Report on the theoretical framework and empirical toolkit for analysing literacy case-studies

In this report, we present a theoretical framework for the analysis and assessment of literacy practices and (socio)cultural participation (see section 1). In addition to this theoretical framework, we also present and evaluate a set of methodological tools. In order to evaluate this toolkit, C&E discusses the application of these methods for data collection and analysis, as well as their theoretical grounding (see section 2). Based on a case study of the developers’ discourse on social media platforms, we present part of the outcome generated with the methodological tools (see section 3). In the closing section of this report, we provide an overview of the affordances and limitations of the toolkit and briefly discuss how these issues will be addressed in the case studies that are now in progress. (see section 4)

Report of the Commission on the Future of the UC Berkeley Library

The UC Berkeley Library was founded with the University in 1868. From an initial collection of 1,000 volumes it has grown to include over 11 million volumes. Housed in several dozen physical libraries throughout the campus, the Library provided patrons 2.7 million physical items and 33 million article downloads in 2012. Globally, the Library has millions of exchanges with users through in-person visits, circulation requests, and online or phone conversations about research questions. Second only to the University's homepage, the Library website is perhaps the most visible face of our University to the world and the most tangible demonstration of its core values: excellence and access. The University and the Library cannot exist without each other. Because the Library -- in both its physical and virtual forms -- is ubiquitous in the everyday lives of faculty, students, administrative staff, scholarly researchers, and the general public worldwide, it is difficult to make a case for its role in sustaining the academic preeminence of the University except by imagining our University and our world without it. There is simply no great University without a great Library. The Library is the heart and circulatory system of our research and instructional mission; it is the essential pump that takes in the life-blood of learning and circulates it throughout the campus community and beyond our walls to our furthest public extremities; it makes research happen; it makes learning possible; it draws new learning back into the system only to generate more learning and send it out to circulate again. The Commission has concluded that the centrality of the Library to the range of learning and research at Berkeley warrants a serious strategy of major reinvestment. The Library, aided by the campus administration and the Academic Senate, should devise a detailed execution plan for this reinvestment, along the lines of the Commission's recommendations, coupled with a plan of both cost-saving and revenue-generating measures. To face the challenges of the next twenty years the Library should align its organizational structure and its institutional culture with the rapidly changing needs of faculty research and student learning. The campus community as a whole should assume the financial and intellectual responsibility of active partnership in this important endeavor. Because the health of the entire academic enterprise depends upon the Library, there should be no higher priority for campus investment and no greater responsibility for the Campus Administration and the Academic Senate than the effective stewardship of the Library

Improving customer satisfaction: changes as a result of Customer Value Discovery

Objective: To identify Gold Standard Services for customers in an academic library and determine whether interventions following the identification of customer value increased student satisfaction. Methods: “Customer Discovery Workshops” were undertaken with academic staff and undergraduate on‐campus students to provide managers and library staff with information on the services and resources that customers valued, and what irritated them about existing services and resources. The impact of interventions was assessed two years after the research using a university student satisfaction survey and an independent national student satisfaction survey. Results: The findings resulted in significant changes to the way forward‐facing customer services were delivered. A number of value adding services were introduced for the customer. Overall customer satisfaction was improved. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 2008, 3:1 34 Conclusions: The Customer Value Discovery research has created a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. An operational plan was introduced to track activity and performance against the objectives identified in the customer value research. However, there is a constant need to innovate

SPEC Kit 356 Diversity and Inclusion

Today, diversity is defined beyond racial and ethnic groups and includes gender, sexual orientation, ability, language, religious belief, national origin, age, and ideas. The increase of published literature about cultural competencies, microaggressions, and assessment of diversity issues, as well as the inclusion of social justice movements in libraries, suggests diversity-related activities have increased and evolved over the last seven years. Over this time span, several libraries have obtained funding to support strategies to increase the number of minority librarians on their staff and support their advancement within the organization. There also appears to be an increase in the number of diversity or multicultural groups at the local, state, and national levels. However, these changes have not been consistently documented. Therefore, it is important to re-examine this topic to evaluate the impact of evolving endeavors, to see if more ARL libraries are involved, to see how diversity plans have changed over the years, and to document the current practices of research libraries. The main purpose of this survey was to identify diversity trends and changes in managing diversity issues in ARL libraries through exploring the components of diversity plans and initiatives since 2010, acknowledge library efforts since the 1990s, provide evidence of best practices and future trends, and identify current strategies that increase the number of minority librarians in research libraries and the types of programs that foster a diverse workplace and climate. The survey was conducted between May 1 and June 5, 2017. Sixty-eight of the 124 ARL member institutions responded to the survey for a 55% response rate. Interestingly, only 22 of the respondents to the 2010 SPEC survey participated in this survey, but this provides an opportunity to explore the diversity and inclusion efforts of a new set of institutions in addition to seeing what changes those 22 institutions have made since 2010. The SPEC Survey on Diversity and Inclusion was designed by Toni Anaya, Instruction Coordinator, and Charlene Maxey-Harris, Research and Instructional Services Chair, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. These results are based on responses from 68 of the 124 ARL member libraries (55%) by the deadline of June 12, 2017. The survey’s introductory text and questions are reproduced below, followed by the response data and selected comments from the respondents. The purpose of this survey is to explore the components of diversity plans created since 2010, identify current recruitment and retention strategies that aim to increase the number of minority librarians in research libraries, identify staff development programs that foster an inclusive workplace and climate, identify how diversity programs have changed, and gather information on how libraries assess these efforts

Rhetorical Analysis of Literary Culture in Social Reading Platforms

In their article Rhetorical Analysis of Literary Culture in Social Reading Platforms Joachim Vlieghe and Kris Rutten present a case study of the discourse surrounding literary phenomena that are emerging within social media. The case study is part of a methodological exploration within literacy studies whereby the social media\u27s transformative effects on literary literacies are studied by focusing on language as symbolic and situated action. Vlieghe and Rutten have identified unique social reading platforms based on a prolonged study of the social media environment. The analysis of the developers\u27 discourse on social reading platforms shows how developers are formulating new instructions on how to talk and to act in relation to literature by changing the scope of concepts related to literary phenomena within the social media system

Literacy in a social media culture : an ethnographic study of literary communication pratices

Literacy is often considered a cornerstone of education that empowers people to participate in economic, social and cultural life. But what does it mean ―to be literate‖? Educational researchers, policy makers and teachers often feel tempted to present literacy as a fixed and universal set of skills, knowledge and attitudes (Livingstone, Bober, & Helsper, 2005; Buckingham, Banaji, Carr, Cranmer, & Willett, 2005). This conceptualization facilitates the construction of tests, benchmarks and teaching materials. However, scholars have demonstrated that literacy is not fixed or universal, but always situated in a social and cultural context (Street, 1993; Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanič, 2005). Based on this insight, they have questioned the dominant ―skills and benchmarks‖ approach in education which conceives literacy as neutral, monolithic and measurable (e.g. The New London Group, 1996; Gee, 2004). Scholars within New Literacies Studies2 have convincingly argued for an alternative approach to literacy in research, theory and education (see Street, 2003; Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2014). In the following sections of this introduction I will first present a brief overview of the empirical and theoretical insights that have contributed to the conception and development of New Literacies Studies. This analysis will also include a discussion of the two main questions that underlie much of the research from the New Literacies Studies tradition. In addition, I will focus more thoroughly on the historical connections between of literacy and media in general, and between literacy and literature in particular. In light of this discussion I will argue that the increasing ubiquity of social media presents a new opportunity for studying the transformations of literary culture and traditional print literacy. Finally, I will outline the research questions and focus of my research as well as the structure and argumentation of this dissertation