Library and Information Science Commons^™

E-Books For The Classroom & Open Access Textbooks: Two Ways To Help Students Save Money On Textbooks, Jason Boczar, Laura Pascual

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Scholar Commons @ Usf: Sharing Knowledge Worldwide, Carol Ann Borchert, Julie Anne Fielding

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Open Access Journal Publishing At Usf: How We Do It, Why We Do It, Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

In this contribution to the 2011-2012 Digital Commons Community Webinar Series, I discuss the primary drivers for the University of South Florida Tampa Library's commitment to supporting open-access journals. Our primary motivations include removing obstacles for our faculty and deeply embedding the library as a full partner in the research endeavor. Secondary motivations include contributing to solutions for increasing journal costs and to promote the public good. I also discuss staffing the activity, training and skill sets, and workflow management.

The Balance Point: Libraries As Journal Publishers, Anali Maughan Perry, Carol Ann Borchert, Timothy S. Deliyannides, Andrea Kosavic, Rebecca Kennison, Sharon Dyas-Correia

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Increasing library involvement in journal hosting and publishing is an important topic for serialists and therefore this installment of “The Balance Point” column presents articles that offer descriptions and analysis of the current state of ideas and activities related to libraries as publishers. Featured authors discuss the publishing and journal hosting tasks libraries can perform, programs and activities related to journal hosting, titles hosted, challenges, next steps and the benefits or drawbacks foreseen in the current paths of the libraries they represent.

Coping With Hobgoblins: Rethinking Journals Processing In The E-Journals Environment At The University Of South Florida, Carol Ann Borchert

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Many libraries grapple with how to develop new skills for processing electronic journals, while still handling the print format as well. Journals in a print format have always been complex, and adding the electronic component has made them more so. Few libraries are adding staff to handle this workload. The University of South Florida Tampa Library has tried a number of workflow changes--not always successfully--to handle this transition. This paper will explore these changes, explaining why some were not successful and why others have resulted in efficiencies, and concludes with lessons learned that could benefit others.

Grey Literature In Karst Research: The Evolution Of The Karst Information Portal (Kip), Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The Karst Information Portal (KIP) is a digital library linking scientists, resource managers, and explorers with quality information resources concerning karst, an understudied natural environment that is crucial to the health and well-being of one out of every four people on Earth. Beginning in 2006 as a partnership between the University of South Florida Libraries, the National Cave & Karst Research Institute, the University of New Mexico Library, and the Union Internationale de Spéléologie (UIS), the KIP initiative has expanded to include databases concerning cave minerals, speleothem dating, and coastal cave surveys. This chapter outlines the evolution of the project …

Numeracy: Open-Access Publishing To Reduce The Cost Of Scholarly Journals, Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Each fiscal year, as academic librarians throughout the United States prepare materials budgets, a national “groan” ensues. Regardless of their format (i.e. print or digital), serial subscription costs are escalating, in the process impacting the role of the library in advancing scholarly communication . This paper examines some of the economic issues concerning open-access (OA) journal publishing. The importance of quantitative literacy is suggested for librarians and academics seeking a better understanding of alternatives to traditional journal subscription models and to anyone considering ventures into OA publishing. Quantitative literacy is essential for managing alternatives to the rising cost of scholarly …

The Evolution Of The Karst Information Portal, Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The Karst Information Portal (KIP) is a digital library initiative linking scientists, resource managers, and explorers with quality information resources concerning karst, an understudied natural environment that is crucial to the health and well-being of one out of every four people on Earth. Beginning in 2006 as a partnership between the USF Libraries, the National Cave & Karst Research Institute, the University of New Mexico Library, and the Union Internationale de Spéléologie (UIS), KIP has expanded to include databases concerning cave minerals, speleothem dating, and coastal cave surveys. This presentation outlines the evolution of the project and describes ongoing developments …

Cave Mineral Database: A Joint Collaboration Between Geologists, Librarians, And Programmers, Beverly Caggiano, Bogdan P. Onac, Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The Cave Mineral Database (CAMIDA) is a collaborative project of the University of South Florida Libraries, UIS’s Cave Minerals Commission, the Karst Information Portal, “Emil Racoviţă Institute of Speleology (Romania), and the Karst Research Group at University of South Florida (USA). CAMIDA is an open-access collection of geological, mineralogical, crystallographical, and protection/conservation information on all minerals discovered in caves (including lava tubes) around the world. It holds and organizes large amounts of information (including polarizing, scanning, and transmission microscope photos), and makes any item immediately accessible. It also provides links to many other integrated database of Raman spectra, X-ray diffraction …

Quantitative Literacy On The Web Of Science, 2 – Mining The Health Numeracy Literature For Assessment Items, H. Len Vacher, Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

A topic search of the Web of Science (WoS) database using the term “numeracy” produced a bibliography of 293 articles, reviews and editorial commentaries (Oct 2008). The citation graph of the bibliography clearly identifies five benchmark papers (1995-2001), four of which developed numeracy assessment instruments. Starting with the 80 papers that cite these benchmarks, we identified a set of 25 papers (1995-2008) in which the medical research community reports the development and/or application of health-numeracy assessments. In all we found 10 assessment instruments from which we have compiled a total of 48 assessment items. There are both general and context-specific …

Why We Do It – The University Of South Florida Tampa Library’S Commitment To Open-Access Publishing, Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The University of South Florida Tampa Library's support for open-access content is part of the organization's mission to advance scholarly communication generally and an important element of the Karst Information Portal initiative. As the costs associated with journal subscriptions increase and pressures to ensure unfettered access to high-quality, peer-reviewed research mount, research libraries must partner with scholars to establish sustainable open-access publishing models.

Quantitative Literacy On The Web Of Science, 1: The Bibliography And Its Role In The History Of This Journal, H. Len Vacher, Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Prior to deciding to propose in 2006 that the National Numeracy Network (NNN) publish a new journal for quantitative literacy with their support, the University of South Florida Libraries investigated the publication environment of the field on the Web of Science®. Reproducing part of that study in this paper, we present findings from topic searches (March 2008) for “numeracy,” “quantitative literacy,” and “statistical literacy.” These updated results include a combined bibliography of 338 peer-reviewed articles amongst 210 different journals, by 748 authors from 321 institutions in 25 countries, in a total of 87 subjects (34% of the subject classes in …

Superior Karst Management Through Superior Data Management: The Karst Information Portal, E. Spencer Fleury, George H. Veni, Todd A. Chavez, Penelope J. Boston, Diana E. Northup, H. Len Vacher, Pat Seiser

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Effective stewardship of caves and karst areas requires access to and efficient analysis of a diverse range of information. Vital data are scattered throughout specialty mainstream journals, which even for a single project could include fields such as ecology, hydrogeology, contaminant transport, toxicology, engineering geology and law. Additionally, volumes of crucial information often lie in diffi­cult-to-find gray literature. Management recommendations and decisions should be based on assessments of state-of-the-art information, but fall short when im­portant patterns and relationships are overlooked.

The Karst Information Portal (KIP) offers a solution to these problems. Con­ceived in 2005 and launched in June 2007, KIP …

The Impact Of Grey Literature In Advancing Global Karst Research – A Follow-Up, Todd A. Chavez, Anna Perrault, Pete Reehling, Courtney Crummit

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

This presentation updates research findings reported in "The Impact of Grey Literature in Advancing Global Karst Research: An Information Needs Assessment for a Globally Distributed Interdisciplinary Community."

Sr Visits: John F. Kennedy Space Center Library, Carol Ann Borchert, Michael A. Arthur, Katy Ginanni

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) John F. Kennedy Space Center Library serves most of the employees who work at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The archives are part of the library and contain over four million items pertaining to institutional activities within the KSC. The library collects a wide array of materials that support the work at the center. This is one of ten NASA center libraries in the country, and the focus of the collection is engineering, science, and technology. The purpose of the archives is to document the history of this center. The collection includes planning …

To Check In Or Not To Check In? That Is The Question, Carol Ann Borchert

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The University of South Florida Tampa Library discontinued checking in print journals and periodicals for a trial period of one year from July 2005 to June 2006. This article discusses the reasons behind such a decision, how it worked out, and what the ramifications have been. Though it proved inconvenient for public and technical services alike, few specific problems were reported via email, online forms or in person. The library derived several benefits from this project, particularly in terms of the timing, since it happened just as the library moved to a new integrated library system, from NOTIS to Aleph.

Enhancing Communication And Knowledge Discovery Among Karst Scientists: The Role Of The Karst Information Portal (Kip), George Veni, Diana Northup, Penelope Boston, Todd A. Chavez, Robert Brinkmann, H. Len Vacher, Alexander Klimchouk, Linn Marks-Collins, Johann Van Reenan

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Karst science is an intrinsically multidisciplinary field of study that is poorly indexed and difficult to access. While much of the significant body of international literature is accessible, many important works remain largely unknown or inaccessible. Some of the more difficult and essential documents to access are what is characterized as gray literature, which includes maps, databases, technical reports, graduate theses or dissertations, images, video, and government publications. Also, karst-related documents published in less-accessible languages are hard to access or find. The creation and implementation of the Karst Information Portal (KIP) beginning in 2005 addresses these and other information access …

Introducing The Karst Information Portal, Robert Brinkmann, Todd A. Chavez, George Veni, Penelope Boston

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

This presentation introduces the Karst Information Portal to an international audience.

The Karst Information Portal (Kip): Developing A Network Of Geographic And Geologic Karst Information, Robert Brinkmann, Todd A. Chavez, Alexander Klimchouk, Diana Northup, H. Len Vacher, Penelope Boston, George Veni, Spencer Fleury

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The difficulty of sharing geologic and geographic karst information is well documented. While there is a significant body of internationally accessible literature, important works are largely unknown or inaccessible. Some of the more difficult documents to access include maps, databases, technical reports, graduate theses or dissertations, images, video, and government publications. Also, karst related documents published in lessaccessible languages are hard to access or find—especially those published prior to the information age. In order to address this issue, the Karst Information Portal (KIP) was formed in 2005 and launched in 2007.

KIP is an evolving international community of scientists, information …

Enhancing Communication And Knowledge Discovery Among Karst Biospeleologists: The Role Of The Karst Information Portal (Kip), Diana Northup, Todd A. Chavez, Robert Brinkmann, H. Len Vacher, Linn Marks Collins, Johann Van Reenan, Penelope Boston, George Veni

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Speleology is an intrinsically multidisciplinary field of study that draws upon a substantial grey literature (for exapmle, agency research reports) that is poorly indexed, difficult to access, and generated in many different languages. The creation and implementation of the Karst Information Portal (KIP) beginning in 2005 addresses these and other information access and management problems by focusing on providing a global portal that will provide a gateway to the Web for karst information and services. Digital versions of many karst resources will be available through KIP. Databases, datasets, bibliographies, images, grey literature, and the like. that have been created by …

The Karst Information Portal: A Virtual Tool To Facilitate Research And Collaboration In Paleontological Speleology, George Veni, Todd A. Chavez, Penelope Boston, Diana Northup, H. Len Vacher

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Data access, management, and evaluation challenge the progress of speleology. Crucial information is both scattered throughout specialty mainstream journals and buried in the gray literature. The karst-information problem is exacerbated in paleontological speleology due to overlaps into other disciplines, such as geology, biology, paleoclimatology, and hydrology. Important patterns and relationships can easily be overlooked, especially when no geographic or cultural connections are known between archeological sites. The Karst Information Portal (KIP) is a solution to these paleontological research problems. Conceived in 2005 and launched in June 2007, KIP developed as a partnership between the International Union of Speleology, National Cave …

Human Dimensions Research And The Karst Information Portal, Todd A. Chavez, Patricia E. Seiser

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

In the natural resources disciplines, human dimensions research aims to understand the role of human interactions in the various biological, physical, and social components of ecosystems. Successfully applying this knowledge to decisions affecting environmental processes and their societal outcomes depends on collaborations among interrelated disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences, humanities, communication sciences, and related interdisciplinary studies. Success is also based on access to reliable sources of scientific and technical information. Some of the difficulties in stewardship of karst and cave ecosystems arise from the limited availability of information concerning human-karst relationships.

The Karst Information Portal (KIP) is an …

The Impact Of Grey Literature In Advancing Global Karst Research: An Information Needs Assessment For A Globally Distributed Interdisciplinary Community, Todd A. Chavez, Anna H. Perrault, Pete Reehling, Courtney Crummett

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

A survey of the global karst community was conducted in 2006. The survey was distributed via the World Wide Web to known karst researchers. The instrument was designed to generate an initial inventory of core grey information types, to assess levels of usage of grey information by the respondents, and to gauge the karst community’s willingness to participate in building and expanding both this collection and the associated controlled vocabularies.

The Impact Of Grey Literature In Advancing Global Karst Research, Todd A. Chavez, Anna Perrault, Pete Reehling, Courtney Crummit

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

This presentation presents the findings of a survey of karst researchers from around the globe. The data suggests that karst research is heavily dependent on access to grey literature, yet formal efforts to organize for access and to preserve this important information is weak.

Untangling The Jungle Of E-Journal Access Issues Using Crm Software, Carol Ann Borchert

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Librarians have been struggling for years with the variety of issues arising while troubleshooting access to electronic journals. This article outlines the advantages and disadvantages of using a Customer Relations Management (CRM) software, originally designed for a call center, to communicate with patrons and track access issues. Utilizing the email software used by the Reference Department at the University of South Florida, we assign incidents, correspond with patrons and staff, write internal notes, maintain transactions, and pull statistics. Hopefully, library vendors will develop software oriented to the needs of libraries to assist in managing access problems for e-journals.

A Snapshot Of The Body Of Karst Literature, Sarah E. Fratesi, Lee Florea, Todd A. Chavez, H. Len Vacher

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The pace of research in cave and karst science is increasing. The inherent multidisciplinary nature of the field exacerbates the need for globalized communication. The field, however, is served by a literature that is dispersed across far-flung topical journals, government publications, and club newsletters. As part of an inter-institutional project to globalize karst information (KIP, the Karst Information Portal), the USF Library undertook a structured battery of literature searches to map the domain of karst literature. The administrators of the KIP will use these data to design strategies to aggregate and evaluate the representation of information within the KIP.

The …

The Global Karst Digital Portal: An Emerging Collaboratorium, Robert Brinkmann, Todd A. Chavez, Louise Hose, Diana Northup

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The National Cave and Karst Research Institute, the University of South Florida, and the University of New Mexico have developed a network portal to enhance information access and improved communication within the national and international karst community. The partnership developed an on-line digital portal with free access to a variety of information. This holistic undertaking seeks to bring karst research forward in the digital age. In addition, the project creates global connections by including a user-generated submission process for enhancing the diversity of materials available through the portal. We are currently transforming A Guide to Speleological Literature of the English …

The Reflection Of Karst In The Online Mirror: A Survey Within Scientific Databases, 1960-2005, Lee J. Florea, Beth Fratesi, Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The field of cave and karst science is served by a literature that is dispersed across far-flung topical journals, government publications, and club newsletters. As part of an inter-institutional project to globalize karst information (KIP, the Karst Information Portal), the USF Library undertook a structured battery of literature searches to map the domain of karst literature. The study used 4,300 individual searches and four literature databases: GeoRef, BIOSIS, Anthropology Plus, and GPO Access. The searches were based on a list of 632 terms including 321 karst-related keywords culled from three leading encyclopedias and glossaries of cave and karst science. An …