Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rxtx And Micromedex, Shawn Hendrikx, Kelly Hatch

Western Libraries Publications

No abstract provided.

Data-Informed Open Education Advocacy: A New Approach To Saving Students Money And Backaches, Sydney Thompson, Lillian S. Rigling, Will Cross, John Vickery

Western Libraries Publications

The North Carolina State University Libraries has long recognized the financial burden textbook costs place on students. By crosswalking information on use of our textbook collection with textbook cost and course enrollment data, we have begun to map the environment for textbook use at the university and identified opportunities for faculty outreach in promoting alternatives to traditional textbooks, including our Alt-Textbook program. This article describes our programs, our investigation of textbook use patterns, and how we are using these data to inform our practice.

Here, There And Everywhere: An Analysis Of Reference Services In Academic Archives, Amanda Oliver, Amanda Jamieson, Anne Daniel

Western Libraries Publications

The purpose of this study is to investigate how archivists conduct reference services. The investigators administered two surveys to 19 participants at 15 Canadian academic archives to understand archivists’ behaviour while performing reference. There is no standard approach to reference as many archivists use institution-specific tools coupled with their own knowledge. Finding aids are the most frequently accessed tool and are most often used in conjunction with other tools. Limited resources are the primary barrier to the provision of effective reference services. The tools that are employed by archives are archivist focused, which results in reference services that are not …

Making Shared Print Management Happen: A Project Of Five Canadian Academic Libraries, Tony Horava, Harriet Rykse, Anne Smithers, Caitlin Tillman, Wade Wyckoff

Western Libraries Publications

Five academic libraries in Ontario (Canada) are collaborating in a shared last print copy repository project. The project, called Keep@Downsview, aims to consolidate and rationalize low-use print materials held by the partner libraries and ensure long-term preservation of these important scholarly materials in Ontario, while still providing access via document delivery and ILL. In doing so, each of the partner institutions demonstrates its commitment to the stewardship of print collections for future generations while repurposing valuable space on campus. This paper describes the background, rationale, challenges, and lessons learned for this unique Canadian project that leveraged funding from the province …

Engaging Faculty And Reducing Costs By Leveraging Collections: A Pilot Project To Reduce Course Pack Use, Nelly Cancilla, Bobby Glushko, Stephanie Orfano, Graeme Slaght

Western Libraries Publications

INTRODUCTION Academic libraries have the privilege of serving many roles in the lives of their institutions. One role that is largely untapped is their ability to actively leverage their collections to support faculty teaching and to reduce student out-of-pocket costs by eliminating systemic double payment for course materials. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM/SERVICE This paper details a project by the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office (SCCO) at the University of Toronto that aimed to reduce this systemic double payment by leveraging collections and electronic reserves to provide a new service, the Zero-to-Low Cost Courses. Building on existing relationships with faculty, SCCO staff …

Understanding Factors That Encourage Research Productivity In Academic Librarians, Kristin Hoffmann, Selinda Berg, Denise Koufogiannakis

Western Libraries Publications

Objective – This project identifies the factors that contribute to the success of librarians as active researchers. Research success is generally aligned with productivity and output, and the authors are therefore interested in understanding the factors that encourage research productivity. This fills a gap in the literature on librarians as researchers, which has tended to focus on barriers rather than enablers.

Methods – For this quantitative study, we distributed an online survey to 1,653 potential participants across Canada and received 453 usable responses for a 27% response rate. The survey asked participants to report their research outputs and to answer …

The Academic Data Librarian Profession In Canada: History And Future Directions, S Vincent Gray, Elizabeth Hill

Western Libraries Publications

ACRL publication

Databrarianship: The Academic Data Librarian in Theory and Practice can by purchased at the ALA store:

http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=11774

Historical Map Digitization In Libraries: Collaborative Approaches For Large Map Series, Cheryl Woods, Sarah Simpkin, Jason Brodeur, Amber Leahey, Colleen Beard, Sharon Janzen

Western Libraries Publications

Academic libraries are playing a role in the digitization of Canadian government documents, but maps tend to be excluded from these activities due to their unique dimensions and display requirements. Using a topographic map digitization project as a case study, this paper presents a collaborative approach to map scanning, georeferencing, and metadata creation across several Ontario universities. Collectively, the 21 institutions making up the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) possess and maintain large volumes of Canadian topographic maps. However, few OCUL universities hold complete sets of these map series. While the Canadian government’s most recent topographic maps are now …

Collaborative Approaches To The Management Of Geospatial Data Collections In Canadian Academic Libraries: A Historical Case Study, Leanne Trimble, Cheryl Woods, Francine Berish, Daniel Jakubek, Sarah Simpkin

Western Libraries Publications

Special Issue: Geospatial Data Management, Curation, and Preservation - Part 2

The Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) is a consortium of the twenty-one university libraries in Ontario, Canada. Since 1967, OCUL member institutions have worked together to share costs and workload through collective purchasing and licensing of information resources and more recently through the establishment of a shared digital infrastructure known as Scholars Portal. Under the auspices of OCUL, Ontario's university map librarians formed the OCUL Map Group in 1973 to seek opportunities to communicate and collaborate to improve the collections and services they offer their users. The opportunities …

Academic Data Library Services In Canada Over Time, S Vincent Gray, Elizabeth Hill

Western Libraries Publications

This Excel spreadsheet both supplements and was used to create the maps (also included) presented in The Academic Data Librarian Profession in Canada: History and Future Directions, a chapter by Vincent Gray and Elizabeth Hill in the forthcoming (2015) ACRL volume The Academic Data Librarian in Theory and Practice. Data were compiled from information sent from the Canadian Association of Research Libraries and Statistics Canada.

Open Access Funds: Getting A Bigger Bang For Our Bucks, Bobby Glushko, Crystal Hampson, P L. Moore, Elizabeth Yates

Western Libraries Publications

Many libraries offer open access publishing funds to support authors in paying article processing charges (APC) levied by some OA journals. However, there are few standard practices for managing or assessing these funds. The Open Access Working Group (OAWG) of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) was asked to investigate and articulate best practices for successful open access fund management. In spring 2015, the OAWG surveyed Canadian academic libraries with OA funds to review their criteria and collect feedback on current practices. The survey proved timely because many OA funds are under review. Shrinking budgets, ending pilots, and questions …

Balancing Visions And Values: An Exploration Of Market Rhetoric In Canadian Academic Library Strategic Plans, Courtney L. Waugh

Western Libraries Publications

Strategic planning documents are key sites to institutional discourse and reflect the public face of the library. This research explores the extent to which market rhetoric permeates the strategic planning documents of three Canadian academic libraries, and examines the ways in which these institutions engage in market discourse to construct their institutional identity. What are the implications of adopting a "customer service" stance? What does it mean to be “innovative”? How do "personalized services" influence ideas of choice? Through content analysis and a critical lens, this exploratory research examines the tension between libraries as public good and libraries as a …

Integrating Library Instruction Into The Course Management System For A First Year Engineering Class: An Evidence-Based Study Measuring The Effectiveness Of Blended Learning On Students’ Information Literacy Levels, Qinqin Zhang, Maren Goodman, Shiyi Xie

Western Libraries Publications

This research examines students in a first-year engineering course who receive library instruction by using a newly developed online module and attending optional in-person tutorials. It aims to evaluate the outcomes of library information literacy instruction using this module combined with in-person help. Results show a significant improvement in information literacy skills from a pre-test to a post-test. Focus group and survey data indicate that most students preferred the self-paced learning style of the online module and that the content of the module helped them to conduct library research for the course. This study also considers best practices for online …

Selwyn Dewdney Fonds, Amanda Jamieson

Western Libraries Publications

Fonds consists of records illustrating the career of Selwyn Dewdney as writer, artist and pioneer in the field of native rock art, and also contains personal materials and records relating to his background and family. Included are printed editions of published articles and books, source materials, manuscript drafts, sketches, drawings, notes, exhibition catalogues and slides, articles about Dewdney’s rock art studies, financial records, correspondence, notebooks and albums, genealogical charts and notes, photographs, family Christmas cards, and newspaper clippings.

A “Partnership” For The Professional Development Of Librarian Researchers, Brian C. Mcmillan, Pamela Carson

Western Libraries Publications

In this article the authors introduce the Librarians’ Research Partnership (LRP), founded in 2013, at McGill and Concordia University Libraries. The Partnership was inspired by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ Librarians’ Research Institute (CARL LRI) which was attended by three of the authors in 2012 and is described here from the point of view of the participants. The authors touch upon the research culture at McGill and Concordia Libraries and discuss barriers and supports for research as prominent themes in the literature on the research role of Canadian academic librarians. The formation of the LRP and the eight subsequent …

My Mla At 20, Lisa Rae Philpott

Western Libraries Publications

Highlights of my 20th MLA conference - the 83rd Music Library Association meeting, held in Atlanta, Georgia, Feb-Mar 2014. Sessions I attended included: Stanford University's re-design of their music library website; representation of women scholars in musicological publications (Suzanne Moulton-Gertig); research into women collectors of Irish traditional music (Margaret Erickson); "What NOT to Wear: MLA Interview Edition" (Mistie Shaw, Susannah Cleveland, Mark Puente); RDA and Public Services (Elizabeth Hill Cribbs, Sonia Archer-Capuzzo, Patricia Falk) and Stop Reinventing the Wheel: An Online Repository for Music Information Literacy (Andi Beckendorf, Sara J. Beutter Manus, Clayton Crenshaw, Brian McMillan, Nancy Zavac)

Examining Success: Identifying Factors That Contribute To Research Productivity Across Librarianship And Other Disciplines, Kristin Hoffmann, Selinda Adelle Berg, Denise Koufogiannakis

Western Libraries Publications

While some academic librarians have embraced the role of researcher and have successfully become active researchers and authors, others have struggled to be productive in this aspect of their responsibilities. A content analysis of literature on research productivity for librarians and non-librarians was conducted in order to identify factors that have been found to affect research success. This content analysis is part of a larger study designed to develop an instrument to measure the impact of key factors on librarians' success in research. This analysis reinforces the need to identify and study those factors that are truly antecedents for librarians’ …

Undergraduate Program Review Processes: A Case Study In Opportunity For Academic Libraries, John Costella, Tom Adam, Fran Gray, Nicole Nolan, Catherine Wilkins

Western Libraries Publications

How can an academic library most effectively participate and expand its contributions to program reviews at the institutional level? By becoming involved in undergraduate reviews, college and university libraries can articulate new and enhanced roles for themselves on campus. Academic libraries have always contributed to a variety of institutional review processes. However, by embracing a more holistic view of its support, the library can expand beyond collection-related metrics to encompass all the ways the library interconnects with the program. Furthermore, by becoming proactively involved with the committee(s) responsible for managing institutional program reviews, libraries can contribute to the governance of …

A Needs-Driven And Responsive Approach To Supporting The Research Endeavours Of Academic Librarians, Ken N. Meadows, Selinda Berg, Kristin Hoffmann, Margaret Martin Gardiner, Nazi Torabi

Western Libraries Publications

In this article, the authors describe a grassroots model for research support and explore the success and evolving directions of this model based on three iterative needs assessments administered by the Librarian and Archivist Research Support Network (LARSN) Steering Committee at The University of Western Ontario. Needs assessments were identified as a critical tool to ensure that LARSN programming is relevant to librarians’ and archivists’ changing research needs. In the first four years of LARSN, three needs assessments were administered: in fall 2007, fall 2009, and spring 2011. The iterative needs assessments aimed to capture how the environment and research …

Information Seeking In Context: Results Of Graduate Student Interviews, Marg Sloan, Kim Mcphee

Western Libraries Publications

The authors conducted a qualitative research study examining the information seeking behaviours of Psychology, Sociology, and Women's Studies graduate students at a large research intensive university to determine: how graduate students find information; the roles that faculty members, fellow graduate students and librarians play in the information search; and graduate students' knowledge of information resources and services. The context of graduate student information seeking was uncovered through an analysis of the data using the trichotomy of people, place and information. Across the disciplines, M.A. students were more likely to ask for librarian assistance than Ph.D. students. The interview findings will …

Not Your Mother's Pda: The Transition From Pda Pilot To Full Acquisitions Integration, Harriet Rykse, Bruce Fyfe, Nazi Torabi, Nicole Nolan, Erin Gallagher, Yves Vanier

Western Libraries Publications

Western Libraries and Ingram Content Group worked together to establish a Patron Driven Acquisition (PDA) program that has been incorporated into the regular acquisitions workflow at Western. Some features of the program include: all titles selected for addition to the PDA collection are filtered through the approval profiles established by the librarians, the library’s holdings are uploaded to Ingram weekly so that duplicate titles are avoided, invoices for purchased PDA titles are sent weekly and holdings for un-purchased and purchased PDA records are updated weekly. A Patron Driven Acquisitions Working Group established the program at Western by meeting with collections …

Shared Patron-Driven Acquisition Within A Consortium: The Ocul Pda Pilot, Harriet Rykse, Kate Davis, Lei Jin, Colleen Neely

Western Libraries Publications

In September 2010 members of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) participated in a Patron Driven Acquisitions (PDA) pilot to determine how this purchasing model might be adapted to a consortium. OCUL understood that developing a model that would allow patrons to purchase titles for different collections would be complicated. Careful thought went into balancing the needs of individual members with the needs of the consortium. This paper describes the project and examines the results from three distinct perspectives in the hopes of gaining a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities of PDA at a consortial level.

Dungeons And Downloads: Collecting Tabletop Fantasy Role-Playing Games In The Age Of Downloadable Pdfs, Dan Sich

Western Libraries Publications

Purpose – This paper aims to provide libraries with collections advice regarding fantasy role-playing games.

Design/methodology/approach – Current and emerging publication and sales models of pencil and paper, tabletop fantasy role-playing games are explored. Details of print, print-on-demand, free and purchasable downloads, and subscription-based options for major fantasy role-playing games and alternatives are provided.

Findings – Many options are available to libraries wishing to provide support for fantasy role-playing game programming. While an overwhelming quantity of publications are often available for purchase, usually only a bare minimum is required to run a role-playing game. Free or modestly priced options are …

Scholars Geoportal: A New Platform For Geospatial Data Discovery, Exploration And Access In Ontario Universities, Elizabeth T. Hill, Leanne Trimble

Western Libraries Publications

The need to support and promote the use of geospatial data and available collections has grown at Ontario Universities in recent years. These data, along with numeric data collections, are used to enhance research and expand the skill set of students graduating from a broad array of disciplines. Providing access to these types of data collections has proven challenging, and access points available to large groups of people inside academia, in government and public domains have been made possible through online portal implementations. The defined need for a geospatial portal at Ontario Universities is outlined in the first part of …

Provision Of Pandemic Disease Information By Health Sciences Librarians: A Multisite Comparative Case Series., Robin Featherstone, Gabriel Boldt, Nazi Torabi, Shauna-Lee Konrad

Western Libraries Publications

Objective: The research provides an understanding of pandemic information needs and informs professional development initiatives for librarians in disaster medicine. Methods: Utilizing a multisite, comparative case series design, the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews and examined supplementary materials in the form of organizational documents, correspondence, and websites to create a complete picture of each case. The rigor of the case series was ensured through data and investigator triangulation. Interview transcripts were coded using NVivo to identify common themes and points of comparison. Results: Comparison of the four cases revealed a distinct difference between “client-initiated” and “librarian-initiated” provision of pandemic information. Librarian-initiated …

Canadian Academic Library Support For International Faculty: Library Experience And Information Needs Of Chinese Visiting Scholars At The University Of Western Ontario, Shiyi Xie

Western Libraries Publications

International faculty constitute a relatively small proportion of the library user community in Canadian post-secondary institutions, but they are underserved when compared to other user groups on campus, particularly international students. The author obtained first hand information about Chinese visiting scholars at the University of Western Ontario, and in this paper she presents conclusions from her experience regarding the visiting scholars' use of libraries as well as some recommendations for serving international faculty. The author suggests that academic libraries carefully consider international faculty when planning relevant services for diverse user groups. Providing necessary and satisfying library services for this group …

Creating And Hosting Student-Run Research Journals: A Case Study, Adrian K. Ho

Western Libraries Publications

This case study aims to examine an academic library’s roles in facilitating the creation and hosting of open access student-run research journals. In addition to providing an online platform to host the journals, the library acquaints students with scholarly publishing, assists them in securing various resources available on campus, and offers support for content management. There are challenges and opportunities for the library as it undertakes the responsibility of hosting student journals. The article concludes with a discussion of possible topics for future research.

Academic Libraries Should Consider A Strategic Approach To Promotion And Marketing Of E-Books, Nazi Torabi

Western Libraries Publications

No abstract provided.

Hybrid Journals: Transition To Full Open Access Or Here To Stay?, Adrian K. Ho

Western Libraries Publications

No abstract provided.

A Graduate Degree In Library Or Information Science Is Required, But Not Sufficient, To Enter The Profession, Nazi Torabi

Western Libraries Publications

No abstract provided.