This paper examines the University of Sydney Library's development and piloting of a methodology to survey its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural collections, to enhance catalogue metadata and allow culturally sensitive material to be identified and protected. The research falls broadly within the interpretivist epistemology and draws…

Academic libraries, apart from their main function, which is to provide information services to academic communities, may also perform a number of social roles in the broad meaning of the term. Accordingly, they now tend to serve as the third place offering inclusion and animation activities to academic as well as local communities (including…

An increasingly complex and demanding research landscape has seen university libraries rapidly evolve their services. While research data management, bibliometrics, and research impact services have predominantly featured in the literature to date, the full scope of support libraries are currently providing to their institutions is unknown. This…

Research data services are increasingly offered by academic libraries. As a result, librarians may need to upskill to provide data services and build capacity. This study measures the current level of data services skills of academic librarians and explores preferred methods of continuing education. An online survey was circulated asking…

Academic librarians deliver information literacy instruction (ILI) to students, engage with a range of stakeholders, and work in a range of learning environments that are continually changing. While past research has focused on the perceptions of librarians regarding their role in ILI, this has not been a significant focus of research in the…

Across the sector, universities are transforming the student experience by reconceptualising the ways in which they partner with students. The academic library is at the heart of the university experience and libraries have a long history of collaboration and engaging with their communities. As such academic libraries are the perfect next frontier…

Academic libraries have been subjected to disruptive events throughout history. Academic literature primarily provides case study examples of incidents, guidance on developing an emergency management plan or advice on recovering or restoring items, particularly related to Special Collections, which require specific handling expertise.…

Libraries expend considerable time and effort in providing instructional resources to help students learn the "mechanics" of citation and referencing. However, there are few studies that examine the efficacy of these resources. Using focus group methodology, the authors explored student and faculty perspectives about citation practices…

Through a nationwide survey of universities and research organizations in Australia and New Zealand, this article investigates the level of confidence that librarians working in scholarly communication have in their current competencies. The results show that, while respondents were generally confident across seven competency areas (institutional…

Chatbots have experienced significant growth over the past decade, with a proliferation of new applications across various domains. Previous studies also demonstrate the trend of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence, being adopted in libraries. The purpose of this study is to determine the current research priorities and findings…

Introduction: Open access to digital research output is increasing, but academic library policies can place restrictions on public access to libraries. This paper reports on a preliminary study to investigate the correlation between academic library access policies and institutional positions of openness to knowledge. Method: This primarily…

Introduction: There is little research applying structuration theory in library collaboration studies. This research aims to show how structuration theory informed a study of collaborative relationships between academics and librarians in two universities of Vietnam and Australia. Method: The research used the case study method. Data collection…

Research support services at The University of Queensland Library (UQ Library) have evolved in response to the global and national drivers, which have impacted on broader University strategy. UQ Library's success in responding to these drivers has involved leveraging the information within, and capacity of, the institutional repository, the core…

This article presents a substantive grounded theory that shows how senior library leaders can achieve the library's strategic alignment with the university. The theory suggests that increasing uncertainty causes the library's leadership to consider how the library's strategic contributions can support the university's core priorities while also…

This project sought to study how much academic librarians who work with open educational resources (OERs) know about accessibility, as well as how they incorporate accessibility into the products of their work. A survey was sent out through email list services in spring 2020, and any librarian worldwide who works with OERs was invited to…