Abstract
The goal of this bibliometric study is to analyze the measures academic and public libraries take toward providing inclusive and accessible outreach to veterans and military families. The literature review for this study revolves around articles that have been analyzed for content and similarities of methodology. The proposal will then continue to explain the methodology used for this study. This methodology will be a quantitative analysis of literature on library outreach to veterans and military families, specifically on topics relating to the creation of programs, veteran participation and opinions, and the incorporation of dependent-specific programs. The purpose of this analysis is to provide future researchers and librarians with the means to locate literature that has impacted and connected, the library and military communities. The information that will be found in this study can be found within the databases Academic Search Premier, Education Source, and Google Scholar.
Introduction
For decades, veterans have made the transition from military life back to civilian life. Along with that transition, many have decided to take the leap back into education. As seen with the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, veterans received the G.I. Bill that would then provide them with a stipend to cover their college or trade school expenses. After 9/11, the G.I. Bill was reevaluated to fit the needs of many veterans returning home from the Middle East. The change allowed veterans to qualify for fully covered tuition within a public in-state college and additional funds for housing and book expenses. This provided veterans and their dependents a chance for easy and accessible education. As a result, colleges throughout the United States saw a rise in veteran and dependent enrollment.
With the surge in military families learning on and off-campus, the question still remained. What more can be done to help military families and meet their needs? Many universities and community colleges have initiated outreach programs for these families, through the incorporation of on-campus Veteran Affairs offices. These programs worked to provide resources that were more focused on their education and future learning opportunities. However, while these resources are needed, many military families also rely on resources greatly seen within the library. Libraries are able to recognize a need from their community members and work to incorporate it into their collection development and outreach program. Because of this, many military families and single veterans have turned to libraries in hopes of resources on reintegration resources and companionship when returning to civilian life.
The goal of this study is to provide future researchers and librarians with a guide and analysis of literature relating to military outreach programs. This study can be used to reference active outreach programs as an evaluation of what might need to be changed or updated within the program. This study can also aid those that do not have active military outreach programs and provide information on how to initiate one in their library and engage with veterans and their families. Libraries are the gateways to information and inclusion. As a result, libraries must expand their inclusion to military families, and work to provide outreach programs that meet their needs as they reintegrate into civilian society.
Problem Statement
While these programs and institutions help veterans with their reintegration, libraries are still being overlooked. Both public and academic libraries have fallen short of providing resources for both veterans and their dependents within their shelves, as well as programs that meet their needs. As a result, military families may face struggles when going through the transition from military life to civilian life. The resources and programs that many of these veterans and their dependents could find useful relate to topics on coping with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, financial help, initiating civilian life reintegration, family counseling, reintegration into family life after deployments, and teaching children how to cope with such issues. The goal behind libraries is to reach both general and special populations within the community in ways that help meet the patron’s needs and help build a connection between the community and the library. While veterans make up a large majority of the community, both public and academic, they are still considered an underserved population within libraries. As a result, many libraries around the United States have taken the initiative in acknowledging this neglect, and have worked to provide programs and resources for both veterans and their families.
This study works to provide researchers with access to those libraries and the work they have done on military outreach. Its goal is to analyze peer-reviewed journals in order to provide insight into what is being done with the incorporation and inclusion of military outreach programs. As a result, researchers will be able to learn more about what has been done and what can continue to be done for military families through the works of library outreach.
Research Questions
R1. How many articles detailed program creation and initiation?
R2. Which articles detailed specific programs with veteran-participant feedback?
R3. What was discussed in the articles referring to dependant-specific programs and needs?
Limitations/Delimitations
The publishing dates for the articles found in this study have been limited to a thirteen-year search, between 2010 to 2022. These articles have also been limited to those found within the databases Academic Search Premier, Education Source, and Google Scholar. This study only focuses on the topics found within the discussion of library outreach to military families such as engaging veterans, financing and creating outreach programs, and types of outreach programs.
Definitions
Dependent: An employee’s spouse; children who are unmarried and under age 21 years or who, regardless of age, are physically or mentally incapable of self-support; dependent parents, including step and legally adoptive parents of the employee’s spouse; and dependent brothers and sisters, including step and legally adoptive brothers and sisters of the employee’s spouse who are unmarried and under 21 years of age or who, regardless of age, are physically or mentally incapable of self-support. (DOD, 2017.)
Deployment: The rotation of forces onto and out of an operational area. (DOD, 2017.)
Nonappropriated funds: Funds generated by Department of Defense personnel and their dependents are used to augment funds appropriated by Congress to provide comprehensive, morale-building, welfare, religious, educational, and recreational programs. (DOD, 2017)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A mental health condition that is triggered by a terrifying event- either experiencing it or witnessing it. (Mayo Clinic, 2022.)
Veteran: A person who served in the active military, naval, or air service, and who was discharged or released therefrom under conditions other than dishonorable. (USDVA, 2019.)
Assumptions
It is assumed that the articles retrieved from the databases recorded above are accurate and complete. It is further assumed that the information included in each article is accurate.
Literature Review
Upon further researching this topic, it has become apparent that there are currently no bibliometric studies on library outreach to veterans or military families, specifically. However, the methodology that is used in this study can be seen within bibliometric studies on other topics. The goal of this literature review is to show the similarities in methodologies between this study and previously published studies.
Although it is related to the medical field, Bankston (2009) researched the growth in articles relating to health literacy. The purpose of this analysis was to provide future researchers with information on the importance of health literacy and its affiliation with the general public. Because health literacy can correlate with a person’s respected literacy levels, they can intertwine and possibly disable or enable the person to have access to the proper medical care. In order to show how vast the issue of health literacy was, Bankston worked within nine databases to find articles on this topic. The reasoning behind this was to show that “health literacy” is a phrase that is not commonly used as a medical subject heading. As a result, findings may come short when only looking within specific medical-field databases. Using multiple databases helped ensure that Bankston was compiling more well-rounded data for his analysis. As a result, Bankston was able to prove that the conversation on health literacy is continuing to grow in interest through multiple academic fields, and not just the medical field.
Galvez-Sanches, Lara-Rubio, Verdu-Jover, and Meseguer-Sanchez (2021) all worked together to provide a bibliometric analysis of literature relating to financial inclusion. By researching articles that had been published within a thirty-five-year timeframe, they were able to learn about the advances companies and businesses were achieving when it came to having an accessible financial system and digital money usage for their clientele. This study was confined to one database, Scopus, and only focused on peer-reviewed, full-text articles. After finding the articles needed for the study, they began to analyze the data relating to authors’ affiliation to the business or company, the methods used within the article to achieve this inclusion, and the journal that published the most and least of the articles. Upon further analysis, the group had evidence of a rise in companies and businesses working towards an inclusive financial system and market for their clientele. This was seen with the use of digital formats of payment and communication between client and business.
The next study by Mustapha, Van, Shahverdi, Qureshi, and Khan (2021), focused on digital technologies that rose to power in classrooms during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. When the pandemic began, schools from all over the United States were closed until further notice. As a result, students and teachers began to learn ways that they could maintain their classroom normalcy through home learning. As a result of this, the idea of sustainable and digital learning has begun to grow in interest. By analyzing only peer-reviewed articles, the group worked to find literature on the benefits of continuing digital learning in the future. This study focused on published works that connected to the keywords “digital education” and “Covid-19.” Along with this, the timeframe was maintained between 2020 and 2021. Once the articles were found, the group began to analyze the methods of digital learning that were discussed in the articles, the author’s affiliation to the topic, and the subjects incorporated into the articles. Once this was complete, the group was able to provide quantitative data on the positive outcome found with continued digital learning, for both students, faculty, and student guardians.
Srivastava (2021) conducted a bibliometric study on the influences social media influencers have on marketing. The goal of this study was to show the increase in influencer marketing and provide evidence on the reasonings behind this. This study was focused on articles relating to social media marketing and social media influencers. After compiling the articles, the next step was to analyze the data found within them. This step revolved around analyzing the author’s affiliation to the topic, the methods influencers used to market products in the article, and which social media platforms were used the most and least. After finishing the analysis, the data proved that there is more to influencer marketing than meets the eye. In order for items to gain attention and social media traction, influencers were judged by their likeability, authenticity with the product, and the impact of their appearance with the item had on the targeted audience.
McLellan and Steele (2022) conducted a bibliometric study on literature relating to archives and heritage organizations, and their focus on community outreach. The purpose of the study was to show the increase in archival and heritage organizations working to update or begin their educational outreach programs for secondary schools. In order to prove their hypothesis, they focused their findings only on peer-reviewed articles. Along with this, they worked within a ten-year timeframe, between 2009 to 2019. By doing this, McLellan and Steele were able to see the gradual rise in educational outreach programs. After finalizing their article results, they continued to work on analyzing the contents of each article. This revolved around the article’s relevance to its respected publishing journal, what educational fields were the focus of each article, and how archival materials were incorporated into the articles.
As stated before the review, there is currently a lack of bibliometric studies on library outreach toward veterans and military families. However, there is a large number of studies that have been conducted on topics relating and not relating to the library and information science field. The goal behind incorporating the previous studies was to show the similarities of methodologies between them and the methodology that will be used within this bibliometric analysis. These similarities can be seen with the incorporation of multiple databases within the research, looking at the author’s affiliation to the subject material, and the discussion on programs and methods within the selected articles.
Methodology
In order to locate the articles needed for this bibliometric analysis, the only databases that were used for research were Academic Search Premier, Education Source, and Google Scholar. These databases provide professional, peer-reviewed articles on the subject matter and provide access to articles that may not be found in other library and information science-specified databases. Articles were found through the use of the search phrases, “library outreach and veterans” and “library outreach and military families.” For this study, only peer-reviewed articles that have been published between the years 2010 to 2022 were included. The results of this study were then compiled into a Google Sheet worksheet. The items that are included in this worksheet will be the author, title of the articles, publication date, author’s affiliation to the military or Veteran Affairs, and content and subject of the article.
Results
After reviewing the three library and information science databases, ninety-six results articles were found. These articles were then reviewed for any issues such as duplicates and lack of content relating to the topic of library outreach and military families. After this review was completed, the final total of articles was thirty-seven. These were then used to finalize the results of this study’s three research questions.
R1. How many articles detailed program creation and initiation?
After compiling the data from the three databases above, a total of twenty-three scholarly, peer-reviewed articles were published between 2010 to 2022. This evidence can be found below in Table 1. Between the years 2010 to 2013, only a total of two articles were published. After this time frame, there was a slow rise in article publication until 2017. After 2017, the number of articles began to fall, ending with only one article being published by 2022. The highest number of publications can be seen in the years: 2016 with three publications, 2017 with five publications, and 2019 with three publications. The years with the least or zero numbers of publications were: 2010 with one publication, 2011 with zero publications, 2012 with zero publications, 2013 with one publication, 2021 with one publication, and 2022 with one publication.
| Year | Articles Published |
| 2010 | 1 |
| 2011 | 0 |
| 2012 | 0 |
| 2013 | 1 |
| 2014 | 2 |
| 2015 | 2 |
| 2016 | 3 |
| 2017 | 5 |
| 2018 | 2 |
| 2019 | 3 |
| 2020 | 2 |
| 2021 | 1 |
| 2022 | 1 |
| Total: | 23 |
R2. How many articles were published, detailing specific programs with veteran-participant feedback?
After compiling the data from the three databases above, a total of twenty peer-reviewed articles were found that related to or detailed specific veteran-based programs or included the voices and opinions of veterans. This evidence can be found in Table 2, below. Between the years 2010 and 2012, only one article was published that met these criteria. Between 2013 to 2015, a total of four articles were published. This increase in publication continued to increase and can be seen greatly between the years 2016 to 2019, with a total of thirteen articles being published. While this increase did happen, the number of publications dropped back down to one or zero after 2019, and until 2022.
| Year | Publications |
| 2010 | 0 |
| 2011 | 1 |
| 2012 | 0 |
| 2013 | 2 |
| 2014 | 1 |
| 2015 | 1 |
| 2016 | 3 |
| 2017 | 4 |
| 2018 | 3 |
| 2019 | 3 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 1 |
| 2022 | 0 |
| Total: | 20 |
The following chart, Table 3, shows a narrower breakdown of the articles from Table 2. This breakdown shows the exact percentages of which articles provided program-specific, which are veteran voice-specific, and which articles include both of these criteria. As seen in the chart, program-specific articles held the highest percentage of publications with a percentage of 55. As for veteran voices and opinion-specific articles, there was only a total percentage of twenty publications. However, with this total, those that were published and included both themes showed a total percentage of twenty-five.
R3. What was discussed in the articles referring to dependant-specific programs and needs?
The following table, Table 4, provides a breakdown of the period of time within the thirteen-year time frame that had articles published relating to military dependents and military families. Between 2010 to 2013, zero articles were published on this topic. However, there were some articles that were published between 2014 to 2022, with a total of six articles. Out of these six articles, two articles detailed tips and program ideas for military families, three articles detailed tips and programs for military kids specifically, and only one detailed helpful tips for military spouses specifically.
| Year | Publications |
| 2014 | 1 |
| 2015 | 0 |
| 2016 | 1 |
| 2017 | 2 |
| 2018 | 0 |
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 0 |
| 2022 | 0 |
Discussion
After reviewing the evidence found from the results above, researchers are able to see the level of importance of library outreach to veterans and military families is within the LIS world. To begin this discussion, the first points are made about outreach to veterans. Within the tables above, it is clear that there is still very little information and works done on outreach to veterans. The evidence of this is seen with the highest number of article publications being five in the year 2017. As time has progressed, it has been made clear that library outreach to veterans has not been a forefront thought for libraries and LIS professionals. While the articles that were analyzed do provide researchers and LIS professionals insight on what is needed from them to provide outreach to veterans, a question still remains. What happens now and what will happen in the future. With the present issues seen within the United States that affect veterans, for example, the shutdowns caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic, the pulling out of troops from Afghanistan, and the current rapid deployments to Europe due to the Ukraine conflict, there is a continued need for library outreach and a sense of inclusiveness towards veterans.
Continuing on the topic of veterans is the analysis of the programs that were made specifically for veterans. Once again, the highest number of articles relating to this theme was seen in the year 2017, with only four article publications. However, these articles showed themes and issues to consider when working with and for veterans. Military veterans are a special population that many overlook because of the stereotypes of attitudes and personality, as well as the issues of reclusiveness that are seen strongly within the military world. Unlike the more common special populations that libraries work with, children, the homeless, and those with disabilities, military veterans also need to be analyzed correctly in order for the library to learn how to connect with them and provide inclusive outreach for those in need of aid. Military veterans have spent the majority of their adult lives working in a different environment as compared to everyday civilian life. As a result, their needs cannot be met unless librarians learn how to talk to veterans. The majority of the articles relating to programs acknowledged this as a strong factor when creating veteran-specific programs. Along with this, allowing their voices to be heard during the program process was also an important factor. While many perceive the military as an individuality-stripping machine, those that have given their lives to serve their country as still individuals with a need for reintegration and processing life after the military. As stated before, because of the lack of articles found on this topic there is still a very strong need for the continuation of research and the creation of programs oriented to helping veterans meet their needs.
The final analysis covers those who are military dependents. After analyzing the articles above, the discussion on military families as a unit and military dependents is staggeringly low. While it is important to acknowledge the need for outreach to veterans, it is just as important to acknowledge the need for outreach to their dependents. Military dependents, both spouses and children, have little support outside of the military environment when it comes to managing life during and after their service member’s time in service. This can be seen with the lack of job opportunities, constant transfer to different schools, coping and processing with issues such as deployments and PTSD, and even learning how to reintegrate back into full civilian life themselves. Out of all these issues that can be seen within the life of a military dependent, and others not listed here, there are only six articles that have been written within a thirteen-year timeframe that acknowledge this need. Because of this, the question still remains. What happens now and what will happen in the future?
While these articles provide a plethora of sources for researchers and LIS professionals to look into, this analysis has also brought to light the systematic failure the library has done to veterans and their families. There is and always will be a need for library outreach and inclusiveness to all special populations, and acknowledging those such as military families can be the first step to fixing the failures of those in the past in order to better the future for others. With the increase and advancements in technology seen between the years 2017 and 2022, there are plenty of ways to reach veterans and military families and learn how libraries can help them and welcome them with open arms. With this analysis and the acknowledgment for change, change should and will come in order to help veterans and military families in ways only a library and its inclusiveness can.
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THE CAFFEINATED HISTORIAN 