Although many Nigerian universities are making efforts to provide access to digital library resources, the level of utilization of these resources have not been encouraging due to several factors. Information literacy has been identified as a major factor when considering the factors that enhance use of digital resources. In view of this, this…

The research guide is a common tool librarians use to communicate with and instruct their audiences. Despite their prevalence and value to users, research guides remain underused. There are many examples of efforts encouraging guide use, but few studies have measured the effectiveness of that promotion. Academic Outreach librarians at Virginia…

Research in academic libraries has recently seen an increase in the use of ethnographic-based methods to collect data. Primarily used to learn about library users and their interaction with spaces and resources, the methods are proving particularly useful to academic libraries. The data ethnographic methods retrieve is rich, context specific, and…

Journal usage in the Department of Polymer Science at the University of Akron from 2006 to 2011 was determined by counting citations within faculty-supervised dissertations and faculty publications. Ranked title lists were created and correlations between journal usage in faculty publications and faculty-supervised dissertations were measured…

Academic libraries are spending considerable time and study on redesigning spaces. The use of technology is often an important part of these redesigned spaces. The space redesign goals at F. D. Bluford Library focus on creating open, activity-promoting, colorful spaces that are designed to be attractive to students. The goals also focus on…

Five years ago the Association of College and Research Libraries published "The Value of Academic Libraries" report, spurring academic libraries to action concerning assessment. Communicating library value is especially important when reaching distance learning populations outside the walls of the library. By employing marketing and…

This study connects library user surveys, a common library assessment technique, to institutional data to demonstrate the value an academic library brings to student learning and student outcomes. Using regression techniques, the study identifies multiple significant correlations, both positive and negative, between student use of the library and…

Crowdsourced research sharing takes place across social media platforms including Twitter hashtags such as #icanhazpdf, Reddit Scholar, and Facebook. This study surveys users of these peer-to-peer exchanges on demographic information, frequency of use, and their motivations in both providing and obtaining scholarly information on these platforms.…