May 2021 C&RL News239

Doing these Spotlights is actually one of the more pleas-
ant aspects of my role as C&RL editor. It is a time to 
reflect on the works that authors have done and discuss 
common threads of trending topics. This particular issue 
is full of a number of compelling articles, so it was actu-
ally a little difficult to select a direction to riff on.

That said, there are actually two articles that ad-
dress anxiety, and given that the past year has been 
nothing but anxiety-inducing, it seems natural to focus 
on that. In addition, one of most viewed articles in 
C&RL (it has consistently been in the top three most 
viewed articles) is “Shame: The Emotional Basis of 
Library Anxiety” by Erin L. McAfee, which tells me 
that there is definitely a lot of interest in the topic.

The May issue features an effective balance on the 
topic with one article examining the anxiety from the li-
brary teaching side and one from the student learning side:

“Effects of an Augmented Reality Library Orien-
tation on Anxiety and Self-Efficacy: An Exploratory 
Study” by Samantha Kannegiser. This quasi-experimen-
tal study builds on research on mitigating library anxi-
ety, the relationship between anxiety and self-efficacy, 
and the effects of augmented reality (AR) experiences 
on anxiety and self-efficacy. It investigates if an AR 
library orientation impacts incoming undergraduates’ 
self-reported indicators of anxiety and self-efficacy as 
compared to a traditional orientation. Two groups of 
incoming students participated in an orientation; one 
group received the traditional model and the other par-
ticipated in an augmented reality version. By comparing 
pre- and post-survey results, this study determined that 
the AR orientation had a significant impact on students’ 
perceptions of librarians’ desire to help them.

I was talking to a colleague about this—particularly 
about library teaching self-efficacy—and conjectured 
that librarians may be one of the only professions where 
their efficacy may actually exceed their self-efficacy. 
Lundstrom, Fagerheim, and Van Geem’s study may 
suggest a reason for this.

“Library Teaching Anxiety: Understanding and 
Supporting a Consistent Issue in Librarianship” by 

Kacy Lundstrom, Britt Fagerheim, and Stephen Van 
Geem. Teaching roles in academic libraries can be 
accompanied by a great deal of anxiety. This study sur-
veyed librarian attitudes toward their teaching role and 
librarians’ experiences with teaching anxiety. Sixty-four 
percent of librarians participating in the survey said they 
experienced teaching anxiety, including 65.10 percent 
experiencing physical symptoms and 73.43 percent of 
librarians who experienced teaching anxiety experienc-
ing psychological symptoms. Findings indicate tension 
between sustaining a work-life balance and managing 
physical and psychological symptoms. Based on these 
findings, the researchers propose supports that can 
help mitigate the adverse effects of teaching anxiety on 
library instructors.

Charles also looks at librarians’ engagement in 
teaching through engagement with an online graduate 
course in Education:

“Closing the Transactional Distance in an Online 
Graduate Course through the Practice of Embedded 
Librarianship” by Leslin Charles. Using the practice of 
embedded librarianship, a professor from the Graduate 
School of Education and the Education librarian at 
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey collaborated 
to investigate its impact on the inherent transactional 
distance that exists in an online graduate course. Using 
Michael G. Moore’s three relational distances existing in 
the online environment—“teacher-student,” “student-
student,” “student-course content”—the authors added 
two areas—“instructor-librarian” and “student-librari-
an”—that can close the transactional distance in online 
courses. Through course activities, structure, and access 
to the embedded librarian and specific library resources, 
students had increased opportunities for engagement, 
thereby reducing transactional distance.

One particular article is timely. With protests and 
riots, winter storms, and forest fires, pandemics and eco-
nomic downturns–it is affecting everyone, and libraries 
are not exempt. O’Neill and Kelley offer up: 

“Delivering Bad News: Crisis Communication 
Methods in Academic Libraries” by Brittany O’Neill 
and Rebecca Kelley. This exploratory study analyzed 
the specific crisis communication methods of academic 
libraries. A survey was sent to library staff at Association 
of Research Libraries member colleges and universities 

C & R L  S p o t l i g h tWendi Kasper

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

mailto:warant%40tamu.edu?subject=


C&RL News May 2021 240

to describe if, who, when, and how they communicated 
bad news to their stakeholders for major, minor, and 
emerging crises. The findings show that respondents 
used multiple communication strategies, which varied 
based on the crisis. The data show that libraries com-
municated journal and database cancellations and 
health and safety emergencies more slowly than access 
issues and were more likely not to communicate those 
crises at all. Respondents also more frequently chose to 
communicate journal and database cancellations only 
when asked, as compared to other crises. While access 
issues and health and safety emergencies were primarily 
communicated through social media and the library’s 
website, stakeholders received communication about 
journal and database cancellations primarily through 
targeted emails from library liaisons, face-to-face meet-
ings with faculty, and the library’s website. These findings 
suggest that respondents communicated more quickly 
for minor crises but were more hesitant for crises that 
may have presented the potential for reputational harm. 
The varied responses between crisis types often conflicted 
with best practices for whether to deliver bad news and, 
if so, when and by whom. These findings indicate a 
need for academic libraries to develop comprehensive 
crisis communication plans that emphasize timeliness 
and transparency.

There have been a number of studies recently about 
pay gaps and equity, and Li’s study provides a specific 
examination of how salary in libraries is correlated with 
different demographic factors. 

“Racial Pay Gap: An Analysis of CARL Libraries” 
by Yanli Li. Using data from the 8Rs CARL Libraries 
Practitioner Survey in 2014, this study assesses the 
impact of race on the earnings attainment process 
based on a sample of 392 CARL library practitioners. 
It determines that there is a significant salary disparity 
between visible minorities and nonvisible minorities. 
Racial differences in job characteristics account for a 
larger portion of the explained racial salary gap than 
individual and labor market characteristics. The effect 
of race on salary is shown to be weaker for librarians 
than for support staff.

And lastly, as data seems to be on the tip of everyone’s 
brain, there are a couple of articles on data that will pro-
vide a good foundation on the topic with an approach 
to user behavior with the construction of personas and 
an analytical look at the literature on Big Data:

“Using Personas to Visualize the Need for Data 
Stewardship” by Live Håndlykken Kvale. There is a 
current discussion in universities regarding the need for 
dedicated research data stewards. This article presents a 
set of fictional personas for research data support based 
on experience and requests by experts in different areas 
of data management. Using a modified Delphi study, 
24 participants from different stakeholder groups have 
contributed to the skills and backgrounds necessary to 
fulfill the needs for data stewardship. Inspired by user 
experience (UX) methodology, different data personas 
are developed to illustrate the range of skills required to 
support data management within universities. Further, 
as a competency hub for data stewards, the development 
of a research data support center is proposed.

“Big Data: Opportunities and Challenges in Li-
braries, A Systematic Literature Review” by Panorea 
Gaitanou and Emmanouel Garoufallou. Currently 
“Big Data” is an emerging field that presents several 
information technology challenges regarding the cap-
ture, storage search, structure, and visualization of this 
data. The real challenge for organizations is to find 
ways to extract value from it and provide better services 
to their clients. The data generated in academic and 
other institutions is vast and complex. Libraries face 
new challenges as they seek to determine their role in 
the handling of Big Data within their organization and 
use it to develop services. Thus, in most organizations, 
libraries will not have the knowledge to build new 
services unaided. Furthermore, libraries have always 
been information handlers and technology adopters. 
Therefore, Big Data technologies will certainly affect 
their context. The purpose of this paper is to explore 
all these issues through a systematic literature review, 
unveiling the theories that underpin the paper’s argu-
ment. It attempts to answer several research questions, 
such as how librarians are involved in the Big Data 
era? And what are the future research developments 
of Big Data within the library context? The study 
considered only papers published between 2012 and 
2018 in English and presents the collected literature 
by grouping them according to the type of library each 
paper refers to. Thus, it identifies new and evolving 
roles in the context of all types of libraries. In addition, 
the study presents several interesting tables, which 
aim to help librarians locate relevant articles that will 
inform their practice and guide service development 
for users of large and complex datasets.