Abstract Objective – To assess the impact of community college academic librarians upon student retention and grades through reference desk visits and attendance in library instruction classes. Methods – Student ID data used for this research was collected from students that visited the reference desk to consult about a course-related question or attended a library instruction class for a specific course. After consenting to share their student ID number, the students’ IDs were scanned and uploaded to a Blackboard Analytics data warehouse. A Pyramid Analytics reporting tool was used to query and extract student-level retention and grade data based upon whether the student had visited the reference desk or attended a library instruction class. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used to discern any statistical difference in retention rates and grades between students that engaged a librarian through reference or instruction and the general student population. Results – When comparing fall-to-fall retention for all degree-seeking students, students that visited the reference desk or attended a library instruction class had a statistically higher rate of retention. When comparing fall-to-fall retention within low-retention student cohorts, students that visited the reference desk or attended a library instruction class had higher rates of retention among all low-retention cohorts. Eight of 10 cohorts were statistically higher for library instruction and 6 of 10 cohorts were statistically higher for reference visits. With respect to course grades, only 1 of 5 high enrollment courses showed a higher grade average for students that attended a library instruction class. None of the differences in average grades between students that attended a library instruction class and all students in the five courses were statistically significant. For the impact of a reference visit upon a course grade, all five courses showed a higher average grade average for students that visited the reference desk for a question related to their course than all students in the course. Four of the 5 differences were statistically significant. Conclusions – The data collected by systematically tracking students that interact with community college librarians suggests that reference desk visits and attendance of library instruction classes both have a positive, statistically significant impact upon student retention. When looking at course grades, the data does not indicate a statistically significant positive or negative impact for library instruction. The impact of visiting the reference desk upon course grades does suggest a strong, statistically significant positive correlation.

As many libraries have embraced electronic journals as a part of their serials collections, the issue of making these journals available to eligible patrons in remote locations can be vexing, particularly for health science libraries. For most publishers and aggregators of electronic journals, the definition of an eligible user is based upon physical point of access rather than the credentials of the individual, regardless of their location. This article will share the experience of Saint Louis University's Health Sciences Center Library, one of three campus libraries within a statewide consortium of higher education libraries, in providing access to electronic journals to a dispersed constituency. Information concerning IP filtering, proxy servers, dissemination of passwords, web certificates and others will be discussed.

Academic libraries are increasingly asked to articulate connections between the work of library staff and student success. This article discusses how a team of librarians participating in CARLI Counts, an immersive professional development program funded by a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Grant through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, responded to the lack of research investigating the indirect impact of the work of technical services staff on student learning. An anonymous online survey distributed to library staff of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) member institutions explored the perceived value of enhanced cataloging in supporting student research. Survey results point to opportunities for communication and collaboration among technical services and public services librarians to improve understanding of enhanced catalog functionality and user needs.