Education Commons^™

The Big Deal Is Dead! Long Live The Big Deal!, James A. Galbraith, Stephanie P. Hess

Charleston Library Conference

In many countries, the proclamation “The King is dead, long live the King” heralds the demise of the old monarch and the accession of a new one. This tradition ensures that the throne never remains empty while facilitating a smooth transition of power.

When the “Big Deal” journal subscription model debuted in 1996, few suspected the extent to which academic libraries would come to rely upon it, or that it would become the primary channel by which academic libraries procure academic journal content.

As budget cuts take their toll on libraries, the demise of the Big Deal model seems inevitable …

The Time Has Come…For Next-Generation Open Access Models, Celeste Feather, Sara Rouhi, Anneliese Taylor, Kim Armstrong

Charleston Library Conference

Libraries, consortia, and publishers are exploring new models to support Open Access (OA) content. Native OA journal publishers are facing a different set of challenges as there is no existing library subscription base to transform into support for OA. Author-pays OA models are challenging to the ecosystem for a variety of reasons. Large institutions with heavy scholarly output may pay more, small institutions that use the content but publish less are wondering what role they will play, and authors from the global south may not have funding to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs). What new models are under exploration to …

Your Ir Is Not Enough: Exploring Publishing Options In Our Increasingly Fragmented Digital World, Adam Blackwell

Charleston Library Conference

When people talk about the downside of open access publishing, they typically focus on things like high article processing charges and the difficulties that arise in differentiating between reputable peer-reviewed journals and low-quality journals from predatory publishers. But when OA publishing is equated with making articles and other academic content available exclusively via OA sites like (most) institutional repositories, there is arguably an even more serious downside: the effective quarantining of scholarly research.

We’ll explore how institutional mandates to promote a library’s IR sometimes override a researcher’s desire to make research available to peers via Google Scholar and other common …

Lessons From Ithaka S+R On Research Practices In The Disciplines: What Have We Learned? What Should We Do?, Steven Weiland, Jennifer Dean

Charleston Library Conference

It is a byword of the study of academic research that disciplines mean differences. The series of studies underway at Ithaka S+R (with library partners) shows how scholars and scientists understand “Changing Research Practices.” The project’s goal is to guide libraries toward the most fruitful forms of support for research, enhancing the scholarly workflow according to disciplinary routines and innovations. Launched in 2012, nine reports have been published thus far, with others planned or anticipated. The disciplines range from history to public health, from chemistry to Asian Studies. The interview-based studies show how scholars manage their methods, and the opportunities …

Great Expectations: Leading Libraries Through The Minefield Of Continuous Change, Denise D. Novak

Charleston Library Conference

If there is one thing all library administrators and managers can be sure of, it is that our space, our collections, our systems and our leadership will be impacted by change. Managing that change is critical if managers, directors, deans in our libraries will be able to continue to meet the needs of our communities with different tools and resources. This lively discussion will feature brief presentations about how libraries at Carnegie Mellon University and at Kresge Business Administration Library (University of Michigan) have changed in recent history. The presenters will include what worked well and what worked not as …

Reconsidering Literacy, Audrey Powers, Marc Powers

Charleston Library Conference

Literacy, until recently, was defined as the ability to read printed text and to understand the nuances of both the form and content of that printed text. More recently there has been a focus on subsets of literacy – data literacy, numeracy, visual literacy, media literacy, etc. – that recognizes the means of communicating ideas and facts are not limited to the printed text and that there are multiple means which may be more powerful ways of communicating in our world. In recent years, higher education has been redefining what it means to be educated – from a focus on …

When You Don’T Know What You Don’T Know: How Two New Collections Librarians Right-Sized A Collections Budget, Cara M. Cadena, Marcia Lee

Charleston Library Conference

Due to impending campus-wide downsizing, the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Libraries projected that a worst-case scenario would result in a 14% cut to the library’s collections budget for fiscal year 2020. In the same year, GVSU Libraries welcomed several new members of its leadership team, including the dean, two associate deans, head of systems, head of collections, business administrator, and a vacancy after the long-time acquisitions manager retired. Budget cuts and staff turnover are tough, but they prompted a much-needed reassessment of roles, culture, and priorities in the library. Different approaches to spending and curating the library’s collections were …

Tangled Up In Books: Using The Lyrics Of Bob Dylan To Understand The Changing Times Of Collection Development, Thomas A. Karel

Charleston Library Conference

The lyrics of Bob Dylan can be an interesting way of understanding the changes that have occurred in academic libraries in the past 40 years.

What Are Students Saying About Their Reference Needs?, Damon Zucca

Charleston Library Conference

Libraries and publishers rely on transactional data to support evidence-based decision making. However, by itself quantitative information does not provide a full picture. To anticipate the evolving needs of our audience we also need to hear from the individual users themselves. In this article, I will review the findings from several recent examples survey-based research into the question of how students use reference materials in and outside of their libraries. What are students actually saying about their needs and preferences when it comes to reference? While some uses cases for reference are moving out of the library into the open …

Get It From The Source: Identifying Library Resources And Software Used In Faculty Research, Karen S. Alcorn, Erin E. Wentz, Gregory A. Martin, Shanti C. Freundlich, Joanne A. Doucette

Charleston Library Conference

Libraries and Information Technology departments aim to support the educational and research needs of students, researchers, and faculty members. Close matches between the resources those departments provide and the resources the institution’s community members actually use highlight the value of the departments, demonstrate fiscally responsibility, and show attentiveness to the community’s needs. Traditionally, libraries rely on usage statistics to guide collection development decisions, but usage statistics can only imply value. Identifying a resource by name in a publication demonstrates the value of that resource more clearly. This pilot project examined the full-text of articles published in 2016-2017 by faculty members …

Is Your Library Ready For The Reality Of Virtual Reality? What You Need To Know And Why It Belongs In Your Library, Carl R. Grant, Stephen Rhind-Tutt

Charleston Library Conference

VR is no longer just gaming. It’s increasingly being deployed across academic campuses and is becoming indispensable in fields ranging from the humanities to engineering to anthropology. A recent survey indicated that 100% of ARL campuses were using VR, with 40% of libraries actively supporting it. This paper discusses practical examples of how libraries are helping their institutions build out virtual reality, utilizing 3D objects and explains why the library is the best place to do so. It provides a basic grounding in VR and related areas, showing what it is and why it's important to libraries. Specific attention is …

Textbooks Are Expensive, But Oer Can Be Challenging: Providing E-Textbook Access Through The Library, Brian W. Boling, Karen Kohn

Charleston Library Conference

Research has shown that textbook costs are rising. Open educational resources (OER), though increasingly popular, are not available for all courses and can be difficult to adopt, particularly for contingent faculty. In response to the textbook crisis and the limitations of OER, Temple University has sought alternative ways to provide textbook access to students. We have promoted OER through a grant program since 2011 and offer a website to expose assigned readings that the Libraries own in e-book format. In 2018, the Libraries also began purchasing e-textbooks. The campus bookstore sends a list of assigned books each semester. We review …

The E-Book Story: The Key To A Happy Ending, Denise Branch, Katy Aronoff, Evelyn Elias, Emma Waecker

Charleston Library Conference

This is an exciting and challenging time for libraries. Libraries are incorporating eBooks into their acquisition, discovery and access environment to satisfy the needs of users. Users want convenience, flexibility and functionality. The ecosystem of eBooks involves a chain of events that leads from the publishing house to the user. eBooks provide diversity for users in which they can checkout, download, search, save, print, email and cite content on their electronic devices without leaving the comfort of their easy chair. Opportunities and complexities exist for stakeholders in the eBook ecosystem. Libraries, publishers, content providers and vendors find themselves challenged by …

First Aid For Student Cost: Helping Nursing Faculty Move Away From Textbook Purchase Requirements, Lea A. Leininger

Charleston Library Conference

There is growing interest in the use of open educational resources to reduce student cost. Many repositories provide e-resources that can be modified and adopted by instructors, yet there are a number of barriers to adoption. In 2017 several nursing instructors at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro received mini-grants to redesign a course to reduce textbook purchase requirements. This paper describes liaison librarian support for the course redesigns.

How Difficult Can It Be? Creating An Integrated Network Among Library Stakeholders To Promote Electronic Access, Denise M. Branch, Anne-Marie H. Viola, Jamie Gieseck-Ashworth, Benjamin C. Johnson

Charleston Library Conference

Tracking electronic access is a major challenge for libraries that cannot be ignored. Vast quantities of electronic resources continue to be acquired, and libraries continue to seek a way to keep up with the evolving electronic resource ecosystem.

Libraries are immersed in monitoring electronic resources for access performance, features, functionality, completeness of content, and usage. Publishers, providers, and vendors are immersed in their innovative business models. Users are immersed in their research needs. With these immersion silos, there is a lack of communication between stakeholders that creates an unsustainable ecosystem.

Currently, stakeholders are creating piecemeal patches that partially address access …

Technology Lending: Just Like Any Other Collection, Sort Of, Bobby L. Hollandsworth

Charleston Library Conference

Technology lending or equipment lending has long been a staple of academic libraries. Think back a few years ago and you’ll probably remember calculators, tape recorders, point and shoot cameras, and projectors being loaned out at your library. Past was certainly prologue in this collection as Clemson University Libraries made a deliberate decision to upgrade the technology being loaned out in the spring of 2012 to keep up with the changing needs of students, faculty, and staff. Some of the initial upgraded items included DSLR cameras, camera lenses, iPads, tripods, microphones, and digital voice recorders. Over the past five and …

Social Scholarship? Academic Communications In The Digital Age, Steven Weiland

Charleston Library Conference

A recent sign of the technological transformation of scholarship is the consolidation of views about the emergence of the “digital scholar,” a variation on the influential reform minded account of faculty work associated with Ernest Boyer’s Scholarship Reconsidered (1990). An essential feature of this new form of academic practice and identity is named “social scholarship,” or participation in scholarly communications via the growing variety of digital networks for professional interaction. Scholars and librarians can recognize the change while acknowledging the durability of academic workflow conventions. Libraries can guide the faculty in social scholarship and be gadflies in matters of the …

Apples To Oranges: Comparing Streaming Video Platforms, Steven Milewski, Monique Threatt

Charleston Library Conference

Librarians rely on an ever-increasing variety of platforms to deliver streaming video content to our patrons. These two presentations will examine different aspects of video streaming platforms to gain guidance from the comparison of platforms. The first will examine the accessibility compliance of the various video streaming platforms for users with disabilities by examining accessibility features of the platforms. The second will be a comparison of subject usage of two of the larger video streaming platform providers (Alexander Street Press and Kanopy) done at Indiana University Bloomington, a large public university.

Teaching The Library To Students Of Higher Education, Steven Weiland

Charleston Library Conference

The academic library and its digital transformation are ignored in graduate programs of higher education administration, which train a significant number of postsecondary professionals. A course in scholarly communications in the digital age recently introduced at one such program includes an invitation to aspiring administrators to study the contributions of the library to the ways that faculty members are coming to understand and capitalize on new technologies in teaching, research, and career development. The library is represented in the course in its traditional and new roles. It is an essential campus location for attention to what technological change means for …

Money, Money, Money—Or Not! Budget Realities And Transparency In Collection Development Decision‐Making, Mary Gilbert, Deborah A. Nolan

Charleston Library Conference

Each library’s budget is unique; however, the importance of providing information about the budget is common across all libraries and is a critical factor in how the library is perceived by its constituents. The cost of e‐resources, balancing the collection, and optimizing a flat budget in an era of escalating costs are issues often misinterpreted by the campus community, leading to both misunderstandings and misinformation. Limited budgets, escalating prices, and new acquisitions strategies necessitate clear communication with librarians and faculty about the financial realities and complex decisions surrounding collection development.

One academic library used a two‐day workshop format to inform …

The 2014 Credo Survey, Allen Mckiel

Charleston Library Conference

The Credo Survey addressed student research skills. Two parallel surveys over the same questions were addressed separately to students and faculty, which had respectively 2,606 and 472 respondents. Just less than 90% of the students were undergraduates split nearly evenly in progress to completion, with 87% of respondents attending full‐time and a fairly representative spread of majors. Just less than 50% of the faculty had taught over 10 years with nearly even proportions spread across the first 10 years and with a representative sampling of disciplines. Seventy‐seven percent were full‐time. The majority of responses came from about a dozen institutions—half …

A Crossroads For Collection Development And Assessment, Its Fallout, And Unknowns: Where Do We Go From Here?, Thomas Reich

Charleston Library Conference

Where do we go from here? Achieving goals of sustainable resource collections through a thorough collection assessment is evermore challenged by fallout and unknowns lurking ubiquitously. There is an ever‐increasing competition for both physical space and economic space. We’re at an important crossroads for collection development, collection assessment, and libraries themselves. Change and assessment must be sustainable. To be effective, change must create its own momentum. Three years into our collection assessment project, momentum has been steady and efforts continue. However, we’ve encountered fallout and unknowns which we hadn’t planned on, and these are of an institutional and political nature.

Collection Development, E-Resources, And Meeting The Needs Of People With Disabilities, Axel Schmetzke, Cheryl Pruitt, Michele Bruno

Charleston Library Conference

Access barriers do not only exist in the physical environment but also online. Just as certain architectural design features make it possible, or impossible, for people with certain disabilities to move about independently, so does design of the electronic environment, which includes all the library e‐resources, creates either enabling or disabling conditions for certain individuals. Recently conducted research reveals a rather grim picture: while policy statements issued by professional library organization call for inclusive selection and procurement procedures, books on collection development do not cover the issue adequately. When librarians make decision about the selection of specific e‐resources, the needs …