Adjusting to the workplace: Transitions faced by new academic librarians

This article discusses the experiences of new academic librarians as they adjust to the workplace. In the process of organizational socialization, new employees face surprises and differences from their pre-existing expectations about the job. A survey of new librarians at Canadian university libraries was done to discover what these surprises were so that more effective training and orientation programs can be developed. Findings included several areas of high and low pre-existing knowledge and difference from expectation, including job skills and organizational culture. Implications for developing training programs are discussed

Systemic Workplace Barriers for Academic Librarians with Disabilities

Although studies related to diversity within librarianship as a profession are increasing, few have examined librarians with disabilities—and none so far have included their voices or perspectives. This qualitative study involved interviews with ten academic librarians with disabilities in Canada. With a grounding in the social model of disability, it examines their workplace experiences and concerns and the barriers they face within the context of cultural assumptions about disability and work, finding that the major barriers encountered are lack of awareness of disability issues and negative cultural stereotypes of disability

Academic Librarians with Disabilities: Job Perceptions and Factors Influencing Positive Workplace Experiences

Although there has been increasing attention to diversity in librarianship, little attention has been paid to librarians with disabilities. This study uses a mixed method approach, using results from a survey and in-depth follow-up interviews, to investigate some of the characteristics of Canadian university librarians with disabilities, their job satisfaction, their perceptions of their workplace climate for diversity and accessibility, and the factors that influence their workplace perceptions. Although librarians with disabilities report a generally high level of job satisfaction, they are less satisfied with some areas related to workplace stress and job flexibility than librarians without disabilities. Librarians with disabilities also report less confidence that their workplace is inclusive, values diversity, and is understanding of disability-related issues. Factors influencing the work experience of university librarians with disabilities include a collegial environment, supportive colleagues and supervisors, job flexibility and autonomy, clear priorities and reporting structures, reasonable expectations about workload, time pressures and short deadlines, effective structures and processes to ensure accessibility, an accessible physical environment, and, most importantly, an understanding of disability and awareness of disability-related workplace issues

How Well Do Ontario Library Web Sites Meet New Accessibility Requirements?

New changes to Ontario law will require library web sites to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0). This study evaluates 64 Ontario university, college, and public library web sites to see how well they comply with WCAG 2.0 guidelines at present. An average of 14.75 accessibility problems were found per web page. The most common problems included invalid html, poor color contrast, incorrect form controls and labels, missing alt text, bad link text, improper use of headings, using html to format pages, using absolute units of measure, and issues with tables and embedded objects

Accessibility of Vendor-Created Video Tutorials for People with Disabilities

Many video, screencast, webinar, or interactive tutorials are created and provided by vendors for use by libraries to instruct users in database searching. This study investigates whether these vendor-created database tutorials are accessible for people with disabilities to see whether librarians can use these tutorials instead of creating them in-house. Findings on accessibility were mixed. Positive accessibility features and common accessibility problems are described, with recommendations on how to maximize accessibility

Improving Screencast Accessibility for People with Disabilities: Guidelines and Techniques

Screencast video tutorials are increasingly popular in libraries, but may present access problems for people with disabilities unless specific accessibility features are added during screencast creation. This article reviews existing standards for accessible web-based multimedia and gives guidelines on how to create accessible screencasts based on these standards

Aiming for service excellence: Implementing a plan for customer service quality at a blended service desk

This article discusses a public service review and redesign that resulted in a blended service desk combining reference and circulation functions, staffed by nonlibrarians. The redesign implements a number of organizational structures that encourage service excellence, as found in the business literature and in examples of nonlibrary organizations that excel in customer service. The article identifies key organizational structures that have been shown to support or hinder good service and discusses the process of implementing these structures in practice and the results of an assessment process designed around determining success

Systemic Workplace Barriers for Academic Librarians with Disabilities

Although studies related to diversity within librarianship as a profession are increasing, few have examined librarians with disabilities—and none so far have included their voices or perspectives. This qualitative study involved interviews with ten academic librarians with disabilities in Canada. With a grounding in the social model of disability, it examines their workplace experiences and concerns and the barriers they face within the context of cultural assumptions about disability and work, finding that the major barriers encountered are lack of awareness of disability issues and negative cultural stereotypes of disability