Bharat Mehra

University of Alabama | UA · School of Library and Information Studies

In this essay, inspired by the timeliness of our chronologically shared symbolic birth (the journal’s inaugural issue and my professional career as a faculty member) I briefly discuss and critically analyze the influence of community informatics upon my professional journey, in our mutual symbiotic growth, intersections and divergences. I also shar...

The Institute of Museum and Library Services’ National Leadership Grants for Libraries program recently awarded a $332,939 grant titled “Civic Engagement for Racial Justice in Public Libraries” (RJ@PL) to the University of Alabama and the Chicago State University. The grant’s purpose is to build the capabilities of public librarians and selected co...

This panel presents research and scholarship, case studies, and reflective narratives that exemplify how public libraries use social capital to build communities and affect social change (Wojciechowska, 2021). Session participants will hear from the book editors and chapter authors of a book entitled How Public Libraries Build Sustainable Communiti...

This article explores an exploratory/emerging framework collaboratively developed by a public librarian and library and information science (LIS) educator to operationalize community-engaged programming through critical autoethnographic reflections from Williams (first author) doctoral journey. The authors propose a novel framework, emphasizing ele...

The Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program recently awarded a $463,238 grant titled “Training of Community-Embedded Social Justice Archivists” (SJ4A) to the School of Library and Information Studies atthe University of Alabama. The grant’s goal is to recruit/train 17 community-embedded paraprofessional a...

An important aspect of human information behavior research is to understand the motivations of people as they interact with information and technologies to make a difference. This paper presents exploratory findings of a qualitative study of public librarians' motivations to expand civic engagement for racial justice in the American South. The geog...

The Information Action Briefs (IAB) introduced in this paper use the format of a policy brief and serve as a resource and action guide to develop and create transformational actions using information to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The IAB is designed to inspire and mobilize library and information science (LIS)...

Academics argue that the COVID‐19 pandemic has limited students' ability to learn, with significant digital inequities occurring between students from the global North and the global South. Students and academics from developing nations encountered particular challenges and difficulties with the move toward online styles of learning. Much like thei...

This panel presents information research cases translating impact into practice, policy, and action that make a difference in varied contexts of study. Initiatives of collective impact are applied and/or proposed, and the following models of research and research studies, exemplifying critical collective impact and making a difference IN research a...

Contemporary archives-related agencies in the United States increasingly recognize the entrenched reality of archival work that has historically stayed privileged and biased while representing a semblance of neutrality (Society of American Archivists, 2020). Hence, today many call for rectifying the lapses of the past and a need to center social ju...

In moving beyond words and taking action on diversity in the library and information field globally, equity, inclusion, accessibility and development need to be addressed. Diversity has been espoused to address inequality in our field including the lack of diverse representation in our professional and faculty ranks; women, ethno-racial minorities...

The adolescent mental health burden is a global phenomenon with implications for morbidity and mortality. Adolescent health disparities have been impacted by the underutilization of mental health services, stigma and shortage of culturally and age-appropriate mental health programs and interventions globally. Mental health literacy is one way throu...

The Archival / Preservation Education SIG session offers pedagogical insights on master’s-level information science and archival education. Five ten-minute individual presentations and audience discussion elucidate educators’ roles in developing competent new professionals; presenters bring perspectives from multiple states. “Curricular Integration...

Racial discrimination persists as a feature of American life. In his 1881 essay, “The Color Line,” Frederick Douglass describes the enduring strain of racial prejudice which he characterized as a “moral disorder” that “creates the conditions necessary to its own existence and fortifies itself by refusing all contradiction” (p. 567). W.E.B. Du Bois...

This poster highlights insights from application of a logic model using Theory of Change (ToC) applied in ongoing grant development of civic engagement for racial justice in public libraries of the American South. An externally funded grant project, Civic Engagement for Racial Justice in Public Libraries (RJ@PL), awarded by the Institute of Museum...

The American state of Alabama has recently developed a national notoriety as a toxic place for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning/queer (LGBTQ+) people owing to several laws that have supported human rights violations and denied their civil liberties. This case study assesses how Alabama's public libraries are providing culturally...

Equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) are the core values of librarianship. There has been a wide array of professional and research publications, academic programs, diversity committees, and task forces related specifically to EDIA efforts and developments in library and information science (LIS), varying in focus, length, depth,...

An issue in the 21st century is how public libraries can be strategic and impactful to achieve greater equity. Based on a qualitative meta-analysis of chapters from the authors’ book A Librarian’s Guide to Engaging Families published in 2021, this article presents a framework of social justice to strengthen library services to engage underserved fa...

This article weaves three unhealthy realities of the contemporary age that have hijacked democracy in support of (dis)information’s absolute power, scientific research be damned! Democracy’s dysfunctions are operationalized within a neoliberal age, owing to social media’s perpetual cycle of distractions, scorn and political spinelessness across par...

This poster highlights the use of a multi‐methodological approach to assess the role of Alabama's public libraries in addressing the opioid crises. Select findings/results from mixed research methods are reported to document the experiences of Alabama's library staff about their information offerings, activities, and community engagement and analyz...

Ethnography has become a popular research design in LIS, with many creative implementations as well as concomitant problems. The seven panelists have expert perspectives to share about ethnography’s evolution and impact within our field. The panel begins with a succinct overall history of the method in LIS and a critical analysis of Chatman’s metho...

Information researchers can further social justice and social equity to meet the needs of minority and underserved populations experiencing intersecting modes of cultural marginalization. Scholars of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) can find overlooked intersections with social justice in “community networking” res...

This chapter traces the actualities and possibilities of representing social justice and social equity concerns in LIS via extending Ranganathan's five laws of librarianship within today's contemporary neoliberal and geopolitical realities. Blinders in librarianship are identified in its resistance to intentional, systematic, action-oriented, commu...

Relevance is a notion whose meaning and purpose have been widely discussed in information retrieval research. The ultimate aim of relevance—what Tefko Saracevic has called the “you know” principle—is to ensure that users have the information necessary to meet their goals. What is often missing from this discussion is a critical assessment of who ge...

The article discusses an instructor’s critical pedagogies and reflective practices in three graduate library and information science (LIS)-related courses on topics of social justice and inclusion advocacy, diversity leadership in information organizations, and community-engaged scholarship that were taught at the University of Alabama since spring...

Community engagement in rural libraries receives little focus and is an overlooked area of research. In this article, we report exemplars of agriculture-based community engagement in rural and Southern and Central Appalachian region of the United States. An online survey of rural library professionals demonstrates the positive impact of agriculture...

In April 2021, with the indictment of the murderers of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery in the United States, the quest for racial justice found a sliver of hope. This sliver of hope gleamed only slightly though, for the genetic legacy of human oppressions and all forms of subjugation towards each other are deeply entrenched in our evolutionary recor...

This article presents a critique of systemic library and information science (LIS) education and its hegemonic “White-IST” (White + elitist) discourse prevalent across the conceptualization and implementation of doctoral programs in the United States. The text illuminates the structural aspects of the doctoral experience embedded in (yet beyond) a...

Elfreda Annmary Chatman (1942-2002) is considered a pioneer library and information science (LIS) scholar for her theory development and ethnographic approach to understand information behaviors of understudied populations (e.g., female inmates, janitors, the elderly, poor people, female retirees, etc.). This article discusses the limited contempor...

This practical and research-based volume focuses on how libraries can meet the needs of underserved patrons in college and university libraries, with an emphasis on those facing trauma, abuse, and discrimination. While university libraries strive to meet the needs of all students, some groups have traditionally been overlooked. This volume engages...

Libraries are increasingly focusing on families. Educational research confirms that family engagement in children’s learning and development predicts school readiness, positive social behaviors, high school graduation, interest in STEM careers, and post-secondary education. A Librarian’s Guide to Engaging Families in Learning will inspire libraries...

Libraries are increasingly focusing on families. Educational research confirms that family engagement in children’s learning and development predicts school readiness, positive social behaviors, high school graduation, interest in STEM careers, and post-secondary education. A Librarian’s Guide to Engaging Families in Learning will inspire libraries...

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ratified 17 goals as a global blueprint towards “economic, social and environmental sustainability” of all nations. It includes “Gender Equality” (Sustainable Development Goal 5) that seeks to empower women and girls by eliminating discrimination and providing equal opportunities for their...

One hundred and ninety‐three countries have ratified the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development outlining 17 goals to promote prosperity of people and the planet in a peaceful and sustainable way. Despite hate crimes and marginalization around the world, LGBTQ+ communities are missing from conceptualization and description of these...

In this opinion paper, we frame a discussion on paradigm shift(s) in the field of information. We believe that in this astonishing historical moment of new directions and new opportunities both the existing paradigms and conceptual models in the field of information can benefit from re-examination to stay current with the times. We propose a framew...

This chapter builds on select experiences of a faculty member and a journal editor in working with library and information science (LIS) students enrolled in INSC 590 (Diversity Leadership in Information Organizations), a graduate course taught in the School of Information Science (SIS), at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), in spring 20...

In this panel, speakers will discuss a range of issues related to the evolution of theoretical frameworks employed in information research. It is in the view of this panel that there is a need for a paradigm shift, one that shakes the foundation of traditional information research. The new paradigm takes into account emergent information reality fe...

This poster highlights a work‐in‐progress prototype of a geographic information system (GIS4SCA‐RL) to map rural libraries' community engagement with external stakeholders in the Southern and Central Appalachian (SCA) region. It presents a prototype visualization platform for the audience to apply its pilot framework/design for visually representin...

With the view of scholarly and professional publishing as a staple of educating global information professionals, this interactive engagement session (IES) will bring together an international team of five educators/former and current LIS journal editors to reflect on the highs and lows of engaging Masters students in the process of scholarly commu...

This panel presentation will provide a brief overview of the Framework, followed by four presentations that explore theoretical and practical concerns that will be of interest to LIS educators. These presentations will serve as a foundation for a large group discussion of the implications of the Framework for LIS programs and the pedagogical challe...

In order to draw attention to and learn about gender inclusivity and equity in the academic library workplace in a fluid non-binary gendered society, academic librarians and researchers from major world regions were invited to respond to the question: What are the three most significant issues that are impeding and the three most significant issues...

This article identifies scenarios of technology use in rural libraries to promote community engagement in overcoming marginalization and bridging rural digital divides in the Southern and Central Appalachian (SCA) region. The research is based on a qualitative content analysis of feedback collected from 15 rural librarians in semi-structured interv...

Fabricated or fake news has become a phenomenon of unprecedented proportions in the 21st century. Donald J. Trump, the 45th and current President of the United States, has played a major role in its pervasive adoption and spread of misinformation and disinformation since his ascendency on November 8, 2016. In today’s complex political landscape, th...

This article documents scenarios or narratives of health engagement experiences in rural libraries based on qualitative analysis of feedback collected from 15 rural librarians in the Southern and Central Appalachian (SCA) region during semi-structured interviews conducted in 2017-2018. The article focuses on respondents’ perspectives of the “aboutn...

The paper explores a model of community-engaged scholarship developed in a planning grant entitled “Assessment of Rural Library Professionals’ Role in Community Engagement in the Southern and Central Appalachian Region: Mobilization from Change Agents to Community Anchors (CA2CA@SCA-RL)” awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to th...

Traditionally, American library and information science (LIS) education and librarianship have been predominantly white and female-oriented professions. As an international gay male person of color (originally from India) in its ranks, I have embraced social justice scholarship outside and within our bastion institutions of higher learning during a...

The chapter introduces the reader to select language of human sexuality and the definitions and characteristics of some key terms related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning/queer (LGBTQ+), identifies different theoretical perspectives of human sexuality and sexual orientation, and discusses select LGBTQ+ theories and concepts i...

This article is an exploratory journey of cultural visual literacy of “non-conforming” gender representations from pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides select research-based visual evidence of “non-conforming” genders and sexual orientations in traditional cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa as represented in its popular press, scholarly literat...

The 21st century collection manager encounters serious challenges in collection development (e.g., budget shortages, lack of skilled personnel, lower agency prioritization, and reduced available staff time). This article explores a practical, low-cost solution to these challenges that prevent collection developers from regularly creating/managing a...

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how public libraries assist small businesses in rural communities in the state of Tennessee in the United States. Tennessee’s rural residents, especially in its Appalachian counties, face debilitating economic and social challenges such as inadequate financial prospects, information poverty, unemp...

This chapter presents a gap analysis of the perspectives of small businesses and rural librarians in Tennessee in order to develop an implementation blueprint of a public library small business toolkit, a resource that the state's rural public libraries can create for small businesses in the future. The chapter reports on select comparison data set...

The 2016 presidential election in the United States was unprecedented in the extent of bitter divisiveness between the candidates’ campaigns, the complex factors attributed to the unexpected results, and the difficult years in which the nation will reel fromthe short-and long-term effects. In its aftermath, an aggravated, broken nation extends rura...

People living in the Appalachian region, including its rural areas, face challenging economic, social, and cultural conditions with limited financial opportunities, information poverty and unemployment, and low levels of information literacy and educational attainment. The roles played by rural public libraries in small business economic developmen...

Purpose - This chapter presents a cultural re-interpretation of race/ethnicity and sexuality in the American academy from the perspective of a gay man originally from India settled in the United States for more than 22 years. The reflection is based on experiences in graduate education in the United States during the closing decade of the 20th cent...

This paper briefly discusses the involvement of information science professionals as community action researchers in a planning grant entitled “The Role of Rural Public Libraries in Small Business Economic Development in the Appalachian Region: A Case Study of Tennessee” awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ National Leadership G...

This theoretical paper uses Bolman and Deal’s (2013) Four Frames Analysis to define the information world of families of children who present symptoms associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD is explored here as an information challenge imposed by fragmented views of an ADHD information world. This call to action explor...

PurposeIn India, recently on December 11, 2013, the Supreme Court re-established a ban on gay sex following a four-year period of decriminalization that had helped bring homosexuality out of the closet in this communally conservative country. In the light of such prosecution and denial of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) human rights...

Like all public libraries, rural public libraries in the Appalachian region can play a significant role in the economic development of their communities. Economic development in rural communities potentially benefit from many of the same resources and services all enjoy at public libraries, including free and public Internet access, space, educatio...

Purpose – The purpose of this research-based philosophical piece is to present a progressive manifesto for public libraries in the 21st century to address gaps in embracing diversity in its holistic dimensions and representing such information in their strategic planning and web documentations. Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis of pub...

PurposeThis chapter explores the perspectives of rural librarians about the information behaviors of children with special needs (CSN) and services available for the disenfranchised population in the Southern and Central Appalachian (SCA) region. Methodology/approachQualitative feedback is collected from 31 SCA rural librarians via phone interviews...

In recent years the geographic state of Tennessee in the United States has acquired a national notoriety and shameful reputation as a toxic place on issues of sex and gender (Mehra 2011; Mehra and Braquet, in press; Mehra and Braquet, 2011; Mehra and Braquet, 2007a, 2007b; Mehra and Braquet, 2006), especially owing to the infamous " Don't Say Gay "...

Proceedings of the 2013 American Society for Information Science & Technology Conference, 50(1), 1-5. (Acceptance rate: 51%)

This research highlights the status of the information technology (IT) skills and competencies being taught at LIS schools in the United States. Results list specific IT topics that the library schools are teaching and the ones that are missing from the curriculum. Based on a literature review these skills are then juxtaposed with the expectations...

This brief article explores the current state of library and information science (LIS) programs in terms of their nature and composition in state universities in India. Preliminary findings were based on a content analysis of representative information regarding LIS education available on the websites of all state universities and colleges that off...

Equity of access is an imperative in the global information world of the 21st Century. For the information outsider however, or those who are disenfranchised by social constructions, or economic, educational, or political circumstances, information poverty is a disheartening reality (Chatman, 1992; 1996; 2000; Burnett, Bessant, & Chatman, 2001). Th...

Tennessee about the value of LIS education in improving their library services in the 21 st century. The purpose is to develop a responsive US curriculum that is particu­ larly geared towards integrating rural information needs and expectations. Specifically, this article addresses: What are the critical information needs of rural library clients i...