The Impact of the Academic Library on Students’ Success, in Their Own Words

This study explored students’ perceptions of the library’s impact on their academic success based on open-ended responses from a 2018 survey assessing student use and satisfaction. The qualitative findings demonstrated differences in the library resources students perceived as contributing to their achievements, based on such demographics as race, class, program, and college. Also, the results revealed that success is multifaceted and more than just a number determined by a high GPA (grade point average). More qualitative research exploring student-defined success and library impact is needed

University Students’ Library Experience and Its Impact on Their GPA During the Pandemic

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Impact of COVID-19 on the use of the academic library

Purpose: This study examines differences in library use patterns (in-person visits, online use, reference transactions, library resource and services use) pre-COVID-19 and during the COVID-19 pandemic through multiple data sets. Design/methodology/approach: Using library statistics collected during 2017/2018 and 2020/2021 and student responses to a biennial library use survey distributed in 2018 and 2021, the potential impact of the pandemic on users' behaviors was explored. Findings: Library use statistics and the biennial survey responses demonstrate that users' overall library use was impacted by COVID-19. Both the library's gate count and students' frequency of library visits showed a dramatic decrease. The use of virtual support to patrons increased during COVID-19 as reflected by the increase in email and chat reference interactions and virtual consultations. Practical implications: As students return to the physical classroom, observing library use via various data will help inform how well use of the library rebounded or if there are changes in users' behavior that suggest the need for the promotion of library services or an expansion in alternative services to support users. Originality/value: This article highlights the importance of continuously obtaining various data sets to observe trends and changes. By observing multiple data points, some changes are aligned across data, whereas other changes or patterns are different. While impact on physical library use may be obvious, library use before and during the pandemic will help guide and inform how academic libraries should be prepared for hybrid environments post-pandemic

Google Scholar versions: do more versions of an article mean greater impact?

Purpose The growing dominance of Google Scholar (GS) as a first-stop resource for scholars and researchers demands investigation of its influence on citation patterns, freedom of information, and scholarly communication. The purpose of this paper is to break new ground in understanding the various versions GS indexes, correlations between the number of GS versions and citation counts, and the value of institutional repositories for increasing scholarly impact. Design/methodology/approach GS listings for 982 articles in several academic subjects from three universities were analyzed for GS version types, including any institutional repository versions, citation rates, and availability of free full-text. Findings First, open access articles were cited more than articles that were not available in free full-text. While journal publisher web sites were indexed most often, only a small number of those articles were available as free full-text. Second, there is no correlation between the number of versions of an article and the number of times an article has been cited. Third, viewing the “versions” of an article may be useful when publisher access is restricted, as over 70 percent of articles had at least one free full-text version available through an indexed GS version. Originality/value This paper investigates GS versions as an alternative source for a scholarly article. While other articles have looked at GS through various lenses, the authors believe this specific aspect of the topic has not been previously explored

What to expect when you are not expecting to be a publisher

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to outline the evolution of University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) journal hosting service from the initial phase of setting up a server to host journals through to the point of offering a suite of library publishing services. The UIC has been hosting Internet-based journals since the 1990s. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, challenges and steps taken for inclusion in PubMed, archiving in PubMed Central and developing policies and parameters of support are discussed. Findings: Venturing into the world of Library as Publisher is not the decision that should be taken lightly, but supporting affordable scholarly publishing, when successful, is rewarding

Impact of Undergraduate Students’ Library Use on Their Learning beyond GPA: Mixed-Methods Approach

The research aims to identify the primary reason for students’ library use, to explore how they characterize academic success, and to further examine the impact of library usage on student learning outcomes beyond GPA, through a mixed-methods approach. By surveying and interviewing 27 undergraduate students during 2019-2020, the findings revealed that almost every participant strongly believed that their use of library space was positively associated with their GPA, independent of how often they would use the library. While many participants defined academic success as getting a good grade, some identified academic success as developing application skills and obtaining new knowledge

2022 UIC Library Faculty Survey Data2022 UIC faculty survey questions

This data set is a faculty survey data that was collected from UIC faculty between February and March, 2022 to to better understand their needs, resources used, and their perceptions of library resources, services, and roles.There were 12 questions in the 2022 faculty survey, both open-ended and multiple choice. Additionally, faculty's demographics (highest FTE college and faculty rank) and publication data in the form of the number of articles, conference proceedings, books, and book chapters each faculty had published in the past 5 years were obtained from the University’s faculty profile tool and were included in the dataset. This research project was approved by the institutional review board (protocol # 2021-1409)</p

Learning from data reuse: successful and failed experiences in a large public research university library

This paper illustrates a large research university library’s experience in reusing data for research collected both within and outside of the library. The purpose of the paper is 1) to demonstrate when, why and how data are reused in a large public research university library, 2) to share tips on what to consider when reusing and reproducing data for research data, including issues of replicability and research ethics, and 3) to share challenges and lessons learned from data reuse and reproducibility experiences

Validating Students’ Library Experience Survey using Rasch Model

Few studies have investigated the psychometric property of new instruments developed locally to assess students’ library experience, such as their behavior, perception and attitude towards library use. Validating a survey instrument is critical because using untested assessment instruments is more likely to lead to a lack of credibility in the results, as well as a lack of accuracy in the study’s purpose (Sullivan, 2011). This study used data from a locally developed student library experience survey distributed in Spring 2018 at a large public research university library to examine undergraduate and graduate students’ behaviors, attitudes and perceptions of library use. To test the validity of the survey as to whether six subdomains of the library experience survey contributed to a single construct, library experience, the study used Rasch model framework. This study contributes to the field as a first example using the Rasch model for library assessment purposes. Suggestions for best practices are discussed

Quantifying cooperation: Collaborative digital reference service in the large academic library

The purpose of this study was to determine how successfully a large academic library with multiple reference departments and subject specialties could combine virtually to create one digital reference service. Questions were coded to determine who the users of the service were, the types of questions being asked, and the subject expertise of the librarian answering the question. The study found that the majority of questions were submitted by persons affiliated with the university, that ready reference and directional questions predominated, and that the librarians were able to successfully share the duty of answering the general reference questions while ensuring that the questions requiring subject expertise were answered by the appropriate subject specialists. Analysis of the types of questions will inform future decisions regarding webpage redesign, online instruction needs, and more appropriate FAQs (frequently asked questions.)