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Progress toward health equity is necessary to reduce health disparities, and health literacy is key to achieving this goal. Because libraries provide access to knowledge and insights about their communities, they are effective partners in advancing health equity and implementing programs to reduce health disparities. A literature review on library programs and activities that focus on promoting health equity was conducted.

A literature review on library programs and activities concerning health equity and social determinants of health was conducted. Relevant literature was identified from searches of databases, library publications and grey literature.

The authors found 224 eligible sources and many types of libraries advancing health equity. Libraries frame their role in advancing health equity through external programs in three ways: (1) providing access to high-quality health information, (2) delivering health literacy training and resources and (3) connecting their communities with community health services. Libraries also advance health equity by focusing on internal library operations and providing research services focused on cultural humility and competence as they apply to health care.

This literature review will help the National Library of Medicine (NLM) develop a strategy to support libraries advancing health equity through information made available by programs and activities of NLM and the Network of the National Library of Medicine.

Digital Humanities is a robust area of research and practice at universities and their libraries across the world. This case study investigates the unique DH practices of seven US academic libraries to provide insights into how varied academic libraries operate their DH programs.

Semi-structured interviews with nine library staff in DH or DH-adjacent positions at seven US academic libraries were used to investigate library DH practices.

This case study highlighted key areas of academic library DH practices including Space, Technology, Staff, Instruction and Collaboration. Practices in these areas were compared against each other and literature to comment on the current state of DH library practices and offer some recommendations for select areas.

This case study interviewed staff in a limited number of US libraries and is not generalizable to or a reflection of the many academic libraries in the US or across the world.

The juxtaposition of multiple libraries’ DH activities provides a unique perspective on academic library DH practice, as many studies investigate only a single library as their subject.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and present a global perspective of digital pedagogies in relation to technology and academic librarians.

The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) methodology was used in this study.

Based on the data, academic librarians must develop a foundational understanding of 21st century pedagogies and digital skills to teach in an online environment.

This review paper considers the emergent teaching role of the academic librarian within the digital environment. The themes in the findings highlight the importance of digital pedagogical knowledge and digital fluency of academic librarians as a teacher within the digital environment in higher education.

This study assessed the technology readiness of library commons in selected universities in Ghana from the perspectives of both clients and service providers.

A sample survey research design was used to carry out the study, and the study consisted of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The data were collected from 157 of the 430 commons’ users and six library directors/commons librarians, using a questionnaire and an interview schedule respectively. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential analysis with SPSS Ver. 22, and structural equation modelling with AMOS Ver. 23.

The study found significant relationships between the availability of learning resources and users' experience, use and satisfaction with the commons. Additionally, there were significant relationships between the readiness of the commons, users' perceptions and their satisfaction levels. The library/commons managers identified key preparedness issues, including inadequate planning and poor space allocation. Furthermore, the study revealed negative feelings among library/commons managers, such as insecurity, resistance and low confidence.

The academic libraries in Ghana should evaluate their commons following the findings of this study, and use other readiness implementation tools to identify and address the gaps in their implementation of the commons.

This study was based on the opinions of the users and operators of the commons and focused primarily on technology-related factors. However, it is essential to evaluate other readiness factors, such as change and services, and institutional factors, using frameworks such as Hess and Ostrom’s (2005) Institutional Development Framework, to provide complementary results that can guide better implementation of the commons and improve the quality of services.

Information literacy is defined as discrete abilities that a person requires to have in order to find, assess, use and share information. As information literacy skills play a prominent role in the students' academic achievement, students and in particular international students coming to continue their postgraduate studies in other countries may face problems in finding and using library services. The purpose of this paper is to explore and investigate the information literacy skills, challenges and needs of international and domestic students at the Finnish universities.

This paper uses a mixed-methods design. Quantitative data were collected through an online survey (82 respondents) and qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 international and 10 domestic students.

Academic library services are used but in different ways. The findings indicate that international students have a relatively low level of information literacy skills compared to domestic students and faces various challenges, especially in the beginning of their studies.

The study was exploratory, and data were collected from limited number of Finnish universities and may not be representative of the underlying population.

Academic libraries should provide effective courses on research methods and library services to the international students while keeping in mind the international students language and cultural barriers.

This is one of the first attempts in information literacy research that focusses on international and domestic students' information literacy skills at the higher education environment. As such, the results provided in this paper can help librarians and decision-makers at the higher education environments to plan better and become more efficient in delivering information services meeting students' information needs and expectations.

The purpose of the research was to find out if there are any differences in the readability score between abstracts published in scientific journals from library and information science with and without an impact factor. Therefore, the author made a comparison between the readability of abstracts from one journal with (Journal of Documentation) and one journal without (Knjižnica or Library) an impact factor.

As a measure of readability, the Flesch Reading Ease Readability Formula was used. Then, with the help of statistical experts, a comparison of the readability scores between the abstracts of two selected journals was performed.

The results showed that some statistically important differences exist between the abstracts published in the Journal of Documentation and Knjižnica. The statistically important differences were found in the number of words and sentences in abstracts and in the readability of abstracts included in the research. Therefore, it can be said that there exists a statistically important difference between abstracts with and without an impact factor.

The primary purpose was to find out whether there is a statistically important difference in the readability score of abstracts with and without an impact factor in the field of library and information science. Some similar research studies have been conducted in other scientific fields.

Wawasan Open University Library undertook a survey study, based on the Wilson’s revised model of information behaviour (1999), to profile information-seeking behaviour of their distance students in using library resources in their research and learning activities. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using random sampling method, samples were selected to ensure proper representation of the population across four schools of studies and five regional centres. A total of 550 questionnaires were sent to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and 435 completed questionnaires were returned with a success response rate of 79 per cent.

Findings indicated significant differences between undergraduate and postgraduate students in using the university’s MyDigital Library and physical library for their information needs. Findings also indicated significant difference between first-year and post-first-year students in using internet search engines as part of their information-seeking process.

Students improving on their information-seeking behaviour in the learning and research work paved way for them to better experience university vivacity and not isolate themselves from distance learning.

This paper acknowledges the importance of promoting good information-seeking behaviour among distance learners in the scholarship of learning and research work. The paper also amplifies the important role library plays in minimizing students’ sense of isolation in university learning experience.

The subject of this paper is the phenomenon of social media aesthetics, which can be perceived as a tool for promoting and building the image of libraries, especially in terms of merchandising. The aim of this paper is to analyse the potential of the dark academia social media trend in the promotion of academic libraries.

The article is based on a review of the social networking sites YouTube and Instagram and an analysis of network resources using the Brand24 tool.

Resources that are described by Internet users as “dark academia” are popular in social media. Dark academia as an aesthetic concept creates potential for the promotion of academic libraries, especially those that are more traditional in terms of their architecture, décor or how they offer their services.

The paper concerns a phenomenon which, although popular socially, has not yet been scientifically analysed in the literature on the subject. Since the topic is new and there is no scientific literature on it, the author had to base the paper on less standard sources of information (e.g. analysis of the content of social media). The article is a review, an introduction, as well as an invitation to further discussion. The author's aim is not to comprehensively cover this topic but only to draw attention to an interesting and rarely discussed issue that has great potential for practical activities.

The topic has great potential for the practical improvement of the promotional activities of libraries, especially older, more traditional libraries, to create a strong and positive image on the basis of characteristics often perceived as weaknesses.

Social media services are powerful social impact tools. Showing the potential role of social media aesthetics for cultural institutions could serve to make the public more aware of the role of the proper use of social media for promotion and image building.

The use of social media aesthetics is very rarely discussed in the subject literature.

This article advocates that privacy literacy research and praxis mobilize people toward changing the technological and social conditions that discipline subjects toward advancing institutional, rather than community, goals.

This article analyzes theory and prior work on datafication, privacy, data literacy, privacy literacy and critical literacy to provide a vision for future privacy literacy research and praxis.

This article (1) explains why privacy is a valuable rallying point around which people can resist datafication, (2) locates privacy literacy within data literacy, (3) identifies three ways that current research and praxis have conceptualized privacy literacy (i.e. as knowledge, as a process of critical thinking and as a practice of enacting information flows) and offers a shared purpose to animate privacy literacy research and praxis toward social change and (4) explains how critical literacy can help privacy literacy scholars and practitioners orient their research and praxis toward changing the conditions that create privacy concerns.

This article uniquely synthesizes existing scholarship on data literacy, privacy literacy and critical literacy to provide a vision for how privacy literacy research and praxis can go beyond improving individual understanding and toward enacting social change.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which HTTPS encryption and Google Analytics services have been implemented on academic library websites, and discuss the privacy implications of free services that introduce web tracking of users.

The home pages of 279 academic libraries were analyzed for the presence of HTTPS, Google Analytics services and privacy-protection features.

Results indicate that HTTPS implementation on library websites is not widespread, and many libraries continue to offer non-secured connections without an automatically enforced redirect to a secure connection. Furthermore, a large majority of library websites included in the study have implemented Google Analytics and/or Google Tag Manager, yet only very few connect securely to Google via HTTPS or have implemented Google Analytics IP anonymization.

Librarians are encouraged to increase awareness of this issue and take concerted and coherent action across five interrelated areas: implementing secure web protocols (HTTPS), user education, privacy policies, informed consent and risk/benefit analyses.

Third-party tracking of users is prevalent across the web, and yet few studies demonstrate its extent and consequences for academic library websites.