Librarians Empathy: Visually Impaired Students' Experiences Towards Inclusion and Sense of Belonging in an Academic Library Nahid Bayat Bodaghi a, ⁎, Loh Sau Cheong a , A.N. Zainab b a Department of Educational Psychology & Counselling, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia b Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia abstract article info Article history: Received 25 March 2015 Accepted 10 November 2015 Available online 28 November 2015 One of the key factors that fosters the creation of a sense of belonging is the sense of empathy. Indeed, it is con- sidered to be one of the key skills for helping professionals, especially librarians. Nevertheless, previous studies were mostly library-focused. This paper approaches this issue from the visually impaired person's (VIP) perspec- tive. The questions this paper aims to answer are: “What have VIPs experienced in a University library regarding the degree of librarians' sense of empathy” and, “How do they perceive it?” This study uses a qualitative approach. Data was collected through interviews and focus group discussions with eighteen VIPs who were registered in a university library. To determine the trustworthiness of the data, member checking, external audit, and reflexivity were used. The participants of the study perceived librarians' greeting and friendly conversation, their tone of voice, sense of understanding regarding their limitations, and their communication regarding any changes in the circumstance of the library environment as key factors that illustrate their sense of empathy towards VIPs. Furthermore, VIPs expressed being afraid to ask for help from librarians, being disappointed, confused, uncom- fortable, and not being understood due to a lack of librarians' sense of empathy that influenced their professional behavior. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Sense of belonging Sense of empathy Visually impaired students University library Inclusion INTRODUCTION The real meaning of an inclusive library environment is more than just a physical integration, it includes providing supportive systems, a welcoming culture, and an accepting atmosphere that is called, “creating a sense of belonging” (Peters, 2007; Symeonidou & Phtiaka, 2009). A sense of belonging is affected when individuals with special needs connect with other members in the community. This can happen voluntarily or involuntarily by excluding or including themselves from the mainstream community (Burchardt, Le Grand, & Piachaud, 1999). Therefore, depending on their beliefs, experiences, and perceptions to- wards their surrounding environment, individuals with special needs can make a decision to remain in or leave the community (Oxoby, 2009). One of the key factors that fosters the creation of a sense of belonging is the sense of empathy. Empathy is considered to be a key skill for all professionals helping others, especially librarians. Indeed, it influences the effectiveness of communication and the sense of understanding be- tween librarians and library users. Empathic librarians can provide qual- ified services for their users. Nikolova (2004) noted that empathic skill is one of the core psychological skills, and it is an innate gift that has to be learned by individuals. Empathy can be considered one of the factors that can alleviate the negative experiences of students with special needs in the context of an academic library. Indeed, a librarian's degree of empa- thy has an influence on a user with special needs and their sense of inclu- sion, integration, and belonging to the library environment. In this regard, equipping university librarians with sufficient empathic skills seems vital, especially when considering their main role in motivating students to continue their studies and to achieve their educational goals (Solomon, Battstich, Kim, & Watson, 1997). This study depicts the perceptions and experiences of visually impaired students (VIPs) enrolled in a university library towards the li- brarians' degree of empathy. The questions this paper aimed to answer are, “What have VIPs experienced in a university library towards degree of librarians' sense of empathy” and “How do VIPs perceive the librar- ians' sense of empathy?” In this study we hope to demonstrate to what extent the librarians' sense of empathy can influence a VIP's moti- vation to use the library services and the frequency of their library visits. LITERATURE REVIEW SENSE OF BELONGING Inclusion is more than just a physical integration and includes providing supportive systems, a welcoming culture, and an accepting atmosphere (Peters, 2007; Symeonidou & Phtiaka, 2009). Therefore, The Journal of Academic Librarianship 42 (2016) 87–96 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: nahid_bb54@yahoo.com (N.B. Bodaghi), Lohsch@um.edu.my (L.S. Cheong), zainaban63@gmail.com (A.N. Zainab). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2015.11.003 0099-1333/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 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