Scholarly Communication Commons^™

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.

Open Access To Scholarly Articles: Good Policies Ensure Good Practices, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

Open access (OA) to scholarly journal articles is now widely accepted as a good thing. However, it will not become the norm without policies promoting openness. This presentation looks at policies that ensure that hundreds of thousands of articles become OA every year.

Open Access To Scholarly Literature: Which Side Are You On?, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

Open access (OA) to scholarly literature recently hit a major milestone: Half of all research articles published become open access, either immediately or after an embargo period. Are the articles you read among them? What about the articles you write? Are the journals to which you submit open-access friendly? What about the journals for which you peer review? Are there any reasons why the public should not have access to the results of taxpayer-funded research?

This presentation explains the motivation for OA, describes the details of OA, and differentiates between publishing in open access journals (“gold” OA) and self-archiving works …

A Librarian's Defense Of The Practicable Over The Perfect In Scholarly Communication, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

This peer commentary is an invited response to "Scientific Utopia: I. Opening Scientific Communication" by Brian A. Nosek and Yoav Bar-Anan. It appeared alongside the target article in Psychological Inquiry, Volume 23, Issue 3, 2012.

Queensborough Community College: Textbook Reserves, Sheila Beck

Publications and Research

This paper examines the textbook reserve collection at Queensborough Community College. Although the collection is heavily used in its current configuration, the library is looking for less labor intensive and less costly alternatives.

The cost of textbooks is skyrocketting. Textbooks are a major, unexpected bill for many students beginning college. Students and their family, used to having their textbooks provided or loaned free of charge at the start of the school year, face often large and unexpected bills when the first term begins. Many times, financial aid does not cover the cost of the books;. Even if it is covered …

A Few Thoughts On Evidence In Social Work, Gary Holden, Ellen Tuchman, Kathleen Barker, Gary Rosenberg, May, Sofie Kuppens, Katie Watson

Publications and Research

Social work practitioners must act every working day in the face of uncertainty. This uncertainty arises in part because knowledge is often difficult to locate or sometimes lacking regarding: the systems context the population being served; the particular client system; the set of problems the client system is experiencing; as well as the various interventions that could be selected. It seems reasonable to explore ways to reduce the experience of uncertainty, and narrow, if not eliminate, the knowledge gaps that arise in such situations. The generic idea of evidence based practice has been advanced for some time as an approach …

Libraries And General Education: New Strategies To Enhance Freshman Orientation, Faculty Collaboration, And Curriculum Development, Carl R. Andrews

Publications and Research

My research will attempt to re-evaluate the academic library's role in supporting a general education program. The emphasis will focus on student centeredness, faculty collaboration, outreach and curriculum support. In the short time that I have worked in academic libraries I have learned that quality customer service and reference desk work is far from the list of priorities in some settings. Coming from the public library I found this to be unacceptable. We are service providers and the way in which we communicate with students and faculty is important. As professionals we should do more in the way of making …

The Ethics Of Library Resource Sharing In The Digital Age, Beth Posner

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline ethical implications of the practical challenges facing resource sharing practitioners in the digital age.

Design/methodology/approach – The author presents an overview of major ethical challenges related to digital resource sharing using a framework of four key ethical theories: justice as fairness; utilitarianism; rights theory; and common good theory.

Findings – When administrators, publishers, lawmakers, or the public dictate policies and rules that are inconsistent with librarian values and norms, librarians should turn to ethical reasoning in defense of their work.

Social implications – Resource sharing practitioners everywhere will find …

Do You Know Your Rights About What You Write? Understanding Authors’ Rights And Open Access, Jill Cirasella, Mariana Regalado, Alycia Sellie, Beth Evans, Frans Albarillo

Publications and Research

This poster provides a very brief overview of the crisis in journal publishing and the different paths to making journal articles open access.

Publish. Perish? The Academic Author And Open Access Publishing, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

What concerns do graduate authors face about distribution of their work as it is increasingly situated online? This essay traces the history of dissertation preservation and publication, considering matters raised by open access publishing as it affects authors, advisors, and readers.

Sharepoint Portal - Lehman Connect Master’S Thesis Repository Library – It Strategic Partnership, Madeline Cohen, David Stevens, Rasun Williams

Publications and Research

Lehman College’s Leonard Lief Library and Information Technology Division launched the Lehman Master’s Thesis Repository on its new Sharepoint portal in September 2011. The project team consisted of two librarians and three IT engineers. The presentation will outline the project’s development including rationale, the decision to host the repository on the Sharepoint portal, access issues, migration of data, custom programming, best practices and conclusions on the benefits of Library-IT collaboration.

Pirates And Librarians: Big Media, Technology And The Role Of Liberal Education, D. Aram Donabedian, John Carey

Publications and Research

The widespread appearance of computers in libraries during the early 1990s elicited a debate among those who welcomed new technologies and those who perceived such changes as a threat to the traditional role of academic libraries and the values of liberal education. At the same time, increasing consolidation of major media channels—including sources of scholarly communication—has allowed a small number of corporations to control distribution and access to the materials libraries offer, through tools such as licensing fees, copyright restrictions, and digital rights management. In response to these barriers, librarians and educators have embraced open access publishing and Creative Commons …

Faculty Of 1000 And Vivo: Invisible Colleges And Team Science, John Carey

Publications and Research

Within the traditional model of scholarly communications, "invisible colleges" facilitate a process of social diffusion that fuels the growth of scientific specialties. This diffusion of ideas operates not through published journal articles but rather through informal communications between researchers. In recent years, researchers have availed themselves of collaborative Web 2.0 forums such as blogs, wikis, and social networking sites to meet their need for increasingly sophisticated vehicles of informal communication. Examinations of the database Faculty of 1000 and the semantic web application VIVO help to illustrate how invisible colleges have migrated to a networked environment where they can play an …

Open Access And Liberal Education: A Look At Armenia, Azerbaijan And Georgia, D. Aram Donabedian, John Carey

Publications and Research

In the post-Soviet era, libraries in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have faced increasing budgetary challenges. In response to socioeconomic restructuring and the introduction of private enterprise, libraries have been forced to seek alternatives to commercial publishing and licensing models. This paper will assess the status of the open access movement and of Internet filtering controls in the countries of the South Caucasus. It will also argue that developing open models for scholarly communications is crucial to the strengthening of liberal education and civic participation in these aspiring democracies. Libraries, in their role as providers of and advocates for shared information, …

Demystifying The Irb: Human Subjects Research In Academic Libraries, Maura A. Smale

Publications and Research

Many academic librarians are interested in pursuing research studies that involve students, faculty, and other library patrons; these projects must be approved by an institutional review board (IRB). This article reviews federal requirements and regulations for human subjects research and explains the IRB application process. The author discusses common types of research projects undertaken by academic librarians that require IRB approval and offers suggestions for successful navigation through the IRB process. Academic librarians should embrace research involving human subjects because the results contribute to the corpus of scholarly knowledge in library and information science as well as in higher education.

To Cite Or Not To Cite? Confronting The Legacy Of (European) Writing On African Music, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

English Abstract:

The current citational practice in Western scholarship is ideologically loaded, being far more suited to a written economy than a primarily oral culture in which knowledge is preserved in memory and disseminated through repeated performance. The impact of orality on musical scholarship should be more closely investigated; African scholars have all too often become informants rather than theorists of their own traditions. It is therefore proposed that the routine citation of a body of scholarship developed without Africa's historically-specific intellectual needs and ambitions in mind should in fact be discouraged.

German Abstract:

Die heutige Zitierpraxis der westlichen Wissenschaft …

Library Resource Sharing In The Early Age Of Google, Beth Posner

Publications and Research

Library information resource sharing has traditionally been organized around the physical transfer of loans and copies from one location to another. Such interlibrary loan activities have become successively easier and more efficient because of the use of various technologies. Some of the latest and most successful of these include various web-based information services, such as Google, which help to facilitate both physical delivery and online access to information resources. The challenge now facing ILL librarians is to evaluate how to best incorporate these services into their existing operations and to determine whether these constitute additional ways to help patrons access …

Journal Use By Graduate Students As Indicated By Masters’ Theses Bibliographies At An Urban Commuter College, 1991-2004., Ellen A. Sexton

Publications and Research

Citation analyses were carried out on master’s thesis in three disciplines, forensic psychology, forensic science and criminal justice, completed and deposited in John Jay library from 1991 to 2004. The aim was to determine the effect of availability of electronic journals on students’ choice of references. The number of journal citations and the ratio of journal articles to all citations was assessed. Criminal justice theses listed more citations that either science of psychology theses, but relatively fewer journal articles. An increase over time was seen in the number of journal articles cited and in the ratio of journal articles to …

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender, Polly Thistlethwaite, Daniel C. Tsang

Publications and Research

The proliferation of publications in the lesbian, Gay, bisexual, and transgender press has allowed the weaving of a well-informed network of previously isolated individuals and communities, empowering and unifying lesbian, gay, and other sexual minorities," Dan Tsang and Polly Thistlethwaite wrote in the introduction to the 'Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender' section of Katzes' 1995 edition of Magazines for Libraries. This title review of the queer periodicals of the day was intended to serve as a guide and justification for 'mainstream' libraries' collection building. The number and range of titles in Thistlethwaite and Tsang's collaborative entries (1989, 1992, and …

Lesbian And Gay, Polly Thistlethwaite, Daniel C. Tsang

Publications and Research

"The lesbian and gay press has shaped and reflected the rise of gay and lesbian liberation," Dan Tsang and Polly Thistlethwaite wrote in the introduction to the 'Lesbian and Gay' section of Katzes' 1992 edition of Magazines for Libraries. This title review of the queer periodicals of the day was intended to serve as a guide and justification for 'mainstream' libraries' collection building. The number and range of titles in Thistlethwaite and Tsang's collaborative entries (1989, 1992, and 1995) far exceeded any mainstream library collection known to either of the authors who were nevertheless hopeful that libraries would expand …

Aids Information In Periodical Indexes: A Problem Of Exclusion, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

The lack of attention afforded the gay, lesbian, and alternative press in mainstream periodical indexes has a serious, detrimental impact on the nature of AIDS information available to students of the epidemic. Indexers and database search services must end their policy of excluding the gay/lesbian and other community-based periodicals in order to provide adequate coverage of AIDS information.

Lesbian And Gay, Polly Thistlethwaite, Daniel C. Tsang

Publications and Research

"The time is past when librarians can assume no patron is lesbian or gay, or that there is no interest in gay research," Dan Tsang and Polly Thistlethwaite wrote in the introduction to the 'Lesbian and Gay' section of Katzes' 1989 edition of Magazines for Libraries. This title review of the queer periodicals of the day was intended to serve as a guide and justification for 'mainstream' libraries' collection building. The number and range of titles in Thistlethwaite and Tsang's collaborative entries (1989, 1992, and 1995) far exceeded any mainstream library collection known to either of the authors who …