November 2018 577 C&RL News

Periodically, we may get so wrapped up in 
our hectic lives and the myriad of little de-
tails that we lose sight of the meaning behind 
our work. It is easy to lose sight of it in all 
the myriad of commitments and activities—
reference consultations, classes to teach, re-
sources to buy, committee meetings to go to, 
books to read (and write), papers to review, 
and on and on.

At least this happens to me, at times, 
particularly in the deluge of a new semester.

Then some event or meaningful interaction 
shakes me out of that myopic view. 

S e p -
t e m b e r 
s a w  a 
n u m b e r 
o f  r e -
m i n d e r s 
that there 
are larger 
issues that 
d e s e r v e 
our atten-
tion and 
e n g a g e -
m e n t . 
That the 
meaning 
in our lives is derived from how we impact 
others.

So, in the midst of a busy semester, I was 
shocked to receive an invitation to serve on 
a high-profile committee to address Title IX 
issues on campus. This is an issue to which I 
have dedicated a lot of my service efforts. But 
I will admit to being conflicted about serving 
on this committee. On the one hand, I was 
already busy (as we all are) with editing, writ-
ing, committee work—oh, and my actual job. 

On the other hand, this was an important 
effort to address how Title IX is addressed at 

the university, the adjudication process, and 
the sanctioning guidelines. A significant effort 
but also daunting by its implications for our 
campus climate, by the scrutiny it will be under, 
by the time commitment, and by the very nature 
of the issue dealing with sexual assault and 
sexual harassment (a topic reaching every part 
of academe, no matter what size institution). 

After going back and forth and unsure of 
what to do, I decided to take a walk around the 
gardens at the George (H. W.) Bush Presidential 
Library (my office is adjacent) and get away 
from these circling thoughts. It is a great place 

to get away 
f r o m  t h e 
bustle and 
to reflect. 

W a l k -
ing around 
the pond, 
I consid-
ered what 
I  s h o u l d 
do, and I 
turned to 
f a c e  t h e 
back of the 
B u s h  L i -
brary.

There is nothing like the words of a world 
leader, one who signed the Americans with 
Disabilities Act and saw the end of the Cold 
War, to shake one out of a very self-centered 
perspective. It was a little like a slap in the face 
and a reminder that there are efforts that are 
much more important.

Around this time, I also had occasion to 
read a publication by a couple of colleagues1 

and was reminded that access and equity are 
not just words and are not only present in our 
policies but are values that we model. It also 
helped me remember that there are ways in 
which librarians can engage in addressing social 
justice—actively, appropriately, and profession-
ally. It also reminded me that, by virtue of our 
commitment to equity and access, we have 

C&RL S p o t l i g h tWendi Kaspar

Wendi Kaspar is C&RL editor and policy sciences 
librarian at the Texas A&M University Policy Sciences 
and Economics Library, email: warant@librayr.tamu.edu

mailto:warant%40librayr.tamu.edu?subject=


C&RL News November 2018 578

a responsibility to do so. 
It is interesting because, I think, as aca-

demics and as librarians, we try very hard 
to be apolitical and neutral in an effort to 
withhold judgement and be accepting of all 
individuals and all ideas. However, it may 
be, in some circumstances, that neutrality is 
complicity. We need only look to the news 
headlines to be reminded of this. The paradox 
of intolerance forecasts the potential outcome: 
“If we extend unlimited tolerance even to 
those who are intolerant, if we are not pre-
pared to defend a tolerant society against the 
onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant 
will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”2 

Being the editor of C&RL, the value of eq-
uity has always been a fact that is uppermost 
in mind. That I have been given a trust to 
model the values of the profession, to chal-
lenge, and to help develop the profession 
through the research. 

It just so happens that the November issue 
of the journal addresses a number of issues 
of equity (literally, in one case), and I invite 
you to check out the new issue:

“Is There a Racial Wage Gap in Research 
Libraries? An Analysis of ARL Libraries” by 
Quinn Galbraith, Heather Kelley, and Mi-
chael Groesbeck. Racial equality has been 
of great importance to the Association of 
Research Libraries (ARL), as seen through 
various initiatives. However, in recent years, 
little research has been done regarding the 
racial wage gap in ARL libraries. Researchers 
used 35 years of raw ARL salary survey data 
to examine the wage gap between racial 
minorities and nonminorities (whites). Using 
this data, researchers created a model that 
controlled for institution, years of experience, 
years of experience squared, position, law 
or medical library, and sex in order to better 
understand the nature of the racial wage gap. 
This model shows that the gap has gradu-
ally closed over the years and that there is 
no longer a statistically significant wage gap 
between racial minorities and nonminorities 
in ARL libraries today.

“Lived Experience of Academic Librarians 

of Color” by Juleah Swanson, Azusa Tanaka, 
and Isabel Gonzalez-Smith. Lived experience 
encompasses the perceptions, feelings, and 
context of an individual’s human experience. 
Researching lived experience can be a way of 
understanding identity, emotions, perceptions, 
and contexts to develop a more thoughtful 
understanding of human experience. This 
research explores the following questions: 
What are the lived experiences of people 
of color who work as academic librarians in 
the profession? What are the contexts of their 
experiences? and How do these librarians see 
themselves? Through qualitative research using 
a phenomenological approach, this research 
reveals the complex, nuanced, and varied lived 
experiences of academic librarians of color 
navigating a predominantly white profession.

“How Do You Work? Understanding User 
Needs for Responsive Study Space Design” by 
Asha L. Hegde, Patricia M. Boucher, and Allison 
D. Lavelle. The academic library is changing. 
No longer simply a warehouse of information, 
the university library is a place for students and 
patrons to study, collaborate, socialize, and 
learn through social activities. This change in 
use reflects a paradigmatic shift from under-
standing the library as information repository 
to understanding the library as “place,” “third 
space,” and/or “learning commons.” As the 
paradigm of the academic library changes, it 
transforms academic library design. Because 
the conceptual basis of current academic library 
design is still changing away from traditional 
academic library spaces, it is necessary to con-
tinuously evaluate user needs and desires for 
study spaces, and what makes an ideal study 
space, to keep the design of academic libraries 
relevant to its patrons.

“Design and Implementation of a Study 
Room Reservation System: Lessons from a Pi-
lot Program Using Google Calendar” by Shira 
Atkinson and Kirsten Lee. Collaborative work 
spaces within academic library settings are 
becoming increasingly important as libraries 
consider their roles in the 21st century. This 
paper considers the value of implementing  



November 2018 579 C&RL News

a room reservation effort as part of the larger 
drive towards creating viable collaborative 
work spaces, and how to effectively man-
age a room reservation system. This paper 
presents a pilot study of the effectiveness 
of Google Calendar appointment slots as a 
room reservation system in a library setting 
at Fordham University, a major university in 
New York City. In a one-semester study, staff 
tracked usage trends among different user 
types and evaluated the efficiency of their 
selected room reservation system. Through 
this evaluation, staff determined that Google 
Calendar is technically equipped to provide a 
free, but very basic, room reservation system 
for academic libraries, but that it requires 
considerably more upkeep and management 
by staff than the more costly or open source 
options. Results of this study can further be 
used to guide future decisions regarding room 
reservation policies and system requirements.

“Academic Freedom and Librarians’ Re-
search and Scholarship in Canadian Universi-
ties” by Mary Kandiuk and Harriet M. Sonne 
de Torrens. This study examines the extent 
to which librarians employed at Canadian 
universities have academic freedom protection 
with respect to the right and responsibility to 
engage in research and scholarship as part of 
their normal workload and the right to pur-
sue unrestricted lines of inquiry in research 
and scholarship. An analysis of the terms 
and conditions of employment for Canadian 
academic librarians and the results of a na-
tionwide survey reveal that the majority are 
protected by academic freedom in their con-
tractual agreements. The findings also reveal 
that the inclusion of research and scholarship 
as part of normal workload is a challenge for 
many librarians, definitions for research and 
scholarship vary across institutions, and time 
constraints impede the ability of librarians to 
conduct research and scholarship.

“Parallel Lines: A Mixed Methods Impact 
Analysis of Co-Curricular Digital Literacy On-
line Modules on Student Results in First-Year 
Nursing” by Fiona Russell, Chris Rawson, 

Chrissy Freestone, Michael Currie, and Blair 
Kelly. An important component of the aca-
demic health librarian role is the establishment 
of interventions to support the development 
of student skills in evidence-based practice. 
It is important for practicing librarians to 
evaluate their activities in order to determine 
effectiveness and to inform decision-making 
and best practice in librarianship. A series of 
six online modules was developed for a core 
first-year Bachelor of Nursing unit. Modules 
were subsequently investigated for impact on 
student learning of evidence-based practice by 
determining any correlation between students’ 
completion of the modules and their academic 
performance. The level of students’ interest 
and engagement was also examined through a 
survey about their experiences of and attitudes 
towards the modules. A positive correlation 
was found between module completion and 
attainment of higher grades by students. Feed-
back from the survey indicated that students 
engaged positively with the modules.

“The Right to Be Forgotten and Implica-
tions on Digital Collections: A Survey of ARL 
Member Institutions on Practice and Policy” by 
Virginia Dressler and Cindy Kristof. In spring 
2017, digital librarians and digital collection 
managers at Association of Research Libraries 
(ARL) member institutions were surveyed on 
practices and policies surrounding takedown 
requests in openly accessible digital collec-
tions. The survey collected basic demographic 
information surrounding the digital reposito-
ries (anonymized) and presented a series of 
hypothetical scenarios for respondents to con-
sider and reflect upon. The survey received 
a 25.8% response rate, with many intriguing 
insights. Survey findings are presented, along 
with a discussion on future recommendations 
for work in this area.

Notes
1. Stephen E. Bales and Lea Susan Engle, 

“The academic librarian: A call to action, Pro-
gressive Librarian, 16–40 (2012).

2. Karl Popper, The open society and its 
enemies (Routledge, 2012).