Digital Commons Network^™

Social Media- Wikipedia, Twitter,Blogs, Lists And Lis News-2000-2015, Kathleen De La Peña Mccook

Kathleen de la Peña McCook

Human rights, social justice, library engagement using discussion lists, blogs, twitter. Wikipedia as a librarian's work.

A Review And Evaluation Of Services And Resources To Engineers: A Case Study Of Outreach And Marketing, Assessment, And Future Directions In A Research Library, Matt Torrence

Matt Torrence

Engineering student and faculty populations present a beneficial and unique challenge to libraries and the information science community. The literature, activities, and resource needs of this group provide insight into a demographic that is often among the early-adopters of new technologies, tools, and methods of sharing information. Despite the often non-bibliographic nature of their research efforts, there are numerous elements of the traditional service model that remain relevant and integral to the engineering research patron base. New methods of live and virtual instruction, the improved promotion of research consultation, and data management are prime targets for efficient and effective service …

Tablet Technology In Support Of Professional Productivity, Barbara Lewis, Drew Smith

Barbara Lewis

In 1987, Apple Computer, as it was then known, produced a five-minute video about potential human-computer interaction, set in a time approximately 25 years in the future (coincidentally, about the time in which these words are being written). The video depicted a university professor interacting with a touch-activated tablet-like device and a voice-activated artificial intelligence (AI) agent, communicating with students and colleagues, reviewing his daily agenda, and preparing a presentation for later delivery. It appears that the hypothetical “Knowledge Navigator” tablet device was imagined as a great aid to professional productivity.

In 2012, our reality involves the existence of touch-activated …

Scholar Commons @ Usf: Sharing Knowledge Worldwide, Carol Ann Borchert, Julie Anne Fielding

Carol Ann Borchert

No abstract provided.

First Steps In Planning A College Department Curriculum To Incorporate Information Fluency, Claudia J. Dold

Claudia J. Dold

Creating an information fluency curriculum for a specific discipline requires preliminary work: assessing what students already know in their discipline; what they need to learn to be successful in their current course; and then what they will need to be functional in the field when they complete the remaining classes in their discipline, when they start working in their field, and/or when they move on to graduate school. This session addresses how one librarian approached faculty in a particular discipline, assessed the current teaching agenda, and planned to determine the information fluency demands of the courses.

The Role Of Librarians In Academic Success, Claudia J. Dold

Claudia J. Dold

Librarians address all levels of information needs for the university: its acquisition, its production, its storage, and instruction for its safe and gainful use. Most of today’s college students have a high degree of computer literacy but are weak in their abilities to determine the quality of the information that is so readily available. Students need to be taught to find, evaluate, and use information in an academically-oriented manner in order to solve complex problems. Good library skills are integral to academic success. In conjunction with research and teaching faculty, librarians create a framework for knowledge acquisition in the evolving …

The Role Of Librarians In Academic Success, Claudia J. Dold

Claudia J. Dold

Librarians address all levels of information needs for the university: its acquisition, its production, its storage, and instruction for its safe and gainful use. Most of today’s college students have a high degree of computer literacy but are weak in their abilities to determine the quality of the information that is so readily available. Students need to be taught to find, evaluate, and use information in an academically-oriented manner in order to solve complex problems. Good library skills are integral to academic success. In conjunction with research and teaching faculty, librarians create a framework for knowledge acquisition in the evolving …

Data-Driven Decision Making: A Holistic Approach To Assessment In Special Collections Repositories, Melanie Griffin, Barbara Lewis, Mark I. Greenberg

Barbara Lewis

Faced with shrinking budgets and reduced staffing, the University of South Florida Libraries Special & Digital Collections Department (SDC) implemented a comprehensive, integrated assessment program to better focus its diminished resources within clear strategic goals. Department faculty sought to answer the following inter-related questions: 1) What are the Department’s staffing needs? 2) What staff skill sets and training are required to meet researchers’ expectations, and what personnel skills and functions are most needed by the Department in the future? 3) Where should the Department target its outreach efforts? 4) How can the Department streamline and prioritize technical services to support …

What The Heart Remembers: The Women And Children Of Darfur, Barbara Lewis, Audrey Powers

Barbara Lewis

In 2009, the University of South Florida (USF) Libraries received from the organization Waging Peace a collection of materials which included transcripts of interviews with female genocide survivors and original children's drawings depicting the atrocities of genocide in Darfur. These materials are particularly significant in that they were used as evidence of genocide In Darfur in the International Criminal Court. The children's drawings have been digitized by USF and are an important element in the development of a web portal for the new Holocaust & Genocide Studies Center. These drawings also inspired the performance piece What the Heart Remembers: The …

Making It Real: Faculty Collaboration To Create Video Content, Claudia J. Dold, Gary Dudell

Claudia J. Dold

Interest in integrative health care is a growing area of health practice, combining conventional medical treatments with safe and effective complementary and alternative medicine. These modalities relate to both improving physical and psychological well-being, and enhancing conventional talk therapy. In an interdisciplinary collaboration, teaching and library faculty have created a series of sixteen on-line video interviews that introduce practitioner-relevant experiences to students as supplemental course material. These videos are available through the department web-pages to students in other related disciplines as well, including Social Work, Counselor Education, Psychology, and the Colleges of Public Health, Nursing, and Medicine. The video series …

Librarian-Faculty Collaboration Inventory: A Personal Reflection Exercise, Susan Ariew, James Eison

Susan A. Ariew

There are many different ways librarians can create opportunities for networking,coordination and collaboration with faculty members. This inventory identifies briefly some 20 different possibilities.

Making It Real: Faculty Collaboration To Create Video Content, Claudia J. Dold, Gary Dudell

Claudia J. Dold

Interest in integrative health care is a growing area of health practice, combining conventional medical treatments with safe and effective complementary and alternative medicine. These modalities relate to both improving physical and psychological well-being, and enhancing conventional talk therapy. In an interdisciplinary collaboration, teaching and library faculty have created a series of sixteen on-line video interviews that introduce practitioner-relevant experiences to students as supplemental course material. These videos are available through the department web-pages to students in other related disciplines as well, including Social Work, Counselor Education, Psychology, and the Colleges of Public Health, Nursing, and Medicine. The video series …

The Balance Point: Libraries As Journal Publishers, Anali Maughan Perry, Carol Ann Borchert, Timothy S. Deliyannides, Andrea Kosavic, Rebecca Kennison, Sharon Dyas-Correia

Carol Ann Borchert

Increasing library involvement in journal hosting and publishing is an important topic for serialists and therefore this installment of “The Balance Point” column presents articles that offer descriptions and analysis of the current state of ideas and activities related to libraries as publishers. Featured authors discuss the publishing and journal hosting tasks libraries can perform, programs and activities related to journal hosting, titles hosted, challenges, next steps and the benefits or drawbacks foreseen in the current paths of the libraries they represent.

The Collaborative Imperative And Information Literacy: Strategies For Librarian-Faculty Partnerships, Susan Ariew, James Eison

Susan A. Ariew

This workshop, designed primarily for librarians who work with faculty in higher education or school settings, will explore constructive strategies for forming librarian/instructor partnerships. These strategies will include collaborative planning activities for library instruction sessions, ways to collaborate using course management systems, and the design of post instruction follow up activities.

Coping With Hobgoblins: Rethinking Journals Processing In The E-Journals Environment At The University Of South Florida, Carol Ann Borchert

Carol Ann Borchert

Many libraries grapple with how to develop new skills for processing electronic journals, while still handling the print format as well. Journals in a print format have always been complex, and adding the electronic component has made them more so. Few libraries are adding staff to handle this workload. The University of South Florida Tampa Library has tried a number of workflow changes--not always successfully--to handle this transition. This paper will explore these changes, explaining why some were not successful and why others have resulted in efficiencies, and concludes with lessons learned that could benefit others.

Students, Faculty, And The Library: Research At The University Of South Florida, Susan Silver, Matt Torrence, Barbara Lewis, Drew Smith

Matt Torrence

This study will assess various aspects of library services and resources from the user perspective, utilizing a number of methodologies, including surveys, usability testing, observation, and focus groups. In-depth examination of how students and faculty use the library will guide our efforts to improve library services and resources and facility that relate to student success.

Making Decisions: Using Electronic Data Collection To Re-Envision Reference Services At The Usf Tampa Libraries, Lily Todorinova, Andy Huse, Barbara Lewis, Matt Torrence

Barbara Lewis

Declining reference statistics, diminishing human resources, and the desire to be more proactive and embedded in academic departments, prompted the University of South Florida Library to create a taskforce for re-envisioning reference services. The taskforce was charged with examining the staffing patterns at the desk and developing recommendations to give librarians greater flexibility and to better respond to the information-seeking needs of users. These recommendations were based on statistics of desk usage, collected with the newly adapted online tool Desk Tracker, and structured interviews with library administrators. The taskforce was interested in how these stakeholders use quantitative data in decision-making.

Institutional Support For Librarian-Faculty Collaboration: A Personal Reflection Exercise, Susan Ariew

Susan A. Ariew

This is a reflective exercise to help you consider how ready your organization and institution is in support of collaborative work between librarians and academic faculty members. Please indicate for each item below if these characteristics apply to your organization or institution.

What The Heart Remembers: The Women And Children Of Darfur, Barbara Lewis, Audrey Powers

Barbara Lewis

The University of South Florida Tampa Library received and digitized original materials created by refugee children depicting the atrocities of genocide in Darfur. The development of a performance piece inspired by these materials to promote the Library’s resources and initiatives was proposed; thus, the project What the Heart Remembers: The Women and Children of Darfur was born. This presentation focused on digital image management, technology related to the visual arts, faculty outreach, and collaboration within disciplines such as the Library, Theatre and Dance.

Special Collections And The New Web: Using Libguides To Provide Meaningful Access, Barbara Lewis, Melanie Griffin

Barbara Lewis

Librarians have long struggled to find user-friendly mediums to provide meaningful information to patrons; using bibliographies, pathfinders, and subject guides with varying degrees of success. Content management systems, such as Springshare’s LibGuides, have recently been developed to facilitate the creation of online subject guides. Special Collections units also struggle with this issue. This article examines how special collections are presented on the Web, the use of LibGuides for special collections, and how the use of LibGuides is facilitating the goal to provide information in a meaningful way by Special & Digital Collections at the University of South Florida Tampa Library.

Transforming Special Collections Through Innovative Uses For Libguides, Melanie Griffin, Barbara Lewis

Barbara Lewis

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the utility of Springshare’s LibGuides platform for special collections repositories and to evaluate the collection guides built by Special & Digital Collections at the University of South Florida in LibGuides.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper explores how academic libraries have used LibGuides previously and provides a case study that suggests new ways for special collections repositories to make the most of the product.

Findings – The simplicity and easy-to-update functionality of LibGuides works well for USF’s Special & Digital Collections collection guides. The flexible API allowed SDC to embed digital content, enable user comments, …

Disaster Mental Health: Building A Research Level Collection, Claudia J. Dold

Claudia J. Dold

Disasters are not uncommon events, and take many forms. Disasters, in whatever form they take, rob us of our sense of well-being, our security, our community, our loved ones, and our homes. Disasters forever change ‘life as we know it’ and seriously impact our ability to function. The psychosocial effects of a natural or manmade disaster can be long lasting, and the resulting trauma can reverberate even with those not directly affected by the disaster. Mental, neurological, and behavioral disorders are common sequelae to natural and manmade disasters. People with these disorders endure social isolation, poor quality of life, and …

20 Tips On Networking (Or Outreach) And Collaboration, Susan A. Ariew

Susan A. Ariew

Moving from Outreach to Collaboration: 20 Tips on Networking (or Outreach) and Collaboration.

Transforming Special Collections: A (Lib)Guide To Innovation. Peer-Reviewed Poster Session Presented At The American Library Association 2010 Annual Conference., Barbara Lewis, Melanie Griffin

Barbara Lewis

“Special Collections as Laboratories,” a recent posting on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s The Wired Campus blog, revived the myth of special collections as dusty and often forgotten repositories.

This poster session illustrates how Special & Digital Collections (SDC) at the University of South Florida Tampa Library transformed its web presence in order to dispel such notions. SDC created a series of collection guides using Springshare’s LibGuides platform to make its web presence more user-friendly, engaging, interactive, and holistic. The guides also add value to the researcher by contextualizing each collection and highlighting connections/partnerships with other Library units, related academic …

Numeracy: Open-Access Publishing To Reduce The Cost Of Scholarly Journals, Todd A. Chavez

Todd A. Chavez

Each fiscal year, as academic librarians throughout the United States prepare materials budgets, a national “groan” ensues. Regardless of their format (i.e. print or digital), serial subscription costs are escalating, in the process impacting the role of the library in advancing scholarly communication . This paper examines some of the economic issues concerning open-access (OA) journal publishing. The importance of quantitative literacy is suggested for librarians and academics seeking a better understanding of alternatives to traditional journal subscription models and to anyone considering ventures into OA publishing. Quantitative literacy is essential for managing alternatives to the rising cost of scholarly …

Basic Archives Processing Manual For Student Employees And Volunteers, Tomaro I. Taylor

Tomaro I. Taylor

A step-by-step guide for the arrangement and description of archival collections. Developed for individuals new to archival processing in a special library setting.

Connecting To Marginalized Groups Through Web 2.0, Tomaro I. Taylor

Tomaro I. Taylor

No abstract provided.

Grey Literature In Karst Research: The Evolution Of The Karst Information Portal (Kip), Todd A. Chavez

Todd A. Chavez

The Karst Information Portal (KIP) is a digital library linking scientists, resource managers, and explorers with quality information resources concerning karst, an understudied natural environment that is crucial to the health and well-being of one out of every four people on Earth. Beginning in 2006 as a partnership between the University of South Florida Libraries, the National Cave & Karst Research Institute, the University of New Mexico Library, and the Union Internationale de Spéléologie (UIS), the KIP initiative has expanded to include databases concerning cave minerals, speleothem dating, and coastal cave surveys. This chapter outlines the evolution of the project …

The Evolution Of The Karst Information Portal, Todd A. Chavez

Todd A. Chavez

The Karst Information Portal (KIP) is a digital library initiative linking scientists, resource managers, and explorers with quality information resources concerning karst, an understudied natural environment that is crucial to the health and well-being of one out of every four people on Earth. Beginning in 2006 as a partnership between the USF Libraries, the National Cave & Karst Research Institute, the University of New Mexico Library, and the Union Internationale de Spéléologie (UIS), KIP has expanded to include databases concerning cave minerals, speleothem dating, and coastal cave surveys. This presentation outlines the evolution of the project and describes ongoing developments …

Cave Mineral Database: A Joint Collaboration Between Geologists, Librarians, And Programmers, Beverly Caggiano, Bogdan P. Onac, Todd A. Chavez

Todd A. Chavez

The Cave Mineral Database (CAMIDA) is a collaborative project of the University of South Florida Libraries, UIS’s Cave Minerals Commission, the Karst Information Portal, “Emil Racoviţă Institute of Speleology (Romania), and the Karst Research Group at University of South Florida (USA). CAMIDA is an open-access collection of geological, mineralogical, crystallographical, and protection/conservation information on all minerals discovered in caves (including lava tubes) around the world. It holds and organizes large amounts of information (including polarizing, scanning, and transmission microscope photos), and makes any item immediately accessible. It also provides links to many other integrated database of Raman spectra, X-ray diffraction …