Library and Information Science Commons^™

The Ethics Of Play And Participation In A Tween Virtual World: Cheating Practices And Perspectives In The Whyville Community, Yasmin B. Kafai, Deborah A. Fields, Estee Ellis

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Much attention has been paid to young people’s increased participation in digital publics and its potential impact on their development and learning. However, few studies have examined the ethics in online play and their interactions as a critical aspect in the development of youth digital culture. In this paper we turn to the issue of cheating, a widely accepted practice in many online communities, including Whyville.net, a virtual world with over 5.5 million registered players ages 8-16. Our analyses focused on culturally-relevant examples such as player-written articles on cheating and player-produced YouTube cheating videos associated with Whyville from 2000 to …

What Is In Those Compact Shelves? Auditing And Quantifying A Government Documents Collection, Jen P. Kirk

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

• Background & Purpose
• Methodology
• Planning & Resources
• Survey Instrument & Implementation
• Limitations
• Outcomes & Lessons Learned

Can You Scan This For Me?: Making The Most Of Patron Digitization Requests In The Archives, Jennifer Duncan, Andrea Payant, Darcy Pumphrey

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Investigating Open Education And Promotion & Tenure In The United States, Becky L. Thoms, Dylan Burns, Joshua J. Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

There are many avenues for researchers and practitioners working in higher education to become involved in the open education movement via their research (e.g., publishing in or editing open access (OA) journals), teaching (e.g., creating, adopting, or adapting open educational resources (OER) and/or engaging in open pedagogy and open educational practices), or service activities (e.g., serving on university, college, or departmental open education committees). However, the value assigned to these efforts by administrators in colleges and universities throughout the United States (US) is not always clear (Jhangiani, 2017). This points to a possible disconnect between faculty members' work in open …

Marginalia No. 41, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University

Marginalia

• Message from Dean, page 2
• Lindsay Ozburn, page 3
• Where the Sagebrush Grows, page 4
• In Memoriam..., page 6
• Book artist Brent Wilson, page 8
• The USU Native American Mentorship Program (NASMP), page 9
• New Acquisitions, page 11

Troubleshooting Personnel’S Satisfaction With Software Tools, Robert Heaton

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

An exploratory survey of midsize land-grant institutions in 2016 investigated factors that were potentially correlated with how satisfied library personnel were with the software tools they used in electronic-resource troubleshooting. Although the study was very small in scale, it found that troubleshooting personnel at responding libraries are generally satisfied with the tools they use, with no apparent correlation with the area of troubleshooting activity to which the tool is applied, whether the tool is also used by non-troubleshooting personnel at the institution, or whether the tool was evaluated prior to implementation. The data weakly suggested that satisfaction was positively correlated …

Describing Digital: The Design And Creation Of A Born-Digital Archival Description Standard At The University Of California Libraries, Annalise Berdini, Charles Macquarie, Shira Peltzman, Kate Tasker

Journal of Western Archives

This case study outlines the process of creating a set of standards to guide description of born-digital archival collections materials in an archival context across the University of California (UC) system. The authors outline the need for such a standard, including the research methodology that helped establish this need, and the procedures by which these new guidelines were created, refined, and accepted across the UC. The paper goes into detail about the processes, considerations, and discussions that went into drafting rules for each descriptive element included in the standards. The authors argue that much of the specific guidance for describing …

Donor Relations In The Twenty-First Century, Dainan M. Skeem

Journal of Western Archives

This article explores the professional literature regarding donor relations and then addresses many issues the author has experienced in working with twenty-first century donors. Since manuscript repositories would not exist without individuals willing to donate their materials, it is vital that curators and archivists establish good relationships with their donors and maintain those relationships throughout their careers since many of them will continue to interact with their materials for decades after the initial gift. However, the twenty-first century has brought with it new challenges regarding donor relations that need to be recognized and addressed.

Note-Taking And Science Inquiry In An Open-Ended Learning Environment, Yang Jiang, Jody Clarke-Midura, Bryan Keller, Ryan S. Baker, Luc Paquette, Jaclyn Ocumpaugh

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Note-taking is important for academic success and has been thoroughly studied in traditional classroom contexts. Recent advancements of technology have led to more students taking notes on computers, and in different situations than are common in traditional instructional contexts. However, research on computer-based note-taking is still an emerging area, and findings from these studies are mixed. In this exploratory study, we conducted multilevel analysis to comprehensively investigate the relationship between note-taking measures and subsequent student success at science inquiry among middle school students, using two scenarios of an open-ended learning environment named Virtual Performance Assessments. Analysis revealed an advantage for …

How Mother And Father Support Affect Youths’ Interest In Computer Science, Jody Clarke-Midura, Frederick J. Poole, Katarina Pantic, Chongning Sun, Vicki Allan

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Parental support is a predictor of children’s career interest and aspirations. However, mother and father support affects youth career choices differently. To understand how perceived mothers’ and fathers’ support affect career interest in computer science (CS), we developed two path models using both mother and father support gains to predict youths’ interest in CS. We hypothesized that perceived father’s and mother’s support would relate to youths’ interest in CS via youths’ perception of CS utility value as a mediator. We found that both mother and father support leads to interest in CS. However, father support was found to affect CS …

Ask A Catbrarian: Marketing Library Services Using A Cat, Teagan Eastman, Jennifer Saulnier, Kati Richardson

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This case study aims to describe how employees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Undergraduate Library (UGL) utilized a cat mascot as part of a marketing campaign to promote awareness of library resources and services and to overcome undergraduate students’ library anxiety. The authors describe how the idea of a cat mascot emerged, how librarians determined campaign objectives, and the process they undertook for developing videos, social media posts, events and displays for the campaign. This article also describes how the campaign was able to build a sense of community not only among the large university library system but …

What Resources Do School Librarians Use When Developing New Programming: A Qualitative Inquiry, Jennifer Hansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For this qualitative analysis, I analyzed observational and interview data from two middle school librarians setting up new active learning programs. I focused my research by analyzing the preliminary data gathered in field notes from observations at the different library sites to determine what programming resources the librarians were using. A secondary consideration was drawn from preliminary evidence, which indicated the librarians turned to many on and offline information resources, including the social curating site Pinterest. After gathering initial data from observations, I gathered additional data from two interviews: the first interview focused on where the librarians find information and …

Review Of Government Information Essentials, Dylan Mace

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Government Information Essentials.

Review Of Putting Descriptive Standards To Work, Caroline Bautista

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Putting Descriptive Standards to Work.

Designing For Online Computer-Based Clinical Simulations: Evaluation Of Instructional Approaches, Ilana Dubovi

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Online computer-based simulations are becoming more widespread in nursing education. Therefore, an understanding of when and how to implement the variety of instructional strategies related to these simulations is fundamental.

Objectives: This study compares the effectiveness of online computer-based simulations designed using two alternative instructional approaches—Productive Failure and Simple-to-Complex sequencing—on learning of clinical reasoning skills.

Participants: Participants in this study were undergraduate nursing students (n = 103, mean age = 23.4 ± 2.1) enrolled at a university in Israel.

Methods: Participants completed two online simulations designed using Productive Failure approach (emergency medicine, mental health) and two online simulations using …

Where The Sagebrush Grows: Capturing University History In Institutional Repositories, Dylan Burns

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

In the Spring of 2017, Utah State University's library went through a reorganization that placed its digital initiatives department under an umbrella with special collections and archives. Through this change librarians within Digital Initiatives saw new connections between their work and the work of archivists. The institutional repository (IR), once an island in the library, is becoming a showcase not just for research created on campus but for university history through collaboration with university archives. Propelled by this organizational realignment, librarians began large scale digitization projects to provide access to University commencement programs, alumni and departmental magazines, yearbooks, and student …

Building Collaborations For Student Research Through Open Access, Dylan Burns, Becky Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Utah State University's decade’s long tradition of undergraduate and graduate student research is a point of pride, and it’s a source of recognition of institutional and student success as well as a recruitment tool. Yet, because of the ephemeral nature of student populations, it is difficult to build relationships that encourage participation. This presentation will explore collaborations between the library and the Research and Graduate Studies office at Utah State University as an opportunity to sustain the IR through the promotion and preservation of student research. Important is the library's role in ongoing research events on campus, such as Research …

Does Audience Matter? Comparing Teachers' And Non-Teachers' Application And Perception Of Quality Rubrics For Evaluating Open Educational Resources, Min Yuan, Mimi Recker

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

While many rubrics have been developed to guide people in evaluating the quality of Open Educational Resources (OER), few studies have empirically investigated how different people apply and perceive such rubrics. This study examines how participants (22 teachers and 22 non-teachers) applied three quality rubrics (comprised of a total of 17 quality indicators) to evaluate 20 OER, and how they perceived the utility of these rubrics. Results showed that both teachers and non-teachers found some indicators more difficult to apply, and displayed different response styles on different indicators. In addition, teachers gave higher overall ratings to OER, but non-teachers' ratings …

Retooling Your Story: Using Visualizations To Demonstrate Impact, Andrea Payant, Becky Skeen, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Putting Making Into High School Computer Science Classrooms: Promoting Equity In Teaching And Learning With Electronic Textiles In Exploring Computer Science, Deborah A. Fields, Yasmin B. Kafai, Tomoko Nakajima, Joanna Goode, Jane Margolis

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Recent discussions of making have focused on developing out-of-school makerspaces and activities to provide more equitable and enriching learning opportunities for youth. Yet school classrooms present a unique opportunity to help broaden access, diversify representation, and deepen participation in making. In turning to classrooms, we want to understand the crucial practices that teachers employ in broadening and deepening access to making. In this paper, we investigate two high school teachers’ approaches in implementing a novel eight-week, electronic textiles unit within the Exploring Computer Science curriculum, where students designed wearable electronic textile projects with microcontrollers, sensors, and LEDs. We share teachers’ …

Virtual Reference Power Boost: Conducting A Chat Transcript Analysis At Utah State University, Teagan Eastman, Mckenzie Hyde, Katie Strand, Mckenzie Hyde

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Chat reference at USU Libraries has decreased since introducing the service. In order to understand this trend, we analyzed a year’s worth of chat transcripts from August 2016 to August 2017. In addition to examining the types and timing of patron questions, we coded qualities of the chat interactions themselves. We will share how the results of our analysis might inform future changes to the chat reference service and staff training in an effort to “level up” the library’s virtual reference.

The Charles Potts Collection: Cataloging A Cultural Movement, Becky Skeen, Kurt Meyer

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Counter-culture poet, activist, entrepreneur, and publisher, Charles Potts donated his personal poetry library and papers to Utah State University’s Special Collections and Archives in 2011 During his time at Berkeley, Potts' describes himself as a ‘revolutionary hippie’ in the counter-culture poetry scene. Overall, this great American poet has spent nearly 50 years as an author of numerous books containing compilations of his postmodern poetry as well as full length novels and even a screenplay.

Creating A Government Information Network In Utah – Updates From The Regional Coordinator, Jen P. Kirk

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

• Introduction & unpack terminology
• Details about the Regional Collection and access points
• Details education and outreach
• Online resources and an activity
• "Government Information Network"
• Let's work together!

Assessment And Visualization Tools For Technical Services, Andrea Payant, Becky Skeen, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Uncovering The Soil Surveys, Sandra Weingart, Jen P. Kirk

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Web Archives For The Analog Archivist: Using Webpages Archived By The Internet Archive To Improve Processing And Description, Aleksandr Gelfand

Journal of Western Archives

Twenty years ago the Internet Archive was founded with the wide-ranging mission of providing universal access to all knowledge. In the two decades since, that organization has captured and made accessible over 150 billion websites. By incorporating the use of Internet Archive's Wayback Machine into their workflows, archivists working primarily with analog records may enhance their ability in such tasks as the construction of a processing plan, the creation of more accurate historical descriptions for finding aids, and potentially be able to provide better reference services to their patrons. This essay will look at some of the ways this may …

Tools For Troubleshooting: Which Ones And What For, Robert Heaton

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

A small group of midsize land-grant institutions in the western United States responded to a survey on what tools they used for troubleshooting, what activities they accomplished using the tools, and who performed their troubleshooting. Most respondents use subscription-manager administration tools, email programs, electronic resource management systems, and ticket trackers, but many other software programs are each used at a small number of institutions. Most tools support multiple troubleshooting activities, and most troubleshooting activities are supported by multiple tools. Most libraries have slightly more paraprofessionals than faculty with some troubleshooting responsibility, but nearly all have at least one of each.

Unlocking Student Engagement: Success And Failure In Redesigning A First-Year Library Orientation, Pamela N. Martin, Katie Strand, Teagan Eastman

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Are you struggling to find the balance between an informative and entertaining library orientation program? This interactive presentation will explore how librarians overcame numerous challenges to develop an engaging, scalable first-year library orientation session. During the orientation, students use the library’s virtual and physical spaces to solve clues and reveal a four-digit lockbox combination. Presenters will share strategies for adopting a similar session and lead attendees in a simulation of the lockbox activity.

Iterative Design Of A Simulation-Based Module For Teaching Evolution By Natural Selection, Jody Clarke-Midura, Denise S. Pope, Susan Maruca, Joel K. Abraham, Eli Meir

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: This research builds on a previous study that looked at the effectiveness of a simulation-based module for teaching students about the process of evolution by natural selection. While the previous study showed that the module was successful in teaching how natural selection works, the research uncovered some weaknesses in the design. In this paper, we used design-based research to investigate how design changes to the module affected not only students’ understanding of the concepts but also their usage of misconceptions in the assessments. We present results from two studies. In study 1, we looked at gains in understanding …

Self-Efficacy Change Associated With A Cognitive Load-Based Intervention In An Undergraduate Biology Course, David F. Feldon, Joana Franco, Jie Chao, James Peugh, Cathy Maahs-Fladung

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Cognitive load theory (CLT) holds that discovery learning and other instructional strategies imposing high levels of extraneous load on novice learners hinder learning. Such learning conditions are also associated with significant drops in persistence, a key measure of motivation. However, research within the CLT framework typically engages motivation as a necessary precursor to learning, rather than as an outcome of instruction. In this study, we examine changes in motivational beliefs as outcomes of learners' cognitive processes through a CLT lens as they engage with instruction. Using a double-blind quasi-experimental design, we manipulate the level of cognitive load imposed on participants …