Two research questions guided this study: (1) Is there a gap in customer service quality perception between librarians (service providers) and patrons (service beneficiaries)?; and (2) How do patrons perceive the relational service qualities of librarians who staff the reference desk? Quantitative results based on a Likert scale survey showed no…

For decades, popular culture was neglected and frowned upon by academics. In recent years, cultural critics, including librarians, have found popular culture materials to be didactic tools, and vital to the study of society and the zeitgeist that has prevailed at the time of their production. As a result, many academic librarians have found it…

Collaboration among librarians and faculty when designing courses can offer a new model of embedded librarianship that allows better scalability and opportunities for more authentic assessment. This column looks at one example at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina.

There persists an intense debate on whether or not the traditional reference desk should be in academic libraries. Yet, despite many anti-desk studies, the place of the reference desk still remains. This paper aims to review the current significance of the reference desk for some libraries, as well as the importance of choosing the proper…

Delaware County Community College provides library services to its branch campus community members by stationing a librarian at a campus 5 to 20 hours each week, without any more library infrastructure than an Internet-enabled computer on the school network. Faculty and students have reacted favorably to the increased presence of librarians.…

In 2015, surveys of students, faculty, and librarians and other library staff elicited their perceptions of the contributions of community college libraries to student success, both directly and via librarian collaboration with faculty. The three surveyed groups agreed substantially that libraries and librarians contribute to student success, both…

Although the growth in popularity of graphic novels among readers of all ages and the expansion of graphic novels in both public and academic libraries has been well defined in library literature, the inclusion of graphic novels in community and junior college libraries has received little attention. The purpose of this article is to begin the…

In this article the authors provide an overview of the concept of a digital branch library and the manner in which it can be used to enhance academic library community engagement. As the front door to the branch, the library's Website is key to going beyond service provision toward sustaining relationships with faculty, students, staff, and…

The purpose of this article is to chronicle and discuss a unique research opportunity at LaGuardia Community College when Hurricane Sandy caused a week of class cancelations, including library instruction sessions for ENG101 students. Librarians took advantage of the natural sample, paired with randomly selected classes that had previously…

Librarians who staff the reference desk at a community college are familiar with the moments when multiple patrons need assistance concurrently. Their needs can vary from technical issues to directional questions, such as the location of the restroom, to deeper reference questions that require the librarian's time and focused attention to conduct…

This bibliometric study used citation analysis to uncover citing characteristics in the burgeoning academic field of emergency management. Of the 281 degree programs listed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency nationwide, those at community colleges accounted for 17% of the total. Using the interdisciplinary database of Academic Search…

Google is currently recognized as the world's most powerful search engine. Google is so powerful and intuitive that one does not need to possess many skills to use it. However, Google is more than just simple search. For those who have special search skills and know Google's superior search features, it becomes an extraordinary tool. To understand…

This article describes practical steps taken in the planning of an integrated information literacy instruction linked to a course assignment for community health majors at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York. The library sessions integrated the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information…

This article describes and discusses some of the chief resources in the study of post-World War II mainstream popular music. In addition to indicating major areas of research, it can serve as a guide to collection development in the discipline.

Situations arise almost every day of a reference librarian's working life in which a student (or a professor, a colleague, or a person off the street) asks a straightforward question that the librarian recognizes in a specific way. On the other hand, there are specific questions that come up fairly often and routinely lead to further queries. What…