The Oregon Multicultural Archives (OMA) at Oregon State University (OSU) is dedicated to preserving and making accessible the histories of traditionally under-represented groups. OMA curator Natalia Fernández and Tiah Edmunson-Morton, the OSU Libraries’ Instruction and Outreach Archivist, highlight three OMA collections that reflect the impact women of color have had...
As someone who believes scholarly communication and information literacy will continue to be essential growth areas for academic libraries, I welcomed the recent appearance of Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy: Creating Strategic Collaborations for a Changing Academic Environment. This white paper, developed by an ACRL working group, advocates...
Faculty and librarians agree on the qualities of a good research question. However, in an exploratory study, they differed on when students should develop their research question. While librarians stated that students should develop their question early, first-year writing faculty advocated for delaying the development of the research question. The...
In Fall 2006, a faculty member in George Washington University's University Writing 20 (UW20) program began incorporating service learning into her theme-based first-year writing course. Along with her librarian partner, they linked two research assignments to the service work of the students. An end-of-semester survey was administrated over three semesters...
A multispectral optical sensor collects data at select wavebands or channels. An example is the Sea-viewing Wide-Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) ocean color satellite, which measures eight wavebands between 402 and 885 nm (20-40 nm bandwidth with peaks centered around 412, 443, 490, 510, 555, 670, 765, and 865 nm). Optical oceanographers...
Some academic libraries no longer assign subject headings to bibliographic records for dissertations, but have not evaluated the impact this might have on dissertation usage. In this study, bibliographic and circulation records for a sample of 248 academic dissertations were examined to determine the effect of controlled subject headings in...
Web-scale discovery systems, such as Serial Solutions’ Summon™ Service, are replacing older federated search technologies as the tool for users to access library resources quickly and easily. The impact of Web-scale discovery systems on instruction is not known. This study of instruction librarian perceptions of Summon’s impact on instruction and...
In this case study, a special collections librarian and a history instructor partner to develop a series of cumulative exercises teaching primary source literacy skills for a small history survey course. This sequence of lab sessions is implemented to improve student performance in the history survey and to test this...
PURPOSE – The purpose of this article is to provide a vision for how academic libraries can assume a more central role in a future where Open Access publishing has become the predominant model for disseminating scholarly research articles.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – The authors analyze existing trends related to Open Access...
Subject reference librarians at OSU create subject guides to assist library patrons to locate pertinent sources on their own. These guides direct patrons to information in a variety of formats, including books, series, and journals, but often lack Internet resources. The original intent of the CAMEL Project was to set...
As mobile technologies continue to evolve, libraries seek sustainable ways to keep up with these changes and to best serve our users. Previous library mobile usability research has examined tasks users predict they might be likely to perform, but little is known about what users actually do on a mobile-optimized...
At George Washington University, librarians and faculty have partnered to provide an effective introduction to information literacy to all freshmen. The structure of the new writing program promotes goals that are at the intersection of the Council of Writing Program Administrators and Association of College and Research Libraries. Furthermore, the...
The article discusses how to bring the educational benefits that come from analyzing and interpreting physical materials to a bigger class environment and whether these benefits are worth the costs. It notes the growth of literature on instruction in special collections environments and the creative instructional methods presented by its...
Academic library faculty require a supportive atmosphere in order to successfully engage in research and publication. At Oregon State University, the Library Faculty Association (LFA) provides avenues for peer criticism of manuscripts and presentations and for the discussion of professional issues. A survey of LFA members on their level of...
Oregon State University has trained paraprofessionals to assign subject headings to theses and dissertations. This article describes the training program for the paraprofessionals and the ongoing support provided by weekly meetings to discuss works that are difficult to analyze. The transition from copy cataloging to subject analysis is a major...
Collaborative planning to streamline as well as to provide citizens with easier access to geospatial data has a long history in Oregon. A milestone in this process was the launch of the Oregon Spatial Data Library (OSDL) in November 2009. The Oregon Spatial Data Library is a joint effort between...
The Library of Congress (LC) decided to suspend creating series authority records on May 1, 2006 and to transcribe all future series statements as untraced. To evaluate the impact on cataloging workload at Oregon State University (OSU), bibliographic records were examined for untraced series statements from June 1, 2006 to...
To raise the library's profile within the campus community, it is critical to create a strategic plan and align library goals with those of the university. At George Washington University's Gelman Library, the instruction librarians gained internal and external support to hire two new instruction librarians to better support collaboration...
Public outreach and access are becoming more and more important across institutions of higher education. Sustainable information technology approaches are necessary to communicate and preserve public education materials generated as part of this new era of “outreach and engagement.” This paper describes the partnership between Oregon State University’s Extension Service...
Paper describes the formation of a Center for Digital Scholarship and Services at Oregon State University Libraries with a focus on how the library accomplished digital library and scholarly communication services. The paper describes the goals of the library in this area and the organizational and staffing changes that were...