Academic Integrity and the Role of the Academic Library: Institutional Examples and Promising Practices

This book presents the growing interconnection of two pillars from the world’s higher education institutions: academic integrity and libraries. It provides sound examples to extant questions and conversations about whose job it is to teach academic integrity, and what library work is. The role of libraries in supporting academic integrity is not always clear and has not been fully explored.

Drawing from library literature and that of academic integrity more broadly, readers are exposed to how libraries are necessary in a holistic approach to academic integrity. Education about academic integrity and the prevention of academic misconduct, for not only students but other institutional stakeholders, are demonstrated as occurring optimally in positive, supportive, and proactive ways. The book details numerous ways in which librarians can work with faculty and other stakeholders using established frameworks such as information literacy and blended librarianship as well as innovative platforms and content.

Other contributions involve the identification of potential academic misconduct and administration of academic integrity policies to complete the cycle recommended by the frameworks of global educational quality organizations (QAA, TEQSA). Initiatives presented in the book include those at the course level and institution-wide initiatives involving curriculum, policy, and supports for faculty and students. Also contained are efforts occurring at a national level within professional networks , in addition to international library curriculum. This book provides inspiration to institutions and academic libraries of any size and scope to embrace this emerging role in creating cultures of academic integrity.

Josh Seeland is the Manager of Library Services at Assiniboine Community College (ACC) in Brandon, MB, Canada, where his portfolio items include academic integrity and copyright. He also serves as Chair of ACC’s Academic Integrity Advisory Committee. Seeland is a founding member of the Manitoba Academic Integrity Network (MAIN), the Advisory Committee for 2023’s Canadian Symposium on Academic Integrity, and the Canadian National Consortium of the International Center for Academic Integrity. His writing can be found in academic

journals including Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity and International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology. Seeland is also a co-editor and author for the edited volume, “Contract

Cheating in Higher Education - Global Perspectives on Theory, Practice, and Policy”.

Jason Openo serves as the Dean of Medicine Hat College’s School of Health and Community Services' in Alberta, Canada.He holds a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Washington’s iSchool, and a Doctor of Education in Distance Education from Athabasca University. He spent over 20 years working in public and academic libraries, and he has led library projects that have won international, national, and provincial awards. Jason has also worked as an Assistant Lecturer in the University of Alberta’s online Graduate School of Library and Information Science. He co-authored “Assessment Strategies for Online Learning: Engagement and Authenticity,” published by Athabasca University Press (2018), and his other work has been published in the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, The Canadian Journal for Learning and Technology, and Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity.