Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Findings About Our Library Surveys: Universities Of Louisville And Kentucky’S User Surveys, Julene L. Jones, Anita R. Hall

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

Academic library survey strategies may include implementing standardized and locally-developed survey instruments as part of assessment activities. Standardized instruments such as LibQUAL+, ClimateQUAL, Ithaka S+R surveys, and others are widely used and offer many advantages such as robust development and testing protocols, and may offer the ability to compare data with other institutions who use these instruments. Locally-developed survey instruments, on the other hand, offer the ability to customize instruments with reduced cost and increased institutional specificity. Libraries should evaluate the benefits of each survey type in order to create a strategy that best meets their needs.

Business Models For Post-Crisis Information Ecosystems, Antje Mays

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

Since early 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted activity across business, education, research, and communities. Public health safety precautions have forced drastic reductions in economic and educational activity, resulting in widespread economic uncertainty and sizeable budget cuts. With library budgets already declining since the 2001-2002 recession following the dotcom crash and more steeply since the 2007-2009 Great Recession spawned by the financial crash, the pandemic has accelerated trends that were already underway. Libraries’ reduced purchasing power places the information ecosystem at risk of contraction in the race to contain costs. While economic contexts and publishing forms have changed considerably. …

Maximizing Good: An Inquiry-Based Approach To Minimal Description For Online Archives, Sarah Dorpinghaus, Cory Lampert, Rebecca Pattillo, Kyna Herzinger

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

Minimal descriptive practices have been embraced by archives over the past fifteen years for their efficiency and practicality. This paper explores the strengths and weaknesses of minimal description within the context of digitized collections and evaluates them against the assumptions made by cultural heritage professionals. It considers whether minimal description provides digitized collections with sufficient metadata to meet MPLP’s user-centered goals of improving access, sufficient context to ensure collections are understandable within their digital environments, and sufficient framework to facilitate data exchange across systems, all while considering MPLP within archival ecosystems that impact labor and resource allocation. The authors offer …

Two Separate Worlds, One Shared Goal: An Exploration Of Special Collections Catalogers' Reporting Lines And Institutional Organization, Colleen W. Barrett, Whitney A. Buccicone, Joseph J. Shankweiler

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This chapter seeks to better understand and quantify some of the challenges current special collections catalogers face through conducting and analyzing the authors' recent survey of special collections catalogers primarily working in American cultural heritage institutions. While these findings are neither simple nor straightforward, it is possible to suggest some preliminary solutions. Overarching trends and challenges included communication between departments, security of valuable materials versus workspace locations, and priority setting.

A Case Study In Revitalizing A State Library Association And Keeping It Vital During Covid, Rebecca J. Morgan, Tiffney A. Gipson, Lauren E. Robinson

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

The Kentucky Medical Library Association (KMLA) is an organization dedicated to building a networking community and providing resources to the health sciences and medical librarians of Kentucky. Medical and health science libraries within the state of Kentucky are encouraged to become annual members of KMLA. Organization membership exists on two levels: (1) individual and (2) institutional. Individual membership includes access to three KMLA business meetings a year, voting rights at business meetings, any conferences KMLA holds, an opportunity for continuing education (CE) reimbursement, and access to any CEs presented by KMLA. Institutional memberships are unique in that they provide interlibrary …

Podcasting, Jennifer A. Bartlett

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

Podcasts seem to be everywhere these days, on every topic including current events, games, entertainment, education, business, financial management and more.

As podcasts have now become a recognized source of entertainment, news, and information, how can we become familiar with listening to podcasts and integrating them into our work in libraries? The following resources offer a few places to get started. Given the nature of the medium, some sites are optimized for viewing and listening on mobile devices.