Volume 20, Number 1, 2025

EN:

Objective – This study aims to contribute a qualitative analysis of the perspectives of LIS program representatives on providing research data management (RDM) and data librarianship training opportunities to their students. The primary objectives of the study are to determine which programs currently provide training opportunities for students in RDM and related areas, as well as whether programs have provided such opportunities in the past and/or intend to do so in the future.

Methods – This study incorporates in-depth qualitative empirical evidence in the form of five semi-structured interviews of representatives of Canadian LIS programs to investigate first-hand perspectives on the RDM and data-related opportunities they can provide to their students.

Results – The interviews identified five major themes related to LIS programs’ RDM and data-related training offerings, including the range of formal and informal opportunities currently available in the programs; the ways in which the representatives would mentor and advise students interested in RDM or related career paths; the challenges posed by both the lack of instructors for RDM and data-related courses, and the lack of students who are interested in, or ready to pursue, data-related careers; the need for programs to develop a curriculum that meets the requirements of many stakeholders; and the effects of the rapidly changing library landscape on LIS curriculum development.

Conclusion – This qualitative study sheds light on both the support that Canadian LIS programs can provide to students who are interested in RDM and data-related careers in academic libraries, and the challenges those programs face in providing that support.

EN:

Objective – In the interest of helping libraries make evidence based decisions about open-source software (OSS), the objective of this research is to establish whether tools that automate the evaluation of OSS project communities could be used specifically on scholarly communications OSS (SC-OSS) projects to provide actionable insights for libraries to guide strategic decision making and corrective interventions.

Methods – Seven OSS project communities were selected for evaluation, chosen from widely used scholarly communications software applications used in Canada for repositories, journal hosting, and archives. While all aspects of OSS projects may be evaluated at the project or network/ecosystem level, addressing the actors, software, or orchestration (Linåker et al., 2022), community evaluation that looks at the interaction patterns between project contributors is the practical focus of this research paper since there are multiple human factors that librarians who may not be software developers can impact. We identified a community analysis tool called csDetector (Almarimi et al., 2021) from the software engineering literature. This tool was chosen based on two main criteria: 1) ability to analyze data from GitHub repositories (the code sharing platform used by all selected SC-OSS projects) and 2) capacity to automatically produce results without manual intervention. Since some of the seven OSS projects were spread across multiple GitHub repositories, a total of 11 datasets from GitHub, each containing three months’ worth of data, were analyzed using csDetector.

Results – The results produced by csDetector are interesting though not without limitations. The tool is complex and requires the user to have software development skills to use it effectively. It lacked sufficient documentation, which made interpreting the results challenging. The analysis from csDetector, which identifies community smells (i.e., types of organizational and social dysfunction within software projects [Tamburri et al, 2015, 2021a]), suggests that these SC-OSS project communities are experiencing knowledge sharing difficulties, weak collaboration practices, or other member interaction dysfunctions that can eventually permanently affect community health. Having a software tool that can take metrics from GitHub and detect community smells is a valuable way to illustrate problems in the project’s community and point the way to remedying dysfunction.

Conclusion – While the OSS community analysis tool csDetector currently presents several hurdles before it can be used, and results generated come with caveats, it can be part of an approach to support evidence based decision-making pertaining to SC-OSS in libraries. The information provided can be worth monitoring (especially social network metrics such as centrality) and their results, particularly for community smells, identify problems that may be addressed by non-developers. Awareness of community smells in OSS can provide a deeper understanding of OSS sustainability as it provides a language to identify suboptimal social dynamics.

EN:

Objective – In this study, we investigated the utilization of crowdsourcing practices among academic librarians in Nigeria, encompassing all 36 states across the 6 geopolitical zones of the country.

Methods – We employed the descriptive survey design. The target population consisted of academic librarians who were members of the national professional online group of the association known as the NLA where scholars shared professional thoughts and advancements.

Results – The findings revealed a high level of awareness about crowdsourcing among academic librarians, with their experiences spanning various areas such as knowledge discovery and management (RII = 0.76), broadcast search (RII = 0.63), the distribution of human intelligence tasking (RII = 0.62), and peer-vetted creative production (RII = 0.59). In terms of the extent of practice, electronic document exchange services received the highest relative importance index score (RII = 0.73), followed closely by e-payment platforms (RII = 0.73). The findings also indicated that crowdsourcing is considered beneficial for collection development (RII = 0.68) and is perceived to be useful in the procurement of new items for the library (RII = 0.67). However, the study identified inadequate institutional support (RII = 0.91) as the foremost challenge impeding the adoption and implementation of crowdsourcing practices in academic libraries in Nigeria. Other challenges included inadequate electricity supply and unstable Internet network systems in Nigeria which has hindered full deployment of crowdsourcing in academic library settings in the country.

Conclusion – This study emphasized the importance of the adoption and implementation of crowdsourcing practices in academic libraries in Nigeria. Addressing challenges related to institutional support, electricity supply, and Internet connectivity is crucial to creating an enabling environment for successful crowdsourcing initiatives.

EN:

Objective – The goal of this study was to examine whether an undergraduate student's race influences their interactions and perceived quality of experiences with librarians/library staff and student employees.

Methods – The study consisted of a survey distributed by email to undergraduate students at a medium size public university located in North Central Massachusetts. Students answered questions about the frequency of their interactions with librarians and student employees, whether they felt respected during the interactions, whether their information needs were met, and whether the interactions increased their feelings of belonging at the university. Data analysis on the 366 students who completed the survey was conducted in SPSS using Fisher’s exact test.

Results – Findings revealed that Black students reported more frequent interactions with librarians/library staff and student employees than Latina/o/e and White students did. The difference across races regarding the frequency of interactions with librarians/library staff and student employees was statistically significant. Although Black students also reported higher levels of agreement for feeling respected, having their information needs met, and feelings of belonging than their counterparts, the differences among races were not statistically significant. Black, Latina/o/e, and White students felt respected, had their information needs met, and felt a sense of belonging regardless of whom they interacted with. Further, preferences for whom students interacted with depended on the type of information needed. Students sought librarians for research help and student employees for logistical support.

Conclusion – To improve the undergraduate student library experience, the authors discuss how to create a more accessible and inclusive library environment by leveraging student employees for peer mentoring, enhancing faculty collaboration to integrate library resources into coursework, and providing professional development for library staff to foster a welcoming atmosphere.

EN:

Objective – The purpose of this study was to examine the status and viability of application-based open access funds (OAFs) across the University of California (UC) Libraries to assist with long-term planning for this type of funding at UC.

Methods – In 2022, the authors surveyed the 10 UC campus libraries about both the outcome of an earlier UC-wide OAF pilot and the current status of application-based OAFs to support article processing charges (APCs), book processing charges (BPCs), and open educational resources (OERs). Five campuses reported having a current OAF. These five campuses responded to additional questions about their budgets and their sustainability, the number of publications funded, policies, and staffing resources for managing the OAF.

Results – Five UC campuses had an active application-based OAF, with budgets or expenditures ranging from $20,000 - $271,000 annually. Only two campuses felt their budget was sustainable. One of the five campuses closed its fund after the survey. The number of staff resources per fund ranged from 1 to 6 with 3 to 32 hours of work weekly. Funding policies were similar to other institutional OAFs with some distinctions. All campuses had revised their criteria to disallow funding for journals covered by UC’s transformative open access agreements.

Conclusion – Providing application-based funds for OA publishing at high-publishing academic institutions requires a substantial budget and workforce. Though these funds benefit some authors, the wider equity of APCs and BPCs needs to be considered.

EN:

Objective – An exploratory study was conducted to identify the key factors that influence students’ perceptions of a sense of belonging in an academic library, focusing particularly on gaining insight into the perspectives of students from historically marginalized communities.

Methods – Participants were administered an online survey comprising 18 multiple-choice, Likert-type, and open-ended questions. The survey was active for three weeks during March and April 2022. Effect sizes were calculated using Pearson point-biserial correlation statistics. Qualitative results were coded using thematic analysis.

Results – An analysis of the quantitative data revealed that students who identified as non-binary/queer/gender non-conforming, identified as a person of color, or identified as a person with a disability were less likely to find the library as inclusive. They were also more likely to report incidents of microaggression, bias, or discrimination. An analysis of the qualitative data revealed several key factors influencing perceptions of inclusiveness, including space, collections, displays, art, technology, programming, marketing, staff, and wayfinding.

Conclusion – These mixed findings suggest that while the majority of students perceive the library environment as inclusive, further efforts are needed to establish a truly inclusive and safe space for students from historically marginalized communities.

EN:

Objective – The goal of this study was to assess global academic libraries' role and activities aimed at achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The paper highlights the enablers and barriers encountered in SDG programming and identifies future directions of SDG research in academic and other types of libraries.

Methods – A mixed-methods review was conducted to address the research question: How do academic libraries contribute to the attainment of SDGs? The methodology included literature searches conducted in Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, EBSCO’s Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA), and hand-searching. The selected timeframe, 2017-2024, encompasses the introduction of the SDGs and extends to the present body of evidence.

Results – The study found 25 relevant articles with data from 164 academic libraries worldwide. The evidence base indicates limited awareness and examples of sustainability literacy, suggesting the need for new initiatives. Instances of "SDG washing" were identified where librarians exaggerated the impact of their SDG-related programs, mislabeled routine activities as SDG contributions, or used SDG terminology superficially without meaningful action. This study suggests that SDG attainment is influenced by leadership, organizational culture, personal initiatives, and partnerships.

Conclusions – Academic libraries simultaneously address multiple SDG targets, indicating a comprehensive sustainability approach. Positive correlations between specific targets imply synergies that libraries can exploit to strengthen their sustainable development roles. Future research should investigate the impact of institutional factors on SDG implementation in academic libraries and identify strategies to overcome the common challenges in SDG initiatives. Specific SDG targets and indicators should guide context-specific recommendations. It is also advised to develop standardized tools for measuring and comparing academic libraries' SDG contributions.