Practical Academic Librarianship: The International Journal of the SLA Academic Division (Texas Digital Library - TDL E-Journals)
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The English Conversation Group: A Library-led Virtual Program for International Students
No full textAcademic libraries play a key role in helping international students adjust to a new learning environment. The abrupt halt to in-person activities due to COVID-19 meant that many libraries had to find new and creative ways of utilizing technology to continue serving patrons. In fall 2020, the English Conversation Group (ECG) at the University of Windsor’s Leddy Library pivoted to offering virtual sessions for the first time in the program’s history due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sessions have been successful in continuing to support international students and have allowed for students to engage with the university, the library, and each other despite being physically separated. The authors detail the process, challenges, and outcomes of hosting English Conversation Group using Blackboard Collaboratory for international students. This case study provides limited empirical evidence for libraries who have an interest in offering a web-based English conversation program in order to support international students
Others-Oriented Reference: Employing Cultural Humility in the Reference Interview: * WINNER OF THE 2023 PRACTICAL ACADEMIC LIBRARIANSHIP AWARD *
No full textCultural humility has become a popular phrase in many contexts. Despite its popularity, cultural humility retains some ambiguity, particularly for professional application. This essay aims to resolve some of that by providing a brief overview of the term and specifically aiming to define cultural humility in the context of Library and Information Science. After providing a definition, this essay aims to assess a foundational component of librarianship, the reference interview, through this refined lens of cultural humility. The essay progresses to provide two examples showing how cultural humility can enrich reference services: referrals and relational integration. The authors of this essay argue that cultural humility may play a critical role in reviving the reference interview
The Research Support Needs of Emerging Researchers Employed at the Education Faculty of a University of Technology
No full textABSTRACT
Globally academic institutions are under pressure to improve their research outputs, both in terms of quality and quantity. The library plays an important role in providing research support services to its community of researchers so that they can contribute to research. As a young research institution, CPUT has a large cohort of emerging researchers, among those, teacher educators in its Education Faculty. This study, based on research for a master’s degree (Oosthuizen, 2019), set out to determine their research support needs by using a mixed methods approach which included collecting mostly quantitative data from researchers and qualitative data from support staff. It found that this group of researchers needs the library’s support at all stages of the research life cycle, but to varying degrees. The information gathering stage is where the library’s support is considered necessary by almost all, while the majority of respondents did not consider support in the planning stage as necessary. It was found that many respondents were neutral about some services, indicating their unfamiliarity with what the library does or might offer. The study recommends that the library improve the awareness for the research support services it offers and that it works more collaboratively with other research support entities at the university for a more streamlined approach to research support. While this study investigated a small sample of researchers, its findings can be used by the library to tailor services to a particular group of users.  
Which Libraries are Open?: How to Quickly Map Library Reopening Statuses and Service Updates Using CARTO
No full textThis article outlines how libraries can quickly map library information such as location and service updates using the free version of CARTO, an online mapping platform that provides both free and subscription-based accounts. Institutions with multiple library locations and different COVID-19 site reopening statuses can quickly map which library locations are open, partially opened or closed and indicate what services are currently available. Mapping this data requires minimal technical expertise and time, and the map itself can be helpful for patrons, librarians and staff
Introduction to Volume 12, Issue 1
No full textIntroduction to Volume 12, Issue 1 of Practical Academic Librarianship: The International Journal of the SLA Academic Division
Introduction to This Issue
No full textIntroduces this issue and announces the recent merger of the SLA Academic and Education Communities
Weeding Ebooks at an Academic Library * WINNER OF THE 2022 PRACTICAL ACADEMIC LIBRARIANSHIP AWARD *
No full textThis paper reports on an ebook weeding project conducted by the Franklin University Library. It discusses the library’s reasons for weeding its ebooks, how the library weeded its DDA pool, and the challenges the library encountered weeding ebooks. The library ultimately conducted a more limited weeding of its ebook collection than initially planned, and this paper explains the reasons for this, the decisions the library made and the method used to conduct the limited ebook weeding project.
* WINNER OF THE 2022 PRACTICAL ACADEMIC LIBRARIANSHIP AWARD
Material Format Preference of Music Faculty at Kennesaw State University
No full textHistorically, collection development has focused on what material to purchase. However, with the maturation of web-based music audio databases, web-based video databases, online music scores, electronic books and reference material, and commercial audio/visual streaming services, the format of material is also now an important collection consideration. Faced with difficult collection development decisions due to the Performing Arts Library’s (PAL) limited space being filled beyond capacity with physical material, PAL librarians at Kennesaw State University (KSU) sought to discover the material and format preference of music faculty. This was done to see if faculty would use digital material, requiring no physical library space, in place of physical material. To discover preferences, music faculty completed two material format preference surveys. The first survey was completed May 2016 and the second was completed April 2019. Both surveys sought to discover format preferences, physical or digital, for the following music library material: books, music scores, journals, reference, audio, and video. The 2019 survey also included questions about digital material used in instruction, the format of music scores used, and the method of music score use. The surveys found music faculty prefer print books and print music scores. In contrast, music faculty prefer digital, web-based journals, web-based reference material, and have a strong preference for web-based audio and video material. In addition, music faculty are using non-library streaming services, such as YouTube and Spotify, in their instruction. Also, acceptance of digital music scores and digital display devices is growing as half of music faculty survey respondents use digital devices to display music scores.
Keywords: material format, format preference, music faculty, collection development, digital material, books, music scores, journals, reference, audio/video materia
Employers Needs Versus Student Skillsets
No full textThis paper is a review of the skills employers seeks in new graduates and the skillsets new graduates have to offer. Employers report they want to hire people with solid soft skills, research, critical thinking and problem-solving skills (Stewart, Wall, Marciniec, 2016). The question is: Does the literature support recent graduates’ media education and training in research, critical thinking and problem-solving skills? This paper will examine literature to determine whether there is a disparity between employers’ needs and the abilities of recent graduates who have grown up in an e-learning environment, and if so, where those disparities exist. Synthesizing this information has broad implications for future research into how universities can best educate and prepare students for success after graduation. Certainly, today’s undergraduate students are computer and Internet savvy, can they apply critical thinking skills to the vast amount information available to determine reliable sources? When using Google, can students identify a credible source, determine fake news from real, identify native advertising from editorial content, or learn to take researched information in, digest it, and apply it to real-world applications? This paper sets the stage for future research into the above questions and beyond.
Sense of Direction: Embedding a Virtual Tour in Course-Integrated Instruction Sessions at an Academic Library
No full textBecause academic library tours typically require an entire class period to conduct, some professors are reluctant to provide students with opportunities for physical library orientation. Thus, when classes meet for course-integrated instruction without a tour, some students enter the library for the first time with little sense of their surroundings. For many students, an academic library can be overwhelming, posing potential barriers to learning. As an attempt to solve these problems, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Library created a 4-minute virtual tour. In fall 2015, the tour was embedded as a quiz in the course management system D2L. That semester, two professors assigned the D2L quiz to five freshman English classes, and 88 undergraduate students attempted the assignment. This case study describes how a virtual tour was embedded in a course management system to enhance library instruction. This paper also examines original data to determine if video viewership increased after the virtual tour was assigned in courses and if students satisfactory completed a 10-question quiz based on the tour