Library & Information Science Research最新文献

The number of school librarians has been shrinking in the past few years in part due to the lack of evidence linking them to student achievement. Building on a foundation of correlational studies linking school librarians with student achievement, this study uses a quasi-experimental design that mimics random assignment to treatment and comparison groups through application of a matching technique. Restricted data from North Carolina and propensity score matching was used to compare students who attended school with a full-time certified school librarian to similar students who did not attend schools with a full-time certified school librarian. In addition, this relationship for both reading and math over a four-year time span was examined. Findings include that students who attend schools with a full-time certified librarian score significantly higher on math and reading tests than do matched students who attend schools without a full-time school librarian.

In recent years, people's reading habits have undergone a digital transformation, and library funds are insufficient to meet this growing digital demand. A good way of optimizing resource allocation is the regular evaluation of suppliers to select resources. E-book resources were used as the starting point to examine the method of supplier evaluation within the concept of “smart library” using an analytic hierarchical process to integrate and weight perspectives from e-vendors, academics, and professional librarians. Findings demonstrate that both traditional and “smart” factors impact the final evaluation of e-book suppliers. In addition, the influence of smart service factors on the efficacy of library innovation can be evaluated by the linear regression method. Two systematic methods in the assessment of e-book suppliers were outlined and the concept of “smart factors” based on traditional indicators for application in constructing digital book resources was introduced.

Recent studies provide insights into library, archive and museum (LAM) professionals' attitudes toward user participation, yet they do not address how the diversity of roles LAM professionals assume may influence their attitudes toward participation. The reported findings based on a questionnaire to LAM professionals in Norway and Sweden indicate that user participation is viewed differently depending on how the professionals perceive their roles in relation to those of other professions. Analysis of the underlying relationships between the questionnaire respondents' perceptions and attitudes identifies three subject positions with associated interpretative repertoires: power sharing, outsourcing and engaging experts. Additional analysis using a four-quadrant model of user engagement that differentiates between bottom-up and top-down approaches and between areas of organizational activity suggests that the respondents primarily see themselves as experts within their respective fields and have yet to relinquish this role in favor of a more bottom-up approach to user participation.

Seeking health-related information on behalf of or because of others is a common activity in everyday life and a topic of constant interest across multiple disciplines. The research aims to characterize recent research progress and provide a comprehensive framework of proxy health information-seeking behavior (PHISB). A total of 47 studies published after 2003 were selected, followed by structural encoding. The main contributions include 1) a summary of the key characteristics of individuals who often access health information through proxy seekers; 2) types of health information surrogates sought and sources employed; 3) a classification scheme of factors influencing PHISB; 4) a synthesis of how health information used and its subsequent outcomes; 5) a theoretical framework for proxy health information-seeking. Results point to an intellectual benchmark for future exploring related issues. The findings can shed light on public health intervention and management, especially through guiding search strategies to help people obtain relevant, helpful, and credible health information.

Immigrants encounter cultural adaptation challenges impacting their health behaviors and outcomes, with health information and cultural factors influencing their actions. A survey of 340 participants from Finland, Norway, and Sweden was conducted, and the data were analyzed using structural equation modelling. Results show that health beliefs and access to health information, mainly via the Internet, significantly predict immigrants' intentions to engage in health-related actions, while perceived barriers negatively affect their adoption of healthy behavior. The findings underscore the importance of information professionals in providing culturally relevant health information and resources to immigrants and emphasize the need for policymakers to consider cultural factors and information sources in health promotion efforts targeting immigrant populations. This study adds value to the information science literature by highlighting the role of information access and cultural context in shaping health-related actions among immigrants in Nordic countries.

Research in the social sciences has shown that there are gender differences in the selection of research methods, with women often opting for qualitative methods while men prefer quantitative methods. However, it is important to consider that research methods are generally chosen based on the research topic. To figure out the influence of gender on research method selection, a study was conducted in the field of library and information science, using a more fine-grained method classification system and an automatic classification model called CogFT, which is based on full-text cognition. The findings showed that women tend to use interviews while men prefer theoretical approaches, across a range of topics. Insights into the specific research design processes that contribute to gender differences in method selection are offered and ways to promote gender inclusivity and equality in academia by considering research method use and guidance are suggested.

Public libraries needed to quickly address the new challenges brought by COVID-19 to continue their services. This study aimed to understand innovative public library services during the pandemic and provide a typology that represent their services. Twitter messages of 12 large public libraries were analyzed to identify library services. A total of 751 Tweets were coded with thematic tags by service types and innovative approaches. Using the social innovation typology by Winberry and Potnis (2021), their typology was revised to show public libraries' innovative services under the emergency circumstances. The findings suggested significant differences within social innovation categories and newly emerged themes. The revised social innovation typology developed from Twitter data during the pandemic includes nine major categories of public libraries' innovative service types and provides updated insights into how public libraries continue to serve as important community resources using innovative approaches. The revised typology will be useful for future research in describing future innovation and assessing the endurance of pandemic-era service innovations.