Digital Commons Network^™

Seeking Alternatives To High-Cost Textbooks: Six Years Of The Open Education Initiative At The University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Jeremy Smith

University Libraries Publication Series

Smith outlines the growth OER initiatives at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. With a focus on improvisation, developing partnerships and transitioning from textbook affordability to true open education, Smith details grant funding opportunities offered through U. Mass. Amherst while wrestling with the questions of what exactly libraries support when they support “open education” and how can that support be provided sustainably.

Using The Visualization Software Evaluation Rubric To Explore Six Freely Available Visualization Applications, Thea P. Atwood, Rebecca Reznik-Zellen

University Libraries Publication Series

No abstract provided.

Nn/Lm Ner E-Science Program, Researcher Support Committee White Paper On Supporting Researcher Needs, Sarah Oelker, Thea P. Atwood, Andrew Creamer, Margaret Henderson, Kristin Lee, Lora C. Leligdon

University Libraries Publication Series

As more libraries become involved with Research Data Management (RDM) services, and the new strategic plan of the National Library of Medicine has a data focus, it is important to consider the researchers who create or collect data. There are many surveys and reviews in the literature about how researchers are managing their research data, as well as many case studies and surveys on how libraries are working to provide data management services. But anecdotal evidence and some surveys show that researchers aren’t always going to the library for data support. What can be done to change these perceptions and …

World Librarians: A Peer-To-Peer Commons For Closing The Global Digital Divide, Jeremy Smith, Charlie Schweik, Carl Meyer

University Libraries Publication Series

INTRODUCTION An estimated 53% of the world’s population do not have Internet access. As a consequence, they lack information capital that could be key to bettering their lives. In this practice article, we introduce a sociotechnical system called “World Librarians.” This system, facilitated by a knowledge commons, provides educators, librarians, students, and medical professionals in remote Internet-poor areas of Malawi with access to digital content that they request. OBJECTIVE We describe the social and technical methods by which a team of educators, librarians, students, and information technology specialists in information-privileged environments share educational content to information-disadvantaged communities. METHODS After briefly …

Crossing Disciplinary, Institutional And Role Boundaries In An Interdisciplinary Consortium, Sarah Fitzgerald, Alexander C. Gardner, Marilyn J. Amey, Patricia L. Farrell-Cole

University Libraries Publication Series

To illuminate barriers to collaboration, this study examines who participates in cross-boundary scholarly collaboration most often and which types of boundary crossing (disciplinary, institutional, role) are engaged in most often. The data of this study came from an interdisciplinary consortium with five partner institutions, including one Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The core disciplines involved in the consortium are life sciences, computer science and math and engineering. Through statistical analysis, we determined that members of the consortium engaged more in interdisciplinary research than inter-institutional research. Participation in all boundary crossing collaborations was greater at the HBCU and students and …

Serving A Fragmented Field: Information Seeking In Higher Education, Sarah Fitzgerald

University Libraries Publication Series

This study examines the information seeking habits and needs of scholars of higher education. Because higher education is a field which draws on many disciplinary traditions rather than a pure discipline in itself, the information needs of these scholars require diverse information seeking strategies. Phenomenological interviews with productive scholars of higher education were conducted and analyzed for this study. Ellis' (1989) common information seeking behaviors of social scientists are used as a framework to examine the behaviors of these applied social scientists in the modern information seeking environment.

The Role Of Affect In The Information Seeking Of Productive Scholars, Sarah Rose Fitzgerald

University Libraries Publication Series

Carol Kuhlthau's (2004) work shows that affect is a vital part of information seeking for high school students and undergraduates. This article explores the influence of affect on research university faculty. Like beginning information users, advanced information users are influenced by their confidence, ambition, and interest in their work. This study employed phenomenological interviews to explore how scholars' willingness to tackle new areas of research, submit manuscripts to prestigious publications, approach colleagues for collaboration, and conduct literature searches with tenacity is impacted by their emotions and dispositions.

Scholarworks@Umassamherst: The First 10 Years, 2006-2017, Erin Jerome

University Libraries Publication Series

No abstract provided.

Open Partnerships: Identifying And Recruiting Allies For Open Educational Resources Initiatives, Rebel Cummings-Sauls, Matt Ruen, Sarah Beaubien, Jeremy Smith

University Libraries Publication Series

Cummings-Sauls, Ruen, Beaubien, and Smith extend conversations about OER-enabled partnerships by exhaustively describing the roles and responsibilities harbored by potential stakeholders in OER initiatives and highlighting the ways in which librarians might instigate partnerships between these groups. By clearly identifying the stakes of library, faculty, student, administrative, instructional design, information technology, and bookstore partnerships, the authors promote a sort of inventory for how and why we might meaningfully engage these local audiences in support of OER. Looking beyond our institutions to the broader external communities, legislation, and services related to OER, this chapter introduces the importance of considering how conversations …

A Dream Of Spring: Creation Of An Ir Managers Forum, Christy L. M. Shorey, Anna J. Dabrowski, Pamela Andrews, Erin Jerome

University Libraries Publication Series

Sometimes it’s hard to find answers for work‐related questions. This difficulty is compounded when one lacks the means to engage with a community of peers who face similar situations and problems. As institutional repository (IR) managers, we found ourselves with access to resources and listservs that didn’t quite fit our needs. Available discussion spaces were either too general in scope, drowning out repository‐specific concerns; or too narrowly focused on platform‐specific issues and technical details.

Lacking an appropriate forum, we decided to create a discussion space for IR managers. The IR Manager Forum (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/irmanagers) is designed to foster a community of …