This case study examines the COUNTER 5 metrics pertaining to database usage reports, aiming to gain insights into how the metrics function within a vendor platform. By simulating a search process in two major databases, the authors were able to contextualize the numbers in their institution's COUNTER 5 Database Master Reports. The study finds that…

The library website is a tool shared by all library users. It is imperative to keep this tool accessible, but accessibility guidelines are not consistently applied to all library-owned pages. As institutions that receive federal funding, libraries have a responsibility to provide accessible websites. This study examines the library websites of the…

This essay uses the reprocessing of the "Luis Alberto Sánchez papers," the collection of a prominent Peruvian politician and author housed at Penn State University, to argue that ethical and reparative processing needs should be prioritized within an archives' overall extensible processing program. The author explores the tension between…

Technical standards are important documents that academic libraries collect to support education and research, particularly for engineering and technology programs. However, standards documents present many unique discovery and access challenges that are confusing and cumbersome for users. To help alleviate these issues, Elsevier started indexing…

This study explores how libraries mediated interactions between black readers and texts in twentieth century South Africa. By situating libraries as vital infrastructures of reading, I critically examine how librarians tried to build the habit of reading within black communities. Beginning in the 1930s with the Carnegie Corporation of New York's…

There are few references that critically evaluate the different ways of searching the literature on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), or how these are related to researchers' goals. We use an academic literacies perspective as a lens with which to explore the different ways that literature searches may be undertaken. While searching the…

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic institutions led to rapid shifts from person-to-person services to fully online services in the spring of 2020. These shifts presented unique challenges for graduate practicums and internships--experiences that bolster students' job-preparedness before graduation. An internship at the Louisiana State…

We have elaborate systems of formal instruction--schools, universities, and training institutes--all to facilitate learning within the walls. At the same time, there are ample opportunities for learning in the wild--in nature, libraries, and museums, online, in play and work, and through daily interaction with others. But the potential for…

In the final phase of the federal grant project called The School Librarian Investigation--Decline of Evolution? (SLIDE), a qualitative study of interviews of K-12 school leaders was conducted. The purpose was to learn the factors, experiences, and priorities that caused school administrators to either increase or to decrease librarian positions.…

The expansion of research data availability and production has highlighted the need for proper training in data stewardship. Recent years have seen both incentivized and mandated research data management plans enacted by institutions and funding agencies as a way of supporting more open and integrated data-intensive research. Despite the…

Teachers and school librarians know that giving students the freedom to choose what to read from a variety of materials is the most effective way to foster a love of reading. Curiosity, pre-existing interests, or even a desire for connection cause students to reach for books that inform instead of entertain. But a genre of books is often left out…

Funded by the Association of College & Research Libraries through a 2018 Academic Library Impact Research Grant, the Activating Library Classrooms: Evaluating Formal Learning Spaces for Active Learning and Student Engagement project endeavored to evaluate the design and use of formal learning spaces situated within Penn State University…

As a librarian supporting online programs, it can often be difficult to develop effective instruction for learners who you may never see, at the request of faculty you may never meet. When the author enrolled as a student in the online master's instructional design program at her institution, she learned five key lessons from the classes and…

Since its beginning, IFLA has been concerned with education and training, creating guidelines and standards for educational quality. Ninety years after the first IFLA Conference, IFLA Satellite returned to the Vatican Library with the aim of stimulating a high-level conversation on the future of librarians. This article is a reflection on the…

3D printers represent a significant financial investment for academic libraries. The development of makerspaces and other library provided services centered around this technology is a testament to the role these technologies can play in offering new resources to students. However, given the investment it behooves the academic library to work to…