While we may know well what personal fitness means, the concept
of a fit library is ambiguous. Is it simply a matter of paying attention
to the numbers, not unlike observing metrics such as the Body Mass
Index? Does an increase in circulation or the delivery of more
instruction sessions point to a fit library? Achieving library fitness is
a…[Read more]

Academic libraries are supposed to be places of silence and deep study. Tell that to the students watching a video, talking on cell phones or working on a group assignment. Today’s academic libraries need to accommodate students’ desires for quiet and socialization. This essay offers recommendations for noise management in academic libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to share a classroom teaching technique and pedagogical
style that can alleviate difficulties encountered during information literacy instruction sessions when
students think they already know everything the librarian instructor plans to cover in the session.
Ignoring this situation can result in a poor teaching and…[Read more]

Textbook affordability is a critical issue in higher education. Academic librarians have responded by creating programs to encourage faculty to become aware of the cost of textbooks and using open educational resources as an alternative. Another, less obvious reason to start a campus textbook affordability initiative is to establish a culture of…[Read more]

Librarians have been consciously adopting metaphors to describe library concepts since the nineteenth century, helping us to structure our understanding of new technologies. As a profession, we have drawn extensively on these figurative frameworks to explore issues surrounding the digital library, yet very little has been written to date which…[Read more]

We suggest a new approach to information literacy for students: let faculty do it. Let librarians concentrate less on educating students directly and more time helping non-librarian faculty to integrate information literacy skill building into their courses, and developing the tools and resources to simplify their ability to achieve that…[Read more]

As libraries increasingly store books in off-site storage facilities or on-site automated retrieval systems, there is less capacity for library users to browse stack collections. This reduces the possibility for serendipitous discovery of books, or what the author refers to as a “collision with the collection”. This article discusses why this is…[Read more]

In this new era of experimentation in higher education, administrators should look to the academic library to adopt the same spirit of experimentation. Library and academic administrators will want to examine how they can collaboratively develop a new culture of experimentation to take risks, achieve new successes and occasional failures. This…[Read more]

The article traces two phases of SF about human species change, the first in the 1940s and early 1950s, the so called “golden age” of SF. In this first phase the advent of the posthuman is brought on by eugenics or sudden mutations caused by fallout from nuclear war. It consists of well-known books by most of the leading authors of the period: C…[Read more]

A review of Robert Leucht’s “Dynamiken politischer Imagination. Die deutschsprachige Utopie von Stifter bis Döblin in ihren internationalen Kontexten, 1848–1930” (2016) and Ulrich Bach’s “Tropics of Vienna: Colonial Utopias of the Habsburg Empire” (2016)

As gatekeepers and content buyers, academic librarians carve out only a limited higher education role – making information accessible – for themselves. Our future depends on our ability to differentiate what libraries offer and what library workers bring to their communities. This article lays out an alternate vision for the library profession -…[Read more]

In a world where openness is increasingly a desired quality of higher education, academic and research libraries should strive to be open to non-student/non-faculty members of the surrounding community that could benefit from library resources, primarily access to computers and the Internet. This essay explores the potential benefits and…[Read more]

At one time faculty rarely had much good to say about Wikipedia and typically warned their students not to use it for research. Academic librarians are visibly involved in changing the say Wikipedia is perceived on their campuses. This essay explores ways in which Wikipedia is being used to promote writing and research skills.

In this update to our original article we share those most recent developments, which to our way of thinking generate high enthusiasm for even greater progress towards higher education’s transition to a culture of openness. We offer suggestions for how to spread the development of open educational resource (OER) initiatives.

There is often an assumption that academic libraries and bookstores are adversaries around the development of textbook affordability projects. This article shares the results of a survey on library-bookstore relationships and suggests that the two organizations have a shared interest in student success upon which a productive relationship can be built.

“The thesis investigates the case of the modern Television drama series FlashForward and sets out to chart the employment of concepts of Collective Memory Studies in the narrative in order to reflect upon the ways of how social perceptions of the past and Collective Memory are remediated in the course of the narrative.
To achieve that goal, the…[Read more]

This critical commentary argues that the novels submitted (emphasis on Ammonite, The Blue Place, and Hild, with three others, Slow River, Stay, and Always briefly referenced), form a coherent body of work which centres and norms the experience of the Other, particularly queer women. Close reading of the novels demonstrates how specific word-choice…[Read more]

Parables of Care: Instrumentality, Aesthetics and Utility in Devising a Comic for Dementia Caregivers. PDF file.

Presented at the 2017 Comics & Medicine Conference: Access Points Seattle. Public Library Central Branch, 15th – 17th June 2017. Seattle, USA.

This set of slides was modified slightly from its original version for online s…[Read more]