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This article describes a faculty response to two challenges of online education: diversity engagement and professional socialization. Reviewing the literature, we develop a rubric to help assess the potential of new assignments for meeting these challenges. Using that rubric, we assess several assignments and projects that students evaluated positively, to better articulate the efficacy of the assignment in meeting our diversity education goals and future barriers to access. We conclude by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of our model for assessing diversity awareness and professional socialization in the LIS curriculum.

This chapter presents the final results of a three-phase research project conducted between January and November 2022, consisting of a survey, interviews, and an environmental scan. During Phase 1, a survey was distributed to library managers and directors representing a variety of socioeconomic settings across the United States. It focused on population density and the urban/rural divide. Results from that survey revealed public librarians' concerns about their local government's response, patrons' refusal to receive accurate information, and the propagation of misinformation on social media. Phase 2 involved interviewing 29 library managers and directors, focusing on their pandemic response stories. The interviews found that library leaders were frustrated by uncertainty, a lack of authoritative, trusted local information to guide their decision-making, which they could provide to the public, and the politicization of data and information. Phase 3 consisted of an environmental scan of 13 communities, from small towns to urban hubs, examining how external community factors influenced libraries' community engagement and staff support. Across each phase of the study, the authors found examples of libraries and management committed to their communities despite uncertainties and political differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of awe's properties as a knowledge emotion, awe elicitors can increase awareness of knowledge gaps, boost scientific interest, and promote inquiry. However, the relationship between awe and exploratory behavior, such as information seeking, remains unclear. Using a multi‐method approach, this study asked how and to what extent awe fosters information seeking. This question was examined through a two‐pronged approach. First, in a laboratory setting, participants (n = 32) were exposed to a variety of awe elicitors through a virtual reality (VR) head‐mounted display. Participants' quantitative and qualitative responses were gathered immediately after exposure in the laboratory as well as 24 h later through questionnaires. Second, after establishing a stratified sample of participants who voluntarily conducted information seeking (n = 8), the study shifted to phenomenologically‐informed interviews. This study found that exposure to specific VR scenes piqued participants' curiosity, especially toward representations of phenomena with unknown or unexplained origins. However, self‐motivated exploration only occurred in limited circumstances, particularly toward awe elicitors tinged with supernatural causality. In sum, this study introduces a new research direction within information science, illustrates how understudied awe elicitors pique curiosity, and provides a nuanced, qualitative report on the phenomenon of technology‐induced awe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public librarians across the United States found themselves in different political environments that challenged their ability to serve their communities, to provide the information that was needed, and to fight disinformation regarding the pandemic. Researchers at the University of Missouri examined how and what librarians communicated to the public about COVID-19. A survey was sent to a systematic sample of libraries from all states and service-area sizes, carried out from January 24 to February 7, 2022. A total of 106 responses were received, with 66 respondents having answered every question. Analysis of closed- and open-ended survey responses points to public librarians' concerns about (a) local government officials and their decisions, (b) resistance on the part of patrons to accurate information, and (c) problems disentangling the local conversation from national media (and social media) perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on service-learning has focused mainly on student outcomes. However, this study addresses the transformative change that three faculty members from different disciplines experienced during a semester-long fellowship on service-learning as a pedagogical method. Through their personal reflections, the authors show how service-learning and the scholarship of teaching were intertwined as they engaged in course redesign. This experience went beyond creating an academic service-learning course to transforming the teachers into reflective practitioners actively engaged in systematically improving their teaching practice. (Contains 1 table and 4 footnotes.)

The COVID-19 pandemic propelled organizations to adopt virtual work settings around the world, and libraries were no exception. This article presents findings of interviews with leaders from eight public library systems about their transition to virtual work settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings include changes in librarians' teams and work processes, their experiences with new technologies, service models, and working from home conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the results of a systematic review of peer-reviewed, published research articles about "discovery layers," user-friendly interfaces or systems that provide single-search box access to library content. Focusing on articles in LISTA published 2009-2013, a set of 80 articles was coded for community of users, journal type, research method, and results. The findings suggest sustained and potentially a converging professional interest in discovery layers over time. They also demonstrate what has not been studied, finding very little research about how discovery layers affect public libraries or children.

This paper provides a rationale and methods for creating and supporting recovery reading groups in public libraries. Recovery reading groups are learning circles designed to connect people to both information and peers who will provide intellectual and social support in making life changes. Research in public health demonstrates the value in social support in aiding recovery or creating new habits. Familiarity with bibliotherapy and recovery support for mild to moderate substance abuse disorders can help librarians situate the public library meaningfully in the lives of patrons who want to explore personal growth in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the intentions and outcomes of a service-learning course in LIS. Interviews with students who had recently completed the course provided insight into how the course had changed their perspective on their community. The interviews sought students' perspectives on their own empathetic development, sense of community, and impediments in completing the course. The students reported increased knowledge and understanding of the people who live in their community during the course of the semester. Traditional students, though, experienced fewer problems completing the coursework than non-traditional students, which should be considered when implementing service-learning courses at the graduate level.

This theoretical article examines the conceptual premises of the research and practice of information literacy (IL) in the workplace in relation to research on knowledge creation in the field of knowledge management. As with education more generally, IL should prepare students for life after formal schooling ends. How can we make the leap, though, from IL in the educational context to successful participation in an information-rich work environment? A hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of IL and knowledge creation presents IL as a way of being able to sense, live, and be in the world with an open and dialogic attitude. This approach might offer some clues that bridge IL in the two environments while extending IL practices in the Association of College and Research Libraries "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education." As such, the study builds on the understanding of IL and knowledge creation as situated, experiential, and collective phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

eTextbooks are both texts and tools. They provide opportunities for textbook companies to expand their services. Some large textbook companies are offering extensive educational technology products and services along with texts. These etexts, integrated into the Learning Management System (LMS), give instructors opportunities to use integrated assessments, data collection tools with in-depth usage statistics, and social networking features that allow instructors and students to interact within the publisher's material. News stories often discuss problems with blended and online learning and contentious relationships between faculty and vendors; etexts are part of the discussion. This paper describes findings from narrative interviews with instructors who have used etexts, focusing on affordability, access, privacy, and outsourcing. The goal is to inform instructors and administrators of some pros and cons of etexts.

This article describes a multi-method research project examining the use of various freely available online collections and projects, such as Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and Creative Commons-licensed ebooks, by public libraries. This research begins with the questions: what are libraries doing with freely available materials? Are there barriers to incorporating them into the collection? What role are librarians playing in expanding access and awareness of these resources? (Contains 2 figures.)

This paper presents findings from an interview study of research data managers in academic data archives. Our study examined policies and professional autonomy with a focus on dilemmas encountered in everyday work by data managers. We found that dilemmas arose at every stage of the research data lifecycle, and legacy data presents particularly vexing challenges. The iFields' emphasis on knowledge organization and representation provides insight into how data, used by scientists, are used to create knowledge. The iFields' disciplinary emphasis also encompasses the sociotechnical complexity of dilemmas that we found arise in research data management. Therefore, we posit that iSchools are positioned to contribute to data science education by teaching about ethics and infrastructure used to collect, organize, and disseminate data through problem‐based learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes an "on-the-road" usability study and explains the study's methodological challenges, solutions, and recommendations. The study concerned a library-consortium website, which is a communication and educational tool for librarians who are physically dispersed throughout the state, and an intranet for remote users. Rather than traveling to numerous locations or attempting a remote usability evaluation of the website, the lab took a mobile laboratory to a professional conference where a large number of website users were gathered. Four doctoral students used the talk-aloud protocol to interview 14 conference participants. The interviews were recorded with Morae software on laptop computers, and participants were asked to complete 13 tasks. Although there proved to be difficulties in mobile usability testing, the conference provided a space to describe the project and recruit participants. While the optimal place to conduct usability testing is in either the lab or the participant's natural environment, advantages in taking it to a conference include access to a diverse range of users and the ability to generate interest in the project among users. (Contains 11 notes.)

Library directors are part of the infrastructure of information management, but how well do they manage their institutional knowledge for succession planning? Our study looked at strategies to ease managerial transitions between libraries, focusing on knowledge management, communities of practice, and mentorship. Our survey found that succession planning was dictated by local practice and size of library. The results of this paper inform knowledge of succession planning and reveal existing gaps between informal transfer of knowledge and structured knowledge management (KM), as well as librarians' resourcefulness. Library directors use KM strategies, mentoring, and involvement with communities of practice to foster innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]