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Browsing Research and Publications - University Libraries by Author "Decker, Emy Nelson"
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Item Engaging Students in Academic Library Design: Emergent Practices in Co-Design(2021-02-28) Decker, Emy Nelson; University of Alabama TuscaloosaThis article explores academic libraries that have gone beyond using the traditional survey or focus group methods of soliciting student input, specific to library design projects. The goal for each library was to engage students in space design projects in innovative and hands-on ways that would maximize the potential for gaining their design input toward the creation of improved and enhanced library spaces. The successful co-design practices are further contextualized by analyzing the strategies employed by several academic libraries for engaging students in library design or redesign projects. Key trends, approaches, and emergent practices come into focus as they pertain to student input opportunities. By studying examples of student co-design in academic library design projects, several themes emerge as ingredients for reaching – and keeping – users engaged with library design. Importantly, students must feel that their commentary is valued and that their input is evident in the final design.Item Engaging Students in Academic Library Design: Emergent Practices in Co-Design(2020) Decker, Emy NelsonThis article explores academic libraries that have gone beyond using the traditional survey or focus group methods of solicitingstudent input, specific to library design projects. The goal for each library was to engage students in space design projects ininnovative and hands-on ways that would maximise the potential for gaining their design input towards the creation of improvedand enhanced library spaces. The successful co-design practices are further contextualised by analysing the strategies employedby several academic libraries for engaging students in library design or redesign projects. Key trends, approaches, and emergentpractices come into focus as they pertain to student input opportunities. By studying examples of student co-design in academiclibrary design projects, several themes emerge as ingredients for reaching – and keeping – users engaged with library design.Importantly, students must feel that their commentary is valued and that their input is evident in the final design.Item Expediting the Delivery of Content to Library Users: When to Buy Versus When to Borrow?(2020-07-17) Decker, Emy Nelson; Arthur, Michael A.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaIf an item is not readily available in an academic library’s collection, is it quicker to buy it or does is make better sense to borrow it? At a public, four-year institution, Acquisitions and ILL are exploring a new relationship to improve the users’ experience. The question is determining what triggers the decision to borrow versus buy an item. The exploration is born of the institution’s ongoing migration from a traditional to a demand driven based collections strategy. This article will elucidate how Acquisitions and ILL can work together to effectively deliver what users need when they need it.Item Hegemony of the West and the Librarian’s Role in the Struggle against HIV/AIDS in Africa(2009) Decker, Emy Nelson; University of Alabama TuscaloosaAfrica needs information about HIV/AIDS. Librarian activists have a duty to organize, repackage, and circulate HIV/AIDS information. Unfortunately, this has led in some cases to an unintentional assertion of cultural hegemony, which operates invisibly to those who are part of the “dominant” or “dominating” culture. Unexamined assumptions of “superiority” have led to a bias that the West possesses the only correct method for codifying knowledge. The West cannot appropriately evaluate the successes or failures of HIV/AIDS education in Africa if it employs only American or Western ideas, categories, and sensibilities. This is detrimental to African people and cultures lacking the materials needed to protect themselves. A better method is needed to offer information in a way that appeals to the recipients’ cultural norms and values.Item Launching Chat Service During the Pandemic: Inaugurating a New Public Service Under Emergency Conditions(2022) Decker, Emy Nelson; Chapman, KarenPurpose: This article details the implementation of a live online chat service which was suddenly necessitated by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The approaches used to train chat operators during this time inform both current and future training initiatives toward continuous improvement in this academic library setting.Design/Methodology/Approach: Chat transcripts from the period of March 2020 – April 2021 serve as the dataset for this study.Findings: In bringing a live chat service online during a global pandemic, chat transcripts from this period reveal 19.3% of all chat interactions related directly to COVID-19. The transcripts also reveal the types of questions, whether reference or directional, and these, combined with staffing patterns, indicate that staff were addressing reference questions more often than librarians. In addition, 25.2% of all transactions, whether by staff or librarians, resulted in tickets or referrals to hand off the question to a subject or functional specialist. These findings help to inform targeted face-to-face refresher training for chat operators.Originality: While bringing a live chat service online is certainly not novel, the impetus behind the quick setup was. This unusual circumstance allowed for an in-depth look at the nature of chat and its training requirements and limitations due to campus stay-at-home orders. It also provided a new understanding that influenced subsequent face-to-face trainings.Item Making Sense of the Lending Fill Rate in Interlibrary Loan: Investigating Causes for Low Fill Rates and Developing Potential Remedies(2021) Decker, Emy NelsonThe interlibrary loan (ILL) fill rate for lending is, arguably, the most important statistic used toevaluate the success and reliability of the lending service. This fill rate percentage, however, isactually heavily influenced by factors external to the academic library’s ILL department. The fillrate metric, alone, does not tell the whole story. A deeper dive into lending practices and theassociated data and statistics can help elucidate factors that are negatively impacting it. Thisinformation is essential for ILL practitioners as they can use it to institute measures tocontinuously improve the fill rate by implementing best practices.Item Mapping Library Lending: Using GIS Technology to Explore ILL Lending Data(Elsevier, 2024) Decker, Emy Nelson; Waltemate, BrittanyGeographic Information System (GIS) technology can be employed by academic librarians to study interlibrary loan (ILL) lending patterns of circulating materials. The data collected and analyzed using GIS can apprise librarians about the efficacy of existing networks, assist them in making sound cost-saving choices, and inform collection development activities. In this article, the physical lending outputs at The University of Alabama are studied across five years to understand better and explore factors that impact lending activities within Alabama. The data retrieved elucidate stable patterns and highlight identifiable changes in usage that can inform subsequent lending network practices within the state. The totality of this data can aid toward the desired outcomes of enhanced resource sharing as it relates to ILL practices.Item Reaching Academic Library Users During the COVID-19 Pandemic: New and Adapted Approaches in Access Services(2021-03-15) Decker, Emy Nelson; University of Alabama TuscaloosaThe COVID-19 pandemic, which hit academic libraries in the United States during the spring semester of 2020, forced librarians and staff to redouble their efforts to reach out to users in light of newly enforced safety measures such as building closures, quarantine periods, enforced social distancing, etc. This article describes three services - one adapted, one newly developed, and one a collaboration across several units on campus - to allow users to continue receiving the assistance and the materials they needed despite the obstacles inherent to the pandemic. Unexpectedly, these changes also helped streamline processes in a post-pandemic academic library environment.Item Reaching academic library users during the COVID-19 pandemic: New and adapted approaches in access services(2021) Decker, Emy NelsonThe COVID-19 pandemic, which hit academic libraries in the United States during the spring semester of 2020, forced librarians and staff to redouble their efforts to reach out to users in light of newly enforced safety measures such as building closures, quarantine periods, enforced social distancing, etc. This article describes three services - one adapted, one newly developed, and one a collaboration across several units on campus - to allow users to continue receiving the assistance and the materials they needed despite the obstacles inherent to the pandemic. Unexpectedly, these changes also helped streamline processes in a post-pandemic academic library environment.Item Replacing staff with students to monitor LibChat service: transition process and lessons learned(2022) Goss, Harold; Decker, Emy NelsonDesign/methodology/approachThis article reviews the existing literature on the topics of student assistants participating inlibrary reference services and peer-to-peer engagement. It then details the first step of thetransition process used for moving primary chat monitoring responsibility to library studentassistants and away from staff and librarians as it existed previously.PurposeThis article details the incorporation of student assistants into a newly implemented chat service.It details the approaches used for training students and developing the chat repertoire.FindingsIncorporating student assistants into the chat rotation was beneficial to the libraries and to thestudents participating in the chat service. While librarians and staff enjoyed help in covering thehours, student assistants learned research skills on the job that would potentially assist them incompleting their course assignments.Originality/valueUtilizing student assistants in library chat services is becoming increasingly popular with budgetcuts and the scheduling demands that continue to grow for librarians and library staff. Thisarticle provides context for incorporating students and shows the value that the students receivevia their participation in a chat service.Item Responsibility Center Management (RCM) and Enrollment, Graduation, Financial Aid, and Retention: Examining Trends at Four Public Institutions(University of Illinois Press, 2023) Decker, Emy NelsonResponsibility center management (RCM) is a market-based budget model that may benefit certain academic institutions. While there are supporters and opponents of the model, there is a lack of hard evidence about the potential impact of RCM on a variety of institutional variables, hence the need for this study. This study brought together the variables, “fall enrollment,” “graduation rate,” “retention,” and “financial aid,” informed by IPEDS data, to examine quantitatively changes relating to RCM implementation. Data indicates that the implementation of RCM had a positive relationship with these variables. While these outcomes may encourage the implementation of RCM, the individual goals of an institution need to be considered before the decision to use RCM is made.Item Sports Holdings in the Southeastern Conference University Libraries: Football as a Case Study(2010) Meehan, William F. III; Swanson, Margaret A.; Yates, Catherine O.; Decker, Emy Nelson; University of Alabama TuscaloosaOf the twelve National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision conferences, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) has attained prominence. But how do the SEC’s university libraries fare when evaluated for their football holdings? While university libraries develop their collections mainly to support research and teaching functions, according to accepted collection development practice, the extent to which sports of local importance are represented in their collections is a subject given little attention in the professional literature. In order to help close the gap, this study evaluates the football holdings of the 12 SEC university library systems using the checklist method of each library’s Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) system from a remote location. The evaluation is meant to serve as a case study of sports holdings in the SEC libraries by using an authoritative checklist consisting of the best fiction and nonfiction football books. The checklist method, which compares a library’s holdings to an authoritative list, is an effective means of identifying collection strengths and weaknessesItem ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ Using Improvisation to Hone Library Employees’ Customer Service Skills(2020-07-17) Decker, Emy Nelson; University of Alabama TuscaloosaImprovisation is an effective tool for developing actors’ skills. It can also be a powerful and unique means for enhancing customer service skills in the contemporary academic library environment. Interactions between library users and librarians / library staff can often be complicated and require excellent listening and communication skills. This article explores how improvisation training can help reinforce customer service skills while also enhancing team building, team cohesion, and interpersonal engagement skills for these library employees. Such exercises are not only enjoyable and entertaining for library employees, they also help develop essential skills which enhance their customer service interactions.Item The X-factor in academic libraries: the demand for soft skills in library employees(Routledge, 2020-07-17) Decker, Emy Nelson; University of Alabama TuscaloosaAs the need for employees with technology skills and other expertise has increased within the contemporary academic library environment, so too has the need for employees with "soft skills." Soft skills refer to personal, learnable attributes, such as emotional intelligence, communication aptitude, persuasion facility, storytelling ability, collegiality, and even woo. While academic libraries are ever-changing, it is critical to bear in mind the importance of the human component. This article considers the need for soft skills within the contemporary academic library environment. It will draw upon successful instances of soft skills development from outside the academic library environment to synthesize new ways of enhancing library employees' soft skills.