Library and Information Science Commons^™

A Campus Partnership To Foster Compliance With Funder Mandates, Jeff Broadbent, Andrea Payant, Kevin Peterson, Betty Rozum, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Data from federally funded research must now be made publicly accessible and discoverable. Researchers must adhere to guidelines established by federal agencies, and universities must be prepared to demonstrate compliance with the federal mandate. At Utah State University, the Office of Research and Graduate Studies and the Merrill-Cazier Library partnered to facilitate data sharing and create an audit trail demonstrating compliance with the terms of each researcher’s award. This systematic approach uses existing resources such as the grant management system, the institutional repository (IR), and the Library online catalog. This paper describes our process and the first eight months of …

Making A Mark In The First Year: Initiating And Implementing Large-Scale Projects As A New Librarian, Teagan Eastman, Amber Willenborg

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

New librarians are in a position to bring innovative ideas to their organization, but are often unsure of how to go about implementing big projects. This article presents a case study of two online learning librarians in their first year of librarianship, outlining how they initiated and implemented large-scale projects and discussing challenges they faced and lessons they learned.

Utah State University - University Libraries Metadata Application Profile For Contentdm Digital Collections, Andrea Payant, Sara Skindelien, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

The Utah State University Libraries Digital Collections Application Profile outlines the metadata fields, mappings, definitions, and resources used to assign metadata for digital collections in the USU CONTENTdm repository. Utah State University is a collection partner of the Mountain West Digital Library (MWDL). Therefore, this profile pulls substantially from the MWDL application profile 2.0, which is available at this URL: http://mwdl.org/docs/MWDL_DC_Profile_Version_2.0.pdf

Closing The Loop: Engaging In A Sustainable And Continuous Cycle Of Authentic Assessment To Improve Library Instruction, Teagan Eastman, Kacy Lundstrom, Katie Strand, Erin Davis, Pamela N. Martin, Andrea Krebs, Anne Hedrich

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This study demonstrates how a team of librarians sustained authentic assessment across multiple studies in order to inform changes to an information literacy curriculum. It demonstrates the cyclical and action-based nature of assessment, including closing one loop only to reopen another and begin the assessment process again, emphasizing the importance of sustainability and making changes that increase student learning. Researchers analyzed 79 English composition papers for evidence of information literacy skills, expanding upon a previous study which established information literacy skill benchmarks. Findings from the previous study led to the development of new library instruction lessons, which targeted skills students …

Initiating Cultural Shifts In Perceptions Of Cataloging Units Through Interaction Assessment, Andrea Payant, Becky Skeen, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Points of contact formulate the culture of any organization and shape the perceptions of decision makers and colleagues alike. This research project investigated the interactions between Cataloging and Metadata Services staff and other library employees by analyzing interactions. This article summarizes the results of data gathered from interaction assessments and compares them with surveys about the current perceptions of the cataloging unit at the Utah State University Libraries. It discusses the ways these results have influenced existing unit workflows to enhance awareness of cataloging and metadata contributions to the library and posits possible ways to continue such initiatives moving forward.

The Unspace Case: Developing A Maker Movement In A Multipurpose, Flexible Space, Library Setting, Craig E. Shepherd, Cassandra Kvenild, Shannon M. Smith, Alan Buss

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This paper presents the ongoing design, development, and implementation of a K-16 maker movement centered around a joint public school/university library whose minimal dedicated space has expanded opportunities for public participation, partnerships, and shared resources. As the library sought to circulate STEM resources for K-9 teachers and students in 2011, University instructors were seeking opportunities for preservice teachers to interact meaningfully with authentic, technology-rich environments. These separate endeavors coalesced over time to form a robust community of various school, university, and public stakeholders focused on mathematics and science learning. Because the space was not bound to a single physical location, …

Title Change Characteristics Of Academic And Nonacademic Serials, Mavis B. Molto

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

The study compared the characteristics of academic and nonacademic serials with title changes, from which it was determined that the two serial subpopulations were similar in the six broad reasons found for a title change but differed in the kinds and proportions of subject and function changes that occurred when a title changed. On the basis of the findings, two alternate RDA rule revision proposals are made (labeled Ideal versus Practical), the first requiring a new access point for a title change only when a significant subject or function change has occurred, and the second requiring a new access point …

Extending Our Reach: Automatic Integration Of Course And Subject Guides, Britt A. Fagerheim, Kacy Lundstrom, Erin Davis, Dory Cochran

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Librarians at the Utah State University (USU) Merrill-Cazier Library started working with LibGuides in 2007, and USU subject librarians quickly adopted the system. USU is a land-grant institution with a main campus of 14,000 students and several smaller regional campuses and centers throughout the state, many of which rely heavily on online resources. After seven years of working with LibGuides, a product of Springshare, approximately seven hundred research guides had been published. The guides varied in purpose and design, and we did not have a consistent or clear view of how students found or used them. We also did not …

Making Friends And Buying Robots: How To Leverage Collaborations And Collections To Support Stem Learning, Cassandra Kvenild, Shannon M. Smith, Craig E. Shepherd, Emma G. Thielk

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

In a climate of increased interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), school libraries have unique opportunities to grow collections and cultivate partnerships in the sciences. At the federal level and in many states, STEM initiatives encourage hands-on exposure to technologies and open the door for student-led discovery of tools related to robotics, coding, programming, and electronics. Influenced by local STEM initiatives, the Learning Resource Center (LRC) at the University of Wyoming Lab School decided to create a circulating collection of STEM kits. (The UW Lab School is a tuition free charter school with a diverse population selected by …

Mitigating The Risk: Identifying Strategic University Partnerships For Compliance Tracking Of Research Data And Publications, Andrea Payant, Betty Rozum, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

As international efforts to develop guidelines for data management emerge, the need for monitoring data deposit compliance increases. Utah State University has a team of university administrators, IT specialists, and librarians that addresses research data management issues. They developed a process to receive reports from faculty with successful grants that ultimately allows creation of records for data. Research grants are tracked though all stages and information about data and publications shared publicly on platforms capable of contributing scholarly work to research outputs aggregators (such as Share) and also to public facing bibliographic aggregators like Worldcat.

Enhancing Teaching & Learning: Libraries And Open Educational Resources In The Classroom, Erin Davis, Britt A. Fagerheim, Becky Thoms, Dory Cochran

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Academic libraries continually adjust services to adapt to the ever-changing landscape in higher education. In response to the broken textbook market, libraries are becoming actively involved in the open educational resources (OER) movement. Although there is not a formal program in place, librarians at Utah State University explored a collaborative approach to integrate OER in faculty members' courses. One goal of the effort was to work closely with faculty to consider course objectives and learning outcomes when evaluating and incorporating OER. This article identifies a streamlined process for targeting courses most suited for OER adoption and outlines a process of …

Making Strategic Decisions: Conducting And Using Research On The Impact Of Sequenced Library Instruction, Kacy Lundstrom, Pamela N. Martin, Dory Cochran

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This study explores the relationship between course grades and sequenced library instruction interventions throughout psychology students’ curriculum. Researchers conducted this study to inform decisions about sustaining and improving program integrations for first- and second-year composition courses and to improve discipline-level integrations. Researchers began with transcript analysis but soon incorporated student surveys and a faculty focus group to supplement the data and influence future directions. Findings confirmed that students benefit from meaningful collaborations with the library at strategic, sequenced points in their curriculum, including at the discipline level. This research also provided concrete information that brought about change at the classroom …

Partnering For Discoverability: Knitting Archival Finding Aids To Digitized Material Using A Low Tech Digital Content Linking Process, Liz Woolcott, Andrea Payant, Sara Skindelien

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

As libraries continue to ramp up digitization efforts for unique archival and special collections material, the segregation of archival finding aids from their digitized counterparts presents an accumulating discoverability problem for both patrons and library staff. For Utah State University (USU) Libraries, it became evident that a system was necessary to connect both new and legacy finding aids with their digitized content to improve use and discoverability. Following a cross­departmental workflow analysis involving the Special Collections, Cataloging and Metadata, and Digital Initiatives departments, a process was created for semi­automating the batch linking of item and folder level entries in EAD …

Using Pop Culture, Feminist Pedagogy, And Current Events To Help Students Explore Multiple Sides Of An Argument, Dory Cochran

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

According to Project Information Literacy, students struggle with understanding the “big picture” of a research project, and in particular, with understanding “multiple sides of an argument.”1 As a skill, understanding different perspectives is needed in scholarly research, but it is also integral to understanding current events and broader social conversations. This lesson works to address both of these needs by bringing pop culture and feminist pedagogy into the library classroom. In collaboratively analyzing pop culture examples connected to a current event, students can draw upon their own experiences with pop culture, identify other viewpoints, and ultimately explore an issue from …

Populating Your Institutional Repository And Promoting Your Students: Irs And Undergraduate Research, Betty Rozum, Becky Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Establishing institutional repositories (IRs) and encouraging supportive faculty participation can be daunting. Gaining access to scholarly publica- tions and other products that students produce, especially undergraduate researchers, can be an even more challenging task. Many IRs contain gradu- ate theses and dissertations as well as undergraduate honors theses and the abstracts of work that students present at student research events or con- ferences. It is less common to find IRs whose compilers thoroughly collect student scholarship from all aspects of students’ research activities, which can demonstrate the academic involvement of both a university’s student population and the faculty who collaborate …

Discovering Open Access Articles: Maximum Access, Maximum Visibility! A Report Of The Alcts Continuing Resources Section Program. American Library Association Annual Conference, Las Vegas, June 2014, Mavis B. Molto

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

The growing open access movement raises many questions for libraries and researchers. A program, presented by the Education, Research, and Publications Coordinating Committee of the ALCTS Continuing Resources Section, addressed prominent open access issues and offered a number of solutions currently under development by institutions and NISO (National Information Standards Organization). The three presenters provided background on the various issues, a description of the new open access policy at the University of California system, an overview of the challenges in accessing open access articles in hybrid journals, and a description of the NISO Open Access Metadata and Indicators Initiative.

We Have Only Scratched The Surface: The Role Of Student Research In Institutional Repositories, Betty Rozum, Becky Thoms, Scott Bates, Danielle M. Barandiaran

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Institutional repositories (IRs) and other research archives have at their core the mission to disseminate the scholarship of their communities. At universities, this content is often expected to come primarily from faculty and professional researchers. Certainly, faculty are significant producers of scholarship, but students also make worthy contributions to this body of knowledge. Graduate students, at least, are generally recognized as creators of information, and in recent years, IRs have been successfully collecting theses and dissertations written by masters and doctoral students. However, another important and often overlooked group is undergraduate students.

An Information Literacy Snapshot: Authentic Assessment Across The Curriculum, Wendy Holliday, B. Dance, E. Davis, Britt A. Fagerheim, Anne Hedrich, Kacy Lundstrom, P. Martin

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This paper outlines the process and results of an authentic assessment of student work using a revised version of the AAC&U's Information Literacy VALUE rubric. This rigorous assessment, which included the scoring of nearly 900 student papers from four different stages across the undergraduate curriculum, revealed much about the process of authentic assessment of student learning, the struggles and competencies of our students, and a clear path forward for improving practice. It also gave us a broad view of student learning, allowing us to immerse ourselves in student work and providing a stronger narrative to share with stakeholders.

Library User Persona Template, Mikkel Skinner, Bret Crane

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

These seven templates provide an excellent starting point for the development of user personas for library communities of various types. Templates can be printed and written on as part of an ad-hoc brainstorming exercise, or edited within Adobe Acrobat or Illustrator. While user personas can be generated from staff knowledge and experiences (assumption-driven), depending on how you wish to use personas, it is recommended that you conduct user research (data-driven), either observing users interacting with the library, interviewing patrons, or drawing insight from assessment or usage data to help validate their accuracy.

See these sources for more information on creating …

Ala Midwinter 2015: Issues In Resource Sharing And Implementing A Tool For Tracking Electronic-Resource Outages, Robert Heaton

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Among many great sessions on electronic-resource management at ALA Midwinter in Chicago, two ALCTS Interest Group (IG) meetings covered relevant ideas in considerable depth. These were the Collection Management and Electronic Resources IG meeting, on the state of resource sharing of electronic resources, and the Electronic Resources IG meeting, on tracking e-resource outages in detail. The former was in the format of an open, guided discussion on many overlapping issues while the latter was an individual presentation followed by Q&A.

Discussions On Technical Services Management And Data-Driven E-Resource Management At Ala Midwinter, Robert Heaton

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

The 2015 ALA Midwinter Meeting was in Chicago this year and, as always, gave attendees the opportunity to get a wide-angle view of the profession or to focus in on the day-to-day issues in their areas of work. This report covers two Interest Group (IG) sessions with particular relevance to the Serials Spoken Here readership: the ALCTS Technical Services Managers IG and the joint LITA/ALCTS Electronic Resources Management IG

Teaching And Learning Information Synthesis: An Intervention And Rubric Based Assessment, Kacy Lundstrom, Anne R. Diekama, Heather Leary, Sheri Haderlie, Wendy Holliday

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

The purpose of this research was to determine how information synthesis skills can be taught effectively, and to discover how the level of synthesis in student writing can be effectively measured. The intervention was an information synthesis lesson that broke down the synthesis process into sequenced tasks. Researchers created a rubric which they used to assess a student’s level of information synthesis demonstrated in their final research essays. A form of counting analysis was also created to see if other methods could help in measuring synthesis.

Findings from the rubric analysis revealed that students appear to benefit from the synthesis …

Focusing On Student Research In The Institutional Repository, Danielle M. Barandiaran, Betty Rozum, Becky Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Student research is a significant and rapidly growing component of the institutional repository (IR) at Utah State University (USU). A briefing paper prepared for Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS) points to student works as one of nine purposes for an IR.¹ It is not uncommon to find undergraduate and graduate theses and dissertations in IRs. In 2013, an analysis of 283 U.S. repositories using the bepress or DSpsace platforms indicated 71% include this type of student research. However, other student research such as posters, presentations, or papers were only found in 38% of these repositories. Utah State University’s …

"We're Working On It:" Transferring The Sloan Digital Sky Survey From Laboratory To Library, Ashley E. Sands, Christine L. Borgman, Sharon Traweek, Laura A. Wynholds

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This article reports on the transfer of a massive scientific dataset from a national laboratory to a university library, and from one kind of workforce to another. We use the transfer of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) archive to examine the emergence of a new workforce for scientific research data management. Many individuals with diverse educational backgrounds and domain experience are involved in SDSS data management: domain scientists, computer scientists, software and systems engineers, programmers, and librarians. These types of positions have been described using terms such as research technologist, data scientist, e-science professional, data curator, and more. The …

Librarians And Instructors Developing Student Learning Outcomes: Using Frameworks To Lead The Process, Kacy Lundstrom, Britt A. Fagerheim, Elizabeth M. Benson

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Purpose

–The purpose of this paper if to design a workshop that effectively facilitates the collaborative revision of student learning outcomes based on current research relating to competencies in information literacy (IL).

Design/methodology/approach

– This case study describes collaborations between librarians and writing instructors throughout an eight-week workshop. The workshop focused on using the results of assessments to revise learning outcomes and restructure instruction practices to help students in the areas they struggle with the most. Three significant frameworks, including threshold concepts, backward design and decoding the disciplines, were used to facilitate effective discussion and revise learning outcomes.

Findings

– …

Student Research In The Institutional Repository: The Tip Of The Iceberg, Becky Thoms, Betty Rozum

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

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

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

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 …

Content And Collaboration Ii: Opportunities To Host, Possibilities To Publish, Andrew Wesolek, Michael Spooner

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

The integration of the Utah State University Press and USU Libraries enhanced access to scholarly materials in a variety of ways. The press utilizes USU’s institutional repository, the Digital Commons, to facilitate the open access distribution of its works subsequent to a 12-month embargo. Additionally, the collaborative environment created by shared space within the library fosters innovation. The library benefits from the extensive knowledge of the press and applies it to its nascent library-based publishing efforts. The press has also adopted some of the open access ethos prevalent in library philosophy and practices and applied it to high-quality peer-reviewed and …

Content And Collaboration I: A Case Study Of Bringing An Institutional Repository And A University Press Together, Michael Spooner, Andrew Wesolek

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Profile of a Merger: In 2009, the dean of libraries and the director of the university press at Utah State University proposed a departmental merger to their central administration. They argued that through restructuring reporting lines so that the press became a department of the library at least three important benefits could be achieved. First, the central administration was at the time hoping to cut costs by consolidating operations in various parts of the university; merging the staff reporting lines of the university press into the library offered an opportunity for consolidation. Secondly, integrating the press into the library promised …

Who Uses This Stuff, Anyway? An Investigation Of Who Uses The Digitalcommons@Usu, Andrew Wesolek

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Much professional literature is devoted to developing content and faculty buy-in for institutional repositories. However, little is known about the end users of these repositories. The Utah State University Institutional Repository (IR) has reached a stage of maturity in which it is necessary to begin shifting our efforts from encouraging faculty buy-in to understanding our end-users and their needs. This presentation focused on: 1. how USU’s IR reached its mature stage, 2. the results of a brief survey of the end users of our repository, and 3. how these results have informed the further development of our IR.