Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (Journal)
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Undergraduate Students’ Library Interactions: Does Race Shape How Students Experience Library Help?
No full textObjective – The goal of this study was to examine whether an undergraduate student\u27s race influences their interactions and perceived quality of experiences with librarians/library staff and student employees.
Methods – The study consisted of a survey distributed by email to undergraduate students at a medium size public university located in North Central Massachusetts. Students answered questions about the frequency of their interactions with librarians and student employees, whether they felt respected during the interactions, whether their information needs were met, and whether the interactions increased their feelings of belonging at the university. Data analysis on the 366 students who completed the survey was conducted in SPSS using Fisher’s exact test.
Results – Findings revealed that Black students reported more frequent interactions with librarians/library staff and student employees than Latina/o/e and White students did. The difference across races regarding the frequency of interactions with librarians/library staff and student employees was statistically significant. Although Black students also reported higher levels of agreement for feeling respected, having their information needs met, and feelings of belonging than their counterparts, the differences among races were not statistically significant. Black, Latina/o/e, and White students felt respected, had their information needs met, and felt a sense of belonging regardless of whom they interacted with. Further, preferences for whom students interacted with depended on the type of information needed. Students sought librarians for research help and student employees for logistical support.
Conclusion – To improve the undergraduate student library experience, the authors discuss how to create a more accessible and inclusive library environment by leveraging student employees for peer mentoring, enhancing faculty collaboration to integrate library resources into coursework, and providing professional development for library staff to foster a welcoming atmosphere.
"We Don\u27t Like Unanswered Questions”: Information Practices of Students Transitioning to Clinical Education
No full textObjective – Health professions students are awash in large quantities of information, often conflicting, as they learn their professions. In order to navigate this information, librarians often engage with these students, usually in their didactic phase of education; however, the way students use information clinically may not be the same as the way they learn to do so in the classroom. This study investigated the information practices and experiences of health professions students early in the clinical phase of their education, in order to answer the following research questions: What are the information practices of health professions students at the transition to clinical education? How do these students understand how their practices have developed over their education?
Methods – A purposive sample of learners from six health-focused professional programs participated in individual in-depth interviews, created timelines, and completed follow-up diary entries. The data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis.
Results – Students’ information practices are characterized by three themes. They are motivated to build competency to provide patient care; they operate in dual roles as student and clinician; and they navigate ambiguity, uncertainty, and doubt. They were able to describe the way they experienced information, problems they solved, and the development over time. Taken as a whole, this describes student experience with information as a method of making meaning from previous experience and learning with a focus on applying what they know and learn to improve patients’ lives and health.
Conclusion – Insight into these students’ practices, including affective and social domains of practice, can inform librarian-led instruction and outreach within health professions and other professional programs. Linking education about information to students’ motivations to provide excellent patient care and their desire to operate scientifically in a world of doubt may provide more relevant instruction, leading to transference of learning to new environments
Uneven Sustainability in Academic Publishing: A Call for Transparency and Collaboration
No full textA Review of:
McCord, D., Cassady, S., Roman, P., Cato, J., & Mantz, E. (2025). Sustainability in Library Collection Development: Introducing a Green Audit Template. Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship, 11, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.33137/cjal-rcbu.v11.43852
Objective – To assess the sustainability practices of academic publishers and their alignment with library collection management, and to determine the nature of sustainable partnership opportunities at the intersection of library and publisher practices.
Design – A cross-sectional, unobtrusive analysis of existing content.
Setting – The academic publishing industry.
Subjects – Sustainability practices from 16 international academic publishers selected based on their prominence in Western Libraries\u27 print book acquisitions.
Methods – The Green Audit Template, a rubric based on the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and industry standards and inspired by lifecycle assessment (LCA) approach, was employed to assess various aspects of sustainability practices of the 16 publishers. The assessment relied exclusively on the publishers’ websites and analyzed publicly available reports, corporate policies, and sustainability statements from the websites. The analysis focused on the trends found among all publishers rather than identifying major differences between publishers.
Main Results – Notable variability was found in the sustainability practices of academic publishers, with transparency and commitment largely influenced by regional regulations, funding levels, and institutional capacity. Publishers based in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the European Union (E.U.), where environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting is mandatory, demonstrated the highest levels of disclosure, with all of them publicly sharing sustainability initiatives. In contrast, only 66% of North American publishers voluntarily disclosed such efforts, while 31% of all publishers lacked any publicly available sustainability information. Although 44% of publishers provided annual reports detailing environmental commitments, only half of them showed clear progress toward achieving their goals. In terms of sustainability commitments, 38% of publishers pledged to reach net-zero emissions, with target years ranging from 2040 to 2050. However, only two publishers had achieved ISO 14001 certification, an internationally recognized environmental management standard. Additionally, while 63% of publishers had signed the UN SDG Publishers Compact, the extent of their sustainability efforts varied, with some publishers focusing more on advocacy rather than implementing environmentally friendly practices. Material sourcing and production practices also revealed gaps in sustainability efforts. More than half of the publishers, 54%, reported using sustainably sourced paper, and 25% discussed their recycling processes, how they dispose of e-waste, or how they manage edition changes. Very few provided details on Open Educational Resources, servers, sustainable ink and glue. Transportation and infrastructure were also key areas of concern. While 43.75% of publishers reported implementing sustainable travel policies such as reducing business travel and promoting public transit, only 12.5% of publishers disclosed warehouse locations, and just 31.25% addressed eco-friendly shipping practices, primarily through strategies like reducing print production and minimizing plastic packaging. Among the 43.75% of the publishers that acknowledged sustainability efforts in their offices, a variety of practices were reported, such as using renewable energy, reducing in-office printing, using carbon credits, and funding reforestation projects to achieve carbon neutrality.
Conclusion – While some academic publishers are making progress toward sustainability, some of their practices vary widely. Government-mandated ESG reporting plays a crucial role in driving disclosure, with U.K. and E.U. publishers showing more comprehensive sustainability commitments compared to their North American counterparts. Larger publishers generally lead in green initiatives, while smaller publishers face challenges due to limited resources and capacity. The need for increased transparency and accountability in publishing is highlighted, and libraries and publishers are encouraged to adopt and adapt the Green Audit Template as a common reporting framework. Further research may delve into digital infrastructure sustainability, recycling practices, the role of smaller publishers in green initiatives, and collaborative efforts between libraries and publishers.
Assessing the Gap Between Intention and Implementation in Seed Lending Libraries
No full textA Review of:
Cohn, S. B. (2024). Lending seeds, growing justice: Seed lending in public and academic libraries. The Library Quarterly, 94(2), 117–133. https://doi.org/10.1086/729231
Objective – To survey seed lending programs in libraries on their goals and marketing. The research questions focus on the theoretical underpinnings of creating a seed library, the promotion and marketing materials used, and the gaps and connective points between the marketing and the underpinned intent, especially surrounding activism.
Design – Literature review and survey.
Setting – Academic and public libraries in the Seed Lending Network in the United States and Canada.
Subjects – Librarians responsible for seed lending programs identified on each library’s website.
Methods – Online survey with a mix of open- and closed-ended questions covering reasons for starting seed lending and workshops and other programming around seeds.
Main results – 58 completed surveys were returned, 42 from public libraries and 16 from academic libraries. Some academic libraries who curate seed libraries do so in support of their agricultural degree programs, while others noted campus community gardens. Public libraries responded that their primary purpose was to support community gardeners; some less neutral responses included food deserts and rural libraries concerned about the loss of heirloom and non-GMO seeds. The marketing and programming around these programs primarily focused on gardening and how-to classes, including making paper with food scraps, creating natural dyes, and others. There is a gap between the initial intentions that were less neutral and the programming language that is more neutral and less activist.
Conclusion – Some surveyed seed libraries stated goals around food justice, but there is a gap between that intention and the more neutral marketing and programming for their seed libraries. This could be due to preservation in a precarious time for public libraries.
Public Libraries Have a Key Role to Play in Planetary Health Programs and Initiatives
No full textA Review of:
Patrick, R., Bruges, N., Gunasiri, H., Wang, Y., & Henderson‐Wilson, C. (2025). Healthy me, healthy planet: Evaluation of a pilot planetary health library program. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 36(1), Article e882. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.882
Objective – To evaluate the impact of the Healthy Me, Healthy Planet (HMHP) pilot health promotion program, running from December 2021 to August 2022. The program was designed to promote the health benefits of action on climate change to build a climate ready community.
Design – Mixed methods design of online quantitative surveys and online qualitative focus groups via Zoom.
Setting – Public libraries in Victoria, Australia during the Covid lockdown.
Subjects – 136 adults aged 18+ who were members of the public who were program participants, as well as library staff and HMHP delivery partners.
Methods – Researchers conducted pre- and post-surveys in English and simplified Chinese using the quantitative Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and Environmental Attitudes Inventory (EAI). The pre-surveys were undertaken from December 2021-February 2022 and the post-surveys between the 26th of July and 7th August 2022. A focus group was conducted in July 2022 for program participants, and a second focus group for library staff and HMHO delivery partners. Focus group transcripts were analysed in NViVO using inductive and deductive thematic analysis approaches. Survey and focus group data was triangulated using thematic content analysis.
Main Results – The impact evaluation found four main themes: personal health and social-wellbeing, individual capacity building, pro-environmental knowledge, and organisational/community capacity. The authors found that libraries promote meaningful social connections and can use programs like this to create shared community social connections, including intergenerational, on the topics of climate change, sustainability, and healthy environments to alleviate loneliness and isolation and take collective action to adopt pro-environmental behaviours. Public libraries are well placed to deliver these types of programs as trusted community knowledge hubs as they know their communities and can reach populations at every age. As well, libraries are stakeholders for partnership development, empowering communities to take ownership of their health and environmental well-being and engage in pro-environmental behaviour.
Conclusion – The HMHP program offers a tested framework for others to adopt to align to health and well-being strategies, particularly around climate change. It highlights the potential benefits of linking health and well-being and planetary health into a joint health promotion, and the value of the use of public libraries as a setting for these types of promotions and programs. It recommends that future programs should prioritise community engagement in the decision-making process, integrate intergenerational aspects more explicitly, and take a systems thinking approach to collaborate with stakeholders across sectors on programs addressing planetary health.
Heightened Awareness of Oppressive Systems May Impact Black Library Workers’ Perceptions of Inequitable Hiring and Retention Practices in Public and Academic Libraries
No full textA Review of:
Caragher, K., & Bryant, T. (2023). Black and non-Black library workers’ perceptions of hiring, retention, and promotion racial equity practices. Journal of Library Administration, 63(2), 137-178. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2022.2159239
Objective – To measure Black and non-Black library employees’ perceptions of their library’s efforts to hire, retain, and promote Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) library employees.
Design – Literature review and subsequent questionnaire.
Setting – Academic and public libraries in the United States and Canada.
Subjects – 717 survey participants who met the criteria of working in the United States or Canada, and either being currently employed, retired, or unemployed library workers whose experiences are placed in an academic or public library. 68 subjects who selected Black as their ethnicity were coded separately from other ethnic designations.
Methods – A joint effort of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services (ODLOS) and the Public Library Association (PLA) launched the Building Cultural Proficiencies for Racial Equity Framework Task Force in 2019. A subset of this task force broke out to create a survey titled Racial Equity in Libraries. A three-part survey was devised, covering demographics, personal experiences with racial equity, and workplace experiences with racial equity. The task force used non-probability convenience sampling and distributed the survey to several library listservs across the United States and Canada. Quantitative results underwent descriptive statistics; qualitative results underwent iterative thematic analysis.
Main Results – Black participants made up 68 (9.5%) of all responses. Five qualitative themes emerged: unsuccessful hiring searches; acknowledgement that hiring of BIPOC is an ongoing issue; no BIPOC employees; organization-based issues impacting hiring; and hostile work environments for BIPOC.
Conclusion – Black participants were more likely to report that their library hires, promotes, and retains BIPOC library workers compared to non-Black participants. However, Black participants were also more likely to refute that their employers were making efforts to hire, retain, and promote BIPOC library workers than their non-Black counterparts. This may be due to Black participants\u27 greater sense of awareness of oppressive systems surrounding them.
Thank You for Your Suggestion! Analyzing Patron Purchase Requests at the University of Alberta Library
No full textObjectives – To understand how many of the user recommendations for new library acquisitions come from high-volume requesters, whether requests are submitted for a person’s own use or on behalf of someone else, and to develop understanding of the reasons given for acquisition requests. Additionally, this work sought to understand approaches to “suggest a purchase” forms at comparator institutions. This understanding would support a review of the University of Alberta Library’s approach to soliciting patron purchase requests, including a review of the form used by patrons to submit these requests.
Methods – User recommendations for new library acquisitions at the University of Alberta are received through a “suggest a purchase” form. These form submissions populate a centralized request database, and this database was used to create a dataset of requests for review. A total of 4,681 requests received between April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2024, for non-subscription materials were reviewed in detail.
Results – This analysis found that 17% of the requests were submitted by 8 individuals who submitted over 50 requests each, with a further 11% submitted by 15 individuals who submitted between 26-50 requests. While half of all requests were submitted by those who indicated that the item was for their own use, high-volume requesters were more likely than low-volume requesters to submit a request on behalf of someone else. The reason provided in about one third of the requests was categorized as “collection development”, meaning that the user suggested that the material would be beneficial to the collection but did not indicate that they themselves would use it. In reviewing “suggest a purchase” forms from comparator institutions, there was a lack of consensus around requested information or intended audience for this service.
Conclusion – As 28% of the requests received at the University of Alberta during this three-year timeframe came from 23 individuals, this work demonstrates that the library’s “suggest a purchase” program does not have broad engagement relative to the size of the library’s community. The wide variety of academic library approaches to submission forms suggests that there is not a clear purpose or approach to receiving these requests. Providing this service requires a significant investment in staff time, yet without a clear purpose and limited user engagement it is unlikely that this service is fulfilling its potential and may instead be detracting from institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. However, considering the large proportion of collection development requests, and the fact that high-volume requesters submit forms on behalf of others, this service could be explored as a means of community engagement and collection diversification. At the University of Alberta Library, this analysis supported the implementation of a program called “Broaden Our Bookshelf” as well as changes to the suggestion form to create a more welcoming user experience that would also enhance departmental understanding of user needs and future assessment of the service
Scientometric Analysis of Library Science Literature Identifies Publication Trends and Thematic Developments Concerning Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (EDIA) in Research Published Since 1971
No full textA Review of:
Ashiq, M., Ur Rehman, S. & Warraich, N.F. (2023). A scientometrics analysis of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) literature in library and information science profession, Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-12-2022-0298
Objective – To analyze publication trends, authorship and collaboration patterns, and thematic developments concerning equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) in library and information science (LIS) research.
Design – Scientometric analysis.
Setting – The indexing and citation platform Web of Science (WoS), accessed on July 14, 2022.
Subjects – A collection of 628 articles, proceeding papers, and reviews published between 1971 and 2021.
Methods – A literature search of citations assigned under the WoS subject category of “Information Science Library Science” was conducted using the keywords EDIA, LIS, and synonyms of LIS in the WoS “Topic” field. The authors then each manually reviewed title and abstract information of the resulting citations for relevancy. Finally, bibliometric analysis was conducted on the selected 628 articles using MS Excel, VOS viewer, Biblioshiny, and CiteSpace to discern publication patterns, characteristics, and relationships between the remaining publications.
Main Results – The researchers identified a period of rapid growth in both publications and citations of LIS EDIA literature between 2006 and 2010. Although while publications of EDIA research continued to slowly increase each year, annual totals of cited EDIA publications and average citations per article have begun to gradually decline since 2015. Using similar publication and citation metrics as indicators for impact, the United Kingdom was identified as host to the most (n = 5) top-10 influential LIS journals for EDIA scholarship over the 50-year study period, while the United States was home to the most productive LIS authors and institutions for EDIA research, and the leading country in publications, citations, and citation impact measures. The researchers further identified five interconnected EDIA thematic streams using co-citation analysis of the 150 most cited articles, including, in descending order of stream size: disability and accessibility; diversity, inclusion, and recruitment; social justice and libraries; libraries and immigrants; and libraries and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community.
Conclusion – The authors recommended further investigations and increased support for EDIA issues by LIS researchers and policymakers, especially for the smaller or less matured subject streams and in underrepresented geographic regions. Future researchers are also encouraged to conduct similar bibliometric analysis using other LIS databases.