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To examine the use of student workers in libraries, and to outline how a student worker training program can be designed and implemented. A review of published works (1978–2014), which aims to provide information on training and using student workers for more advanced tasks. A description of the history of student workers in the reference department of the Earl K. Long Library, along with a detailed account of the training used to transform the Student Reference Assistant positions. Finally, a survey sent electronically to all Louisiana academic libraries to gather information on how other libraries use student workers. Many libraries rely on student workers for staff-level tasks. Libraries can use student workers to fill in staffing gaps, to a certain extent, as long as a proper training program is implemented. Research was limited to Louisiana academic libraries, so it is not a comprehensive view of student workers throughout the country. While there were a good number of respondents, the survey was not answered by representatives of each Louisiana academic library. A broader study of how student workers are used in libraries should be conducted in the future. Many libraries still rely on staff to do everything. This chapter will provide libraries with options for using student workers in more advanced ways. It also offers key guidelines to follow when forming a training program. Most research in this area focuses on training or assessing student workers and not on finding ways to use them to fill in staffing gaps.

Library-related and resource access issues confronting students enrolled in an interinstitutional joint master’s degree program in public health are addressed in this chapter. It details a cross-institutional collaborative effort to identify and provide research resources to interinstitutional joint degree students and faculty and analyzes the program through the lens of literature on collaboration in higher education and in library instruction. Reports on findings from qualitative feedback and quantitative card sort analysis data were gathered to inform development of content for, and organization of, a library research guide. Bureaucratic structures and policies often affect library services to students and faculty in interinstitutional joint degree programs. Therefore, more salient information about library policies, services, and resources was needed in order for the affected libraries to coordinate instruction, collections, and services to best support such programs. One of the limitations of the case study was that limited qualitative and quantitative feedback was received. Also there was no prior formal needs assessment. Nevertheless, the chapter provides insight to challenges facing libraries and librarians supporting interinstitutional joint degree programs. It also points to administrative opportunities to create rich library collaborations. Existing literature does not adequately address obstacles of in-person interinstitutional joint degree programs. The contribution of this chapter is that it identifies the complications of access, library policies, and administrative procedure that will need to be address by two or more libraries that want to support joint degree programs at the college or university level.

Academic libraries have been moving toward a culture of assessment by curating data and making future decisions based on these data. Managing all of the data collection can be a cumbersome task with heavy time commitments. For technical services departments, this culture shift presents new challenges for management of data, job descriptions, and workflows or procedures. Pennsylvania College of Technology's Madigan Library welcomes these challenges by recognizing the goals of its institution to create critical thinking students of the twenty-first century by assessing the effectiveness of library resources, especially ones that can be accessed in a digital format. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the various quantitative and qualitative methods a library can incorporate to collect data of e-resources, organize that data into comprehensible formats, and share results and make recommendations for future collections in an ongoing, holistic assessment format. Following the college's curriculum goals, this chapter will show how the Madigan Library collects data and assesses e-resources, online teaching resources, acquisitions workflows, and other aspects of the library with ongoing assessment and data collection. Managing data and making decisions within these departments are discussed.

This chapter explores “politic talks” (also known as political information) on the websites of academic libraries in land-grant state universities of the South in the context of a global retreat of democracy that emerged during former President Trump’s regime as the 45th President of the United States. The exploratory qualitative evaluation applies website content analysis of seven information offerings in three categories that include: (1) information sources (collections, resources), information policy and planning (assigned role, strategic representation), and connections (internal, external, news and events). Promising practices and illustrative examples of “politic talks” representation on academic library websites show how they are serving as significant providers of political information during current politically turbulent times. The discussion of these findings in relation to each state’s voting likelihood based on trends since 2000 has significant political implications in enhancing the role of academic libraries moving forward.

This conceptual chapter sets the stage for how librarians can support informed learning. It looks at how the intersections between informed learning, Bakhtin’s philosophy of communication, and relational leadership contribute to a model of relational liaising. This chapter provides examples of practical applications, interdisciplinary collaboration, and shared leadership which librarians and other teachers can adapt for specific arts, humanities, or social sciences disciplines. Many of the illustrations are set within communication-related curricula but also include the arts.

While musicians contribute a great deal to the atmosphere of a city like Austin, Texas, they may be poorly compensated for their work. Their low salaries, personality traits, and lifestyle preferences may also mean that musicians may be reluctant to engage in preventative health strategies. Frequently lacking sufficient health insurance, musicians may have difficulty coping with health challenges such as depression and anxiety, hearing loss, poor nutrition, and alcohol and substance abuse.

This chapter opens with background on the music scene in Austin, Texas and moves to a description of a recent study on how musicians feel their careers impact their health. This is followed by a literature review that summarizes what is known about musicians’ personalities, their lifestyles, the economic factors they face, and their health disparities. In the last half of the chapter, the author summarizes how libraries currently serve musicians and add recommendations for how libraries might expand these services.

Christine Bruce (2008, Preface) has written extensively about informed learning. Informed learning is “using information, creatively and reflectively, in order to learn.” Bruce writes about informed learning as it relates to information literacy. Librarians, working collaboratively with professors, often develop research guides to teach information literacy skills, and to organize and present program, course, assignment, or topic-specific resources. Research is essential to documentary filmmaking. This chapter is a case study that describes how the History of Non-fiction Film Research Guide that we created aligns with the three principles and seven faces of informed learning.

In this closing chapter, the authors first draw on the contributed chapters in this volume to highlight some of the many ways in which libraries and librarians are moving us closer to health justice by working with their communities to increase consumer health literacy and to decrease health disparities. The authors then focus our attention on the COVID-19 pandemic, discussing the fact that disadvantaged populations are bearing the brunt of the negative impacts of this situation and the many existing and novel roles that libraries and librarians are playing to help to fight consumer health information injustice and to contribute toward better health outcomes for all. Next, Dr Beth Barnett brings her viewpoint as a Board Certified Patient Advocate to the volume, pointing out parallels between the roles of librarians and those of patient advocates, as well as important lessons for patient advocates gleaned from the volume. To conclude the chapter, the authors reiterate our aims for the volume and issue a call to the reader to join libraries and librarians in their important role as agents of health information justice.

This book chapter represents a case study relating to the challenges that immigrants encounter in their host countries and the approaches they adopt to acquire better life circumstances. The researcher implemented a qualitative research method by performing thematic analysis of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ) website, social media sites, and other related websites. ACIJ is a social justice organization that assists and advocates for immigrant rights. This analysis utilized the Strategic Diversity Manifesto framework (SDM) to analyze the existent communications of immigrants who arrive in Alabama from different backgrounds to determine whether the ACIJ is applying equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and also to determine if it is allowing these immigrants full access to its’ services and resources. Applying critical race theory (CRT) to dismantle the problems of white hegemonic racism, which is socially and historically constructed and represents cultural power in the American community. This project offers a valuable contribution to Library and Information Science (LIS) by enabling these migrants to express their voices; obtain inclusion that dismantle the hierarchical structures; and fight against violence and power, leading to improved life experiences in Alabama and to a substantial change within the Alabamian community through boosting racial and social justices.