About  

April Hobbs is the Graduate Student Outreach Librarian at the University of Memphis. April is the liaison with the Graduate School and provides research support, graduate instruction, and relevant programming including the Dissertation Writer’s Retreat and its variations. She also assists students, faculty, and staff at the Reference Assistance Desk and Chat. April has continued working on research relating to disaster information and emergency planning for libraries.  

Education 

• M.L.I.S. Library and Information Science – University of South Carolina, 2019
• B.A. Communication Studies – Young Harris College, 2015

Work Experience

• Research and Instruction Librarian, University of Memphis – Memphis, Tennessee, 2022 - present
• Adult Services Librarian and Creative Studio Coordinator, Charleston County Public Libraries – Charleston, S.C., 2020 – 2022

Teaching Experience 

• FOUN 1000: First Year Foundations – Young Harris College (Teaching Assistant/Peer Mentor)

Research Interests

• Disaster information
• Consumer health information
• Emergency planning for libraries
• Information literacy

Publications

• Tu-Keefner, F., Hobbs, A., & Bricker, A. (2022). Is the authoritative online COVID-19 consumer health information intelligible to adults of the general public? A COVID-19 information analysis. Journal of Consumer Health Information on the Internet, 26(4), 373-395. https://doi.org/10.1080/15398285.2022.2124493
• Tu-Keefner, F., Hobbs, A., & Bricker, A. (2022, March). Is your COVID-19 health information understood by adults in the general public? A content analysis of online resources published by the CDC and the WHO. In Proceedings of the International Congress of Medical Librarianship (ICML) and the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) Joint Conference.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Liu, J., Lyons, D., Hobbs, A., Smith, J. C. & Corbo, M. (2020). Health Information Access and Public Libraries’ Situation-Specific Information Services: What Public Librarians and Library Users Said. Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet, 24(3), 201-227. DOI: 10.1080/15398285.2020.1791666
• Tu-Keefner, F., Liu, J., Lyons, D. R., & Hobbs, A., Hull, C. (2019, August). Preparing future librarians and current information professionals to lead libraries in times of crisis. In Proceedings of the 85th World Library and Information Congress of IFLA. Athens, Greece. Retrieved from http://library.ifla.org/2532/1/234-tu-keefner-en.pdf 

Presentations 

• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., & Hobbs, A. (2023, October 21). Library resilience from coast to coast: Lessons from disaster research to engage your community and empower your staff. Presented at the American Library Association CORE Forum, New Orleans, LA.
• Parkman, C., Hobbs, A., & Marsicano, D. (2023, October 18). The sandbox - incorporating makerspaces into academic spaces. Presented at the Tenn-Share Showcase 2023 Conference, Virtual, TN.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., & Hobbs, A. (2023, June 25). Library resilience from coast to coast: Lessons from disaster research to engage your community and empower your staff. Presented at the American Library Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., & Hobbs, A. (2023, June 2). Community resilience from coast to coast: Lessons from disaster research to engage your community and empower your staff. Presented at the California Library Association Annual Conference, Sacramento, CA. 
• Hobbs, A., & Hess, C. (2023, May 15). Keeping the lights on: Maintaining a dissertation retreat through staffing changes and continuing COVID. Presented at the West Tennessee Academic Library Consortium Bi-Annual Meeting, Memphis, TN. 
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., & Hobbs, A. (2022, October 13-15). Building a culture of preparedness: Librarians lead in times of crisis. Presented at the American Library Association Core Forum, Salt Lake City, UT. 
• Tu-Keefner, F., Hobbs, A., & Bricker, A. (2022, July 26-29). Fighting an infodemic through accurate, intelligible COVID-19 Information: An analysis of the readability level of authoritative online consumer health information. Presented at the 87th IFLA World Library and Information Congress, Dublin, Ireland. 
• Tu-Keefner, F., Hobbs, A., & Bricker, A. (2022, May 2-7). Do your general public users understand the COVID-19 health information you have provided? A content analytical study. Presented at Medical Library Association Annual Meeting & Exhibition, New Orleans, LA.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Hobbs, A., & Bricker, A. (2022, March 15-19). Is the COVID-19 health information that you provided understood by your general public users? A content analytical study. Presented at the International Congress of Medical Librarianship (ICML) and the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) Joint Conference, Pretoria, South Africa.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., Liu, J., Hobbs, A., & Smith, J. C. (2022, March 23-25). Librarians lead in times of crisis: Stop, drop & roll. Presented at the Public Library Association Conference, Portland OR.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., Liu, J., Hobbs, A., & Smith, J. C. (2021, October 26-28). Librarians lead in times of crisis: Stop, drop & roll. Presented at the Internet Librarian 2021, Monterey CA.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., Liu, J., Hobbs, A., & Smith, J. C. (2021, September 17). Supporting library staff in Emergencies and natural disasters. In K. William & C. Chu (Chairs), Minitalks: Libraries, literature, literacies [Minitalk Series]. University of Illinois. https://publish.illinois.edu/minitalks/events/ 
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., Liu, J., Hobbs, A., & Smith, J. C. (2021, September 9-10). Supporting library staff in Emergencies and natural disasters. Emergency Preparedness & Disaster Planning Summit, Columbia, SC, United States.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., Liu, J., Hobbs, A., & Smith, J. C. (2021, August 17-19). Supporting library staff in Emergencies and natural disasters [Poster presentation]. 2021 IFLA World Library and Information Congress. https://www.ifla-wlic2021.com/.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., Liu, J., Hobbs, A., & Smith, J. C. (2021, June 23 – 29). Librarians' roles during emergencies and natural disasters. Paper presented at the American Library Association Annual Conference & Exhibition virtual event, June 23 – 29, 2021.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., Liu, J., Hobbs, A., & Smith, J. C. (2021, June). Supporting staff in emergencies and natural disasters: Making the case for serving our communities equitably through partnerships. Paper presented at the New Jersey Library Association virtual conference.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., Liu, J., Hobbs, A., & Smith, J. C. (2020, September). Supporting staff in emergencies and natural disasters. Paper presented at Computers in Libraries & Internet Connect virtual event.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., Liu, J., Hobbs, A., & Smith, J. C. (2020, January). Supporting librarians' roles in emergencies and natural disasters. Paper presented at the ALA Midwinter 2020, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Lyons, D. R., Liu, J., Hobbs, A., & Smith, J. C. (2019, October). Librarians as first responders: Preparing future librarians and current information professionals to lead libraries in times of crisis. Paper presented at the Library Research Seminar VIII, 2019. Columbia, SC.
• Tu-Keefner, F., Liu, J., Freeburg, D., Hartnett, E. J., Lyons, D. R., Corbo, M., & Hobbs, A. (2018, August). Lessons learned after a disaster: investigations of public librarians’ health information services to the community and community members’ information needs following a catastrophic flood. In Proceedings of the Evidence for Global and Disaster Health Special Interest Group Meeting, An IFLA 2018 Annual Congress Satellite Meeting. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• Hobbs, A., & Scarpinato, A. (2015, May). May the Odds Be (N)ever In Their Favor: Intersectionality and Appalachian Stereotypes In The Hunger Games. Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association (CSA), Riverside, CA.
• Richardson, C., Hobbs, A., Simmonds, A., & Underwood, C. (2015, March). Scroogled: Examining Stereotypes in the World’s Most Popular Search Engine. Shining a Light on Communities: Exploring Issues of Diversity and Education Conference. Young Harris, GA.
• Richardson, C., Hobbs, A., Scarpinato, A., & Simmonds, A. (2015, February). Hicks, Hillbillies, Rednecks, and Yokels: Reconstructing Popular Memories of the South through Google’s Automated Searches. Southern American Studies Association (SASA) Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA.

Grants

• Creating a Sustainable and Shareable Disaster Information Services Repository Website. Submitted with Dr. Feili Tu-Keefner and Ms. Denise Lyons to the Y3 Emergency Response and Preparedness Award from the Region 2 Regional Medical Library at the Medical University of South Carolina. Awarded. $17,872
  • This award is supported by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH) under cooperative agreement number UG4LM013736

Outreach, Service, and Membership

• Chair, Dissertation Writers Retreat Committee (DWR), 2022-
• Member, NEDTalks Committee, 2022-
• Member, Research Guides ReDesign Committee, 2022-
• Member, Sandbox Committee (Makerspace), 2022-
• Search/Screening Committee, Digital Initiatives Librarian, 2023
• Secretary, Memphis Area Library Council, 2022-
• Member, Intellectual Freedom Committee, Tennessee Library Association, 2023-
• Member, Emergency Response and Preparedness Advisory Committee, Network of the National Library of Medicine, Region 2, 2023-