Digital Commons Network^™

Situated Practices Of Information Use And Representation: An Ethnographic Study Of A Web Design Project For Boys, Kristen Rebmann

Faculty Publications

This article explores the production practices employed by children building personal webpages in a semi-structured afterschool program: the Fifth Dimension (5D). Following a critical Multiliteracies (CritMLs) approach to learning design, this ethnographic study introduced web-building practices to the children of the 5D and followed their production of personal webpages over a 9 month period. By structuring the intervention this way, it was possible to simultaneously observe the development of both the webpage as artifact as well as the child-participant. Along these lines, the study describes the unique and particular social contexts from which personal webpages emerge and develop over time. …

Textual Appropriation In Engineering Master's Theses: A Preliminary Study, Edward J. Eckel

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

In the thesis literature review, an engineering graduate student is expected to place original research in the context of previous work by other researchers. However, for some students, particularly those for whom English is a second language, the literature review may be a mixture of original writing and verbatim source text appropriated without quotations. Such problematic use of source material leaves students vulnerable to an accusation of plagiarism, which carries severe consequences. Is such textual appropriation common in engineering master’s writing? Furthermore, what, if anything, can be concluded when two texts have been found to have textual material in common? …

Library Perspective, Vendor Response, Robin Champieux, Steven Carrico

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

A Scholar Contemplates The Google Book Settlement, James O'Donnell

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

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Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Foreign Languages In Academic Librarianship: A Survey Of Skills, Use, And Perceptions, Brian Vetruba

WashU Libraries Publications

No comprehensive study of academic librarians’ attitudes and perceptions toward foreign language skills in libraries has occurred. Similarly, the question of how librarians use foreign languages has only been cursorily examined. The authors conducted an online survey in the spring of 2007 asking academic librarians in the US and Canada about their knowledge of non—English languages, use of languages professionally, and the perceived value of language skills. Results indicate substantial use of and value placed on language skills. Of the 1,858 respondents, more than 25 percent reported using foreign languages daily and over 75 percent desire better language skills to …

Selecting Success: Disconnected Youth’S Reading Choices, Eva Raison, Sandra Sajonas

Urban Library Journal

By examining a sample of books chosen by participants in Brooklyn Public Library’s Young Adult Pre-GED program, this article will explore characteristics of reading materials that appeal to out-of-school youth. Authors will share the selection process behind the creation of a special collection targeted to low-literacy young adults (16–24 years old). Using youth participants’ independent reading logs, we will compare what we expected students to enjoy reading with what youth chose to read. A discussion will include lessons learned about collection development for out-of-school youth and how libraries can improve access for struggling adolescent readers.

Sustainable Scholarship Forum, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Faculty Publications

Report on the "Sustainable Scholarship Forum," held on March 30, 2010 in Boston and hosted by Ithaka S+R.

Lanthorn, Vol. 44, No. 60, April 26, 2010, Grand Valley State University

Volume 44, July 8, 2009 - June 10, 2010

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present. The Lanthorn, Vol. 44 No. 59 is missing.

The Anchor, Volume 123.21: April 21, 2010, Hope College

The Anchor: 2010

The Anchor began in 1887 and was first issued weekly in 1914. Covering national and campus news alike, Hope College’s student-run newspaper has grown over the years to encompass over two-dozen editors, reporters, and staff. For much of The Anchor's history, the latest issue was distributed across campus each Wednesday throughout the academic school year (with few exceptions). In recent years The Anchor moved to monthly print issues and a more frequently updated website. The Anchor is now published in print twice per academic semester. Occasionally, the volume and/or issue numbering is irregular.

Data Curation And Libraries: Short-Term Developments, Long-Term Prospects, Anna Gold

Robert E. Kennedy Library

This paper was prepared as background for a talk given at AGU 2009 on “Data & Libraries.” It summarizes the developments and events from late 2006 through early 2010 that are shaping library roles in scientific data curation while underscoring the range, complexity, and varying granularity of systems, actions, and efforts involved. The main conclusions are: (1) leaders of major research libraries have committed their institutions to support data curation. (2) The library profession has demonstrated significant conceptual progress in characterizing and understanding data curation both in theory and in practice. (3) There has been progress since 2006 in legitimizing …

A Longitudinal Study Of Language And Ideology In Congress, Bei Yu, Daniel Diermeier

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

This paper presents an analysis of the legislative speech records from the 101st-108th U.S. Congresses using machine learning and natural language processing methods. We use word vectors to represent the speeches in both the Senate and the House, and then use text categorization methods to classify the speakers by their ideological positions. The classification accuracy indicates the level of distinction between the liberal and the conservative ideologies. Our experiment results demonstrate an increasing partisanship in the Congress between 1989 and 2006. Ideology classifiers trained on the House speeches can predict the Senators' ideological positions well (House-to-Senate prediction), however the Senate-to-House …

Standardized American Indians: The “Names Of Indian Tribes And Bands” List From The Office Of Indian Affairs, Charles D. Bernholz

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

The inconsistent spelling of American Indian tribal names at the end of the nineteenth century led in part to the development within the Office of Indian Affairs of an array of 270 standardized identifiers, ranging from Absaroka to Zuñi. These efforts paralleled the simultaneous improvement of a large suite of relevant terms by the United States Board on Geographic Names. Both compilations were included in style manuals published by the Government Printing Office beginning in 1900 and approved for the use of federal agencies. In 1903 and 1904, Charles J. Kappler, in the preparation of his multi-volume Indian Affairs: Laws …

If Rumors Were Horses, Katina Strauch

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Measure For Measure: Librarians Want More Effective Erm, Results From Erm System Usage Trends Survey, Heather Klusendorf

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Legally Speaking -- Why Talk About Legal & Ethical Issues?, Bryan M. Carson J.D., M.I.L.S., Herbert L. Carson

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Genre, Database, And The Anatomy Of The Digital Archive, Elizabeth J. Vincelette

English Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to define shared characteristics of literary digital archives, specifically to explore how conceptual and structural qualities of such archives express generic qualities. In order to describe digital media such as database or digital archives, scholars resort to metaphors, and this study offers the metaphor of anatomy as a generic inscription with historical and methodological implications. The definition of the anatomy genre draws from Northrop Frye's in Anatomy of Criticism, in which Frye describes how anatomies are characterized by proliferating lists, the mixing of prose and non-prose forms, and self-reflexivity--under the guise of knowledge …

From The Editor: Strategies For Renewal And Re-Engagement, Julie Miller

Scholarship and Professional Work

At the 2008 WALE conference in Olympia, I gave a presentation titled "Moving Forward in Your Job (Even if You Want to Stay in One Place)." I thought fifteen, maybe twenty, people who were fairly new to library work and interested in changing position classifications would show up. Surprisingly, the room was packed. I spoke from an administrator's point of view about two aspects of employees: level of competence and degree of engagement with their work. Some employees have low competence but high engagement ("newbies" fall into this category); others have high competence and high engagement (AKA "shining stars"). Can …

Spontaneous Group Decision Making In Distributed Collaborative Learning: Toward A New Research Direction., Geoffrey Liu

Faculty Publications

This paper attempts to identify and establish spontaneous group decision making in collaborative learning as a new research direction, with particular attention to collaborative learning in distributed online environments. After a brief introduction, related concepts and theories are examined for differentiation of interpretation. The concept of “spontaneous group decision making” is established in the context of collaborative learning. Literature review is conducted to glean anecdotal observations from past research to identify potentially influential factors, and a diagram framework is proposed to charter the territory. The paper also reports findings from a preliminary survey of 159 graduate students on their group …

Lanthorn, Vol. 44, No. 45, February 25, 2010, Grand Valley State University

Volume 44, July 8, 2009 - June 10, 2010

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Community Information Services Through Public Libraries In Bangladesh: Problems And Proposals, Md. Anwarul Islam, Muhammad Mezbah-Ul-Islam

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information is a key element for decision making and development. People need information to make the best use of the resources and solve problems. In Bangladesh, most people (80 percent) live in villages and Community Information Service (CIS) facilities remain low. Different organizations provide information services but these services are not always made in accordance with ommunity needs. This article discusses initiatives taken in Bangladesh and explores how public libraries can play a key role in developing CIS.

The Anchor, Volume 123.14: February 10, 2010, Hope College

The Anchor: 2010

The Anchor began in 1887 and was first issued weekly in 1914. Covering national and campus news alike, Hope College’s student-run newspaper has grown over the years to encompass over two-dozen editors, reporters, and staff. For much of The Anchor's history, the latest issue was distributed across campus each Wednesday throughout the academic school year (with few exceptions). In recent years The Anchor moved to monthly print issues and a more frequently updated website. The Anchor is now published in print twice per academic semester. Occasionally, the volume and/or issue numbering is irregular.

Self-Study Report Appendix 15: Libraries Faculty Vitae

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: White Papers

294 pages

How Scholarly Is Google Scholar? A Comparison To Library Databases, Jared L. Howland

Faculty Publications

PDF of Powerpoint Presentation. This presentation was given at the Norwegian National Library Conference in Oslo, Norway. It discusses the similarities and differences between library databases and Google Scholar.

Women's And Gender Studies Collection Development Policy, Anchalee (Joy) Panigabutra-Roberts

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Collection Development Policies

The Women's and Gender Studies collection supports the teaching, research and service activities of the entire university community and beyond. Its primary audience is the faculty, staff, and students of the Women's and Gender Studies Program primarily in the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as in the colleges of: Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Architecture, Business Administration, Education and Human Sciences, Engineering, Fine and Performing Arts, Journalism and Mass Communications and Law. Its primary focus is support for the undergraduate and graduate curricula and research in Women's and Gender Studies. Specific and transient research needs of Women’s and …

English Collection Development Policy, Kathleen Johnson

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Collection Development Policies

The English language and Literatures in English collection supports the teaching, research, and service activities of the entire university community. Its primary audience is the faculty, staff, and students of the Department of English in the College of Arts & Sciences and its primary focus is support for the undergraduate and graduate curricula for English and related programs. Specific and transient research needs of English faculty and graduate students are supplemented through Interlibrary Loan. Materials are not purchased for the general public though others may benefit from the collection. While the collection focuses on works classified in the Library of …

Rare Material In Academic Libraries, Susan Potter, Robert P. Holley

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Purpose – This paper summarizes the importance of rare materials for academic libraries including developments since the arrival of the Internet and the effects of declining library budgets.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors reviewed the literature on the subject coupled with their experiences with collection development.

Findings – Collecting rare materials remains important for scholarly research though harder to justify during a period of budget stringency. Academic libraries should discover creative ways to discover and add rare materials to their collections. Rare materials require special expertise in their acquisition, processing, storage, and use. Digitization is making rare materials more accessible but …

Why Your Academic Library Needs A Popular Reading Collection Now More Than Ever, Pauline Dewan

Library Publications

Do popular reading materials belong in college and university libraries? Although some librarians think not, others believe there are compelling reasons for including them. The trend towards user-focused libraries, the importance of attracting patrons to libraries in the age of the Internet, and, most importantly, the need to promote literacy at a time when it has reached its lowest levels are all reasons why academic librarians are reconsidering their ideas about popular reading materials. Librarians who decide to implement a leisure reading collection should consider a number of key issues.

Approval Plan Profile Assessment In Two Large Arl Libraries: University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign And Pennsylvania State University, Lynn N. Wiley, Lisa German, Tina E. Chrzastowski, Bob Alan

Staff publications, research, and presentations

Two Association of Research Libraries member libraries, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) and Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), evaluated their monograph acquisition approval plan profiles to answer basic questions concerning use, cost effectiveness, and coverage. Data were collected in tandem from vendors and local online systems to track book receipt, item circulation, and overlap between plans. The study period was fiscal year 2005 (July 1, 2004–June 30, 2005) for the approval plan purchasing data, and circulation use data were collected from July 1, 2004, through March 31, 2007, for both UIUC and Penn State. Multiple data points were …

Postmodernism, Processing, And The Profession: Towards A Theoretical Reading Of Minimal Standards, Melanie Griffin

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

As Frank Burke noted in 1981, evidence-based practice rather than theory tends to dominate professional literature about archives. The papers presented at archival conferences and published in journals often concern themselves with the quotidian functions of archives: processing, description, access, preservation, reference, education, and (in the decades since Burke wrote) digitization. This situation is hardly surprisingly given the fundamentally practical – indeed pragmatic – thrust of archival work. The field is often referred to as a science, not a theory, and abstract concepts neither offer concrete solutions to the immediate questions of daily practice nor provide new techniques for managing …