Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

This Is Not A Library! This Is Not A Kwik-E-Mart! The Satire Of Libraries, Librarians And Reference Desk Air-Hockey Tables, Casey D. Hoeve

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Librarians are obsessed with stereotypes. Sometimes even so much so that, according to Gretchen Keer and Andrew Carlos, the fixation has become a stereotype within itself (63). The complexity of the library places the profession in a constant state of transition. Maintaining traditional organization systems while addressing new information trends distorts our image to the outside observer and leaves us vulnerable to mislabeling and stereotypes. Perhaps our greatest fear in recognizing stereotypes is not that we appear invariable but that the public does not fully understand what services we can provide. When we lose our ability to maintain relevancy, we …

Re-Centering Teaching And Learning: Toward Communities Of Practice At The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Erica Defrain, Leslie Delserone, Elizabeth Lorang, Catherine F. Riehle, Toni Anaya

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) presents important opportunities that can transform learning, but many academic librarians at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln (UNL) struggle to find a scholarly center when their teaching roles are frequently that of external collaborator. Challenges such as access to student data, meaningful evaluations of instruction, limited opportunities for funding and professional development, and uncertainty over how to negotiate for these have contributed to librarians remaining on the periphery of SoTL work. Hoping to overcome some of these hurdles, UNL librarians are developing a community of practice (CoP) around teaching and learning.

In the …

African Poetry Libraries-A Global Collaboration, Lorna M. Dawes, Charlene Maxey-Harris

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

In 2014, the African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) and the University of Nebraska (UNL)literary magazine-thePrairie Schooner established African Poetry Libraries in five countries; Ghana, Kenya,Uganda, Gambia and Botswana. The purpose of these libraries wasto support the creativity of aspiring and establishedpoets in their local communities. The University of Nebraska Libraries was asked toserve as consultants on the initiative by working with local volunteers to set up thelibraries and provideongoing assistance and advice to the new libraries during thefirst three years of their inception. The goal of the librariesis to support thelocal community of poets through access to contemporary poetry, and …

Scholarly And Creative Activities, Unl Libraries: 2017, 2018, & 2019, Blake Graham

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

82 articles, books, websites, presentations, etc.

Selling Smiles And Coffee, Erica Courtney

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

As he stood behind the counter, dressed in all black, hi s orange and pink shoelaces matching the neon Dunkin' Donuts sign hanging above, Vernon Joseph focused on the latte he was making. Almost eve ry morning at 7:30, Joseph arrives at Dunkin ' Donuts in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Adele Coryell Hall Learning Commons to work his sh ift as general manager. Joseph sa id he started working for the coffee chain in 2014 to make extra money, but he sa id he loved the fast-paced environment and the positive impact he cou ld make on people with a …

Ready For The Robot: Bovines In The Integrated Circuit, Scout Calvert

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Situating cows as co-laborers in global technology sectors, “Ready for the Robot” explores the predicament of cows working as robot operators, information workers, and data producers. The data cows produce shape the conditions in which they work, including their own bodies, as statistical evaluations of cattle abstract profitable traits and warp their connection to breed. Milking robots are posited as providing freedom to dairy cows, but this is far from guaranteed. Rather, cow bodies are programmed to fit the limitations of the robot and the routines of the automated farm, coding that breaches categories of breed. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s …

Reformatting Files: Let's Talk About It, Blake Graham

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Any stage of genealogical research involves creating and collecting a large amount of digital files, and to ensure these files remain accessible, it's important to consider reformatting them regularly. Digital archivist Blake Graham will discuss at-risk and open file formats, as well as explain several techniques for reformatting common file types for longer accessibility.

First-Gen Stories, Blake Graham

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Brief presentation focused on the First-Gen Stories project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln -- an oral history project that encourages first generation Nebraska to create videos about their perspectives and experiences as the first in their family to attend college. This project serves as a proactive way to help connect first generation students with campus and campus resources, and contributes towards building a sense of place between students of different backgrounds. This lightening round talk will include some of the statistics for first generation students, the strategy used for launching the project, and similar initiatives at other institutions.

Use Of Discovery Tools In Arl Libraries, Deeann Allison, Margaret Mering

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Libraries provide discovery tools as a means to bring together resources that will assist researchers in locating the best sources for their information needs. As the Web evolves and user expectations for library resources change, librarians are questioning the effectiveness of these tools and are considering if libraries should explore other options that could provide a similar or better user experience. Survey invitations were e-mailed to academic libraries that were members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to investigate current trends in the use of discovery tools at their institutions. Twenty-five of the 112 libraries responded. The survey results …

Working Out The Bugs: Piloting Library Instruction In An Online Entomology Graduate Program, Andrew Cano

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Like most of its peer institutions, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries faced the challenge of meeting the needs of a growing number of students taking online courses. The author, hired as the new Virtual Learning Librarian in January 2016, was charged with creating a new Virtual Learning Program. This tutorials-based program was first fully implemented in a fully online Entomology graduate program. This paper summarizes the development of the Virtual Learning Program, how it was adapted to the Entomology program, and the initial results from the first semester of implementation.

Introducing Genealogy To The Academic Library In The 21st Century, Tom Mcfarland, Joan Barnes

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

This case study examines the development of a new program to foster genealogical research in an academic library that did not encourage or promote genealogical research. In early 2014, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries set a strategic initiative of increased outreach. As one way to reach the goal, the staff development officer and the community engagement librarian proposed a genealogical program with three objectives: • to reach out to campus faculty, staff, and students • to involve library faculty and staff • to bring community users into the academic library The staff development officer and the community engagement librarian became …

How Important Are Data Curation Activities To Researchers? Gaps And Opportunities For Academic Libraries, Lisa R. Johnston, Jacob Carlson, Cynthia Hudson-Vitale, Heidi Imker, Wendy Kozlowski, Robert Olendorf, Claire Stewart

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Introduction: Data curation may be an emerging service for academic libraries, but researchers actively “curate” their data in a number of ways—even if terminology may not always align. Building on past user-needs assessments performed via survey and focus groups, the authors sought direct input from researchers on the importance and utilization of specific data curation activities. Methods: Between October 21, 2016, and November 18, 2016, the study team held focus groups with 91 participants at six different academic institutions to determine which data curation activities were most important to researchers, which activities were currently underway for their data, and how …

Cultural Memory In Danger: Sustainable Information, Preservation, And Technology In The Humanities: A Theoretical Approach, Casey D. Hoeve

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Management of library collections is an inherently collaborative process. Spanning multiple generations, materials are selected that support user communities, as librarians strive to achieve optimization of storage and access at the lowest cost.i While established partnerships are crucial for the survival of libraries, within any cooperative network, there exist opportunities for divergent practices. Alternative initiatives may have progressive intentions, but competing systems and groups have the potential to disrupt recognized standards and infrastructure, some of which can prove detrimental to information organizations.

Abrupt format changes and technological advancements have altered the ways in which materials are currently acquired, accessed, and …

Making Babies With Cows, Scout Calvert

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

The conceit of section one of this essay is partial role reversal. How would a doctor who was a cow explain to yearling interns how to breed humans? This is what a cow might sound like if she thought about humans the ways that human purebred livestock breeders think about cows. Section two switches back to a human perspective and treats the extensive interventions into cattle reproduction as the mundane options that they have become for many farmers. This essay highlights the traffic of reproductive technologies across the porous human-bovine species boundary.

Chemists Atwitter, Raychelle Burks, Stephani Page, Kiyomi D. Deards, Joan Barnes

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Twitter can be used to promote chemists, their work, and their events to other scientists and the general public. From checklists to timelines; how to use Twitter successfully as an individual or institution is discussed. This chapter includes: examples of how the authors have used Twitter, how to find and use common subject tags, tags most used when Tweeting about chemistry and science, and a discussion about measuring success. Knowing when and how to Tweet will help chemists communicate successfully with their peers and the general public in 280 characters or less.

Year At A Glance: Moving Digital Archives At A Public University, Blake Graham

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

In late 2016, the Archives and Special Collections unit at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries hastily began migrating archival information from a local file server to Rosetta, an Ex Libris preservation software solution. With the aid of the Computer Operations and Research Services team – the primary information technology support team for UNL Libraries – several tasks were divided between select individuals in order to carefully move 9TB of metadata and digital objects. This presentation discusses the scope and details of the archival data migration project, as well as the subsequent impact on workflows for digital objects and metadata.

Launching A Web Archives Program At A Public University, Blake Graham, Jennifer L. Thoegersen, Mary Ellen Ducey

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Many organizations and institutions rely heavily on a web presence to disseminate information and to manage programs and policies. This tendency leaves library and archive professionals with a challenge: how best to capture and preserve web-based information and resources. Over the last few years, the proactive collection and management of web archives has gained traction across all types of libraries and archival repositories. This paper offers a synopsis of actions and initiatives conducted by a small team dedicated to creating a sustainable web archives program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. The authors discuss (1) how the project team formed …

Strategic Open Data Preservation: Roles And Opportunities For Broader Engagement By Librarians And The Public, Laurie Allen, Claire Stewart, Stephanie Wright

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

The June 2017 ACRL/SPARC Forum at the ALA Annual Conference focused on recent efforts to build cooperative programs to ensure persistent access to open data, including science data provided by the U.S. federal government. Data Rescue events, inaugurated at the University of Pennsylvania, catalyzed librarians, scientists, technologists, and other open data advocates to build a broad and resilient coalition to ensure against future data loss. Here, the three speakers from the forum reflect upon their own experiences with Data Rescue events and how they view opportunities for collective action going forward.

Spec Kit 356 Diversity And Inclusion, Toni Anaya, Charlene Maxey-Harris

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Today, diversity is defined beyond racial and ethnic groups and includes gender, sexual orientation, ability, language, religious belief, national origin, age, and ideas. The increase of published literature about cultural competencies, microaggressions, and assessment of diversity issues, as well as the inclusion of social justice movements in libraries, suggests diversity-related activities have increased and evolved over the last seven years. Over this time span, several libraries have obtained funding to support strategies to increase the number of minority librarians on their staff and support their advancement within the organization. There also appears to be an increase in the number of …

Linguistics And Lis: A Research Agenda, Mary K. Bolin

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Faculty Perceptions Of Teaching Information Literacy To First-Year Students: A Phenomenographic Study, Lorna M. Dawes

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

This study examines faculty perceptions of teaching information literacy and explores the influence of these perceptions on pedagogy. The study adopted an inductive phenomenographic approach, using 24 semi-structured interviews with faculty teaching first-year courses at an American public research university. The results of the study reveal four qualitative ways in which faculty experience teaching information use to first year students that vary within three themes of expanding awareness. The resulting outcome space revealed that faculty had two distinct conceptions of teaching information literacy: (1) Teaching to produce experienced consumers of information, and (2) Teaching to cultivate intelligent participants in discourse …

Where Science Intersects Pop Culture: An Informal Science Education Outreach Program, Raychelle Burks, Kiyomi D. Deards, Erica Defrain

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Attracting a general audience to STEM topics can be a challenge, and developing engaging and interactive instruction is important for educators in all fields. While many chemical educators have successfully used pop-culture themes to introduce their students to scientific concepts, these encounters are largely limited to formal classroom environments. Inspired by the successes of community science programs such as Science Café and Nerd Nite, science educators from two Nebraska campuses sought to broaden the exposure of their pop-culture themed class lectures, and created the SciPop Talks! program. Now entering its fifth year, this informal educational outreach program has become a …

Student To Student Marketing And Engagement: A Case Study Of The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries Peer Guides, Joan M. Barnes

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

This chapter examines an undergraduate student peer guide employment program that works to promote the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) Libraries’ services and resources. As a part of this program, students engage peers by staffing booths at recruitment events, posting on social media, planning and implementing library events, and gathering feedback from students using surveys or other methods. Each peer guide is assigned to lead an area and to collaborate with the remaining peer guides on projects as needed. There have been challenges and successes within the UNL Libraries peer guide program, including the influence peer guides have on the creation …

What Do Undergraduate Students Know About Scholarly Communication? A Mixed Methods Study, Catherine Fraser Riehle, Merinda Kaye Hensley

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Amid movements that recognize undergraduate students as knowledge creators, transformative work is being done at the intersection of information literacy and scholarly communication. Absent from the literature so far is research related to students’ perception and understanding of scholarly communication. This paper reports a mixed methods study at two major research universities in the United States, where undergraduate student researchers were surveyed and interviewed about their scholarly communication practices and perceptions. This work informs development of programming at the intersection of scholarly communication and information literacy in general, and for those involved with undergraduate research experiences in particular.

Persistence Statements: Describing Digital Stickiness, John Kunze, Scout Calvert, Jeremy D. Debarry, Matthew Hanlon, Greg Janée, Sandra Sweat

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

In this paper we present a draft vocabulary for making “persistence statements.” These are simple tools for pragmatically addressing the concern that anyone feels upon experiencing a broken web link. Scholars increasingly use scientific and cultural assets in digital form, but choosing which among many objects to cite for the long term can be difficult. There are few well-defined terms to describe the various kinds and qualities of persistence that object repositories and identifier resolvers do or don’t provide. Given an object’s identifier, one should be able to query a provider to retrieve human- and machine-readable information to help judge …

So What Are You Going To Do With That? The Promises And Pitfalls Of Massive Data Sets, Sigrid Anderson Cordell, Melissa Gomis

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

This article takes as its case study the challenge of data sets for text mining, sources that offer tremendous promise for digital humanities (DH) methodology but present specific challenges for humanities scholars. These text sets raise a range of issues: What skills do you train humanists to have? What is the library’s role in enabling and supporting use of those materials? How do you allocate staff? Who oversees sustainability and data management? By addressing these questions through a specific use case scenario, this article shows how these questions are central to mapping out future directions for a range of library …

Personal Digital Archiving, Blake Graham, Erin Colonna

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Preserve Your Data in 2 minutes / 2 hours / 2 days / 2 months

BASIC PRINCIPLES

1. IDENTIFY what you want to save

2. Decide what is MOST IMPORTANT to you

3. ORGANIZE the content

4. Make COPIES & MANAGE them in different places

5. Manage your archive OVER TIME

Investigating The Practices And Needs Of Agricultural Researchers At The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Leslie M. Delserone, Andrea L. Dinkelman

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Libraries was one of 19 libraries participating in a national study, initiated by Ithaka S+R, of the research practices and needs of agricultural researchers. Two UNL Libraries faculty members participated in this study by interviewing 11 UNL agricultural scholars during the summer of 2016. The ethnographic research approach revealed four core themes explored in this UNL-specific report: interdisciplinarity and collaborations; scientific communication practices; scientific research data; and challenges and opportunities. Illustrated by the sample of faculty comments presented here, the themes have direct implications for the UNL Libraries, while in other cases these point to concerns …

Reader Response [To Eric Jennings, “The Librarian Stereotype: How Librarians Are Damaging Their Image And Profession" C&Ul; 23:1, 93-100], Erica Defrain, April Hathcock, Turner Masland, Nicole Pagowsky, Annie Pho, Miriam Rigby, K R. Roberto

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Report From The Participation In The Current System Workgroup, Nancy Davenport, Barbara Defelice, Gary Evoniuk, Pollyanne Frantz, Julie Hannaford,, Jeff Mackie-Mason, Jane Mcauliffe, Jennifer Pesanelli, Paul Royster, Crispin Taylor, Michael Wolfe

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

OSI2016 Workgroup Question: Do researchers and scientists participate in the current system of scholarly publishing because they like it, they need it, they don’t have a choice in the matter, or they don’t really care one way or another? What perceptions, considerations and incentives do academicians have for staying the course (like impact factors and tenure points), and what are their pressures and incentives for changing direction (like lowering publishing charges)?

The authors of scholarly works play a critical role in the scholarly communications system: authors are the original content creators, and in many or most cases are the original …