Library and Information Science Commons^™

Library After Hours: Reinventing The First-Year Experience, One Epic Party At A Time, Katie Strand, Niki Fullmer, Paul Daybell

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

What if we could transform student perceptions of the academic library in one night? Our library orientations may be the key to changing the library image from that of a stuffy and intimidating place to a hub for exploration, creativity, and fun. This presentation will highlight how one institution threw out the rule book on the traditional library orientation, trading in our tired PowerPoints and scavenger hunts for laser tag and escape rooms, to give students a night to remember. Presenters will share details about the planning, execution, and assessment of an after-hours library event attended by 1,500 first-year students.

University Treasure – Collections Of Secrets: How Utah State University Libraries Modernized Their University Archives, Paul Daybell, Quinn Gerber, Heather Housley, Kelly Rovegno, Becky Skeen, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Starting in 2018, Utah State University Libraries undertook a largescale cataloging project to modernize the University Archives. Before 2018 the University Archives was largely inaccessible to patrons with only 2% of collections having online finding aids and no existing electronic shelf list inventory. Using a workflow-driven approach, a team of catalogers, archivists, and student technicians embarked on a four-phase journey to inventory over 21,000 items, create EAD finding aids and MARC catalog records for over 2700 unique collections, and ingesting all collections into the Library’s newly implemented archival management system. Presenters will discuss the process developed, tools used, and outcomes …

Engaging ≠ Engagement: Assessing Students' Behaviors Following Gamified Orientation, Katie Strand, Makenzie Boatright, Pamela N. Martin

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

What do students retain from first-year workshops? In fall 2019, Utah State University Libraries assessed our interactive orientation when it became optional rather than required for USU’s first-year seminar, creating two populations to study, participants and nonparticipants. By convening focus groups and analyzing campus data, we investigated if the orientation helped freshmen engage with library spaces, services, and materials. Findings revealed workshop strengths and weaknesses, as well as broader student preferences, behaviors, and expectations. Join librarians and students to discuss first-year students’ anxieties and needs concerning not only the library, but also campus belonging and student independence.

You Feel Special When You Get A Library Card: Replicating Latinx Students' Public Library Feelings In Academic Library Spaces, Niki Fullmer

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

The goal of academic and public libraries is to support the community by contributing to life-long learning, access, and knowledge. However, the feelings produced by these institutions are dissimilar although both use similar practices to reach their communities. Researchers administered surveys and interviews at a university to understand Latinx students’ perceptions of the academic library. Many of the questions inquired about their feelings towards public libraries as well as cultural affirmation wishes they wanted implemented in academic libraries. In our proposed presentation, we will share how Latinx students view public and academic libraries in relation to their culture and ethnicity.

Just Keep Cataloging: How One Cataloging Unit Changed Their Workflows To Fit The Pandemic Remote, Hybrid, And In-Library Work, Becky Skeen, Andrea Payant, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Utah State University Libraries Cataloging and Metadata Services (CMS) unit, including student workers, transitioned to remote cataloging in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The presentation will outline the process undertaken by supervisors to evaluate and modify services and workflows to continue cataloging materials through the different phases of library capacity from shutting down most of the library, to a hybrid limited staff capacity, through staff back in the library full-time.

Library Services: Impact Analysis Spring 2018 To Fall 2018, Amanda M. Hagman, Lindsay Ozburn, Hayden Hoopes, Erik Dickamore, Bradford R. Cole, Mitchell Colver

Publications

Libraries are an essential element of learning on university campuses. The content housed within libraries supports academic exploration and growth. Physically, libraries are designed to provide access to materials and spaces that facilitate learning. This report explored the impact of student library resource use on student persistence to the next term.

Students' library resource use was captured with EZ Proxy log-ins and library material check-outs. Students who had a record of using library resources were compared to similar students who did not have a record of library resource use. They were compared using prediction-based propensity score matching. Students who used …

Showing Up For Yourself: Mental Health And Your Mlis, Shannon M. Smith

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

I have been reflecting on my experiences in graduate school and I want to share some of these thoughts, primarily related to survival. Since April, I have had conversations with fellow students and friends that reminded me how much a certain ease of life is portrayed on social media and how easy it is to gloss over or overlook the real work that happens. We curate the posts of our public digital lives much like we curate the information we have been trained to organize and access through library school. One friend in particular shared a confusion that no one …

Catalog Local: One Library's Look At How Local Classification Schemes And Subject Headings Affect Copy Cataloging, Becky Skeen

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

'Capitol'izing On Opportunities: Creating Collaborative Library Spaces Through Partnerships With Campus Organizations, Lindsay Ozburn, Jen Kirk, Teagan Eastman

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

With the formation of a new Library Spaces Committee we had a choice to maintain the status quo of:

Decision-making based on budget, timing, and previous choices.

One-time projects.

Or forging a new path of collaboration.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Digital Libraries: Ux Approaches To Labeling Online Special Collections, Dylan Burns, Alex J. Sundt, Darcy Pumphrey, Becky Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Digital libraries, digital collections, digital archives—just a few of the common terms used to describe the output of large scale digitization efforts. While the term digital library is commonly used by librarians, the term itself reflects the specific disciplinary and technical environments in which the concept for a “digital library” was first imagined. Terminology has been well explored in academic libraries, but questions remain regarding how meaningful digital library and related terms are to the users of digitized archival collections. In 2016, a reverse category test was conducted with target users of Utah State University Libraries’ digital collections to determine …

Faculty Teaching And Librarian-Facilitated Assignment Design, Rachel Wishkoski, Kacy Lundstrom, Erin Davis

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This qualitative study explores the impact of a workshop on collaborative research assignment design that brought together an interdisciplinary group of faculty in a librarian-facilitated community of practice. Faculty participants attended the workshop, revised and implemented their assignments, and completed a follow-up interview. Themes that emerged reflected shifts in faculty teaching practices, including increased scaffolding, clarity, modeling, student collaboration, and opportunities for authentic learning. Gaining insight into how faculty approach the work of teaching directly impacts library instruction and how librarians can contribute to communities of practice among teachers in the academy.

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.

Pizza With A Side Of Outreach: Re-Invigorating Library Outreach At Distance Campuses, Teagan Eastman, Erin Davis

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

In Fall 2016, we began hosting library open houses at our Regional Campuses (RC). In collaboration with our RC administrators and student government, these events serve as an ice-breaker for interactions between librarians and students. They raise awareness of library resources and services and ease anxiety about reaching out to the library for assistance, while providing food as an incentive to meet with us.

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, …

Library E-Learning Tools: Developing Student Research Skills, Erin Davis, Teagan Eastman

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Simplifying The Library Experience: Better Serving Regional Campus Users, Alex J. Sundt, Teagan Eastman, Erin Davis

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Are you struggling to understand the needs of library users on at your institution’s regional campuses or centers? Learn how to design usability test strategies to gather information on distance users’ research habits and how to use the data to better tailor online library services to meet their needs.

Library Workflow Exchange: Community Documentation Of Best Practices, A Neatrour, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Copyright Solutions For Institutional Repositories: A Collaboration With Subject Librarians, Heather Leary, Kacy Lundstrom, Pamela Martin

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This work investigates using subject librarians to conduct copyright clearance in an institutional repository (IR). At Utah State University, the library assures copyright clearance for faculty scholarship, thereby garnering input of faculty scholarship into the IR. Currently, subject librarians are not widely participating in routine IR work; however, the involvement of subject librarians with the IR offers benefits to the subject librarians and the institution as a whole. This article provides a model for institutions needing new solutions for copyright clearance using subject librarians and discusses the rationale, benefits and challenges of adopting this model.

Recapturing The Essence Of The Past: Integrating The University Press Into The Library, Richard W. Clement

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

The original role of a press in a research university was to publish and disseminate the research and scholarship of the faculty. The university was willing to undertake a significant level of subsidy because the press was seen as fulfilling a central part of the mission of a research university. In the second half of the twentieth century, many faculty began to be concerned that to publish with one’s own university’s press might be considered a conflict of interest. An unforeseen consequence of this was that a university press was no longer seen as fulfilling a university’s specific mission to …

Piloting Purchase On Demand: Collection Development Through Interlibrary Loan, Carol Kochan, Jennifer Duncan, Britt A. Fagerheim

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

This presentation addresses Utah State University’s (USU) philosophy of patron driven acquisition and collection building, the development and workflow of our pilot interlibrary loan purchase on demand policy, and our assessment of the program through spring 2010.

A Happy Employee Is A Productive Employee, Erin Davis

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

This presentation was given during the 2010 annual American Library Association conference in Washington, DC. It summarizes the different activities planned by a Staff Development Committee in an academic library.

The Library As Publisher: Increasing Library Relevance Through Institutional Repository Services, Richard W. Clement

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Flex And Balance: Exercising Reform In Twenty-First Century Library Work Environments, Jennifer Duncan

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

I am an assistant librarian on the tenure-track and responsible for all aspects of the electronic collections at a large research university. I am also the mother of a two-and-a-half year old little girl. Those two identifying characteristics make me one of at least 26.2 million U.S. working-women with children at home. According to my favorite reference source, The Statistical Abstract of the United States, I am also one of 229,000 civilian librarians, of whom 84% are women. I couldn’t find a statistic for how many women librarians have children at home, but, by extrapolation, you can see that there …

The Role Of Information Architecture In Designing A Third-Generation Library Website, Jennifer Duncan, Wendy Holliday

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Library web sites have evolved over the past decade, from simple pages with a few links to complex sites that provide direct access to hundreds of different resources. In many cases, this evolution occurs with little overall planning, often resulting in web sites that are hard to manage and difficult for users to navigate. This article outlines the process of using Information Architecture (IA) to re-design a third-generation library web site from the ground up. The result was a much more usable and cohesive library web site that meets the needs of a broad range of users.

Finding Answers To Complex Questions, Anne R. Diekama, Ozgur Yilmazel, Jiangping Chen, Sarah Harwell, Lan He, Elizabeth D. Liddy

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

In this chapter, we motivate one potential type of future QA system that deals with questions more complex than simple factoid questions and which provides answers with their supporting context. Our approach is based on the issues we faced when developing and delivering a QA system to deal with real time questions in the domain of RLVs within the larger field of aerospace engineering. This particular domain, the actual users of the system, and the questions asked, all demanded a change in our question-answering strategy. First, the chapter will present background on the project that provided the context and a …

A History Of The Public Library Movement In Utah, Max J. Evans

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The public library in Utah and its acceptance as a public institution is the subject of this thesis. For present purposes, public libraries will be defined as those open to all, those having general collections of books, and those which circulate their books among the public. This thesis does not treat church, school, college, industrial, medical, law, and special libraries, except as they functioned as public libraries.

Most of Utah’s earliest public libraries were operated and supported by private individuals and organizations. As private support proved insufficient, however, cities and towns began to take up this responsibility. In the year …