Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of Staff Development Committees (SDC) in the motivation, morale and education of library staff by relying on previous research and by using Utah State University's (USU), Merrill-Cazier Library SDC as a case study. Design/methodology/approach-Discussion and analysis emerge from the documented formation of USU's SDC, including its membership, goals, and evaluative practices, especially as it relates to current research in this area. Informal staff comments regarding benefits and limitations of the committee are included. Findings-Staff development has been approached from various perspectives. Most programs form as the results of formal or informal needs assessments. Goals for the program, or for the resulting staff development committee, vary and fluctuate depending on the time-specific needs of the library. Successful elements of USU's SDC include its emphasis on building interdepartmental relationships and its ability to elicit feedback from every level of the library. Challenges include having clearly defined goals and meeting a variety of individual and institutional needs through the creation of related events and activities. Practical implications-This paper provides ideas on forming a staff development committee, including examples for specific events and activities. It details how to structure membership and explores literature relating to designing and implementing institutional goals for staff development. Originality/value-Many studies lack a comprehensive literature review that focuses on the scope and purpose of Staff Development Committees. Our paper combines a literature review with an explanation of how USU's Library created a Staff Development Committee to fill certain library-wide goals, including challenges and benefits that emerged as a result.

Purpose-This paper explores both instruction librarians' attitudes on teaching and how they identify themselves as teachers. Particular attention is paid to teaching librarians' views on the effectiveness of two types of instruction models: for-credit courses and course-integrated library instruction. Design/methodology/approach-To investigate librarians' attitudes towards these two models, a survey was constructed targeting librarians who teach information literacy (IL). Findings-The results indicate that there is an important relationship between the IL instruction model employed and feelings towards campus politics, perceived effectiveness of IL models, and librarians' self-identification as teachers. Research limitations/implications-The survey was sent to list-servs whose readership includes high percentages of teaching librarians and received 276 responses. This is by no means an exhaustive study. The research is intended to be exploratory and to delve more deeply than the past editorials and blog posts on the issue of comparing for-credit and course-integrated instruction. Practical implications-This study can help librarians gain a better understanding of how information literacy models impact librarian perceptions of themselves and their role on campus. Originality/value-The authors seek to transform a discussion that has occurred mostly informally (in blog posts, on list-servs, and in conversations) into a formal investigation of librarians' attitudes towards the two models.

This qualitative study explores the impact of a workshop on collaborative research assignment design that brought together an interdisciplinary group of faculty in a librarianfacilitated community of practice. Faculty participants attended the workshop, revised and implemented their assignments, and completed a follow-up interview. Themes that emerged reflected shifts in faculty teaching practices, including increased scaffolding, clarity, modeling, student collaboration, and opportunities for authentic learning. Gaining insight into how faculty approach the work of teaching directly impacts library instruction and how librarians can contribute to communities of practice among teachers in the academy.

The purpose of this research was to determine how information synthesis skills can be taught effectively, and to discover how the level of synthesis in student writing can be effectively measured. The intervention was an information synthesis lesson that broke down the synthesis process into sequenced tasks. Researchers created a rubric which they used to assess students' levels of information synthesis demonstrated in their final research essays. A form of counting analysis was also created to see if other methods could help in measuring synthesis.Findings from the rubric analysis revealed that students appear to benefit from the synthesis lesson. The level of synthesis, however, remains low overall. In addition, the study showed that the different measures of synthesis established were able to identify different levels of information integration. Discovering effective ways to measure and teach synthesis continues to be essential in helping students become information literate. 60[ARTICLE]

This analysis examines articles from the past 25 years of The Reading Teacher to better understand the journal's content and trends influencing literacy instruction. A research team coded and analyzed the frequency of topics and grade levels targeted, then compared results with those of a similar analysis published in 1992. The Web of Science provided current information about trends in authorship and the popularity of highly cited and frequently accessed articles. This report shares various metrics, insights, and interpretations that help profile the impact of The Reading Teacher and make predictions about the future of reading instruction.