Latino students and the academic library: a primer for action

As the growth in Latino college enrollment is expected to continue for years to come, academic libraries at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and beyond will be serving increasing numbers of Hispanic students. Since Latino educational attainment remains lower than than of other groups and academic libraries’ impact on retention, GPA and related educational outcomes has been well documented, it is crucial that academic libraries actively foster Latino students’ success. A review of the literature on Hispanic students and library use, the article also includes recommendations for practice and offers a local example to illustrate strategies libraries may implement to better meet the educational needs of Hispanic students

Students and Parents: How Academic Libraries Serve a Growing Population

In recognition of the critical role libraries play in the educational lives of parenting students, there has been a noticeable trend in academic libraries to offer services and spaces for students and their children. This article reviews recent LIS literature on student parent initiatives in academic libraries, with the emphasis on the United States. The purpose of this synthesis is to highlight demographic data, research findings, and case studies that, considered together, may significantly expand the profession’s knowledge about the barriers parenting students face in accessing the library and its services. The first part of the article lays out the rationale and urgency of providing library services and spaces to students with dependent children. The second half is a summary of the existing LIS literature on parent students. To enable individual libraries to undertake their own family-friendly initiatives, this section’s formal organization mirrors the stages and steps identified by scholars and practitioners as necessary to design and implement successful policies, spaces, and services for student parents

Terrorism: A Guide to Resources

Prior to 9/11, terrorism was subject to political, scholarly, and media debates. A large body of literature on the topic reflected researchers’ long-standing interest in the topic. In the near decade since 9/11, terrorism and its threat have only gained urgency. This paper aims to provide a selected bibliography of resources, in print and electronic format, that focus on terrorism. Public and academic libraries have been providing access to terrorism-related resources, but no thematic bibliography has been published in professional journals since 2001. This guide aims to aid librarians in making decisions about developing and maintaining collections on the topic

Student well-being matters: Academic library support for the whole student

In response to a marked increase in the prevalence and severity of mental health problems among college students over the last decade, colleges and universities have been expanding their well-being initiatives and programs. No longer limited to health services departments, the support of student well-being has been taken up by multiple campus units, including academic libraries. As well-being has been shown to impact academic outcomes, the well-being initiatives libraries develop fit in with their commitment to enhance learning and student educational experience overall. A comprehensive review of wellness interventions in academic libraries, this article presents findings on student well-being and provides a rationale for institutional responses to the crisis. It describes well-being initiatives across library collections, services, and spaces. It then critiques the trend and includes recommendations for implementing effective and assessable well-being initiatives. The article ends with a brief discussion of library well-being initiatives during COVID-19

Contingent Appointments in Academic Libraries: Management Challenges and Opportunities

Academia’s overwhelming reliance on non-tenure track, or contingent, faculty is a well known fact. While the status and working conditions of contingent classroom faculty have been well studied and documented, the corresponding trend in academic libraries has not been explored as deeply. As this paper reviews the limited LIS literature on the subject, it aims to provide administrators and managers with a deeper understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of contingent appointments. It also offers strategies for fostering a workplace culture that recognizes contingent librarians’ contributions and promotes their professional growth

Working towards promotion to full professor: strategies, time management, and habits for academic librarian mothers

After briefly sharing my experience as an academic librarian mother, the chapter places it within the larger context of academia in which women, especially mothers, lag behind men in attaining the full professor rank. It then outlines the strategies that have enabled me to gradually make progress towards promotion. The chapter discusses strategies to use at the institutional level (familiarity with local requirements, personnel process and related trainings, as well as the availability of leaves and grants), at the departmental level (workflow adjustments, scheduling arrangements, and strategic choice of projects and service commitments), and then at the individual/personal level (seeking mentors, establishing new habits, renegotiating family dynamics, formulating goals, strategic publication choices, and self-accountability)

From Women-Staffed to Women-Led: Gender and Leadership in Academic Libraries, 1974-2018.

This article reviews post-1974 scholarly literature on women’s leadership in academic libraries, with the emphasis on the United States. The purpose of this synthesis is to highlight research areas and themes that have significantly expanded the profession’s knowledge about gender and its impact at the top administrative level. The article starts with a brief overview of theories of gender and leadership before tracing scholarship on the gendered career patterns singled out in Schiller’s work (1974). The article then focuses on additional issues related to gender and library administration, including leadership styles, perceptions of differences between male and female leaders, and the lack of diversity among academic library women directors

Interactive whiteboards in library instruction: Facilitating student engagement and active learning

Determined to keep up with the ever-changing instructional trends, academic libraries have been quick to adopt emerging teaching and learning technologies. Recent literature features many examples of technologies that have found a place in libraries’ instructional programs: learning management systems, clickers, online tutorials, reference chats, and mobile devices, to mention the most popular ones. Curiously enough, despite their popularity in business and K-12 contexts, interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are rarely discussed in the context of academic libraries’ efforts to embrace innovative teaching methods. Offering a rationale for the implementation of IWBs at the Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and describing new instructional strategies the addition of IWBs has fostered, this article addresses this omission. Present-day IWBs have evolved to include features that accommodate a variety of teaching strategies, including those appropriate for distance learners, and thus encourage student engagement and participation. This case study shows how IWBs meet the versatile needs of library instruction, at the same time as they offer librarians an opportunity to reshape and improve the ways and formats in which they teach research skills. By providing sample lesson plans and activities developed to incorporate the interactive features of IWBs, this article illustrates the versatility of this underutilized technology. To further encourage academic librarians to consider working with IWBs, we argue that incorporating IWBs, and thus active learning strategies, into classes and workshops has allowed our library to meet new institutional priorities that emphasize effective teaching and student engagement