CURRENT RESEARCH
Supporting Disability Accommodations for Library Workers: Humanist, Employee-Centered Approaches for Supervisors and Managers
In this upcoming chapter, the author draw from a collaborative, nationwide study which explored the lived experiences of librarians seeking disability accommodations working in public academic libraries. This chapter will illustrate, using the descriptive experiences of the librarian participants, alongside additional innovative research on disability accommodations, rights, and advocacy, how library administration, supervisors, and managers can build inclusive, respectful, and equitable workplaces for all.
This accommodations process is an intrusive, dehumanizing, time intensive, and astonishingly ambiguous one. Library workers need supervisors and managers who endeavor to build inclusive, respectful, and accessible support systems. These systems are critical for disabled employees as they maneuver through a complex accommodations process to receive accessible, just, and inclusive work spaces.
A focus for this chapter is on how supervisors and managers can work, empathetically and compassionately, with library workers seeking accommodations. In contrast to the more typical response of actively pushing against an employee’s accommodations process to receive workplace access needs.
Bolstered by pioneering LIS research, this article offers insightful, practical, and implementable guidance on how library administrators, supervisors, and managers can do just that.
Neurodivergent Perspectives in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Development: A Human-Centered Approach
Despite the growing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, their development and evaluation primarily cater to neurotypical users, overlooking the estimated 20% of the global population who are neurodivergent. This proposal investigates how neurodivergent individuals engage with and adapt generative AI tools, specifically examining their interaction patterns with platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity.ai, Gemini.ai, and Claude.ai.
Through a qualitative analysis of neurodivergent user interactions and experiences, this research will explore how AI tools serve as potential supports for communication and social interaction challenges faced by neurodivergent individuals. Broadly, this research seeks to enhance our, currently quite limited, understanding of neurodiverse perspectives in AI development, contributing to more inclusive, equitable, and effective AI systems that serve diverse cognitive styles.
FUTURE RESEARCH
“Behind the Circulation Desk”: Hidden Censorship in Public School Libraries
This research project focused on a continued yet rarely mentioned censorship practice within public, K-12 school libraries. In both school and public libraries, books demeaned ‘mature’, ‘racy’, and/or otherwise not appropriate for a library’s children and youth, were ‘relocated’ from the general, browsable library collection.
Usually, these materials are kept behind the circulation desk, in the staff workroom, or storage space within the library. Procedures varied by school library but, commonly, accessing one of these books required a signed parent/guardian permission slip, a direct request from the student to check out the book, or permission from the librarian for the student to have access.
“Unusual in Our Field”: A Reflection of the Application of Auto-Ethnography in LIS Research
In the study, the author will explore her history engaging with autoethnography and ethnography within her research and personal life such as journaling, amateur photography, creating zines). In her 2016 dissertation, “The Empathetic Librarian: Rural Librarians as a Source of Support for Rural Cyberbullied Young Adults”, she approached her research through auto-ethnography.
Autoethnography, as a research method and reflective writing practice, provides the author with a unique, empathetic, and intimate way to better understand the importance of storytelling and sharing stories to explore unknown aspects within the field of information science.
PAST RESEARCH
Opportunities for Public Librarian Support: Cyberbullying and Young Library Patrons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
In an increasingly digital world, cyberbullying is becoming an everyday problem for many youth. Librarians are in a unique position to assist cyberbullied youth. Often seem as non-authoritative, librarians have the ability to interact with cyberbullied young adults in ways other adults may not. Through the library space, librarians can provide tailored programming, empathy, and engagement to a population who may not have other options.
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder are at a particular risk for cyberbullying, as they often have difficulty understanding social norms and communication patterns. These differences in understanding communication can make these individuals targets for bullying behaviors. As demonstrated in popular press and recent research, cyberbullying is a pervasive problem among young adults ages 12 to 18. However, cyberbullied youth with autism have received little interest from researchers.
Through a mixed method approach, my colleague Dr. Amelia Anderson and I investigated how public librarians can better prepare individuals with autism to navigate communications in the online environment – both to avoid cyberbullying and to appropriately address conflict when cyberbullying occurs.
The Responsibility of School Librarians in Digital Citizenship Instruction
Frequently, K-12 school librarians are tasked with digital citizenship instruction for the students their school. Tying in with information literacy instruction, digital citizenship involves teaching youth safe and responsible online behavior. However, available resources for planning and conducting this type of instruction typically focuses on a classroom teacher audience.
School librarians have smaller windows for engaging with students which makes instruction challenging to organize and perform. This study focuses the perceptions, expectations, and concerns of school librarians from a single state in Southeastern United States. Based up the results of a state-wide online survey, suggestions for developing librarian specific digital citizenship resources that can advance.
Thinking About Empathy in the Profession: A Comparative Study of American Museum Professionals and American Librarians
While often unacknowledged, empathy is an important component of everyday library work. When engaging with the public, librarians’ express empathy and compassion. This is particularly apparent when working with underserved, youth populations, as well as promoting social justice and advocacy. Like libraries, museum professional engage with the public frequently during the course of a workday.
Yet little is known about how museums professional employ empathy during these interaction, if at all. In this collaborative study, my colleague, Dr. Laura-Edythe Coleman and I, investigated how empathy is displayed and understood by museum and library professionals. Through the findings of surveys and semi-structured interviews of these professionals, we will explore the ways in which empathy can be better engaged within the library and museum setting.