Research Libraries – Page 3

“Reeling Them In: Using TikTok and Video Content to Leverage Engagement Between Academic Librarians, Libraries and Students”

TikTok is the video-sharing social media platform of the moment. Young people, most often of the age of undergraduate students, are its primary users. Creating a library TikTok profile and sharing video content on the platform is consequently an excellent way for academic librarians and their libraries to engage with their student users. This case study explores the strategy employed at the Ferriss Hodgett Library at the Grenfell Campus of Memorial University for creating and sharing engaging videos on our library’s TikTok and other social media channels. Providing a critical evaluation of TikTok use and discussing themes and ideas for video content alongside best practices, this article outlines how short-form videos can be leveraged via TikTok and other video-based platforms to make the academic library and its staff more relevant and approachable, and lay the foundation for building stronger and more meaningful relationships with students.

https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.693

“Guest Post: Will JAG’s New Models Give Libraries and Publishers a Better Seat at the Federal Funding Table?”

On June 12, the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR) hosted a town hall webinar on behalf of JAG [Joint Associations Group]. The group of subject matter experts, with an eye to American leadership in science and technology, presented two provisional models for reforming indirect cost reimbursement. Described as “bookends,” the two recommendations represent the ends of a spectrum, leaving open the possibility of a hybrid model somewhere in between.

Both models aim to eliminate frequent indirect cost rate negotiations while ensuring taxpayer accountability for research investments. They also attempt to increase transparency, reduce administrative burdens, and provide more accurate accounting of recoverable costs.

https://tinyurl.com/yn48c7wj

“Prospects of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) for Academic Library Search and Retrieval”

This paper examines the integration of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems within academic library environments, focusing on their potential to transform traditional search and retrieval mechanisms. RAG combines the natural language understanding capabilities of large language models with structured retrieval from verified knowledge bases, offering a novel approach to academic information discovery. The study analyzes the technical requirements for implementing RAG in library systems, including embedding pipelines, vector databases, and middleware architecture for integration with existing library infrastructure. We explore how RAG systems can enhance search precision through semantic indexing, real-time query processing, and contextual understanding while maintaining compliance with data privacy and copyright regulations. The research highlights RAG’s ability to improve user experience through personalized research assistance, conversational interfaces, and multimodal content integration. Critical considerations including ethical implications, copyright compliance, and system transparency are addressed. Our findings indicate that while RAG presents significant opportunities for advancing academic library services, successful implementation requires careful attention to technical architecture, data protection, and user trust. The study concludes that RAG integration holds promise for revolutionizing academic library services while emphasizing the need for continued research in areas of scalability, ethical compliance, and cost-effective implementation.

https://tinyurl.com/43d97fe5

“Is AI Literacy the Trojan Horse to Information Literacy? Insights from our AI Literacy Cohort Workshops”

Participants observed several key differences. First, the ACRL framework is more conceptual while other AI literacy frameworks like Choice 360 and Educause are more practical in nature. Second, the ACRL framework is modular with no definitive entry point while other AI literacy frameworks like UNESCO’s and the Digital Education Council’s are more hierarchical with a sequential structure. These differences lead to tangible disparities in implementation. While the ACRL framework might be adopted as higher-level conceptual guidance, the more practical AI frameworks are relatively more actionable and ready for curriculum integration.

https://tinyurl.com/mrybzjcn

“Robert H. McDonald Appointed Senior Vice Provost and Director of the University of Texas Libraries”

The University of Texas at Austin announces the appointment of Robert H. McDonald as Senior Vice Provost and Director of the University of Texas Libraries, effective August 16, 2025. McDonald currently serves as Dean of University Libraries and Senior Vice Provost of Online and Extended Education at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he has led transformative initiatives in digital scholarship, online learning and library services. . . .

At CU Boulder, McDonald has overseen strategic initiatives in digital library services and online program development, including the expansion of alternative credentialing programs and learning technologies that support researchers and students across disciplines. He guided adoption of an open-source, community-based Library Services Platform to secure sustainable and affordable software for CU Boulder’s Libraries. . . .

Prior to his time at CU Boulder, McDonald served in leadership roles at Indiana University Bloomington, where he helped build national infrastructure for digital preservation and cyberinfrastructure initiatives, including work with the HathiTrust Research Center and the IU Data to Insight Center, and has held positions at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego, Florida State University and Auburn University. He holds a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Music from the University of Georgia.

https://tinyurl.com/5aj3p9p6

“Navigating Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Integration in Library and Information Science: Insights from Four National Libraries”

This chapter examines the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science in library and information science, using insights from four national libraries: the British Library, the National Library of France, the Royal Library of Belgium, and the Royal Danish Library. . . . This study adopts a qualitative approach, drawing on in-depth interviews with key personnel and analyses of strategic documents to explore the challenges and opportunities posed by AI. The findings highlight critical organizational issues such as resistance to change, cross-departmental collaboration, resource allocation, and the need for skill development.

https://tinyurl.com/2s4ahcta

Paywall: “A Checklist to Publish Collections as Data in GLAM Institutions”

The purpose of this study is to offer a checklist that can be used for both creating and evaluating digital collections, which are also sometimes referred to as data sets as part of the collections as data movement, suitable for computational use.

https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-06-2023-0195

“Diamond Open Access and Open Infrastructures Have Shaped the Canadian Scholarly Journal Landscape Since the Start of the Digital Era”

Scholarly publishing involves multiple stakeholders having various types of interest. In Canada, the implication of universities, the presence of societies and the availability of governmental support for periodicals seem to have contributed to a rather diverse ecosystem of journals. This study presents in detail the current state of these journals, in addition to past trends and transformations during the 20th century and, in particular, the digital era. To this effect, we created a new dataset, including a total of 1265 journals, 943 of which appeared to be active today, specifically focusing on the supporting organizations behind the journals, the types of (open) access, disciplines, geographic origins, languages of publication and hosting platforms and tools. The main overarching traits across Canadian scholarly journals are an important presence of Diamond open access, which has been adopted by 61% of the journals, a predominance of the Social Sciences and Humanities disciplines and a scarce presence of the major commercial publishers. The digital era allowed for the development of open infrastructures, which contributed to the creation of a new generation of journals that massively adopted Diamond open access, often supported by university libraries. However, journal cessation also increased, especially among the recently founded journals. These results provide valuable insights for the design of tailored practices and policies that cater to the needs of different types of periodicals and that consider the evolving practices across the Canadian scholarly journal landscape

https://doi.org/10.5206/cjils-rcsib.v48i1.22207

“A Survey of AI Tools in Library Tech: Accelerating Into and Unlocking Streamlined Enhanced Convenient Empowering Game-Changers”

This article presents the current status of AI tools in library resources and systems, such as those licensed by Clarivate, Elsevier, and EBSCO. It also offers thoughts on the utility of the tools, how they work, their problems, and their context within the offerings of the companies that own them. With this information, library workers will be able to make better informed decisions about which, if any, AI tools to subscribe to, activate, or opt out of in their library resources and systems.

https://tinyurl.com/5xzc9d5d

“Exploring Faculty Understanding of Scholarly Research Metrics on One Campus: Using a Survey and Analysis to Strengthen Library’s Scholarly Communication Outreach”

Introduction: In recent years, the library has received inquiries from faculty on how departments on campus use scholarly research metrics to measure the impact of publications. The library provides training opportunities for faculty through individual consultations and sessions sponsored by the university’s Office for Faculty Excellence. However, librarians did not know comprehensively and specifically what metrics were being used across departments and disciplines in the university.

Methods: A 14-question survey was emailed between February 2022 and March 2022 to 959 tenured, tenure-track, and fixed-term faculty in non-health science departments at a regional public doctoral institution in the southeast. One hundred and fifty-two responses were collected and analyzed.

Results: Faculty responded from a wide variety of departments and disciplines. The most frequently reported tools used to personally track research impact were Google Scholar and h-Index. Respondents noted that online modules and instruction documents/infographics provided by the library would be most helpful to them.

Discussion: The majority of respondents acknowledged that scholarly metrics reflect at some level the importance of a researcher’s scholarly work. Respondents indicated that the use of these metrics to measure impact was helpful when equitably and transparently applied. Faculty perception of the significant challenge in measuring impact across disciplines was noted.

Conclusion: Guided by survey responses, the library’s Scholarly Communication Department will expand options for consultation and instructional support at different times of the year. Because faculty indicated that they selectively use these metrics in their annual evaluation and tenure and promotion cycles, the library will share resources and support ahead of these deadlines.

https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.18030

“Use of Generative AI in Aiding Daily Professional Tasks: A Survey of Librarians’ Experiences”

This study examines how librarians are using third-party generative AI (GAI) tools such as ChatGPT to aid their daily professional tasks. An online survey of 272 librarians found that text-generating AI tools were the most popular. The majority of respondents felt that GAI tools were effective in improving productivity. Key challenges included ensuring content accuracy and designing effective prompts. Top suggestions for better preparing librarians to use GAI include practical training on using GAI, establishing AI policies and guidelines, fostering collaboration and communities of practice, and providing access to useful GAI resources. The study highlights popular use cases that can inform professional development, while underscoring the need for hands-on training, institutional policies, opportunities to experiment with GAI, and access to enhanced tools. As GAI evolves, supporting librarians’ adoption will be crucial for harnessing its potential benefits.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lib.2025.a961200

“Identifying Open Access Practices in Librarianship Journals”

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Policies around open access (OA) models, open peer review, and open data are often not transparent or consistent, leading to barriers in understanding for scholars, particularly those new to publishing; therefore, librarians and editors should take care to learn about OA models ahead of the publishing stage of their writing process.

Diamond OA is the most common method of publication in librarianship journals, and librarianship journals are most commonly published by association or society publishers. Librarians can highlight how this positively impacts authors and readers while being conscious of the workload and power imbalances possible in editorial environments where labor is not directly remunerated.

Following diamond, hybrid (green) OA is the most commonly offered publication option by all types of publishers in librarianship journals. Librarians can advocate for deposit in institutional repositories and support researchers in doing so.

A very low number of the analyzed librarianship journals (14 of 133) were either closed or required an APC for OA publication; therefore, librarians and editors can note that the field has strong adoption of no-fee publication and readership models.

To inform their own publication choices and to better engage with and guide other researchers at their institutions, librarians should develop competencies in OA literacy by following industry trends and changes and considering critically the structure of academic publishing.

https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.17778

Paywall: “Technical Standards Within Socio-Technical Systems: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) Paper”

The paper presents interdisciplinary viewpoints to discuss key aspects of the literature, including how standards reflect political, financial, and cultural motivations, how standards are often implemented in different ways, challenging their effectiveness, and how standards structure work as much as they structure information. These various disciplinary perspectives are also used to highlight standardization issues related to emerging technologies, such as social media and generative artificial intelligence.

https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.25017

“Estimating Transformative Agreement Impact on Hybrid Open Access: A Comparative Large-Scale Study Using Scopus, Web of Science and Open Metadata”

This study of over 13,000 hybrid journals shows a substantial rise in open access due to transformative agreements between 2019 and 2023, although most articles remained paywalled. While transformative agreements accounted for the majority of open access, many articles continue to become open through the payment of individual publication fees. Hybrid open access and transformative agreements remain concentrated among a small group of large commercial publishers, with European countries—alongside South Africa—showing high adoption rates. In contrast, the three most productive countries, China, the United States, and India, show a substantially lower adoption in transformative agreements. Open questions remain as to whether this uneven distribution reflects temporary implementation gaps, inherent inequities in the transformative agreement model, or deliberate avoidance of such agreements.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.15038

“Enhancing Library Discovery: An Approach to Understanding User Access to Electronic Resources”

The exponential increase in electronic resources in parallel with the development of discovery systems has expanded the research environment for library users well beyond the traditional library catalog. In response, a large public university library grapples with the best ways to deploy research tools to provide access to the many electronic resources it licenses for its users. Library staff seek to direct users most efficiently to needed resources, to save staff time, and to contain costs. The authors used a variety of methods to gather data to support their decision making, including search log analysis, surveys of other institutions, interviews with students, and cross-departmental discussion within the institution. The library made improvements to the website and search tool interfaces as well as developed a new approach to loading MARC records for electronic resources to the library catalog, which resulted in a slimmed down catalog paired with a newly promoted discovery system. This analysis is intended to inspire other libraries to develop a more deliberate approach to providing access to electronic resources.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103064

“Guest Post: Eight Hypotheses Why Librarians Don’t Like Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)”

Content providers are starting to silo their collections in order to restrict other RAG-based tools from accessing their content.

An example: in the case of Primo Research Assistant, collections from APA (and others such as Elsevier and JSTOR) are excluded from result generation. This would need to be explained to students and faculty using the tool, which adds considerably to the time and energy put into the communication needed to make these tools worth their licensing cost. It can reasonably be assumed that almost all content providers are going to invest in their own AI assistants or make licensing deals with existing ones. How many of these can and should we license and maintain? Librarians working on discovery layers should start making plans now for identifying the tools that best serve their community and how their workflows need to change.

https://tinyurl.com/2fe6hdnw

Paywall: “AI-Integrated Literature Discovery Tools: A Guide to Reviewing for Institution Wide Use”

[The article] analyzes how AI-enabled tools are altering the ways researchers interact with scholarly literature, providing new approaches for discovery, analysis, and synthesis. The article outlines the advantages and limitations of various AI-integrated platforms. . . . The study offers insights into the evaluation and implementation of AI literature review tools within academic institutions. . . .

https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2025.2497736

“Making the Connection: An Examination of Institutional Repositories and Scholarly Communication Crosslinking Practices”

Institutional repositories (IRs) remain a powerful tool for opening, sharing, and preserving scholarship. Scholarly communication (SC) services and resources are essential to promoting and supporting IRs. Linking SC services within an IR offers support to users at their point of need. This study investigates the prevalence of web linking between IR and SC services in 145 Association of Research Libraries and Carnegie R1 libraries. This quantitative analysis identifies gaps and offers practical recommendations for developing connections between SC and IR websites at academic libraries. . . .

[T]he authors expected a comparable number of SC pages at institutions that had IRs. However, over 30 percent of the study’s library websites did not feature a dedicated SC web page. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that between spring 2021 and spring 2022 there was a 10 percent decrease in the number of institutions that offer SC services information to their user community. . . .

It is reassuring that the number of IRs remained consistent. Another bright spot is the nearly 14 percent increase in links made from the IR to SC services between spring 2021 and spring 2022. . . .

The few IRs in the study that did crosslink back to SC pages (9.1% in spring 2021; 23.0% in spring 2022) often included the SC link directly on the repository’s homepage.

https://tinyurl.com/mrxdj59j

“Remembering Bill Mischo”

The University Library [of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign] honors the memory of William H. Mischo [https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4234-9836], who passed away on April 20, 2025. Bill was a legendary figure among his colleagues—an innovator, mentor, and leader whose influence shaped not only the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center, but also the very systems through which countless users have discovered knowledge. His decades of service leave a lasting impact on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and throughout the wider world of library and information science. An excerpt from his obituary follows.

William H. Mischo began as Head of the Engineering Library in Engineering Hall in 1982 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He developed science and technology library collections, worked with faculty to understand their research, and was a role model for other librarians on campus.

Bill was perhaps best known for the planning and construction of the world-class Grainger Engineering Library Information Center (GELIC), which opened on March 14, 1994, and is the northernmost landmark on the Bardeen Quad. Bill trained hundreds of new STEM librarians and information professionals who work around the world.

Soon after Grainger opened, Bill was a Principal Investigator on the Digital Library Initiative I (DLI-I), a National Science Foundation-funded grant in which research was developed to create digital journals and was a major change for information delivery. In 1999, some of the very first Digital Object Identifiers (DOI), which are used to create unique identifiers for articles, books, chapters, and conferences, and are used to discover and connect information on the Web, were first created in GELIC.

https://tinyurl.com/2mmysndk

“Exploring Emerging Technologies in Archiving and Preservation: Leveraging 3D Models, Interactive Environments, and AI Tools”

This article. . . explores how cultural heritage practitioners can leverage emerging technologies to enhance their work. . . . This article highlights AI applications and emerging technologies that can generate scripts without needing coding experience, create 3D models that increase accessibility and engagement, and develop virtual exhibits that extend the lifespan and reach of physical exhibits while providing additional interactive elements.

https://doi.org/10.1177/18758789251336085

“Learning from the Past | Periodicals Price Survey 2025 ”

Since 1960, Library Journal has published an annual article covering the ups and downs of periodicals pricing. . . . The article, however, is not just about numbers. It also touches on new and emerging pricing and sales models, discusses trends in the serials marketplace, and considers the issues collections librarians deal with when working with a finite budget. This year, we cast both a look back to see what can be learned from the past, and a look forward to consider what might be heading our way in the coming years.

https://tinyurl.com/bpkpf27a

“Intelligence Prompt Engineering to Enhance Information Retrieval for Medical Librarians”

Prompt engineering, an emergent discipline at the intersection of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), library science, and user experience design, presents an opportunity to enhance the quality and precision of information retrieval. An innovative approach applies the widely understood PICO framework, traditionally used in evidence-based medicine, to the art of prompt engineering. This approach is illustrated using the “Task, Context, Example, Persona, Format, Tone” (TCEPFT) prompt framework as an example. TCEPFT lends itself to a systematic methodology by incorporating elements of task specificity, contextual relevance, pertinent examples, personalization, formatting, and tonal appropriateness in a prompt design tailored to the desired outcome. Frameworks like TCEPFT offer substantial opportunities for librarians and information professionals to streamline prompt engineering and refine iterative processes. This practice can help information professionals produce consistent and high-quality outputs. Library professionals must embrace a renewed curiosity and develop expertise in prompt engineering to stay ahead in the digital information landscape and maintain their position at the forefront of the sector.

https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2025.2022

“Navigating the Introduction of Rights Retention: Lessons From Leeds Beckett University”

We, as many other institutions did, expected backlash. This has included:

Refusal to accept our prior notification as a blanket declaration and an expectation that we will inform them every time we submit something which falls under rights retention.

A publisher stating that papers with rights retention language won’t be rejected. However, no author manuscripts may be placed under a Creative Commons license, according to the terms of their journal policies. Any authors who wish to do so can only publish under the immediate gold open access route. Authors are asked to agree to this when signing their standard subscription licensing terms.

Another publisher asks authors to agree, as part of their author contract, that their publishing terms take precedence over any other terms authors assert during the publishing process. Authors must also sign that they haven’t assigned rights to any other third party for the article or content that will conflict with rights granted in the publishing terms.

One publisher has gone even further: due to the widespread adoption of rights retention in the UK, they now require all papers authored by someone from a UK institution to be published open access.

https://tinyurl.com/yau3x6te

“Charting Open Science Landscapes: A Systematized Review of Us Academic Libraries’ Engagement in Open Research Practices”

Open Science aims to make research publicly accessible, transparent, and reusable, promoting collaboration across disciplines and fostering relationships among government, academia, industry, and society. International and regional reviews have explored the roles of academic libraries in promoting open science on both global and local scales. However, practices within U.S. academic libraries have not been examined comprehensively. This study addresses this gap. We employ a systematized literature review methodology to map U.S. academic library engagement in key areas of open science (e.g., open access, open data, open educational resources) and overlap analysis is used to assess shifts from discrete initiatives (e.g., open access, research data management) to holistic, integrated services that span the research lifecycle. Using a comprehensive search strategy, we identified 3752 publications for inclusion in the study. We find that U.S. academic libraries are actively engaged in open science practices, with the most extensive involvement in open access and the provision of infrastructure to support open science. However, engagement in activities related to citizen science remains limited. Through thematic overlap analysis, we find that ~50 % of publications report activities across two or more themes of open science, suggesting a possible shift toward more comprehensive practices. A key challenge reported by libraries is the need for continuous professional development to address technical skills gaps. As research needs and corresponding librarian responsibilities continue to evolve, maintaining librarian professional development opportunities will remain crucial for equipping librarians with the skills necessary to continue supporting and advancing open science initiatives.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103054

“What’s in a Name? Exploring How Voluntary Library Data Literacy Workshop Titles and Descriptions Affect Learner Motivations to Enroll”

This study examined a large teaching and research-intensive university’s data library that offers several data literacy workshops. Although the data library’s voluntary data literacy workshops can be popular, with some workshops waitlisted, interest ebbs and flows. One way to improve the situation is to better market library workshops through effectively crafting workshop titles and descriptions that encourage engagement. Duke and Tucker (2007) state that it is important to market academic library services to increase service use and meet the needs of its users. Understanding marketing barriers is essential to improving workshop engagement.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103045