Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview and evaluation of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) for the library and information science (LIS) community, as this method has only recently been used for exploring experiences of various phenomena related to LIS. Design/methodology/approach – IPA is discussed within the phenomenological tradition. Two examples of recent IPA studies are examined in parallel to show application of the IPA method. Issues and challenges of applying IPA to LIS research questions are discussed. Findings – IPA is an alternative phenomenological method, adding to the repertoire of qualitative methods used for LIS research. It was an effective method for exploring experience among information professionals: it was equally suitable for studying reference and information service work for academic library professionals and burnout experience for information and communication technology workers. Originality/value – Only a few LIS studies have used IPA and no discussion or evaluation of the method has been published for this field. This paper provides a discussion of the method for LIS researchers interested in this emerging phenomenological method.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reveal how instructors discuss student data and information privacy in their syllabi. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected a mixture of publicly accessible and privately disclosed syllabi from 8,302 library and information science (LIS) courses to extract privacy language. Using privacy concepts from the literature and emergent themes, the authors analyzed the corpus. Findings Most syllabi did not mention privacy (98 percent). Privacy tended to be mentioned in the context of digital tools, course communication, policies and assignments. Research limitations/implications The transferability of the findings is limited because they address only one field and professional discipline, LIS, and address syllabi for only online and hybrid courses. Practical implications The findings suggest a need for professional development for instructors related to student data privacy. The discussion provides recommendations for creating educational experiences that support syllabi development and constructive norming opportunities. Social implications Instructors may be making assumptions about the degree of privacy literacy among their students or not value student privacy. Each raises significant concerns if privacy is instrumental to intellectual freedom and processes critical to the educational experience. Originality/value In an age of educational data mining and analytics, this is one of the first studies to consider if and how instructors are addressing student data privacy in their courses, and the study initiates an important conversation for reflecting on privacy values and practices.
Many academic library instruction programs seek to integrate information literacy skills into the curriculum of academic departments. Previous literature on this topic generally recommends a "tiered" approach to curriculum-integrated instruction (CII); these tiered approaches suggest teaching basic skills to first-and second-year students and advanced skills to third-and fourth-year students. Many authors identify skills to teach at each level; however, their recommendations appear to be based on anecdote and common sense. While both anecdote and common sense are useful as starting points, librarians who plan CII programs should use evidence to make instructional decisions. To provide evidence for CII planning, this syllabus study investigated the research skills required of first-year students in their first semester at college. The results demonstrate that most first-semester students are required to find articles and Web sites to support their assignments, and many students are required to find books. Some must also find reference books as well as data and statistical sources to complete their course assignments. These results suggest that previous recommendations regarding tiered instructional approaches should be investigated further and revised. ncreasingly, academic libraries seek to integrate information literacy instruction into the curriculum of academic departments within the university. The growth of CII programs is visible in the library and information sciences literature. The literature also reveals that many librarians recommend a "tiered" approach to CII in which some skills are taught at an early level and other skills are taught later in a student's college career. In general, these recommendations focus on instructional efforts on individual campuses. However, two flaws exist with these suggestions. First, they do not appear to be based on research. While years of professional experience give individual librarians a wealth of anecdotal data from which to conceive CII programs, academic librarians should conduct research to confirm their assumptions. Second, most CII literature focuses on majors or disciplines. This perspective is conceptually useful for librarians, but students' academic experiences do not fall neatly within
Despite demonstrated student benefits from Open Educational Resources (OER), especially those in community colleges, faculty adoption remains marginal. This study is framed by diffusion of innovations theory, which acknowledges that adoption of an innovation must exceed a tipping point to ensure enduring success. The study focuses on community college faculty with demonstrated OER engagement, on the basis that these faculty have greater likelihood to adopt OER and help "bridge the chasm." In surveying faculty, we tested a range of roles librarians have played in supporting OER adoption. Findings show that faculty value librarians' roles in discovery, cataloging, and information literacy but are less open to librarians operating outside these traditional roles, including mentoring and policy development. Faculty were supportive of librarians' role in advocacy for OER and, overall, felt that librarians have a role to play in the OER movement on their campuses.
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