This study used a qualitative case study method to explore the position of a subject librarian in a large academic library in the United States using the subject librarians at Brigham Young University as the case. In the first phase of the study, all Brigham Young University subject librarians were given the opportunity to participate in a…

This article reports on research done at Brigham Young University on supporting teaching with primary sources. It reviews the literature on primary source literacy and lessons gleaned from interviews with faculty to begin to identify the competencies necessary to teach the skills of primary source literacy. It breaks these competencies down into…

Researchers in the Graduate and Undergraduate Services (GUS) department at the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah designed and created a collaborative service interaction space to alleviate symptoms of library anxiety. This plan led to several iterations of purchase and renovation proposals. After a lengthy design period, the…

With the continued growth and evolution of distance education at many colleges and universities, academic librarians must be prepared to respond to the changing needs of distance users. This article discusses the results of a utilization assessment of distance instructors at five midsized American universities. The results inform libraries about…

As distance education programs grow at college and universities across the country, libraries must ensure virtual reference services are prepared to meet the needs of patrons in these programs. This article describes the process and results of a 2018 chat analysis conducted at a midsize research university with a large distance education program.…

In 2015 the Utah State Legislature passed H.B. 213, "Safe Technology Utilization and Digital Citizenship in Public Schools," mandating that K-12 schools provide digital citizenship instruction. This study presents an exploratory endeavor to understand how school librarians in a state that adopted digital citizenship legislation engage…

Confronted with two faculty vacancies to fill and a desire to minimize burnout among the remaining library staff throughout the search process, the Eccles Health Sciences Library at the University of Utah employed an interview method seldom utilized in academic libraries. The library's search committee arranged on-site group interviews that hosted…

This issue of "Research Library Issues" ("RLI") highlights the value of professional failure. The idea to explore this theme emerged from conversations with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Innovation Lab Advisory Group earlier this year. It is the hope this issue highlights the value of failure--both its necessary…

Many universities and colleges focus on student retention and completion as a measure of their success. Publications such as the "Chronicle of Higher Education" carry an increasing number of articles dealing with student retention, success, and completion. Academic libraries support this goal through a wide variety of services, teaching,…

Published children's literature in the United States overrepresents some identities while underrepresenting others, such as people of color, LGBT people, people with disabilities, people who live below the poverty line (Crisp et al., 2016), and more. Thus, some children may not encounter text representative of their identities. As literature can…

Academic libraries continually adjust services to adapt to the ever-changing landscape in higher education. In response to the broken textbook market, libraries are becoming actively involved in the open educational resources (OER) movement. Although there is not a formal program in place, librarians at Utah State University explored a…

More than 250 authors at Utah State University published an Open Access (OA) article in 2016. Analysis of survey results and publication data from Scopus suggests that the following factors led authors to choose OA venues: ability to pay publishing charges, disciplinary colleagues' positive attitudes toward OA, and personal feelings such as…

A survey of 2,574 students and 1,157 faculty members across ten institutions of postsecondary education in the state of Utah was conducted by the "Utah Academic Libraries Consortium." Survey items were created to understand the influence of textbook costs on student academic behavior and the viability of faculty adopting open educational…

Assignment design provides a potential niche for librarians to fill in improving research assignments and in providing opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration on teaching, but this can be difficult work to claim as librarians. In the 2016-2017 academic year, a team of three librarians at Utah State University, a mid-size research…

Researchers at Brigham Young University studied first-year students' information evaluation behaviours of open-access, popular news-based, non-academic source material on a variety of subjects. Using think-aloud protocols and screen-recording, researchers coded most and least used evaluation behaviours. Students most used an article's sources,…