The December 2023 issue
<https://ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/issue/view/1311> of
Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL) was published on Monday,
December 18. Peer-reviewed articles in the December issue are:

To Thine Own 3D Selfie Be True: Outreach for an Academic Library Makerspace
with a 3D Selfie Booth
<https://ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/article/view/15107> / Alex
Watson

To promote an academic library makerspace, the University of Mississippi
Libraries hosted a “3D selfie” booth which used body scanning technology.
This booth, advertised on campus and set up outside the library during the
first weeks of class, was designed to attract attention and perform
outreach through the use of body scans to be printed in the makerspace at a
later date. Although the hoped-for printing of “selfies” did not
materialize, the project resulted in data about interested patrons and
ideas for similar projects going forward. This paper serves as a case study
for other academic library makerspaces interested in similar outreach.

Towards an Open Source-First Praxis in Libraries
<https://ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/article/view/16025> / J.
Robertson McIlwain

In terms of utility and technical quality, open source software solutions
have become a common option for many libraries. As barriers to adoption
have been reduced and systems such as FOLIO appear poised to change the
landscape of LIS technology, it is worth examining how the use of open
source can support the normative core values of librarianship, and to
outline a strategy for critical engagement with the technology that is
beneficial to patrons and libraries. That strategy will require further
codification, institutionalization and investigation of open source at many
levels.

Managing Your Library’s LibGuides: Conducting A Usability Study to
Determine Student Preference for LibGuide Design
<https://ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/article/view/16473> / Julie
Burchfield and Maggie Possinger

This paper discusses how the William G. Squires Library conducted a
usability study on their LibGuides to identify student design preferences.
The results of the study support previous research concerning best
practices for LibGuide creation. This paper offers insight into how
librarian-centric design hinders student success and provides suggestions
for how to best develop a student-centric template design that offers
consistency and increased user proficiency across all guides.

Reference Chatbots in Canadian Academic Libraries
<https://ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/article/view/16511> / Julia
Guy, Paul R. Pival, Carla J. Lewis, and Kim Groome

Chatbots are “computer agents that can interact with the user” in a way
that feels like human-to-human conversation. While the use of chatbots for
reference service in academic libraries is a topic of interest for both
library professionals and researchers, little is known about how they are
used in library reference service, especially in academic libraries in
Canada. This article aims to fill this gap by conducting a web-based survey
of 106 academic library websites in Canada and analyzing the prevalence and
characteristics of chatbot and live chat services offered by these
libraries. The authors found that only two libraries were using chatbots
for reference service. For live chat services, the authors found that 78
libraries provided this service. The article discusses possible reasons for
the low adoption of chatbots in academic libraries, such as accessibility,
privacy, cost, and professional identity issues. The article also provides
a case study of the authors’ institution, the University of Calgary, which
integrated a chatbot service in 2021. The article concludes with
suggestions for future research on chatbot use in libraries.

Using Qualtrics XM to Create a Point-of-Use Survey to Assess the Usability
of a Local Implementation of Primo
<https://ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/article/view/16475> / Matthew
Black, Heather Ganshorn, and Justine Wheeler

In 2020, Libraries and Cultural Resources (LCR) at the University of
Calgary used Qualtrics XM to design and pilot a point-of-use survey to
collect user feedback on the usability of our implementation of Primo, Ex
Libris's web-scale discovery service. Over a two-week period, users were
presented with the pop-up survey while searching and asked to provide
feedback. This article summarizes how we designed and implemented this
point-of-use survey and the lessons learned from this project.

In addition to those articles, we are pleased to present contributions from
other voices:

   -

   There are three items in the Letters to the Editor section.
   -

   In our occasional Editorial Board Thoughts series, Editorial Board
   member Mary Guillory contributes “Drained-pool Politics Versus Digital
   Libraries in U.S. Cyberspace
   <https://ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/article/view/16988>,” a
   discussion of book banning in digital environments.
   -

   Our regular Public Libraries Leading the Way column is by Ross
Hanney, “Reorienting
   Collection Analysis: Cost Effective Item Level Analysis and Machine
   Learning in Public Libraries
   <https://ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/article/view/16987>.” This
   essay highlights an analysis of how a small-town public library can
   demonstrate how it saves its community’s residents money.

Contributing to the Journal

We invite all readers to contribute to the journal. If you are involved in
any aspect of libraries—we consider this an inclusive scope, including
cultural memory institutions such as museums, archives, and more—we welcome
submissions for peer-reviewed articles or communications. Information
Technology and Libraries is proud to be diamond open access -- that is, it
is free to read for all, charges no article processing fees to authors or
their institutions, and content is published under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/>. Want to know more? See
our Call for Submissions
<https://ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/call-for-submissions>. If you
have questions or wish to bounce ideas off the editor and assistant editor,
please contact either of us at the email addresses below.

Ken Varnum, Editor [log in to unmask]
Marisha Kelly, Assistant Editor [log in to unmask]


--
Ken Varnum
Senior Program Manager and Discovery Strategist
Library Information Technology | University of Michigan Library
[log in to unmask] | *he, him, his*
https://www.lib.umich.edu/users/varnum

*Want to improve transparency in library discovery? Submit your Open
Discovery Initiative (ODI) conformance statement
<https://groups.niso.org/apps/group_public/download.php/23872/NISO_RP-19-2020_ODI_Open_Discovery_Initiative.pdf>
and
be part of the solution.*