Library and Information Science Commons^™

Standards For Libraries In Higher Education, Patricia A. Iannuzzi, Tom Abbott, Jeanne Brown, Susan Gibbons, Lynne King, Sharon Mccaslin, Mary Reichel, Joan Ruelle, Lisa Stillwell, Mary Jane Petrowski, Lori Goetsch

Library Faculty Research

The Standards for Libraries in Higher Education are designed to guide academic libraries in advancing and sustaining their role as partners in educating students, achieving their institutions’ missions, and positioning libraries as leaders in assessment and continuous improvement on their campuses. Libraries must demonstrate their value and document their contributions to overall institutional effectiveness and be prepared to address changes in higher education. These Standards were developed through study and consideration of new and emerging issues and trends in libraries, higher education, and accrediting practices. These Standards differ from previous versions by articulating expectations for library contributions to institutional effectiveness. …

Critical Teaching In The Library, Alycia Sellie

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Access Gap: Poverty And Characteristics Of School Library Media Centers, Shana Pribesh, Karen Gavigan, Gail Dickinson

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

Stephen Krashen believes that schools can counter the effects of poverty in at least one area: access to books. However, little research has been done to determine whether students living in poverty have access to school library services comparable to those attending schools with low concentrations of students living in poverty. We examined the school library access gap namely, the differences in school library characteristics (staffing, books added to collection, schedule, and number of days closed) in schools with various concentrations of students living in poverty. Alarmingly, we found that the students in most need—those attending schools with the highest …

The Best Test Of Ph.D. Studentsuccess: Response, David F. Feldon, Briana Crotwell Timmerman, Michelle Maher

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Newquist suggests that students' publications are important predictors of post-degree research effectiveness, due in part to the importance of collaboration in innovative research. We agree that publication record is important and helpful, but the collaborative aspects of writing render publications a noisy metric by which to assess individual growth on specific skills (1). The variable time lags between the execution of an experiment, analysis of its data, and publication of findings [e.g., (2)] further limit the ability to identify direct relationships between experiences in a doctoral program and scholarly growth. Doctoral education's overarching goal is to develop competent researchers capable …

Why Magic Bullets Don't Work, David F. Feldon

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

We always tell our students that there are no shortcuts, that important ideas are nuanced, and that recognizing subtle distinctions is an essential critical-thinking skill. Mastery of a discipline, we know, requires careful study and necessarily slow, evolutionary changes in perspective. Then we look around for the latest promising trend in teaching and jump in with both feet, expecting it to transform our students, our courses, and our outcomes. Alternatively, we sniff disdainfully at the current educational fad and proudly stand by the instructional traditions of our disciplines or institutions, secure in our knowledge that the “tried and true” has …

Research Data Services At Singapore Management University: Engagement Summary Report, Terrence B. Bennett

Research Collection Library

In order for Singapore Management University to provide essential support to its researchers and remain competitive with peer institutions, the Li Ka Shing Library at SMU should initiate a distinct research data services function that provides, at minimum, identification and dissemination of data resources, instruction in finding and using data, and some technical assistance with the use of specialized software. In anticipation of emerging trends in data management, these base-level data services will enable SMU to be positioned for strategic growth—the progress of which is carefully aligned with limits to funding, staffing, and other resource allocations—in order to meet the …

From Active Learning To Activity: Getting Beyond Busy Work And Into Deep Learning, Wendy Holliday

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

This session will report on an ethnographic study of an English composition class. The researcher observed the class for an entire semester and conducted focus groups and interviews with students and the instructor. The session will describe key activities from the class, including reflections on motivation and learning by both instructors and students. It will conclude with a discussion of how the research findings can help librarians design instruction that engages learners more deeply.

Linking Opencoursewares And Open Education Resources: Creating An Effective Search And Recommendation System, Brett E. Shelton, J. Duffin, Y. Wang, J. Ball

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

With a growing number of digital libraries and other open education repositories being made available throughout the world, effective search and retrieval tools are necessary to access the desired materials that surpass the effectiveness of traditional, all inclusive search engines. This paper discusses the design and use of Folksemantic, a platform that integrates OpenCourseWare search, Open Educational Resource recommendations, and social network functionality into a single open source project. The paper describes how the system was originally envisioned, its goals for users, and data that provides insight into how it is actually being used. Data sources include website click-through data, …

Knowing And Throwing Mudballs, Hearts, Pies, And Flowers: A Connective Ethnography Of Gaming Practices, Deborah A. Fields, Y. B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Little is known concerning how young players learn to participate in various activities in virtual worlds. We use a new integrative approach called connective ethnography that focuses on how a gaming practice spread across a network of youth at an after school club that simultaneously participated in a virtual world, Whyville.net. To trace youth participation in online and offline social contexts, we draw on multiple sources of information: observations, interviews, videos, online tracking and chat data, and hundreds of hours of play in Whyville ourselves. One gaming practice – the throwing of projectiles and its social uses and nuances – …

Stealing From Grandma Or Generating Knowledge? Constestations And Effects Of Cheating In Whyville, Deborah A. Fields, Y. B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Much research has described the various practices needed of gaining access and participation in multi-user game communities. Cheat sites are a continuation of game communities where players engage in knowledge building about game related challenges. In this paper we analyze the cheat sites created by players for a tween virtual world called Whyville.net, which encourages youth to participate in a range of social activities and play casual science games. Through analysis we created typologies for both the cheats and sites related to science content. Further, a case study of an exemplary cheat site elaborates on how some player generated sites …

Your Second Selves: Avatar Designs And Identity Play, Y. B. Kafai, Deborah A. Fields, M. S. Cook

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Avatars in online games and worlds are seen as players’ key representations in interactions with each other. In this article, we investigate the avatar design and identity play within a large-scale tween virtual world called Whyville.net, with more than 1.5 million registered players of ages 816. One unique feature of Whyville is the players’ ability to customize their avatars with various face parts and accessories, all designed and sold by other players in Whyville. Our findings report on the expressive resources available for avatar construction, individual tween players’ choices and rationales in creating their avatars, and online postings about avatar …

"Blacks Deserve Bodies Too!" Design And Discussion About Diversity And Race In A Tween Virtual World, Y. B. Kafai, M. S. Cook, Deborah A. Fields

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we investigate racial diversity in avatar design and public discussions about race within a large-scale tween virtual world called Whyville.net, with more than 1.5 million registered players of ages 8—16. One unique feature of Whyville is the player’s ability to customize their avatars with various face parts and accessories, all designed and sold by other players in Whyville. Our findings report on the racial diversity of available resources for avatar construction and online postings about the role of race in avatar design and social interactions in the community. With the growing interest in player-generated content for online …

Weedsin The Flower Garden: An Exploration Of Plagiarism In Graduate Students' Research Proposalsand Its Connection To Enculturation, Esl, And Contextual Factors, Joanna Gilmore, Denise Strickland, Briana Timmerman, Michelle Maher, David F. Feldon

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Existing literature provides insight into the nature and extent of plagiarism amongst undergraduate students (e.g., Ellery, 2008; Parameswaran & Devi, 2006; Selwyn, 2008). Plagiarism amongst graduate students is relatively unstudied, however, and the existing data are largely based on self-reports. This study investigated the rates and potential causes of plagiarism amongst graduate students in master’s and doctoral programmes in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and science or mathematics education by examining actual research proposals written by graduate students. Results indicate that plagiarism is a prevalent issue at each of the three university sites sampled and across all of the investigated disciplines. …

Adaptations And Continuities In The Use And Design Of Visual Representations In Us Middle School Science Textbooks, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Visual representations are ubiquitous in modern‐day science textbooks and have in recent years become an object of criticism and scrutiny. This article examines the extent to which changes in representations in textbooks published in the USA over the past six decades have invited those critiques. Drawing from a correlational analysis of a corpus of 34 US middle school physical science textbooks, continuities are established with respect to the purposes that most textbook images serve and the numbers of schematic representations that are used. Changes are observed in the overall total number of representations in textbooks and in the proportion of …

Usability As A Method For Assessing Discovery, Thomas A. Ipri, Michael A. Yunkin, Jeanne M. Brown

Library Faculty Research

The University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries engaged in three projects that helped identify areas of its website that had inhibited discovery of services and resources. These projects also helped generate staff interest in the Usability Working Group, which led these endeavors. The first project studied student responses to the site. The second focused on a usability test with the Libraries’ peer research coaches and resulted in a presentation of those findings to the Libraries staff. The final project involved a specialized test, the results of which also were presented to staff. All three of these projects led to improvements …

Mixing And Matching: Assessing Information Literacy, Carol Mcculley

Faculty & Staff Publications

Authentic assessment of student learning outcomes is much in demand. This paper reviews a variety of assessment methods that measure cognitive, behavioral, and affective levels of learning that can be used to design library class instruction and assessments to improve student learning and teaching of information literacy concepts. The intentional use of these methods to assess undergraduate student learning in many disciplines through working collaboratively with faculty and integrating the assessments in a learner-centered environment is discussed.

Using Blackboard To Create Library Research Skills Assessment, Maura A. Smale, Mariana Regalado

Publications and Research

Like other college and university departments, academic libraries are increasingly expected to assess their services and facilities. This article describes an initial step in the development of a comprehensive assessment program for library instruction in the Brooklyn College Library. A pre- and post-quiz were developed based on the curriculum for a required library session in an introductory English composition course. The quizzes were designed to establish a baseline for student knowledge of information literacy as well as measure the effect of library instruction on student learning. We also sought to evaluate the suitability of the Blackboard learning management system for …

Developing A Review Rubric For Learning Resources In Digital Libraries, Heather Leary, Sarah Giersch, Andrew Walker, Mimi Recker

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper describes the development of a review rubric for learning resources in the context of the Instructional Architect (IA), a web-based authoring tool. We describe the motivation for developing a review rubric, the process for creating it by synthesizing the rubrics of other education-related digital libraries, and the results of testing the rubric with teachers. Analysis of usability and reliability indicates that the review rubric influences how teachers design online learning resources.

What Do Students Gain From A Week At Science Camp? Youth Perceptions And The Design Of An Immersive Research-Oriented Astronomy Camp, Deborah A. Fields

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study explored American high school students’ perceptions of the benefits of a summer astronomy camp, emphasizing a full cycle of the research process and how the organization of the camp contributed to those perceptions. Semi-structured interviews with students and staff were used to elicit the specific benefits that campers perceived from their experiences and examine them in relation to the stated goals and strategies of camp staff. Among the perceived benefits that students described were peer relationships, personal autonomy, positive relationships with staff, and deepened science knowledge. These perceived benefits appear to influence the kinds of identities students constructed …

A Connective Ethnography Of Peer Knowledge Sharing And Diffusion In A Tween Virtual World, Deborah A. Fields, Y. B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Prior studies have shown how knowledge diffusion occurs in classrooms and structured small groups around assigned tasks yet have not begun to account for widespread knowledge sharing in more native, unstructured group settings found in online games and virtual worlds. In this paper, we describe and analyze how an insider gaming practice spread across a group of tween players ages 9–12 years in an after-school gaming club that simultaneously participated in a virtual world called Whyville.net. In order to understand how this practice proliferated, we followed the club members as they interacted with each other and members of the virtual …

[Introduction To] Museum Careers: A Practical Guide For Students And Novices, N. Elizabeth Schlatter

Bookshelf

This concise volume is the place to start for anyone considering a career in museums. Museum professional and author N. Elizabeth Schlatter outlines the nature of the profession as a whole, the rewards and challenges of museum work, types of museums, and jobs within museums, including salary ranges. She discusses options for education and training, and suggestions on how to secure a job and how to move up the career ladder. Interviews with museum professionals from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds demonstrate different career paths and offer unique and helpful advice . For novices in the field, students in …

I Wonder Who's Using Us Now: Hurricane Katrina's Influence On Use Of Special Collections At The University Of New Orleans Library, Florence M. Jumonville

The Southeastern Librarian

On the afternoon of Friday, August 26, 2005, a student approached the reference desk at the University of New Orleans (UNO) library’s Louisiana and Special Collections Reading Room and returned the book from the UNO Faculty Authors Collection that he had been perusing. It was a routine transaction, and department personnel had no inkling that this one would be the last that their department would make for more than four months. Weatherwatchers, however, already were aware of the threat posed by Hurricane Katrina, which was then churning in the Gulf of Mexico. Television broadcasts that evening brought alarming forecasts which …

Magnet Again! Librarian's Role In Collaboration To Maintain Magnet Status: Demonstrating The Commitment To Supporting Evidence Based Practice (Ebp), Barbara J. Iobst Mls, Ahip, Linda M. Schwartz Mde, Ahip, Cm

Continuing Education

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Professional Development Needs Of Distance Librarians In Academic Libraries, Mary Cassner, Kate Adams

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Professional development is essential for academic librarians to keep current with skills, knowledge, and competencies in rapidly changing times. The authors surveyed distance librarians in academic libraries to determine their professional development needs. Respondents were asked to indicate which professional development activities they are currently participating in and those they are likely to engage in within the next five years. Findings from the survey will inform library administrators, distance librarians, and professional associations of the professional development needs of distance librarians.

Information Literacy: Imperatives For Faculty, Leora Baron-Nixon

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

With the burgeoning of information, and especially the unfettered growth of online information, long-held assumptions about students’ access to and interaction with information have to be re-evaluated. Faculty play a key role in ensuring that information literacy skills are acquired and practiced at all levels of instruction.

University Of Rhode Island Neasc Self-Study 2007. Standard Seven: Library And Other Information Resources

Collection Development Reports and Documents

Self-Study report by the University of Rhode Island, prepared in fall 2006 for the 2006/07 accreditation visit of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). Included here is Standard Seven: Library and Other Information Resources.

This standard was prepared by Standard Seven Committee Chair Karen M. Ramsay, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Technical Services in the University Libraries. Also on the Standard Seven Committee were: Lisa DiPippo, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science & Statistics; Karol Leuzarder, Senior Tech Programmer, TOPS; Mary MacDonald, Associate Professor, University Libraries; David Eifler, Graduate Student; Jim Loy, Professor, Anthropology; …

Demystifying Survey Research: Practical Suggestions For Effective Question Design, Deborah H. Charbonneau

Library Scholarly Publications

Objective ‐Recent research has yielded several studies helpful for understanding the use of the survey technique in various library environments. Despite this, there has been limited discussion to guide library practitioners preparing survey questions. The aim of this article is to provide practical suggestions for effective questions when designing written surveys.

Methods ‐Advice and important considerations to help guide the process of developing survey questions are drawn from a review of the literature and personal experience.

Results ‐Basic techniques can be incorporated to improve survey questions, such as choosing appropriate question forms and incorporating the use of scales. Attention should …

Perspectives On Teachers As Digital Library Users: Consumers, Contributors, And Designers, Mimi Recker

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

"...freed of the constraints of physical space and media, digital libraries can be more adaptive and reflective of the communities they serve. They should be collaborative, allowing users to contribute knowledge to the library, either actively through annotations, reviews, and the like, or passively through their patterns of resource use. In addition, they should be contextual, expressing the expanding web of inter-relationships and layers of knowledge that extend among selected primary resources. In this manner, the core of the digital library should be an evolving information base, weaving together professional selection and the 'wisdom of crowds.'" (Lagoze, Krafft, Payette, & …

A Design-Based Research Strategy To Promote Scalability For Educational Innovations, Jody Clarke-Midura, C. Dede, D. J. Ketelhut, B. Nelson, C. Bowman

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This article offers insights into how the design of innovations can enhance their “scalability”: the ability to adapt an innovation to effective usage in a wide variety of contexts, including settings where major conditions for success are absent or attenuated. We are implementing the River City MUVE curriculum, a technology-based innovation designed to enhance engagement and learning in middle school science, in a range of educational contexts. Based on our studies of these scaling up activities, we offer examples of design strategies for scalability and describe our plan to develop a “scalability index.”

Methodological Challenges For Identifying And Coding Diverse Knowledge Elements In Interview Data, Victor R. Lee, Moshe Krakowski, Bruce Sherin, Megan Bang, Gregory Dam

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper, as part of a symposium on the analysis of clinical interview data and the development of a framework for analyzing students' intuitive science knowledge, identifies and discusses methodological challenges encountered when specifying the knowledge elements and resources are invoked dynamically during a clinical interview. Drawing from interviews with middle school students about the seasons and an analysis of knowledge in terms of 'nodes', two classes of problems are identified: those associated with identification of nodes and those associated with their application as codes to a transcript-based data corpus. We posit that these challenges are common ones associated with …