Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Adapting To Scarcity: Developing An Integrated Allocation Formula, George Stachokas, Tim Gritten

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Rising costs for library materials and shrinking budgets make it more necessary than ever for academic libraries to target their scarce resources to meet the specific needs of academic programs. The authors surveyed other institutions to determine current practices in the allocation of library materials funds in different formats. The results of our survey were inconclusive, which led us to combine monographs and continuations in a single allocation formula. By crafting an allocation formula for both monographs and continuations in print and electronic format, the Cunningham Memorial Library at Indiana State University hopes to satisfy the growing demand for information …

Inciting Curiosity And Creating Meaning: Teaching Information Evaluation Through The Lens Of ‘Bad Science’, Catherine Fraser Riehle

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Ability to evaluate information is a critical component of information literacy. This article provides strategies for engaging students in learning about information evaluation in the contexts of the scientific publication cycle and communication in the digital age. Also included are recent findings regarding undergraduate student research behavior and ideas for integrating constructivist learning theory in order to develop effective learning activities that encourage curiosity and critical thinking.

Who Teaches Information Literacy Competencies? Report Of A Study Of Faculty, Sharon A. Weiner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Information literacy is recognized as an essential competency for educational success. It relates to all disciplines but is not a separate discipline, so it is not clear who takes responsibility for teaching this competency to undergraduates. This is a report of a survey conducted to better understand the extent to which teaching information literacy concepts by faculty occurred in a research university. The results indicated that faculty in the disciplines generally teach information literacy competencies to undergraduate students without collaborating with others on their campus. Many faculty also had the expectation that students know how to avoid plagiarism, find articles …

Refactoring Hubzero For Linked Data, Michael Witt, Yongyang Yu

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The HUBzero cyberinfrastructure provides a virtual research environment that includes a set of tools for web-based, scientific collaboration and a platform for publishing and using resources such as executable software, source code, images, learning modules, videos, documents, and datasets. Released as open source software in 2010, HUBzero has been implemented on a typical LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) and utilizes the Joomla! content management system. This paper describes the subsequent refactoring of HUBzero to produce and expose Linked Data from its backend, relational database, altering the external expression of the data without changing its internal structure. The Open …

Librarians And Statistics: Thoughts On A Tentative Relationship, Amy S. Van Epps

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Librarians are not trained as original researchers during library school. As a result, librarians as authors may succumb to common statistical misconceptions and use errors, thus it is important for librarians to know how to recognize them. A quick discussion of what a researcher should be aware to avoid poor methods and inaccurate use of statistics is included. A review of statistics and research methods courses currently offered in library and information science programs helps determine if the lack of training observed in earlier studies has changed. A list of recommendations for authors and reviewers of LIS literature is presented.

Are Mls Graduates Being Prepared For The Changing And Emerging Roles That Librarians Must Now Assume Within Research Libraries?, James L. Mullins

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The focus of research libraries is changing to include digital resources, improving the information literacy level of patrons, and creating new partnerships on and off campus, among other things. This creates a need to recruit librarians trained in these areas and open to these changes. Library science training is a necessary foundation for preparing graduates to qualify for and excel in changing and emerging new roles. This article explores current recruitment efforts to articulate new roles and to successfully hire graduates with the skills and aptitude to fill them.

Middle Managers And Major Gifts: Fundraising For Academic Librarians, Tomalee Doan

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Abstract

Purpose: Share successful strategies for mid-level management academic librarians and archivists for raising major gifts from individual donors

Design: Demonstrate growing need for fundraising in university libraries and participating in fundraising activities as an increasing expectation of librarians; provide case studies of successful fundraising by librarian and archivist including their work with donors and collaboration with development professionals; conclude with suggestions for maintaining donor relations

Findings: Fundraising is increasingly rapidly as an expected activity of librarians but a slowly growing part of their education. More literature is also needed on the topic. Successful fundraising is dependent …

Criteria For Evaluating Journals In The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning In Agriculture, Natural Resources, And The Life Sciences, Marianne S. Bracke, Sharon A. Weiner, Judith M. Nixon, Scott Deatherage

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The purpose of this paper was to identify existing criteria that may be considered in evaluating journals in the scholarship of teaching and learning in agriculture, natural resources, and the life sciences. This can assist faculty authors and evaluators of promotion and tenure cases to explain indicators of the quality of the publications. The commonly accepted criteria are: peer review; acceptance rate; longevity; open access availability; inclusion in indexing/abstracting services; citation analysis; and expert opinion. These data were collected for a representative set of journals which indicated that: acceptance rates for the journals varied widely; most of the journals existed …

The Changing Definition And Role Of Collections And Services In The University Research Library, James L. Mullins

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

No abstract provided.

Knowledge-Enabled Engineering Design: Toward An Integrated Model, Michael Fosmire, David Radcliffe

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Librarians and engineering faculty have long understood that design is one of the defining processes of the engineering profession. In an increasingly knowledge-driven society, students need to efficiently locate, assess and integrate relevant information into their design process so that they can develop innovation solutions to emerging complex, global grand challenges. Increasingly, engineering curricula are incorporating design as early as the first year, but a question remains as to how effectively information literacy is being integrated into these early experiences of design. For example, the Engineering Change study found there has been very little improvement to lifelong learning skills in …

Science Librarians Analysis Of The 2011 Nobel Prize In Physics: The Work Of Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, And Adam G. Riess, Michael Fosmire, Debra Kolah

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2011 was awarded to scientists from two different research collaborations that independently and contemporaneously discovered from observations of distant supernovae that the universe's expansion is accelerating. One half of the prize was awarded to Saul Perlmutter and the other half jointly to Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess. The findings, first reported in 1998, shocked the cosmology community, as the prevailing theory at the time favored a “closed” or “steady-state” universe, rather than one wherein the universe expands faster and faster, ultimately ending as a cold, dark, (largely) empty space. It was, perhaps, fortuitous …

Information Literacy Beyond The Library: Organizations To Watch, Sharon A. Weiner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The need for an information-literate society is increasingly apparent to educators, employers, policy makers, and other leaders. Colleges and undergraduate libraries are well positioned to collaborate with a variety of constituencies on addressing this need. Academic librarians can benefit from an awareness of reports, conferences, and newsletters of organizations outside of libraries that recognize the importance of effectively finding, using, and communicating information. This column describes four organizations. By examining the Websites and subscribing to the online updates for each, librarians can have current information about topics that relate to information literacy and incorporate it into their libraries’ information literacy …

Data Under Construction: Data Profiling For A Water Quality Lab, Jake R. Carlson, Marianne S. Bracke

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This case study describes an investigation into the data management and sharing practices within an interdisciplinary research lab. The Purdue Water Quality Field Station (WQFS) consists of researchers and graduate students generating data on a range of topics including: water quality, water flow, chemical composition of water, soil composition, soil moisture, and plant biomass. Many of these data are of interest beyond the lab, to other researchers, policy makers, and companies. Most of the data are gathered, processed and analyzed by graduate students from several different departments. The data gathered by one graduate student may be useful to others, but …

The Librarian And The Designer: Working Together To Create A Showcase For Contemporary Learning, Tomalee Doan

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Many institutions of higher education are designing spaces that reflect the established correlation between learning spaces and student achievement, mastery, and retention (Hunley & Schaller, 2006). In this case study of a renovation of an 18,327 square foot business library space into a dynamic learning environment, Melinda McGee, the Interior Designer for the project, and Tomalee Doan, the Associate Professor and Head Librarian of the business library, share the experience of their successful partnership that required a creative and an in-depth collaboration with each other and with several other stakeholders not usually found in an academic setting. Their goal is …

Review Of Daniel Mockli's "Strategic Trends 2012: Key Developments In Global Affairs, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This review essay describes and analyzes the content of this annual compilation of international affairs essays published by the Zurich-based Center for Strategic Studies.

Annual Reports At Academic Business Libraries: An Open Access Database Of Arss, Judith M. Nixon

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Annual Reports at Academic Business Libraries is a finding aid for serious company history researchers looking for the hardcopy Annual Reports to Shareholders (ARS). This index is now available as an open access file on the Purdue University Libraries server at http://gemini.lib.purdue.edu/abldars.

Creating Online Tutorials At Your Libraries: Software Choices And Practical Implications, Maribeth Slebodnik, Catherine Fraser Riehle

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

No abstract provided.

Strategically Leveraging Learning Space To Create Partnership Opportunities, Tomalee Doan

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The Management & Economics Library at Purdue University began a major physical and conceptual renovation four years ago. The conceptual renovation involves a rethinking of library faculty and staff roles and responsibilities based on the library’s and university’s strategic directives. The LearnLab space is being used as a springboard to create new partnerships, to implement our new roles, and to transform the perspective of an academic library’s present capability. This article will highlight the variety of opportunities that have arisen by leveraging the Learn Lab space.

Information-Seeking Behaviors Of First-Semester Veterinary Students: A Preliminary Report, Sharon A. Weiner, Gretchen Stephens, Abdelfattah Y.M. Nour

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Although emphasis in veterinary education is increasingly being placed on the ability to find, use, and communicate information, studies on the information behaviors of veterinary students or professionals are few. Improved knowledge in this area will provide valuable information for course and curriculum planning and the design of information resources. This article describes a survey of the information-seeking behaviors of first-semester veterinary students at Purdue University. A survey was administered as the first phase of a progressive semester-long assignment for a first semester DVM course in systemic mammalian physiology. The survey probed for understanding of the scientific literature and its …

Determining Data Information Literacy Needs: A Study Of Students And Research Faculty, Jake R. Carlson, Michael Fosmire, Chris Miller, Megan R. Sapp Nelson

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Researchers increasingly need to integrate the disposition, management and curation of their data into their current workflows. However, it is not yet clear to what extent faculty and students are sufficiently prepared to take on these responsibilities. This paper articulates the need for a data information literacy program (DIL) to prepare students to engage in such an “e-research” environment. Assessments of faculty interviews and student performance in a geoinformatics course provide complementary sources of information, which are then filtered through the perspective of ACRL’s information literacy competency standards to produce a draft set of outcomes for a data information literacy …

Lifelong Learning And Information Literacy Skills And The First Year Engineering Undergraduate: Report Of A Self-Assessment, Meagan Ross, Michael Fosmire, Ruth Eh Wertz, Monica Cardella, Senay Purzer

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

ABET accreditation requires engineering students to attain ‘a recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in lifelong learning.” (Outcome 3.i) However, there are few standard tools that attempt to assess the skills and techniques students need in order to achieve those outcomes. Focusing on the problem articulation and information literacy skills embedded in lifelong learning competencies, the authors constructed a standardized assessment to measure student self-perceptions of how often they employ those skills. The criteria for these competencies were based on the Information Search Process of Carol Kuhlthau, engineering design process characteristics, and the authors’ own analysis …

Information Literacy And The Workforce: A Review, Sharon A. Weiner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This paper is a review of reports on information literacy and the workforce. There is a substantial body of literature on information literacy in K-16 educational settings, but there is much less literature on implications for the workplace and job-related lifelong learning. The topical categories of the reports are: the importance of information literacy for the workforce; how information literacy differs in work and educational settings; and barriers to information literacy in the workplace. The paper concludes with recommendations for practice and for further research.

Do Students Gather Information To Inform Design Decisions? Assessment With An Authentic Design Task In First-Year Engineering, Ruth Eh Wertz, Meagan Ross, Michael Fosmire, Monica Cardella, Senay Purzer

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Information gathering is a very important aspect of the design process, one that is used continuously throughout the project to make informed design decisions. This study reports the development of an authentic instrument used to assess skills related to information gathering in first-year engineering students. Existing assessment tools, such as the scenario-based Self- Knowledge Inventory of Lifelong Learning (SKILLS), developed by Conti & Fellenz, or the Self- Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS), developed by Guglielmino, were evaluated. While these have the advantage of being very easy to administer and analyze, one significant disadvantage is that they are self-reported and thus …

A Practice And Value Proposal For Doctoral Dissertation Data Curation, Aaron Collie, Michael Witt

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The preparation and publication of dissertations can be viewed as a subsystem of scholarly communication, and the treatment of data that support doctoral research can be mapped in a very controlled manner to the data curation lifecycle. Dissertation datasets represent “low-hanging fruit” for universities who are developing institutional data collections. The current workflow for processing electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) at a typical American university is presented, and a new practice is proposed that includes datasets in the process of formulating, awarding, and disseminating dissertations in a way that enables them to be linked and curated together. The value proposition …

How Information Literacy Becomes Policy: An Analysis Using The Multiple Streams Framework, Sharon A. Weiner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

There is growing recognition that information literacy is a critical skill for educational and workplace success, engagement in lifelong learning, and civic participation. To be considered for allocations of financial and human resources, information literacy must become a policy priority for institutions and societies. There is no published examination of factors that may influence the adoption of information literacy as a policy priority. This article explores aspects of the policy process from a U.S. perspective that can favor or impede the inclusion of information literacy on political agendas. It examines these questions through the multiple streams framework of policy processes. …

Assessing Engineering Students' Information Literacy Skills: An Alpha Version Of A Multiple-Choice Instrument, Ruth Eh Wertz, Meagan Ross, Senay Purzer, Michael Fosmire, Monica Cardella

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Information literacy is crucial component of developing life-long learning skills. However, few standard and easily gradable assessment tools exist to assess the information literacy competencies of learners. In this paper, we discuss the development of a multiple choice instrument designed to measure these competencies in an efficient and expedient manner, and we present results of data collected from 366 first-year engineering students. The instrument requires students to first read a technical memo and, based on the memo‟s arguments, answer eight multiple choice and two open-ended response questions. The mean score on the multiple choice portion was only 3.46 out of …

A Study Of Circulation Statistics Of Books On Demand: A Decade Of Patron-Driven Collection Development, Part 3, Judith M. Nixon, E. Stewart Saunders

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The Purdue University Libraries was an early implementer of purchasing books requested through interlibrary loan rather than borrowing the requested books. The service, called Books on Demand, began in January 2000. An analysis of the requests at the end of the first two years of service indicated that these patron-selected books were more likely to have repeat circulations than the books acquired through normal collection development processes. When the program reached its tenth year, the authors analyzed and compared the books purchased through Books on Demand with all other purchased books during the same period. Findings indicate that books acquired …

Liberal Arts Books On Demand: A Decade Of Patron-Initiated Collection Development, Part 1, Judith M. Nixon, Kristine J. Anderson, Robert S. Freeman, Jean-Pierre Herubel, Lawrence J. Mykytiuk, Suzanne M. Ward

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The Purdue University Libraries was an early implementer of purchasing rather than borrowing books requested through interlibrary loan. This pioneering user-initiated acquisitions program, started in January 2000 and called Books on Demand, is managed by the interlibrary loan unit. Now that the program has reached its tenth year, the authors revisit their initial 2002 study to analyze books purchased in the six top subject areas across the whole decade. Subject librarians in their review of the liberal arts titles selected found that the books were appropriate additions and that these titles expanded the cross-disciplinary nature of the collection. The Books …

Patron-Driven Acquisition: An Introduction And Literature Review, Judith M. Nixon, Robert S. Freeman, Suzanne M. Ward

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Introductory article to the Special Issue: Patron-Driven Acquisition: Current Successes and Future Directions

Information Portals: A New Tool For Teaching Information Literacy Skills, Debra Kolah, Michael Fosmire

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Librarians at Rice and Purdue Universities created novel assignments to teach students important information literacy skills. The assignments required the students to use a third-party web site, PageFlakes and NetVibes, respectively, to create a dynamically updated portal to information they needed for their research and class projects. The use of off-the-shelf web 2.0 technology to enable students to discover the latest information in their subject areas of interest provides an engaging, hands-on environment with immediate feedback on the quality of their searching. The authors provide a basic introduction to the use of the 'portal' web site. Then, the results of …