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Chatbots have experienced significant growth over the past decade, with a proliferation of new applications across various domains. Previous studies also demonstrate the trend of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence, being adopted in libraries. The purpose of this study is to determine the current research priorities and findings in the field of chatbots in libraries. A systematic literature review was performed utilising the PRISMA checklist and the databases Scopus and Web of Science, identifying 5734 records. Upon conducting the first screening, abstract screening, full-text assessment, and quality assessments guided by the CASP appraisal checklist, 19 papers were deemed suitable for inclusion in the review. The results of the review indicate that the majority of the existing studies were empirical in nature (primarily adopting qualitative methods) and technology reviews with a focus on reviewing the implementation and maintenance, design, evaluation, characteristics, and application of chatbots. The chatbots of interest were mainly text-based and guided chatbots, with closed-source tools with access portals mostly built on library web pages or integrated with social software. The research findings primarily concerned the development models and necessary tools and technologies, the application of chatbots in libraries. Our systematic review also suggests that studies on chatbots in libraries are still in the early stages. [This paper was presented at the 2023 Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) International Conference (Osijek, Croatia, May 24-26, 2023).]

This white paper is a collaborative endeavor of many individuals, including members of the American Association of Law Libraries and its Digital Access to Legal Information Committee (DALIC), formerly the Electronic Legal Information Access & Citation (ELIAC) Committee. First, Justice Yvonne Kauger introduces the topic by identifying the groundbreaking steps taken by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Law librarians Carol Billings and Kathy Carlson next provide a detailed and comprehensive history of citation reform and the American Association of Law Libraries' leadership and involvement in the issue. They also summarize the citation reform steps taken in selected jurisdictions. Finally, John Cannan, current DALIC member, provides a look to the future, identifying reasons to advance needed citation reform now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic libraries, apart from their main function, which is to provide information services to academic communities, may also perform a number of social roles in the broad meaning of the term. Accordingly, they now tend to serve as the third place offering inclusion and animation activities to academic as well as local communities (including potential students) and to groups in risk of social exclusion (immigrants, persons with disabilities, senior citizens, etc.) or in need of various kinds of care and support. However, for libraries to be able to fulfil those tasks, they need properly trained staff who not only have the required competencies but also the right social attitudes. The paper presents an analysis of the social attitudes of academic librarians from twenty countries across the world as compared to the personnel of other types of libraries. The level of individual social capital, activity in social networks, aspirations in life and social and civic engagement were investigated. It was noted that the respondents tend to undervalue the importance of the work done by libraries for local communities. At the same time, the research showed that academic librarians have a somewhat lower level of individual social capital and trust than public librarians and less extensive social networks. Nonetheless, they are open to relationships with others, which enables them to engage in various social projects.

Introduction: Open access to digital research output is increasing, but academic library policies can place restrictions on public access to libraries. This paper reports on a preliminary study to investigate the correlation between academic library access policies and institutional positions of openness to knowledge. Method: This primarily qualitative study used document and data analysis to examine the content of library access or use policies of twelve academic institutions in eight countries. The outcomes were statistically correlated with institutional open access publication policies and practices. Analysis: We used an automated search tool together with manual searching to retrieve Web-based library access policies, then categorised and counted the levels and conditions of public access. We compared scores for institutional library access feature with open access features and percentages of open access publications. Results: Academic library policies may suggest open public access but multi-layered user categories, privileges and fees charged can inhibit such access, with disparities in openness emerging between library policies and institutional open access policies. Conclusion: As open access publishing options and mandates expand, physical entry and access to print and electronic resources in academic libraries is contracting. This conflicts with global library and information commitments to open access to knowledge.

The article focuses on how archivists appraise the papers of university faculty members. The authors explain that there is a lack of guidance on how to appraise these papers which makes archive selection decisions more difficult for both archivists and researchers. They discuss the the practices implemented by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), explore the reappraisal of the Malcolm McMillan Papers at the Auburn University (AU) Special Collections and Archives, and analyze how other university repositories can use a similar strategy for their faculty papers.

Presents an overview of the paper deacidification program at the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Workflow and procedure used at the deacidification facility of the library; Relative costs of deacidification and preservation photocopying; Factors considered by schools in adopting the deacidification plan.

This paper traces the century-long history of a library that has served teacher preparation programs in Calgary, Alberta, since 1909. It looks at how this library's role and collections adapted to shifting notions of what constituted good teacher education and changing economic circumstances. In recounting this history, the paper examines the historical circumstances that created a separate education library at the University of Calgary and how issues of group and professional identity contributed to its continuing existence. The various themes which emerge may be common to many North American education libraries.

This paper describes the results of a study to compare contemporary e-journal licenses from two research universities in the United States and Spain in terms of e-reserves, interlibrary loan, text and data mining, authors' rights and treatment of copyright exceptions, usage statistics, governing law, data privacy, and obligations entailing security. The data include a higher proportion of scholarly society and academic press publishers than earlier license analyses. This analysis compares license terms over time, across publisher types and between the two libraries, and it compares findings with recommendations from model licenses. The results show progress toward model license goals in some areas, but deficiencies in others including self-archiving, usage statistics clauses, and clauses related to e-resource data privacy and library security and disciplinary obligations. Our findings also raise questions about international ILL and governing venue clauses in library licenses outside the North American context.

Reports on the collection of papers of Reginald H. Parsons at the Knight Library of the University of Oregon, Eugene. Collection of documents of the financial, civic and philanthropic activities of Parsons; Family background; Purchase of the Hillcrest Orchard, near Medford, Oregon, in 1908.

Purpose The goal of this paper is to examine the literature published on information literacy (IL) between 2017 and 2021 and reveal the most important trends in IL publication. Design/methodology/approach Scopus database was used to analyze specific aspects of publishing trends by looking at the literature indexed from 2017 to 2021 in the field of IL. Findings In 2017, there was a significant increase in the number of citations to IL-related literature. In addition to "Janes-Jang SM" and the "College and Research Libraries," they were both prolific authors and sources. Most articles were published in the Journal of Academic Librarianship (97) during this time period. The United States was the most generous donor. Research in the IL field has recently focused on "information literacy," "academic libraries," "library instruction," and "assessment." Originality/value Researchers can use the paper to learn about current trends in the literature on IL, as well as possible areas for further study, and it provides the names of the most productive authors, organizations, and countries, as well as the most popular IL keywords. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to survey the web sites of the academic libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (USA) regarding the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. Design/methodology/approach: The websites of 100 member academic libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (USA) were surveyed. Findings: All libraries were found to be using various tools of Web 2.0. Blogs, microblogs, RSS, instant messaging, social networking sites, mashups, podcasts, and vodcasts were widely adopted, while wikis, photo sharing, presentation sharing, virtual worlds, customized webpage and vertical search engines were used less. Libraries were using these tools for sharing news, marketing their services, providing information literacy instruction, providing information about print and digital resources, and soliciting feedback of users. Originality/value: The paper is useful for future planning of Web 2.0 use in academic libraries. (Contains 7 tables and 2 figures.)

This paper focuses on the accessibility of North American library and library school Web sites for all users, including those with disabilities. Web accessibility data collected in 2006 are compared to those of 2000 and 2002. The findings of this follow-up study continue to give cause for concern: Despite improvements since 2002, library and library school Web sites still tend to contain many barriers. A low correlation between the 2002 and 2006 data point to much up-and-down movement in Web accessibility. Contrary to findings derived from the early data sets, the comparison of the 2002 and 2006 data shows that redesign had a positive impact on accessibility. The paper concludes with the warning that advocates of accessible Web sites cannot yet relax: despite the overall positive trend, with so much up-and-down movement in Web accessibility occurring, today's leaders may turn into tomorrow's laggards--unless special vigilance and efforts keep this from happening. (Contains 1 table, 2 figures, and 4 notes.)

The desire to investigate similarities and differences of Australian and US academic library professional librarian jobs motivated this paper. Job advertisements were gathered in August, September and October 2004. They are a subset of those reported in earlier studies which are more general in scope; this paper focused on the job market's expectations of academic librarians. Word counts and content and co-word analysis revealed a high demand in both countries for behavioural and interpersonal skills. The specification of generic competencies was more marked in the Australian data, and a number of differences existed in educational and experience specifications between countries. (Contains 37 notes and 7 tables.)

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses articles in issue on topics including adoption of National Information Standards Organization’s Shared Electronic Resource Understanding at U.S. Academic Libraries; and recommendations on vocabularies and standards for capturing metadata.

In the summer of 2010, two researchers interviewed twenty-three library administrators of comparable academic libraries at American universities for their views of the value of research in academic libraries. The interview questions focused on the administrators' perceived value of academic librarians' research, incentives given to academic librarians to research, factors that influence the administrators' thinking about academic library research, opinions about the changes in Americans libraries in the past decades, and directions that they see the academic library heading. This paper reflects the answers of these (anonymous) administrators and attempts to analyze patterns in their responses that will be of value to the academic library and its community in America.

This paper presents guidelines for establishing a QuestionPoint collaborative virtual reference partnership between academic libraries in Australia/New Zealand and the US. These guidelines reflect the practices of the state-of-the-art collaborative QuestionPoint partnership, "AskASERL" as well as the unofficial standards and guidelines for virtual reference services established by IFLA and NISO. Throughout the paper, the projected benefits of international virtual reference collaboration are weighed against the costs. In conclusion, international collaborative virtual reference partnerships are presumed to be net beneficial and worthy of further study and consideration. (Contains 1 figure and 21 notes.)

While there is a considerable body of literature that presents the results of citation analysis studies, most researchers do not provide enough detail in their methodology to reproduce the study, nor do they provide rationale for methodological decisions. In this paper, we review the methodologies used in 34 recent articles that present a "user study" citation analysis with a goal of informing collection management. We describe major themes and outliers in the methodologies and discuss factors that require careful thought and analysis. We also provide a guide to considerations for citation analysis studies, so that researchers can make informed decisions.

This paper provides an overview of the process undertaken in the US during 2009/10 in developing a major report on the value of academic libraries. A summary of the key findings and recommendations from the report are also provided. While very much focused on the US situation, the author feels the findings may well have resonance elsewhere, including Australia. (Contains 2 figures and 2 notes.)

Institutional repositories have been established by most university libraries but their level of success has varied. Determining what belongs in such repositories has been the subject of some discussion but research would suggest that a broader rather than narrower compass is a positive approach to adopt. By seeking out a variety of content types, the library is able to initiate, renew, or redefine its relationship with faculty, departments, and administration, generating critical support for scholarly communication and repository initiatives. This paper provides examples of successful IRs and their scope. (Contains 1 chart.)

The Web-at-Risk project is a digital preservation project funded by the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. The project is developing a Web archiving service to enable curators to build, store, and manage archived collections of Web-published materials captured largely from U.S. federal and state government agency Web sites. In 2005 the project's 22 curators, as well as librarians and archivists working primarily in academic libraries (n = 43), university researchers (n = 7), and content providers (n = 7) participated in a study to identify their needs in relation to Web archiving. This paper summarizes the issues and challenges these groups face and discusses the need for collaborations among libraries and government entities for preserving Web-published materials.

Over the past six years, the University of Utah libraries have developed an extensive international presence through digital resource sharing. Services include instruction, electronic document delivery, shared catalogs, and full-text databases. This paper will describe the process of establishing, extending, and improving these services through international cooperation and collaboration. The benefit to the smaller library with limited funding is dramatic and the impact on the larger library providing the service is minimal. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)

This paper examines the extent to which U.S. Association of Research Libraries (ARL) are providing services to their distance education library patrons, it reveals whether each U.S. ARL library has a designated librarian in charge of services to distance education students, and it presents the perceived challenges faced by distance education librarians.