Department of Library and Information Science Works

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Learning Outcomes Assessment via Electronic Portfolios
(Emerald Group, 2012) Applegate, Rachel; Irwin, Marilyn M.
Accreditation agencies both institutional and professional (such as the American Library Association) have asked educators to demonstrate student learning outcomes for every academic program that they are assessing, and that they use the data gathered for continuous improvement of programs. This chapter reports on the development of an electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) structure for accomplishing an assessment process within a school of library and information science. From the student side, the portfolio prompts them to select work that they feel is their best effort for each program outcome such as “assist and educate users.” From the faculty side, all items for a given outcome can be downloaded and assessed quantitatively and qualitatively so as to arrive at an understanding of how well the program as a whole is doing, with sufficient detail to guide specific improvement decisions. During design, researchers employed a sequential qualitative feedback system to pose tasks (usability testing) and gather commentaries (through interviews) from students while faculty debated the efficacy of this approach and its place within the school's curricular structure. The local end product was a usable portfolio system implemented within a course management system (Oncourse/Sakai). The generalizable outcome is an understanding of key elements necessary for ePortfolios to function as a program-level assessment system: a place for students to select and store artifacts, a way for faculty to access and review the artifacts, simple aggregations of scoring and qualitative information, and a feedback loop of results into program design for improved student learning.
The Library Is for Studying: Student Preferences for Study Space
(Elsevier, 2009-07-01) Applegate, Rachel
Systematic observation of non-computer seating areas in library and non-library spaces on an urban campus showed an important role for the library in individual and group study area choices. The study provides data on important points to consider in library design, including laptop needs and gender preferences.
Clarifying Jurisdiction in the Library Workforce: Tasks, Support Staff, and Professional Librarians
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010) Applegate, Rachel
Jurisdiction refers to those tasks or responsibilities that are seen as central to and exclusively controlled by a profession. When library work is examined, what is the proper jurisdiction for professional, masters-level librarians? This study examines the definition of professional with respect to library workers by using data from a national survey of competencies for library support staff and by comparing American Library Association-approved competencies for beginning MLS librarians and certified support staff. According to this analysis, professional librarians are those who know context (history, theory), do research, educate patrons, and manage people and collections. They are not necessarily those who provide direct services.
LIS Accreditation: Why and What Next?
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) Applegate, Rachel
This article locates library and information science (LIS) program accreditation in a professional and sociological context and describes past, current, and future initiatives to ensure that accreditation standards and procedures acknowledge, assess, and support the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that LIS professionals need. The author has worked closely with Dr. Smith on the American Library Association (ALA) Committee on Accreditation.
Job ads, jobs, and researchers: Searching for valid sources
(Elsevier, 2010-04-01) Applegate, Rachel
Research on librarians' roles and responsibilities often takes the form of content analysis of job advertisements found in aggregators such as print journals and websites. Whether these ads help us better understand librarianship depends on how representative the source data is for each study—the line going from jobs, to job ads, then to job ad sources. Print sources dominate even in studies published after 2000. This study examines where reasonably representative job advertisements for academic libraries may be found by starting at the origin: the institutions themselves. It finds that commonly used print sources provide only a small fraction of available positions (the majority of which are those in doctoral institutions), and even the most comprehensive aggregator misses nearly half of the available positions. Taking job ad samples directly from institutions is time-consuming but provides more representative data. Smaller colleges pose a particular challenge for finding ads as few of them have openings at any one time and few of their ads appear in national aggregators.
Who Benefits? Unionization and Academic Libraries and Librarians
(University of Chicago Press, 2009-10) Applegate, Rachel
Advocates of unions frequently argue that unionization results in benefits for libraries in general and for librarians. Previous data to support this position have been scattered, incomplete, and inconclusive. This study analyzes data on 1,904 academic libraries, 334 unionized, to explore whether there is a relationship between a librarian‐union presence and several quantitative values: student‐librarian ratios, percentage of institutional budget devoted to libraries, average spending on salaries per librarian, percentage of library budget devoted to librarians, percentage of library staff who are librarians, and percentage of library budget devoted to staff salaries. Across institution degree levels (associates, baccalaureate, masters, doctoral, and Association of Research Libraries members), results show that compared to librarians at either private or nonunionized public colleges and universities, librarians at unionized public institutions are somewhat better off. Librarians at public institutions are generally better paid but have worse working conditions—higher student‐to‐librarian ratios and fewer resources for collections. All institutions except associates‐level institutions receive roughly the same percentage of institutional budgets.
The Real Deal 2: How Autism is Described in Young Adult Novels
(YALSA, 2016) Applegate, Rachel; Irwin, Marilyn; Goldsmith, Annette Y.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often considered one of the invisible disabilities. Youth at the higher end of the spectrum may seem to have quirky behaviors, but otherwise appear to be like everyone else. Those with more severe ASD are commonly misunderstood and thought to simply have disciplinary issues. This study examined 100 young adult novels published between 1968 and 2013 inclusive in which a character was labeled as having ASD to determine how the authors described the disability in each of the books. Those descriptors were then aligned with the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder found in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. A total of 7,921 descriptors appear across the 100 books studied, and 6,094 (77%) of them map on to the first two DSM-5 diagnostic criteria categories. “Having unique obsessions” was the most frequently appearing descriptor present in the books. In 1,827 (23%) instances, the descriptors did not fit within the diagnostic criteria, indicating that the criteria may miss some elements of the ASD experience that authors themselves deem important.
Librarians in the Academic Ecosystem
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019) Applegate, Rachel
Much of what academic librarians do does not look like what ""faculty"" do—classic, stereotypical, tenure-track, classroom faculty. Instead, it looks like support work, or administration, or is invisible: all things that are distinctly not valued by classic faculty. Much of the research in library literature, the talk among academic librarians themselves, seems to center on benefits and privileges, and the distinctions are not based on faculty vs. librarian status but on other factors; for example, salaries for librarians, as for economists, English faculty and nursing instructors are mostly set by discipline and market conditions. It will be more productive for librarians to take a political and strategic perspective: with one overarching realization, and one focused goal. The realization is that the ""faculty"" role is itself diverse: it is not classic nor stereotyped nor even ""classroom"" in many cases. The variation within the group ""faculty"" is in many respects more significant than the variation between the groups ""faculty"" and ""librarians."" The focused goal is to seek the status that will place librarians in the decisions of which they should be part.
Questions of Trust: A Survey of Student Expectations and Perspectives on Library Learning Analytics
(University of Chicago Press, 2022-04) Asher, Andrew D.; Briney, Kristin A.; Jones, Kyle M. L.; Regalado, Mariana; Perry, Michael R.; Goben, Abigail; Smale, Maura A.; Salo, Dorothea; Library and Information Science, School of Computing and Informatics
Universities are developing learning analytics initiatives that include academic library participation. Libraries rarely inform their students about learning analytics projects or general library data practices. Without a clear student voice in library learning analytics projects, libraries and librarians are creating potential privacy complications. This study seeks to document students’ thoughts on academic library participation in learning analytics and privacy concerns. A survey was developed and fielded at eight US higher education institutions, and this article covers the findings from the approximately 2,200 responses. Although most students reported high levels of trust in libraries and librarians, a consistent minority indicated little or no trust at all. Findings demonstrate that students considered librarian access to and sharing of personally identifiable information to constitute a privacy violation but also lacked awareness of the data and analytic practices on which libraries rely. Notable demographic differences were also discovered.
Supporting the data lifecycle of major scientific facilities
(iSchools, 2022-02-28) Murrilo, Angela P.; Library and Information Science, School of Computing and Informatics
The needs of very large-scale scientific endeavours require specific attention to ensure that both the data and the cyberinfrastructure that supports that data are handled in a way that safeguards critical data for current and future scientists. This careful handling of scientific data cyberinfrastructure will enable and ensure scientific research and discovery for generations to come. The previous National Science Foundation-funded Cyberinfrastructure Center of Excellent Pilot Study and the subsequent CI Compass, a National Science Foundation Cyberinfrastructure Center of Excellence project, provides active support for Major Facilities. Major Facilitates represent the largest scientific and engineering cyberinfrastructures. This poster provides an overview of the NSF Major Facilities, CI Compass, and the past, current, and planned future work being conducted by CI Compass to support the vital scientific data cyberinfrastructures that the NSF Major Facilities represent.

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