Category: Research Libraries

Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2015

Ithaka S+R has released the Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2015 .

Here's an excerpt:

Ithaka S+R's survey of US faculty members has been fielded regularly since 2000. This project provides a periodic snapshot of practices and perceptions related to scholarly communications and information usage. The scholar-centric nature of the questionnaire ensures that potential changes in research and teaching inform our thinking, not only about academic libraries and scholarly publishing, but about changes in the educational enterprise more broadly.

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Trevor A. Dawes Named May Morris Librarian and Vice Provost for Libraries and Museums at the University of Delaware

Trevor A. Dawes, Associate University Librarian at Washington University, has been named as the May Morris Librarian and Vice Provost for Libraries snd Museums at the University of Delaware.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

At Washington University, Dawes has provided leadership, direction and guidance for scholarly services, diversity and outreach, scholarly communication, and collections and acquisitions.

Prior to joining the staff at Washington University, Dawes served as circulation services director of the Princeton University Library from 2004-13 and as head of the circulation and support services department of the Columbia University Libraries from 1999-2004.

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"Transforming Roles: Canadian Academic Librarians Embedded in Faculty Research Projects"

College & Research Libraries has released an e-print of "Transforming Roles: Canadian Academic Librarians Embedded in Faculty Research Projects."

Here's an excerpt:

This article describes how a selected sample of Canadian academic librarians became embedded in faculty research projects and describes their experiences of participating in research teams. Conducted as a series of semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study illustrates the emerging opportunities and challenges of the librarian-researcher role and how it is transforming the Canadian university library.

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How Readers Discover Content in Scholarly Publications

Simon Inger Consulting Ltd has released How Readers Discover Content in Scholarly Publications.

Here's an excerpt:

This report is the output of a large-scale survey of readers of scholarly publications (n=40439) and their behaviour in the discovery of journal articles and online books. The survey was conducted during October, November, and December of 2015. While usage statistics and analytics gathered by publishers, libraries and intermediaries can give us a partial view of discovery behaviour, there are many gaps in the knowledge that these can provide which we have endeavoured to fill by aski ng readers what tools they use in discovery.

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"Library Leadership for the Digital Age"

Ithaka S+R has released "Library Leadership for the Digital Age."

Here's an excerpt:

Users think libraries are—or at least should be—digital. And yet, we in academic libraries are still counting how many of everything we have in our local collections. We brag about how big we are or how specialized we are. We advertise our job openings with language suggesting that our size is an indicator of greatness. But as libraries become digital, the language about size or subject strength seems slightly ridiculous.

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A Day in the Life of a (Serious) Researcher: Envisioning the Future of the Research Library

Ithaka S+R has released A Day in the Life of a (Serious) Researcher: Envisioning the Future of the Research Library .

Here's an excerpt:

Beyond this, the library is not even the best starting point for envisioning the library. A better starting point is to develop an understanding about the lives and information practices of the scholars and students who depend on the library in all its shapes and forms. Therefore, in this Cornell project, we looked at what academic researchers do day-to-day and how they acquire, use, and share information in the course of their daily activities. From our interpretations of these data we imagined new models.

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"Making OA Monographs Happen: Library-Press Collaboration at the University of Ottawa, Canada"

Tony Horava has published "Making OA Monographs Happen: Library-Press Collaboration at the University of Ottawa, Canada" in Insights: The UKSG Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

At the University of Ottawa, Canada, the UO Press and the UO Library have developed a strategic partnership to publish and disseminate selected new monographs as gold open access (OA). Starting in 2013, the Library agreed to fund three books at C$10,000 per book (a total of C$30,000 per year) in order to remove barriers to accessing scholarship and to align with scholarly communication goals of the University. In 2015 this agreement was renewed for another three years and the funding was increased to cover four books (a total of C$40,000 per year). Ten titles have so far been published under this model. The data reveals that there have been 12,629 downloads as well as 16,584 page views of these titles, as of September 2015. There have been over 4,700 copies (print and EPUB) sold in spite of the free availability of the PDF version.

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Webinar Recording: "VIVO plus SHARE: Closing the Loop on Tracking Scholarly Activity"

DuraSpace has released "VIVO plus SHARE: Closing the Loop on Tracking Scholarly Activity."

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

On February 24, 2016, Rick Johnson (Program Co-Director, Digital Initiatives and Scholarship Head, Data Curation and Digital Library Solutions Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame; Visiting Program Officer for SHARE at the Association of Research Libraries) and Mike Conlon (VIVO Project Director, DuraSpace; Professor Emeritus, University of Florida) presented, "VIVO plus SHARE: Closing the Loop on Tracking Scholarly Activity."

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"A Library-Publisher Partnership for Open Access: Building an Innovative Relationship between Scholarly Publishers and Academic Libraries"

Monica Ward and Joanie Lavoie have published "A Library-Publisher Partnership for Open Access: Building an Innovative Relationship between Scholarly Publishers and Academic Libraries" in LIBER Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

This article presents an overview of a strategic partnership undertaken by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) and the Érudit Consortium (Érudit) to support the move towards open access for Canadian francophone scholarly journals.

CRKN and Érudithave had a relationship through a traditional commercial subscription model since 2008. In 2014, the two organizations recognized the need for a new relationship that would address two major challenges: the fragility of the Canadian not-for-profit scholarly publishing environment and the increasing pressure from libraries and funding agencies for scholarly journals to move towards open access. Érudit and CRKN have worked collaboratively to create an innovative partnership, which provides a framework for a new relationship between publishers and libraries, and helps to provide financial support to Canadian publishers during the transition to a fully open access model.

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Damon Jaggars Now Vice Provost and Director of Ohio State University Libraries

Damon Jaggars became the Vice Provost and Director of Ohio State University Libraries on 2/1/2016.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Jaggars was interim vice provost and university librarian at Columbia and has significant, successful leadership experience supporting the evolving academic enterprise in the libraries both at Columbia and another top-tier research-intensive university, the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. His administrative work has included service planning, collection development and management, facilities planning and design, budgetary management and human resources.

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"OA in the Library Collection: The Challenges of Identifying and Maintaining Open Access Resources"

Nathan Hosburgh and Chris Bulock have self-archived "OA in the Library Collection: The Challenges of Identifying and Maintaining Open Access Resources."

Here's an excerpt:

At this session, they [the authors] shared survey results, reflected on OA workflows at their own libraries, and updated audience members on relevant standards and initiatives. Survey respondents reported challenges related to hybrid OA, inaccurate metadata, and inconsistent communication along the serials supply chain. Recommended solutions included the creation of consistent, centralized article-level metadata and the development of OA collection development principles for libraries.

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Filling the Digital Preservation Gap: A Jisc Research Data Spring Project Phase Two Report—February 2016

Jenny Mitcham et al. have released Filling the Digital Preservation Gap: A Jisc Research Data Spring Project Phase Two Report—February 2016.

Here's an excerpt:

Phase 1 of the project investigated the need for digital preservation as part of a wider infrastructure for research data management and looked specifically at how the open source digital preservation system Archivematica could fulfil this function. . . .

Work in phase 2 had the following aims:

  • Work with Artefactual Systems to develop Archivematica in a number of areas (highlighted in our phase 1 report) in order to make the system more suitable for fitting into our infrastructures for research data management
  • Develop our own detailed implementation plans for Hull and York to establish how Archivematica will be incorporated into our local infrastructures for research data
  • Consider how Archivematica could work as an above campus installation
  • Consider how digital preservation is addressed by the projects in phase 2 of Research Data Spring

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"Evaluating an Open Access Publishing Fund at a Comprehensive University"

Sarah Beaubien, Julie Garrison, and Doug Way have published "Evaluating an Open Access Publishing Fund at a Comprehensive University" in the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication.

Here's an excerpt:

Wanting to learn how faculty have benefitted from an open access publishing fund, Grand Valley State University Libraries surveyed recipients of the fund. The survey asked authors why they chose an open access publishing option and whether the fund influenced this decision. Authors were also asked whether they perceived that selecting an open access option broadened exposure to their work and about their likelihood of choosing open access in the future.

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"ARL Libraries and Research: Correlates of Grant Funding"

Ryan P. Womack has self-archived "ARL Libraries and Research: Correlates of Grant Funding."

Here's an excerpt:

This study focuses on U.S. members of the ARL, the Association for Research Libraries. Research success is measured by the total grant funding received by the University, creating an ordered set of categories. Combining data from the NSF National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, ARL Statistics, and IPEDS, the primary explanatory factors for research success are examined. Using linear regression, logistic regression, and the cumulative logit model, the best-fitting models generated by ARL data, NSF data, and the combined data set for both nominal and per capita funding are compared. These models produce the most relevant explanatory variables for research funding, which do not include library-related variables in most cases.

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Dean and Director of the University Libraries at University of Denver

The University of Denver is recruiting a Dean and Director of the University Libraries .

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University of Denver (DU) seeks an innovative and inspired leader to serve as the Dean and Director of the University Libraries. We are seeking a visionary who will advance the institution's research and educational missions, commitment to diversity, and development initiatives. The ideal candidate will be a thoughtful strategic leader who can facilitate.

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"NYPL Shows Academic Libraries What ‘Public Domain’ Means"

Rick Anderson has published "NYPL Shows Academic Libraries What ‘Public Domain’ Means" in The Scholarly Kitchen.

Here's an excerpt:

In far too many libraries, public-domain documents and images are treated as if they were under copyright—and, even worse, in many cases the policies in question are written as if the holding libraries were themselves the copyright holders. Sometimes this is because the librarians who control access to those images genuinely don't understand copyright law: they believe that simply digitizing an image results in a copyrightable document (it doesn't), or that owning the physical item gives one legal say over how its intellectual content can be used (also untrue). The result is that in many academic libraries, intellectual content that the public has a right to access, copy, adapt, and generally reuse in any way we wish is being locked down and restricted by—ironically enough—librarians.

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"Publishing as Pedagogy: Connecting Library Services and Technology"

Laurie Alexander et al. have published "Publishing as Pedagogy: Connecting Library Services and Technology" in EDUCAUSE Review.

Here's an excerpt:

In the following three case studies we profile three student publishing outputs (a journal, a book, and an exhibit) from the University of Michigan Library. Beyond describing the products themselves, we identify the opportunities that the librarians involved found to emphasize particular learning experiences during the creation process.

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Dean of Libraries at University of Massachusetts Amherst

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is recruiting a Dean of Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University of Massachusetts Amherst invites nominations and applications for the position of Dean of Libraries. This is an outstanding opportunity for a transformational leader to define the blueprint for the academic library of the future, building on the solid foundations of our current library system, which has been a trendsetter in the adoption of new services, new technologies, and new concepts of library space utilization.

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Dean of Libraries at University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is recruiting a Dean of Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University Library includes twelve facilities, in addition to specialized libraries serving the Darden School, the Health Sciences, and Law. Additionally, the Library offers digital resources, specialized labs, and other services to support research and scholarship at all levels. These services include: Collections; Data Services; Digitization & Computing; Reference, Consultations, & Classes; Rooms, Equipment, & Reservations; and Scholarly Communication Services. The Dean of Libraries is the chief administrator of the Library and oversees 212 staff members and a $33 million budget.

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"How to Use Crowdsourcing Effectively: Guidelines and Examples"

Elena Simperl has published "How to Use Crowdsourcing Effectively: Guidelines and Examples" in LIBER Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

Crowdsourcing has become the mot du jour when it comes to resolving any types of problems, online or offline, that require sustained human involvement. We see it applied in order to motivate employees to engage with less rewarding daily routines, to attract the best possible ideas and approaches to boost innovation, or to complete data processing tasks that computing technology has yet to master quickly and accurately.

In this paper we look at its various forms and flavors, from gamification to human computation and grand challenges, and discuss how it could be used to turn conventional content management applications into social machines in which tasks are performed as optimal combinations of human and computational intelligence. We introduce a framework for the analysis of the most important building blocks of such systems, as well as design and participation best practices that should guide their development.

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Office of Scholarly Communication: Scope, Organizational Placement, and Planning in Ten Research Libraries

Ithaka S+R has released Office of Scholarly Communication: Scope, Organizational Placement, and Planning in Ten Research Libraries.

Here's an excerpt:

The project was designed to gather basic information about these issues at some of the largest research-intensive university libraries. It finds categorical differences in the vision for the scholarly communications unit and its organizational placement, as well as associated differences in staffing and budget.

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"The History and Future of Academic Library Collecting in Eleven Pictures"

David W. Lewis has self-archived "The History and Future of Academic Library Collecting in Eleven Pictures."

Here's an excerpt:

In the digital world and using the strategy I have outlined what we have is more like an open checkbook that will purchase the books an articles any library user wants. It is the difference between a public park and giving citizens free ticket s to Disney Land whenever they need recreation. Or, like the difference between a soup kitchen and food stamps.

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"ARL Fall Forum Explores Research Partnerships in Digital Scholarship for the Humanities and Social Sciences—Overview and Slides Online"

ARL has released "ARL Fall Forum Explores Research Partnerships in Digital Scholarship for the Humanities and Social Sciences—Overview and Slides Online."

Here's an excerpt:

More than 170 librarians, publishers, scholars, and others spent an invigorating day discussing research partnerships in digital scholarship for the humanities and social sciences at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Fall Forum in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2015. . . .

The 2015 recipient of the Julia C. Blixrud Scholarship is Liz Hamilton, permissions manager and assistant to the director at Northwestern University Press. As part of the scholarship, Hamilton wrote an overview of this year's forum, which includes links to presentation slides.

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"The Institution as E-Textbook Publisher"

Andrew Barker has published "The Institution as E-Textbook Publisher" in Insights: the UKSG Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

Providing students with sufficient copies of core textbooks is an increasing challenge in an age of ever higher fees, economic realities and heightened student expectations regarding provision of library resources. This article outlines the partnership between the University of Liverpool Library and Liverpool University Press (LUP), which has progressed from the creation of a library advisory board to the co-creation of two bespoke and open access (OA) e-textbooks as part of a Jisc-funded project. It tells the story of why we have gone down this route at Liverpool and what we hope to gain from the creation of these e-textbooks.

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