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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Exploring Reading Habits And Academic Success In Rural Kenya, Florence Mugambi Nov 2015

Exploring Reading Habits And Academic Success In Rural Kenya, Florence Mugambi

Florence N. Mugambi

This study explores the relationship between reading habits and reading materials, and academic success of primary school students in the Ontulili community of Kenya. The study revealed high levels of satisfaction and contentment among the participants with respect to the availability of resources, reading abilities, educational performance, and overall preparedness for further education; yet, the data pointed to severe scarcity of learning materials, low reading skills, poor infrastructure, below average educational performance, and low preparedness for further education. It was concluded that lack of exposure to relevant reading materials, educational resources, and opportunities leads to subtle contentment alongside individual inability …


Big Things Have Small Beginnings: Curating A Large Natural History Collection - Processes And Lessons Learned, Stacey Knight-Davis, Todd Bruns, Gordon Tucker Sep 2015

Big Things Have Small Beginnings: Curating A Large Natural History Collection - Processes And Lessons Learned, Stacey Knight-Davis, Todd Bruns, Gordon Tucker

Todd A. Bruns

In the fall of 2013, the chair of Biological Sciences asked the IR librarian about digitizing the herbarium collection and including it in The Keep. A meeting between the IR librarian and Herbarium Curator Dr. Tucker thus began a project that would represent the maturing of The Keep into a substantial repository, involve both the IR librarian and the Head of Library Technology Services, and require steep learning curves in a number of areas including equipment procurement, metadata schema, data manipulation, and cross-platform communication. By opening up the collection for discovery, scholars around the world would see what is available …


A Shared Approach To Managing Legacy Print Collections In Maine, Matthew Revitt Aug 2015

A Shared Approach To Managing Legacy Print Collections In Maine, Matthew Revitt

Matthew I Revitt

The Maine Shared Collections Strategy is a collaborative library project seeking to create a model for the long-term preservation and management of legacy print collections.


Inside Ala's Emerging Leaders Program: How Gla Can Help You Get Involved, Sarah King Steiner, Crystal Renfro Jun 2015

Inside Ala's Emerging Leaders Program: How Gla Can Help You Get Involved, Sarah King Steiner, Crystal Renfro

Crystal L Renfro

The article presents information on the structure, content, goals and future of the Emerging Leaders program of the American Library Association (ALA). Library professionals are expected to participate in a year-long program that will build their burgeoning professional skills and help them to become more involved with the association. Participants of the programs are instructed in leadership, distance collaboration and the general structure of the ALA. The program is intended to have positive results for both participating librarians and the professional at large.


Twelve Years Of Online Reference Services At Georgia Tech: Where We Have Been And Where We Are Going, Cathy Carpenter, Crystal Renfro Jun 2015

Twelve Years Of Online Reference Services At Georgia Tech: Where We Have Been And Where We Are Going, Cathy Carpenter, Crystal Renfro

Crystal L Renfro

The article offers information about the Georgia Institute of Technology Library in Atlanta, Georgia, which is a pioneer in delivering virtual reference. The Library has initiated the ASK a Librarian service in 1994, an e-mail-based electronic reference service which became popular and has received 297 questions during the first year of its implementation. It has also launched the real time or virtual reference in 1999 using the America Online's Instant Messenger chat software. In August 2003, the library purchased Questionpoint to use as a virtual reference system, which enabled the referral of e-mail questions to other librarians and good tracking …


Learning From Degree-Seeking Older Adult Students In A University Library, Marilia Antunez, Mary Aagard, Jaime Sand May 2015

Learning From Degree-Seeking Older Adult Students In A University Library, Marilia Antunez, Mary Aagard, Jaime Sand

Marilia Y. Antunez, MLS, MA

No abstract provided.


Leveraging Oa, The Ir, And Cross-Department Collaboration For Sustainability: Ensuring Library Centrality In The Scholarly Communication Discourse On Campus, Steve Brantley, Todd Bruns, Kirstin Duffin Mar 2015

Leveraging Oa, The Ir, And Cross-Department Collaboration For Sustainability: Ensuring Library Centrality In The Scholarly Communication Discourse On Campus, Steve Brantley, Todd Bruns, Kirstin Duffin

Todd A. Bruns

More than halfway into the second decade of the 21st century, academic libraries are becoming more integrated in the scholarly life of their faculties than ever before. Important trends in scholarly communication, such as transitioning from subscription journals to open access journals, increasing amounts of “born digital” data and creative works, the growing importance of protecting one’s intellectual property rights, and keeping digital scholarship organized, managed, and preserved, are all areas where academic scholars and researchers require support services and assistance. Librarians are natural partners to provide these services.
Steve Brantley ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9880-1361Todd Bruns ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1197-2521Kirstin Duffin ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6269-8262


Patrick Wilson Reference: Practice Rooted In Theory, Jodi Kearns Jan 2015

Patrick Wilson Reference: Practice Rooted In Theory, Jodi Kearns

Jodi Kearns, PhD

This paper aims to examine Patrick Wilson’s 1977 essay, Public Knowledge, Private Ignorance, which emphasizes practice rooted in theory. Modern reference work ought to look back to this 35-year-old essay to be reminded of the intent of reference practice by considering Wilson’s discussion. This paper examines Wilson’s decades-old thesis and applies it to reference work and reference resources for today’s information professionals. The crux of Wilson’s essay remains relevant today when applied to reference work and information-seeking. This essay leaves readers with practical tips for reference work rooted in theory, and also expands on Wilson’s 1977 essay from a contemporary …


Results For Résumés: Managing Undergraduate Library Interns, Katy Kelly, Colleen Hoelscher, Heidi Gauder Jan 2015

Results For Résumés: Managing Undergraduate Library Interns, Katy Kelly, Colleen Hoelscher, Heidi Gauder

Heidi Gauder

The academic library can play a crucial role in experiential learning for undergraduate students. In 2011, librarians at the University of Dayton built on the idea of student workers and partnered with the University Honors Program to offer customized experiential learning through paid internships. Librarians work one-on-one with students from a variety of disciplines. With experiences tailored to student interests, the library setting becomes a real world laboratory for skills training within the undergraduates’ disciplines or career interests. This article will describe the variety of experiences offered, resources needed, and ways of measuring and assessing for an effective internship program. …


Engaging Undergraduates In Discipline-Based Research, Heidi Gauder, Fred Jenkins Jan 2015

Engaging Undergraduates In Discipline-Based Research, Heidi Gauder, Fred Jenkins

Heidi Gauder

Purpose – This article aims to describe the standards-based approach used to build the International Studies Research Methods (INS250) course, a discipline-specific, credit-based class taught by librarians. This writing-intensive course emphasizes information literacy and critical thinking skills, which were developed using written assignments, class presentations, multiple assessment methods, and web-based applications. Design/methodology/approach – This paper will review the literature about discipline-specific, credit-based information literacy (IL) courses and outcomes. It will also analyze the INS250 course structure and map ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education to learning outcomes for the course. Findings – The paper finds that, in the …


Mapping Lis Electives Across The Field: Collaborative Student Learning Outcome Development And Assessment, Bradley Wade Bishop, Theresa Parrish, Tony H. Grubesic Jan 2015

Mapping Lis Electives Across The Field: Collaborative Student Learning Outcome Development And Assessment, Bradley Wade Bishop, Theresa Parrish, Tony H. Grubesic

Bradley Wade Bishop

In higher education’s environment of accountability, the development and assessment of student learning outcomes (SLOs) are driven by both external stakeholder requirements for accreditation and internal institutional pressures to demonstrate student learning as the core function of universities and colleges. This paper presents a framework to reduce faculty workload and increase standardization of SLOs for LIS electives across multiple schools. The framework includes a value-added assessment with results that show a significant increase in the overall scores and specifically in areas of focus for the elective. This approach provides a framework for other popular LIS electives to collaborate across schools …


Science Outreach Through Art: A Journal Article Cover Gallery, Ian Mccullough Dec 2014

Science Outreach Through Art: A Journal Article Cover Gallery, Ian Mccullough

Ian McCullough

Research faculty journal covers were used to create a gallery in the Science & Technology branch library at the University of Akron. The selection, presentation, and promotion process is shared along with copyright considerations and a review of galleries used for library outreach. The event and display was a great success attracting faculty and administration that had rarely if ever entered the library.


Books And Websites, E-Journals Or Print: If The Source Fits, Use It, Todd J. Wiebe Dec 2014

Books And Websites, E-Journals Or Print: If The Source Fits, Use It, Todd J. Wiebe

Todd J Wiebe

Despite the ever-growing range of media types, formats, and information-access options, students are often instructed to only use specific sources in their research. They are sometimes even given strict guidelines, prescribing how many of each they need to, or may, cite. It is important not to lead students to believe there is a formula for the ideal works cited for all research topics. In contrast, students should learn to think critically about the content and appropriateness of each potential source rather than choosing it only because it is a book, a journal article, a Website, etc. This article argues that …


Going By The Book: Want To Improve Your Information Seeking And Management Skills? Ask Your Librarian, Marilia Antunez Dec 2014

Going By The Book: Want To Improve Your Information Seeking And Management Skills? Ask Your Librarian, Marilia Antunez

Marilia Y. Antunez, MLS, MA

As you embark on your career in communication disorders, take advantage of the many services and resources available at your university library.


Occupational Hearing Loss In Agricultural Settings, Marilia Antunez Dec 2014

Occupational Hearing Loss In Agricultural Settings, Marilia Antunez

Marilia Y. Antunez, MLS, MA

Most of the materials on hearing loss due to noise in the agricultural industry are training and research-oriented materials in the form of brochures, manuals, and journal articles, published by academic presses, government associations, and professional organizations, respectively. Few books are entirely devoted to the topic of hearing loss in agricultural settings. Recently, many occupational and safety Web sites have been adding information and links to publications dealing with hearing loss in the agricultural industry. This Webliography represents the author's best efforts to briefly describe some authoritative Web sites with information targeted to individuals interested in farm occupational hearing loss.


Health Communication, Marilia Antunez Dec 2014

Health Communication, Marilia Antunez

Marilia Y. Antunez, MLS, MA

The interdisciplinary area of health communication has seen dramatic growth since the late 1980s as research continues to validate its important role in addressing complex and challenging public health problems worldwide.


Rejuvenating Aging Studies In Academic Libraries, Marilia Y. Antunez, Sarah E. Toevs, Melissa A. Gains Dec 2014

Rejuvenating Aging Studies In Academic Libraries, Marilia Y. Antunez, Sarah E. Toevs, Melissa A. Gains

Marilia Y. Antúnez, MLS, MA

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to identify resources essential gerontology (aging studies) resources and liaison strategies that provide guidance for academic librarians working with faculty and students in this highly interdisciplinary field. Design/methodology/approach – A convenience sample of gerontology faculty was surveyed to identify important materials, including preferred journals, databases, reference books, and sources of grey literature for gerontology research and teaching. Gerontology faculty information seeking behaviors, including faculty-librarian partnership, were also examined. Findings – Results confirm that faculty teaching in gerontology use a wide variety of resources in their teaching and research. Faculty identified frequently used …


Painting On An Electronic Easel: Strategies For Using A Smart Board In Library Instruction, Lindy Scripps-Hoekstra Nov 2014

Painting On An Electronic Easel: Strategies For Using A Smart Board In Library Instruction, Lindy Scripps-Hoekstra

Lindy Scripps-Hoekstra

No abstract provided.


Clownpants In The Classroom? Hypnotizing Chickens? Measurement Of Structural Distraction In Visual Presentation Documents, Jodi Kearns, Brian O'Connor Jun 2014

Clownpants In The Classroom? Hypnotizing Chickens? Measurement Of Structural Distraction In Visual Presentation Documents, Jodi Kearns, Brian O'Connor

Jodi Kearns, PhD

This paper considers the structure of entertainment media as a possible foundation for measuring aspects of visual presentations that could enhance or interfere with audience engagement. Factors that might account for the large number of negative comments about visual presentations are identified and a method of calculating entropy measurements for form attributes of presentations is introduced. Entropy calculations provide a numerical measure of structural elements that account for engagement or distraction. A set of peer evaluations of educational presentations is used to calibrate a distraction factor algorithm. Distraction as a consequence of document structure might enable engineering of a balance …


The Nsf/Nih Effect: Surveying The Effect Of Data Management Requirements On Faculty, Sponsored Programs, And Institutional Repositories, Anne Diekema, Andrew Wesolek, Cheryl Walters Mar 2014

The Nsf/Nih Effect: Surveying The Effect Of Data Management Requirements On Faculty, Sponsored Programs, And Institutional Repositories, Anne Diekema, Andrew Wesolek, Cheryl Walters

Andrew Wesolek

The scholarly communication landscape is rapidly changing and nowhere is this more evident than in the field of data management. Mandates by major funding agencies, further expanded by executive order and pending legislation in 2013, require many research grant applicants to provide data management plans for preserving and making their research data openly available. However, do faculty researchers have the requisite skill sets and are their institutions providing the necessary infrastructure to comply with these mandates? To answer these questions, three groups were surveyed in 2012: research and teaching faculty, sponsored programs office staff, and institutional repository librarians. Survey results …


Factors That Increase The Probability Of A Successful Academic Library Job Search, Max Eckard, Ashley Rosener, Lindy Scripps-Hoekstra Feb 2014

Factors That Increase The Probability Of A Successful Academic Library Job Search, Max Eckard, Ashley Rosener, Lindy Scripps-Hoekstra

Lindy Scripps-Hoekstra

Finding a position in an academic library can be challenging for recent Library and Information Science (LIS) graduates. While LIS students are often encouraged to seek out experience, network, and improve upon their technology skills in hopes of better improving their odds in the job market, little research exists to support this anecdotal advice. This study quantifies the academic and work experiences of recent LIS graduates in order to provide a better understanding of what factors most significantly influence the outcome of their academic library job searches. The survey results demonstrate that the job outlook is most positive for candidates …


Jerry Falwell Library Spaces, Services, Technology, Collections, Vision, And History, Mike Cobb, Cooper Pasque, Rory Patterson, S. Elisa Rollins, Drew Taylor Jan 2014

Jerry Falwell Library Spaces, Services, Technology, Collections, Vision, And History, Mike Cobb, Cooper Pasque, Rory Patterson, S. Elisa Rollins, Drew Taylor

S. Elisa Rollins

No abstract provided.


Jerry Falwell Library Spaces, Services, Technology, Collections, Vision, And History, Mike Cobb, Cooper Pasque, Rory Patterson, S. Elisa Rollins, Drew Taylor Jan 2014

Jerry Falwell Library Spaces, Services, Technology, Collections, Vision, And History, Mike Cobb, Cooper Pasque, Rory Patterson, S. Elisa Rollins, Drew Taylor

Rory Patterson

No abstract provided.


Jerry Falwell Library Spaces, Services, Technology, Collections, Vision, And History, Mike Cobb, Cooper Pasque, Rory Patterson, Elisa Rollins, Drew Taylor Jan 2014

Jerry Falwell Library Spaces, Services, Technology, Collections, Vision, And History, Mike Cobb, Cooper Pasque, Rory Patterson, Elisa Rollins, Drew Taylor

Mike A. Cobb

No abstract provided.


Jerry Falwell Library Spaces, Services, Technology, Collections, Vision, And History, Mike Cobb, Kathryn Cox, Cooper Pasque, Rory Patterson, S. Elisa Rollins, Drew Taylor Jan 2014

Jerry Falwell Library Spaces, Services, Technology, Collections, Vision, And History, Mike Cobb, Kathryn Cox, Cooper Pasque, Rory Patterson, S. Elisa Rollins, Drew Taylor

Kathryn A. Cox

No abstract provided.


Opportunities And Challenges For Public Libraries To Enhance Community Resilience, Shari R. Veil, Bradley Wade Bishop Jan 2014

Opportunities And Challenges For Public Libraries To Enhance Community Resilience, Shari R. Veil, Bradley Wade Bishop

Bradley Wade Bishop

This study bridges a gap between public library and emergency management policy versus practice by examining the role of public libraries in the community resource network for disaster recovery. Specifically, this study identifies the opportunities and challenges for public libraries to fulfill their role as a FEMA designated essential community organization and enhance community resilience. The results indicate there are several opportunities for libraries to enhance community resilience by offering technology resources and assistance; providing office, meeting, and community living room space; serving as the last redundant communication channel and a repository for community information and disaster narratives; and adapting …


The Changing Role Of Digital Tools And Academic Libraries In Scholarly Workflows: A Review, Sharon Favaro, Christopher Hoadley Jan 2014

The Changing Role Of Digital Tools And Academic Libraries In Scholarly Workflows: A Review, Sharon Favaro, Christopher Hoadley

Sharon Favaro Ince, M.L.I.S, M.A.

In this paper, we review the literature on how information literacies are manifested in scholarly workflows for undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars, and the need to support integrating library resources into their knowledge practices, and how available tools support their needs. We argue that research is needed on how libraries and digital tools both support, and indeed teach, knowledge-building practices across the entire lifecycle of knowledge. Finally, we advocate for studying researcher and student workflows as a way to both improve the tools we make available, and more importantly, to inform us on the role(s) libraries can play in the …


If You Built It, They Will Come: Strategies For Developing An Undergraduate Research Conference, Mark J. Caprio, Robert B. Hackey Jan 2014

If You Built It, They Will Come: Strategies For Developing An Undergraduate Research Conference, Mark J. Caprio, Robert B. Hackey

Mark J Caprio

The benefits of conference participation for undergraduates are now well understood, but the same cannot be said for the practical question of how to create and fund such opportunities for students, particularly at smaller liberal arts colleges. We seek to provide faculty and students with useful lessons for organizing, funding, and disseminating student research presented at discipline-specific undergraduate conferences. Hosting an undergraduate research conference pays dividends for faculty and students by a) providing incentives for undergraduates to revise and extend seminar papers for presentation, b) creating opportunities for students and faculty to meet and discuss their work among students with …


Student Publishing: Future Scholars As Change Agents, Mark J. Caprio Jan 2014

Student Publishing: Future Scholars As Change Agents, Mark J. Caprio

Mark J Caprio

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight undergraduates as an emergent student–scholar author group and to encourage institutions to take a future-oriented view, focusing greater attention to and support of undergraduate’s publishing. Design/methodology/approach – Highlighting benefits derived from undergraduate research (UR) experiences and publishing taken from the literature and experienced through local practice (Providence College), presenting pedagogical models for transforming students into independent thinkers (students as scholars) and responding to business and non-profit leader graduate skills requests of higher education, this paper argues for the need to cultivate graduate attributes (requisite 21st century workforce skills, abilities and …


It Takes A Library: Growing A Robust Institutional Repository In Two Years, Todd A. Bruns, Stacey Knight-Davis, Ellen K. Corrigan, J. Steve Brantley Jan 2014

It Takes A Library: Growing A Robust Institutional Repository In Two Years, Todd A. Bruns, Stacey Knight-Davis, Ellen K. Corrigan, J. Steve Brantley

Todd A. Bruns

In 2010, Booth Library began establishing an institutional repository, The Keep, an effort that involved multiple departments within the library. Potential content recruitment for the repository included large-scale digitization of archival materials and migration of previously created digital collections. Creation of the repository resulted in increased accessibility, better presentation of content that had existed on outmoded legacy web platforms, and the rescue of damaged content that had been disintegrating on other digital storage formats. By utilizing personnel across many departments and incorporating content from the Archives and Digital Collections areas, Booth Library has developed a robust institutional repository in only …