libraries

Survey rating scale: In Brief: Recent content analyses of LIS literature show that, by far, the most popular data collection method employed by librarians and library researchers is the survey. The authors of this article, all participants in the 2014 Institute for Research Design in Librarianship, recognize that there are sound reasons for using a…

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Editor’s note: On July 16th, 2014 we published Open Source Outline: Locating the Library within Institutional Oppression, where we discussed nina de jesus’s Outline for a Paper I Probably Won’t Write and called for authors to use her open source outline as the basis for an article of their own. We are pleased that nina herself and Joshua Beatty…

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In Brief: Librarians make frequent reference to “the traditional library” yet there is no accepted definition of the term. Responding to a debate that began at the 2013 ACRL National Conference, the author presents the results of a literature survey that explores the rhetorical usage and meaning of the phrase. Results indicate that the “traditional…

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In brief: Members of the Lead Pipe Editorial Board reflect on their own personal philosophies of librarianship in response to Emily Ford’s recent article. What is your librarian philosophy? Let us know in the comments. By Editorial Board and Brett Bonfield Introduction In her August 2012 article, “What do we do and why do we do it?,” Emily…

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In Brief: This article draws a parallel between fatigued runners and overworked librarians, proposing that libraries need to pace work more effectively to avoid burnout. Through an exploration of cognitive science, organizational psychology, and practical examples, guest author Erica Jesonis offers considerations for improving productivity and reducing stress within our fast-paced library culture. By Erica Jesonis…

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By Kim Leeder Several weeks ago I attended my first community college commencement. Despite my staff status, I was pleased to be invited to sit among the faculty behind the stage. From this vantage point I was able to watch the ceremony and play a small role in it (faculty, please stand; faculty, please sit) while…

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By Emily Ford Introduction Since Occupy Wall Street finally started getting mainstream media coverage, the idea of consensus decision-making seems to have permeated our American psyche. For me, it was waking up to a story on NPR’s Morning Edition that I couldn’t shake. The story featured a discussion of the group meetings and decision-making process occurring…

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by Karen Munro The New Status Quo Inside and outside of libraries, everybody is nervous about change.  We use terms like “disruptive change” and “tipping point” to talk about the fear that we are traveling into a world where we can’t continue to do what we’ve always done.  Some people think we’ve already passed that…

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In the Library with the Lead Pipe welcomes Audrey Barbakoff, a librarian at the Milwaukee Public Library, and Ahniwa Ferrari, Virtual Experience Manager at the Pierce County Library System in Washington, for a point-counterpoint piece on filtering in libraries. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors, and are not endorsed by their employers….

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In the Library with the Lead Pipe is pleased to welcome another guest author, Markus Wust! Markus is the Digital Collections and Preservation Librarian at North Carolina State University Libraries and works on exciting projects such as WolfWalk (mobile app for exploring NC State using special collections images and geolocation data) and NC Architects (database…

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by Kim Leeder Summer Interlude Three years, twenty committees, twelve hundred instruction sessions, forty thousand monograph purchases, and half a million reference questions later, I’m at the point in this librarian job where I have enough experience to know how to get things done, and also enough to wonder, “What exactly am I doing?” The…

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Throwback Thursday for February 12, 2015: Take another look at Heather Davis’s article on the ACRL Standards from 2010. Stop back on February 25th for a critical information literacy perspective on the new Framework from Ian Beilin. by Heather Davis Picture it, a higher education institution, 2009. The sun is shining. It’s a warm summer day. Your iced coffee…

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Welcome to another guest post at ItLwtLP. This time we bring you thoughts from Carrie Donovan, an instruction librarian at Indiana University Bloomington. Enjoy! By Carrie Donovan Once upon a time in libraries, you could call yourself a good teacher if you spent more than 30 minutes planning a lesson, if you wowed students with your…

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