Recent library literature conveys an increasing interest in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) practices for improving library services. How does the literature explore DEIA education practices and training initiatives for library employees, including those who provide frontline reference services? What are examples of strategies for increasing awareness of DEIA topics among frontline reference workers, training reference staff to provide more inclusive or accessible se...

Welcome and opening remarks from Christine Smith, chair of the Concordia Library Research Forum committee. Recording: https://youtu.be/2YKgLVSJtvQ

Our CARL-funded research project aimed to understand how marginalized graduate students at our institutions adapted to the pandemic situation, particularly in their research activities, with the goal of providing recommendations on policy enhancements to create more inclusive research environments. The focus of our presentation would be on discussing lessons learned from the study, and the resulting policy recommendations. The COVID-19 pandemic brought many challenges to the ed...

Many librarians suspect a misalignment between what students actually need to facilitate curricular research, what librarians think students need, and the librarian-curated tools created to meet those perceived needs. Specifically, academic librarians often create online, asynchronously accessible, research guides in order to aggregate relevant sources and outline research strategies.  Unfortunately, two problems persist: 1) If created without a specific request, guides may not...

Instructional video tutorials have been a commonly adopted method for library instructors to extend their reach as teachers. The limitations of one-shot instruction sessions often require ingenuitive approaches to harness student attention and equip them with the skills and attitudinal awareness to successfully navigate academic library research. One way to extend instructional work is to implement video tutorials before or after a one-shot session. Practical research skills are often frui...

This session will present the findings of research into the types of questions posed by patrons during the COVID-19 pandemic on AskAway, the post-secondary consortial chat reference service in BC and the Yukon. The fourteen-member research team, representing eight post-secondary institutions in BC and the Yukon used an iterative process and multiple methods of analysis to examine over 70,000 chat transcripts from September 2019 through August 2021. Utilizing the tools R, Python Pandas, Voy...