From 2016 to 2020, ten smaller schools in one regional library consortium participated in a user needs assessment project. This article documents the process for implementing a collaborative user needs assessment by utilizing the shared interest and enthusiasm of a team of librarians to create a consortial toolkit. The toolkit supplied direction…

The past decades have seen dramatic improvements to dictionary content and format. Yet dictionaries -- both paper-based and digital -- remain disappointingly underused. As a result, it is widely acknowledged that more needs to be done to train people in dictionary-consultation skills. Another solution would be to build lexicographic resources that…

In 2015, the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission, now known as the Redding Consortium for Educational Equity, emphasized the importance of parent and family engagement to the effectiveness of public education. The complex task of navigating educational systems has become further complicated by the pandemic over the past two years. It is…

This paper addresses the need for enhancing our awareness of user-centered design in educational technology through a more explicit and systematic alignment between the needs of educational technology users (learners and educators) and the affordances provided by the technology. First, we define the term "affordance" and discuss it from…

Writing in plain language aims to help users find what they need and ensures that the information is both useful and understandable. This is key for distance students whose primary library interaction may be with the library Website. A mix of user research and readability scores can be used to measure whether content is findable, useful, and…

Frequently noted in library and information science literature and popular press, libraries are undergoing a rapid public makeover (Martin, 2015; Wernick, 2011). As part of a recent initiative supported by the American Library Association, librarians are striving to raise public awareness of the importance of libraries and library services in…

Library public services staff have primarily focused on providing services through interactions with their users. Although service quality and customer satisfaction are important in the delivery of these services, the emphasis and nature of the work have often been influenced by a library-centric philosophy rather than a user-centric philosophy.…

In the competitive Higher Education environment, it is no longer sufficient for special collections to rely on the "uniqueness" of a collection as its unique selling point--it must be supported by a service and strategic plan that is both proactive in anticipating the demands of future researchers and responsive to current researchers'…

The recommendations in this brief create a framework for using data effectively to make instructional decisions. The availability of student-level data for educators has pushed forward the movement to strengthen the role of data to guide instruction and improve student learning. While improvements in technology and assessments, as well as recent…

Precious moments in life for an educator are taking time to reflect upon his or her teaching practices to evaluate effectiveness and overall impact. Often this reflection is a weekly if not a daily process for educators using a reflective practitioner model (SchÖn, 1983). For professors, many universities have opportunities for tenured faculty to…

The way that information users select information and news sources is impacted upon by the way that information providers package their material. This packaging has the potential to reinforce already-held beliefs and diminish social diversity. A group of scholars convened at iConference 2016 in a session for interactive engagement to discuss how…

It's easy to imagine no gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) students are at a given school, and, therefore, no need exists to court controversy and potential challenges by providing LGBTQ materials. LGBTQ students are everywhere, though, and they are at increased risk for a host of issues, including bullying, assault, and…

The academic library, given its often privileged position on campus, is the information source that can include directional as well as general campus facts among the myriad of print and e-resources for reference. Also, an academic library's audiences can be quite varied and include prospective students or parents seeking more general knowledge of…

Human-centered design is of growing importance for professional designers and in the past two decades a series of techniques for designers to develop understanding of and empathy with a diversity of users has been developed within this field. In the second half of the twentieth century, intended users were involved late in the design process, i.e.…

Modern digital scholarship requires faculty to navigate an increasingly complex research and publication world. Liaison librarians are uniquely suited to assist faculty with scholarly communication needs, yet faculty do not identify the library as a provider of these services. Proactive promotion of scholarly communication services by librarians…