Many educators may view use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) as a new trend that has emerged in various school districts, especially those OERs that are (Common Core State Standards) CCSS-aligned. However, OERs certainly aren't new to education. Many educators have been using these types of materials since the late 1990s (Godwin 2016).…

Five years ago the Association of College and Research Libraries published "The Value of Academic Libraries" report, spurring academic libraries to action concerning assessment. Communicating library value is especially important when reaching distance learning populations outside the walls of the library. By employing marketing and…

Schools and school libraries are becoming more diverse. What cultural barriers do you face in your position? Have you come across challenges in how you handle cultural situations with students, teachers, or administrators? If so, have you considered skills that can help you facilitate conversations more effectively? How would you rate your…

Online tutorials are a way many librarians connect with students. The main benefit is the ability to reach more students than traditional face-to-face instruction sessions. In 2016, the Life & Health Sciences Librarian received instruction session requests for a freshman biology lab to teach students how to search for articles and use proper…

In 2003 Delia Neuman wrote "Research in School Library Media for the Next Decade: Polishing the Diamond." One of the most influential pieces on school library research written in the last twenty years, the article provided a map for school library research by defining areas of concern and importance. Neuman developed questions grounded…

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of school library access on student reading comprehension as measured by the Easy CBM universal screener test. The population consisted of 5th and 6th grade students enrolled in one intermediate school in an urban school system in East Tennessee. Data were analyzed for the population of the…

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…

Librarians are continuously expected to update their job knowledge and renew their job related skills to enable them compete effectively in our changing society. These professionals are also expected to acquire extensive education and training to enable them function properly and be productive in their organisations. Agreeably, for librarians to…

When thinking of collaborating with campus partners on activities to increase the retention of students in science majors, who comes to mind? Usually other academic departments--but are science librarians included? Academic librarians are charged with supporting retention on university and college campuses. However, what exactly can science…

Many universities have implemented faculty profile systems that capture faculty and researchers' scholarly outputs and activities. These systems usually include public profiles and tools to help find collaborators or experts. They may be used to create reports for faculty annual reviews or for promotion and tenure, or to assist faculty with…

In the United States, the occupation of law librarianship has existed longer than the American Library Association, and law librarians have their own professional organization that is now more than 100 years old. Throughout this history, however, the related issues of degree requirements and education standards for law librarians have been…

Veterans are a unique population that can be found in libraries across the United States. Libraries of all types are developing new approaches to the veterans in their patron populations in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This study identifies several common strategies that libraries, especially public and academic libraries, are…

In this study, we intend to observe how a strategic plan can be used as a risk management tool, in the scope of academic libraries. Risk is perceived by individuals and institutions when faced with environmental changes that threaten stability or integrity. In libraries, these changes show in structural alterations, that is, in decreasing human,…

Organizations are being called upon to take responsibility for the ways their operations impact societies especially the marginalized sectors. Libraries are not exempt from such social responsibility. The paper proposes a theoretical framework for Library Social Responsibility. The paper briefly traces the history of library services for the poor.…

Describing, preserving, and providing access to data is now the purview of many science librarians, although the emphasis has been on data in electronic format. Data in paper or analog format might be found in many places around our campuses. At the University of Minnesota we conducted a preliminary investigation of analog data through discussions…