Library & Information Science Research最新文献

Disregarding gender and LGBTQ perspectives at the undergraduate level perpetuates stereotypes and biases that jeopardize gender equality in society. Building on empirical evidence collected by an action-research project at the Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media at the University of Barcelona (Spain), this article provides a diagnosis of how teachers and students perceive and value gender and LGBTQ perspectives. Using a multi-method approach (focus group and field journals), this research identified a generalized interest in the incorporation of a gender perspective, although significant barriers are found when carrying it out. While teachers place more emphasis on issues of lack of training and institutional recognition, students value the incorporation of the gender and LGBTQ perspectives yet still observe important limitations. The research also evidences the opportunity of applying action-research projects in bringing together collective reflection and action, as well as the advantages of combining different qualitative methods.

Many public libraries provide makerspace services, where people can share tools and knowledge to create tangible items, yet the audience for these spaces is sometimes challenging to identify or maintain. Sometimes the spaces are less inclusive than intended or desired. This comparative case study examines user and library staff experiences in three makerspaces to determine the types of leisure the makerspaces support, and the types of makerspaces community members want. The study found that these spaces serve two audiences: those committed to a serious leisure use of the space, and those interested in casual leisure. These audiences each need different support, programs, and policies. Neither type of leisure was well supported in all three cases. This study situates the benefits of library makerspaces in the lives of the users and asks a series of questions orienting LIS toward a research agenda concerning serious and casual leisure.

It is important to widen the understanding of misinformation in different contexts. The findings of this qualitative study showed that official information can be misinformation. Official information, which is information concerning and/or coming from official services and processes, was studied with semi-structured interviews in two contexts in which support with information was needed. Four types of misinformation were found: outdated, conflicting, and incomplete information and perceived intimidation. Official information has characteristics related to structural factors, language, and terminology, as well as encounters that make it prone to misinformation. A typology of official misinformation was created to show the nuanced nature of misinformation and the different social, contextual, and situational factors surrounding misinformation. In-person support may be needed to tackle misinformation. Official information can be made clearer and more suited to different groups, which also diminishes the risk of misinformation.

Methodological innovations across social sciences are opening new avenues for conducting research designed to address real-world challenges. The benefits of utilizing the Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) approach in public libraries to resolve a persistent problem of practice, a lack of assessment tools to evaluate youth Computational Thinking (CT) programs, is demonstrated. Findings from a three-year, three-phased study utilizing the DBIR approach to design and implement a suite of assessment tools to assess CT programming in public libraries are presented. Guided by the four principles of the DBIR approach, this research produced new knowledge, including identifying CT program outcomes, challenges, and recommendations for designing and implementing assessment tools to measure the impact of public libraries' CT programming. Findings underscore the DBIR approach as a strategy for engaging with practitioners and helping shift their perspectives by resolving practice problems and facilitating the design of sustainable solutions.

Knowledge sharing plays a fundamental role in the mobile social media context. However, users are more likely to believe that their knowledge sharing is not worth the effort and time given high expectation of receiving some value in return. Social media have limited value if users are not willing to share knowledge. Knowledge sharing with the consideration of transactive memory system (TMS) from the perspectives of social capital and task visibility was examined. Building on prior theories and literature, a TMS knowledge sharing research model was developed. Data were collected from users of social media mobile apps. Results show that TMS is a valid second-order construct. From the social capital perspective, cognitive capital, relational capital and structural capital each have positive effects on TMS which further has a positive effect on knowledge sharing. From the task visibility perspective, knowledge sharing visibility has a positive effect on knowledge sharing.

Most studies on library ethics are theoretical. No scale has been developed with a valid and reliable psychometric property to measure library staff and users' ethical perceptions or behaviors. This paper describes the development of a brief measure of the Library Ethics Scale (LES) conducted in two consecutive studies. In the first study, based on the literature review and opinions of expert groups, 47 items were developed for the item pool. These items were administered to 521 university library users in Turkey. An explanatory factor analysis indicated a strong two-factor solution. In the second study conducted on 259 participants, these two-factor structures showed good psychometric properties, with 18 items explaining the total variance of 59.074. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient was 0.903, and the two sub-dimensions were found to be 0.91, and 0.888, respectively. The LES shows good validity and reliability properties and has potential application in library ethics settings, including library professionals' perceptions and users' perceptions and behaviors.

Mobile health services are a new direction for public libraries development. However, it is unclear which factors affect users' intention to use the mobile health services of public libraries (MHSPL). Integrating the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology theory along with trust and privacy concerns. This study proposes a conceptual model to investigate factors that affect users' intention to use MHSPL. The conceptual model is empirically examined, and the hypotheses are tested using a survey sample (N = 415). The findings indicate that users' intention to use MHSPL is directly influenced by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and trust. Trust also mediated users' intention to use MHSPL, leading to an indirect effect of social influence and privacy concerns. Additionally, people with different experiences using MHSPL have significant differences in their intention to use MHSPL. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of users' behavior of MHSPL and can help facilitate and improve health services provided by public libraries.