Practical Academic Librarianship: The International Journal of the SLA Academic Division

Putting the Puzzle Together

Kelly Giles, Brian Sullivan — Sat, 20 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At James Madison University, many first-year students enroll in a general education course that requires them to participate in campus events. James Madison University Libraries offers special information literacy sessions as part of this program, but developing an engaging session that is not tied to a research assignment or academic major can be challenging. A team of librarians and staff collaborated on creating an escape room that would teach freshmen about James Madison University Libraries spaces, collections, and services. In this case study, we describe the development process from identifying learning objectives through playtesting to the successful implementation of the escape room as a library orientation activity. We discuss some principles of good escape room design taken from the literature as well as observations and lessons learned from our experiences.

A Study of the Deployment of Institutional Repositories in Colleges and Universities in Connecticut

Christopher D. Clarke, Hak Joon Kim — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In the past several years, many colleges and universities have developed institutional repositories as a means of highlighting the research and scholarship conducted at their institution as well as a means of combating the current publication model. Past studies have concentrated on growth in the total number of repositories, but none has looked at how the number of repositories in a particular region compares to those institutions without a repository. The primary purposes of this study were to find out how many colleges and universities in Connecticut have developed institutional repositories and how they have used these institutional repositories. Overall, this study revealed that less than a third of the academic institutions in Connecticut have institutional repositories. These repositories are most frequently found in the state sponsored universities and the independent, nonprofit schools. On the other hand, none of the community colleges, which constitute one of the largest proportion of schools in the state behind independent, nonprofits, has a repository. A vast majority of the repositories are registered with OpenDOAR, and nearly all of them use Digital Commons as their platform. The two most popular types of content found in Connecticut institutional repositories are journal articles and theses & dissertations.

Exploring Research Support by Academic Librarians to Faculty Members

Mercy Ama Asafu-Adjaye, Esther White — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract

This article explored the availability and relevance of research support offered by academic librarians to faculty members within the Colleges of Health Sciences and Basic and Applied Sciences at the University of Ghana, with the background that current technological changes in librarianship have made research support a critical function of academic libraries. Mixed methods research design was adopted for the study. Data was collected from faculty members and academic librarians through self-designed questionnaires and semi-structured interviews respectively. The study concluded that research support activities by academic librarians existed and is seen as very relevant to faculty members. However, in as much as there is an upsurge in technological advancement in academic library services, only the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) was mostly utilised for research support whereas Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) by academic librarians to faculty, news alerts and list of new arrivals were the least utilised services. It was observed that academic librarians had not utilised the use of social media in communicating research support to faculty members although they had a positive mind-set about its use. Other ways of communicating research support to faculty members were through “ask the librarian” system on university websites, presentations by academic librarians at workshops for faculty members, notices on notice boards and one-on-one interactions. Identified research support needed by faculty members were article request services; training in reference management software such as Mendeley and Endnote; Faculty Research Commons for faculty members alone; effective maintenance and update of the institutional repository and training on the use of electronic databases. The study recommended the need for academic librarians to periodically update their knowledge on current trends of research support as well as ascertain the research needs of faculty members which keep on changing because of technological advancements.

Introduction to Volume 13, Issue 1

Jennifer A. Bartlett, Stacey Greenwell — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction to Volume 13, Issue 1 of Practical Academic Librarianship: The International Journal of the SLA Academic Division.