Are you a public librarian with responsibilities in youth services? You are invited to participate in an online focus group aimed at U.S. public youth services librarians. The purpose of the focus group is to examine the disposition of public librarians on changes to their professional scope of practice in the face of the expanding trend of placing social workers in public libraries to support community social services information needs, perform outreach, and engage in other activities that have previously fallen to public librarians as part of their job. 

The research is being conducted by Dr. Melissa Gross and Dr. Don Latham from Florida State University.

The focus groups will be conducted in Zoom on April 11 & 12 at 3PM EST and will last approximately one hour. You will receive a $50 gift card for participation. If you are interested in participating, please respond using this link: fsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8D2Mfj1darLi3KC  

Participation in the focus group is voluntary. You have the right to not participate in this study. We will make a recording of the focus group. In order to participate, you must agree to be recorded. In reporting the focus group findings, we will not reveal your name or your identity.

The study is funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and has been approved by the Florida State University Institutional Review Board. Focus group data will be used to write research papers and make conference presentations. We will collect, transmit, store, and access electronic files in computer systems with password, encryption, or other authentication protection. All data will be kept confidential to the extent allowed by law. After the transcripts are received and cleaned, the recordings will be deleted. Any personally identifying information will be removed from the transcripts, which will be stored in the FSU  DigiNole Research Repository after the project ends.

If you have any questions about this study, now or in the future, please contact:

Dr. Melissa Gross

School of Information

Florida State University

850-644-5775

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You can also contact the Florida State University Human Subjects Office at 850-644-7900 or at ...@fsu.edu" style="color: #2199e8; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">huma...@fsu.edu.  

Brittany Baum

PhD Candidate & RA

School of Information

Florida State University