Library and Information Science Commons^™

Keeping Up With… Open Peer Review, Emily Ford

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Open Peer Review is a current and developing practice in scholarly publishing that librarians need to continue to explore and discuss. To that end ACRL should continue to support experiments with and conversations about OPR in its publications. As academic librarians, we observe and engage with new practices in scholarly communication, and OPR should be no exception. Whether academic librarianship embraces OPR as a model of peer review for its publications, or we simply observe experiments in other disciplines, we can position ourselves to better support our patrons and our publishing ventures by examining OPR.

Heard On The Net: Developing The Balance Of Discovery And Respect With Primary Resources, Jill Emery, Peggy Glahn, Tara Robertson

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Within libraryland social media this past spring and summer, an emerging story began to unfold. A relatively new upstart company, Reveal Digital has begun developing digital archives of primary resources which are funded by institutions pledging upfront support. The eventual result of this work will be collections made available as Open Access content to everyone. The majority of the content is being sourced from research libraries’ archival collections. Those pledging money get early access to the content as it is being digitized and made available. In addition, source libraries obtain digital copies that they can dark archive. Pledging libraries also …

Opening Review In Lis Journals: A Status Report, Emily Ford

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Introduction: Peer-review practices in scholarly publishing are changing. Digital publishing mechanisms allow for open peer review, a peer review process that discloses author and reviewer identities to one another. This model of peer review is increasingly implemented in scholarly publishing. In science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines, open peer review is implemented in journal publishing processes, and, in the humanities and social sciences, it is often coupled with new scholarship practices, such as the digital humanities. This article reports findings from an exploratory study on peer-review and publishing practices in Library and Information Science (LIS), focusing on LIS’s relationships …

The Power Of The Small Press: Entrepreneurial Publishing And Disruption Of The Industry, Rachel Noorda

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

Due to the conglomeration of media and publishing companies in the twentieth century (McCleery, 2007), the size of publishing companies has become more polarized, with a majority of small publishers comprising a small percent of revenue and market share compared to the few, but powerful, larger publishing houses (Publishers Association, ‘UK Book Publishing Industry in Statistics’ 2014). In economics, the polarizing principle asserts that ‘developments at one pole of the corporate/cultural spectrum are often counterbalanced by antithetical innovations at the other’ which has, in the publishing industry, led to ‘the emergence of tiny publishing houses’ at the other end of …

Information Literacy In The First Year Of Higher Education: Faculty Expectations And Student Practices, Meredith Esther Michaud

Dissertations and Theses

Information literacy is widely acknowledged as important for student success in higher education. Information literacy is the ability to sort through a large amount of available information, decide what is useful and believable, and apply it in an effective and ethical way. Faculty members have expectations regarding information literacy for students in the first year of college, while students have information literacy practices that may or may not match those expectations. In my study, I examined the alignment of faculty member information literacy expectations and student information literacy practices, focusing on freshman students and faculty members who teach freshman students …

Reader Response [To Eric Jennings, “The Librarian Stereotype: How Librarians Are Damaging Their Image And Profession" C&Ul 23:1, 93-100], Erica Defrain, April Hathcock, Turner Masland, Nicole Pagowsky, Annie Pho, Miriam Rigby, K. R. Roberto

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Response to an opinion piece by column editor Eric Jennings in Volume 23, Issue 1 in College & Undergraduate Libraries entitled, "The librarian stereotype: How librarians are damaging their image and profession."

Heard On The Net: Open Access Rhapsody, Jill Emery

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

In 2012, Philip Campbell, the editor-in-chief at Nature, noted that Open Access to scientific research is “very compelling.” In 2014, David W. Lewis wrote a compelling article for C&RL entitled: “The Inevitability of Open Access.” For most North American librarians in the past two years, the big deals have endured and there appears to be little change in the United States. While many librarians keep an eye out for various initiatives underway and see colleagues experimenting here and there with article processing charges (APCs), these efforts are largely seen as experiments and not as new ways of doing academic scholarship …

Gathering The Needles: Evaluating The Impact Of Gold Open Access Content With Traditional Subscription Journals, Alison Bobal, Jill Emery

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Utilizing the Project COUNTER Release 4 JR1-GOA report, two librarians explore these data in comparison to journal package subscriptions represented via the JR1 reports. This paper outlines the methodology and study undertaken at the Portland State University Library and the University of Nebraska Medical Center Library using these reports for the first time. The initial outcomes of the study are provided in various Tables for 2014 and 2015. The intent of the study was to provide both institutions with a baseline from which to do further study. In addition, some ideas are given for how these reports can be used …

Making It Count: Usage Statistics & Electronic Resources Management, Jill Emery

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Overview of usage statistics within the framework of electronic resource management and tools to use provided by Project COUNTER & USUS.

Communicating With Library Donors, Marilyn K. Moody

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

How do you communicate effectively with donors and potential donors? What does that communication look like? Libraries often envision donor communications as including only direct fundraising requests. Communications with donors, however, encompass a wide range of activities, is ongoing, and may even span decades with an individual donor. Library staff not directly involved with fundraising may not even think about donors as part of their user audience, but almost everyone who works in a library has a potential role in communicating with donors.

Support The Library, Support The University: Communicating The Value And Impact Of The Library, Marilyn K. Moody

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

What is the value and impact of the library on the university, and how do you communicate it to others? How do you frame the conversation about library value with both external and internal audiences? Given the rapidly changing library and higher education environment, what are meaningful ways to discuss the value of libraries with donors and alumni whose own experiences as students may have been very different? What key messages about the library engage and resonate, and how can you identify and convey those messages?

Digging Deeper: Can Patrons Use Our Resources, And Are Basic Digital Literacy Classes Enough?, Cindy Gibbon, Jill Castek

Presentations and Publications

We know our resources are easy to use and our patron training is relevant...don’t we? International assessment data show the US population scores below the international average in problem solving in technology-rich environments. At risk of disrupting the status quo, a public library collaborates with an urban university on a project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to assess patrons’ skills. Results will help inform how library services and digital content are presented and will help ensure patron training content includes meaningful skills. Come learn how our research might reflect the needs of your patrons.

Volume 21 Issue 4 Introduction (Library Marketing And Communications), Joan Petit

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Oregon libraries provide an incredible array of resources and services, but sometimes we struggle to educate our users and each other about all that is available. Over the past several years, many libraries have become more intentional in our efforts to market and promote our offerings, through traditional PR and advertisements as well as newer approaches like social media. However, we may lack the formal training and expertise to do this well—marketing is not a class offered in all library school programs—and, even with appropriate training, we may lack the budget and staff to implement a large-scale marketing program.

This …

Publishing On A Dime: Opportunities And Challenges In Creating An Oer Publishing Program, Karen Bjork, Marilyn Billings

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

As the rising cost of textbooks continues to burden students, many libraries have begun to facilitate the creation and publishing of Open Educational Resources (OER). The presentation will focus on the opportunities and challenges of creating a library publishing program with limited funding. Lessons learned from open education publishing initiatives will be shared. At Portland State University (PSU), Karen Bjork has worked with faculty on campus to publish eight open access textbooks that have benefited students on an economic and educational level. She will discuss the implementation of the open textbook publishing initiative and share how the library combined the …

Business Librarians And New Academic Program Review, Kerry Wu, Heidi Senior

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

The article aims to examine the role business librarians play in the new academic program proposal process on university and college campuses. Results of a nationwide online survey showed that current practices in this critical area varied. While over 60% of the respondents thought that librarians should play a part in the proposal process, over 65% of them indicated that they were never involved. Amongst those that participated, the levels and outcomes also differed greatly. The authors held in-depth interviews with survey participants reporting higher-than-average involvement to find out about their strategies for success.

Sustainable Library Publishing: Opportunities And Challenges In Creating An Open Textbook Publishing Program, Karen Bjork

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

As the rising cost of textbooks continues to burden students, many libraries have begun to facilitate the creation and publishing of Open Educational Resources (OER). In 2013, with the support of a Provost-backed initiative Portland State University Library developed an open textbook publishing program. In three years Portland State University Library has published 10 open access textbooks, successfully completed a 2nd round of open access textbook publishing, and is in the process of putting together another call for proposals. The presenter will discuss the opportunities and challenges of creating a library publishing program. In addition to discussing launching an open …

Autoethnography: Our Stories, Our Research, Anne-Marie Deitering, Robert Schroeder, Rick Stoddart

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Autoethnography is a research method, whereby researchers investigate aspects of what it means to be a librarian. Starting with a reflective examination of themselves they investigate questions of library culture, values and identity. Autoethnography has potential to help librarians answer questions that cannot be answered by traditional, empirical research methods and to reveal voices that are obscured by aggregations of data. Autoethnography blends art and science and is at turns evocative, analytical, and creative. It can help us look deeply into our library culture, critique it where need be, transform ourselves, and ultimately inspire us to change librarianship for the …

What’S Their Story? Using An Online Assessment Tool To Learn About Patron Skills, Amy Honisett

Presentations and Publications

We believe our patrons can use our electronic resources, but international assessment data tell a different story. The US population scores below the international average in problem solving in technology-rich environments, so Multnomah County Library and Portland State University are collaborating on a project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to assess patrons' online abilities and how those abilities map to common library tasks. Results will help inform how online library services are presented and will help ensure computer class content includes meaningful skills.

Exploring How Problem Solving In Technology-Rich Environments Can Be Used To Design Responsive Programming, Jill Castek, Amy Honisett

Presentations and Publications

This session explored a project that assesses community members’ digital skills using Education and Skills Online (ESO) – a valid and reliable assessment tool based on PIAAC that addresses Literacy, Numeracy, and Problem Solving in Technology Rich Environments (PS-TRE). The project will use these data to determine how the abilities of patrons map to the common library tasks that libraries assume patrons are able to access and use in a meaningful way.

Who’S To Judge? The Conundrum Of Evaluative Criteria For Autoethnographic Research, Robert Schroeder

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Writing autoethnographic research is inherently subjective, messy, idiosyncratic, political, and transformative (of both the author and the reader) and is therefore the antithesis of quantitative empirical (positivist) research; research which wraps itself in the objective (the non-I) and makes claims of universality and generalizability. Obviously the criteria that journal editors, reviewers, and readers will use to evaluate autoethnographic writing must be radically new and different. What makes this new research valid or rigorous — what makes it research? Begin to explore how we might create and use evaluative criteria for autoethnographic research, or if we should even attempt to create …

Library Issues At The Federal Level: An Introduction To Ala's Washington Office And The Committee On Legislation, Ann Dutton Ewbank, Turner Masland, Christian Zabriskie

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

In this white paper, we outline the federal legislative agenda of the American Library Association, crafted by members and operationalized by the Washington-based ALA Office of Government Relations, which lobbies on behalf of the Association. We discuss how policy is made in ALA, including the work of the Committee on Legislation. We then explain the federal legislative issues that are advanced by ALA through the Washington Office. These include: appropriations, privacy/surveillance, access to government information, copyright, school libraries, and telecommunications. We conclude with information on how to become an advocate for federal legislative issues critical to libraries, their patrons and …

Volume 22 Issue 1 Introduction (Access Services In The New Century), Turner Masland

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Libraries are continuing to change at a rapid pace, transforming from quiet repositories into vibrant locations for knowledge and information gathering and exchange. Books are being moved to storage facilities to make room for more collaborative learning spaces. Technology demands are rising. Makerspaces are becoming essential library services. While these changes are both scary and exciting, they are also necessary for libraries to remain true to their core mission: serving our communities and their information needs while respecting their rights to privacy and intellectual freedom. While everything in our industry feels like it is changing rapidly, it also remains the …

Building An Equipment Checkout System From Scratch, Bronwyn Dorhofer, Molly Gunderson

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

This article will examine the practical methods the Portland State University (PSU) Library and University of Oregon Portland Library and Learning Commons implemented when developing equipment checkout systems to serve their patrons. Due to the inherent complexity of technology items and their unique lending rules, creating sound circulation policies which benefited patrons and worked well with the limitations of our integrated library systems (ILS) was of primary concern. In this document, we will describe our basic equipment lending workflows as well as highlight the basic factors to consider if launching a similar project.

The PSU Library’s focus will relate to …

Data From: Opening Review In Lis Journals: A Status Report, Emily Ford

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

This data includes a .csv file with data from survey responses. The following abstract describes the research study. The purpose of this study was to gain an overview of open peer review practices and attitudes of scholarly journal editors in the field of Library and Information Science. The survey posed questions regarding current publishing and review practices, and inquired about changes journals may have made to publication and review processes. Survey participation was solicited from 253 journal editors of LIS journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals and Journal Citation Reports. 42 complete responses and 11 incomplete responses …

Resistance Is Fertile: (Or Everything I Know About Teaching I Learned In Yoga Class) (Chapter 23), Robert Schroeder

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Looking at yoga from the outside, it seems like it’s about trying to contort yourself into awkward pretzel shapes. But from the inside, it is really about the awareness that arises when you try to ease your body into scary and unusual places. Does this sound a little like reflective teaching?

Be aware of discomfort, the resistance to discomfort, and even the resistance to being aware of discomfort—we can use this awareness in our classrooms just as we do on the yoga mat. What if we envision our class organically, as if it were a body moving through different postures? …

Collaborative Librarianship: A Minority Opinion, Linda Absher, Melissa Cardenas-Dow

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Librarian collaboration is about survival: survival of not only our profession, but educational and cultural survival of the people we serve or hope to serve. In these days of rapid technological change and an information infrastructure that morphs with this change, librarians will need to become comfortable with being the other--to develop the ability to not only work in the in-between spaces on behalf of those who depend upon us, but to understand them.

Pdxscholar Annual Report 2015, Karen Bjork, Sherry Buchanan, David Coate, Bertrand Robinson, Stacey Schlatter

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

This report details the fifth year of operation for PDXScholar, Portland State University's institutional repository. The report covers the period between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015.

Book Review: Not Just Where To Click: Teaching Students How To Think About Information, Margy Macmillan

Communications in Information Literacy

Book Review: Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information

A Survey Of Librarian Perceptions Of Information Literacy Techniques, Simone L. Yearwood, Nancy M. Foasberg, Kenneth D. Rosenberg

Communications in Information Literacy

Teaching research competencies and information literacy is an integral part of the academic librarian's role. There has long been debate among librarians over what are the most effective methods of instruction for college students. Library Faculty at a large urban University System were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the effectiveness of common information literacy instruction techniques. The system includes both two-year and four-year programs, as well as degree granting institutions. This research was undertaken for the purpose of better prioritizing institutional teaching activities in the current academic climate. The research shows that librarians within the University System believed that …

Ideology And Critical Self-Reflection In Information Literacy Instruction, Jessica Critten

Communications in Information Literacy

Information literacy instruction traditionally focuses on evaluating a source for bias, relevance, and timeliness, and rightfully so; this critical perspective is vital to a well-formed research process. However, this process is incomplete without a similar focus on the potential biases that the student brings to his or her interactions with information. This paper describes a case study of a semester-long information literacy course that utilized neo-Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser's figurations of ideology and ideological state apparatuses as a site of critical self-reflection for students and a method by which students could become empowered to recognize themselves as not just consumers, …