Finding Solutions to Dysfunctions in Libraries: A Scoping Review
My Session Status
What:
Talk
When:
10:15 AM, Friday 25 Apr 2025
(20 minutes)
Breaks:
Coffee Break 10:35 AM to 11:05 AM (30 minutes)
Where:
Loyola Jesuit Hall and Conference Centre
- RF-130 Salon Loyola Alumni
Library dysfunction can manifest itself as a series of internal issues within libraries such as communication inefficiencies and management shortcomings that can affect work environment, employees and, consequently, services. The issue of library dysfunction has been discussed widely in the literature and it seemed fitting to conduct a scoping review to better understand the operational challenges that libraries face along with proposed solutions that can improve or address some of these ongoing issues. This presentation will explore scoping review methodology from a social sciences perspective. It will outline the process itself, including the development of an exhaustive search strategy, its peer-review, its adaptation for various other databases along with its implementation. The presentation will also highlight how Covidence, an online tool that facilitates certain steps of a review project, was used to manage various phases such as duplicate removal, initial screening of titles and abstracts, full-text review, and data extraction. The presentation will address hiring of graduate research assistants along with their training and how a team of four was able to collaborate effectively on this project. Finally, preliminary findings from the review will be presented. Data around types of dysfunctions along with proposed solutions will be extracted to provide an overview of current research on this topic. Acknowledgment is given to the Concordia Library Research Grant 2023-2024 for supporting this research endeavour.
Discussion