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The purpose of this study is to investigate how first-year students conduct everyday life research and how, if possible, their everyday research skills can inform information literacy instruction in higher education. Very few studies in information literacy emphasize existing knowledge that students bring with them to college; instead, the emphasis tends to fall on deficits in students’ academic research skills. Strengths-based approaches or asset-based approaches as found in the literature of psychology and education provide a basis for exploring this direction in information literacy education.

The research used a phenomenographic methodology, interviewing 40 first-year students from two large universities, a medium-sized university and a community college.

The qualitative study suggests that first-year students are capable of using information purposefully to learn or research interests that have sparked their curiosities. They are also capable of reflecting on the ways that their investigations fulfilled their purposes, resulted in unexpected outcomes or made them consider their issue in a new light. These existing capacities provide promising starting points for strengths-based approaches to information literacy instruction.

Dialogue with students about prior research experiences enables teaching librarians to plan engaging, authentic information literacy curriculum that acknowledges existing strengths.

This study provides a valuable contribution to empirical evidence of student research skills prior to entering higher education and suggests connections between those skills and the ACRL Information Literacy Framework. In addition, the study provides a case for strengths-based education, activating students’ prior knowledge to learn and create new knowledge. Authors have presented at Library Instruction West, July 2018.

The aim of this paper is to document how two university libraries determined whether mystery shopping is an effective and statistically feasible instrument for evaluating customer service at public service desks.

Mystery shopping exercises were conducted at both libraries during the 2008 spring and fall semesters. Trained mystery shoppers recorded staff behaviors and the answers given to their reference questions and open‐ended comments about their reference experience. Using ClinTools, Excel, and Atlas.ti, the authors conducted a meta‐analysis of the data.

Mystery shopping is an effective method for evaluating customer service in libraries. The shoppers observed staff behaviors that were generally in line with the libraries' guidelines, but their comments revealed suggestions for improvement. When the behavior rubric results were combined with the comments, the authors learned that shoppers were somewhat unsatisfied.

The results are approximate since the two instruments used were not identical, requiring the combination of common elements with some loss of accuracy. In this study, the authors used meta‐analysis to compensate for the differences in the instruments. However, another solution would be to create one instrument for both institutions that contained common elements for inter library comparison and local elements for local customization.

Other libraries can adapt this mystery shopping methodology and data analysis to measure customer service in their libraries.

No other study of mystery shopping has included the questionnaires used at both institutions, the aggregated data, and the method of analysis for meaningful evaluation.

Tobacco has exercised the interest of the nation since Elizabethan times, and the inhalation of its smoke for pleasure has become very widespread. It was not until the mid‐twentieth century, however, that its effects upon health were suspected. It is now widely accepted that tobacco smoke is implicated in a range of dangerous diseases, although the tobacco industry sometimes argues that the link is not proven. The arguments about the conflicting needs of a large, world‐wide industry and the health and prosperity of individuals and society are complex, and often influenced by conflicting vested interests. Government's involvement in the issues is further complicated by its reliance upon large tobacco revenues. The link between advertising and increased smoking, either by existing or new smokers, is not proved by research, although there are strong indications that it exists. The behaviour of most parties involved, including the tobacco companies, indicates that they share the belief of a link. Voluntary controls upon tobacco advertising have had some effect, in that, for example, advertising in the U.K. is no longer overtly directed at children, but various anti‐smoking lobbies believe voluntary control to be ineffective. The present British government has toyed wth the possibility of statutory control, but faces stiff opposition from back‐benchers and within the cabinet; it is also probably philosophically opposed to such measures. More research is needed into the link between advertising and smoking behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between technical and social systems within an organization that potentially affect the service experience, as perceived by end customers.

The paper explores the potential impact of an integrated service quality system on the service experience. A conceptual model is presented, accompanied by a detailed development of the hypotheses. Two samples (Study 1: n=474, Study 2: n=225) of consumers are used to empirically test the proposed model.

The analysis reveals the impact a technical system has on employees’ inherent abilities (i.e. the social system), which, in turn, affect the overall assessment by customers. Additionally, the situation in which an employee works (i.e. operating environmental conditions) results in differences in the model.

This paper’s main implication is this paper employs established theory to develop a model that is empirically tested to show that implementing and maintaining a quality-oriented service system can positively influence the overall customer experience. The limitations are based primarily on the methodology in which individual employees assessed all aspects of both the social and technical systems.

Managers should be diligent in their design and implementation of the quality components as these affect the work setting in which employees operate.

Prior research has neither explored an integrated service quality system’s impact on the service experience nor employed an established theoretical framework. This work accomplishes both with the results providing contributions to both theory and practice.

Teacher wellbeing is critical given its impact on students’ experience and achievement. This qualitative study provides insights into teacher wellbeing in Sri Lankan state universities. The study occurs during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, where institutions are stretched for resources and teachers sought better work–life balance while working from home.

The study uses semi-structured interviews of teachers from four state universities in Sri Lanka to discover their strategies for managing teacher wellbeing and staying positive among negativities.

It concludes that the strategies can be expounded to existing research and categorized under four overarching themes: Versatility and Devotion, Pillars of Support, Conformity over Individualism, and Avoidance and Detachment. Sri Lankan university teachers, like many of their global counterparts, believe in staying positive.

Like most qualitative research studies, if not all, this research studies the specific phenomenon of teacher wellbeing among university teachers in Sri Lanka. The findings, though supported, has its limitation to only public universities teachers thus cannot be generalized and may not apply to teacher wellbeing in private universities in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, the application of the themes developed forms a valuable framework to support any future study of teacher wellbeing. The conceptual robustness of the findings will make this framework particularly useful for Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries.

The findings will inform future studies on teacher wellbeing, particularly in other South Asian countries. This study may also be the impetus for starting a discourse on related policies in Sri Lanka.

Teacher wellbeing positively impacts teacher relations with peers and leadership, which has direct implications on student wellbeing. Happy teachers make happy students.

The findings revealed eight strategies employed by Sri Lankan state university teachers. These strategies were framed under four overarching themes: Versatility and Devotion, Pillars of Support, Conformity over Individualism, and Avoidance and Detachment.

This paper aims to overview the development of a user and usage database, including multiple datasets that were combined to achieve multi‐faceted analysis of users and their usage of the Florida Electronic Library (a statewide, licensed database).

Because of the differences in the purposes and activities among the project's five phases, the research team employed a multi‐method approach to data collection, including content analysis of datasets, usability and functionality assessments of the beta database, and cross‐tab and descriptive statistical analyses of datasets in the final database.

Researchers found first that, although numerous potential datasets existed, not all could be collated into one interactive database due to variations in measurement levels, currency, and other factors. Ultimately, the database included usage and Census data, allowing the researchers to assess usage per capita and in the context of counties' demographic profiles. The research finds that creation of a multi‐dataset database can be complicated but is useful for developing data‐driving marketing recommendations.

Compiling various datasets describing users and usage of a consortial licensed database into one interactive database facilitates cross‐tabulation and comparison. This project will enhance digital library research, evaluation, and marketing by serving as an example of how to identify appropriate datasets for cross‐tabulation, develop a database that allows interactive searching, use the database to develop targeted marketing campaigns, and better describe impacts and value of these datasets.

This paper aims to highlight recent resources on information literacy (IL) and library instruction, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and IL published in 2015.

This paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain either unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and IL.

While presenteeism is empirically linked to lower productivity, the role of a person's motives for engaging in presenteeism has been overlooked. Using a Conservation of Resources Theory framework, we examine the moderating effects of presenteeism motives (approach and avoidance motives) on the presenteeism–productivity relationship.

A sample of 327 dental hygienists with chronic health conditions was surveyed. Moderated multiple regression was used to test study hypotheses.

Results indicate that presenteeism does indeed appear to detriment productivity. However, we demonstrate that motives are an important moderator, such that high approach motives appear to mitigate the negative effects of presenteeism on productivity.

Based on our findings, we suggest managers strive to improve the approach motives of their employees through processes such as job enrichment.

This study demonstrates that presenteeism is not always detrimental to productivity, as approach motives appear to mitigate the negative effects of presenteeism on productivity. These results could drive future research on presenteeism, as well as inform best practices related to managing workers with chronic health issues.