Marc Vinyard

Libraries Across the Sea: Using a Virtual Presence and Skilled Student Assistants to Serve Students Abroad

ABSTRACT The authors discuss methods and challenges of supporting branch academic libraries overseas that are not staffed onsite by librarians or permanent staff. The authors present their two-pronged approach of creating a virtual presence carefully customized to the needs of the students studying abroad along with specially and highly trained student workers. The new program, grounded partly in theories from education and business management, is shown to have substantially improved both library services for our study abroad students as well as library student workers’ performance.

A Pop-up Service Point and Repurposed Study Spaces: Maintaining Market Share During a Renovation

ABSTRACT Payson Library, the largest library at Pepperdine, primarily serves undergraduate students. It underwent a renovation between spring 2016 and fall 2017. Payson Library was closed during this renovation, and a Library Hub was established as a temporary service point and library information and teaching center on campus. Maintaining market share led to rolling out new services such as RAPID-ILL, repurposing a graduate campus library for increased study spaces, and reliance on a strong library liaison program. Predictably, there was a sharp reduction in patron visits, but there was success in providing reference, instruction, and access to the collections.

How research becomes impact: Librarians helping faculty use scholarly metrics to select journals

ABSTRACT Many librarians support faculty with the publishing process, which includes journal selection and evaluating the impact of their scholarly output. While large universities have the resources for entire departments devoted to bibliometrics, the authors of this article give strategies for faculty publishing support at a smaller liberal arts university. The authors created a LibGuide with publishing resources and presented the initiative to several academic divisions. Faculty were surveyed, and the results indicated that the majority of respondents were interested in assessing journal quality and viewed the library as a resource for help with the publishing process.