (49%) of respondents indicated that library Web design was done by one person and even the larger libraries did not necessarily have larger Web teams. 
 
 Very few Web team members (4.9%) had Web design as their primary role; the majority (83.5%) indicated that it was just one component of their job. Web team members from master’s- and doctorate-granting institutions were more likely to have taught themselves Web design, while those from associate, baccalaureate and special focus colleges were more likely to have taken Web design courses. For all respondents, the most commonly listed quality for selection to the Web team was an interest in Web design and the most valued skill for library Web designers was the ability to organise information effectively. Knowledge of Web authoring software and basic HTML coding were the most commonly listed knowledge requirements for Web team members. A significant number of respondents indicated that they or other Web team members did not have access to Web authoring (36.9%) and image editing (52%) software. 
 
 Generally (except for two very large institutions), the larger institutions were more likely to use database-driven systems for their library Web sites and the smaller institutions were more likely to use content management systems. Associate’s and special focus colleges were less likely than other types of institutions to use either database driven or content management systems. Associate’s institutions were more likely to achieve ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Web accessibility compliance. Only 48.6% of respondents utilised usability testing during Web site design.
 
 Conclusion – The author expected that institutions providing higher levels of education would have better-resourced Web design and training, but the results of the survey did not support this expectation. One reason why associate’s colleges performed better than other institutions in some areas of Web design may be that these colleges tend to offer more Web design and computer technology courses than baccalaureate, master’s and doctorate-granting institutions.
 
 Web site design and testing attracted fewer resources than might be expected in academic libraries. Across all types of institutions, Web design tended to be the responsibility of a small team or one person, with most Web designers having other responsibilities apart from the library’s Web site. Just over half of the institutions surveyed did not implement usability testing of their library Web sites.

The Persistence of Superseded Subject Headings in Online Catalogs

This study examined the degree to which the bibliographic records in academic libraries' online catalogs continue to use LCSHs that LC has replaced with new headings and to determine if there is a difference in the continued use of old headings by different types of academic libraries. Results indicate that old headings are regularly found in library catalogs even after the examined libraries had started to use the new replacement headings and even after authority work is in place for the new heading.

Serials Cancellations in College and Small University Libraries

ABSTRACT All types of academic libraries have had to contend with escalating print serials subscription costs for a number of years together with the increasing prevalence of electronic serials. Yet, the literature has described the situation mainly in university and research libraries. How have college and small university libraries coped with this situation, and what actions have they taken? Based on a national survey, this article reveals that college and small university libraries have, in general, adopted a highly rational approach in managing their print serials collections as well as developing hybrid serials collections of print and electronic resources.

A Comparison of Print and Electronic Journal Holdings in Academic and Public Libraries

The past few years have seen an enormous growth in the number of journals that libraries can access electronically. This is a well-researched and well-documented phenomenon, but no studies have compared the actual number of electronic journals a library can access, particularly in comparison with the total number of journals they receive through all sources, including print. The growth of serials management companies suggests the possibility of this research. Through analysis of resources tracked by Serials Solutions, Inc., one can get a firm grasp on how many electronic journals a library is tracking, in comparison with the number of print or microfilm titles they have. This article presents the first comprehensive analysis of how many journals public and various types of academic libraries can access electronically, rather than in print. While highlighting the incredible increase in access to information electronically, it also identifies the limitations of the current research, particularly regarding libraries' print holdings. As data collection improves, future research will be more accurate, and will provide a basis for studying both the growth of electronic access to journals and the expected reduction in print access to journals.

Historical Dictionary of the Great Depression, 1929–1940. By James S. Olson. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Pp. viii, 355. $90.00.

In recent years James S. Olson has become the historical profession's leading producer of historical dictionaries. Beginning with his volume on the New Deal in1985, he has gone on to produce similar reference works for the 1920s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, for the ethno-history of China, Africa, and the Indians of Central and South America, and for such diverse topics as U.S. economic history, European imperialism, and the British and Spanish empires. The work under review is the latest addition to this reference shelf and like its companion volumes should be a useful tool in all types of academic libraries, from high school up. Like the others, it is geared to provide quick, concise, sound, and clearly written references to the details of a particular body of historical experience. In it one can consult some 479 short, alphabetically arranged, Olson-authored essays, ranging in length from four lines (“Black Tuesday”) to three pages (“Roosevelt, Franklin Delano”), and take from them the essential facts about and historical significance of the people, events, laws, agencies, products, and other topics deemed worthy of inclusion. In addition, cross-references are marked by asterisks within the essays; each essay is followed by at least one “suggested reading”; and appended at the end are a list of acronyms, a useful chronology, a brief but good general bibliography, and a well-constructed index.