One of the most enduring and controversial metaphors to describe the academic library is this: "The academic library is the heart of the university." For 150 years, librarians have both embraced and rejected this metaphor in equal measure. For some, the metaphor is old, dusty, and ignorant of contemporary library practices; for others,…

Academic libraries invest significant resources for developing collections of foreign-language materials, so it is important for librarians to understand how scholars use these materials. This study uses citation analysis to investigate how frequently scholars in the United States cite sources in languages other than English, taking German Studies…

This study aimed to explore the technology usage of off-campus undergraduate students for library social media engagement. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 245 off-campus university students at Adeleke University. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square…

Art research collections continue to be impacted by the lingering effects of economic uncertainty and the global COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in reduced or stagnant budgets and staffing cuts. These impacts have coincided with a period of institutional reflection and examination of the fundamental role of cultural heritage institutions in…

This exploratory study seeks to gather preliminary information about the roles that academic librarians in the United States (US) and Canada play in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) work on their campuses. It also provides insight into how librarians at US Carnegie Research 1 (R1) classified universities and U15 Group of Canadian…

Providing library instruction, often via one-shots in someone else's classroom, may reduce feelings of agency or job control for academic instruction librarians. This study addresses potential differences in job control across core responsibilities, specifically looking at the difference between job duties overall and instruction responsibilities.…

Research support demonstrates the value of academic libraries and librarians. Recent studies have revealed that research support has been evolving from traditional citation analysis to advanced library services such as research field trend/frontiers analysis and talent evaluation. Using a powerful bibliometric tool CiteSpace and "active…

Collaborative initiatives ensure equal access to library resources and services for all students. This study examined how collaborative efforts between libraries, academics, and other stakeholders may encourage library usage amongst distance learners in Ghana. The study employed a mixed research approach. Quantitative data were gathered from 1170…

The purpose of this study is to define the unique research needs of creative communities as seen by the academic librarians supporting those communities. After surveying academic librarians, visual practice, information relating to the practice of a creative discipline, and inspiration were identified as unique research needs of these populations.…

This article provides background information about evidence synthesis, the process of collecting, evaluating, and summarizing results from multiple studies that have investigated the same research question. The article also examines the critical role of librarians in conducting evidence synthesis, and examines the accelerating uptake of systematic…

In the past decade, cataloguing and classification and information literacy have experienced a critical turn, acknowledging the political, economic, and social forces that shape complex information environments. Library user experience (UX) has yet to undergo such a transformation, however; instead, it continues to be seen as a toolkit of…

The COVID-19 pandemic required many U.S. institutions of higher education to pivot to fully remote learning within a short span of time. Like many academic librarians during this period, the authors found themselves needing to employ rapid development methods to create information literacy instruction that could serve what was quite suddenly a…

If there's one thing you learn today, let it be this: keywords. Not specific keywords but the idea of them. If you whisper the correct keywords into the algorithm, you will achieve relevance. If you don't achieve relevance on the first try (which is super common), imagine you're an academic with a specialization in a super-niche disciplinary area…

Academic libraries are largely comprised of white, middle-aged females, and as part of the overall diversity crisis within higher education, grapple with issues of racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and ableism. This mixed-methods study uses an original theoretical framework of critical transcendence, based upon the philosophies of Carl Jung…

Research has recognized the importance of libraries and librarians in supporting, managing, and sustaining open educational resources (OER) programs in postsecondary institutions. Open education initiatives generally align with social justice aspirations and should be open and inclusive to everyone. Yet, in practice, this has not always been the…