We are pleased to share slides from the LARK 2022 Symposium. The full program with presenters' bios is available here.
Dr Suzana Sukovic - LARK's Founder and Convenor
Professor Lisa Given - Director, Social Change Enabling Capability Platform, and a Professor of Information Sciences at RMIT University (Melbourne)
See also blog post
SESSION 1
Designing Blended Library Space to Support Students’ Need Post-Lockdown
Ms Patricia Mariel Velasquez (presenter), Prof Anne Goulding and A/Prof Chern Li Liew
The academic library is an essential service provided by the university to support the learning of its students. Libraries nowadays offer more than just print collections and often promote the resources available online to cater to the user’s diverse needs. Previous studies have highlighted the advantages and benefits of combining physical and digital libraries - the emergence of the ”blended library”. The blended library is an environment that combines physical and virtual elements to support users’ needs. Academic libraries have undertaken substantial redesign and innovation to align their services with the demands of students in an increasingly digital environment. This trend has intensified in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which libraries have offered a range of services from physical alone to digital services and both that combine the physical and digital elements to support their users.
Ms Patricia Mariel Velasquez (presenter), Prof Anne Goulding and A/Prof Chern Li Liew
The academic library is an essential service provided by the university to support the learning of its students. Libraries nowadays offer more than just print collections and often promote the resources available online to cater to the user’s diverse needs. Previous studies have highlighted the advantages and benefits of combining physical and digital libraries - the emergence of the ”blended library”. The blended library is an environment that combines physical and virtual elements to support users’ needs. Academic libraries have undertaken substantial redesign and innovation to align their services with the demands of students in an increasingly digital environment. This trend has intensified in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which libraries have offered a range of services from physical alone to digital services and both that combine the physical and digital elements to support their users.
Previous research has mainly focused on the impact of blended library developments from the library and librarians’ perspectives. Both empirical and scholarly works on students’ perspectives and experiences with blended libraries remain scant. Existing evidence suggests that library design has an impact on students’ learning. Employing a qualitative research design, task-based observations were conducted with undergraduate students. The tasks were designed to require students to use the blended elements of the library to witness and address the challenges they are experiencing in the blended library. The research investigated students’ experience of the academic blended library, focusing on how its design affects their learning. This paper will provide libraries with insights into students’ real experience with academic blended libraries, including what they appreciate in the blended design and the challenges they have encountered in using them to support their learning. This research also presents how students perceive and value the library more generally. These insights are expected to contribute to the design and/or improvement of blended libraries, particularly in an academic library context. It can also help the library consider what other initiatives must be developed for students to learn in the library successfully.
See also blog post
This paper presents the research design, process, and findings for an ongoing qualitative case study on users’ engagement in the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) Library Makerspace. The UniSQ Makerspace is a community space which provides equipment and expertise for hands-on projects and learning, fostering creativity and knowledge sharing. In this presentation I focus on how a visual research method has been incorporated into semi-structured interviews. This helped to further a participant-driven dialogue and contributed to how themes were developed through thematic analysis.
This paper presents the research design, process, and findings for an ongoing qualitative case study on users’ engagement in the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) Library Makerspace. The UniSQ Makerspace is a community space which provides equipment and expertise for hands-on projects and learning, fostering creativity and knowledge sharing. In this presentation I focus on how a visual research method has been incorporated into semi-structured interviews. This helped to further a participant-driven dialogue and contributed to how themes were developed through thematic analysis.
The case study explores how Makerspace users are engaging with the space and its services via three different usage modes: for course curriculum, extra-curricular, or research benefit. The visual and tactile nature of the Makerspace provided an opportunity to expand the scope of photo-voice research techniques to include other forms of visual media and add depth to interview responses. Interview participants were invited to share visual media (such as photos or the physical output of a Makerspace project) as part of the interview process. This presentation explores how this research approach helped to elicit rich perspectives and engagement from participants.
'Just Read' - A school based action research project
Ms Gabrielle Mace and Ms Merrilyn Lean
SESSION 2 – Lightning talks
The role of information practices in research capacity building: perspectives from Saudi female academics who studied at home and abroad
Miss Reham Alsuhaibani (presenter), Drs Huan Vo-Tran, Elizabeth Tait & Naomi Whiteside
A library and lecturer collaboration: Evidence based practice and foundational research skills in undergraduate nursing students
Dr Erin Roga, Ms Karen Pruis and Dr Myles Strous
This lightning talk will describe a small case study currently being undertaken on the impact of a series of library classes on nursing students’ research skills in evidence-based practice.
Miss Reham Alsuhaibani (presenter), Drs Huan Vo-Tran, Elizabeth Tait & Naomi Whiteside
A library and lecturer collaboration: Evidence based practice and foundational research skills in undergraduate nursing students
Dr Erin Roga, Ms Karen Pruis and Dr Myles Strous
This lightning talk will describe a small case study currently being undertaken on the impact of a series of library classes on nursing students’ research skills in evidence-based practice.
The project originated in 2021, when as a result of course improvement procedures, librarians were invited to run three two-hour classes for the undergraduate nursing students in the evidence-based practice course. In the first hour of each class, they delivered the content on searching for evidence, the levels of evidence and evaluating the evidence, and in the second hour students actively practiced the skills and applied them to their assessment task.
Internal course evaluations showed a marked increase in students’ confidence with evidence-based practice research skills, leading to the continuation of the library classes this year, and expanding them to also include post-graduate nursing students. The team received ethics approval to formally survey the 2022 nursing students in the same course in order to report and share the success of the collaboration between nursing academics and librarians.
Internal course evaluations showed a marked increase in students’ confidence with evidence-based practice research skills, leading to the continuation of the library classes this year, and expanding them to also include post-graduate nursing students. The team received ethics approval to formally survey the 2022 nursing students in the same course in order to report and share the success of the collaboration between nursing academics and librarians.
A recent review found that although information literacy was taught across a wide range of nursing programs, only a third of the articles reported librarian involvement (Cantwell et al., 2021). There is evidence that increased librarian involvement in courses leads to improved assessment quality (Booth et al., 2015; Shannon & Shannon, 2016). A more ongoing librarian role also allows for information literacy to be scaffolded over time, which has been shown to be an effective way of teaching evidence-based practice (Disler et al., 2019).
It also seems that although evidence-based practice closely aligns with information literacy, there is little acknowledging this in the literature (Cantwell et al., 2021), showing there is still a considerable need for collaboration between librarians and nursing faculty. This is most effective when seen as a partnership between the librarians and lecturers and can lead to improved information literacy and research skills understanding (Franzen & Sharkey, 2021).
References
Booth, C., Lowe, M. S., Tagge, N., & Stone, S. M. (2015). Degrees of impact: Analyzing the effects of progressive librarian course collaborations on student performance. College & Research Libraries, 76(5), 623-651.
Cantwell, L. P., McGowan, B. S., Planchon Wolf, J., Slebodnik, M., Conklin, J. L., McCarthy, S., & Raszewski, R. (2021). Building a bridge: A review of information literacy in nursing education. The Journal of nursing education, 60(8), 431-436. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20210722-03
Disler, R. T., White, H., Franklin, N., Armari, E., & Jackson, D. (2019). Reframing evidence-based practice curricula to facilitate engagement in nursing students. Nurse Education in Practice, 41, Article 102650. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2019.102650
Franzen, S. R., & Sharkey, J. (2021). Impact of embedded librarianship on undergraduate nursing students’ information skills. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 109(2), 311-316. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2021.913
Shannon, A., & Shannon, V. (2016). Librarians in the midst: Improving student research through collaborative instruction. Journal of Political Science Education, 12(4), 457-470. https://doi.org/10.1080/15512169.2016.1157486
Art Online: transformations in digitisation and discoverability of University Art Museum collections
Mr Stephen V Graham
Many Australian universities have significant art collections located in museums on campus. Although these cultural institutions may be showcased on the university website, online access to the artworks themselves is quite often limited. My research investigates this assumption, identifying how much content is digitised and examining different ways one cohort of universities – the twenty-one member universities of University Art Museums Australia (UAMA) – enables the online visibility and discoverability of objects within their art collections.
The research investigates strategies deployed by universities to reveal the richness and diversity of their collections:
- How do university art museums harness the digital environment to display their collections and increase their discoverability?
- How do these cultural institutions extend and explore the creative and interpretive potential of their art collections online?
Visible importance of libraries and librarians: Worldwide “live” online tours
Dr Helen Cheung, Ms Yoko Hirose Nagao and Dr Mary Carroll
This presentation is to show a cooperative international education project. This project is being developed by HKSKH Ming Hua Theological (MH) College, a tertiary college in Hong Kong in association with Japanese partners (The Library Fair Management Committee & Rapidswide Company) and the Libraries Research Group of Charles Sturt University, Australia. Due to challenges of the pandemic, such as lockdowns, more library users now rely on digital libraries and digital literacy skills are more important. Also, libraries may face tight budgets and reduced staffing, and have to find a way to create innovative library models for pandemic/post pandemic times. The project aims to develop “outreach worldwide digital libraries” via online tours/talks with user education and library extension activities, as well as to make the importance of libraries and librarians more visible.
Dr Helen Cheung, Ms Yoko Hirose Nagao and Dr Mary Carroll
This presentation is to show a cooperative international education project. This project is being developed by HKSKH Ming Hua Theological (MH) College, a tertiary college in Hong Kong in association with Japanese partners (The Library Fair Management Committee & Rapidswide Company) and the Libraries Research Group of Charles Sturt University, Australia. Due to challenges of the pandemic, such as lockdowns, more library users now rely on digital libraries and digital literacy skills are more important. Also, libraries may face tight budgets and reduced staffing, and have to find a way to create innovative library models for pandemic/post pandemic times. The project aims to develop “outreach worldwide digital libraries” via online tours/talks with user education and library extension activities, as well as to make the importance of libraries and librarians more visible.
This project is based on the framework of evidence-based practice. The project was based on findings from a literature review, professional experiences and expertise of librarians/faculty/professionals, available resources, IT tools and international partnerships. Collaborative teaching and collaborative learning practices were developed. Librarians, faculty/teachers with students as well as business parties (e.g. experts in rare books) in Hong Kong, Japan and Australia took turns to conduct online tours/talks. Up to now, a total of five online tours/talks have been conducted in three languages (English, Chinese and Japanese) covering various topics such as library tours, rare books and library education for online audiences from Asia, Australia, North America and Europe. This lighting talk will use a MH college/ library tour of this project as a case study to explain 1: how we use evidence-based practice to develop the tours. 2: how collaborative teaching, collaborative learning, IT tools (Zoom, smartphone & AR/ VR etc) and international partnerships facilitate the project and 3: show what the overall outcomes of the project are.
SESSION 3
The education and training role of Australian academic librarians: A variety of conceptionsMs Romany Manuell
Academic librarians in university libraries perform a variety of roles. For many librarians, this includes a role in the education and training of university students, faculty staff and/or colleagues in areas related to research, libraries and information. This presentation will briefly explain the theory, method and preliminary findings of a doctoral research project nearing completion at Charles Sturt University. Using role theory as a framework to define the concept of role, and phenomenography as an underpinning approach and research methodology, in-depth interviews with 38 Australian academic librarians in the State of Victoria were undertaken in 2019 to explore librarians’ understandings of their educative role. Interview transcripts were analysed according to phenomenographic methods, allowing the emergence of a variety of conceptions. Data analysis led to four qualitatively different categories of description within the phenomenon of the academic librarians’ educative role. The educative role can be conceived of as falling within one or more of the following four spectra: an unexpected/expected role, a transactional/relational role, a role that operates as a site of completed/continuous learning and a role to be accepted/rejected as part of a librarian identity. The greater understanding of the variety of academic librarians’ conceptions of their educative role provides opportunities to influence curriculum for librarianship, inform recommendations for employers and prompt academic librarians to reflect on their role and practice, all of which may contribute to better learning outcomes for university library users.
Research-Practice Nexus in LIS: Issues and Opportunities
Dr Bhuva Narayan
Dr Bhuva Narayan
Thank you to all the volunteers who made the symposium a great event:
Tina Du, Lisa Given, Edward Luca, Mary Anne Kennan, Suzana Sukovic, Bhuva Narayan, Paul Jewel (Katherine Howard and Jo Keading aren't in the picture).
.png)
