literature review of public library

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Journal of Documentation

ISSN : 0022-0418

Article publication date: 9 March 2020

Issue publication date: 4 June 2020

Public libraries' relevance and raison d'être towards society is an often discussed subject within public, politics and research. The objective of this systematic literature review is to provide a synthesis of empirical studies of stakeholders' perceived values of public libraries.

Design/methodology/approach

The review is based on a structured literature search that was conducted in seven databases. Two independent participants carried out a two-step screening of the identified studies. Firstly, the studies were screened on basis of title and abstract. Secondly, studies that were included in the title–abstract screening were full-text screened. Conflicting studies were discussed, and consensus between the reviewers was reached. Citation searches of each included study were conducted along with scrutinising cited literature. The included studies were subject to a risk of bias assessment on basis of a developed risk of the bias tool, and qualitative analysis was provided.

Of all, 4,086 studies were screened and 19 were retained for the review. The studies consisted of both quantitative and qualitative investigations of different stakeholders in a variety of countries. The reported values varied across the studies and stakeholders.

Originality/value

This is the first study that systematically reviews empirical literature that explores stakeholders' perceived values of public libraries. The paper suggests further recommendations for empirical research of values connected to public libraries.

• Public libraries
• Stakeholders
• Value analysis
• Systematic review
• Value perception

Acknowledgements

The author of this article acknowledges Tove Faber Frandsen, Professor at the Department of Design and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, for the assistance as a reviewer in the screening of studies. Furthermore, the referees who peer-reviewed this paper are acknowledged for thoroughly providing useful comments.

Sørensen, K.M. (2020), "The values of public libraries: a systematic review of empirical studies of stakeholder perceptions", Journal of Documentation , Vol. 76 No. 4, pp. 909-927. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-10-2019-0201

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The Sustainability of Public Libraries: a Literature review

Public libraries have existed since time immemorial providing access to information as their critical role. The existence of public library requires adequate funding to ensure fulfillment of their mandate as proclaimed in the IFLA/Unesco Public Library Manifesto of 1994. The current decade has seen an increase of budget cuts for public libraries and in Zimbabwe it’s a recurring thing. Under such circumstances, how then should public libraries continue to survive? This paper examines the sustainability of public libraries taking into consideration sustainable areas in libraries such as space, green IT, strategies, collection management, location and environment awareness of both public and staff as put forward by Karioja (2013). The discussion relate mainly to public libraries in Zimbabwe. Keywords: Sustainable development; public libraries; libraries; Zimbabwe

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An important role for librarians over the next five to ten years is to provide access to online library resources—free, open-access, or purchased, all valuable resources—in an intuitive, easy-to-use one-stop shop and not to be afraid of running a continual beta test in which new services and functions can be added when necessary. To fill this role, librarians and electronic resources managers need flexible, interoperable resource-discovery systems based on open-source software. In addition, we must continue to assess users’ needs and reach out by adapting our systems to fit their requirements, rather than expecting them to come to us; indeed, our very future depends on it. 1

Two decades after the advent of electronic journals and databases, librarians are still grappling with ways to best manage e-resources in conjunction with traditional print resources and at the same time explore new purchasing initiatives and practices, such as demand-driven acquisition of electronic books. In addition, these times of economic austerity are creating budgetary pressures at many institutions of higher education, resulting in librarians having to justify their spending on collections and resource management more than ever.

Techniques for Electronic Resource Management (TERMS) began in 2008 after a discussion about electronic resource management (ERM), current ERM tools, and what was lacking both in current practice and with the systems available. TERMS expands on Pesch’s electronic resources life cycle (see figure 1.1 ) and seeks to become a reference point for those who are new to ERM, those who have suddenly shifted job functions to oversee ERM, and those who may want to implement its recommendations of best practice.

TERMS Tumblr blog http://6terms.tumblr.com TERMS Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/174086169332439 6TERMS on Twitter https://twitter.com/6terms

• TERMS 1: Investigating New Content for purchase/addition, assigned to Ann Kucera (Baker College, Michigan)
• TERMS 2: Acquiring New Content, assigned to Nathan Hosburgh (Montana State University, Montana)
• TERMS 3: Implementation, assigned to Stephen Buck (Dublin City University, Ireland)
• TERMS 4: Ongoing Evaluation and Access, assigned to Anita Wilcox (University College Cork, Ireland)
• TERMS 5: Annual Review, assigned to Anna Franca (King’s College, London, United Kingdom)
• TERMS 6: Cancellation and Replacement Review, assigned to Eugenia Beh (Texas A&M University, Texas)

TERMS Wiki: Main Page http://library.hud.ac.uk/wikiterms/Main_Page

In 2012, TERMS was also endorsed by the Knowledge Base + project in the United Kingdom, which has a project deliverable of providing “workflow management tools related to the selection, review, renewal and cancellation of publications” 2 and has also received interest in the United States from GoKB from Kuali OLE (open library environment), “a community of nine research libraries working together to build the first open-source system designed by and for academic and research libraries for managing and delivering intellectual information.” 3

Electronic Resources and Libraries website www.electroniclibrarian.com

One of the first things to note when performing a literature review on ERM is that there are no independent literature reviews solely on this area. Instead, ERM has now become an integral part of standard literature reviews for acquisitions processing, collection development and management, cataloging and classification, and serials management. At the same time, there are areas of ERM that sit outside of these traditional functioning areas in libraries. This makes performing a literature review on ERM more of a challenge.

From the field of library acquisitions, the issues most readily identified in recent years have been the switch from print processing to ERM and the continued struggle to find management tools that work within the local library context. 6

“Simply put, collection management is the systemic, efficient and economic stewardship of library resources.” 7 The term collection development has been with us since the 1960s. 8 However, it is a constantly evolving area, and as the library collection moves from one dominated by print to one dominated by electronic resources, collection development policies may have been patched rather than redesigned to reflect the different emphasis on delivery. In a 2012 study, Mangrum and Pozzebon found that “over half of the libraries tried to address ER [electronic resources] in some way. However, most policies contain traditional language with a section on library ER inserted into the latter portion of the document.” 9

In regard to collection development and management trends, the two biggest growth areas are e-book purchasing and purchase-on-demand or patron-driven acquisition models. There has been an explosion in collection management literature on these two topics over the past three to four years. 10 A single place for best practices, or from which a local library can create its own localized best practices, is definitely needed: “Bleiler and Livingston stressed that a lack of established policies and procedures for assessment puts a library at risk for financial loss and recommended that libraries create selection policies and standardized methods for assessment, train staff for contract negotiation, and share strategies, policies, and best practices.” 11

In addition to changes to the format of delivery of library resources, libraries must also contend with the impact of today’s economic environment. Hazen suggests that libraries need to rethink their collection development in light of these issues and move from collection to collection and content, where content is “a category that encompasses everything to which a library enjoys ready physical or digital access regardless of ownership status [and] is central to all that we do.” 12

In 2001, Jewell reported on the selection, licensing, and support of online materials by research libraries and concluded that several libraries had developed local systems for acquiring, managing, and supporting electronic resources. 13 Jewell’s report was followed in 2004 by a report from the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Electronic Resource Management Initiative (ERMI), which “was organized to support the rapid development of such systems by producing a series of interrelated documents to define needs and to help establish data standards.” 14 The report went on to provide a road map for ERM.

On the back end, we continue to rely on methods developed when we had 250 rather than 25,000 eresources. Information on our electronic resources is currently kept in paper files (license agreements), Excel spreadsheets (vendor contact information and administrative passwords), staff web pages (usage statistics), small databases (trial and decision tracking, divisional library resources, technical problem reports), SFX (ejournal holdings), and our ILS (acquisitions and payment data). Few of these systems are connected to each other; in some cases, information is readily accessible only to one or a few individuals, not by intent, but by the limitations of the storage mechanism. Many procedures are not documented and rely on informal channels of communication. 15

More recently there have been a number of open-source and community ERM systems, such as CORAL 16 and CUFTS, developed by Simon Fraser University (SFU) and implemented by SFU and the University of Prince Edward Island, which view this “technology not necessarily as a way of spending less money, but spending money more wisely.” 17

Another growing area of ERM is the work being performed to develop a suite of standards to support the vast amount of access and management knowledge and myriad of tools needed to maintain adequate access to electronic resources. 18 According to Sarah Glasser, “KBART and IOTA are both working to decrease OpenURL link failures that are caused by metadata deficiencies.” In addition, “PIE-J differs from KBART and IOTA because it is not focused on link resolver errors. Formed by NISO in 2010, PIE-J addresses access barriers that arise from the manner in which electronic journals are presented on provider websites.” 19

There has been a lot of discussion about the implementation of ERM systems in recent years. 20 However, use of these systems is still far from ubiquitous, and many academic libraries have yet to implement or even purchase a system. “A risk of ERMS implementations, more talked about than written about … was that the costs (in added work) to maintain a new system would outweigh the value of the added functionality.” 21 Despite early expectations, Collins and Grogg see the current crop of ERM systems as “less like a silver bullet and more like a round of buckshot.” 22

One of the most time-consuming parts of an ERM implementation is analyzing licenses and inputting them into the relevant fields of an ERM system in order for them to be meaningful to librarians and patrons. The University of Northern Colorado has developed an in-house system to perform license mapping that “makes information that is often deeply embedded within a license readily available to library personnel who could use such information in the daily operations of the library. This information is useful to any library that maintains license agreements for electronic resources.” 23

A panel session at the 2010 NASIG conference concluded that the “ERM system at UC has not solved all their problems, but some improvements have been realized. Budget tracking and staffing continue to be challenges. A final determination of the effectiveness will not be evident until the system becomes a part of the general staff workflow and not considered as something extra.” 24

Collins and Grogg cited workflow management as number one in librarians’ top six ERM priorities. They found that “over a third of librarians surveyed prioritized workflow or communications management, and they called it one of the biggest deficiencies (and disappointments) of ERMS functionality.” 25 This area has also been highlighted by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), which has created a working group, ERM Data Standards and Best Practices Review, to undertake a gap analysis regarding ERM. 26

In the United Kingdom, the Managing Electronic Resource Issues (MERI) project at the University of Salford aimed “to produce a use case of ERM systems and a preliminary set of requirements for an electronic resource management system, for use by the University of Salford and other HE institutions and system suppliers.” 27 The requirements document from this project went on to inform the SCONUL shared ERM requirements project. An output of these projects was a set of workflows that describe the various processes involved in managing electronic resources. 28 The University of Huddersfield was one of the sixteen UK universities to take part, and like others, had never actually recorded these workflows until asked to do so by the project. All project members found that by recording workflows, they were able to take advantage of efficiencies discovered as part of documenting the process.

One of the objectives of the TERMS blog and wiki was to collect a number of e-resource workflows from a variety of different types of libraries. Both the University of Huddersfield and Portland State University shared their workflows as part of TERMS. The release of the six TERMS via the blog also encouraged other universities to share their workflows and discuss efficiencies; indeed, “rethinking e-resources workflows and developing practical tools to streamline and enhance various inelegant processes have become the priorities.” 29

Since the launch of the first draft of TERMS, the project has now attracted interest in various workflows from different libraries around the world, including the University of Cork, Duke University, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Texas A&M University.

A recent press release by Jisc in the United Kingdom suggested that international collaboration is needed to transform ERM in libraries—“Many of the concerns libraries have in the management of electronic resources are the same across the world”—and that projects such as GoKB and the Knowledge Base + service in the United Kingdom “are exploring community-based solutions.” 30

TERMS Wiki Investigating New Content for Purchase/Addition http://library.hud.ac.uk/wikiterms/Investigating_New_Content_for_purchase/addition Acquiring New Content http://library.hud.ac.uk/wikiterms/Acquiring_New_Content Implementation http://library.hud.ac.uk/wikiterms/Implementation Ongoing Evaluation and Access http://library.hud.ac.uk/wikiterms/Ongoing_Evaluation_and_Access Annual Review http://library.hud.ac.uk/wikiterms/Annual_Review Cancellation and Replacement Review http://library.hud.ac.uk/wikiterms/Cancellation_and_Replacement_Review

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Literature Reviews

• What is a literature review?
• Steps in the Literature Review Process
• Define your research question
• Determine inclusion and exclusion criteria
• Choose databases and search
• Review Results
• Synthesize Results
• Analyze Results
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What is a Literature Review?

A literature or narrative review is a comprehensive review and analysis of the published literature on a specific topic or research question. The literature that is reviewed contains: books, articles, academic articles, conference proceedings, association papers, and dissertations. It contains the most pertinent studies and points to important past and current research and practices. It provides background and context, and shows how your research will contribute to the field. 

A literature review should: 

• Provide a comprehensive and updated review of the literature;
• Explain why this review has taken place;
• Articulate a position or hypothesis;
• Acknowledge and account for conflicting and corroborating points of view

From  S age Research Methods

Purpose of a Literature Review

A literature review can be written as an introduction to a study to:

• Demonstrate how a study fills a gap in research
• Compare a study with other research that's been done

Or it can be a separate work (a research article on its own) which:

• Organizes or describes a topic
• Describes variables within a particular issue/problem

Limitations of a Literature Review

Some of the limitations of a literature review are:

• It's a snapshot in time. Unlike other reviews, this one has beginning, a middle and an end. There may be future developments that could make your work less relevant.
• It may be too focused. Some niche studies may miss the bigger picture.
• It can be difficult to be comprehensive. There is no way to make sure all the literature on a topic was considered.
• It is easy to be biased if you stick to top tier journals. There may be other places where people are publishing exemplary research. Look to open access publications and conferences to reflect a more inclusive collection. Also, make sure to include opposing views (and not just supporting evidence).

Source: Grant, Maria J., and Andrew Booth. “A Typology of Reviews: An Analysis of 14 Review Types and Associated Methodologies.” Health Information & Libraries Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, June 2009, pp. 91–108. Wiley Online Library, doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x.

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Carolyn Cunningham : Human Development & Family Sciences, Psychology, Sociology

Larayne Dallas : Engineering

Janelle Hedstrom : Special Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Ed Leadership & Policy ​

Susan Macicak : Linguistics

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For help in other subject areas, please see the guide to library specialists by subject .

Periodically, UT Libraries runs a workshop covering the basics and library support for literature reviews. While we try to offer these once per academic year, we find providing the recording to be helpful to community members who have missed the session. Following is the most recent recording of the workshop, Conducting a Literature Review. To view the recording, a UT login is required.

• October 26, 2022 recording
• Last Updated: Oct 26, 2022 2:49 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/literaturereviews

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Please help your librarians by filling out this two-minute survey of today's class session..

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Introduction

Literature reviews take time. here is some general information to know before you start.  .

•  VIDEO -- This video is a great overview of the entire process.  (2020; North Carolina State University Libraries) --The transcript is included --This is for everyone; ignore the mention of "graduate students" --9.5 minutes, and every second is important  
• OVERVIEW -- Read this page from Purdue's OWL. It's not long, and gives some tips to fill in what you just learned from the video.  
• NOT A RESEARCH ARTICLE -- A literature review follows a different style, format, and structure from a research article.  

Steps to Completing a Literature Review

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Literature Reviews for Public Affairs and Policy: Home

• What is a Literature Review?
• Annotated Bibliographies
• Getting Started
• Finding Sources in Databases
• Books and Reports
• Grey Literature
• Following Citations
• Finding other Literature Reviews
• Finding Dissertations and Theses

Literature Reviews for Public Affairs and Policy

While the PSU Library already has an excellent general guide on conducting literature reviews,  this page was created to specifically highlight resources of interest to students in the Public Affairs and Policy program. The guide is organized as a step-by-step tutorial to reflect that the literature review is a systematic process, if not always linear; as the literature review grows and new themes emerge, it may become necessary  to circle back to early steps. The guide covers:

• Getting Started: Framing your topic or question into search terms that work in databases.
• Using databases to find research articles, reports, and grey literature.
• Finding published literature reviews in journals, special publications, and dissertations.
• Using bibliographies and citations to find additional materials.
• Using citation management software to help organize your resources.

The guide also begins with an brief discussion of Literature Reviews and Annotated Bibliographies, discussing the purpose and key functions of each.

Purpose of a Literature Review

As state in your PAP 614 syllabus, you'll need at least 20 scholarly references, and the literature review surrounding these sources should achieve three goals:

• Provide an introduction to the topic.
• Critically review the existing literature through synthesis and evaluation.
• Summarize the state of the field, identifying trends, themes, and gaps within the body of work.

Ask a Librarian

Other useful resources.

• PSU Library Guide: Research for Thesis & Dissertation Literature Reviews (Not subject specific) Prepared by Prof. Kimberly Pendell, this is a detailed guide to assist students working on dissertations across every discipline
• University of Toronto, "LITERATURE REVIEW: A FEW TIPS"ON CONDUCTING IT Prepared by Dena Taylor, Health Sciences Writing Centre, and Margaret Procter, Writing Support. www.advice.writing.utoronto.ca
• Next: What is a Literature Review? >>
• Last Updated: Nov 13, 2023 2:12 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.pdx.edu/PAPLiteratureReviews

College & Research Libraries News  ( C&RL News ) is the official newsmagazine and publication of record of the Association of College & Research Libraries,  providing articles on the latest trends and practices affecting academic and research libraries.

C&RL News  became an online-only publication beginning with the January 2022 issue.

Members of the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee: Brian D. Quigley (chair) is head of the sciences division at the University of California, Berkeley Library, email: [email protected] . Thomas R. Caswell (vice-chair) is associate dean for academic engagement at the University of Central Florida Libraries, email: [email protected] . Jennie M. Burroughs is senior program advisor and researcher at the University of Minnesota Libraries, email: [email protected] . Laura Costello is director of access and information services at the University of Minnesota Libraries, email: [email protected] . cristalan ‘tal’ ness is linguistics librarian and social sciences resident librarian at the University of Michigan, email: [email protected] . Kristin Van Diest is digital publishing librarian at Texas State University, email: [email protected] . Minglu Wang is research data management librarian at York University, email: [email protected] . Anna Yang is science librarian at Santa Clara University, email: [email protected] .

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2024 Top Trends in Academic Libraries

A Review of the Trends and Issues

T his article explores the topics and issues that have been trending in academic libraries over the past two years. It draws on research and initiatives from librarians across the profession, highlighting the constant change libraries face. The launch of ChatGPT sparked discussions about the potential impact of artificial intelligence, open access and open science initiatives continued to gain momentum, and the lingering effects of COVID-19 on library workspaces and student well-being remained significant. Rich citations to the literature provide opportunities for further exploration.

AI and AI Literacy

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a trend in academic libraries for several years, but the release of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools has sparked renewed interest in the topic. This could have profound implications for academic libraries in the future. As Andrew M. Cox and Suvodeep Mazumdar note, “There is immense potential for it to increase access to knowledge in fundamental ways, for example through improved search and recommendation, through description of digital materials at scale, through transcription, and through automated translation.” 1 AI also raises a host of ethical and legal issues, ranging from concerns about bias, privacy, non-representative training data, and misinformation to issues around copyright, plagiarism, and exploitation. 2

Due to their ease of use, generative AI tools like ChatGPT have become extremely popular. These tools leverage large language models (LLMs) trained on massive datasets of text or images. LLMs use neural networks and natural language processing to analyze input prompts and generate responses based on the statistical patterns learned from the training data. Beyond ChatGPT, AI is also being incorporated into literature searching, summarization, and programming tools such as Elicit, Semantic Scholar, scite, and Copilot for GitHub. 3 With the growing popularity of these tools among students, faculty are increasingly turning to librarians to help cultivate AI literacy, discussing AI and its impact on literature searching and citations with their classes. 4

Duri Long and Brian Magerko define AI literacy “as a set of competencies that enables individuals to critically evaluate AI technologies; communicate and collaborate effectively with AI; and use AI as a tool online, at home, and in the workplace.” 5 Leo S. Lo outlines a framework to assist librarians and students in developing more effective prompts for generative AI, a process called prompt engineering. As he states, using his framework, “librarians can help students develop critical thinking skills, improve their comprehension of AI-generated content, and optimize AI-based research processes.” 6 It is also important to raise awareness among students of the potential problems associated with AI including accuracy, hallucinations, bias, ethical issues, and environmental impact. Some institutions have begun developing workshop series to discuss and facilitate conversations with students about these issues, 7 and the University of Florida has started an AI Across the Curriculum initiative to introduce all undergraduate students to AI and better prepare them for the future workforce. 8

Academic libraries have also been pursuing possible roles for AI within the library itself. This has included setting up AI research spaces, exploring robotics, investigating ethical issues and implicit bias in machine learning, and experimenting with using AI to classify images, refine metadata, and improve discovery. 9 Many also see a broader role for libraries within the AI landscape. Fiona Bradley calls for libraries to be involved in AI discussions at the national level and notes that “the sector is already participating in consultations and processes to ensure that the future of AI is rights-based, ethical, and transparent.” 10

Open Pedagogy and Instructional Design

Although open educational resource (OER) initiatives are not new, libraries have recently begun expanding their impact by investigating the potential to enrich student learning through open pedagogy. In their timely book, Mary Ann Cullen and Elizabeth Dill explore the foundation, approaches, and implementation of open pedagogy as a strategy for information literacy in higher education. 11 Open pedagogy requires students to be actively involved in the design, creation, and curation of OER learning materials through renewable assignments. These assignments invite students to contribute to the production and dissemination of knowledge, pushing them past more traditional library projects. Wikipedia assignments are among the most popular forms of renewable assignments, encouraging students to find, evaluate, and improve upon the information on its pages. 12 Other examples of renewable assignments include creating research toolkits, online courses, ebooks, and living websites. 13 Each of these renewable assignments allows students to see themselves as active creators of information rather than passive consumers.

According to Eric Werth and Katherine Williams, to increase student motivation, “OER-enabled pedagogy must be structured in a way that allows autonomy, competence, and relatedness.” 14 Aligning OER projects with practical and real-world knowledge can positively impact student engagement. 15 At the heart of this engagement is inclusive practice. By creating a supportive environment where all students have access to the same materials, instructors foster inclusivity in their courses. 16 Instructors can also motivate students to see the value of open pedagogy by helping them find their own interests and passion within these assignments, 17 showing students that they have control over their content, 18 and demonstrating that their work can have a global impact. 19

Concerns have been raised about the high workload and long-term sustainability of open pedagogy. Kate McNally Carter and Ariana Santiago find that “workload was often minimized or entirely overlooked as a factor in many studies in favor of highlighting student success outcomes” and advise working toward sustainability by creating adaptable renewable assignments that can fit into many contexts and subject areas. 20 Bryan McGeary, Christopher Guder, and Ashwini Ganeshan further suggest that broad groups of staff should contribute to this important work for OER-enabled pedagogy to be sustainable. 21

Open Science and Reproducibility

As early advocates for open access and research data management, libraries are now assessing their potential roles in the burgeoning open science movement, which increasingly emphasizes equity, collaboration, reproducibility, security, and privacy in supporting the whole research ecosystem. 22 Much of this recent interest in open science has been spurred by the federal government, with US agencies collaborating on the Year of Open Science campaign, and NASA launching its Transform to Open Science (TOPS) initiative and Open Science 101 virtual training. 23 At the institutional level, many universities and libraries have joined the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship (HELIOS Open), which aims to collaborate on “a more transparent, inclusive, and trustworthy research ecosystem” through presidential commitment, campus engagement, and communities of practice. 24

As open scholarship gains momentum, libraries face growing calls to expand their roles beyond technical support. Authors from UNESCO emphasize the need for libraries to be “a bridge between local contexts and the global scholarly community,” 25 while LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) identifies “advancing open science” as a core component of its strategy, aiming for libraries to “stimulate, facilitate, co-develop and manage infrastructures and practices designed to take Open Science to the next level.” 26 Reflecting these calls, a recent book from ACRL positions open science as “an emerging synthesis of the various streams of open.” 27 It recommends changes to incentive structures and urges consolidation of siloed services to create an open infrastructure aligned with open research values and available equally to all researchers. By promoting open practices and facilitating infrastructure development, libraries can solidify their place as leaders in the evolving open scholarship landscape.

As advocates for open science, libraries also contribute to one of its key outcomes: reproducibility. 28 This new area of service requires librarians to become deeply integrated in research communities, understanding researchers’ needs and tools while simultaneously leveraging their unique position as institutional hubs to connect stakeholders and research services partners. 29 Thanks to stricter National Institutes of Health demands for research rigor and reproducibility, health science librarians have emerged as key players in educating researchers on these topics. Their success stories showcase libraries’ potential to deliver valuable instruction in this crucial area, while also underlining the critical need for collaborative partnerships to further enhance research reproducibility services. 30

Open Access and Equitable Publishing

In the wake of recent calls for more open research publication practices, researchers have been exploring the impact of article processing charges, transformative agreements, open access models, and new policy development on equity and access in publishing practices.

Findings show that faculty perceptions of open access publishing have remained virtually the same over the past twenty years, citing commonplace challenges that have yet to be resolved: uncertainty around the prestige of open access journals, confusion around types of open access, and lack of clarity and acceptance of open access in the promotion and tenure process. 31 On the other hand, students increasingly rely on open access articles in their assignments. A study of community college students found that 56.8% of their citations were open access articles, with one key benefit being that they “will still have access to open access search tools after they are no longer in college.” 32

Within that context, many researchers feel that the open access movement has been co-opted by commercial publishers and are advocating for a return to scholar-led publishing communities. Discussing the global limitations of corporate publishing, several authors urge libraries and consortia to support their research communities by avoiding bundled publishing service agreements, contributing to scholar-led initiatives, and redistributing funds to support the Global South. 33 In addition, there is growing understanding that open access does not necessarily mean universal accessibility. Multiple authors have shed light on the inequities within open access publishing, including design practices and publishing cost structures that are exclusionary; researchers recommend libraries focus on integrating accessibility practices into design 34 and support bibliodiversity to emphasize “the critical diversity of authors and scholarly works representing cultures, languages, genres and all kinds of scholarly and scientific endeavours.” 35

A series of new tools and proposals have recently been released to guide libraries and scholars as they work to support a values-driven publishing ecosystem. These guidelines call for systems that enable scholars to choose when their research is made public and decenter the journal article as the sole object of importance in the research lifecycle, 36 encourage libraries to align their publishing infrastructure and practices with key values and ethical frameworks, 37 and propose helping “new and established open access journals in navigating the rapidly changing landscape of open access publishing.” 38

Disrupting and Reconceiving Collection Practices

While there had been actions and initiatives relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in libraries before 2020, much of that effort consisted of broad advocacy and raising awareness. 39 Libraries are increasingly recognizing that making good on public statements will require firm resource commitments, disruption of existing systems, and sustained action in multiple arenas. 40 This work requires deep reflection and disruption: deconstructing systems for collecting and describing materials, deconstructing myths of librarian authority, and deconstructing student assumptions about information.

In recent years, libraries have begun putting more attention and action into re-evaluating library collections and collection management practices. Auditing collections through a social justice lens or to address colonialist and Euro-centric practices involves re-examining values, defining what “diversity” means in the context of collections, and setting tangible markers for progress. 41 In setting these parameters, it’s important to “embrace imperfection,” 42 which might include defining a more targeted goal or an initial starting point. 43 In each case, these efforts are leading to a re-examination of acquisition practices and systems, including approval plans and demand-driven acquisition programs, which may “amplify biases already present in the higher education and publishing industries.” 44

In addition to reallocating collection funds, libraries acting to make their collections more diverse and inclusive are reconsidering personnel commitments and involving more people in collection activities. Reversing earlier trends, some libraries are increasing staff time on collection development and cataloging, and they are partnering with underrepresented communities to select and describe materials. 45 This involves multiple points of outreach and consultation over the course of a project, and it requires libraries to embrace the complexities that their partners share about working with multiple communities. 46 Regardless of approach, libraries will need to consider how to sustain these improvements in collection building and management practices throughout changes in budgets, leadership, and staffing levels. 47

Politicization of Academic Libraries

The landscape of academic libraries continues to be significantly impacted and shaped by a highly political and polarizing climate. As academic libraries navigate this landscape, it becomes crucial for them to strike a balance between neutrality and civic engagement, acknowledging the inherent political dimensions of their collections, programs, and spaces. They must continue to maintain an active role in the enactment of democracy, despite ongoing and future threats.

Renowned scholar John Buschmann contends in several scholarly publications that libraries historically play an important role in the democratic fabric of society and navigate crises while persisting through terrorist acts, 48 politically charged environments, 49 and pandemics. 50 Even during extreme geopolitical crises like wars and international sanctions, libraries are implicated as active participants in affecting and responding to the complex sociopolitical environment they inhabit. 51 In trying to counter fake news rhetoric, libraries can unintentionally be drawn into political processes by simply providing research services and fighting misinformation and disinformation. 52 In one study, several land-grant university library websites were analyzed and found to indeed be “serving as significant providers of political information during politically turbulent times.” 53

Although censorship of library collections using “book bans” has primarily affected public libraries, academic libraries now find they too are being drawn into this heated dialogue, especially surrounding social justice, DEI, and antiracism initiatives. Zoë Abbie Teel contends that anti-DEI legislation may extend its impact to potentially influence library policies and acquisitions, including “the availability of certain materials’’ that may be seen as promoting DEI. 54 The question of whether libraries can remain “neutral” in the face of social injustice has created debate among library practitioners. 55 Steve Rosato discusses the role of academic librarians and publishers as “vanguards” of critical DEI content, 56 and Annis Lee Adams presents an array of antiracism resources to support library staff, emphasizing the active role libraries play in addressing racial issues. 57 Libraries can also amplify their antiracism resources by partnering with other campus stakeholders. 58 Two articles highlight the need for libraries to actively support inclusivity, with Qing H. Stellwagen and Steven Bingo emphasizing cultural celebrations as a means of creating a sense of community on campus 59 and Silvia Vong discussing the impact of racial capitalism on academic librarians and libraries, specifically focusing on issues of representation and equity within library staff. 60

Anti-DEI Legislation, Academic Freedom, and Unionization

In recent years, academic librarians and library staff have experienced the growing challenge of low morale and burnout. 61 Compounding this for many staff, a recent wave of anti-DEI legislation has been introduced and passed in many states. These laws impose restrictions on DEI offices, staff training, diversity statements, and “identity-based preferences for hiring and admissions,” with one state’s legislation compelling public colleges to designate “agents” to oversee “prohibitions on DEI spending.” 62 Some states have also severed ties with the American Library Association (ALA) 63 amid allegations that the association is constrained by its perspectives on gender ideology and a left-leaning bias. 64

The contentious atmosphere surrounding library associations and the uptick in book challenges, particularly against titles by or about LGBTQIA+ people and people of color or relating to DEI content, 65 have implications for academic libraries and academic freedom in particular. The Association of American University Professors emphasizes the significance of “academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance” in providing a foundation for faculty members. 66 Tenure is seen as a crucial safeguard against the censorship and book banning observed in school libraries, ensuring impartiality and protecting academic libraries. 67

Unions may also play a role in protecting academic freedom. Higher education has witnessed an increase in union activities, strikes, and labor activism recently. 68 The pandemic has played a role in sparking these efforts, with one author suggesting it “exacerbated existing issues and brought up new ones,” 69 and 2023–24 ALA President Emily Drabinski has recognized the role of unions in protecting library workers from extremist groups, censorship, and unsafe conditions. 70 Library unions provide guarantees for fair wages, 71 improved working conditions, 72 the preservation of academic freedom, 73 and protection against unilateral decision-making, such as institutional reorganization and reimagining library workers’ research and roles. 74 The recent increase in union activities reflects a growing recognition of the power of collective bargaining to address the multifaceted challenges facing academic libraries in the current sociopolitical climate.

Post-pandemic Workplace and Hybrid Work Environments

The pandemic triggered widespread soul-searching, leading librarians to re-evaluate their priorities and seek workplaces aligned with their values. Not immune from “The Great Reshuffle,” many library staff have considered leaving their positions due to pandemic stress and lack of intrinsic motivators like work-life balance and growth. In a recent survey of academic librarians, nearly half said they were thinking of leaving their job “about half the time or more.” 75 When they remain, they want to have a role in defining the future. In one study, librarians “repeatedly emphasized the need for working conditions going forward to be governed through collegiality and conversation, rather than defaulting to the pre-pandemic organizational norms.” 76 Andrea Falcone and Lyda Fontes McCartin suggest that libraries must adapt to this shift by prioritizing talent retention through improved compensation, workload management, and flexible work options. 77 At the same time, perceived inequities within libraries and universities can fuel dissatisfaction and burnout. 78 Academic librarians may also risk burnout due to the emotional labor inherent in their work: “Meeting the societal and user expectations of being a librarian requires simultaneously regulating or performing one’s own emotions and interpreting, managing, and responding to the emotions of users.” 79 Effective prevention requires emotional literacy and supportive leadership that acknowledges the emotional toll and promotes decompression strategies, especially for librarians of color who often bear the brunt of this burden. 80

In this new workplace environment, many libraries are embracing flexible work arrangements as one strategy for addressing dissatisfaction and burnout. “Many workers now perceive pre-pandemic work modalities and workplace expectations as unnecessary, unrealistic, and undesirable, and employers have taken notice of the shift in employee attitudes.” 81 In fact, recent surveys have shown that three-quarters of academic libraries now offer hybrid work environments with flexible work arrangements. These same studies note that remote work offers benefits like greater productivity and reduced stress while onsite work fosters better onboarding, engagement, and team building. As a result, even when flexible work arrangements are available, usage by staff varies widely, suggesting a diverse workforce with a range of preferences. 82 To foster trust, knowledge, empathy, and community in such a hybrid environment, institutions must acknowledge its complexities and invest in intentional efforts to rebuild a strong academic workplace culture. 83 This new hybrid environment may also require redesigning staff spaces and setting new priorities for onsite work. The physical office is predicted to transform into a space for building social connections, fostering learning, and sparking innovation, which will necessitate intentional leadership that prioritizes face-to-face interaction and facilitates collaboration within a redesigned office environment. 84

Makerspaces and Tech Spaces

Designed for innovative and creative experimentation, makerspaces are defined as “low- and high-tech communal learning environments where people can create, build, and invent with digital and fabrication tools.” 85 While makerspaces started mostly in engineering departments, libraries quickly adopted the idea to become leaders in innovation through technology. In fact, the library is now the most common place for a makerspace to live on an academic campus. 86 Makerspaces found in academic libraries tend to “focus on digital fabrication, using computerized software-driven equipment,” with 3D printers and laser cutters being “the most commonly described equipment in Makerspaces in the research literature.” 87

As libraries continue to assess their user needs, support for these spaces is increasingly important. However, maintaining a thriving makerspace does not come without challenges, which include proper staffing and financial support for costly technology. 88 Despite these challenges, librarians are collaborating more through their makerspaces to amplify student engagement in the library. While not every endeavor has been successful, initiatives like the 3D Selfie Booth 89 and Game Jam 90 showcase library staff’s creativity and highlight positive interactions with makerspace technology, leading authors to express interest in deeper collaboration.

By analyzing student learning styles against major typologies of learning, the effectiveness of the makerspace on student engagement becomes clear. Students using these spaces learn through creation and interaction—with a community, experts, and a real-world environment. In makerspaces, “students are engaging in both content and culture knowledge and skills along with communication, management, ingenuity, and self-awareness.” 91 Students who visit makerspaces on a regular basis are more inclined to continue their use over time, indicating that ongoing engagement is crucial for students to perceive the usefulness of the space. 92

Makerspaces enable students to build self-efficacy, explore their entrepreneurial spirit, 93 and learn skills that will last them long past their academic career. Evolving alongside patron needs, academic libraries are integrating makerspaces into their future vision, offering access to new technologies, collaborative opportunities, and platforms for exploring personal interests. 94

Supporting Student Well-being Post-pandemic

The changes to learning environments and increased social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic had a mental health impact on current and incoming college students including increased rates of depression and anxiety. 95 Academic libraries are adopting new strategies to address student mental health and well-being that go beyond scholarship to support for the whole student. 96 The “whole-university” approach is in use in some institutions with libraries serving as a vital part of an interconnected team of university offices working together to support student mental health. 97 These efforts align with trends focused on offering more personalized, socially centered service in libraries, 98 and they also relate to initiatives to support the evolving usage of library space. Students value the library as a social space and visit libraries as a way to overcome social isolation and find community. 99 For example, students in a recent focus group study noted using physical library spaces to socialize and de-stress 100 while librarians at Virginia Commonwealth University created a guide with audio and visual resources to help students re-create the library mood from home during the pandemic. 101 As another way to prioritize student wellness, libraries are adding leisure reading collections to support mindfulness, 102 and they are weaving mindfulness practices into information literacy instruction. 103 Academic librarians have also been looking inward, acknowledging the emotional work involved in supporting students and managing change through the pandemic. 104

The future holds many hurdles for academic librarians, such as the possible impacts of AI on higher education and the uncertainty of recurring operating and materials budgets. We are simultaneously thrilled by the new possibilities for hybrid teamwork and workspaces, the growing demand for diverse viewpoints, and the integration of innovative methods to provide access to our common resources. These challenges will require new policies and practices, but they will also enable us to innovate, adapt, and respond to complex and evolving phenomena in our common pursuit of supporting student achievement and enhancing teaching, learning, and academic research.

• Andrew M. Cox and Suvodeep Mazumdar, “Defining Artificial Intelligence for Librarians,” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science , published ahead of print (December 22, 2022), https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006221142029 , p. 2.
• Fiona Bradley, “Representation of Libraries in Artificial Intelligence Regulations and Implications for Ethics and Practice,” Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association 71, no. 3 (July 3, 2022): 189–200, https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2022.2101911 ; Mohammad Hosseini and Kristi Holmes, “The Evolution of Library Workplaces and Workflows via Generative AI,” College & Research Libraries 84, no. 6 (November 1, 2023): 836–42, https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.84.6.836 ; Aileen B. Houston and Edward M. Corrado, “Embracing ChatGPT: Implications of Emergent Language Models for Academia and Libraries,” Technical Services Quarterly 40, no. 2 (April 3, 2023): 76–91, https://doi.org/10.1080/07317131.2023.2187110 .
• Matthew Hutson, “Could AI Help You to Write Your Next Paper?,” Nature 611, no. 7934 (October 31, 2022): 192–93, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03479-w .
• Lauren Coffey, “AI, the Next Chapter for College Librarians,” Inside Higher Ed , November 3, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/libraries/2023/11/03/ai-marks-next-chapter-college-librarians .
• Duri Long and Brian Magerko, “What Is AI Literacy? Competencies and Design Considerations,” in Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘20: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu HI USA: ACM, 2020), 1–16, https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376727 , p. 2.
• Leo S. Lo, “The CLEAR Path: A Framework for Enhancing Information Literacy through Prompt Engineering,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 49, no. 4 (July 2023): 102720, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720 , p. 3.
• Amanda Wheatley and Sandy Hervieux, “Separating Artificial Intelligence from Science Fiction: Creating an Academic Library Workshop Series on AI Literacy,” in The Rise of AI: Implications and Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Academic Libraries , ACRL Publications in Librarianship 78 (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 2022), 61–70.
• Jane Southworth, Kati Migliaccio, Joe Glover, Ja’Net Glover, David Reed, Christopher McCarty, Joel Brendemuhl, Aaron Thomas, “Developing a Model for AI Across the Curriculum: Transforming the Higher Education Landscape via Innovation in AI Literacy,” Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence 4 (2023): 100127, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100127 .
• Sandy Hervieux and Amanda Wheatley, eds., The Rise of AI: Implications and Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Academic Libraries , ACRL Publications in Librarianship 78 (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 2022).
• Bradley, “Representation of Libraries in Artificial Intelligence,” 196.
• Mary Ann Cullen and Elizabeth Dill, eds., Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 2022).
• Yolanda Bergstrom-Lynch, Mary Mahoney, and Joelle Thomas, “Empowering Students as OER Creators to Challenge Information Privilege,” in Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy , ed. Mary Ann Cullen and Elizabeth Dill (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 2022), 237–64; Jolie A. L. Gareis, Erin I. Larson, Marcelo Ardón, John A. Berges, Jessica E. Brandt, Kaitlyn M. Busch, Victoria L. S. Chraibi, Elizabeth N. Gallagher, Kelly L. Hondula, Dustin W. Kincaid et al., “Using Wikipedia Assignments to Teach Critical Thinking and Scientific Writing in STEM Courses,” Frontiers in Education 7 (2022), https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.905777 ; Diana E. Park and Laurie M. Bridges, “Meet Students Where They Are: Centering Wikipedia in the Classroom,” Communications in Information Literacy 16, no. 1 (March 2022): 4–23, https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2022.16.1.2 ; Paul Anthony Thomas, Matthew Jones, and Spencer Mattingly, “Using Wikipedia to Teach Scholarly Peer Review: A Creative Approach to Open Pedagogy,” Journal of Information Literacy 15, no. 2 (August 6, 2021), https://doi.org/10.11645/15.2.2913 .
• Teresa Schultz and Elena S. Azadbakht, “Exploring Open Pedagogy in a Librarian-Taught Honors Course,” Communications in Information Literacy 17, no. 1 (June 1, 2023): 221–37, https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2023.17.1.2 ; Torrey Trust, Robert W Maloy, and Sharon Edwards, “College Student Engagement in OER Design Projects: Impacts on Attitudes, Motivation, and Learning,” Active Learning in Higher Education 24, no. 3 (November 1, 2023): 353–71, https://doi.org/10.1177/14697874221081454 ; Peter Daniel Wallis, Jennifer Mae White, and Stephen T. Kerr, “High Structure Renewable Assignments: A Design Study,” Open Praxis 14, no. 1 (January 2022): 39–53, https://doi.org/10.55982/openpraxis.14.1.146 ; Lindsey Gumb, “OER-Enabled Pedagogy Meets Info Lit: Empowering the Next Generation of Open Scholars,” in Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy , ed. Mary Ann Cullen and Elizabeth Dill (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 2022), 49–68.
• Eric Werth and Katherine Williams, “What Motivates Students about Open Pedagogy? Motivational Regulation through the Lens of Self-Determination Theory,” International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 22, no. 3 (August 1, 2021): 34–54, https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v22i3.5373 , p. 48.
• Vanessa Arce and Rena D Grossman, “Students Speak: Animating Stories about the Value of Information,” in Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy , ed. Mary Ann Cullen and Elizabeth Dill (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 2022), 199–211; Trust, Maloy, and Edwards, “College Student Engagement in OER Design Projects.”
• Lauren Hays and Melissa N. Mallon, “Using OER to Promote Inclusion in Higher Education Institutions,” Currents in Teaching & Learning 12, no. 2 (January 2021): 20–33; Wallis, White, and Kerr, “High Structure Renewable Assignments.”
• Eric Werth and Katherine Williams, “Learning to Be Open: Instructor Growth through Open Pedagogy,” Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning 38, no. 4 (October 2, 2023): 301–14, https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2021.1970520 .
• Erika Bailey and Marisa Petrich, “Grounded in Agency: Privacy Literacy for Student Empowerment,” Alki: The Washington Library Association Journal 38, no. 3 (2022): 31–37.
• Trust, Maloy, and Edwards, “College Student Engagement in OER Design Projects.”
• Kate McNally Carter and Ariana Santiago, “Exploring Sustainability in Library Support for Open Pedagogy Collaborations,” Communications in Information Literacy 17, no. 1 (June 1, 2023): 238–59, https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2023.17.1.3 , p.241.
• Bryan McGeary, Christopher Guder, and Ashwini Ganeshan, “Opening up Educational Practices through Faculty, Librarian, and Student Collaboration in OER Creation: Moving from Labour-Intensive to Supervisory Involvement,” Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library & Information Practice & Research 16, no. 1 (January 2021): 1–27, https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v16i1.6149 .
• “Open Science Announcements from Federal Agencies,” Science.gov , 2023, https://open.science.gov/ .
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• “Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship,” HELIOS Open, 2024, https://www.heliosopen.org .
• Ana Peršić and Tiffany Straza, “Open Science for All: Implementing the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science for an Equitable and Just Transition to Open Science,” College & Research Libraries News 84, no. 10 (November 2, 2023), https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.84.10.377 , p. 381.
• “Strategy 2023–2027,” LIBER Europe, 2023, https://libereurope.eu/strategy/ .
• Maria Bonn, Josh Bolick, and Will Cross, eds., Scholarly Communication Librarianship and Open Knowledge (Chicago: Association of College & Research Libraries, 2023), p. 82.
• Joshua Quan, “Toward Reproducibility: Academic Libraries and Open Science,” in Data Science in the Library: Tools and Strategies for Supporting Data-Driven Research and Instruction , ed. Joel Herndon (London: Facet, 2022), 57–68.
• Birgit Schmidt et al., “Emerging Roles and Responsibilities of Libraries in Support of Reproducible Research,” LIBER Quarterly: The Journal of the Association of European Research Libraries 33, no. 1 (2023): 1–21, https://doi.org/10.53377/lq.14947 .
• Fred Willie Zametkin LaPolla et al., “Rigor and Reproducibility Instruction in Academic Medical Libraries,” Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA 110, no. 3 (2022): 281–93, https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2022.1443 ; Mark MacEachern and Sara Samuel, “Research Reproducibility Activities in Health Sciences Libraries,” Journal of eScience Librarianship 12, no. 2 (August 10, 2023): e650, https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.650 .
• Elisabeth Shook and Amy Vecchione, “Faculty Perceptions of Open Access Publishing: Investigating Faculty Publishing Habits to Evaluate Library Collection Alignment,” Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 10, no. 1 (December 16, 2022), https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.13216 .
• Tim Dolan and Duncan Claflin, “Assessing the Value of Subscription Journal Packages and Open Access Journal Articles in a Community College Context,” Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 11, no. 1 (July 28, 2023), https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.15673 .
• Björn Brembs et al., “Replacing Academic Journals,” Royal Society Open Science 10 (July 19, 2023): 230206, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230206 ; Emily Cox, “Research Outputs as Testimony & the APC as Testimonial Injustice in the Global South,” College & Research Libraries 84, no. 4 (2023), https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.84.4.513 ; Katherine Elizabeth Skinner, Catherine Mitchell, and Kristen Ratan, “‘Bundle of Sticks’ and the Value of Interdependence: Building a Tools and Services Collective,” The Journal of Electronic Publishing 25, no. 1 (April 26, 2022), https://doi.org/10.3998/jep.1994 .
• Matthew Weirick Johnson and Salma Abumeeiz, “The Limits of Inclusion in Open Access: Accessible Access, Universal Design, and Open Educational Resources,” Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 11, no. 1 (August 8, 2023), https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.14399 .
• Lai Ma, Jane Buggle, and Marie O’Neill, “Open Access at a Crossroads: Library Publishing and Bibliodiversity,” Insights the UKSG Journal 36 (May 9, 2023): 10, 1–8, https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.613 , p. 1.
• Bodo Stern, Zoé Ancion, Andreas Björke, Ashley Farley, Marte Qvenild, Katharina Rieck, Joroen Sondervan, Johan Rooryck, Robert Kiley, Maria Karatzia, and Nora Papp., “Towards Responsible Publishing: Seeking Input from the Research Community to a Draft Proposal from cOAlition S,” Zenodo, October 31, 2023, https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.8398480 .
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Using a Proposed Library Guide Assessment Standards Rubric and a Peer Review Process to Pedagogically Improve Library Guides: A Case Study

Library guides can help librarians provide information to their patrons regarding their library resources, services, and tools. Despite their perceived usefulness, there is little discussion in designing library guides pedagogically by following a set of assessment standards for a quality-checked review. Instructional designers regularly use vetted assessment standards and a peer review process for building high-quality courses, yet librarians typically do not when designing library guides. This article explores using a set of standards remixed from SUNY’s Online Course Quality Review Rubric or OSCQR and a peer review process. The authors used a case study approach to test the effectiveness of building library guides with the proposed standards by tasking college students to assess two Fake News guides (one revised to meet the proposed standards). Results indicated most students preferred the revised library guide to the original guide for personal use. The majority valued the revised guide for integrating into a learning management system and perceived it to be more beneficial for professors to teach from. Future studies should replicate this study and include additional perspectives from faculty and how they perceive the pedagogical values of a library guide designed following the proposed rubric.

Image: “Helpful”. Digital image created with Midjourney AI. By Trina McCowan CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Introduction

Library guides or LibGuides are a proprietary publishing tool for libraries and museums created by the company Springshare; librarians can use LibGuides to publish on a variety of topics centered around research (Dotson, 2021; Springshare, n. d.). For consistency, the authors will use the term library guides moving forward. Librarians can use Springshare’s tool to publish web pages to educate users on library subjects, topics, procedures, or processes (Coombs, 2015). Additionally, librarians can work with teaching faculty to create course guides that compile resources for specific classes (Berić-Stojšić & Dubicki, 2016; Clever, 2020). According to Springshare (n. d.), library guides are widely used by academic, museum, school, and public libraries; approximately 130,000 libraries worldwide use this library tool (Springshare, n. d.). The library guides’ popularity and continued use may stem from their ease of use as it eliminates the need to know a coding language to develop online content. (Bergstrom-Lynch, 2019).

Baker (2014) described library guides as the “evolutionary descendants of library pathfinders” (p. 108). The first pathfinders were paper brochures that provided suggested resources for advanced research. Often, librarians created these tools for the advanced practitioner as patrons granted access to the library were researchers and seasoned scholars. As the end users were already experts, there was little need for librarians to provide instruction for using the resources (Emanuel, 2013). Later, programs such as MIT’s 1970s Project Intrex developed pathfinders that presented students with library resources in their fields of interest (Conrad & Stevens, 2019). As technology advanced, librarians created and curated pathfinders for online access (Emanuel, 2013). 

Today, due to the modernization of pathfinders as library guides and their ease of discoverability, students and unaffiliated online users often find these guides without the assistance of a librarian (Emanuel, 2013). Search engines such as Google can extend a library guide’s reach far beyond a single institutional website, drawing the attention of information experts and novice internet users alike (Brewer et al., 2017; Emanuel, 2013; Lauseng et al., 2021). This expanded access means a librarian will not always be present to help interpret and explain the library guide’s learning objectives. Stone et al. (2018) state that library guides should be built using pedagogical principles “where the guide walks the student through the research process” (p. 280). Bergstrom-Lynch (2019) argues that there has been an abundant focus on user-centered library design studies but little focus on learning-centered design. Bergstrom-Lynch (2019) advocates for more attention directed to learning-centered design principles as library guides are integrated into Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Canvas and Blackboard (Berić-Stojšić & Dubicki, 2016; Bielat et al., 2013; Lauseng et al., 2021) and can be presented as a learning module for the library (Emanuel, 2013; Mann et al., 2013). The use of library guides as online learning and teaching tools is not novel; however, their creation and evaluation using instructional design principles are a recent development (Bergstrom-Lynch, 2019). 

A core component of an instructional designer’s job is to ensure that online course development meets the institution’s standards for quality assurance (Halupa, 2019). Instructional designers can aid with writing appropriate course and learning objectives and selecting learning activities and assessments that align back to the module’s objectives. Additionally, they can provide feedback on designing a course that is student-friendly—being mindful of cognitive overload, course layout, font options, and color selection. Additionally, instructional designers are trained in designing learning content that meets accessibility standards (Halupa, 2019).

Instructional design teams and teaching faculty can choose from a variety of quality assurance standards rubrics to reference to ensure that key elements for online learning are present in the online course environment. Examples of quality assurance tools include Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric and SUNY’s Online Course Quality Review Rubric or OSCQR, a professional development course refreshment process with a rubric (Kathuria & Becker, 2021; OSCQR-SUNY, n.d.). QM is a not-for-profit subscribing service that provides education on assessing online courses through the organization’s assessment rubric of general and specific standards (Unal & Unal, 2016). The assessment process is a “collegial, faculty-driven, research-based peer review process…” (Unal & Unal, 2016, p. 464). For a national review, QM suggests three reviewers certified and trained with QM to conduct a quality review. There should be a content specialist and one external reviewer outside of the university involved in the process (Pickens & Witte, 2015). Some universities, such as the University of North Florida, submit online courses for a QM certificate with High-Quality recognition or an in-house review based on the standards earning High-Quality designation. For an in-house review at UNF, a subject matter expert, instructional designer, and trained faculty reviewer assess the course to provide feedback based on the standards (CIRT, “Online Course Design Quality Review”, n. d.; Hulen, 2022). Instructional designers at some institutions may use other pedagogical rubrics that are freely available and not proprietary. OSCQR is an openly licensed online course review rubric that allows use and/or adaptation (OSCQR-SUNY, n. d.). SUNYY-OSCQR’s rubric is a tool that can be used as a professional development exercise when building and/or refreshing online courses (OSCQR-SUNY, n.d.).

Typically, library guides do not receive a vetted vigorous pedagogical peer review process like online courses. Because library guides are more accessible and are used as teaching tools, they should be crafted for a diverse audience and easy for first-time library guide users to understand and navigate (Bergstrom-Lynch, 2019; Smith et al., 2023). However, Conrad & Stevens (2019) state: “Inexperienced content creators can inadvertently develop guides that are difficult to use, lacking consistent templates and containing overwhelming amounts of information” (p. 49). Lee et al. (2021) reviewed library guides about the systematic review process. Although this topic is complex, Lee et al. (2021) noted that there was a lack of instruction about the systematic review process presented. If instructional opportunities are missing from the most complex topics, one may need to review all types of library guides with fresh eyes. 

Moukhliss aims to describe a set of quality review standards, the Library Guide Assessment Standards (LGAS) rubric with annotations that she created based on the nature of library guides, and by remixing the SUNY-OSCQR rubric. Two trained reviewers are recommended to work with their peer review coordinator to individually engage in the review process and then convene to discuss the results. A standard will be marked Met when both of the reviewers mark it as Met, noting the evidence to support the Met designation. In order for a standard to be marked as Met, the library guide author should show evidence of 85% accuracy or higher per standard. To pass the quality-checked review to receive a quality-checked badge, the peer review team should note that 85% of the standards are marked as “Met.” If the review fails, the library guide author may continue to edit the guide or publish the guide without the quality-checked badge. Details regarding the peer review process are shared in the Library Guide Assessment Standards for Quality-Checked Review library guide. Select the Peer Review Training Materials tab for the training workbook and tutorial.

Situational Context

The University of North Florida (UNF) Thomas G. Carpenter Library services an R2 university of approximately 16,500 students. The UNF Center for Instruction and Research Technology (CIRT) supports two online learning librarians. The online librarians’ roles are to provide online instruction services to UNF faculty. CIRT staff advocate for online teaching faculty to submit their online courses to undergo a rigorous quality review process. Faculty can obtain a High-Quality designation for course design by working with an instructional designer and an appointed peer reviewer from UNF, or they may opt to aim for a High-Quality review after three years of course implementation by submitting for national review with Quality Matters (Hulen, 2022). Currently, Moukhliss serves as a peer reviewer for online High-Quality course reviews. 

After several High-Quality course reviews, Moukhliss questioned why there are no current vetted review standards for the various types of library guides reviewed and completed by trained librarians as there are for online courses and thus borrowed from The SUNY Online Course Quality Review Rubric OSCQR to re-mix as the Library Guide Assessment Standards Rubric with annotations . 

Literature Review

The amount of peer-reviewed literature on library guide design is shockingly small considering how many library guides have been created. The current research focus has been on usability and user experience studies, although some researchers have begun to focus on instructional design principles. As Bergstrom-Lynch (2019) states, peer-reviewed literature addressing library guide design through the lens of instructional design principles is at a stage of infancy. Researchers have primarily focused on collecting data on usage and usability (Conrad & Stevens, 2019; Oullette, 2011; Quintel, 2016). German (2017), an instructional design librarian, argues that when the library guide is created and maintained through a learner-centered point of view, librarians will see library guides as “e-learning tools” (p. 163). Lee et al. (2021) noted the value of integrating active learning activities into library guides. Stone et al. (2018) conducted a comparison study between two library guides, one library guide as-is and the other re-designed with pedagogical insight. Stone et al. (2018) concluded that “a pedagogical guide design, organizing resources around the information literacy research process and explaining the ‘why’ and ‘how of the process, leads to better student learning than the pathfinder design” (p. 290). A library guide representative of a pathfinder design lists resources rather than explaining them. Lee and Lowe (2018) conducted a similar study and noted more user interaction when viewing the pedagogically designed guide vs. the guide not designed with pedagogical principles. Hence Stone (2018) and Lee and Lowe (2018) discovered similar findings.

Authors like German (2017) and Lee et al. (2021) have touched upon instructional design topics. For example, Adebonojo (2010) described aligning the content of a subject library guide to library sources shared in course syllabi. Still, the author does not expand to discuss any other instructional design principles. Bergstrom-Lynch (2019) thinks more comprehensively, advocating for the use of the ADDIE instructional design model (an acronym for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) when building library guides. The analysis phase encourages the designer to note problems with current instruction. The design phase entails how the designer will rectify the learning gap from the analysis phase. The development phase entails adding instructional materials, activities, and assessments. The implementation phase involves introducing the materials to learners. The evaluation phase enables the designer to collect feedback and improve content based on suggestions. ADDIE is cyclical and iterative (Bergstrom-Lynch, 2019). Allen (2017) introduces librarians to instructional design theories in the context of building an online information literacy asynchronous course but does not tie in using these theories for building library guides.

As Bergstrom-Lynch (2019) focused on best practices for library guide design based on ADDIE, German et al. (2017) used service design thinking constructs to build effective instruction guides. The five core principles of service design thinking are “user-centered, co-creative, sequencing, evidencing, and holistic” (German et al., 2017, p. 163). Focusing on the user encourages the designer to think like a student and ask: What do I need to know to successfully master this content? The co-creator stage invites other stakeholders to add their perspectives and/or expertise to the guide. The sequencing component invites the librarian to think through the role of the librarian and library services before, during, and after instruction. German et al. (2017) advocates for information from each stage to be communicated in the library guide. Evidencing involves the librarian reviewing the library guide to ensure that the content aligns with the learning objective (German et al., 2017). Both authors advocate for instructional design methods but fall short of suggesting an assessment rubric for designing and peer-reviewing guides.

Smith et al. (2023) developed a library guide rubric for their library guide redesign project at the Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve University. This rubric focused heavily on accessibility standards using the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool or WAVE. Although Smith et al. (2023) discuss a rubric, the rubric was crafted as an evaluation tool for the author of the guide rather than for a peer review process. 

Although Bergstrom-Lynch (2019), German et al. (2017), and Smith et al. (2023) are pioneering best practices for library guides, they take different approaches. For example, Bergstrom-Lynch (2019) presents best practices for cyclical re-evaluation of the guide based on instructional design principles and derives their best practices based on their usability studies. The Smith et al. (2023) rubric emphasizes accessibility standards for ADA compliance—essential for course designers but a component of a more comprehensive rubric. German et al. (2017) emphasizes a user-centered design through the design thinking method. Moukhliss intends to add to the literature by suggesting using a remix of a vetted tool that course developers use as a professional development exercise with faculty. This OSCQR-SUNY tool envelopes the varying perspectives of Bergstrom-Lynch (2019), Smith et al. (2023), and German et al. (2017). 

Strengths & Weaknesses of the Library Guide

As with any tool, library guides have their strengths and weaknesses. Positives include indications that library guides can play a positive role in improving students’ grades, retention, and overall research skills (Brewer et al., 2017; May & Leighton, 2013; Wakeham et al., 2012). Additionally, library guides are easy to build and update (Baker, 2014; Conrad & Stevens, 2019). They can accommodate RSS feeds, videos, blogs, and chat (Baker, 2014), are accessible to the world, and cover a vast range of library research topics. According to Lauseng et al. (2021), library guides are discoverable through Googling and integrated into online Learning Management Systems (LMS). These factors support the view that library guides hold educational value and should be reconsidered for use as an Open Education Resource (Lauseng et al., 2021).

However, there are no perfect educational tools. Library guide weaknesses include their underutilization largely due to students not knowing what they are or how to find them (Bagshaw & Yorke-Barber, 2018; Conrad & Stevens, 2019; Ouellette, 2011). Additionally, library guides can be difficult for students to navigate, contain unnecessary content, and overuse library jargon (Sonsteby & DeJonghe, 2013). Conrad & Stevens (2019) described a usability study where the students were disoriented when using library guides and reported that they did not understand their purpose, function, or how to return to the library homepage. Lee et al. (2021) and Baker (2014) suggest that librarians tend to employ the “kitchen sink” (Baker, 2014, p. 110) approach to build library guides, thus overloading the guide with unapplicable content.

Critical Pedagogy and Library Guides

In his publication titled “The Philosophy of the Oppressed,” Paulo Freire introduced the theory of critical pedagogy and asserted that most educational models have the effect of reinforcing systems of societal injustice through the assumption that students are empty vessels who need to be filled with knowledge and skills curated by the intellectual elite (Kincheloe, 2012; Downey, 2016). Early in the 21 st century, information professionals built upon the belief that “Critical pedagogy is, in essence, a project that positions education as a catalyst for social justice” (Tewell, 2015, p. 26) by developing “critical information literacy” to address what some saw as the Association of College and Research Libraries’ technically sound, but socially unaware “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education” (Cuevas-Cerveró et al., 2023). In subsequent years, numerous librarians and educators have written about the role of information literacy in dismantling systems of oppression, citing the need to promote “critical engagement with information sources” while recognizing that knowledge creation is a collaborative process in which everyone engages (Downey, 2016, p. 41).

The majority of scholarly output on library guides focus on user-centered design rather than specifically advocating for critical pedagogical methods. Yet there are a few scholars, such as Lechtenberg & Gold (2022), emphasizing how the lack of pedagogical training within LIS programs often results in information-centric library guides rather than learner-centric ones. Their presentation at LOEX 2022 reiterates the importance of user-centered design in all steps of guide creation, including deciding whether a library guide is needed.   

Additionally, the literature demonstrates that library guides are useful tools in delivering critical information literacy instruction and interventions. For instance, Hare and Evanson used a library guide to list open-access sources as part of their Information Privilege Outreach programming for undergraduate students approaching graduation (Hare & Evanson, 2018). Likewise, Buck and Valentino required students in their “OER and Social Justice” course to create a library guide designed to educate faculty about the benefits of open educational resources, partly due to students’ familiarity with the design and functionality of similar research guides (Buck & Valentino, 2018). As tools that have been used to communicate the principles of critical pedagogy, the evaluation of institutional library guides should consider how effectively critical pedagogy is incorporated into their design.  

The Library Guide Assessment Standards (LGAS) Rubric 

For the remixed rubric, Moukhliss changed the term “course” from OSCQR’s original verbiage to “library guide,” and Moukhliss dropped some original standards based on the differences between the expectations for an online course (i.e., rubrics, syllabus, etc.) and a library guide. Likewise, several standards were added in response to the pros and cons of the library guides, as found in the literature. Additionally, Moukhliss wrote annotations to add clarity to each standard for the peer review process. For example, Standard 2 in the remixed LGAS rubric prompts the reviewer to see if the author defines the term library guide since research has indicated that students do not know what library guides are nor how to find them (Bagshaw & Yorke-Barber, 2018; Conrad & Stevens, 2019; Ouellette, 2011). Standard 7 suggests that the librarian provide links to the profiles of other librarian liaisons who may serve the audience using the library guide. Standard 9 prompts the reviewer to see if the library guide links to the library university’s homepage to clarify Conrad & Stevens’s (2019) conundrum that the library guide is not the library homepage. These additional standards were added to ensure that users are provided with adequate information about the nature of library guides, who publishes them, and how to locate additional guides to address the confusion that Conrad & Stevens (2019) noted in their library guide usability study. Additionally, these added standards may be helpful for those who discover library guides through a Google search. 

Moukhliss intends to use the additional standards to provide context about the library guide to novice users, thus addressing the issue of information privilege or the assumption that everyone starts with the same background knowledge. Standard 22 was added to negate adding unnecessary resources to the guide, which Baker (2014) and Conrad & Stevens (2019) cited as a common problem. Standard 27 encourages the use of Creative Commons attribution, as suggested by Lauseng et al. (2021). They found that not only faculty, staff, and students at the University of Illinois Chicago were using their Evidence Based Medicine library guide, but also a wider audience. Recognizing its strong visibility and significant external usage, they considered it a potential candidate for an Open Educational Resource (OER). As library guides are often found without the help of the librarian, Standard 28 suggests that reviewers check that library guide authors provide steps for accessing research tools and databases suggested in the library guide outside of the context of the guide. Providing such information may help to negate Conrad & Stevens’s (2019) findings regarding students’ feelings of disorientation while using a library guide and difficulty navigating to the library homepage from the guide. 

Standard 30 was added so that students have a dedicated Get Help tab explaining the variety of ways the user can contact their library and/or librarians for additional assistance. Standard 31 was re-written so that the user could check for their understanding in a way appropriate for the guide (Lee et al., 2021), such as a low-stakes quiz or poll. Finally, Standard 32 encourages the user to provide feedback regarding the guide’s usefulness, content, design, etc., with the understanding that learning objectives follow an iterative cycle and are not stagnant. Student feedback can help the authoring librarian update and maintain the guide’s relevancy to users and will give students the opportunity to become co-creators of the knowledge they consume.

UNF’s LGAS Rubric for Quality-Checked Review library guide includes an additional tab for a Quality-Checked badge (available on the Maintenance Checklist/Test Your Knowledge tab) and a suggested maintenance checklist (See Maintenance Checklist/ Test Your Knowledge tab) for monthly review, twice-a-year, and yearly reviews. Moukhliss borrowed and remixed the checklist from the Vanderbilt University Libraries (current as of 8/21/2023). The Peer Review Training Materials tab includes a training workbook and training video on the LGAS rubric, the annotations, and the peer review process. Moukhliss provides a Creative Commons license to the library guide to encourage other institutions to reuse and/or remix at the LGAS’s Start Here page . 

Methodology, Theoretical Model, and Framework

Moukhliss and McCowan used the qualitative case study methodology. Gephart (2004) stated, “Qualitative research is multimethod research that uses an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. . . . Qualitative research emphasizes qualities of entities —the processes and meanings that occur naturally” (pp. 454-455). Moukhliss and McCowan selected the exploratory multi-case study so that they could assess multiple student user/learning perspectives when accessing, navigating, and digesting the two library guides. 

The theoretical model used for this study is the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. This quality improvement model has evolved with input from Walter Shewart and Dr. Edward Deming (Koehler & Pankowski, 1996). The cycle walks a team through four steps: Plan, Do, Check, and Act. The Plan phase allows time for one to think through problems such as the lack of design standards for library guides. During the “Do” phase, Moukhliss selected and made a remix of the quality review tool SUNY OSCQR. Additionally, she selected a “kitchen sink” (Baker, 2014, p. 10) library guide and redesigned it with the proposed rubric. Moukhliss’s aim was only to remove dead links and/or outdated information when restructuring the guide. The only items deemed outdated were the CRAAP test learning object and selected books from the curated e-book list. The CRAAP test was removed, and no substitution of similar materials was made. The list of selected books was updated in the revised guide to reflect current publications. As Moukhliss restructured the guide, she decided to use tabbed boxes to chunk and sequence information to appease Standards 11, 12, 13, and 15. You may view this restructuring by comparing the original Fake News guide and the revised Fake News guide . The “Do” phase includes Moukhliss recruiting participants to evaluate the two library guides — the original Fake News guide with the Fake News Guide 2 revised to follow the suggested standards and peer review process. Moukhliss and McCowan submitted the library guide study proposal to the Institutional Review Board in November 2023, and the study was marked Exempt. In December 2023, Moukhliss recruited participants by emailing faculty, distributing flyers in the library, posting flyers on display boards, and adding a digital flyer to each library floor’s lightboard display. The librarians added the incentive of 10-dollar Starbucks gift cards to the first 15 students who signed consent forms and successfully completed the 30-minute recorded Zoom session (or until saturation was reached).

Moukhliss interviewed one test pilot (P1) and ten students (P2-P11) for this study and she noted saturation after her seventh interview but continued to ten participants to increase certainty. Although some may view this as a low sample population, the data aligns with the peer-reviewed literature. Hennick & Kaiser (2019) discuss saturation in in-depth interviews and point to Guest et al.’s (2006) study. Guest et al. (2006) determined that after reviewing data from 60 interviews deemed in-depth, they determined that saturation presented itself between Interviews 7-12 “at which point 88% of all themes were developed and 97% of important (high frequency) themes were identified” (Hennick & Kaiser, 2019, para. 5). The Questionnaire framework for this study is centered around Bloom’s Taxonomy. This taxonomy provides a framework of action verbs that align with the hierarchical levels of learning. Bloom’s taxonomy includes verbiage for learning objectives that align with the level of the learning outcomes of remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. McCowan incorporated various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy as she built the UX script used for this study. Moukhliss interchanged Fake News and Fake News 2 as Guide A and Guide B throughout the interview sessions. After each recorded Zoom session, Moukhliss reviewed the session and recorded the task completion times on the script, recorded the data to the scorecard, and updated data into the qualitative software NVivo. Both script and scorecard are available on the Library Guide Study page . Moukhliss created a codebook with participant information, assigned code names for everyone, and stored the codebook to a password protected file of her work computer to keep identifiable information secure. Moukhliss used the code names Participant 1, Participant 2, Participant 3, etc. and removed all personal identifiers as she prepared to upload the study’s data to a qualitative software system. For coding, the authors chose the NVivo platform, a qualitative assessment tool that can organize data by type (correspondence, observation, and interviews), enable the researcher(s) to easily insert notes in each file, and develop codes to discover themes. Moukhliss coded the interviews based on the LGAS (i.e., Standard 1, 2, 3, etc.). Additional codes were added regarding navigation and content. Moukhliss & McCowan reviewed the codes for themes and preferences regarding library guide design.

The “Check” phase guided Moukhliss and McCowan in considering the implementation of the LGAS rubric and peer review process for library guides at UNF. During this phase, they reviewed participants’ qualitative responses to the Fake News library guide and the Fake News 2 library guide. Data from the “Check” phase will drive Moukhliss & McCowan to make recommendations in the “Act” phase (Koehler & Pankowski, 1996), which will be discussed in the Conclusion.

Interviewees

Moukhliss worked with one test pilot and interviewed ten students for this study. The ten students’ majors were representative of the following: Nursing, Computer Science, Communications, Public Administration, Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, Health Sciences, Philosophy, and Criminal Justice. Participants included two first-year students, two sophomores, three juniors, two seniors, and one graduate student. Eight participants used their desktops, whereas two completed the study on their phones. When evaluating the familiarity of users with library guides, one participant noted they had never used a library guide before, two others stated they rarely used them, and another two students stated that they occasionally used them. Finally, five students stated they did not know whether they had ever used one or not. 

Findings & Discussion

Overall, students were faster at navigating the Fake News 2 Revised guide vs. the original guide except for listing the 5 Types of Fake News. This may be because the 5 Types of Fake News were listed on the original guide’s first page. The overall successful mean navigability for the original guide was 39 seconds, whereas the revised guide’s mean was 22.2 seconds for the successful completion of a task. Moukhliss noted a pattern of failed completion tasks often linked back to poorly labeled sections of the new and revised guides. 

Although the content was identical in both guides except for the removal of outdated information, dead website links from the original guide, and the updated list of e-books to the revised guide, the students’ overall mean confidence level indicated 4.2 for the original guide’s information vs a 4.4 for the revised guide. The mean recommendation likelihood level for the original guide is 6.4, whereas the mean recommendation likelihood level of the revised guide increased to 7.9.

Regarding library guide personal preferences for a course reading, one student indicated they would want to work off the old guide, and 9 others indicated wanting to work from the revised guide for the following reasons:

• Organization and layout are more effective.
• Information is presented more clearly.
• There is a tab for dedicated UNF resources.
• Easier to navigate.
• Less jumbled
• Easier to follow when working with peers.

Regarding perceptions of which guide a professor may choose to teach with, three chose the original guide, whereas the other seven indicated the revised guide. One student stated that the old guide was more straightforward and that the instructor could explain the guide if they were using it during direct instruction. Preferences for the revised guide include:

• More “interactive-ness” and quizzes
• Summaries are present.
• Presentation of content is better.
• Locating information is easier.
• The guide doesn’t feel like “a massive run-on sentence.”
• Ease for “flipping through the topics.”
• Presence of library consult and contact information. 

Although not part of the interview questions, Moukhliss was able to document that eight participants were not aware that a library guide could be embedded into a Canvas course, and one participant was aware. Moukhliss is unaware of the other participant’s experiences with an embedded library guide. Regarding preferences for embedding the library guide in Canvas, one student voted for the old guide whereas nine preferred the revised guide. Remarks for the revised guide include the inclusion of necessary Get Help information for struggling students and for the guide’s ease of navigation. 

Although not every standard from the LGAS rubric was brought up in conversation throughout the student interviews, the LGAS that were seen as positive and appreciated by students to integrate into a guide’s design include the following Standards: 4, 7, 11, 12, 15, 21, 22, 28, 30, and standards 31. It was noted through action that two students navigated the revised guide by the hyperlinked learning objectives and not by side navigation (Standard 5), thus indicating that Standard 5 may hold value for those who maneuvered the guide through the stated objectives. Moukhliss noted during her observations that one limitation to hyperlinking the object to a specific library guide page is when that page includes a tabbed box. The library guide author is unable to directly link to a specific sub-tab from the box. Instead, the link defaults to the first page of the box’s information. Thus, students maneuvering the guide expected to find the listed objective on the first tab of the tabbed box, and they did not innately click through the sub-tabs to discover the listed objective.

Through observation, Moukhliss noted that six students struggled to understand how to initially navigate the library guides using the side navigation functionality, but after time with the guide and/or Moukhliss educating them on side navigation, they were successful. Moukhliss noted that for students who were comfortable with navigating a guide or after Moukhliss educated them on navigating the guide, students preferred the sub-tabbed boxes of the revised guide to the organization of the original guide. The students found neither library guide perfect, but Moukhliss & McCowan noted there was an overall theme that organization of information and proper sequencing and chunking of the information was perceived as important by the students. Three students commented on appreciating clarification for each part of the guide, which provides leverage for proposed Standard 28.

Additionally, two students appreciated the library guide author profile picture and contact information on each page and three students positively remarked on the presence of a Get Help tab on the revised guide. One participant stated that professors want students to have a point of contact with their library liaisons, and they do not like “anonymous pages” (referring to the original guide lacking an author profile). The final participant wanted to see more consult widgets listed throughout the library guide. Regarding the Fake News 2 Guide, two students preferred that more content information and less information about getting started be present on the first page of the guide. Furthermore, images and design mattered, as one student remarked that they did not like the Fake News 2 banner, and several others disliked the lack of imagery on the first page of the Fake News 2 guide. For both guides, students consistently remarked on liking the Fake News infographics. 

Those supporting the old guide or parts of the original guide, three students liked the CRAAP Test worksheet and wanted to see it in the revised guide, not knowing that the worksheet was deemed dated by members of the instruction team and thus removed by Moukhliss for that reason. One student wanted to see the CRAAP test worksheet repurposed to be a flowchart regarding fake news. Moukhliss noted that most of the students perceived objects listed on the original guide and revised guide to be current, relevant, and vetted. Eight participants did not question their usefulness or relevancy or whether the library guide author was maintaining the guide. Only one student pointed out that the old guide had a list of outdated e-books and that the list was refreshed for the new guide. Thus, Moukhliss’s observations may reinforce to library guide authors that library guides should be reviewed and refreshed regularly as proposed by Standard 22 —⎯ as most students from this study appeared to take for face value that what is presented on the guide to be not only vetted but continuously maintained.

Initial data from this study indicate that using the LGAS rubric with annotations and a peer review process may improve the learning experience for students, especially in relation to being mindful of what information to include in a library guide, as well as the sequencing and chunking of the information. Early data indicates students appreciate a Get Help section and want to see Contact Us and library liaison/author information throughout the guide’s pages. 

Because six students initially struggled with maneuvering through a guide, Moukhliss & McCowan suggest including instructions on how to navigate in either the library guide banner and/or a brief introductory video for the Start Here page or both locations. Here is a screenshot of sample banner instructions:

As stated, Moukhliss noted that most students were not aware of the presence of library guides in their Canvas courses. This may indicate that librarians should provide direct instruction during one-shots in not only what library guides are and how to maneuver them, but directly model how to access an embedded guide within Canvas. 

Library guides have considerable pedagogical potential. However, there are no widely-used rubrics for evaluating whether a particular library guide has design features that support its intended learning outcomes. Based on this study, librarians who adopt or adapt the LGAS rubric will be more likely to design library guides that support students’ ability to complete relevant tasks. At UNF, Moukhliss and McCowan plan to suggest to administration to employ the LGAS rubric and annotations with a peer review process and to consider templatizing their institution’s (UNF) library guides to honor the proposed standard that was deemed most impactful by the student participants. This includes recommending to library administration to include a Get Started tab for guide template(s) and to include placeholders for introductory text, a library guide navigation video tutorial, visual navigational instructions embedded in the guide’s banner, and the inclusion of the guide’s learning objectives. Furthermore, they propose an institutionally vetted Get Help tab that can be mapped to each guide. Other proposals include templatizing each page to include the following: a page synopsis, applicable explanations for accessing library-specific resources and tools from the library’s homepage, placeholders for general contact information, a link to the library liaison directory, a placeholder for the author bio picture, feedback, assessment, and a research consultation link or widget as well as instructions for accessing the library’s homepage.

Following the creation of a standardized template, Moukhliss plans to propose to recruit a team of volunteer peer reviewers (library staff, librarians, library administration) and provide training on the LGAS rubric, the annotations, and the peer review process. She will recommend all library guide authors to train on the proposed LGAS rubric and the new library guide template for future library guide authorship projects and for updating and improving existing guides based on the standards. The training will cover the rubric, the annotations, and the maintenance calendar checklists for monthly, bi-annually, and yearly review. All proposed training materials are available at the LGAS’s Start Here page . 

Moukhliss and McCowan encourage other college and university librarians to consider using or remixing the proposed LGAS rubric for a quality-checked review and to conduct studies on students’ perceptions of the rubric to add data to this research. The authors suggest future studies to survey both students and faculty on their perspectives on using a quality assurance rubric and peer review process to increase the pedagogical value of a library guide. Moukhliss & McCowan encourage future authors of studies to report on their successes and struggles for forming and training library colleagues on using a quality-checked rubric for library guide design and the peer review process.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express our gratitude to Kelly Lindberg and Ryan Randall, our peer reviewers. As well, we would like to thank the staff at In The Library with the Lead Pipe, including our publishing editor, Jaena Rae Cabrera.

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Functional connectivity changes in the brain of adolescents with internet addiction: A systematic literature review of imaging studies

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Department of Brain Sciences, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Roles Conceptualization, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Behavioural Brain Sciences Unit, Population Policy Practice Programme, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom

• Max L. Y. Chang, 
• Irene O. Lee

• Published: June 4, 2024
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022
• Peer Review
• Reader Comments

Internet usage has seen a stark global rise over the last few decades, particularly among adolescents and young people, who have also been diagnosed increasingly with internet addiction (IA). IA impacts several neural networks that influence an adolescent’s behaviour and development. This article issued a literature review on the resting-state and task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies to inspect the consequences of IA on the functional connectivity (FC) in the adolescent brain and its subsequent effects on their behaviour and development. A systematic search was conducted from two databases, PubMed and PsycINFO, to select eligible articles according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Eligibility criteria was especially stringent regarding the adolescent age range (10–19) and formal diagnosis of IA. Bias and quality of individual studies were evaluated. The fMRI results from 12 articles demonstrated that the effects of IA were seen throughout multiple neural networks: a mix of increases/decreases in FC in the default mode network; an overall decrease in FC in the executive control network; and no clear increase or decrease in FC within the salience network and reward pathway. The FC changes led to addictive behaviour and tendencies in adolescents. The subsequent behavioural changes are associated with the mechanisms relating to the areas of cognitive control, reward valuation, motor coordination, and the developing adolescent brain. Our results presented the FC alterations in numerous brain regions of adolescents with IA leading to the behavioural and developmental changes. Research on this topic had a low frequency with adolescent samples and were primarily produced in Asian countries. Future research studies of comparing results from Western adolescent samples provide more insight on therapeutic intervention.

Citation: Chang MLY, Lee IO (2024) Functional connectivity changes in the brain of adolescents with internet addiction: A systematic literature review of imaging studies. PLOS Ment Health 1(1): e0000022. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022

Editor: Kizito Omona, Uganda Martyrs University, UGANDA

Received: December 29, 2023; Accepted: March 18, 2024; Published: June 4, 2024

Copyright: © 2024 Chang, Lee. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting information files.

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The behavioural addiction brought on by excessive internet use has become a rising source of concern [ 1 ] since the last decade. According to clinical studies, individuals with Internet Addiction (IA) or Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) may have a range of biopsychosocial effects and is classified as an impulse-control disorder owing to its resemblance to pathological gambling and substance addiction [ 2 , 3 ]. IA has been defined by researchers as a person’s inability to resist the urge to use the internet, which has negative effects on their psychological well-being as well as their social, academic, and professional lives [ 4 ]. The symptoms can have serious physical and interpersonal repercussions and are linked to mood modification, salience, tolerance, impulsivity, and conflict [ 5 ]. In severe circumstances, people may experience severe pain in their bodies or health issues like carpal tunnel syndrome, dry eyes, irregular eating and disrupted sleep [ 6 ]. Additionally, IA is significantly linked to comorbidities with other psychiatric disorders [ 7 ].

Stevens et al (2021) reviewed 53 studies including 17 countries and reported the global prevalence of IA was 3.05% [ 8 ]. Asian countries had a higher prevalence (5.1%) than European countries (2.7%) [ 8 ]. Strikingly, adolescents and young adults had a global IGD prevalence rate of 9.9% which matches previous literature that reported historically higher prevalence among adolescent populations compared to adults [ 8 , 9 ]. Over 80% of adolescent population in the UK, the USA, and Asia have direct access to the internet [ 10 ]. Children and adolescents frequently spend more time on media (possibly 7 hours and 22 minutes per day) than at school or sleeping [ 11 ]. Developing nations have also shown a sharp rise in teenage internet usage despite having lower internet penetration rates [ 10 ]. Concerns regarding the possible harms that overt internet use could do to adolescents and their development have arisen because of this surge, especially the significant impacts by the COVID-19 pandemic [ 12 ]. The growing prevalence and neurocognitive consequences of IA among adolescents makes this population a vital area of study [ 13 ].

Adolescence is a crucial developmental stage during which people go through significant changes in their biology, cognition, and personalities [ 14 ]. Adolescents’ emotional-behavioural functioning is hyperactivated, which creates risk of psychopathological vulnerability [ 15 ]. In accordance with clinical study results [ 16 ], this emotional hyperactivity is supported by a high level of neuronal plasticity. This plasticity enables teenagers to adapt to the numerous physical and emotional changes that occur during puberty as well as develop communication techniques and gain independence [ 16 ]. However, the strong neuronal plasticity is also associated with risk-taking and sensation seeking [ 17 ] which may lead to IA.

Despite the fact that the precise neuronal mechanisms underlying IA are still largely unclear, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) method has been used by scientists as an important framework to examine the neuropathological changes occurring in IA, particularly in the form of functional connectivity (FC) [ 18 ]. fMRI research study has shown that IA alters both the functional and structural makeup of the brain [ 3 ].

We hypothesise that IA has widespread neurological alteration effects rather than being limited to a few specific brain regions. Further hypothesis holds that according to these alterations of FC between the brain regions or certain neural networks, adolescents with IA would experience behavioural changes. An investigation of these domains could be useful for creating better procedures and standards as well as minimising the negative effects of overt internet use. This literature review aims to summarise and analyse the evidence of various imaging studies that have investigated the effects of IA on the FC in adolescents. This will be addressed through two research questions:

• How does internet addiction affect the functional connectivity in the adolescent brain?
• How is adolescent behaviour and development impacted by functional connectivity changes due to internet addiction?

The review protocol was conducted in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (see S1 Checklist ).

Search strategy and selection process

A systematic search was conducted up until April 2023 from two sources of database, PubMed and PsycINFO, using a range of terms relevant to the title and research questions (see full list of search terms in S1 Appendix ). All the searched articles can be accessed in the S1 Data . The eligible articles were selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria used for the present review were: (i) participants in the studies with clinical diagnosis of IA; (ii) participants between the ages of 10 and 19; (iii) imaging research investigations; (iv) works published between January 2013 and April 2023; (v) written in English language; (vi) peer-reviewed papers and (vii) full text. The numbers of articles excluded due to not meeting the inclusion criteria are shown in Fig 1 . Each study’s title and abstract were screened for eligibility.

• PPT PowerPoint slide
• PNG larger image
• TIFF original image

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022.g001

Quality appraisal

Full texts of all potentially relevant studies were then retrieved and further appraised for eligibility. Furthermore, articles were critically appraised based on the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations) framework to evaluate the individual study for both quality and bias. The subsequent quality levels were then appraised to each article and listed as either low, moderate, or high.

Data collection process

Data that satisfied the inclusion requirements was entered into an excel sheet for data extraction and further selection. An article’s author, publication year, country, age range, participant sample size, sex, area of interest, measures, outcome and article quality were all included in the data extraction spreadsheet. Studies looking at FC, for instance, were grouped, while studies looking at FC in specific area were further divided into sub-groups.

Data synthesis and analysis

Articles were classified according to their location in the brain as well as the network or pathway they were a part of to create a coherent narrative between the selected studies. Conclusions concerning various research trends relevant to particular groupings were drawn from these groupings and subgroupings. To maintain the offered information in a prominent manner, these assertions were entered into the data extraction excel spreadsheet.

With the search performed on the selected databases, 238 articles in total were identified (see Fig 1 ). 15 duplicated articles were eliminated, and another 6 items were removed for various other reasons. Title and abstract screening eliminated 184 articles because they were not in English (number of article, n, = 7), did not include imaging components (n = 47), had adult participants (n = 53), did not have a clinical diagnosis of IA (n = 19), did not address FC in the brain (n = 20), and were published outside the desired timeframe (n = 38). A further 21 papers were eliminated for failing to meet inclusion requirements after the remaining 33 articles underwent full-text eligibility screening. A total of 12 papers were deemed eligible for this review analysis.

Characteristics of the included studies, as depicted in the data extraction sheet in Table 1 provide information of the author(s), publication year, sample size, study location, age range, gender, area of interest, outcome, measures used and quality appraisal. Most of the studies in this review utilised resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques (n = 7), with several studies demonstrating task-based fMRI procedures (n = 3), and the remaining studies utilising whole-brain imaging measures (n = 2). The studies were all conducted in Asiatic countries, specifically coming from China (8), Korea (3), and Indonesia (1). Sample sizes ranged from 12 to 31 participants with most of the imaging studies having comparable sample sizes. Majority of the studies included a mix of male and female participants (n = 8) with several studies having a male only participant pool (n = 3). All except one of the mixed gender studies had a majority male participant pool. One study did not disclose their data on the gender demographics of their experiment. Study years ranged from 2013–2022, with 2 studies in 2013, 3 studies in 2014, 3 studies in 2015, 1 study in 2017, 1 study in 2020, 1 study in 2021, and 1 study in 2022.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022.t001

(1) How does internet addiction affect the functional connectivity in the adolescent brain?

The included studies were organised according to the brain region or network that they were observing. The specific networks affected by IA were the default mode network, executive control system, salience network and reward pathway. These networks are vital components of adolescent behaviour and development [ 31 ]. The studies in each section were then grouped into subsections according to their specific brain regions within their network.

Default mode network (DMN)/reward network.

Out of the 12 studies, 3 have specifically studied the default mode network (DMN), and 3 observed whole-brain FC that partially included components of the DMN. The effect of IA on the various centres of the DMN was not unilaterally the same. The findings illustrate a complex mix of increases and decreases in FC depending on the specific region in the DMN (see Table 2 and Fig 2 ). The alteration of FC in posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in the DMN was the most frequently reported area in adolescents with IA, which involved in attentional processes [ 32 ], but Lee et al. (2020) additionally found alterations of FC in other brain regions, such as anterior insula cortex, a node in the DMN that controls the integration of motivational and cognitive processes [ 20 ].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022.g002

The overall changes of functional connectivity in the brain network including default mode network (DMN), executive control network (ECN), salience network (SN) and reward network. IA = Internet Addiction, FC = Functional Connectivity.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022.t002

Ding et al. (2013) revealed altered FC in the cerebellum, the middle temporal gyrus, and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) [ 22 ]. They found that the bilateral inferior parietal lobule, left superior parietal lobule, and right inferior temporal gyrus had decreased FC, while the bilateral posterior lobe of the cerebellum and the medial temporal gyrus had increased FC [ 22 ]. The right middle temporal gyrus was found to have 111 cluster voxels (t = 3.52, p<0.05) and the right inferior parietal lobule was found to have 324 cluster voxels (t = -4.07, p<0.05) with an extent threshold of 54 voxels (figures above this threshold are deemed significant) [ 22 ]. Additionally, there was a negative correlation, with 95 cluster voxels (p<0.05) between the FC of the left superior parietal lobule and the PCC with the Chen Internet Addiction Scores (CIAS) which are used to determine the severity of IA [ 22 ]. On the other hand, in regions of the reward system, connection with the PCC was positively connected with CIAS scores [ 22 ]. The most significant was the right praecuneus with 219 cluster voxels (p<0.05) [ 22 ]. Wang et al. (2017) also discovered that adolescents with IA had 33% less FC in the left inferior parietal lobule and 20% less FC in the dorsal mPFC [ 24 ]. A potential connection between the effects of substance use and overt internet use is revealed by the generally decreased FC in these areas of the DMN of teenagers with drug addiction and IA [ 35 ].

The putamen was one of the main regions of reduced FC in adolescents with IA [ 19 ]. The putamen and the insula-operculum demonstrated significant group differences regarding functional connectivity with a cluster size of 251 and an extent threshold of 250 (Z = 3.40, p<0.05) [ 19 ]. The molecular mechanisms behind addiction disorders have been intimately connected to decreased striatal dopaminergic function [ 19 ], making this function crucial.

Executive Control Network (ECN).

5 studies out of 12 have specifically viewed parts of the executive control network (ECN) and 3 studies observed whole-brain FC. The effects of IA on the ECN’s constituent parts were consistent across all the studies examined for this analysis (see Table 2 and Fig 3 ). The results showed a notable decline in all the ECN’s major centres. Li et al. (2014) used fMRI imaging and a behavioural task to study response inhibition in adolescents with IA [ 25 ] and found decreased activation at the striatum and frontal gyrus, particularly a reduction in FC at inferior frontal gyrus, in the IA group compared to controls [ 25 ]. The inferior frontal gyrus showed a reduction in FC in comparison to the controls with a cluster size of 71 (t = 4.18, p<0.05) [ 25 ]. In addition, the frontal-basal ganglia pathways in the adolescents with IA showed little effective connection between areas and increased degrees of response inhibition [ 25 ].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022.g003

Lin et al. (2015) found that adolescents with IA demonstrated disrupted corticostriatal FC compared to controls [ 33 ]. The corticostriatal circuitry experienced decreased connectivity with the caudate, bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), as well as the striatum and frontal gyrus [ 33 ]. The inferior ventral striatum showed significantly reduced FC with the subcallosal ACC and caudate head with cluster size of 101 (t = -4.64, p<0.05) [ 33 ]. Decreased FC in the caudate implies dysfunction of the corticostriatal-limbic circuitry involved in cognitive and emotional control [ 36 ]. The decrease in FC in both the striatum and frontal gyrus is related to inhibitory control, a common deficit seen with disruptions with the ECN [ 33 ].

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), ACC, and right supplementary motor area (SMA) of the prefrontal cortex were all found to have significantly decreased grey matter volume [ 29 ]. In addition, the DLPFC, insula, temporal cortices, as well as significant subcortical regions like the striatum and thalamus, showed decreased FC [ 29 ]. According to Tremblay (2009), the striatum plays a significant role in the processing of rewards, decision-making, and motivation [ 37 ]. Chen et al. (2020) reported that the IA group demonstrated increased impulsivity as well as decreased reaction inhibition using a Stroop colour-word task [ 26 ]. Furthermore, Chen et al. (2020) observed that the left DLPFC and dorsal striatum experienced a negative connection efficiency value, specifically demonstrating that the dorsal striatum activity suppressed the left DLPFC [ 27 ].

Salience network (SN).

Out of the 12 chosen studies, 3 studies specifically looked at the salience network (SN) and 3 studies have observed whole-brain FC. Relative to the DMN and ECN, the findings on the SN were slightly sparser. Despite this, adolescents with IA demonstrated a moderate decrease in FC, as well as other measures like fibre connectivity and cognitive control, when compared to healthy control (see Table 2 and Fig 4 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022.g004

Xing et al. (2014) used both dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula to test FC changes in the SN of adolescents with IA and found decreased structural connectivity in the SN as well as decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) that correlated to behaviour performance in the Stroop colour word-task [ 21 ]. They examined the dACC and insula to determine whether the SN’s disrupted connectivity may be linked to the SN’s disruption of regulation, which would explain the impaired cognitive control seen in adolescents with IA. However, researchers did not find significant FC differences in the SN when compared to the controls [ 21 ]. These results provided evidence for the structural changes in the interconnectivity within SN in adolescents with IA.

Wang et al. (2017) investigated network interactions between the DMN, ECN, SN and reward pathway in IA subjects [ 24 ] (see Fig 5 ), and found 40% reduction of FC between the DMN and specific regions of the SN, such as the insula, in comparison to the controls (p = 0.008) [ 24 ]. The anterior insula and dACC are two areas that are impacted by this altered FC [ 24 ]. This finding supports the idea that IA has similar neurobiological abnormalities with other addictive illnesses, which is in line with a study that discovered disruptive changes in the SN and DMN’s interaction in cocaine addiction [ 38 ]. The insula has also been linked to the intensity of symptoms and has been implicated in the development of IA [ 39 ].

“+” indicates an increase in behaivour; “-”indicates a decrease in behaviour; solid arrows indicate a direct network interaction; and the dotted arrows indicates a reduction in network interaction. This diagram depicts network interactions juxtaposed with engaging in internet related behaviours. Through the neural interactions, the diagram illustrates how the networks inhibit or amplify internet usage and vice versa. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the SN mediates both the DMN and ECN.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022.g005

(2) How is adolescent behaviour and development impacted by functional connectivity changes due to internet addiction?

The findings that IA individuals demonstrate an overall decrease in FC in the DMN is supported by numerous research [ 24 ]. Drug addict populations also exhibited similar decline in FC in the DMN [ 40 ]. The disruption of attentional orientation and self-referential processing for both substance and behavioural addiction was then hypothesised to be caused by DMN anomalies in FC [ 41 ].

In adolescents with IA, decline of FC in the parietal lobule affects visuospatial task-related behaviour [ 22 ], short-term memory [ 42 ], and the ability of controlling attention or restraining motor responses during response inhibition tests [ 42 ]. Cue-induced gaming cravings are influenced by the DMN [ 43 ]. A visual processing area called the praecuneus links gaming cues to internal information [ 22 ]. A meta-analysis found that the posterior cingulate cortex activity of individuals with IA during cue-reactivity tasks was connected with their gaming time [ 44 ], suggesting that excessive gaming may impair DMN function and that individuals with IA exert more cognitive effort to control it. Findings for the behavioural consequences of FC changes in the DMN illustrate its underlying role in regulating impulsivity, self-monitoring, and cognitive control.

Furthermore, Ding et al. (2013) reported an activation of components of the reward pathway, including areas like the nucleus accumbens, praecuneus, SMA, caudate, and thalamus, in connection to the DMN [ 22 ]. The increased FC of the limbic and reward networks have been confirmed to be a major biomarker for IA [ 45 , 46 ]. The increased reinforcement in these networks increases the strength of reward stimuli and makes it more difficult for other networks, namely the ECN, to down-regulate the increased attention [ 29 ] (See Fig 5 ).

Executive control network (ECN).

The numerous IA-affected components in the ECN have a role in a variety of behaviours that are connected to both response inhibition and emotional regulation [ 47 ]. For instance, brain regions like the striatum, which are linked to impulsivity and the reward system, are heavily involved in the act of playing online games [ 47 ]. Online game play activates the striatum, which suppresses the left DLPFC in ECN [ 48 ]. As a result, people with IA may find it difficult to control their want to play online games [ 48 ]. This system thus causes impulsive and protracted gaming conduct, lack of inhibitory control leading to the continued use of internet in an overt manner despite a variety of negative effects, personal distress, and signs of psychological dependence [ 33 ] (See Fig 5 ).

Wang et al. (2017) report that disruptions in cognitive control networks within the ECN are frequently linked to characteristics of substance addiction [ 24 ]. With samples that were addicted to heroin and cocaine, previous studies discovered abnormal FC in the ECN and the PFC [ 49 ]. Electronic gaming is known to promote striatal dopamine release, similar to drug addiction [ 50 ]. According to Drgonova and Walther (2016), it is hypothesised that dopamine could stimulate the reward system of the striatum in the brain, leading to a loss of impulse control and a failure of prefrontal lobe executive inhibitory control [ 51 ]. In the end, IA’s resemblance to drug use disorders may point to vital biomarkers or underlying mechanisms that explain how cognitive control and impulsive behaviour are related.

A task-related fMRI study found that the decrease in FC between the left DLPFC and dorsal striatum was congruent with an increase in impulsivity in adolescents with IA [ 26 ]. The lack of response inhibition from the ECN results in a loss of control over internet usage and a reduced capacity to display goal-directed behaviour [ 33 ]. Previous studies have linked the alteration of the ECN in IA with higher cue reactivity and impaired ability to self-regulate internet specific stimuli [ 52 ].

Salience network (SN)/ other networks.

Xing et al. (2014) investigated the significance of the SN regarding cognitive control in teenagers with IA [ 21 ]. The SN, which is composed of the ACC and insula, has been demonstrated to control dynamic changes in other networks to modify cognitive performance [ 21 ]. The ACC is engaged in conflict monitoring and cognitive control, according to previous neuroimaging research [ 53 ]. The insula is a region that integrates interoceptive states into conscious feelings [ 54 ]. The results from Xing et al. (2014) showed declines in the SN regarding its structural connectivity and fractional anisotropy, even though they did not observe any appreciable change in FC in the IA participants [ 21 ]. Due to the small sample size, the results may have indicated that FC methods are not sensitive enough to detect the significant functional changes [ 21 ]. However, task performance behaviours associated with impaired cognitive control in adolescents with IA were correlated with these findings [ 21 ]. Our comprehension of the SN’s broader function in IA can be enhanced by this relationship.

Research study supports the idea that different psychological issues are caused by the functional reorganisation of expansive brain networks, such that strong association between SN and DMN may provide neurological underpinnings at the system level for the uncontrollable character of internet-using behaviours [ 24 ]. In the study by Wang et al. (2017), the decreased interconnectivity between the SN and DMN, comprising regions such the DLPFC and the insula, suggests that adolescents with IA may struggle to effectively inhibit DMN activity during internally focused processing, leading to poorly managed desires or preoccupations to use the internet [ 24 ] (See Fig 5 ). Subsequently, this may cause a failure to inhibit DMN activity as well as a restriction of ECN functionality [ 55 ]. As a result, the adolescent experiences an increased salience and sensitivity towards internet addicting cues making it difficult to avoid these triggers [ 56 ].

The primary aim of this review was to present a summary of how internet addiction impacts on the functional connectivity of adolescent brain. Subsequently, the influence of IA on the adolescent brain was compartmentalised into three sections: alterations of FC at various brain regions, specific FC relationships, and behavioural/developmental changes. Overall, the specific effects of IA on the adolescent brain were not completely clear, given the variety of FC changes. However, there were overarching behavioural, network and developmental trends that were supported that provided insight on adolescent development.

The first hypothesis that was held about this question was that IA was widespread and would be regionally similar to substance-use and gambling addiction. After conducting a review of the information in the chosen articles, the hypothesis was predictably supported. The regions of the brain affected by IA are widespread and influence multiple networks, mainly DMN, ECN, SN and reward pathway. In the DMN, there was a complex mix of increases and decreases within the network. However, in the ECN, the alterations of FC were more unilaterally decreased, but the findings of SN and reward pathway were not quite clear. Overall, the FC changes within adolescents with IA are very much network specific and lay a solid foundation from which to understand the subsequent behaviour changes that arise from the disorder.

The second hypothesis placed emphasis on the importance of between network interactions and within network interactions in the continuation of IA and the development of its behavioural symptoms. The results from the findings involving the networks, DMN, SN, ECN and reward system, support this hypothesis (see Fig 5 ). Studies confirm the influence of all these neural networks on reward valuation, impulsivity, salience to stimuli, cue reactivity and other changes that alter behaviour towards the internet use. Many of these changes are connected to the inherent nature of the adolescent brain.

There are multiple explanations that underlie the vulnerability of the adolescent brain towards IA related urges. Several of them have to do with the inherent nature and underlying mechanisms of the adolescent brain. Children’s emotional, social, and cognitive capacities grow exponentially during childhood and adolescence [ 57 ]. Early teenagers go through a process called “social reorientation” that is characterised by heightened sensitivity to social cues and peer connections [ 58 ]. Adolescents’ improvements in their social skills coincide with changes in their brains’ anatomical and functional organisation [ 59 ]. Functional hubs exhibit growing connectivity strength [ 60 ], suggesting increased functional integration during development. During this time, the brain’s functional networks change from an anatomically dominant structure to a scattered architecture [ 60 ].

The adolescent brain is very responsive to synaptic reorganisation and experience cues [ 61 ]. As a result, one of the distinguishing traits of the maturation of adolescent brains is the variation in neural network trajectory [ 62 ]. Important weaknesses of the adolescent brain that may explain the neurobiological change brought on by external stimuli are illustrated by features like the functional gaps between networks and the inadequate segregation of networks [ 62 ].

The implications of these findings towards adolescent behaviour are significant. Although the exact changes and mechanisms are not fully clear, the observed changes in functional connectivity have the capacity of influencing several aspects of adolescent development. For example, functional connectivity has been utilised to investigate attachment styles in adolescents [ 63 ]. It was observed that adolescent attachment styles were negatively associated with caudate-prefrontal connectivity, but positively with the putamen-visual area connectivity [ 63 ]. Both named areas were also influenced by the onset of internet addiction, possibly providing a connection between the two. Another study associated neighbourhood/socioeconomic disadvantage with functional connectivity alterations in the DMN and dorsal attention network [ 64 ]. The study also found multivariate brain behaviour relationships between the altered/disadvantaged functional connectivity and mental health and cognition [ 64 ]. This conclusion supports the notion that the functional connectivity alterations observed in IA are associated with specific adolescent behaviours as well as the fact that functional connectivity can be utilised as a platform onto which to compare various neurologic conditions.

Limitations/strengths

There were several limitations that were related to the conduction of the review as well as the data extracted from the articles. Firstly, the study followed a systematic literature review design when analysing the fMRI studies. The data pulled from these imaging studies were namely qualitative and were subject to bias contrasting the quantitative nature of statistical analysis. Components of the study, such as sample sizes, effect sizes, and demographics were not weighted or controlled. The second limitation brought up by a similar review was the lack of a universal consensus of terminology given IA [ 47 ]. Globally, authors writing about this topic use an array of terminology including online gaming addiction, internet addiction, internet gaming disorder, and problematic internet use. Often, authors use multiple terms interchangeably which makes it difficult to depict the subtle similarities and differences between the terms.

Reviewing the explicit limitations in each of the included studies, two major limitations were brought up in many of the articles. One was relating to the cross-sectional nature of the included studies. Due to the inherent qualities of a cross-sectional study, the studies did not provide clear evidence that IA played a causal role towards the development of the adolescent brain. While several biopsychosocial factors mediate these interactions, task-based measures that combine executive functions with imaging results reinforce the assumed connection between the two that is utilised by the papers studying IA. Another limitation regarded the small sample size of the included studies, which averaged to around 20 participants. The small sample size can influence the generalisation of the results as well as the effectiveness of statistical analyses. Ultimately, both included study specific limitations illustrate the need for future studies to clarify the causal relationship between the alterations of FC and the development of IA.

Another vital limitation was the limited number of studies applying imaging techniques for investigations on IA in adolescents were a uniformly Far East collection of studies. The reason for this was because the studies included in this review were the only fMRI studies that were found that adhered to the strict adolescent age restriction. The adolescent age range given by the WHO (10–19 years old) [ 65 ] was strictly followed. It is important to note that a multitude of studies found in the initial search utilised an older adolescent demographic that was slightly higher than the WHO age range and had a mean age that was outside of the limitations. As a result, the results of this review are biased and based on the 12 studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Regarding the global nature of the research, although the journals that the studies were published in were all established western journals, the collection of studies were found to all originate from Asian countries, namely China and Korea. Subsequently, it pulls into question if the results and measures from these studies are generalisable towards a western population. As stated previously, Asian countries have a higher prevalence of IA, which may be the reasoning to why the majority of studies are from there [ 8 ]. However, in an additional search including other age groups, it was found that a high majority of all FC studies on IA were done in Asian countries. Interestingly, western papers studying fMRI FC were primarily focused on gambling and substance-use addiction disorders. The western papers on IA were less focused on fMRI FC but more on other components of IA such as sleep, game-genre, and other non-imaging related factors. This demonstrated an overall lack of western fMRI studies on IA. It is important to note that both western and eastern fMRI studies on IA presented an overall lack on children and adolescents in general.

Despite the several limitations, this review provided a clear reflection on the state of the data. The strengths of the review include the strict inclusion/exclusion criteria that filtered through studies and only included ones that contained a purely adolescent sample. As a result, the information presented in this review was specific to the review’s aims. Given the sparse nature of adolescent specific fMRI studies on the FC changes in IA, this review successfully provided a much-needed niche representation of adolescent specific results. Furthermore, the review provided a thorough functional explanation of the DMN, ECN, SN and reward pathway making it accessible to readers new to the topic.

Future directions and implications

Through the search process of the review, there were more imaging studies focused on older adolescence and adulthood. Furthermore, finding a review that covered a strictly adolescent population, focused on FC changes, and was specifically depicting IA, was proven difficult. Many related reviews, such as Tereshchenko and Kasparov (2019), looked at risk factors related to the biopsychosocial model, but did not tackle specific alterations in specific structural or functional changes in the brain [ 66 ]. Weinstein (2017) found similar structural and functional results as well as the role IA has in altering response inhibition and reward valuation in adolescents with IA [ 47 ]. Overall, the accumulated findings only paint an emerging pattern which aligns with similar substance-use and gambling disorders. Future studies require more specificity in depicting the interactions between neural networks, as well as more literature on adolescent and comorbid populations. One future field of interest is the incorporation of more task-based fMRI data. Advances in resting-state fMRI methods have yet to be reflected or confirmed in task-based fMRI methods [ 62 ]. Due to the fact that network connectivity is shaped by different tasks, it is critical to confirm that the findings of the resting state fMRI studies also apply to the task based ones [ 62 ]. Subsequently, work in this area will confirm if intrinsic connectivity networks function in resting state will function similarly during goal directed behaviour [ 62 ]. An elevated focus on adolescent populations as well as task-based fMRI methodology will help uncover to what extent adolescent network connectivity maturation facilitates behavioural and cognitive development [ 62 ].

A treatment implication is the potential usage of bupropion for the treatment of IA. Bupropion has been previously used to treat patients with gambling disorder and has been effective in decreasing overall gambling behaviour as well as money spent while gambling [ 67 ]. Bae et al. (2018) found a decrease in clinical symptoms of IA in line with a 12-week bupropion treatment [ 31 ]. The study found that bupropion altered the FC of both the DMN and ECN which in turn decreased impulsivity and attentional deficits for the individuals with IA [ 31 ]. Interventions like bupropion illustrate the importance of understanding the fundamental mechanisms that underlie disorders like IA.

The goal for this review was to summarise the current literature on functional connectivity changes in adolescents with internet addiction. The findings answered the primary research questions that were directed at FC alterations within several networks of the adolescent brain and how that influenced their behaviour and development. Overall, the research demonstrated several wide-ranging effects that influenced the DMN, SN, ECN, and reward centres. Additionally, the findings gave ground to important details such as the maturation of the adolescent brain, the high prevalence of Asian originated studies, and the importance of task-based studies in this field. The process of making this review allowed for a thorough understanding IA and adolescent brain interactions.

Given the influx of technology and media in the lives and education of children and adolescents, an increase in prevalence and focus on internet related behavioural changes is imperative towards future children/adolescent mental health. Events such as COVID-19 act to expose the consequences of extended internet usage on the development and lifestyle of specifically young people. While it is important for parents and older generations to be wary of these changes, it is important for them to develop a base understanding of the issue and not dismiss it as an all-bad or all-good scenario. Future research on IA will aim to better understand the causal relationship between IA and psychological symptoms that coincide with it. The current literature regarding functional connectivity changes in adolescents is limited and requires future studies to test with larger sample sizes, comorbid populations, and populations outside Far East Asia.

This review aimed to demonstrate the inner workings of how IA alters the connection between the primary behavioural networks in the adolescent brain. Predictably, the present answers merely paint an unfinished picture that does not necessarily depict internet usage as overwhelmingly positive or negative. Alternatively, the research points towards emerging patterns that can direct individuals on the consequences of certain variables or risk factors. A clearer depiction of the mechanisms of IA would allow physicians to screen and treat the onset of IA more effectively. Clinically, this could be in the form of more streamlined and accurate sessions of CBT or family therapy, targeting key symptoms of IA. Alternatively clinicians could potentially prescribe treatment such as bupropion to target FC in certain regions of the brain. Furthermore, parental education on IA is another possible avenue of prevention from a public health standpoint. Parents who are aware of the early signs and onset of IA will more effectively handle screen time, impulsivity, and minimize the risk factors surrounding IA.

Additionally, an increased attention towards internet related fMRI research is needed in the West, as mentioned previously. Despite cultural differences, Western countries may hold similarities to the eastern countries with a high prevalence of IA, like China and Korea, regarding the implications of the internet and IA. The increasing influence of the internet on the world may contribute to an overall increase in the global prevalence of IA. Nonetheless, the high saturation of eastern studies in this field should be replicated with a Western sample to determine if the same FC alterations occur. A growing interest in internet related research and education within the West will hopefully lead to the knowledge of healthier internet habits and coping strategies among parents with children and adolescents. Furthermore, IA research has the potential to become a crucial proxy for which to study adolescent brain maturation and development.

Supporting information

S1 checklist. prisma checklist..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022.s001

S1 Appendix. Search strategies with all the terms.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022.s002

S1 Data. Article screening records with details of categorized content.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000022.s003

Acknowledgments

The authors thank https://www.stockio.com/free-clipart/brain-01 (with attribution to Stockio.com); and https://www.rawpixel.com/image/6442258/png-sticker-vintage for the free images used to create Figs 2 – 4 .

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