Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Unbundling Practice: The Unbundling Of Big Deal Journal Packages As An Information Practice, Samuel Cassady, Catherine Anne Johnson, Asen O. Ivanov

Western Libraries Publications

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to introduce a theoretical framework and approach for studying the evaluation and decision-making practices through which academic librarians attempt to reduce the cost of electronic journal subscriptions – an organizational practice known as the unbundling of big deal journal packages.

Design/methodology/approach

The article presents a literature-based conceptual analysis of several fields to delineate the elements of the practice of unbundling of big deal journal packages. Beyond analysing the prior literature, the discussion is supported by empirical findings from a pilot study on the topic conducted by two of the article's authors.

Findings

The …

Data Rescue & Curation Best Practices Guide, Ocul Data Community (Odc) Data Rescue Group

Western Libraries Publications

he aim of the Data Rescue & Curation Best Practices Guide is to provide an accessible and hands-on approach to handling data rescue and digital curation of at-risk data for use in secondary research. We provide a set of examples and workflows for addressing common challenges with social science survey data that can be applied to other social and behavioural research data. The goal of this guide and set of workflows presented is to improve librarians’ and data curators’ skills in providing access to high-quality, well-documented, and reusable research data. The aspects of data curation that are addressed throughout this …

Keep@Downsview: An Evolving Shared Print Project, Harriet Rykse

Western Libraries Publications

Keep@Downsview is a shared print partnership between six Canadian academic institutions. This article describes the evolution of the partnership from what began as simply an operationally focused collaboration for shared preservation space, in order to release collections space in on-campus libraries, to a partnership that is involved in the larger shared print discussions in North America and which has refocused its strategic directions enabling a more intentional evolution of the partnership.

Four strategic directions were identified prior to the outbreak of the pandemic. Since the onset of Covid-19 it has become apparent that several influencing factors related to the pandemic …

Survey Research: Useful, Valuable Findings Require Hard Work, Kristin Hoffmann, Selinda Berg

Western Libraries Publications

Gathering data using a survey is often perceived by practitioner-researchers as one of the easiest ways to carry out research; however, a well-constructed survey can be difficult to develop. Librarian practitioner-researchers often use surveys as an economical and easy way to capture information from a wide swath of people. Once the information is gathered, however, the application and usability of the data is often limited and can fall short of the standards of scholarship. Librarian practitioner-researchers may also default to a survey when it is not the most effective tool for data gathering. But when surveys are designed well and …