In 2020, UNLV Special Collections and Archives conducted an internal audit of collections, strategic plans, and programming in order to assess how well it is meeting strategic goals of being more inclusive and increasing diversity and representation. In a data-driven institution, how can assessment be used to advocate for resources focused on…

The COVID-19 pandemic peeled back long-held assumptions about what is wanted, needed, and possible within academia. Many academic libraries had failed to fully imagine the potential uses of online and, in short, missed many opportunities to engage and support users. From this oversight have sprung opportunities to better understand and respond to…

Library employees face countless changes, big and small, in their workplaces every day: not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also such commonplace events as open positions, renovations, budget cuts, and new library systems. No single handbook can anticipate all the changing needs. This case study discusses how one particular library responded, in a…

Student employees are an invaluable asset to academic libraries. They supplement limited professional staffing, allow for students to engage with their academic community, and give work opportunities to those currently enrolled in school. This article reviews several practical ways to train library student workers that both minimizes hands-on…

Paul Zurkowski is often considered the "father" of the term, "information literacy" (IL). There were, however, other authors who, at a similar time, were writing about concepts we now consider fundamental to the nature of IL. A work of particular significance is Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock." In this classic text --…

To address the growing problem of misinformation, librarians often focus on approaches tied to the frame "Authority Is Constructed and Contextual" from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. The Framework, however, encompasses a much wider range of skills,…

Although the term lacks a standard definition, learning commons represent academic library spaces that provide computer and library resources as well as a range of academic services that support learners and learning. Learning commons have been equated to a laboratory for creating knowledge and staffed with librarians that serve as facilitators of…

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

The library literature addressing the role of bias in collection development emphasizes a philosophical approach. It is based on the notion that bias can be controlled by the conscious act of believing in certain values and adhering to a code of ethics. It largely ignores the psychological research on bias, which suggests that bias is a more…

Accreditation is critical to the viability of institutions of higher education. Each of the six regional groups that accredit two- and four-year institutions has standards specifically addressing online or distance learning. In general, these standards require institutions to show that distance learners have adequate access to appropriate library…

This paper reports the implementation results of the Portuguese School Libraries Evaluation Model, more specifically the results of primary schools self-evaluation of their libraries' reading promotion and information literacy development activities. School libraries that rated their performance as either "Excellent" or "Poor"…

We conduct a randomized evaluation of a school library program on children's language skills. We find that the program had little impact on students' scores on a language test administered 16 months after implementation. The estimates are sufficiently precise to rule out effects larger than 0.13 and 0.11 standard deviations based on the 95 and 90…

In today's global world, to provide meaningful education teacher librarians and their students need to become culturally competent: open to learning about other cultures and sharing one's own culture, able to change personal perspectives, and able to communicate effectively across cultures. Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions provides a…

There are hundreds of Web accessibility software options out in the world that serve many different functions. Not surprisingly, many of them are designed for users with a wide range of abilities, with the intent of making the use of computers and the Internet easier for both work and entertainment. There are, however, numerous products available…

Gathering qualitative information about usage behavior of library Web sites is a time-consuming process requiring the active participation of patron communities. Libraries that collect virtual reference transcripts, however, hold valuable data regarding how the library Web site is used that could benefit Web designers. An analysis of virtual…