Volume 13, Number 2, 2018

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No abstract.

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Objective – To assess the impact of community college academic librarians upon student retention and grades through reference desk visits and attendance in library instruction classes.

Methods – Student ID data used for this research was collected from students that visited the reference desk to consult about a course-related question or attended a library instruction class for a specific course. After consenting to share their student ID number, the students’ IDs were scanned and uploaded to a Blackboard Analytics data warehouse. A Pyramid Analytics reporting tool was used to query and extract student-level retention and grade data based upon whether the student had visited the reference desk or attended a library instruction class. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used to discern any statistical difference in retention rates and grades between students that engaged a librarian through reference or instruction and the general student population.

Results – When comparing fall-to-fall retention for all degree-seeking students, students that visited the reference desk or attended a library instruction class had a statistically higher rate of retention. When comparing fall-to-fall retention within low-retention student cohorts, students that visited the reference desk or attended a library instruction class had higher rates of retention among all low-retention cohorts. Eight of 10 cohorts were statistically higher for library instruction and 6 of 10 cohorts were statistically higher for reference visits. With respect to course grades, only 1 of 5 high enrollment courses showed a higher grade average for students that attended a library instruction class. None of the differences in average grades between students that attended a library instruction class and all students in the five courses were statistically significant. For the impact of a reference visit upon a course grade, all five courses showed a higher average grade average for students that visited the reference desk for a question related to their course than all students in the course. Four of the 5 differences were statistically significant.

Conclusions – The data collected by systematically tracking students that interact with community college librarians suggests that reference desk visits and attendance of library instruction classes both have a positive, statistically significant impact upon student retention. When looking at course grades, the data does not indicate a statistically significant positive or negative impact for library instruction. The impact of visiting the reference desk upon course grades does suggest a strong, statistically significant positive correlation.

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Objective – This study aimed to explore the well-established link between public library funding and activity, specifically to what extent socioeconomic factors could explain the correlation.

Methods – State-level data from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners were analyzed for 280 public libraries using two linear regression models. These public libraries were matched with socioeconomic data for their communities.

Results – Confirming prior research, a library’s municipal funding correlated strongly with its direct circulation. In terms of library outputs, the municipal funding appeared to represent a library’s staffing and number of annual visitations. For socioeconomic factors, the strongest predictor of a library’s municipal appropriation was its “number of educated residents.” Other socioeconomic factors were far less important.

Conclusion – Although education correlated strongly with library activity, variation within the data suggests that public libraries are idiosyncratic and that their funding is not dictated exclusively by the community’s socioeconomic profile. Library administrators and advocates can examine what libraries of similar socioeconomic profiles do to receive additional municipal funding.

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Objective – GitHub is a popular tool that allows software developers to collaborate and share their code on the web. Librarians have adopted GitHub to support their own work, sharing code in support of their libraries. This paper asks: How does librarians’ use of GitHub compare to that of other users?

Methods – To retrieve quantitative data on GitHub users, we queried the GitHub APIs (application programming interfaces). By assembling data on librarians’ use of GitHub, as well as on a comparison group, we provided preliminary comparisons of these two samples. We analyzed and visualized this data across a number of variables to offer salient insights as to how librarians compare to randomly selected GitHub users.

Results – Librarians regularly use a more diverse range of programming languages than the comparison group, hinting at a broad range of possible uses of code in libraries. While the librarians’ sample group did not demonstrate statistically significant differences from the comparison group on most measures of activity and popularity, they scored significantly higher in reach and productivity than the comparison group. This could be due to librarians’ greater longevity on GitHub, as well as their greater investment in GitHub as a tool for sharing.

Conclusion – Our data suggest that librarians are actively building their libraries with code and sharing the results. While it was unclear whether librarians were more active or popular on GitHub than the comparison group, it was clear that they demonstrated statistically significant outperformance in terms of reach and productivity. To explain these findings, we hypothesized that librarians’ embrace of GitHub is in line with widely held values of “openness” in the library profession.

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Objective – University libraries in Nigeria are facing challenges arising from poor funding, increasing user demands, and a competitive information environment. Knowledge management has been accepted by information professionals as a viable management tool, but issues surrounding its application require empirical investigation. The aim of this study is to determine the organizational factors that are correlates and predictors of knowledge management practices in federal university libraries in Nigeria.

Methods – The study was based on a correlational research design. Twenty heads of university libraries in Nigeria responded to a structured questionnaire developed by the researcher. The questionnaire was validated by experts and its internal reliability was 0.78 obtained through Cronbach’s alpha procedures. The data collected were analyzed using Mean, Standard Deviation, One-Way ANOVA, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, and regression analysis.

Results – The study found that management support and collaboration were the most significant predictors of knowledge management practices in federal university libraries in Nigeria.  Even though human resources policy and rewards systems had positive correlations with knowledge management practices, their correlation coefficients were not significant.

Conclusion – The success of knowledge management in university libraries in Nigeria depends on some contextual factors such as the support given by the management staff and the extent of collaboration among staff.

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Objective – This paper reports on a study which explored web-based information sharing practices in North American academic libraries. This study specifically focused on how selected academic libraries use data, reports, and other strategic planning documents to communicate success and demonstrate impact to stakeholders, administrators, and peers.

Methods – An environmental scan was conducted to explore the assessment programs and communication practices of 97 North American academic libraries. The population for this study was identified on the basis of several metrics: consortial membership, Association of Research Libraries (ARL) ranking on various criteria, and institutional attendance at the 2014 and 2016 Library Assessment Conferences (LAC). Researchers conducted content analyses on the websites of the 97 libraries to identify measures of institutional support for assessment and to explore the range, depth, and quality of data made available. These iterative analyses were supported by the use of a rubric developed based on emergent criteria observed during multiple phases of review.

Results – Of the libraries reviewed, 57% made some form of data available to the public. The most robust and effective use of data observed in this study involved the use of data to tell stories about the library and its impact. While this study found a positive correlation between libraries with clear investments in assessment and their use of data in public documents, it found that other factors such as an institution’s consortial memberships or funding model may more strongly influence a library’s decision to make data available.

Conclusions – While observations gleaned from this study may serve as a benchmark for evaluating communication practices in academic libraries, further research is necessary to understand how factors within an academic library, its parent institution, or the profession at large may contribute to this decision making process.