Library and Information Science Commons^™

Lacuny Executive Council Meeting Minutes, March 2013, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Lacuny Cataloging Roundtable Meeting Minutes, March 2013, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Lacuny Interlibrary Loan Roundtable Meeting Minutes, March 2013, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Lacuny Executive Council Meeting Minutes, February 2013, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Lacuny Multimedia Roundtable Meeting Minutes, February 2013, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Cuny's Critical Thinking Skills Initiative: Redesigning Workforce Education Through Information Literacy Learning, Irene Gashurov, Ann Matsuuchi

Publications and Research

In the wake of the recent financial upheaval, there is a feeling in academia that colleges should pay more attention to what employers are saying; and the common concern of employers is that many new hires are coming out of college unprepared.

In job situations that demand approaching problems from a variety of perspectives, using innovative approaches to find solutions, and communicating effectively, employers said these recent graduates were coming up short. They called on educators “to teach [students] the analytical skills, the critical thinking skills and the communication skills that are necessary for almost every job in today’s economy.”

Searching Mindfully: Are Libraries Up To The Challenge Of Competing With Google Books?, Amrita Dhawan

Publications and Research

Traditional research tools used by libraries, such as encyclopedias and catalogs (OPACs) were created in an age of print and information scarcity. They have not kept up with changes in the information world which assume an abundance of online information in different formats and interdisciplinary topics which attempt to solve ‘real world’ messy problems and not traditional theoretical questions. The traditional tools rest on an unwieldy and somewhat outdated collaboration between OCLC, LOC, private aggregators, librarians and faculty. The search results they deliver offer excessive information with very little guidance on how to systematically sift through them. This makes the …

Seen It All, Heard It All, Done It All. Is It All Worth It?, Julie Lim

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Student As Subaltern: Reconsidering The Role Of Student Life Material Collections At North American Universities, Jessica L. Wagner

Publications and Research

This article argues for college and university archivists to undertake advocacy and activism to better document student life. It discusses key shifts in archival and historical theory that supported an interest in collecting from a wide variety of people rather than just elites. Next, it describes recent archival scholarship on student life materials and considers the extent to which college and university archives are actively documenting the student experience via the collection of these materials. Analysis of the results of a survey of college and university archivists about the nature of these collections sheds further light on prevailing opinions of …

The Academic Library: Cowpath Or Path To The Future?, Verlene J. Herrington

Publications and Research

This paper relates the traditional academic library to the expression, “don’t pave the cowpath”. Originating in the IT world, this expression means to not integrate technology into an established practice without assessing whether the process is still effective or still needed. Even though sustaining technologies have simplified information retrieval and library tasks, library organizational structure and processes remain pretty much unchanged. This article discusses the cowpath that academic libraries have followed for decades and the challenges disruptive technologies pose to the traditional model. It looks at how one academic library rejected tradition, got off the cowpath and created a different …

Google Vs. The Library: Student Preferences And Perceptions When Doing Research Using Google And A Federated Search Tool, Helen Georgas

Publications and Research

Federated searching was once touted as the library world’s answer to Google, but ten years since federated searching technology’s inception, how does it actually compare? This study focuses on undergraduate student preferences and perceptions when doing research using both Google and a federated search tool. Students were asked about their preferences using each search tool and the perceived relevance of the sources they found using each search tool. Students were also asked to self-assess their online searching skills. The findings show that students believe they possess strong searching skills, are able to find relevant sources using both search tools, but …

Using Web Analytics For Mobile Interface Development, Junior R. Tidal

Publications and Research

Libraries are developing mobile Web sites to keep up with the dynamic landscape of emerging technologies. However, the development of a mobile Web site is not as simple as serving the existing desktop Web site on a handheld device. Library developers can use analytics software to better understand users and to develop a user-centered mobile Web site. This case study explores the use of a library’s traditional desktop Web site’s analytics information in creating a mobile interface. 2 Although Web analytics can provide a great amount of information about users, data should be used as supplementary information. Usability testing, focus …

Developing Sustainable International Library Exchange Programs: The Cuny-Shanghai Library Faculty Exchange Model, Sheau-Yueh Janey Chao, Beth Evans, Ryan Phillps, Mark Aaron Polger, Beth Posner, Ellen Sexton

Publications and Research

This article describes the City University of New York ( CUNY)-Shanghai Librarian Faculty Exchange Program. By observing and working in academic library services at CUNY, Shanghai University (SU), and Shanghai Normal University (SNU), participants were able to teach and learn from their colleagues, bringing their experiences back to further share with their home library patrons, colleagues, and colleges.

Digital Content Curation And Why It Matters To Librarians, Steven Ovadia

Publications and Research

The article discusses the concept of digital content curation. The idea behind curation, sometimes called aggregation, is linking and/or excerpting the work of others. This has far-reaching impact in terms of evaluation and attribution.

The Role Of Big Data In The Social Sciences, Steven Ovadia

Publications and Research

This article explores the role of big data in the social sciences and reviews some online sources of large data sets.

When Social Media Meets Scholarly Publishing, Steven Ovadia

Publications and Research

This article looks at the impact of social media on scholarly publishing, including altmetrics, which examine the impact of scholarly work in a social media context.

Planning A Reading And Discussion Series In An Academic Library, Rebecca Arzola

Publications and Research

Planning a reading series for an academic library takes an initial investment of time, energy and attention to detail. When you consider all the elements involved with planning and executing a reading, the initial investment of time and effort to devise a smoothly run event series is well worth the results. It can be as creative a venture as you have time for. Do what is comfortable for you

Working With The Plateaued Employee, Janet Butler Munch

Publications and Research

As supervisors, middle managers may observe employees who have lost interest in their work, have become demotivated, or seem to be in a rut. This phenomenon can happen to even the most productive employees. Managers can help mitigate negative aspects by supporting their librarians, and helping them to make self-enhancing decisions for their continual professional growth and development.

Decentralized Expertise: The Evolution Of Community Forums In Technical Support, Steven Ovadia

Publications and Research

This chapter discusses the authority structures found within the community support forums of open and closed source operating systems (Linux, Windows, and OS X), demonstrating how, because of these forums, technical expertise is shifting away from the organizations responsible for creating these systems and into the community using them. One might expect this kind of migration within Linux communities, where in theory anyone can contribute to the code of the project, but it is also being seen in closed source projects, where only certain people, usually employees, have access to the underlying code that controls the operating system. In these …

Marketing Library Workshops: A Model For Achieving Popular And Critical Success, Catherine Stern, Alexandra Rojas, Elizabeth Namei

Publications and Research

While drop-in workshops can often be a vital and important component of academic library instruction programs (Manuel, 2003), it is an ongoing challenge to keep them fresh and to attract sufficient numbers of attendees to make the enterprise meaningful and worthwhile. Workshops offer an opportunity to raise the library's profile within the institution and be recognized for the work librarians do to support the college's mission. LaGuardia Community College Library has sought to achieve both popular (good attendance) and critical (enhanced college-wide recognition) success with its workshop series. The outreach initiatives described in this article brought us closer to both …

Using Web Analytics For Mobile Interface Development, Junior R. Tidal

Publications and Research

Libraries are developing mobile Web sites to keep up with the dynamic landscape of emerging technologies. Library web developers can use analytics software to better understand users and to develop a user-centered mobile Web site. Evidence based design decisions can drive mobile web interface development.

Who's Spinning The Library? Responsibilities Of Academic Librarians Who Promote, Mark Aaron Polger, Karen Okamoto

Publications and Research

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the responsibilities and challenges faced by academic librarians whose major responsibilities include the overall promotion of the library.

Design/methodology/approach

– A questionnaire was sent to seven library listservs asking respondents to describe their work duties, promotional activities, academic background, and professional challenges and concerns.

Findings

– This study garnered 215 responses. Respondents who completed the questionnaire identified as academic librarians whose major responsibilities include the overall promotion of the library. Librarians who promote face a plethora of challenges, including time restraints, lack of funding and limited support for their promotional …

The Use And Availability Of Environmental Activism Collections In Academic Archives, Amy F. Stempler

Publications and Research

This study seeks to reveal the current state of environmental research in academic special collections and archives, with an emphasis on materials associated with environmental activism. The use and availability of archival environmental activism collections were assessed in a two-fold process. The use of such collections was evaluated through a citation analysis of related research articles published in Environmental History, the premier scholarly journal in the field of environmental history. The citation analysis reviewed the prevalence of archival collections sourced, and examined citations by repository type and material type in order to gain insight into the kinds of items used …

Making Change Happen In The Middle (Approaches To Innovation For Library Middle Managers), Robert Farrell

Publications and Research

This paper seeks to provide library managers with a theoretical framework for thinking about how change is effected by those in middle management positions. Starting from the principles that change takes place within socio-culturally bounded contexts and is most successful when approached indirectly, two scenarios characteristic of many situations requiring change middle managers commonly face are then put forward. Following each scenario, a possible solution or path towards change is advanced in order to provide the reader with models for putting into practice the theoretical ideas presented. A methodology that combines theoretical frameworks and practical scenarios is adopted in order …

Technology Innovations In Publishing: New Directions In Academic And Cultural Communication., Elisabeth Tappeiner, Kate Lyons

Publications and Research

Over time, publishing technologies have not only influenced how people read, but also how knowledge is evaluated and authority is established. Social and mobile technologies represent relatively recent developments that have transformed the trade publishing world, but the extent to which they have affected academic publishing remains an open question. This article examines the rapid and disruptive transformations in the trade and digital publishing world, discusses how these developments have already intersected with the work of academics and considers how these changes might continue to transform the dissemination of academic research in the future.

Cuny Librarians And Reassignment Leave: What Is It? How Do I Get It?, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Although librarians in CUNY had achieved Faculty Status by 1946 and Faculty Rank in 1965, they were still never put on the Faculty Calendar with the Summer (or its equivalent) off. Professional Reassignment leave for library faculty was added to the contract in 1978 as a two-week research leave, and it has since expanded to a maximum of six weeks. However, as Professional Reassignment leave increased, the amount of annual leave for new librarians decreased.

Queering The Catalog: Queer Theory And The Politics Of Correction, Emily Drabinski

Publications and Research

Critiques of hegemonic library classification structures and controlled vocabularies have a rich history in information studies. This project has pointed out the trouble with classification and cataloging decisions that are framed as objective and neutral but are always ideological and worked to correct bias in library structures. Viewing knowledge organization systems from a queer perspective, however, challenges the idea that classification and subject language can ever be finally corrected. Engaging queer theory and library classification and cataloging together requires new ways of thinking about how to be ethically and politically engaged on behalf of marginal knowledge formations and identities who …

Beyond Physical Space: Implementing A Virtual Learning Commons At An Urban Community College, Heba Elsayed, Carlos Guevara, Rebecca Hoda-Kearse, Isabel Li, Kate Lyons, George Rosa, Varun Sehgal

Publications and Research

The administration, faculty, and staff at Hostos Community College strive to improve students’ computer and information literacy skills while meeting the distinct needs of Millennials. In 2007, Hostos initiated a project to reconfigure physical spaces throughout the campus (areas in the Library, Academic Learning Center, Educational Technology Office, and Academic Computing Center) and establish a unified virtual space, creating a cross-divisional entity: the Information Learning Commons (ILC).

This case discusses the formation of the ILC Committee, the group that envisions and manages physical ILC spaces’ renovation and also develops virtual spaces; the planning and implementation of physical learning commons spaces; …

Positioning Library Data For The Semantic Web: Recent Developments In Resource Description, Kimmy Szeto

Publications and Research

Recent developments in resource description standards and technologies have aimed at moving cataloging practice to the web environment and making library data available for exchange and reuse on the Semantic Web. As the library community looks outward and forward, library standards and technologies are converging with Web practices in three areas: content description, data models, and data exchange. This article captures the essence of the core standards and technologies that underlie the daily work of practitioners of library service, including Resource Description and Access (RDA), Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), the Linked Data environment, Resource Description Framework (RDF), and …

Colloquium Focuses On Books, Meaning, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.