Category Archives: Peer-Reviewed Article

Ordinary Beauty: An Unashamed Manifesto for LibGuides

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By Michael Kicey
University at Buffalo (SUNY) Libraries

LibGuides? Really?

I’ll admit it upfront: in our present moment, LibGuides are nothing new or revolutionary. Especially in the last decade, LibGuides have gone from being the latest shiny object to an established tool among academic librarians for the organization and presentation of library resources. Nearly everyone thinks about their guides, or even worries about them; spends time creating and maintaining them; expends energy pushing them out to their various audiences; and nearly everyone grumbles about them – about the cost of the licensing, the learning curve for the software itself, the limitations of available design options, or the difficulty of creating a guide that the target audience of patrons takes up as their own, explores independently, and uses consistently. Most of us necessarily view the creation of clear and effective guides as a vital part of the work we do, and yet most of us would also admit that the chief users of the public-facing guides we create, despite our best efforts, are typically other librarians. Having faced pressure on many occasions to create or revise guides quickly, we tend to continue doing so even when we might have leisure to go about the job with more circumspection. Having encountered countless guides created by other librarians that mostly follow the same design script, we tend to reproduce that same script, whether from the need to save time and energy, the need to make the guide itself comprehensible according to accepted conventions and expectations, or from sheer lack of imagination. In other words: having performed a task ourselves, or seen others perform it, in the same way over and over again, we imagine that the way it’s always been done is the only way to do it.

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Yours, Mine, Ours: Some Best Practices for Authors Writing Collaboratively

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By Rachel A. Knapp, Applied Sciences Librarian, University of Colorado Boulder,
Paulina Borrego, Science & Engineering Librarian, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Thea Atwood, Data Services Librarian, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Introduction

The authors of this article focus on the best practices we learned through our experiences in scholarly writing, with a specific focus on the collaborative writing process. For the sake of this paper, we define collaborative writing as a collective process of creating a scholarly work for distribution, either through formal (e.g., peer-review) or informal (e.g., white paper) venues. This article is, in part, in response to our lack of formal training and addresses a situation in which we felt other researchers might find themselves. We hope to provide starting points for others interested in writing collaboratively and help empower those wishing to have a broader conversation about writing. Our scope here is limited to collaborative writing, and as such, we exclude other components of collaborative scholarly work, such as generating an idea, pursuing a grant, or analyzing data. Nevertheless, we do endeavor to provide resources and advice broadly applicable and relevant to all disciplines.

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Student Educators as Facilitators of Learning: A Model for Peer Education in Academic Library Instruction

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By Jonathan Cornforth, Reference and Instruction Librarian
and
Sarah Parramore, Reference and Instruction Librarian
Pollak Library
California State University, Fullerton

Peer-to-peer support has become a cornerstone of learning across various levels and areas of education. Its impact can be felt in many settings; not least of which is an academic library. There has been no lack of experimentation and successful implementation of peer education and related learning models within such spaces. Over time, libraries have helped innovate such forms of learning as they target specific courses and students.

In this vein, library instruction practices are amenable to adaptation. Instructors and various other stakeholders continue to seek out and implement new ways of delivering content which incorporates authentic approaches and pedagogies suited to today’s learner. This includes such innovations as High Impact Practices and other experiential approaches designed to engage students within the context of peer education. Library instruction has been and will continue to advance peer-to-peer engagement practices within various classroom settings.

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“Relaxed and Refreshed, Prepared to Learn”: Experiences With Virtual Yoga Programming in the Academic Library

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By Chelsea Humphries
Liaison & Collections Librarian
James A. Gibson Library
Brock University

Abstract

Wellness initiatives on academic campuses are growing, and they are increasingly important as mental health declines and mental health problems continue to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic libraries are the spaces in which wellness initiatives can be brought to the frontlines, meeting students in the spaces within which they study and conduct their research. As a liaison librarian and a yoga instructor, my goal has been to humanize the academic library space with yoga as a mindful movement practice supporting wellness initiatives on campus and the library’s strategic priority of supporting student success. Upon remotely starting my role as a liaison librarian during the COVID-19 pandemic, I started a virtual Library Yoga program intended to support students and the broader university community as they cope with the stresses of working remotely. I offered both synchronous and recorded yoga sessions during the fall and winter terms. To ascertain the impact and value of this program, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, I conducted a web survey among Library Yoga participants (n=14). Survey results indicate that the program reduced stress, fostered a sense of community, challenged library anxiety and misperceptions of the profession, and provided an opportunity for library outreach. It also fostered relationships among organizations on campus during a time when remote work has challenged our abilities to coalesce as a community. These investigations confirm that the library is more than its spaces and collections; it has the ability to set the tone for academic experience with its services, staff, and the community it brings together. Continue reading “Relaxed and Refreshed, Prepared to Learn”: Experiences With Virtual Yoga Programming in the Academic Library →

“Just Like When I Was a Liaison”: Applying a Liaison Approach to Functional Library Models

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By Kristin Hoffmann, Research and Scholarly Communication Librarian, University of Western Ontario
and
Emily Carlisle-Johnston, Research and Scholarly Communication Librarian, University of Western Ontario

Abstract

In this exploratory paper we consolidate themes discussed in literature to highlight three principles of liaison librarianship: building relationships, anticipating and meeting needs, and drawing on specialized expertise. These principles capture how liaison librarians approach their professional activities and together comprise what we define as a liaison approach. Through stories of our own work as scholarly communication librarians, we explore how a liaison approach can extend beyond subject liaison models to be relevant for librarians in functional roles. In sharing our stories, we prompt academic librarians in a variety of roles to consider how the perspective of a liaison approach might be helpful in their work. We offer this perspective, too, as a new lens through which librarians and library administrators may view organizational restructures, so as to address challenges that may be reproduced or replicated when a library moves from subject liaison model to functional model.

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