Library and Information Science Commons^™

Transcription Activator Like Effector Nucleases (Talens): A New, Important, And Versatile Gene Editing Technique With A Growing Literature, Philip Barnett

Publications and Research

Transcription activator like effector nucleases (TALENs) is a new and powerful technique in genetic engineering that can delete deleterious genes or add beneficial genes to organisms. It is being widely studied to improve crops and livestock, and is also being investigated clinically. Comparing the details of how both TALENs and its competitor, CRISPR-Cas9, function, reveals the potential advantages of TALENs. The growing literature, besides covering the scientific and technical aspects of TALENs, also includes pertinent information on regulatory aspects and the public’s perception and acceptance of TALENs.

Accessibility In The Time Of Limited Resources, Robin Camille Davis, Mark Eaton, Stephen Klein, Junior R. Tidal

Publications and Research

In the spirit of this year’s theme of “opening access,” our panel highlights how library faculty are making technology more accessible for the CUNY community. Despite the rising costs of journal prices and the stagnation of library budgets, librarians have employed low-cost and free techniques to improve access to library services. The panelists’ projects provide helpful examples of CUNY librarians’ work to increase access for our communities through technology.

Amplifying Cuny Voices With Cuny Academic Works, Jill Cirasella, Adriana Palmer, Roxanne Shirazi

Publications and Research

While most conversations about open access literature center on journal articles and books, research takes many other forms. CUNY Academic Works provides a platform for, and public access to, a wide range of CUNY-created scholarship. In this presentation, we discuss the importance of including Women's Studies Newsletter (the predecessor of Women's Studies Quarterly), Latino Data Project Reports, and theses and dissertations in Academic Works, and report on a recent census of journals published by the CUNY community.

Graphic Activism: Lesbian Archival Library Display, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

This chapter outlines the implementation of Graphic Activism, an exhibition of archival material from the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the oldest and largest lesbian archive in the world, located inside the display cases of the Graduate Center library of the City University of New York. The two-semester-long display stems from an institutional need to showcase material inside of the main library display cases, and the interest of including visual representations of Women's Studies material from the collection as well as those which represent the collection. The chapter discusses collaborative relationships outside of the academic institution, pointing to select challenges when …

Parallels Of Unintentional Plagiarism And Predatory Publishing: Understanding Root Causes And Solutions, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

Plagiarism and predatory publishing share common attributes. Although students do not publish in predatory journals, both plagiarism and predatory publishing fall under the umbrella of academic integrity and scholarly ethics. Academic misconduct has many faces, ranging from student cheating on exams to purchasing a doctoral thesis and claiming it as one’s own work. Some forms of academic misconduct, such as the examples above are always intentional. However, many manifestations of academic misconduct are less clearly intentional. Students often plagiarize unintentionally because they lack writing skills including paraphrasing and citing. Faculty sometimes publish with predatory journals when they lack scholarly publishing …

Connecting Wikipedia And The Archive: Building A Public History Of Hiv/Aids In New York City., Ann Matsuuchi

Publications and Research

This is an overview of a project that was started in 2015 that was collaboratively designed by archivists and historians with the La Guardia & Wagner Archives and LaGuardia Community College’s faculty/librarians. It involves students in the production of a needed public history of the outbreak and impact of HIV/AIDS in New York City via writing and researching contributions to Wikipedia.

The Mystery Of The Schubert Song: The Linked Data Promise, Kimmy Szeto

Publications and Research

Linked open data promises global interconnectedness of a vast amount of data. Web technologies promise to lower the barriers to accessing information and to enable knowledge production of massive scale. But can the web of data answer a music reference question? Starting with a seemingly impossible search for a Schubert song, this article describes how linked data technologies could overcome some limitations of catalog searching. However, technical and conceptual challenges are intertwined in the library community’s effort to publish linked data. Through an analysis of contrasting data models, this article offers a linked data reading of medium of performance and …

Woman Energy: How Our Lesbian Past Informs Our Lesbian Future, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

Sinister Wisdom Issue 3, published the year 1977 holds an essay by poet Adrienne Rich, titled, “It is the lesbian in us...”; The cover of the same issue has art by photographer Tee Corinne. Sinister Wisdom is a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal. This non-fiction creative essay written by Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz reflects on the first year of Sinister Wisdom's publication as a celebration of 40 years through this special edition anniversary print for which only 1000 have been printed. The essay remarks on the shift in lesbian identity and community and the potential impact of the Sinister Wisdom journal …

What’S Mine Is Yourls, Junior R. Tidal, Kimberly R. Abrams

Publications and Research

Hyperlink management is critical to website functionality because a site with dead links is not fully operable for the end user. In educational institutions, links used for marketing, course materials, library resources, social media, and other uses can be laborious to maintain in a consistent fashion. Often links are long and unreadable. In order to streamline link maintenance and improve readability for end users, an open source short link manager called YOURLS was implemented at an academic library. In contrast to proprietary shortening services like bit.ly and ow.ly, YOURLS also operates as a link database manager. Long URLs are shortened …

Open Access Outreach: Smash Vs. Suasion, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

Some librarians became open access (OA) supporters because they were outraged—and budgetarily hamstrung—by certain commercial publishers' artificially inflated prices. (We know they are artificially inflated, unjustified by production costs, because these publishers have jaw-dropping profit margins, higher than those of Disney, Starbucks, Google, and even Apple.) Other librarians were won over to OA by its more altruistic aspects, by the promise of a world rich in knowledge. However, in their outreach to patrons, librarians cannot rely on the arguments that swayed them. What convinced a librarian to embrace OA may not convert a student, a faculty member, or an administrator. …

"Where Are The Bathrooms?": Academic Library Restrooms And Student Needs, Stephanie Margolin, Jennifer Poggiali

Publications and Research

This article investigates bathrooms, paying specific attention to those in academic libraries. The authors describe how bathrooms have been considered in the library literature for the past century and challenges to changing the status quo. Finally, this work sets the stage for future inquiry. Research materials come from a range of sources: historical library literature, building codes, social science theory and research that address the issues around bathroom taboos, and checklists for assessing bathrooms. The authors propose librarians and library administrators reconsider all aspects of their own bathrooms: location, features, equity/inclusiveness, and maintenance in service to their patrons.

Understanding The Whole Student: Cuny Undergraduates’ Lived Experiences, Maura A. Smale, Mariana Regalado

Publications and Research

This paper presents a broad overview of research into how CUNY undergraduates fit their academic work into their lives, focusing on study locations, the technology they use, and how they do research in their courses.

Apis And Libraries, Robin Camille Davis

Publications and Research

This column introduces APIs (application programming interfaces) and discusses how APIs are used in various library projects. APIs allow developers to use and reuse information in new ways and on a larger scale. In the landscape of digital libraries, APIs are enabling exciting new endeavors and simplifying routine tasks. Included is a table of library-related APIs from organizations such as OCLC, Ex Libris, and the New York Public Library.

Faculty Perception Of Information Literacy At Queensborough Community College, Leslie Ward, Miseon Kim

Publications and Research

This study examines how faculty perceived information literacy classes provided by Queensborough Community College. A survey was distributed in the spring of 2017 via faculty e-mail. The survey focused on the faculty’s department affiliation, usage of information literacy (IL) instruction, and how they value the IL instruction. The results revealed that the highest proportion of faculty members who brought their students to the library and found it the most useful were the English and the Speech department, while faculty in the STEM fields were least likely to utilize the library instruction because they found it was irrelevant to their courses.

Reference Mode Preferences Of Community College (Two-Year) And Four-Year College Students: A Comparison Study, John Carey, Ajatshatru Pathak

Publications and Research

Objective – The purpose of this study was to examine the reference service mode preferences of community college (two-year) and four-year college students. Methods – The researchers administered a paper-based, face-to-face questionnaire at two institutions within the City University of New York system: Hunter College, a senior college, and Queensborough Community College, a two-year institution. During the summer of 2015, the researchers surveyed 79 participants, asking them to identify their most and least preferred mediums for accessing library reference services. Results – Nearly 75% of respondents expressed a preference for face-to-face reference, while only about 18% preferred remote reference services …

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Predatory Publishing But Were Afraid To Ask, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

Librarians have a key role to play in educating users about predatory publishing. Predatory publishing can be described as low quality, amateurish, and often unethical academic publishing that is usually Open Access (OA). Understanding predatory publishing helps authors to make more informed decisions about where to publish. In the process of educating our users, librarians can set the ground for important conversations that encourage critical thinking about the scholarly communications process. Predatory publishing stems from broader problems including overemphasis on publication quantity, an OA models based on traditional, for-profit publishing, and resource disparities in the Global South. When users take …

Leading From The Library Loo: An Illustrated, Documented Guide To New York City Academic Library Bathrooms, Stephanie M. Margolin, Jennifer Poggiali

Publications and Research

What students need from academic libraries has changed dramatically in recent years. We are reminded of this by each new article on library space design, which may emphasize movable furniture, Wi-Fi connectivity, class-room technology, and group study spaces. What is less frequently noted is that in all these years of change and adaptation, at least one need has remained the same: the need for a working bathroom.

Bathrooms are fundamentally important; nevertheless, we are often uncomfortable talking about these spaces (and the activities that take place within them) in public contexts.

In this conference proceeding, the authors build on their …

Action-Packed Action Research: How Comic Books, Questions, And Reflection Can Transform Information Literacy Instruction, Sarah Laleman Ward, Stephanie M. Margolin, Mason Brown

Publications and Research

How many questions can you generate when looking at a single comic panel? Which are researchable, and why? These are questions that we’ve asked our students and our library colleagues. We invite you to ask these questions and more, and consider the broader significance of question-asking and reflective teaching to information literacy and ask if there is a place for comics -- or image-laden materials -- in your classroom.

Open Access And Global Inclusion: A Look At Cuba, Elizabeth Jardine, Maureen Garvey, J. Silvia Cho

Publications and Research

Is the Open Access movement meeting its goal of equalizing access to research worldwide? What we learned in libraries and archives during a delegation to Cuba inspired us to pursue this question. Latin America has long used OA to share its research, but it still has not achieved parity in access and contribution with the developed world. We consider what the OA movement can do to relieve some of these global inequities.

Review Of The Book German Census Records 1816-1916: The When, Where, And How Of A Valuable Genealogical Resource, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book German census records 1816-1916: The when, where, and how of a valuable genealogical resource.

Inukshuks: A Librarian's Narrative, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

The article offers the author's insights on the Inukshuks, landmarks in the shape of human beings built with rocks by Inuit people, in Newfoundland and Labrador. Topics mentioned include the Inukshuks that are considered signs of humanity to show the direction for lost or new travelers, his librarian job at College of the North Atlantic, and the library work management. Also mentioned are the workflow management, his career development, and the importance communication in librarians.

Reference Mode Preferences Of Community College And Four-Year College Students, John Carey, Ajatshatru Pathak

Publications and Research

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the reference service mode preferences of community college (two-year) students and four-year college students.

Methods: The researchers administered a paper-based, face-to-face questionnaire at two institutions within the City University of New York system: Hunter College, a senior college, and Queensborough Community College, a two-year institution. During the summer of 2015, the researchers surveyed 79 participants, asking them to identify their most and least preferred medium for accessing library reference services.

Results: Nearly 75% of respondents expressed a preference for face-to-face reference, while only about 18% preferred remote reference services (online chat, …

The Cuny-Shanghai Library Faculty Exchange Program: Participants Remember, Reflect, And Reshape, Sheau-Yueh J. Chao, Beth Evans, Ryan Phillips, Mark Aaron Polger, Beth Posner, Ellen Sexton

Publications and Research

This chapter recounts the outcomes and experiences of six American librarians who participated in an international librarian exchange program that ran from spring 2010 through fall 2011. The exchange brought together the City University of New York (CUNY) and two universities in Shanghai, China: Shanghai University (SU) and Shanghai Normal University (SNU). The program was inspired, in part, by recognition of the diversity of CUNY’s student body and growing awareness of the increasing globalization of information and education. For the Chinese librarians, the exchange offered an opportunity to learn from the West and showcase their own innovations. The traveling participants …

Always A Novice: Feminist Learning And Leadership Practice, Maura A. Smale

Publications and Research

Learning about the theory and practice of intersectional feminism played an important role in my development as a librarian and a library director, and the ongoing study of feminism continues to be integral to my leadership work. Th e definition of feminism that I prefer is the concise and powerful statement by bell hooks: “feminism seeks to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” While I did not attend a library and information science graduate program with the express intention of becoming a library director, that is where I find myself. And while I have always considered myself a feminist, I …

Libraries, Knowledge, And The Common Good: The Cultural Politics Of Labor Republicanism In Progressive-Era Wheeling, West Virginia, Jonathan Cope

Publications and Research

An analysis of the Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assembly's campaign to defeat a proposed Carnegie library in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1904.

Painless Portal Partnerships: Collaboration And Its Challenges For Small Organizations, Christine Mcevilly

Publications and Research

This article addresses challenges inherent in collaborative archival projects involving both large institutions and small historical societies. It identifies these unique problems and outlines potential solutions to overcome these issues. Examples are drawn from the Portal to American Jewish History project and contextualized within the professional literature on ethnic or community archives and archival collaboration. This project collected metadata from a wide range of Jewish history archives and aggregated the records in a single searchable website.

Review Of The Book Harmful And Undesirable: Book Censorship In Nazi Germany, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Harmful and undesirable: Book censorship in Nazi Germany.

The Absence Of Public Libraries In Imperial China: An Alternative Interpretation Of Chinese Writing, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

The purpose of this article is to explore Chinese writing and its connection with libraries in Imperial China. From the perspective of analyzing Chinese writing and its cultural, social and political impact, this article attempts to deliver a tentative and speculative exploration concerning why public libraries did not automatically emerge from Chinese civilization. This article discusses how Chinese writing, characterized by the art form Calligraphy, was intimately associated with Chinese classical texts, knowledge classification, bibliographers and imperial libraries, and eventually with an elite culture empowered by the socio-political repertoire of scholar-officials. It particularly focuses on the discussion of how “public” …

Academic Library Innovation Through 3d Printing Services, Galina Letnikova, Na Xu

Publications and Research

Purpose – One of the most innovative library services recently introduced by public and academic libraries, the technology of 3D printing, has the potential to be used in multiple educational settings. The goal of the project described in this article was to examine how this novel library digital service motivates students’ learning, and to investigate managerial issues related to the introduction of 3D printing services at a medium-size urban community college library with restricted funding.

Design/Methodology/Approach - Since fall 2014, the LaGuardia Library Media Resources Center has been offering a portable consumer-end 3D printer for classroom use. This paper provides …

The Development Of An Academic Library’S Mobile Website, Junior R. Tidal

Publications and Research

Mobile devices have become more ubiquitous among academic library users. It’s now common to see through analytics that smartphones, tablet computers, e-readers, and even portable gaming consoles are connecting to online library services. This chapter is a case study of how a small academic library supported its users through the creation of a mobile-optimized library website. It documents the chronological changes from the website’s humble beginnings on a shared Windows IIS server to its current configuration on a Linux-based cloud server. Throughout its existence, the website was developed with adaptability in mind, and flexibility, in order to respond to unpredictable …