Session Description:
Is library and information science (LIS) book publishing biased? Come take a critical look at and gain an understand of publications trends in LIS monographs, areas in which current LIS publishers are lacking, and identify how to help create a more balanced and representative system of LIS book publishing. Librarians interested in publishing a monograph will gain ideas for potential book topics, identify potential publishers, and develop a greater understanding of the LIS monograph publication process and landscape.

Session Description:
Do all students experience library study spaces the same? Most of the literature on student’s use of library spaces presumes so, yet research on campus climate and students’ sense of belonging would indicate students from underrepresented groups might have a different perception. This session presents results from a qualitative, critical constructivist research study examining how students’ social identities intersect with experiences in library study spaces and influence sense of belonging at a predominantly white university. Attendees will learn how to inspect their own library’s study spaces using a critical eye toward facilitating students’ sense of belonging across all identity groups.

Session Description:
How can librarians recast the narrative we tell about the student research process? What evidence and assumptions inform that narrative? Attempting a more realistic assessment of student research habits, three librarians will share the results of a study that utilized a form of ecological momentary assessment to track student behavior in real time over the course of a research assignment. The knowledge gained from this study encourages librarians and teaching faculty to probe the assumptions made when communicating the research process to students and allows them to prioritize instruction around specific areas of research that best meet actual student needs.

Session Description:
User-centered academic libraries strive to meet the diverse needs of college students through evolving user spaces. Library spiritual spaces, from chapels to reflection rooms, are now featured among the many new student-centered areas taking shape in higher education. Though some may question the presence of spiritual resources in an academic environment, especially at secular institutions, in this session we’ll explore how inclusive spiritual spaces foster overall well-being, which ultimately contributes to student academic success.

Session Description:
Research indicates that first-generation (1G) students experience unique struggles in a university setting. A team of library staff interested in understanding the 1G student experience at Duke University learned more about the overall landscape for 1G students, conducted focus groups with 1G students, and tracked the 1G status of respondents to the library’s biennial user survey. This mixed methods study revealed challenges 1G students face and provided context and nuance for their experiences. Findings were shared with campus stakeholders and library donors interested in sponsoring services for 1G students. Learn about the research team’s methodology, their recommendations to improve library services and access for 1G students, and how Duke Libraries staff formed a team to address the needs of 1G students.

Session Description:
Are users struggling to successfully navigate your institution’s government information website? You’re not alone! This is a problem across specialized library units. The diversity of needs and levels of experience among potential users, combined with the complexity of various service areas makes designing a one-sized-fits-all website difficult. This session will introduce strategies for developing usability tests to uncover jargon and develop a user-centered design focused on government information websites. Presenters will share findings from user studies which can inform the development or redesign of websites for specialized services such as data management, scholarly communication, and special collections.

Session Description:
Chatbots (also known as conversational agents, artificial conversation entities, or chatterboxes) are computer applications that imitate human personality. Our libraries chatbot is only one of a few academic library chatbots in existence in the United States. The chatbot helps with simple directional and/or factual questions, can serve multiple patrons at one time, works 24×7 with very little mediation, and provides consistent answers. Statistical data for over 10,000 questions have been collected and will be analyzed to gain insights into how the conversational agent is used. Over 4, 000 transcripts will also be analyzed to determine how patrons are asking questions.

Session Description:
How can librarians help students grapple with the fact that they don’t own their content on social media? Providing content and using content is not the same as common ownership and it is imperative that we help students recognize and navigate that difference as scholars and people. This session will examine how we can help students think more consciously about ownership and maintenance of information infrastructure. We will look specifically at the differences between material ownership and feelings of ownership and why that dissonance is vital to contemporary information literacy instruction.

Session Description:
Medical researchers call it “cannabis.” Criminologists call it “marijuana.” Online discovery tools search both terms simultaneously. So how should librarians talk about this, or other politicized topics, when discussing keywords with students? What about when implementing discovery tools with proprietary search algorithms? This paper presents a systematic review of scholarly literature using the terms “cannabis” and “marijuana” to determine the context that has guided what words are used to describe this drug over time. This review’s implications go far beyond one example, however, and speak to the larger need for librarians to be critical of how we describe politically-charged topics.