Why do students join student chapters? What do they hope to gain from joining them? The Louisiana State University (LSU) chapter of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) conducted a research project that addresses these questions. The SAA-LSU chapter surveyed LIS students and recent graduates from the 61 ALA accredited LIS programs in the…

HIV/AIDS infections are growing at an alarming rate for young adults. In 2009, youth, ages 13-29, accounted for 39% of all new HIV infections in the U.S. (Division of HIV/ AIDS Prevention, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2011). South Carolina ranks eighth in the nation for new HIV cases, while the capital city of Columbia ranks seventh…

In early spring 2013, a pilot study was conducted at a major public university in Ohio to explore elements of information anxiety (defined herein as a combination of library anxiety and information technology anxiety) among second-semester freshmen enrolled in all iterations of both a traditional and a remedial first-year English course. The…

Leadership is an often-misunderstood word, especially in the context of libraries. With multiple definitions for the word "leadership" and vast numbers of leadership styles, it can be difficult to identity what exactly is meant when discussing library leadership. This literature review brings together 10 years of scholarly research on…

This research explores the professionalization of Library and Information Science (LIS) students who participated in a peer-tutoring service, "Research Rescue." Research Rescue was a collaboration of the Chapman Learning Commons and the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS) at the University of British Columbia. The…

Beyond for-credit offerings, some library and information science (LIS) schools are exploring MOOCs as a means to promote lifelong learning and professional development. Using web surveys and descriptive content analysis methods, this paper empirically addresses if, in LIS programs, MOOCs can fill a role and serve new populations of learners…

Fieldwork exists as a component of many library schools' curricula. Site supervisors, students, and the schools themselves all play a role. A final part of most fieldwork experiences involves the use of an evaluation form filled out by a site supervisor about the student. In this study, forty seven evaluation forms were collected and analyzed…

The current landscape of the School Librarianship educational programs and curricula of master's degrees in the USA has been explored. The master's programs are currently offered in the following four venues: (1) programs that are American Library Association (ALA) accredited but not American Association of School Librarians (AASL) recognized,…

Although many critics are reluctant to accept the trustworthiness of qualitative research, frameworks for ensuring rigour in this form of work have been in existence for many years. Guba's constructs, in particular, have won considerable favour and form the focus of this paper. Here researchers seek to satisfy four criteria. In addressing…

One of the most fundamental tasks relating to the undertaking of fieldwork for a qualitative research study lies in "gaining access". This involves both securing entry into a particular organisation and ensuring that individuals associated with it, such as employees or users, will serve as informants. In terms of the first problem, a range of…

Although qualitative methods have been employed for many years, there remain many unresolved issues for investigators wishing to undertake work of this type. This paper, aimed primarily at students and inexperienced researchers, considers some of the most pertinent of these matters and suggests responses that the investigator may make. Some of the…

The researcher was fortunate to be a member of an international development programme for library and information science (LIS) in South Africa (DISSAnet), and has benefited from the experience to the extent that research and development in the LIS field is ongoing. In order to promote this kind of initiative and to share the experience with those…

This paper draws on experiences with teaching on online course in digital library issues. The course is offered as part of an MLIS programme. The paper explores student reactions to the online learning environment, which has been delivered using the commercial products WebCT and Blackboard. Student reactions to the use of synchronous and…

Literature on general education in higher education generally and in library and/or information science education and training specifically, is reviewed. Drawing from this review and from the findings of an empirical study conducted in South Africa, this article discusses curriculum development in LIS education and training in both the university…

Teaching methodologies and uses of competitive intelligence and competitive technical intelligence in countries where the culture and the technological level are very different from the western world cannot be implemented without a cultural understanding of the tacit local knowledge and cultural behavior of people. As an example of…