Library and Information Science Commons^™

Mobile Information Literacy: Supporting Students’ Research And Information Needs In A Mobile World, Stefanie Havelka

Publications and Research

Mobile devices have changed everyday life and they have had a great impact in higher education. This article describes a pilot project in which an academic librarian at Lehman College, City University of New York, taught information literacy exclusively via mobile devices. The concept of mobile information literacy is also reviewed, and its role in current and future teaching practices is evaluated. Lessons learned from this project tell us that mobile information literacy, albeit in its infancy, could play an essential part in students’ learning, and therefore academic librarians could incorporate it as part of their practice.

Cuny Librarians And Reassignment Time: What Is It? How Do I Get It?, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Although librarians in CUNY had achieved Faculty Status by 1946 and Faculty Rank in 1965, they were still never put on the Faculty Calendar with the Summer (or its equivalent) off. Professional Reassignment leave for library faculty was added to the contract in 1978 as a two-week research leave, and it has since expanded to a maximum of six weeks. However, as Professional Reassignment leave increased, the amount of annual leave for new librarians decreased.

From Information Literacy To Mobile Literacy: Supporting Students’ Research And Information Needs In A Mobile World, Stefanie Havelka

Publications and Research

Presentation slides from a workshop at European Conference on Information Literacy, Istanbul, Turkey.

Linux For Academics, Part I, Steven Ovadia

Publications and Research

The article focuses on GNU/Linux, an open-source operating system based on Unix. Linux offers more choice and control to academic users. The article encourages academic users to explore Linux as a way to be more productive.

Speaking As One: Supporting Open Access With Departmental Resolutions, Madeline Cohen, Maura A. Smale, Jill Cirasella, Cynthia Tobar, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

Library faculty at the City University of New York (CUNY) have engaged in promoting and advocating for open access publishing at each of our campuses as well as across the University. Inspired by the passing of a faculty senate resolution in support of the creation of an open access institutional repository and associated policies, many CUNY librarians felt the need to raise their level of commitment. In this article, the authors—four library faculty members and one faculty member from outside the library—share their experiences creating and approving open access policies in the library departments of four CUNY schools and promoting …

The American Association Of School Librarians (Aasl) Standards For The 21st Century Learner Lesson Plan Database, Christina Miller

Publications and Research

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards for the 21st Century Learner Lesson Plan Database (AASL Database) is a free, Open Access, interactive tool recently (2011) developed by the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association, to assist librarians, teachers and other educators in implementing the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner (AASL Standards) and the Common Core State Standards. It is comprised of vetted, content-area lesson plans meant to provide excellent models to integrate AASL Standards across K-12 curricula; the platform also includes social networking features and a user portfolio. The AASL …

What Should Science Reference Librarians Do With Books Classified As Science That Aren't Science: Revisiting The Well-Known Worlds In Collision By Immanuel Velikovsky As A Case Study., Philip Barnett Ph.D.

Publications and Research

Students browsing the science sections in their library may naturally assume that all of the books are scientifically valid and accurate. Science collections may also contain books that may not now be accurate, either because they are out-of-date, or never belonged there. While out-of-date knowledge can sometimes be beneficial, invalid books can only mislead. The well-known book Worlds in Collision by Immanuel Velikovsky is a case study on how librarians can handle such books. For these books, an explanatory note can be placed on the book's online catalog entry or even in the book. The book can also be weeded …

Scientific Communication Before And After Networked Science, John Carey

Publications and Research

Recent decades have seen extensive changes in how researchers in the sciences work. Online platforms enabled by Web 2.0 technologies (collectively known as “open” or “networked” science) have created multiple new channels for informal communications, revolutionizing the ways in which scientists collaborate and share results. Meanwhile, digitization and open access publishing have brought fundamental change to modes of publication and distribution for scientific journals. Yet the primary vehicle for the formal publication of results, the scientific article, has been much slower to alter in format. This paper will examine the functions that peer-reviewed journals have served within the scientific community …

Just Roll With It? Rolling Volumes Vs. Discrete Issues In Open Access Library And Information Science Journals, Jill Cirasella, Sally Bowdoin

Publications and Research

INTRODUCTION Articles in open access (OA) journals can be published on a rolling basis, as they become ready, or in complete, discrete issues. This study examines the prevalence of and reasons for rolling volumes vs. discrete issues among scholarly OA library and information science (LIS) journals based in the United States. METHODS A survey was distributed to journal editors, asking them about their publication model and their reasons for and satisfaction with that model. RESULTS Of the 21 responding journals, 12 publish in discrete issues, eight publish in rolling volumes, and one publishes in rolling volumes with an occasional special …

Passion Of A Young Cataloger, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

The article discusses library cataloging from a passionate cataloger's viewpoint. The author mentions that cataloging requires courage, logical thinking and skill learned through education, repetition, and investment of time. He considers cataloging an art of rules based on personal judgment making books easily discoverable and accessible. He also notes that in the Internet age, cataloging has evolved as a tool to synchronize databases for effective information delivery from resources to users.

A New Polemic: Libraries, Moocs, And The Pedagogical Landscape, Nora Almeida

Publications and Research

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) has emerged in the past few years as the poster child of the online higher education revolution. Lauded and derided, MOOCs (depending on who you ask) represent the democratization of education on a global scale, an overblown trend, or the beginning of the end of the traditional academic institution. MOOCs have gained so much critical traction because they have succeeded in unmooring educational exchanges and setting them adrift in the sea of the internet. Although the MOOC is a new and evolving platform, it has already upended facets of education in which librarians are …

Law Enforcement And The Mentally Ill: Thirty Years Of Police Literature, Jennifer Noe

Publications and Research

This study applies the methodology of content analysis to 30 years of law-enforcement literature to determine whether online access to scholarly research in social work and mental health made a difference in police policy toward the mentally ill. Keywords from the controlled vocabulary of these fields were found in the body of content analyzed prior to easily accessible online resources in 1997 , yet the number of articles on the subject grew from approximately one per year prior to 1998 to nearly five per year by 2011. The imprint of these two fields from outside of law enforcement was discernible …

Flying Off The Shelf: E-Books Go Mobile, Madeline Cohen, Stefanie Havelka, Jennifer Poggiali, Kate Lyons, Elisabeth Tappeiner

Publications and Research

On May 3, 2013, the two Hostos librarians teamed up with two librarians of Lehman College’s Leonard Lief Library at the Bronx EdTech Showcase to address the challenges and joys of e-books. Their hour-long presentation, focused on trends in ebooks, technical issues such as DRM and formats, CUNY’s eBook collections, and the challenges of informing students and faculty about e-books.

Educational Uses For The Ipad, Philip G. Swan Jr.

Publications and Research

These are bullet points of a talk regarding iPad apps suitable for use in higher education.

Cuny Librarians And Faculty Status, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Although the libraries in what were then known as the City Colleges of New York were made academic departments in 1938, all of the librarians did not have faculty status until 1946, and faculty rank did not come until 1965.

Do You See The Signs? Evaluating Language, Branding, And Design In A Library Signage Audit, Amy F. Stempler, Mark Aaron Polger

Publications and Research

Signage represents more than directions or policies; it is informational, promotional, and sets the tone of the environment. To be effective, signage must be consistent, concise, and free of jargon and punitive language. An efficient assessment of signage should include a complete inventory of existing signage, including an analysis of the types of signs, its location, language, and its design. This article outlines the steps involved in a comprehensive signage audit, which along with a literature review, provides the foundation for creating a signage policy, best practices guidelines, and a branding strategy for future signage.

Searching Mindfully: Are Libraries Up To The Challenge Of Competing With Google Books?, Amrita Dhawan

Publications and Research

Traditional research tools used by libraries, such as encyclopedias and catalogs (OPACs) were created in an age of print and information scarcity. They have not kept up with changes in the information world which assume an abundance of online information in different formats and interdisciplinary topics which attempt to solve ‘real world’ messy problems and not traditional theoretical questions. The traditional tools rest on an unwieldy and somewhat outdated collaboration between OCLC, LOC, private aggregators, librarians and faculty. The search results they deliver offer excessive information with very little guidance on how to systematically sift through them. This makes the …

Cuny's Critical Thinking Skills Initiative: Redesigning Workforce Education Through Information Literacy Learning, Irene Gashurov, Ann Matsuuchi

Publications and Research

In the wake of the recent financial upheaval, there is a feeling in academia that colleges should pay more attention to what employers are saying; and the common concern of employers is that many new hires are coming out of college unprepared.

In job situations that demand approaching problems from a variety of perspectives, using innovative approaches to find solutions, and communicating effectively, employers said these recent graduates were coming up short. They called on educators “to teach [students] the analytical skills, the critical thinking skills and the communication skills that are necessary for almost every job in today’s economy.”

Technology Innovations In Publishing: New Directions In Academic And Cultural Communication., Elisabeth Tappeiner, Kate Lyons

Publications and Research

Over time, publishing technologies have not only influenced how people read, but also how knowledge is evaluated and authority is established. Social and mobile technologies represent relatively recent developments that have transformed the trade publishing world, but the extent to which they have affected academic publishing remains an open question. This article examines the rapid and disruptive transformations in the trade and digital publishing world, discusses how these developments have already intersected with the work of academics and considers how these changes might continue to transform the dissemination of academic research in the future.

The Use And Availability Of Environmental Activism Collections In Academic Archives, Amy F. Stempler

Publications and Research

This study seeks to reveal the current state of environmental research in academic special collections and archives, with an emphasis on materials associated with environmental activism. The use and availability of archival environmental activism collections were assessed in a two-fold process. The use of such collections was evaluated through a citation analysis of related research articles published in Environmental History, the premier scholarly journal in the field of environmental history. The citation analysis reviewed the prevalence of archival collections sourced, and examined citations by repository type and material type in order to gain insight into the kinds of items used …

Beyond Physical Space: Implementing A Virtual Learning Commons At An Urban Community College, Heba Elsayed, Carlos Guevara, Rebecca Hoda-Kearse, Isabel Li, Kate Lyons, George Rosa, Varun Sehgal

Publications and Research

The administration, faculty, and staff at Hostos Community College strive to improve students’ computer and information literacy skills while meeting the distinct needs of Millennials. In 2007, Hostos initiated a project to reconfigure physical spaces throughout the campus (areas in the Library, Academic Learning Center, Educational Technology Office, and Academic Computing Center) and establish a unified virtual space, creating a cross-divisional entity: the Information Learning Commons (ILC).

This case discusses the formation of the ILC Committee, the group that envisions and manages physical ILC spaces’ renovation and also develops virtual spaces; the planning and implementation of physical learning commons spaces; …

Seen It All, Heard It All, Done It All. Is It All Worth It?, Julie Lim

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Google Vs. The Library: Student Preferences And Perceptions When Doing Research Using Google And A Federated Search Tool, Helen Georgas

Publications and Research

Federated searching was once touted as the library world’s answer to Google, but ten years since federated searching technology’s inception, how does it actually compare? This study focuses on undergraduate student preferences and perceptions when doing research using both Google and a federated search tool. Students were asked about their preferences using each search tool and the perceived relevance of the sources they found using each search tool. Students were also asked to self-assess their online searching skills. The findings show that students believe they possess strong searching skills, are able to find relevant sources using both search tools, but …

Decentralized Expertise: The Evolution Of Community Forums In Technical Support, Steven Ovadia

Publications and Research

This chapter discusses the authority structures found within the community support forums of open and closed source operating systems (Linux, Windows, and OS X), demonstrating how, because of these forums, technical expertise is shifting away from the organizations responsible for creating these systems and into the community using them. One might expect this kind of migration within Linux communities, where in theory anyone can contribute to the code of the project, but it is also being seen in closed source projects, where only certain people, usually employees, have access to the underlying code that controls the operating system. In these …

The Academic Library: Cowpath Or Path To The Future?, Verlene J. Herrington

Publications and Research

This paper relates the traditional academic library to the expression, “don’t pave the cowpath”. Originating in the IT world, this expression means to not integrate technology into an established practice without assessing whether the process is still effective or still needed. Even though sustaining technologies have simplified information retrieval and library tasks, library organizational structure and processes remain pretty much unchanged. This article discusses the cowpath that academic libraries have followed for decades and the challenges disruptive technologies pose to the traditional model. It looks at how one academic library rejected tradition, got off the cowpath and created a different …

Colloquium Focuses On Books, Meaning, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Student As Subaltern: Reconsidering The Role Of Student Life Material Collections At North American Universities, Jessica L. Wagner

Publications and Research

This article argues for college and university archivists to undertake advocacy and activism to better document student life. It discusses key shifts in archival and historical theory that supported an interest in collecting from a wide variety of people rather than just elites. Next, it describes recent archival scholarship on student life materials and considers the extent to which college and university archives are actively documenting the student experience via the collection of these materials. Analysis of the results of a survey of college and university archivists about the nature of these collections sheds further light on prevailing opinions of …

Positioning Library Data For The Semantic Web: Recent Developments In Resource Description, Kimmy Szeto

Publications and Research

Recent developments in resource description standards and technologies have aimed at moving cataloging practice to the web environment and making library data available for exchange and reuse on the Semantic Web. As the library community looks outward and forward, library standards and technologies are converging with Web practices in three areas: content description, data models, and data exchange. This article captures the essence of the core standards and technologies that underlie the daily work of practitioners of library service, including Resource Description and Access (RDA), Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), the Linked Data environment, Resource Description Framework (RDF), and …

Like A Hurricane: A Citation Analysis Of Emergency Management Scholarly Literature, Jennifer Noe, Julia M. Furay

Publications and Research

This bibliometric study used citation analysis to uncover citing characteristics in the burgeoning academic field of emergency management. Of the 281 degree programs listed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency nationwide, those at community colleges accounted for 17 percent of the total. Using the interdisciplinary database of Academic Search Complete, a sample of 5,099 citations was collected from 146 articles published between 2002 and 2012. The most strongly represented disciplines revealed by the analysis were Social Science, Science/Technology and Medicine. A majority of citations (45%) came from academic journals, with nearly half (44%) of those from Social Science. When citing …

Marketing Library Workshops: A Model For Achieving Popular And Critical Success, Catherine Stern, Alexandra Rojas, Elizabeth Namei

Publications and Research

While drop-in workshops can often be a vital and important component of academic library instruction programs (Manuel, 2003), it is an ongoing challenge to keep them fresh and to attract sufficient numbers of attendees to make the enterprise meaningful and worthwhile. Workshops offer an opportunity to raise the library's profile within the institution and be recognized for the work librarians do to support the college's mission. LaGuardia Community College Library has sought to achieve both popular (good attendance) and critical (enhanced college-wide recognition) success with its workshop series. The outreach initiatives described in this article brought us closer to both …