Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Google Books, Jody Condit Fagan

Libraries

Google Books’ (GB) full-text search of more than 40 million books offers significant value for libraries and their patrons. However, Google’s refusal to disclose information about the coverage of GB, as well as observed gaps and inaccuracies in the collection and its metadata, makes it difficult to recommend with confidence for a given research need. While most search and retrieval functions work well, glitches aren’t hard to find, which suggests GB development is focused on user experiences that relate to monetization. Privacy and equity concerns surrounding GB mirror those of other big technology platforms. Still, every librarian should familiarize themselves …

Library Guides: An Aggregation Of User Research From 1998 To 2017, David Vess

Libraries

A truly comprehensive search tool for resources provided by libraries will continue to be a distant dream until daunting technical challenges are addressed. A Google-like search experience is desirable in some contexts, but a case can be made that hiding subject-specific article databases behind a comprehensive search tool is a disservice to researchers.

Librarians have a long history of addressing the complex landscape of the various resources they offer by crafting guides to library collections. These guides provide direct links to resources while educating inexperienced researchers about discipline-specific databases. Unfortunately, this solution creates more complexities in the research resource landscape. …

Selecting Link Resolver And Knowledge Base Software: Implications Of Interoperability, Cyndy Chisare, Jody C. Fagan, David J. Gaines, Michael Trocchia

Libraries

Link resolver software and their associated knowledge bases are essential technologies for modern academic libraries. However, because of the increasing number of possible integrations involving link resolver software and knowledge bases, a library’s vendor relationships, product choices, and consortial arrangements may have the most dramatic effects on the user experience and back-end maintenance workloads. A project team at a large comprehensive university recently investigated link resolver products in an attempt to increase efficiency of back-end workflows while maintaining or improving the patron experience. The methodology used for product comparison may be useful for other libraries.

An Evidence-Based Review Of Academic Web Search Engines, 2014-2016: Implications For Librarians’ Practice And Research Agenda, Jody C. Fagan

Libraries

Academic web search engines have become central to scholarly research. While the fitness of Google Scholar for research purposes has been examined repeatedly, Microsoft Academic and Google Books have not received much attention. Recent studies have much to tell us about the coverage and utility of Google Scholar, its coverage of the sciences, and its utility for evaluating researcher impact. But other aspects have been understudied, such as coverage of the arts and humanities, books, and non-Western, non-English publications. User research has also tapered off. A small number of articles hint at the opportunity for librarians to become expert advisors …

Teaching Climate Change Concepts And The Nature Of Science: A Library Activity To Identify Sources Of Climate Change Misconceptions, Charity Flener Lovitt, Kristen S. Shuyler

Libraries

A library activity was developed in which students found information about climate science misconceptions from popular and scientific literatures. As part of the activity, students developed a rubric to evaluate the credibility and type of literature sources they found. The activity prepared students to produce an annotated bibliography of articles, which they then used to create a training document about a climate science misconception for staff at a local science center. Evaluation of annotated bibliographies showed that students were able to distinguish between popular and scholarly literature but struggled to identify primary and secondary sources within the scholarly literature. In …

Improving Information Literacy Through Wikipedia Editing In The Chemistry Classroom: Lessons Learned, Ye Li, Charity Flener Lovitt, Anne J. Mcneil, Kristen S. Shuyler

Libraries

Assignments in which students edit Wikipedia may help students learn about the complexities of information creation and production, while engaging them in researching and writing about topics related to class content. This chapter presents two case studies that illustrate how Wikipedia-based activities can be designed to achieve both chemistry and information literacy learning outcomes. In both examples, faculty partnered with a librarian to implement the Wikipedia editing assignments. Through these experiences, those involved learned about Wikipedia and its community, and identified promising practices for project requirements based on formal and informal assessment and observations. Reflections are offered on the value …