Digital Commons Network^™

The Foundation Of And Future Directions For Jedi @ University Of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries, Michael W. Mercurio, Adam Holmes, Carol Connare, Nandita S. Mani, Jennifer Friedman

University Libraries Publication Series

This chapter per the authors provides an in-depth overview of how the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries has leveraged historical connections and special collections to provide a robust foundation for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion programming and initiatives on campus, in the community, and worldwide. Readers will be provided with examples that will inform conversations about JEDI efforts at their own libraries and on their own campuses, as well as insights gleaned during the process of doing this work at University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Becoming A Professor: Exploring New Faculty Learning, Sara Bano, Sarah Rose Fitzgerald

University Libraries Publication Series

Faculty careers come with formal and informal expectations for how faculty should behave. This study investigates how faculty discover these expectations using an adult learning theory lens. Phenomenological interviews with faculty were conducted to identify themes in their learning. Diverse experiences from faculty of different fields and ranks were included. Key themes that emerged from our study include missing information, diversity of faculty work, emotional labor, and exceptional circumstances as a result of the pandemic. We found that adult learning theory explained certain aspects of faculty learning behaviors; however, andragogy did not address socio-emotional aspects of the learning process.

Envisioning The Future Of A Mature Ir: A Midlife Assessment Of Scholarworks@Umassamherst, Erin Jerome, Thea P. Atwood, Melanie Radik, Rebecca M. Seifried

University Libraries Publication Series

The University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries launched its institutional repository (IR), ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst, in July 2006. To date, the IR has over 57,000 works that have been downloaded over 25 million times all over the world. Over the past six years, the content of the IR has expanded from mainly postprints and Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) to include podcasts, datasets, open educational resources (OER), and other shareable open content that has no other logical home. As continued growth has pushed the limits of the software as designed, we decided to conduct a full assessment of the IR in order to …

Decision-Making By And For Academic Libraries During Covid-19, Sarah Rose Fitzgerald, Sarah Hutton, Rebecca Reznik-Zellen, Charlie Barlow, Will Oldham

University Libraries Publication Series

Academic libraries are fundamental in promoting equitable access to education but are often overlooked and underfunded. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified these inequities. This study investigates how 39 library deans and directors perceived decision-making by university administration during COVID-19’s onset. Open-ended survey questions were sent to deans and directors asking them to describe their experiences working with university administration to adjust library services during the crisis. Some library leaders reported that working closely with other departments strengthened their campus connections. Others commented that disagreement between library personnel and university administration caused discord. Some deans and directors were forced to cut staff …

Counterspace Support For Bipoc Employees Within A Holistic Jedi Library Framework, Isabel Espinal, Anne Graham, Maria Rios, Katherine Freedman

University Libraries Publication Series

This chapter presents a case study of how an academic library supports Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) employees with funding so these workers can find counterspaces (spaces where they can feel safe in community with other BIPOC who are navigating similar struggles while working in a predominantly white institution). Through its Inclusion, Diversity, Anti-Racism and Equity (IDARE) Committee, the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst Libraries worked to establish a fund for meeting some of the cultural and racial equity needs of library employees who are BIPOC. With a new Woman of Color Dean, the fund transformed into a …

Causes: An Alternative To Contu For Assessing Interlibrary Loan Copyright Fees, K. Zdepski, Laura Quilter

University Libraries Publication Series

This article describes the process used at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries to develop and implement a new method for interlibrary loan copyright fee assessment as an alternative to the outdated CONTU (Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works) which we call “CAUSeS” (Copyright Assessment for Uses that Substitute for Subscriptions), by reviewing legal standards and considering practical needs.

Bridging Scholarly Communication And Data Services: Intersections In Openness And Sharing, Erin Jerome, Thea Atwood

University Libraries Publication Series

No abstract provided.

The Faculty Role In College Affordability: Syllabus Creation And Resource Affordability, Sarah Fitzgerald, Christine N. Turner, Anne Graham

University Libraries Publication Series

This study investigates how instructors consider resource cost and availability when compiling assignments in their course syllabi. The academic planning model from Lattuca and Stark is used to frame the influences on instructional material selection. It employs a critical incident technique method, asking instructors to take into account one course syllabus when making assignments. Findings address differences across formats including books, chapters, articles, and video. Findings show differences between disciplines and concerning lack of familiarity with fair use. Increased consultation with library personnel regarding course books would help provide students with affordable materials in compliance with fair use.

Unseen Labor: An Atg Interview With Ann Kardos And Gretchen Neidhardt, Ann Kardos, Gretchen Neidhardt, Ramune K. Kubilius

University Libraries Publication Series

Ann Kardos, creator of the "Unseen Labor" project, sought to tackle the mysteries of metadata work in a visual way. She invited colleagues to visually illustrate the story of metadata labor through stitching. ATG occasional contributor, Ramune Kubilius, asked some questions in order to learn more about this interesting, multi-faceted project.

Stem Librarians And The Future Of Scholarly Publishing: Scholarly Communication Concepts That Researchers Need, Kelee Pacion, Melanie Radik, Khue Duong, Jessica Martinez, Roxanne Bogucka

University Libraries Publication Series

This narrative reflection describes how five librarians developed a scholarly communication workshop intended for a specific conference with an audience of science researchers, then proceeded to modify it to fulfill different professional development opportunities. We explored themes around open access, the current and future landscape of scholarly publishing, and the decision factors for researchers when choosing a journal to submit papers to. Identifying further venues for the workshop and submitting formal and informal proposals leveraged our knowledge of our own professional associations and what might appeal to those audiences.

Consortial Projects : Centralized Vs Decentralized Approaches, Jaime Taylor

University Libraries Publication Series

Consortia are an ever-growing reality in the modern library landscape. What began in the 1960s as a benefit realized through computers and automation, has evolved into a means of survival under budgets growing more austere with every passing decade. Despite their widespread presence, consortia are not making conscious decisions between organizational models when planning large technical services projects. This chapter will begin to fill that gap by examining why consortia choose centralized or decentralized approaches for such projects and will then discuss the differences between them, using the Center for Jewish History and the Five College Consortium as examples.

Introduction, Deborah E. Brown Stewart, Rebecca M. Seifried

University Libraries Publication Series

Deserted Villages: Perspectives from the Eastern Mediterranean is a collection of case studies examining the abandonment of rural settlements over the past millennium and a half, focusing on modern-day Greece with contributions from Turkey and the United States. Unlike other parts of the world, where deserted villages have benefited from decades of meticulous archaeological research, in the eastern Mediterranean better-known ancient sites have often overshadowed the nearby remains of more recently abandoned settlements. Yet as the papers in this volume show, the tide is finally turning toward a more engaged, multidisciplinary, and anthropologically informed archaeology of medieval and post-medieval rural …

Cross-Functional Policy Development For A Data Repository, Thea P. Atwood, Erin Jerome, Ann Kardos, Stephen Mcginty, Melanie Radik, Rebecca Reznik-Zellen

University Libraries Publication Series

Policy can articulate the scope of work. For repositories that house data, policy can help users manage expectations, especially for individuals who are new to data sharing, or where expectations for sharing data have changed. We cover some of the current literature around the process for writing policy, specifically focusing on policy for data collections and repositories, factors that encouraged us to create a repository policy, our collaborative process for creating the policy, and lessons learned. We hope that others can use our processes to build their own policy that reflects the needs of their campuses and scholars and further …

The Legacy Of Byzantine Christianity In The Southern Mani Peninsula, Greece, After Imperial Collapse, Rebecca M. Seifried

University Libraries Publication Series

Religion is one of the many potential mediums for emphasizing ethnic difference and highlighting group membership. Particularly in mountainous landscapes, which are difficult for imperial or state powers to control, religion may be a key means of asserting peripherality. The residents of the Mani Peninsula, Greece, converted to Orthodox Christianity during the reign of the Byzantine Empire and maintained this religious affiliation even after Byzantine collapse in 1463 CE, when the region came under Ottoman and, later, Venetian rule. This study reviews the research on Mani’s Byzantine churches to date – much of which is published in Greek – and …

The Stone-Built Palaiomaniatika Of The Mani Peninsula, Greece, Rebecca M. Seifried

University Libraries Publication Series

There are over 170 stone-built settlements in the Mani Peninsula that scholars believe were inhabited from the Middle Byzantine period (eighth to thirteenth centuries AD) up until the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries. These enigmatic sites are known as palaiomaniatika, and roughly half of them are abandoned today, their massive stone walls in various stages of collapse and overgrown by olive trees and unchecked brush. This paper reviews the state of scholarship on the sites, outlining the typical characteristics of the vernacular architecture and discussing variations in settlement size and layout. A case study of the abandoned village of Koulouvades …

Twelve Tips For Teaching Medical Students Online Under Covid-19, Zhehan Jiang, Hongbin Wu, Huaqin Cheng, Weimin Wang, A'Na Xie, Sarah Rose Fitzgerald

University Libraries Publication Series

Universities worldwide are pausing in an attempt to contain COVID-19’s spread. In February 2019, universities in China took the lead, cancelling all in-person classes and switching to virtual classrooms, with a wave of other institutes globally following suit. The shift to online platform poses serious challenges to medical education so that understanding best practices shared by pilot institutes may help medical educators improve teaching. We provide 12 tips to highlight strategies intended to help on-site medical classes moving completely online under the pandemic. We collected ‘best practices’ reports from 40 medical
schools in China that were submitted to the National …

Reveiew Of Can't Pay Won't Pay: The Case For Economic Disobedience And Debt Abolition, Jaime Taylor

University Libraries Publication Series

While focus on the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic means that parts of this book will, we hope, soon feel dated, Can’t Pay Won’t Pay captures the economic zeitgeist of the early 21st century. A mere five chapters and just over 150 pages, the brevity of the book makes it an accessible introduction to the reasons so many individuals, communities, and even countries have found themselves deeply in debt. While fewer words are spent on remedies to the problem than describing it, the authors recommend the formation of debtors’ unions, modeled on labor unions. Through such unions, they suggest, …

Yours, Mine, Ours: Some Best Practices For Authors Writing Collaboratively, Rachel A. Knapp, Paulina Borrego, Thea P. Atwood

University Libraries Publication Series

The authors of this article focus on the best practices we learned through our experiences in scholarly writing, with a specific focus on the collaborative writing process. For the sake of this paper, we define collaborative writing as a collective process of creating a scholarly work for distribution, either through formal (e.g., peer-review) or informal (e.g., white paper) venues. This article is, in part, in response to our lack of formal training and addresses a situation in which we felt other researchers might find themselves. We hope to provide starting points for others interested in writing collaboratively and help empower …

New Data On Southern Euboean Landscapes: Results Of The Norwegian Archaeological Survey In The Karystia, Žarko Tankosić, Alexandros Laftsidis, Aikaterini Psoma, Rebecca M. Seifried, Apostolos Garyfallopoulos

University Libraries Publication Series

We present the results of a diachronic survey of the Katsaronio plain in the Karystia, southern Euboea, Greece. The project was organized under the aegis of the Norwegian Institute at Athens with a permit from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture under the official name of the Norwegian Archaeological Survey in the Karystia. Five years of fieldwork (2012–16) covered an area of 20 km2 in a large agricultural plain located about 5 km north-west of the town of Karystos. The survey identified 99 new findspots with a range of dates spanning from the Final Neolithic to Early Modern times. Here we …

Review Of Digital Historical Research On Southeast Europe And The Ottoman Space, Edited By Dino Mujadžević (Post-Print), Rebecca M. Seifried

University Libraries Publication Series

Review of Dino Mujadžević (ed.), Digital Historical Research on Southeast Europe and the Ottoman Space, Studies on Language and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe Volume 35 (Berlin: Peter Lang, 2021). https://doi.org/10.3726/b17129

Toward A Conceptual Framework For Scholarly Information Seeking, Sarah Fitzgerald

University Libraries Publication Series

This article reviews literature on information seeking theories and discusses the relevance of those theories to the information seeking habits of faculty with research expectations. A new model is constructed to depict the factors influencing scholarly information needs. The model incorporates career advancement factors, the influence of discovery tools, and the influence of interpersonal networks. Theoretical frameworks from T.D. Wilson and James Krikelas play important roles in building the model to describe scholarly information needs. This model can be of use to librarians, discovery tool designers, and university administrators supporting the information seeking, research, and teaching of faculty.

Curiosity As Outreach: Flipping Outreach On Its Head, Paulina Borrego, Anne Graham, Ellen Lutz, Melanie Radik, Rebecca Reznik-Zellen

University Libraries Publication Series

Science and Engineering Library staff at the University of Massachusetts Amherst visited several sites on campus in a novel outreach initiative that involved all nine staff members taking “field trips” without agendas. We demonstrate that outreach without the explicit goal of promoting a specific resource or service can be an effective use of time, and can build social capital that shares the goals of traditional outreach. Involving all staff in this outreach effort was a valuable team building experience, exposing the depth of our interests and expertise to each other and to our campus community.

University Of Massachusetts Amherst Response To Draft Desirable Characteristics Of Repositories For Managing And Sharing Data Resulting From Federally Funded Research, Thea P. Atwood

University Libraries Publication Series

Response to the Office of Science and Technology Policy's Draft Desirable Characteristics of Repositories for Managing and Sharing Data Resulting from Federally Funded Research.

Original call for public response is available at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/01/17/2020-00689/request-for-public-comment-on-draft-desirable-characteristics-of-repositories-for-managing-and

Scholarly Publishing At A Crossroads: Scholarly Perspectives On Open Access, Sarah Fitzgerald, Zhehan Jiang

University Libraries Publication Series

The cost of access to scholarly research creates inequity for readers with varying resources. Open access publishing is an avenue to address this inequity. This research employed a survey of scholars to discover what they know and think about open access. The survey elicited both faculty and doctoral student perspectives. Data were analyzed according to rank and discipline. Although the majority of scholars across disciplines agreed that their work should be freely available to all readers, there were significant differences between disciplines regarding whether scholars had distributed their publications through open access. The survey instrument was examined through Exploratory Factor …

Scholarworks@Umassamherst: Fy20 Annual Report, Erin Jerome

University Libraries Publication Series

No abstract provided.

Modeling Time-To-Trigger In Library Demand-Driven Acquisitions Via Survival Analysis, Zhehan Jiang, Sarah Fitzgerald, Kevin W. Walker

University Libraries Publication Series

Conventional statistical methods (e.g. logistics regression, decision tree, etc.) have been used to analyze library demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) data. However, these methods are not well-suited to predict when acquisitions will be triggered or how long e-books will remain unused. Survival analysis, a statistical method commonly used in clinical research and medical trials, was employed to predict the time-to-trigger for DDA purchases within the context of a large research university library. By predicting which e-books will be triggered (i.e., purchased), as well as the time to trigger occurrence, the method tested in this study provides libraries a deeper understanding of factors …

Flipping An Academic Library Collection: A Path To A Global Open Scholarly Commons, Christine N. Turner, Marilyn S. Billings

University Libraries Publication Series

In late 2017, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries participated in the David Lewis and Michael Roy “2.5% Commitment and Open Data Collection Tool Project.” This exercise provided a benchmark of collection and infrastructure investments to date, and it brought into focus the opportunity to articulate the Libraries’ intentions for their collections going forward. The UMass Amherst Libraries provide a case study of an academic library collection that is pivoting from materials produced by proprietary publishers to a mix of investments in unique and special collections; open access publishing, content and infrastructure; and materials published through traditional channels.

Seascapes And Fresh Water Management In Rural Greece: The Case Of The Mani Peninsula, 1261–1821 Ce, Rebecca M. Seifried

University Libraries Publication Series

The Mani peninsula is a semi-arid landscape with few natural sources of fresh water, yet it supported a dense population during the Late Byzantine and Ottoman periods. This paper reviews the archaeological and historical evidence for water-management practices in Mani, concentrating on its domestic-scale hydraulic infrastructure (cisterns and saltpans) and the ports and harbours along its coasts. The data point to a critical shift in household-level social organization at the turn of the 18th century, underscoring the fact that people living in supposedly ‘peripheral’ regions like Mani nevertheless engaged in far-reaching networks of contact and exchange.

Scholarworks@Umassamherst: Fy19 Annual Report, Erin Jerome

University Libraries Publication Series

No abstract provided.

Higher Education Publication And Institutional And National Diversity, Sarah Fitzgerald, Zhehan Jiang

University Libraries Publication Series

Educational scholarship is used by practitioners, policy makers, and scholars to shape educational practices. Since education takes place across the globe and incorporates students from a wide variety of backgrounds, educational scholarship should incorporate diverse perspectives. This study examines how institutionally and internationally diverse five leading journals of higher education are. Twelve years of publications are examined to determine the level of diversity among top higher education journals and compare diversity among these publications over time. Maps displaying the distribution of authors across the world are provided to illustrate the findings that higher education publication in the leading journals tends …