Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Adapting To Scarcity: Developing An Integrated Allocation Formula, George Stachokas, Tim Gritten

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Rising costs for library materials and shrinking budgets make it more necessary than ever for academic libraries to target their scarce resources to meet the specific needs of academic programs. The authors surveyed other institutions to determine current practices in the allocation of library materials funds in different formats. The results of our survey were inconclusive, which led us to combine monographs and continuations in a single allocation formula. By crafting an allocation formula for both monographs and continuations in print and electronic format, the Cunningham Memorial Library at Indiana State University hopes to satisfy the growing demand for information …

Inciting Curiosity And Creating Meaning: Teaching Information Evaluation Through The Lens Of ‘Bad Science’, Catherine Fraser Riehle

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Ability to evaluate information is a critical component of information literacy. This article provides strategies for engaging students in learning about information evaluation in the contexts of the scientific publication cycle and communication in the digital age. Also included are recent findings regarding undergraduate student research behavior and ideas for integrating constructivist learning theory in order to develop effective learning activities that encourage curiosity and critical thinking.

Who Teaches Information Literacy Competencies? Report Of A Study Of Faculty, Sharon A. Weiner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Information literacy is recognized as an essential competency for educational success. It relates to all disciplines but is not a separate discipline, so it is not clear who takes responsibility for teaching this competency to undergraduates. This is a report of a survey conducted to better understand the extent to which teaching information literacy concepts by faculty occurred in a research university. The results indicated that faculty in the disciplines generally teach information literacy competencies to undergraduate students without collaborating with others on their campus. Many faculty also had the expectation that students know how to avoid plagiarism, find articles …

Refactoring Hubzero For Linked Data, Michael Witt, Yongyang Yu

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The HUBzero cyberinfrastructure provides a virtual research environment that includes a set of tools for web-based, scientific collaboration and a platform for publishing and using resources such as executable software, source code, images, learning modules, videos, documents, and datasets. Released as open source software in 2010, HUBzero has been implemented on a typical LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) and utilizes the Joomla! content management system. This paper describes the subsequent refactoring of HUBzero to produce and expose Linked Data from its backend, relational database, altering the external expression of the data without changing its internal structure. The Open …

Librarians And Statistics: Thoughts On A Tentative Relationship, Amy S. Van Epps

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Librarians are not trained as original researchers during library school. As a result, librarians as authors may succumb to common statistical misconceptions and use errors, thus it is important for librarians to know how to recognize them. A quick discussion of what a researcher should be aware to avoid poor methods and inaccurate use of statistics is included. A review of statistics and research methods courses currently offered in library and information science programs helps determine if the lack of training observed in earlier studies has changed. A list of recommendations for authors and reviewers of LIS literature is presented.

Are Mls Graduates Being Prepared For The Changing And Emerging Roles That Librarians Must Now Assume Within Research Libraries?, James L. Mullins

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The focus of research libraries is changing to include digital resources, improving the information literacy level of patrons, and creating new partnerships on and off campus, among other things. This creates a need to recruit librarians trained in these areas and open to these changes. Library science training is a necessary foundation for preparing graduates to qualify for and excel in changing and emerging new roles. This article explores current recruitment efforts to articulate new roles and to successfully hire graduates with the skills and aptitude to fill them.

Middle Managers And Major Gifts: Fundraising For Academic Librarians, Tomalee Doan

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Abstract

Purpose: Share successful strategies for mid-level management academic librarians and archivists for raising major gifts from individual donors

Design: Demonstrate growing need for fundraising in university libraries and participating in fundraising activities as an increasing expectation of librarians; provide case studies of successful fundraising by librarian and archivist including their work with donors and collaboration with development professionals; conclude with suggestions for maintaining donor relations

Findings: Fundraising is increasingly rapidly as an expected activity of librarians but a slowly growing part of their education. More literature is also needed on the topic. Successful fundraising is dependent …

Criteria For Evaluating Journals In The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning In Agriculture, Natural Resources, And The Life Sciences, Marianne S. Bracke, Sharon A. Weiner, Judith M. Nixon, Scott Deatherage

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The purpose of this paper was to identify existing criteria that may be considered in evaluating journals in the scholarship of teaching and learning in agriculture, natural resources, and the life sciences. This can assist faculty authors and evaluators of promotion and tenure cases to explain indicators of the quality of the publications. The commonly accepted criteria are: peer review; acceptance rate; longevity; open access availability; inclusion in indexing/abstracting services; citation analysis; and expert opinion. These data were collected for a representative set of journals which indicated that: acceptance rates for the journals varied widely; most of the journals existed …

The Changing Definition And Role Of Collections And Services In The University Research Library, James L. Mullins

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

No abstract provided.

Knowledge-Enabled Engineering Design: Toward An Integrated Model, Michael Fosmire, David Radcliffe

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Librarians and engineering faculty have long understood that design is one of the defining processes of the engineering profession. In an increasingly knowledge-driven society, students need to efficiently locate, assess and integrate relevant information into their design process so that they can develop innovation solutions to emerging complex, global grand challenges. Increasingly, engineering curricula are incorporating design as early as the first year, but a question remains as to how effectively information literacy is being integrated into these early experiences of design. For example, the Engineering Change study found there has been very little improvement to lifelong learning skills in …

Science Librarians Analysis Of The 2011 Nobel Prize In Physics: The Work Of Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, And Adam G. Riess, Michael Fosmire, Debra Kolah

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2011 was awarded to scientists from two different research collaborations that independently and contemporaneously discovered from observations of distant supernovae that the universe's expansion is accelerating. One half of the prize was awarded to Saul Perlmutter and the other half jointly to Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess. The findings, first reported in 1998, shocked the cosmology community, as the prevailing theory at the time favored a “closed” or “steady-state” universe, rather than one wherein the universe expands faster and faster, ultimately ending as a cold, dark, (largely) empty space. It was, perhaps, fortuitous …

Information Literacy Beyond The Library: Organizations To Watch, Sharon A. Weiner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The need for an information-literate society is increasingly apparent to educators, employers, policy makers, and other leaders. Colleges and undergraduate libraries are well positioned to collaborate with a variety of constituencies on addressing this need. Academic librarians can benefit from an awareness of reports, conferences, and newsletters of organizations outside of libraries that recognize the importance of effectively finding, using, and communicating information. This column describes four organizations. By examining the Websites and subscribing to the online updates for each, librarians can have current information about topics that relate to information literacy and incorporate it into their libraries’ information literacy …

Data Under Construction: Data Profiling For A Water Quality Lab, Jake R. Carlson, Marianne S. Bracke

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This case study describes an investigation into the data management and sharing practices within an interdisciplinary research lab. The Purdue Water Quality Field Station (WQFS) consists of researchers and graduate students generating data on a range of topics including: water quality, water flow, chemical composition of water, soil composition, soil moisture, and plant biomass. Many of these data are of interest beyond the lab, to other researchers, policy makers, and companies. Most of the data are gathered, processed and analyzed by graduate students from several different departments. The data gathered by one graduate student may be useful to others, but …

The Librarian And The Designer: Working Together To Create A Showcase For Contemporary Learning, Tomalee Doan

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Many institutions of higher education are designing spaces that reflect the established correlation between learning spaces and student achievement, mastery, and retention (Hunley & Schaller, 2006). In this case study of a renovation of an 18,327 square foot business library space into a dynamic learning environment, Melinda McGee, the Interior Designer for the project, and Tomalee Doan, the Associate Professor and Head Librarian of the business library, share the experience of their successful partnership that required a creative and an in-depth collaboration with each other and with several other stakeholders not usually found in an academic setting. Their goal is …

Review Of Daniel Mockli's "Strategic Trends 2012: Key Developments In Global Affairs, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This review essay describes and analyzes the content of this annual compilation of international affairs essays published by the Zurich-based Center for Strategic Studies.