Current Issue: September 2021
Feature
Hackbart-Dean and Ray
Community engagement
Finding history where it lives
An African American community activist and business owner was looking for an institution that would collect documents and assist in conducting oral histories from communities across Southern Illinois to “tell the story of the region’s African-American Heritage.” Southern Illinois University ...
Feature
Gilchrist, Li, and Toepfner
Streaming access in a fractured world
Designing LibGuides with student users in mind
Faculty in the University of Baltimore Division of Legal, Ethical, and Historical Studies incorporate multiple modes of learning into their course materials. For many professors, this means that films ...
International Insights
Marcelo Rodríguez
A year on
Librarians monitoring COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean
A year into COVID-19, the reality is that the Latin America and Caribbean region does not seem to be turning the page with regard to overcoming the pandemic. At the time of this writing, countries with previous low rates of infections such as Costa Rica, Uruguay, and several ...
The Way I See It
Christopher Cox et al.
Looking through the COVID fog
Toward resilient, reimagined libraries
Like so many facets of higher education, academic libraries adapted admirably when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Collections and consultations moved online. Books went contactless for pick-up, drop-off, and shipping. Events went virtual. Seats in the library spread out. Learning and research continued.
As COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed, it’s time to look to the future and understand which adaptations will remain, what trends will accelerate, and where progress may be on hold. Will libraries continue as hubs that bring together information, collections, technology, services, and spaces to support creativity, create knowledge ...
Feature
Kendrick, Leftwich, and Hodge
Providing care and community in times of crisis
The BIPOC in LIS Mental Health Summits
In mid-March 2020, the U.S. federal government officially recognized the COVID-19 Pandemic (coronavirus). As a result, the nation experienced a social and economic shutdown. The persistent public health emergency resulted in long-term interpersonal disconnections as people adhered to stay-at-home orders and associated pivots to remote teaching and working, while watching the development of an increasingly politicized response to the pandemic.
As the spring moved to summer, social justice and antiracism ...
Feature
Maoria J. Kirker et al.
Teaching Squares
Improving instruction through observation and self-reflection
Teaching information literacy is a mainstay of many academic librarians’ roles. How are librarians—particularly those teaching in one-shots or embedded formats—developing their teaching skills? Teaching Squares offers an opportunity for librarians to improve instructional skills, through collaboration with their peers.
Developed at St. Louis Community College and popularized at Stonehill College, Teaching Squares offers instructors “an opportunity to gain new insight into their teaching through a nonevaluative process of reciprocal classroom observation and self-reflection.” ...