Digital Commons Network^™

Coconino Community College Library Goes Online: Navigating Remixed Professional Identities In A Reimagined Library, Nick Faulk, Este Pope

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

In 2010, a community college library in rural Arizona was closed and in its place emerged a reimagined model for library services. The traditional physical library, the print collection, and the library's full staff were replaced with an online library collection, a solo librarian, and a partnership with a local state University library. As this new, online-based library matured, a new relationship with eLearning and an expanded partnership with the University library developed.

The first two individuals to serve in this bold new approach to librarianship, Este Pope (2010-2012) and Nick Faulk (2013-2016) share what they learned about establishing and …

Act Like A Librarian, Think Like A Fundraiser, Mary Moser

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Do we abandon the core tenets of our profession when we reframe our professional activities through the lens of a fundraiser?

How can we reconcile our public service values with the forward-facing self-promotion that accompanies a fundraising mindset?

Are we at odds with our profession if we think of ourselves as library promoters, not just service providers?

These are some of the questions with which I have wrestled as I have transitioned into a new role at a public university facing a deep budget crisis. What I have realized is that whether or not fundraising is a part of our …

Social Justice Partners: A Service Design Toolkit For Library Response To Campus Tensions, Megan Bresnahan, Liz Fowler, Kristin Dhabolt

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Academic libraries exist at the very center of our campus communities; they are the literal and figurative geographic hearts of our colleges and universities. At our best, libraries aim to provide safe and welcoming spaces, both virtual and physical, for reflection, engagement, critical debate, and learning. This powerful role is both a responsibility and an honor. Libraries should take great care to prepare themselves to respond quickly, appropriately, and firmly in the face of rising anxieties or tensions on our campuses related to racial, cultural, social, or political instability or any local trauma.

Recently, the University of New Hampshire- Durham …

Oer, Copyright And Faculty: Are Academic Librarians Qualified To Support This Triptych?, Lindsey Gumb

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

OER (Open educational resources) is rapidly gaining momentum and recognition in higher education as the cost of textbooks and supplemental learning materials continue to rise. University administrators are realizing the cost-savings impact that OER can have on student enrollment and retention and are encouraging faculty to utilize these free resources in order to help the university stand out among the competition. As a profession, librarians have always collaborated with faculty to assist in locating relevant content for their courses as well as been leaders in open access, so it makes sense that we are being called on to assist in …

Hot Topics: Critical Information Literacy For Global Citizenship, Social Justice, And Community Participation, Sean Leahy, Alan Carbery, Faith Yacubian

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Justification for embedding information literacy instruction as part of the college curriculum can come in many forms. From responding to the proliferation of unreliable sources of news in hyper-partisan times, to heeding employers’ calls for improved workplace information-seeking skills, to addressing the integral role of information literacy in critical thinking, there are numerous avenues at our disposal when promoting the value of librarian instruction. But, what about the more entrenched social issues that impact our campuses and communities more broadly? What role does information literacy instruction have in addressing long held prejudices? How might it be a component of efforts …

From The Programmer’S Point Of View: Imagining Creative Solutions To Serve Our Patrons, David Cirella

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

When seeking to expand our services and the experiences that we offer to our patrons, librarians have the opportunity to find creative solutions in ways that provide a meaningful improvement and demonstrate an engagement with modern systems. As the shift to exclusively computer-based resources, online channels of communication, and web services continues, the information side of library information science requires that we take up the task of becoming familiar with computer programming, software engineering practices, and data handling in order to provide the best services possible.

The need for computer literacy, more specifically how to think programmatically, in all areas …

The New Frontier Of Academic Library Outreach: Middle School Students Research Visits, Anne Jung-Mathews

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

In some towns, the university campus and surrounding community exist as silos. They may be co-located in the same region but never interact in a meaningful way. One academic library changed all that by offering local schools the opportunity for all-day library research visits with students as young as those in middle grades. The visits featured a brief instruction session with the Outreach Librarian tailored to the assignment and skills, along with ample time for individual research, and down-time with coffee in the library café and lunch in the campus dining hall. This poster presentation will inspire librarians at other …

Using Ethnographic Interviewing To Learn About Your Faculty, Carolyn Mills, Sharon Giovenale

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

We were part of a nineteen institution ethnographic study on the research practices and support needs of agriculture faculty, under the auspices of Ithaka S+R in 2016. We will use our work to illustrate how ethnographic interviewing works. We will discuss:

• Training and preparation
• The process of recruiting and interviewing, and interview transcription.
• Coding & analysis of results, mapping findings from the interview transcriptions
• Our findings and conclusions which, though drawn from agriculture, are potentially applicable to a broader range of science researchers

Our message to attendees is that anyone can do this research with the right preparation and support. …

Multilingual Researchers And Reference Management Habits, Adam H. Lisbon

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Software is often developed with an implicit bias that people only speak one language, and that language should be English. Reference management software is no different. Scholars often have sources of information in multiple languages, and properly citing them creates a set of additional rules to remember and challenges for software to overcome to properly document the nature of the source materials. Different scholarly journals may have different expectations for how to format non-English sources. The demands can also vary based on the actual language of the source.

The use of reference management software is well documented, but the nature …

Collaborators And Partners: Librarians And Digital Scholarship, Jennifer Snow, Marisol Ramos

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Digital Scholarship is an important and growing field in which librarians embed themselves in scholarly projects, not just as providers of a service but as partners and collaborators throughout the life-cycle of research. Instead of acting as consultants on the periphery of the research process, librarians can be involved at every stage of the process. They bring valuable skills to the table in terms of technological expertise, subject and research knowledge, preservation considerations, and dissemination pathways. The University of Connecticut Library has consciously sought to grow its digital scholarship program and has undertaken several projects in the last couple of …

To (Re)Frame It, Name It: Refining Spending Codes To Reveal New Collection Trends, Julie Linden, Sarah Tudesco

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

For college and research libraries, a major 21st century transformation has been the spending shift from print materials to electronic resources. This shift has triggered ongoing conversations about resource allocation at many institutions. Common assumptions that are drawn from these general trends:
• Spending on the sciences has increased at the expense of the humanities
• Spending on serials has increased at the expense of monographs

Overly simple expenditure codes that merely distinguish print from electronic do not allow these assumptions to be tested. This poster will demonstrate how a 2013 revision of expenditure codes used in the library’s acquisitions …

Academic Librarians Working With Their Lgbtq Patrons: An Exploratory Survey, Martin Morris, John Siegel

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Introduction
There is now a small but growing body of evidence to demonstrate that LGBTQ library patrons often have specific and distinct information needs and information-seeking behaviours (Beiringer and Jackson, 2007; Schaller, 2011; Morris and Roberto, 2016). Many academic libraries are recognizing these specific needs and making increasing efforts to meet them, informed by new diversity statements and plans. However, these efforts are far from universal.

Given the increased attention and awareness of LGBTQ issues, librarians must be equipped to assist researchers and consumers with LGBTQ-themed inquiries. A number of studies have been conducted with physicians, mental health counsellors, and …

Who Mentored Whom?: A Conversation About Leadership, Sam Boss, Celia Rabinowitz

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Library leaders are grappling with changes in the role of libraries on our campuses, the identities and work of our library faculty and staff, and our responsibilities as voices in the senior leadership of our campuses. We occupy a unique role at the institution, yet we must also respond to enrollment instability, resource costs and budgets, student success, and facility use and planning. For library leaders, developing a campus-based support network can be difficult. Though we are engaged in finding solutions to the same challenges as our colleagues in other departments, we often encounter them from a different angle.

Within …

Upgrading Ezproxy From Local To Hosted Solution, Michael Rodriguez

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Triaging priorities and staff time, UConn Library decided to outsource its locally hosted EZproxy access and authentication service to OCLC in late 2016. OCLC’s hosted EZproxy solution features security and configuration enhancements, maintenance services, and a self-service option. The migration proved complex and time-consuming but ultimately successful. This poster will visualize for attendees the motivations and workflows involved in UConn’s migration effort, including challenges encountered and tips for overcoming such challenges. This poster will also address how to optimize the library’s EZproxy contract with OCLC. Coverage will include UConn’s implementation of CAS single sign-on authentication with an additional layer of …

Expanding Library Services From A Visual Resources Perspective, Molly Schoen

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

This poster will address new services that librarians can implement to better support the needs of their patrons. It will focus on initiatives taken within the past year by Visual Resources staff at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), who work within the University’s History of Art department.

Across college campuses, visual resource centers have gone through unprecedented change over the last 15 years. After transitioning from slide libraries to digital image collections, visual resource centers now face the challenges and opportunities of staying relevant in an age where high quality visual materials are easier for patrons to find on …

"The Library Catalog Is Definitely The Best Place To Find Articles!” Overconfidence Among Undergraduate Library Users, Katelyn Angell

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Investigators in several academic subjects have conducted research focused on determining if undergraduate students are overconfident regarding their knowledge of disciplinary subject matter. Up until recently, most of these studies have investigated students of psychology or economics. However, a handful of academic librarians have begun to conduct similar studies with undergraduate library users, curious whether this population shows similar overconfidence in their grasp of academic research. Overconfidence is a major problem for students because it interferes with both learning and an authentic self-awareness. The present study surveyed 34 undergraduates to assess if they were overconfident about their knowledge in key …

Collaborative Outreach: How To Fit The Library Into The Schedules Of Over-Scheduled Students, Carrie M. Macfarlane, Mary Ellen Bertolini, Amy Frazier, Jerrica Davy

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

“I wish I had known about this sooner!” Librarians hear that exclamation all too often when we tell students about research assistance and library resources. Research and critical thinking skills are essential in today’s information-rich world, yet many students have to develop these skills on their own. They must learn to navigate their options with minimal guidance. Unfortunately, this often means wasted time, missed opportunities, and frustration.

How can librarians reach students before the frustration begins? At a school like Middlebury, where information literacy instruction is not part of the curriculum, we have to be creative. We are competing with …

Adapting A New Model For Library Orientation: The Clinical Case Presentation, Nancy Bianchi, Gary Atwood

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Every summer, new pediatric residents enter postgraduate medical training at the University of Vermont Medical Center. An introduction to the Dana Medical Library has been a long-standing orientation activity for these new residents. In the past, this hour long orientation consisted of a lecture outlining library resources, services, and policies followed by a tour of the physical space. Observations of this traditional orientation, however, revealed bored-looking, unengaged residents, who even questioned the usefulness of this scheduled library session.

After thoughtful consideration and discussion among librarians, we concluded that this was probably due to the passive nature of these activities, and …

Getting Past “Post-Truth”: Librarians Respond, Vicki Gruzynski, Robin Potter, Madelyn Shackelford Washington, Rebecca Martin, Megan Bresnahan

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

There is concern among librarians that information illiteracy and the rapid spread of false news via social media have changed the information climate considerably, to the point where it feels as though we are witnessing the dawn of the “post-truth” era. Coupled with changing campus climates and a rise in hate crimes post-election, this panel of librarians feels an urgency for librarians to provide support to marginalized students, faculty, and fellow librarians. Librarians dedicate their lives to fostering critical evaluation of information sources through information literacy instruction, collection development, partnerships with campus stakeholders, and many other roles. Librarians are equally …

Data Management: Tailoring The Message, Patricia Condon

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

In this presentation, Patti Condon discusses how we, as information professionals, can tailor our messages to be more effective when we talk to researchers and students about data management.

We are seeing the library take on larger roles in data services evidenced by hiring new positions to meet the emerging data needs of our users. In many cases, however, responsibilities for working with researchers and students on areas related to data services are increasingly being added to the mounting duties of librarians who serve in liaison roles, scholarly communication librarians, or science librarians. Effectively framing conversations around data services topics …

Shifting Frames: Creative Collaborations At The Intersections Of Scholarly Communication And Information Literacy, Barbara Defelice, Laura Barrett

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Building on the framework presented in the ACRL Whitepaper “Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy”, librarians in different roles at Dartmouth have forged connections among the experiential learning and scholarly communication conversations campus-wide. This is most evident in programs that include new ways of teaching copyright, outreach around the Dartmouth Faculty Open Access Policy, and an Experiential Learning Initiative grant which furthers our work with students involved in different kinds of publishing activities. Through these programs, the Library is integrated into the key goals of the institution to forward teaching, learning, scholarship, and research. Learn how we built bridges …

Contested Subjects: Coalition-Based Activism In The Library, Jill Baron, John Desantis

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Upholding values of diversity and inclusion in our libraries sometimes requires concrete measures that go beyond the delivery of information resources or services. One instance of this occurred at Dartmouth College in 2014, when a group of students discovered and subsequently protested the use of the phrase “illegal aliens” in the library catalog’s controlled vocabulary. Librarians at Dartmouth, awakened by the student protest, guided the students in submitting a petition to the Library of Congress to change the heading, which later inspired members of the American Library Association to lobby on their behalf. When the Library of Congress’ Policy and …

Evidence-Based Librarianship: Methods For Researching User Experience, Emily Crist, Alan Carbery

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Designing experiences for library users requires an understanding of the people, as well as the situations involved in those experiences. When developing library services, this understanding is important in order to consider how the services can fit within constituents’ practices, how they can complement existing user workflows and learning strategies, and how they can reflect and build on their users’ identities. A data-driven, evidence-based approach to librarianship is becoming increasingly important.

Additionally, libraries are increasingly tasked with demonstrating their impact and contributions towards institutional priorities in the wider higher education landscape. To that end, the presenters’ institute created a unique …

Whose Book Is This [And Does It Matter]? How Shared Print Programs Are Redefining Our Understanding Of Local Collections, Susan Stearns, Matthew Sheehy, Lizanne Payne, Dan Cherubin

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Shared print initiatives such as the Eastern Academic Scholars’ Trust [EAST] and the HathiTrust Shared Print Program are beginning to redefine collection ownership in academic and research libraries and offer opportunities for new forms of cooperation and collaboration. These large-scale programs effectively create mega-collections of scholarly materials that have been designated for retention or preservation and can be loaned to partner libraries. This panel will report on the results of these ground-breaking shared print programs, discuss plans for growth and posit ways in which such programs may impact collection development, resource sharing, and library collaboration at scale.

EAST has completed …

Collaborative Cartography: Creating An Asset Map For Student And Community Success, Dragan Gill, Laura Coelho, Amethys Nieves

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

In this workshop participants will learn key steps in creating campus and community asset maps to help discover areas of strength in communities, including resources and various supports. The workshop will address the following: (1) defining the purpose and audience of the map; (2) creating a shared controlled vocabulary across departments and/or disciplines; (3) choosing the appropriate mapping software; and (4) the process of sharing data with the wider world. Learn from our experience in bringing campus and community projects together with the library to create maps that serve multiple purposes, including interactive databases of campus resources and supports, and …

Information Literacy And The Special Needs Student, Scott Schaffer

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

Special needs students are a rapidly increasing component of the student population at colleges and universities across the country. Students with learning disabilities and/or emotional problems present many challenges but also many opportunities in formulating appropriate instruction. Librarians need to carefully plan activities for these students as information literacy and research instruction can prove to be particularly problematic.

The presentation will focus on approaches most likely to be beneficial in helping this student population learn effective research skills and understand important concepts in information literacy. Information presented will be gleaned from the presenter's personal experience in working with special needs …

“Would You Like To Test Drive The New Library Website?” Implementing Guerrilla Usability Testing At Academic Libraries, Maria Nuccilli

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

This poster details the author’s experience conducting weekly “guerilla” usability tests of the Wayne State University Libraries homepage with her team in Discovery and Innovation. Academic libraries acknowledge the importance of usability testing, but the amount they do can be hindered by time or budgetary restraints. Guerilla usability testing allows academic libraries to gain valuable insights regarding website usage and functionality without conducting formal tests or focus groups: all that’s needed is a laptop with a wi-fi connection. Producing results quickly and cheaply, the sessions are short and student participants are recruited on the spot to complete a short series …

Reference Rot, A Digital Preservation Issue Beyond File Formats, Kathleen Botter, Mia Massicotte

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

In the era of ‘born digital’ ETDs, librarians and institutional repository curators need to reframe our responsibilities regarding digital preservation that go beyond file formats.

Documents that reference the live web are subject to reference rot: the combination of linkrot, the potential for a webpage to cease existing, and content drift, where a webpage’s content changes over time. Both phenomena contribute to long-term access of scholarly content and its context on the live web, or lack thereof. We examined PhD dissertations published in Concordia University’s Spectrum Research Repository, from 2011 to 2015, for evidence of reference rot.

Our poster will …

Biomedical Research Data Management Open Online Education: Challenges & Lessons Learned, Julie Goldman

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

The Best Practices for Biomedical Big Data project is a two year collaboration between Harvard Medical School and University of Massachusetts Medical School, funded by the NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Initiative for Resource Development. The Best Practices for Biomedical Research Data Management Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provides training to librarians, biomedical researchers, undergraduate and graduate biomedical students, and other interested individuals on recommended practices facilitating the discoverability, access, integrity, reuse value, privacy, security, and long term preservation of biomedical research data. This poster highlights lessons learned from the first year of this project.

Built upon the New …

Sturdy Bones: Reframing The Small Academic Library, Cadence Atchinson

ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference

In July 2014, a small group of UNE Libraries staff called the “New Library Models Task Force” was created to reframe the academic library for the 21st century, including internal structure, positions, services, and cross-departmental collaborations. The new model had to work within the existing skeleton of the library with no changes in budget or number of staff positions. Throughout the last two years the Task Force and the UNE Libraries staff have been working toward creating a structure that is flattened, forward-thinking and student centered. This has involved de-siloing, fostering greater communication and encouraging cross training. Throughout the process, …