Library and Information Science Commons^™

A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, And The Digital Revolution, Priscilla Finley

Library Faculty Research

Baron (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) offers a breezy overview of the ways that technology is shaping reading and writing practices. This book will be valued in the future as a well-contextualized survey of issues that surface among writers in the current online landscape.

Utilizing New Staff Training Initiatives To Develop And Implement Reference Competencies At The Unlv Libraries, Sidney D. Lowe, Vicki Nozero

Library Faculty Research

Building on an orientation program established by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries' Human Resources unit for all new employees, the Research and Information Department developed a training and orientation program for new employees who participate in the reference desk service pool. A task force composed of service pool members created a checklist of expectations that led to a new mission statement and core values for the department as well as a time line for training new employees. The use of a staff wiki to provide access to the expectations, time line, and other resources is explored. Assessment …

Battle For The Arctic/The Tipping Point, Thomas A. Ipri

Library Faculty Research

Although The Tipping Point: Global Warming at the Arctic Circle and The Battle for the Arctic come from different filmmakers and different distributors, they work well together as companion films. Both films are under 50 minutes each, making them a good fit for many classroom settings.

The Last Days Of Shismaref, Thomas A. Ipri

Library Faculty Research

The Last Days of Shishmaref chronicles the lives of several families who live in the eponymous village in northwest Alaska as the effects of global warming begin to decimate their surroundings. This beautifully filmed and meditative documentary focuses on the lives of the Inupiaq Eskimo villagers and does not overtly politicize the often volatile issue of the causes of global warming. The film is more concerned with the effects of climate change rather than the causes.

Split Estate, Thomas A. Ipri

Library Faculty Research

The concept of a split estate refers to the fact that owners of a property do not necessarily own the minerals and resources that reside under the property.
/="/">Debra Anderson’s Split Estate highlights the more damning aspects of this oddity by documenting how oil and gas companies are setting up shop on home
/="/">owner’s land. In some instances, oil rigs are constructing within 100 feet of people’s homes.

Blurring Borders, Visualizing Connections: Aligning Information And Visual Literacy Learning Outcomes, Benjamin R. Harris

Library Faculty Research

Purpose – This paper seeks to offer a rationale and practical suggestions for the integration of visual literacy instruction and information literacy instruction practice and theory.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper aligns visual literacy and information literacy competency standards, revealing connections and opportunities for practical integration during library instruction and traditional classroom instruction.

Findings – On analysis of 11 visual literacy competencies, three exhibit a strong relationship with the ACRL's Information Literacy Competency Standards.

Practical implications – The paper provides guidelines for teaching and learning scenarios that may be used in a library instruction session or as part of a course …

Informal Assessment For Library Middle Managers, Jeanne M. Brown

Library Faculty Research

Library middle managers juggle a variety of responsibilities. They are responsible for supervisory tasks such as coaching and team building. They are responsible for the service their unit provides or the output of their unit. They report up the organization and are responsible for planning for efficiency and quality. They manage those who report to them as well, motivating and mobilizing. Underlying all of these responsibilities is the need for sound decision making, based on data and a steady supply of information.

/="/">The growing literature on classroom and library assessment simultaneously offers useful ideas for gathering data, and provides …

Building Pathfinders With Screen Capture Tools, Patrick Griffis

Library Faculty Research

This article outlines freely available screen capturing tools, covering their benefits and drawbacks as well as their potential applications. In discussing these tools, the author illustrates how they can be used to build pathfinding tutorials for users and how these tutorials can be shared with users. The author notes that the availability of these screen capturing tools at no cost, coupled with their ease of use, provides ample opportunity for low-stakes experimentation from library staff in building dynamic pathfinders to promote the discovery of library resources.

Unlv Special Collections In The Twenty-First Century, Tom D. Sommer

Library Faculty Research

University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) Special Collections is consistently striving to provide several avenues of discovery to its diverse range of patrons. Specifically, UNLV Special Collections has planned and implemented several online tools to facilitate unearthing treasures in the collections. These online tools incorporate Web 2.0 features as well as searchable interfaces to collections.

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 …

“Discovery” Focus As An Impetus For Organizational Learning, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Library Faculty Research

The University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries' focus on the concept of discovery and the tools and processes that enable our users to find information began with an organizational review of the Libraries' Technical Services Division. This article outlines the phases of this review and subsequent planning and organizational commitment to discovery. Using the theoretical lens of organizational learning, it highlights how the emerging focus on discovery has provided an impetus for genuine learning and change.

Surviving Your First Library Job Search, Or, An Explanation Of What I Had To Learn The Hard Way, Re-Produced Here, For You, So That You Are Not Driven To Drink As Well, Steven Hoover

Library Faculty Research

Searching for a library job can be a life-changing ordeal, but try not to let that bother you. The scars that it will leave on your psyche are likely to heal in time. When I was starting the job search process, I found that the professional literature had a lot to say about writing good cover letters and developing solid interview skills but not a lot of information about what searching for a job was really like on a daily basis. Hopefully, after reading this article, you have a little better sense of what to expect during your search, pick …

Dirt: Digital Research Tools Wiki, Priscilla Finley

Library Faculty Research

This wiki listing of Web-based tools and commercial software is geared to humanities/social sciences researchers. Users can identify tools for specific research tasks. Project organizers are the only editors, but they actively solicit suggestions.

Documenting The American South, Tom D. Sommer

Library Faculty Research

If you’re interested in researching the American South, then the University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill has an extensive digital collection for you. Documenting the American South is a fascinating digital collection that is geared towards K–12 and college-level students and teachers. The collection provides its users a variety of sources ranging from texts, images, and other materials that originate from various libraries of the UNC. These materials provide a springboard into several aspects of the American South and the Tar Heel State.

Collection Assessment Of Monograph Purchases At The University Of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries, J. Cory Tucker

Library Faculty Research

The purpose of this article is to describe an assessment project of the monograph collection at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Lied Library. The circulation statistics and in-house use of all monographs for the nine colleges at UNLV were assessed analyzing the last five years of data. The analysis included an assessment of the circulation statistics and in-house use of books purchased on an approval plan compared with books purchased by individual liaison librarians. The findings illustrated the fact that overall use of the monograph collection has declined over the past five years. The findings also showed that …

Whipping Up The “Why Paper”: Inquiry Into Diverse Perspectives, Jennifer L. Fabbi, P. S. Mcmillen, Abigail Hawkins

Library Faculty Research

Students are introduced to various databases that provide access to alternative perspectives and to an advanced organizer designed to foster critical evaluation of sources.

In a Valuing Cultural Diversity course, required for all undergraduate education majors, students are asked to write a "Why" paper to investigate and understand alternative perspectives, looking particularly at the perspectives of a cultural group different from their own.

Cooking Up Concept Maps, Abigail Hawkins, Jennifer L. Fabbi, P. S. Mcmillen

Library Faculty Research

Concept maps allow students to visually work through an idea for potentially useful search terms.

A common roadblock students experience in the research process is identifying central concepts in their research questions and devising useful ways to reframe search terms. Concept mapping is one instructional strategy that can be used to help students better identify the central concepts in their research questions and expand on other ways these concepts are articulated in the literature.

A Mother, A Teacher, Nancy Drew, And A U.N. Interpreter: The Aspirations Of Deborah Wiles, Amy L. Johnson, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Library Faculty Research

In an interview, Deborah Wiles, a children's book author and National Book Award finalist, discusses the new trilogy of novels she is writing based on the 1960s. Other topics discussed include balancing humor with seriousness, making connections between seemingly disconnected themes, striving to help young people make difficult choices, and honoring family in her stories.

Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus, Priscilla Finley

Library Faculty Research

A worthwhile update to the first edition (2004), this volume combines a dictionary-style thesaurus with notes, comparisons, and brief essays from notable contemporary writers and editors that clarify complexities and ruminate on points of contention.

New Avenues For Integrating Information Literacy Into The Curriculum, Abigail Hawkins Gonzales, P. S. Mcmillen, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Library Faculty Research

A generally understood mission of library instruction programs is to promote information literacy (IL) and critical thinking across the curriculum. The majority of programmatic IL collaborations with higher education core curricula are found in introductory composition or communication courses. Other more unconventional avenues offer potentially more effective ways to teach students the basic IL concepts and skills. At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), conversations with College of Education faculty helped librarians identify a strategic and unique point of entry for IL instruction. Using the ADDIE model as a conceptual framework, librarians and an instructional designer met with the …

Using Link Resolver Reports For Collection Management, Eva Stowers, J. Cory Tucker

Library Faculty Research

In 2007–2008, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries conducted a large collection assessment project. The Collection Assessment Committee identified several possible ways to conduct the review, one of which was using reports from the link resolver SFX. The committee used several link resolver reports in conjunction with statistics from the Libraries' document delivery department to identify trends in journal usage among disciplines. The link resolver reports can help identify new journals for purchase and are useful for providing information on user behavior.

Metadata Implementation For Building Cross-Institutional Repositories: Lessons Learned From The Liberal Arts Scholarly Repository (Lasr), Jane Costanza, R. Cecilia Knight, Hsianghui Liu-Spencer

Library Faculty Research

Institutional repositories are an exciting innovation in scholarly communication and liberal arts institutions have a unique opportunity to create repository collections that reflect their tradition. However, the challenges of cost, staffing, infrastructure, standardized metadata, and content recruitment that are part and parcel of developing institutional repositories may be daunting to individual liberal arts institutions. The idea that multiple, like-minded institutions could join forces to share their efforts, unique challenges, and maximize their efficiencies grew into the Liberal Arts Scholarly Repository (LASR). Initial steps in this collaboration included the development of a group mission and a statement of collection policies. Technical …

The Other Sustainability Problem, Diane J. Graves

Library Faculty Research

The problem has been around for some time. It’s been called a “crisis” and a “tragedy.” Experts have been questioning the sustainability of the current model for over two decades. The evidence points to the need for change, but it is so hard to break from old habits and patterns, from the tried-and-true ways. And then there are the politics. Many people have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, and they oppose any discussion of alternatives.

Cultivating The Librarian Within: Effectively Lntegrating Library Lnstruction Into Freshman Composition, Jesse Ulmer, Nancy E. Fawley

Library Faculty Research

It has become common practice for library instruction to be included in lower-level college composition courses. Students are typically required to visit the library once or twice a semester to receive instruction on how to find books and journal articles for an upcoming writing assignment that incorporates formal research. But does this current model of instruction truly address course outcomes that seek to produce students who are information literate, critical thinkers and life-long learners? Faculty who teach such courses are often reluctant to surrender precious class time to a librarian, but this paper argues that the merging of bibliographic instruction …

Talkin' 'Bout My Generation: Exploring Age-Related Resources, Susie Skarl, Sidney Lowe

Library Faculty Research

In the past few years, as technology has radically changed how we find and use information resources, library staff have begun to notice significant generational differences in the information-seeking behavior of library patrons. These frequent observations at the reference desk and in library instruction classes planted the first small seeds of our interest in this topic. Internet sites and online articles about generational differences are plentiful and focus on a wide range of subjects, such as learning styles, social behaviors, moral values, technological skills, marketing, communication, and workplace performance.

Encountering Values: A Revision Of Information Literacy?, Benjamin R. Harris

Library Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Buy Low, Sell High, Get In Now: Low‐Stakes/Low‐Investment Information Literacy Initiatives Pay Off Big, Steven Hoover, Jeremy W. Donald, David Wilson

Library Faculty Research

Become familiar with the concept of low stakes/low investment information literacy initiatives in order to communicate their potential value to faculty members, other librarians, and administrators. Recognize how collaboration between your library and other entities on campus can reinforce information literacy initiatives in order to draw upon the strengths and shared values of existing programs. Learn about successful initiatives in order to generate ideas that would be useful for your institution.

Benchmarking Usage Statistics In Collection Management Decisions For Serials, J. Cory Tucker

Library Faculty Research

Starting in 2007, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries began a collection assessment project to examine the usage of library resources and analyze user behavior of library patrons. To complete the project, a collection assessment committee was organized, and a subgroup of the committee was selected to gather and analyze data including usage statistics, collection specific information, and other data as needed. Once the data had been gathered and analyzed, the collection management department began using the statistics in decision making and changed the collection development policy for electronic resources to incorporate benchmarking of usage statistics.

Assessment Tool Or Edutainment Toy, Patrick Griffis

Library Faculty Research

The use of Clickers as a tool for library instruction has been growing in popularity because library instructors view this technology as a mechanism to foster interactivity within library instruction sessions in order to increase overall student engagement. However, a newly emerging area of interest for library instructors is the use of Clickers as a tool for library instruction assessment. This paper posits some of the viewpoints of various instructors using Clickers including the viewpoints of library instructors. The central question considered in this paper is whether Clickers are an effective and feasible tool for library instruction assessment. This examination …

To The Instruction Cave, Librarian!: Graphic Novels And Information Literacy, Steven Hoover

Library Faculty Research

Information literacy librarians have been known to troll the waters of popular culture for phenomena that are capable of teaching information literacy skills and simultaneously engaging student interest. For these librarians, graphic novels have reached a point where they are too big to ignore.