This article explores the application of journal quality and credibility evaluation tools to library science publications. The researchers investigate quality and credibility attributes of forty-eight peer-reviewed library science journals with open access components using two evaluative tools developed and published by librarians. The results…

As the OER movement expands in higher education, libraries are increasingly seeking to add OER librarians to their organizational charts. As an emerging subfield, OER librarianship takes many forms, and there are many paths to OER work. This study examines OER librarians' paths to the field, including their motivations for entering and remaining…

Digital initiatives have become increasingly common in academic libraries, but inconsistent definitions, standards, and expectations limit and, in some cases, negatively impact the effectiveness of practitioners. This article explores the discourse surrounding professional titles and responsibilities in digital initiatives within North American…

A previous study of creative writers' self-reports revealed important differences between research as it is carried out in the context of creative writing and the more scholarly types of research academic librarians often focus on. However, that study left many questions open. For this follow-up study, the author interviewed published creative…

This article studies how government documents librarians describe their field within scholarly publications. Treating published works as primary source texts, it examines language, themes, and self-depiction within academic publications authored by documents librarians, arguing that a qualitative analysis provides insights into the professional…

Many librarians conduct research in higher education by studying the undergraduate students with whom they work. Instead of research on students, this paper argues the need for library and information science (LIS) research with, for, and by students. It shows why librarians should explore collaborative partnerships with student-researchers to…

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the supply-and-demand dynamics in the library and information science (LIS) academic market in China. This analysis is based on a broad concept of academic market and large-scale labor-market data. The authors find a shift in faculty positions, in which traditional positions in universities and research…

This article discusses the work of the American Library Association (ALA) Special Task Force on Sustainability, which identified 52 recommendations, including the adoption of sustainability as a core value of librarianship. The group aims to promote libraries as catalysts, connectors, and conveners to promote sustainability, resilience, and…

This study investigated and compared the proportions and trends of coauthored articles by practitioners in the three fields of computer science, library science, and management. The primary practitioners writing articles in these three fields were engineers, librarians, and consultants, respectively. Practitioner authors were scarce, however, in…

The importance of open access (OA) advocacy is well-documented in the literature of academic librarianship, but previous research shows that librarians' OA behaviors are less conclusive. This article compares the self-archiving practices of music librarians and musicologists to see how librarians rank in OA adoption. Availability of articles…

This review offers a critical analysis of the library and information science (LIS) literature on first-generation students (FGS) from the last 40 years. This literature demonstrates an interest in understanding the needs of FGS to serve them better, but it is often grounded in a deficit model of education that focuses on what first-generation…

Because information and documentation units in libraries have responsibility for an ever-increasing number of projects, this paper aims at analyzing the discipline of project management in library and information science (LIS) from a professional perspective. To that end, the researchers employed quantitative and qualitative methodology based on a…

This article examines authorship of LIS literature in the context of practitioner and non-practitioner production of published research. For this study, 4,827 peer-reviewed articles from twenty LIS journals published between 1956 and 2011 were examined to determine the percentage of articles written by practitioners. The study identified a…

The majority of articles on mentoring in the library and information science field address career development by emphasizing the orientation process for new librarians and building the requisite skills for a specific job. Few articles deal with the psychological and social challenges that many early-career and minority librarians face, which can…

As library and information science (LIS) becomes an increasingly technology-driven profession, particularly in the academic library environment, questions arise as to the extent of information technology (IT) knowledge and skills that LIS professionals require. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain what IT knowledge and skills are needed by…