This paper explores the ways in which academic librarians can harness faculty familiarity with and curiosity about academic social networking sites (ASNS) in order to promote engagement with the institutional repository (IR). Highlighting significant similarities and differences between the IR and the popular ASNS Academia.edu -specifically in the areas of open access and discoverability, business model, user experience, and support -the paper then presents the key findings of a questionnaire administered to faculty at a single institution asking about their usage habits of ASNS and the IR and their motivation for engaging (or not) with each. Faculty who use ASNS identified accessing, reading, and sharing work as their primary motivations; those who do not use the sites attributed their nonuse to a lack of awareness and time. The top reported reasons for using the IR were downloading work and arranging for the deposit of student work, while skepticism and misconceptions about its benefits prevent others from interacting with the IR. The paper concludes by outlining ways in which librarians can work with faculty to create greater understanding of and engagement with the IR.
In the 2011-2012 school year, the instruction librarians at Augustana College, Illinois, changed their assessment approach in the college's required first-year sequence to focus on higher-level information literacy concepts. The librarians replaced a quantitative assessment instrument with performance assessments, which they integrated into their first-year library sessions. Although the sequence is taught by many faculty with diverse assignments, these new assessments could be applied organically across sections yet provide generalizable results. This case study describes that assessment project and its initial findings, analyzes the project's implications, and suggests how other college libraries might adopt similar qualitative assessments.
Academic digital librarian positions are on the rise, and the interdepartmental and crossinstitutional collaborations they build signal a paradigm shift for the profession.
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