Purpose & Goals

With funding from ECMC Foundation, Ithaka S+R launched the Maximizing Public-Academic Library Partnerships research initiative examining opportunities for collaboration between academic and public libraries and how they can best support basic needs and holistic student success. The overall goal of the project is to provide practical recommendations and tools that build and strengthen connections that can improve basic need resources and services for both students and the broader community. The paper discusses the first phase of the project, specifically how libraries advertise basic needs resources and services on their websites and our approach to systematic data collection through varying sources of web-based information. We leveraged a qualitative inventory methodology developed by Ithaka S+R that employs a systematic approach to search library websites using a defined set of search categories. By exploring how basic needs information is advertised, we aim to understand how libraries can partner to build capacity to serve students and communities facing basic needs challenges.

Design & Methodology

We conducted a qualitative inventory analysis of 100 randomly selected academic institutions and their corresponding public library systems using Qualtrics to document the presence and absence of specific variables related to basic need resources and services. We also captured information on whether current library partnerships existed and whether basic needs information was listed in Libguides and calendar of events. The basic needs categories examined included technology, housing, food, mental health, physical health, financial aid, transportation, and childcare services. Information was also captured on resources and services that focused on particular subpopulations (e.g. veterans, immigrants and refugees, formerly incarcerated people, etc). Overall, this inventory aimed to understand the landscape of basic need resources and services within academic and public library settings and whether formalized library partnerships exist to provide these types of services to address both student and community needs.

Findings

Findings from this inventory include insights on the advertisement of basic needs services and collaborations at public and academic libraries. Our analysis illuminated that there were differences in how information was communicated through varying library types, geographical locations, and other institutional markers. We also observed that public libraries, driven by their public missions, tend to offer a more comprehensive suite of basic needs services, while academic libraries focus on student-centric areas such as technology, career assistance, and mental health support. Although formal collaborations between different library sectors seem to be limited, we anticipate that there will be areas of development that can enrich collaboration between libraries, particularly on joint access and programming. We also anticipate uncovering more about informal partnerships between public and academic libraries in later project phases.

Action & Impact

We intend to publish a publicly available report outlining our findings on the current information gaps that exist in advertising basic needs services to students and communities. By highlighting areas where information may be lacking on websites, this research can enable librarians and library staff to better organize information based on the specific needs of their patrons. Additionally, we will leverage the insights from our inventory analysis to support other project phases, including identifying suitable candidates for case studies and conducting state policy analysis. The larger goal of this project is to use these initial findings to inform discussions between public and academic libraries on how to foster formal collaborations and capacity building to serve the basic needs of students and their communities. We hope to identify strategies employed by libraries in advertising basic needs services to create a knowledge sharing network where librarians and library staff can learn from each other and adapt these practices to their own institutions.

Practical Implications & Value

Community members can act on this research by reviewing the findings to pinpoint potential information gaps within their own libraries and partnerships. Specifically, this study highlights areas where libraries might fall short in communicating the basic needs services available. This can prompt librarians and staff to consider whether all their services are adequately represented on their websites. This can also help shift dissemination strategies that ensure relevant information reaches students and patrons alike. This research also makes a contribution to the overall body of work in library assessment by introducing new methods for content analysis, particularly in manual data collection and qualitative data capture from websites. This systematic approach to website analysis offers a framework for qualitative assessments in library settings when there are no other means to gather specific and dispersed data.

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