Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (Journal)
Not a member yet
1552 research outputs found
Sort by
Health Sciences Librarianship\u27s Status as a Profession Is Unclear, According to Its Members
No full textA Review of:
Koenig, R. A., Rodriguez, V. A., & Sima, A. P. (2021). Attitudinal attributes of professionalism in health sciences librarians. Journal of Library Administration, 61(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2020.1845544
Objective – To determine health sciences librarians\u27 attitudes toward professionalism and to examine relationships between professionalism attributes and participant characteristics as defined by the Richard H. Hall Professionalism Inventory.
Design – Cross-sectional online survey using the Richard H. Hall Professionalism Inventory.
Setting – Electronic mailing lists of the Medical Library Association (MLA), the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Health Sciences Interest Group, and the Canadian Health Libraries Association (CHLA).
Subjects – There were 430 participants.
Methods – The online survey, created in REDCap, was distributed electronically across multiple mailing lists during June and July of 2019. Quantitative analysis included descriptive statistics and ANOVA conducted in R with reliability determined by Cronbach\u27s alpha.
Main Results – Professionalism scores for health sciences librarians were lowest in public service and self-regulation, and highest in professional organization as referent, autonomy, and sense of calling. Individuals with a degree in health sciences scored lower on a sense of calling than individuals with Library and Information Science (LIS) degrees. Faculty benefits such as tenure decreased sense of calling. There were statistically significant differences according to role (e.g., archives, administration). Subject specialty librarians had lower scores in most attributes.
Conclusion – Health sciences librarianship does not clearly meet the criteria of a profession. Its heterogeneity of specializations and receptiveness to diverse backgrounds and perspectives are possible threats to its ability to create a cohesive identity. Further, duties that can be considered non-library work appear to correlate with lower professionalism scores, even when they are associated with faculty status
An Online Community of Data Enthusiasts Collaborates to Seek, Share, and Make Sense of Data
No full textA Review of:
Stvilia, B., & Gibradze, L. (2022). Seeking and sharing datasets in an online community of data enthusiasts. Library & Information Science Research 44(3). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2022.101160
Objective – To understand the major activities, tools, sources, and challenges of online communities focused on datasets.
Design – Content analysis informed by activity theory.
Setting – The r/Datasets subreddit, a web forum for sharing, seeking, and discussing datasets.
Subjects – 1232 “hot” or “top” discussion threads (1232 original posts and 6813 responding comments) first posted between 2010 and 2020.
Methods – The researchers used Reddit’s API to collect their sample of threads. Using a random subset of the sample, the researchers developed a coding scheme for content analysis, which identified major themes in the data. Through this process, they controlled for quality: each researcher coded half the subset independently, then together evaluated their intercoder reliability and discussed and resolved disagreements. The researchers also employed labelled latent Dirchlet allocation to construct topic models corresponding to the theme’s manual content analysis, which produced profiles of the top 100 terms most likely to appear in that topic. Finally, the researchers extracted URLs from threads in the sample to ascertain types of information and data sources used by the community. Presenting their findings, the researchers discussed notable themes and proposed a metadata model for describing datasets, the Data Q&A metadata (DQAM) model.
Main Results – The r/Datasets community engages in three distinct activities: asking and answering questions, disseminating information, and community building. The closely related Q&A and dissemination activities shared themes of obtaining and aggregating data, sensemaking, collaborating and crowdsourcing, and data evaluation. Community members frequently discussed tools, competencies, and sources for data work. Major challenges for members of the community related to the general themes of data quality, accessibility, ethics, and legality. A proposed 16-element metadata schema should meet the needs of data enthusiasts.
Conclusion – The content analysis reveals a dedicated community engaged in an array of data-seeking and data-sharing activities. Data producers should be mindful of how their data can be accessed and used outside of their original professional or scholarly contexts
Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) Prove Highly Effective for Long-Term Data Availability in PLOS ONE
No full textA Review of:
Federer, L. M. (2022). Long-term availability of data associated with articles in PLOS ONE. PLOS ONE 17(8), Article e0272845. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272845
Objective – To retrieve a range of PLOS ONE data availability statements and quantify their ability to point to the study data efficiently and accurately. Research questions focused on availability over time, availability of URLs versus DOIs, the ability to locate resources using the data availability statement and availability based on data sharing method.
Design – Observational study.
Setting – PLOS ONE archive.
Subjects – A corpus of 47,593 data availability statements from research articles in PLOS ONE between March 1, 2014, and May 31, 2016.
Methods – Use of custom R scripts to retrieve 47,593 data availability statements; of these, 6,912 (14.5%) contained at least one URL or DOI. Once these links were extracted, R scripts were run to fetch the resources and record HTTP status codes to determine if the resource was discoverable. To address the potential for the DOI or URL to fetch but not actually contain the appropriate data, the researchers selected at random and manually retrieved the data for 350 URLs and 350 DOIs.
Main Results – Of the unique URLs, 75% were able to be automatically retrieved by custom R scripts. In the manual sample of 350 URLs, which was used to test for accuracy of the URLs in containing the data, there was a 78% retrieval rate. Of the unique DOIs, 90% were able to be automatically retrieved by custom R scripts. The manual sample of 350 DOIs had a 98% retrieval rate.
Conclusion – DOIs, especially those linked with a repository, had the highest rate of success in retrieving the data attached to the article. While URLs were better than no link at all, URLs are susceptible to content drift and need more management for long-term data availability
Midwest Ecological Study Outlined the Neighbourhood Literacy Environment and the Inequitable Access Children Have to Books in Public Library Branches
No full textA Review of:
Crosh, C., Hutton, J., Szumlas, G., Xu, Y., Beck, A., & Riley, C. (2022). Inequities in public library branch access and children’s book circulation in a Midwestern American city. The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion (IJIDI), 6(3), 68-81. https://doi.org/10.33137/ijidi.v6i4.38127
Objective – To explore the impact of the neighbourhood literacy environment (NLE) by examining associations between public library locations, book circulation rates, and neighbourhood racial composition.
Design – An ecological study using aggregated data sources.
Setting – Forty selected neighbourhood public libraries in the state of Ohio, United States of America.
Subjects – Analysis of (1) existing circulation statistics from January 2014 to December 2018 for the neighbourhoods of Cincinnati and Hamilton Public Libraries; and (2) the American Community Survey (ACS) data from 2018.
Methods – Among the key components studied for the population was the NLE, which the authors defined as access to literacy materials in a neighbourhood. The data the authors examined for the targeted populations were race, age, poverty level, and library location. The two groups of variables computed were: (1) the connection between circulation rates of children’s books and child poverty; (2) the connection between circulation statistics and the proportion of people who self-identify as Black in the neighbourhood. Additionally, the researchers used the Spearman’s rank order correlation coefficient (rs) to measure the relationships between the correlating variables within each neighbourhood library branch – number of books circulated per child; the census data of children who self-identified as Black; and the children who were designated as 20% below the federal poverty level (FPL). The Chi-square test was used to calculate associations between access to a library branch and child poverty in each neighborhood. In this study, the researchers only looked at the associations between variables at an aggregate level. The authors defined the terms they used in the study: (1) children were ages 0-18 years; (2) children’s books were literature intended for an audience from 0-18 years old; (3) the definition of poverty was taken from the U.S. Census and classified as neighborhoods with 20% of children below the FPL.
Main Results – There were 40 library branches that served 81 neighbourhoods, of which there was only a 38% distribution in the high-poverty areas, compared with 58% for the low. Approximately 24 million books were circulated during the 5-year period of 2014 -2018. The median circulation rate per child at the neighbourhood level was 22 books. The results showed steep variations in circulation rates per child across branch locations; the numbers range from 3 to 98 books per child across neighborhoods. The authors indicated that the increases and decreases in the circulation rates were tied to branch location and the area’s socioeconomic status. The primary finding of the data analyzed was a negative correlation between the population identified as Black/African American and lower circulation rates in poorer neighbourhoods.
Limitations identified by the authors were (1) the allocation of literacy resources per branch was unknown; (2) the in-library book user statistics in high-poverty neighbourhoods may not be accurately documented; (3) the precise allocations for literacy funds and the use of in-library resources for developing literacy skills need further study.
Conclusion – The authors noted that race, economic status, and proximity to public libraries were pertinent factors in understanding inequitable access to books for children in the neighbourhoods studied. The NLE was an important dynamic beyond the home; the availability of books and engagement with them were contributing factors to the development of literacy skills. The associations observed between the variables indicated that improving the NLE matters and libraries must mindfully work to alleviate the disproportionately lower levels of access to books and their unfavorable outcome for children in low-income areas
Chat Transcripts in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analysis of Chats from the AskAway Consortia
No full textObjective – During the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of post-secondary institutions in British Columbia remained closed for a prolonged period, and volume on the provincial consortia chat service, AskAway, increased significantly. This study was designed to evaluate the content of AskAway transcripts for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years to determine if the content of questions varied during the pandemic.
Methods – The following programs were used to evaluate the dataset of more than 70,000 transcripts: R, Python (pandas), Voyant Tools and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC).
Results – Our findings indicate that the content of questions remained largely unchanged despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the related increase in volume of questions on the AskAway chat service.
Conclusion – These findings suggest that the academic libraries covered by this study were well-poised to provide continued support of patrons through the AskAway chat service, despite an unprecedented closure of physical libraries, a significant increase in chat volume, and a time of global uncertainty
Supporting the Intersections of Life and Work: Retaining and Motivating Academic Librarians Throughout Their Careers
No full textObjective – 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
Audio Feedback Project: A Project to Increase Social Presence in a Virtual Library and Knowledge Service
No full textObjective – This research project sought to determine if audio feedback in literature searches can increase the social presence of the library and create a positive view of the library service. It also explored the process of recording and sending audio feedback; tested its practicality, sustainability, and accessibility; and ascertained whether audio feedback enhanced the library’s communication, thereby creating a positive attitude toward the library and its services.
Methods – The research was conducted in a small virtual library and information service. The research sample consisted of all library users and clinicians who requested a mediated literature search between July 2019 and July 2020. All participants were sent an audio commentary on their search results, recorded by the librarian, and were asked to respond to an online questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of five statements. The study participants indicated their agreement or disagreement with each statement on a five-point Likert scale.
Results – The researcher sent out 96 audio commentaries, generating 31 responses to the questionnaire. The results indicated that users felt the audio feedback improved their understanding of the results of their inquiry, made them feel more comfortable about using the library, enhanced their experience of communicating with the library and provided a better experience than just receiving an email. The responses broadly supported the contention that audio commentaries created social presence and generated a positive view of the library.
Conclusion – The researcher found that delivering audio feedback was both practical and sustainable. Some consideration was given to individual learning styles and how these made audio or text feedback more or less effective. Specifically, audio feedback enhanced communications better than an email alone
