First-Year Library Mentorship Opportunities

The first-year experience at any university library sets the foundation for the future relationship between the new faculty member and the library as a whole. Not only is the librarian being acculturated to the organization, but he or she must decide if the library and university will provide a supportive environment for his or her career goals. In this probationary process, the tenured librarians evaluate their tenure-track colleagues’ professional progression and merit. Many libraries institute a formal first-year mentoring program in order to facilitate the immersion of new faculty members into the organizational culture of the library and university. There are excellent examples of flourishing mentorship programs in libraries, but one can also find examples of informal mentoring that aids in the success of tenure-track faculty. This article discusses the benefits and drawbacks of various forms of library mentorship and how one can make the most of being mentored in diverse university settings

Love in the Stacks: Popular Romance Collection Development in Academic Libraries

This article begins to define the core collection of Popular Romance Studies, and discusses the likelihood of academic libraries allocating monetary funds for collecting in this discipline when universities do not have a major program to support in the area. An analysis of Library Science literature shows the justifications librarians use for why they do or do not collect popular culture materials, such as romance novels and films. Multiple arguments are presented for how popular romance should be classified within collections when libraries acquire material in this field. Finally, recommendations are made regarding how best to assure ongoing access to resources that are valuable to this discipline

Digital Repositories and Open Access: Information Without Limits

For many libraries, the Digital Repository has become the main storage center for materials created by the community they serve. Such materials can include important historical records, local newspapers, community newsletters, as well as articles, presentations, data sets, images, videos and other multimedia items. In this way, the repository takes on a central role in placing free, open access materials into the hands of the public. While many repositories are currently managed by universities, their benefits reach beyond the walls of academia to include K-12 students as well as the public at large. Thus, all librarians are encouraged to utilize the materials housed in repositories during their educational programming. Doing so has the advantage of providing reliable information at no cost to their patrons while at the same time creating ties between the university and the local community. Furthermore, the use of open access materials during instruction sessions and reference interactions presents the librarian with many opportunities to discuss the increased importance of fair use and intellectual property issues

Academic Library Succession Planning in the University of California (UC) System

The Library and Information Science (LIS) literature has made clear that academic libraries in the U.S. have experienced decades of hiring freezes and budget cuts that reduced staffing overall and eliminated many middle management positions. Consequently, now that baby boomer library managers and administrators are beginning to retire, there are few qualified applicants to replace them. Thus, many in the LIS field have called for better succession planning by top-level library administrators (e.g., Deans, Directors, University Librarians). Few studies, however, have directly addressed this issue by examining these administrators’ perceptions or behavior regarding succession planning. This study begins to fill this literature gap through semi-structured interviews with all 10 of the University Librarians (ULs) in the University of California (UC) system. The study employed a case study/cross-case analysis design; each participant-UL was considered a case. During data analysis, a within-case thematic analysis was conducted for each participant and then a cross-case analysis was undertaken to compare and contrast the ULs’ perspectives on succession planning. A theoretical framework drawn from the field of sociology was used to better understand the perceptions and behavior of participant-ULs regarding this topic. This framework suggested examining the structure and culture of the context in which each UL worked, as well as the perceived agency of each participating UL. This study’s findings suggest that structure, culture, and agency can significantly impact how and why the ULs engage or do not engage in succession planning. For example, the retirement pension for UC employees encourages long-term retention, which leads to low employee turnover. A static population may resist a ULs’ attempts at cultural change. Thus, both low turnover and resistance to change can make succession planning a challenge for ULs. The results of this study contribute to both LIS literature and practice in at least two ways. First, this study’s findings could be useful to other academic library administrators, given that the study identifies potentially transferable strategies that the ULs in the study are utilizing to succession plan. Second, this study helps further a conversation in the disciplinary literature about how and why to develop future library leaders

It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint: Launching and Sustaining the Momentum for Open Access Journals

While starting an open access journal can lead to exciting new venues for scholarship, the initial enthusiasm of a journal’s founders can wane when faced with the daunting task of keeping the momentum going after the first issue is launched. Even with a steady source of funding from a scholarly society or institution, many factors can play into the demise of an OA publication. A journal requires an active editorial board, a pool of reliable reviewers and copy editors, and the ability to attract authors with high-quality content. Furthermore, a journal must also continuously attract readers who will then cite articles published in the journal. In order to do this, a journal must be disseminated to the appropriate audience, which means indexing in directories and databases, search engine optimization, and networking with organizations that can help publicize new issues. How well the editorial staff manages these many considerations can be the difference between a publishing endeavor that flourishes and one that does not. This presentation will address the potential challenges of launching an OA journal and provide strategies for maintaining a viable publication on a long-term basis. Examples of both successful and unsuccessful OA journals will be used to demonstrate best practices and pitfalls of open access publishing

Innovative Library, Innovative Space: How SJSU Students Use It

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at San Jose State University is a unique combination of both academic and public library. The academic library has a special place on the college campus in the United States; usually, it is centrally located on the university as a primary place of convergence. The King Library offers space for everybody’s use. This presentation provided information on the initial analysis for data collected in a study of the “library as place” and SJSU students\u27 perceptions regarding their sense of belonging towards the King Library building. The study had three goals: 1) Learn about the implementation of library services as a strategy for empowering student populations in academic libraries, 2) Identify the actual use of the library as a place by university students and 3) Make recommendations for future services that enhance the students\u27 use of the library. In order to achieve those goals, this study involved a mixed quantitative-qualitative research approach

Flipping the One-Shot Library Workshop: Collaborations between Librarians and Writing Program Faculty

At UC San Diego, instruction librarians and the Muir College Writing Program (MCWP) director collaborated to redesign the one-shot library workshops provided to the college’s first-year students enrolled in a research class. Following their discussion about student knowledge gaps about conducting research, the library instruction coordinator suggested flipping the workshop so that, prior to coming to the library, students would complete an interactive online tutorial. The new flipped library workshops now consist of two sequential parts—an online interactive tutorial and an in-person workshop. Librarians created an online tutorial on database searching, made up of multimedia and active learning experiences for students to complete before the library workshop. After learning online about the research process, database search strategies, and full-text access, students find and annotate three scholarly articles. They then bring their source(s) to the in-person library workshop. During the workshop, librarians guide students through a topic mapping exercise, an open-ended research question exercise, and an introduction to the BEAM method to describe how their chosen source addressed their research question. Employing the flipped model provides benefits to both sides of this partnership. Librarians can see how well students implement the skills taught in the tutorial, while helping students begin to use their sources for the next phase of their research and writing process. This, in turn, alleviates part the instructors’ workload and fills an unmet need for the writing program. Students have responded positively to the two-pronged approach and are better prepared to succeed in their writing classes

Scalable and Sustainable: Building a Flexible Library Instruction Team to Handle Whatever the Future May Hold

While academic librarians constantly work to address the changing needs of higher education, SARS-CoV-2 illustrates how quickly priorities and needs may shift. During the 2020 spring term, the halting of in-person instruction meant many libraries had to use stop-gap measures to provide basic levels of instruction service. No one would claim that this was an ideal way to transition to online instruction, but it became necessary in these unprecedented times. A large number of webinars and online trainings were offered to help librarians make this transition, and many understandably emphasized a “good enough” or “do the best you can” approach. Equally understandable were the questions that cropped up about the accessibility and quality of these stop-gap measures. Imagine, however, that there was no need to resort to stop-gap measures. Imagine that your library had a team in place with years of experience offering sound, innovative instruction that could be delivered in any learning environment. While no one could have planned for a pandemic—or the subsequent mad dash into online instruction—there are ways for a library to forecast educational trends and make sure they have librarians in place with the right preparation and skills to handle the unexpected and unprecedented. This begins by recognizing that the design of effective learning calls for varied skillsets, and that one librarian can’t always “do it all” on their own. A team approach adds significant value to the instructional design process by allowing expertise to be utilized effectively, providing for flexible workload balance, and promoting creative solutions to evolving learning requirements. In this presentation, participants will learn how a team of academic librarians combined their expertise and collaborated to easily transfer in-person instruction to remote learning within the short timeframe allowed before COVID-19 shutdowns occurred. This achievement was possible because of the thoughtful planning of team composition and a sustainable approach to developing information literacy instruction. Participants will engage in break-out group discussions and question-and-answer activities to explore ideas introduced in the presentation

Is it really sink or swim for tenure tracks?

A panel consisting of a mentor and two mentees will share their experiences and tell their stories. They seek to exchange ideas on surviving a fast-changing environment with librarians from other academic libraries where librarians have faculty status. The San Jose State University (SJSU) experience is easy to duplicate and aims to help junior librarians achieve her/his full potential, to design/develop personal goals that fit into personal career expectations, to take one step at a time to reach those goals, to better support organizational goals and objectives, to develop leadership within the organization, to boost morale and productivity, and finally to enjoy his/her work during the tenure process