The purpose of this study is to learn more about virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) practices at the United States' top one hundred university libraries, as well as how they are engaging with the metaverse. We conducted qualitative and descriptive analysis on the websites of the top one hundred university libraries in the United…

Expanding on previous research, the authors applied quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate Web usability policies, standards, and guidelines (PSGs); resources; and usability testing, including mobile testing and usability laboratories, at the academic members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Survey results indicated…

Makerspaces continue to grow in popularity in library ecosystems, yet no one has done a census on important data points, such as total active makerspaces, planned makerspaces, and types of makerspaces in public colleges and universities in the United States. The objective of this report is to gather baseline data on makerspaces, the majority of…

One of the most enduring and controversial metaphors to describe the academic library is this: "The academic library is the heart of the university." For 150 years, librarians have both embraced and rejected this metaphor in equal measure. For some, the metaphor is old, dusty, and ignorant of contemporary library practices; for others,…

This study explored the language preferences of instructors at Louisiana State University for library resources and whether library terminology influenced those choices. Participants were presented with both screen captures and definitions of electronic library resources and were asked to identify them in their own words. Faculty did not use…

This is the story of six books looted by Nazis from the Jewish Religious Community Library in Prague (JRCLP) that were discovered recently in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Library. No scholarly literature describing similar experiences of North American academic libraries was found, nor were any professional guidelines for…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on bibliometric research on the activities and services offered by distance libraries that serve distance learning institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis of scholarly communication has always been a valuable tool for researchers and policymakers in order to understand trends, gaps…

This essay proposes a novel approach to developing shared educational resources for higher education. Building on characteristics of successful moves to open access in scholarly publishing, it scopes a network of discipline-based cross-institutional hubs for finding, sharing and reusing educational outputs. As well as creating repositories of…

The purpose of this study is to explore the realization of users' information rights (IRs) in the smart service of university libraries. Based on the LibQUAL model, principal component analysis (PCA) is used to measure the quality of smart services in university libraries. The contribution weight of various services to the realization of IRs is…

Given the current dynamism of university libraries as knowledge hubs through innovations and adaptations, this qualitative study incorporated the practices of developing innovation capabilities (IC) in libraries, particularly for Indonesian state-owned higher education institutions using grounded theory. In expanding the current body of literature…

This dissertation explores the intersections of neoliberalism, learning analytics, and middle management within academic libraries. Utilizing a qualitative collective case study methodology, it examines how nine women-identified academic librarian middle managers at U.S. public research institutions interpreted and responded to the integration of…

This article considers the role of teaching and learning departments within academic libraries and how they may differ from reference and instruction departments. The author used website analysis to profile and compare the two types of departments across multiple institutions. Initial findings indicate that the two have several roles in common,…

University libraries are constituted in the literature by a range of overlapping and shifting conceptual models that are deployed to capture, express and legitimise their repurposing, progressive status and function within the university campus. Over the last two decades university libraries have been increasingly characterised as highly…

An increasingly complex and demanding research landscape has seen university libraries rapidly evolve their services. While research data management, bibliometrics, and research impact services have predominantly featured in the literature to date, the full scope of support libraries are currently providing to their institutions is unknown. This…

This article explores the response of the Science and Engineering Library team at Manchester Metropolitan University to the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines how the team's experience supporting distance-learning programmes acted as both a dress rehearsal and a road map for Library provision during the pandemic. In particular, the changing role of…