EN:

Objective – The main objective was to create an information commons (IC) model for the existing library with minimum structural changes to achieve maximum benefit. The subdivisions of the main objective were:

to find out students' expectations and perceptions of an ideal learning environment; to find out the factors which influence the satisfaction level of the students for the library; to find out how satisfied are students from the existing library; and to find out the current library usage pattern of the students.

Methods – Based on the available literature on the topic, an online questionnaire survey was constructed with Google Forms and sent to current cohorts studying at the institute through e-mail, along with the study's rationale and a request for participation. We contacted 294 students, of which 199 responded. The data were analyzed and presented using Microsoft Excel.

Results – The findings of the study showed the keen interest of the students in library resources and services. It also showed that the students were not fully satisfied with the current library space and working hours. They wanted enhanced quiet areas and collaborative spaces where information experts help them use the current technology to improve their learning experience. Based on the gathered data analysis, an IC model for redesigning the existing library has been recommended.

Conclusion – The present study was the first step in research on ICs in the Indian context. This pilot study captured the perception and expectations of all levels of students: postgraduate, working executives, and senior-level executives. Most of the suggestions have been incorporated into the plan. With very few construction changes and new furniture, this model can be easily implemented in a small academic library without discarding the old furniture.

EN:

Objective – In winter 2019-2020, the world saw the emergence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). More than a year later, the pandemic continues with the U.S. death toll surpassing 550,000. Over the last decade, librarians have increased their roles in infectious disease outbreak response. However, no existing literature exists on use of the widely-used library content management platform, LibGuides, to respond to infectious disease outbreaks. This research explores how Federal Libraries use LibGuides to distribute COVID-19 information throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods – Survey questions were created and peer-reviewed by colleagues. Survey questions first screened for participant eligibility and collected broad demographic information to assist in identifying duplicate responses from individual libraries, then examined the creation, curation, and maintenance of COVID-19 LibGuides. The survey was hosted in Max.gov, a Federal Government data collection and analysis tool. Invitations to participate in the survey were sent via email to colleagues and listservs and posted to personal social media accounts. The survey was made publicly available for three weeks. Collected data were exported into Excel to clean, quantify, and visualize results. Long form answers were manually reviewed and tagged thematically.

Results – Of the 78 eligible respondents, 42% (n = 33) reported that their library uses LibGuides to disseminate COVID-19 information; 45% of these respondents said they spent 10+ hours creating their COVID-19 LibGuide, and 60% of respondents spent <1 hour a week on maintenance and updates. Most LibGuides were created in early spring 2020 as the U.S. first saw an uptick in COVID-19 cases. For marketing purposes, respondents reported using web/internal announcements (75%) and email (50%) most frequently. All respondents reported inclusion of U.S. Government resources in their COVID-19 LibGuides, and a majority also included guidelines, international websites, and databases to inform their user communities.

Conclusion – Some Federal Libraries use LibGuides as a tool to share critical information, including as a tool for emergency response. Results show libraries tend to start from scratch and share the same resources, duplicating efforts. To improve efficiency in LibGuide curation and use of library staff time, one solution to consider is the creation of a LibGuides template that any Federal Library can use to quickly set up and adapt an emergency response LibGuide specifically for their users. Additionally, findings show that libraries are uncertain of archiving and preservation plans for their guides post-pandemic, suggesting a need for recommended best practices.

EN:

Objective – This study investigated researchers’ perceptions of open access publishing and the ways in which the university’s open access subvention fund could evolve to meet the campus community’s needs.

Methods – In spring 2021, two librarians conducted an anonymous survey using a convenience sample to recruit participants. The survey was directly distributed to 113 University of Idaho (U of I) affiliates who had received funding from, or expressed interest in, the open access subvention fund during the previous three years (FY 2019 to FY 2021). Other U of I affiliates were also offered the opportunity to participate in the survey via a link shared in the U of I’s daily email newsletter as well across the U of I’s graduate student email list. The researchers received 42 usable survey responses. The survey included 26 closed and open-ended questions and analysis included cross-tabulations based on fund applicant status as well as respondent role. Of the 26 questions, 4 were modified from a colleague’s previous study with U of I faculty members (Gaines, 2015).

Results – Survey responses showed that interest in and support for open access were common among respondents. Although a majority of respondents had published an open access journal article and would like to continue to publish open access in the future, only 17% agreed that they had departmental support to do so. Results also demonstrated that researchers were less willing to pay article processing charges (APCs) out-of-pocket and preferred for funding to come from grant budgets first, followed by Office of Research Budgets, department or college budgets, and library budgets. Respondents expressed support for many of the open access subvention fund’s current criteria and processes, but they also indicated an interest in establishing a more equitable fund distribution cycle and allowing researchers to seek pre-approval once their article was accepted for peer-review. Findings related to open access publishing perspectives built upon previous research conducted at the U of I (Gaines, 2015) and across other institutions. 

Conclusion – This study confirmed the importance of evaluating and assessing library programs and services to ensure that they continue to meet the needs of campus communities. Through the study results, the researchers demonstrated that respondents were interested in open access publishing and the continuation of the open access subvention fund, as well as offering the U of I an opportunity to adjust the open access subvention fund’s processes to better serve researchers. These results also highlighted the need for those involved in open access publishing support to investigate new open access advocacy and education efforts to ensure that researchers receive the philosophical and financial support they need to pursue different models of scholarly publishing.

EN:

Objective – Chat transcript analysis can illuminate user needs by identifying common question topics, but traditional hand coding methods for topic analysis are time-consuming and poorly suited to large datasets. The research team explored the viability of automatic and natural language processing (NLP) strategies to perform rapid topic analysis on a large dataset of transcripts from a consortial chat service.

Methods – The research team developed a toolchain for data processing and analysis, which incorporated targeted searching for query terms using regular expressions and natural language processing using the Python spaCy library for automatic topic analysis. Processed data was exported to Tableau for visualization. Results were compared to hand-coded data to test the accuracy of conclusions.

Results – The processed data provided insights about the volume of chats originating from each participating library, the proportion of chats answered by operator groups for each library, and the percentage of chats answered by different staff types. The data also captured the top referring URLs for the service, course codes and file extensions mentioned, and query hits. Natural language processing revealed that the most common topics were related to citation, subscription databases, and finding full-text articles, which aligns with common question types identified in hand-coded transcripts.

Conclusion – Compared to hand coding, automatic and NLP processing approaches have benefits in terms of the volume of data that can be analyzed and the time frame required for analysis, but they come with a trade-off in accuracy, such as false hits. Therefore, computational approaches should be used to supplement traditional hand coding methods. As NLP becomes more accurate, approaches such as these may widen avenues of insight into virtual reference and patron needs.

EN:

Objective – This study uses the Kaleidoscope Career Model (Mainiero & Sullivan 2006a) to determine key sources of motivation for library professionals during their careers and identifies strategies for how library administrators can better retain and inspire their staff.

Methods – The authors adapted the Kaleidoscope Career Model survey tool with permission from Mainiero and Sullivan. The authors used Qualtrics to send out the adapted survey and in October 2019 emailed a call for participation with the survey link to six library electronic mailing lists. A total of 433 participants completed the survey. The authors reviewed the demographic data and charts Qualtrics generated and used an open-coding method to analyze the qualitative responses to open-ended questions included in the survey. First, they read through those responses, identified common words, phrases, and ideas, which became initial codes. Then the authors reviewed the codes and determined themes common in the data. Each author coded and analyzed each question. Those themes then informed the discussion and recommendations shared in this article.

Results – Nearly 60% of respondents identified as being in the Authenticity phase, 15% in the Challenge phase, and 18% in the Balance phase. When asked if they felt supported, those in the Authenticity phase reported the highest overall level of satisfaction, with those in the 47–52 years old cohort experiencing peak feelings of support. The study found that all early career practitioners seemed interested in continuing in a supervisory role. Those older participants in the Balance phase were less interested than those in the other two phases in continuing to supervise. Those in the Authenticity phase identified most strongly with being organizational leaders. By contrast, older participants in the Balance phase did not identify strongly as leaders. Those in the Challenge phase showed strong interest in being leaders at an early age and that interest increased among older cohorts. 

Conclusion – This study is the first to analyze sources of motivation for academic librarians during the stages of their careers. When working with librarians who identify with the Authenticity phase, administrators should work with their employees to develop career goals that are extrinsically based, such as what can be achieved through good work rather than striving for a dream position. Librarians in the Balance phase would benefit from early opportunities to develop leadership roles or serve in supervisory roles. These early opportunities better fit with their efforts to prioritize family later in life. Librarians in the Challenge phase are intrinsically motivated to achieve and strive. They may experience disappointment as newer career librarians continue to advance and as they begin to plateau later in life. Leaders must consider the kinds of changes their organization can withstand as they strive to best support and foster the growth and development of all of their employees.