Reference Services Review: Volume 44 Issue 3

Editorial

Eleanor Mitchell, Sarah Barbara Watstein

Changing the face of reference and user services: Adoption of social media in top Ghanaian academic libraries

Michael Ahenkorah-Marfo, Harry Akussah

Social media allows collaboration, participation and sharing in libraries with users. The purpose of this study is to examine the response of academic librarians in Ghana to the…

Learning from faculty voices on information literacy: Opportunities and challenges for undergraduate information literacy education

Sophie Bury

This paper aims to investigate faculty conceptions of information literacy (IL) in a digital information landscape by examining faculty definitions of IL in the context of…

Student bibliographies: charting research skills over time

Catherine Lantz, Glenda Maria Insua, Annie R. Armstrong, Annie Pho

The purpose of this study is to compare two bibliography assignments completed after one-shot library instruction to determine which research skills first-year students retain…

Impact of web-scale discovery on reference inquiry

Kimberly Copenhaver, Alyssa Koclanes

The purpose of this study is to examine shifts in the volume and complexity of reference questions received at a small liberal arts college following the implementation of a…

Are reference pop-up widgets welcome or annoying? A usability study

Bonnie Brubaker Imler, Kathryn Rebecca Garcia, Nina Clements

The purpose of this study is to investigate user reaction to pop-up chat widgets for possible use as a promoter of online reference services in libraries.

Peer reference assistants in a small liberal arts college: case study

Kasia Gonnerman, Ken Johnson

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how to create and sustain a successful mentoring program for reference student assistants in the liberal arts environment. The study…

Using the instructional design process in tutorial development

Terri Artemchik

This paper aims to explore innovative ways to integrate business information literacy and database instruction into courses that require in-depth research.

Building bridges: outreach to international students via vernacular language videos

Xiang Li, Kevin McDowell, Xiaotong Wang

This paper aims to describe librarians’ efforts in reaching out to international students through vernacular language videos at both the University of Colorado Boulder and the…

Studying the impact of blended learning that uses the online PBwiki guided by activity theory on LIS students’ knowledge management

Chokri Barhoumi

This research paper aims to explore the impact of using wiki activities to support a blended learning course (70 per cent in-class and 30 per cent PBwiki activities) on the…

Understanding library users’ preferences and expectations of online help

Tao Zhang, Ilana Stonebraker, Marlen Promann

Online help and tutorials are an important part of library services, yet they are often studied in specific contexts and disciplines like subject-specific research guides. The…

Keeping your options open: A review of open source and free technologies for instructional use in higher education

Mara Rojeski Blake, Catherine Morse

Technologies for teaching abound, but many of them are proprietary systems and software that require institutional and individual subscriptions for use. Instructors and librarians…

Teaching the reference interview through practice-based assignments

Laura Saunders

This study aims to explore the effectiveness and learning outcomes of two reference interview assignments – one in which students worked with a family member or friend and a…

Learning commons reference collections in ARL libraries

Cindy Pierard, Sever Bordeianu

This paper aims to explore the changing role of the reference collection in learning commons at Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries.