In this early career research project, DR. KAI LI at the university of tennessee, knoxville's school of information sciences will investigate a fundamental but underexplored question for libraries:…

The Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded the University of Tennessee, Knoxville $546,672 on September 1, 2026, under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (CFDA 45.313) to construct a large-scale, openly licensed dataset linking bibliographic metadata, scholarly journal reviews, and public attention data across multiple platforms.

Dr. Kai Li, based in the University of Tennessee's School of Information Sciences, will investigate how audiences of scholars, general readers, podcast listeners, and media reviewers engage with academic monographs. The research addresses how scholarly knowledge circulates beyond traditional peer-reviewed journal channels and into public engagement ecosystems. The resulting dataset will enable librarians to integrate the linked data into their systems and workflows.

Work is performed in Knoxville, Tennessee, with a period of performance from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2028. This is an early-career research project funded as a Project Grant.

In this early career research project, DR. KAI LI at the university of tennessee, knoxville's school of information sciences will investigate a fundamental but underexplored question for libraries: how do audiences of scholars, general readers, podcast listeners, and media reviewers engage with the academic monograph? These books have traditionally been peer evaluated through scholarly book reviews published in academic journals. However, a growing ecosystem of public engagement has also emerged through public platforms that offer a source of evidence about how scholarly knowledge circulates beyond the academy. This project will construct a large-scale, openly licensed dataset linking bibliographic metadata, scholarly journal reviews, and public attention data across various platforms, enabling librarians to integrate IT into their systems and workflows.