GIS is a buzzword these days at marine labs, field stations, university campuses and government agencies. The design and implementation of a GIS involves the use and organziation of data in ways that are familiar to library and information center staffs. Librarians should know what they are and how they...
The Internet is one of the first manifestations of the revolution being brought about by the merger of telecommunications and computing. Its promise has captured the collective imagination of information professionals. This selected bibliography explores the literature about Internet-accessible information resources. Begun as a project focusing on online public access...
This study examined the juvenile marine science collections of ten public libraries on the Oregon coast to assess if they adequately provided children with good science books about their backyards. While most of the libraries demonstrate a strong commitment to children's services, none has evaluated their juvenile collections beyond monitoring...
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...
This article examines how collection development and acquisitions librarians can best adapt their policies and procedures to face the challenges of selecting and providing access to electronic journals. It emphasizes the necessary changes librarians should consider in their collection development policies, provides an overview of the benefits and disadvantages of...
Remote-access computer file serials, often referred to simply as electronic serials, possess characteristics that challenge our definition of the term “serial” and our ability to catalog them according to the established cataloging code. These challenges are reflected in the library science literature, where cataloging and indexing issues have generated thoughtful...
All educational institutions granting higher degrees have the responsibility to archive copies of their dissertations and theses. While some people prefer the peer-reviewed articles that should emerge from the work, others find value in the originals. This debate aside, dissertations and theses present an intriguing opportunity for electronic archiving and...
Technology resource fees provide a possible source of funding for library technology. Integrating these student funds into libraries’ budgets requires strategic planning, good communication, and student involvement. Through a review of peer institutions and a broad student survey, this study explores how libraries may tap into these funds.
“International librarianship” is a term that embraces many different, though related, topics. These include international exchanges of librarians, cooperation between libraries and librarians in different countries, and the development of library services in Third World countries. Because the term covers so much territory, the literature on the subject is extensive....
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...
In its quest to promote the wise utilization and conservation of the United States' ocean and coastal resources, the National Sea Grant Program sponsors a vast array of research and educational ventures. Much of this is published, either in print or electronically. Locating this information can be an adventure even...
In the late 1850s, few young Jews, recently arrived in the United States from Poland, chose to live in Florida. Fortunately, one who did, Max White, wrote down his memoirs of those years, leaving us a remarkable, very personal account of life on the Florida frontier as well as a...
This article describes a grant-funded project with the final goal of creating information literacy collaborative partnerships among academic, school, and public libraries. The objectives of the grant as well as an overall description of the project are stated. The emphasis of the article is on the process followed to create...
Assessing the fisheries and wildlife collection at Oregon State University proved to be a useful venture. Using the WLN Conspectus framework, the librarian generated data on the collection that was used to describe its strengths and weaknesses. This glimpse at the process and some of the issues may be useful...
To guide the design, content, and development of a natural resources digital library, the Oregon State University Libraries commissioned a needs assessment. Interviews with citizens, policy makers, and scientists show that potential users want to quickly find, retrieve, integrate, and synthesize well organized and geo-referenced information on Oregon's natural resources,...
Bonnie Parks interviewed Steve Shadle, serials cataloger for University of Washington Libraries, in August 2002. In this interview Shadle provides a cataloger's perspective on the challenges he and other serials catalogers face in the organization and management of electronic and print serial titles. Serials Review 2002; 28:321–326.
In the Spring of 2001, the Oregon State University Libraries began planning for a collaboration with the university’s Freshman Composition Program. In implementing this project, with no additional library resources, and with the majority of library faculty less experienced in working with freshman students, the coordinators of the program learned...
We initiated an evaluation of the scholarly communication and publishing process in marine and aquatic sciences. This involves three components: describing the core journals for the discipline; examining the mechanics of publishing; and learning the mindset of authors and editors. We identified a core list of 19 journal titles and...
Measuring the effectiveness of library instruction poses many challenges, yet is essential to validating the time and energy dedicated to it. Over two years, how subject specific library instruction addressed the needs of the students, the instructor and the librarians was studied. Students were surveyed; librarians analyzed their research paper...
Cleveland State University Library, a medium-sized academic library serving approximately 15,000 students, is engaged in large-scale efforts to digitize and make accessible online collections of unique Cleveland-related materials. The Cleveland State University Library Special Collections digitization and cataloging efforts use staff from several different library organizational units. The collaboration of...
For the past six years, the Oregon State Library and the Fujian Provincial Library have collaborated in the Horner Exchange a program that fosters mutual understanding between librarians from Oregon and Fujian. In odd-numbered years, an Oregon librarian visits Fujian Province while in even-numbered years two Chinese librarians visit Oregon....
Assessing students' information literacy skills can be difficult depending on the involvement of the librarian in a course. To overcome this, librarians created an assignment called the Paper Trail, where students wrote a short essay about their research process and reflected on what they would do differently. Through reviewing and...
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of bibliotherapy in relation to hospital patients. It includes a brief history as well as discussion of practitioners, patients and problems, methodology and effectiveness. It also offers recommendations for those who provide bibliotherapy within the hospital context. The focus is...
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...
At Oregon State University (OSU), the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and the OSU Libraries are working together on a project to improve the effectiveness and accessibility of digital information created and collected by academic libraries. This project focuses on making digital resources more accessible through an...
One goal of the Oregon Library Association's Vision 2010 is to promote a strong and diverse workforce throughout all of the state's libraries. The forecasted shortage of librarians in the next decade prompted the OLA Board to request a demographic study of Oregon's libraries. A simple survey was adminstered at...
Ongoing discussion between the Oregon State University libraries' instruction program and the English composition program focuses on improving collaboration between our programs and more effectively integrating the research process into the English composition curriculum. The authors, formerly the library instruction coordinator and the Assistant Composition Coordinator, briefly describe a qualitative...
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...
'Library groupware' - a set of networked tools supporting information management for individuals and for distributed groups - is a new class of service we may choose to provide in our libraries. In its simplest form, library groupware would help people manage information as they move through the diversity of...
This article is a follow up to an earlier publication that developed the rationale for using conversation as a metaphor to teach research writing. We presented this proposed teaching approach at several conferences, including WILU in May 2005 at Guelph, Canada. The discussions with participants in these presentations validated the...
This article is part of a collection of articles dealing with the endeavors and projects of support staff in Oregon libraries. Describes an ordinary workday at a specialized academic branch library.
In July 2005, Bonnie Parks spoke with Terry Reese, digital production unit head at Oregon State University’s Valley Library. In this interview, Reese shares his views on topics ranging from electronic journal management, the role of the catalog, to the impact Google scholar might have on the way libraries provide...
This narrative details the evolution of a collaborative teaching project into an educational Website about Bibliotherapy, which is the process of facilitating personal development or problem resolution through books. Working with a Counselor Education colleague, the Education librarian at Oregon State University helped develop a tool to evaluate books for...
ACA solicits submissions of short articles based on presentations accepted for annual conferences. The relevant presentation will be given in Montreal, 2006.
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...
Discusses the development and evolution of the Bibliotherapy Evaluation Tool to help graduate counseling students use literature in therapy ethically and appropriately. A survey of bibliotherapeutic practice in the helping professions is provided. Graduate students showed greater knowledge of and comfort with bibliotherapy after exposure to a teaching module and...
The Oregon State University Libraries began working on implementation of an institutional repository through a five month planning process. The Task Force responsible for the planning identified campus needs for such a service, examined persistent issues and challenges, and made recommendations for a pilot project. These steps are summarized and...
At Oregon State University, we are exploring the differences between collections formed by digitizing existing materials on our shelves and those created by identifying and acquiring digital objects beyond our library. One example is the proposed Tsunami Digital Library (TDL) that would support a growing research program with users needing...
OCLC recently announced a plan to implement MARC 21 Format for Holdings Data (MFHD) and invited holdings experts Frieda Rosenberg and Diane Hillmann to serve as advisors and to aid in the implementation process. In December 2004, Jian Wang interviewed Rosenberg and Hillmann. They discuss their longtime involvement with the...
Parks and Wang discussed the issues and challenges of cataloging integrating resources. They emphasized cataloging electronic resources such as Websites and databases. Using specific examples and citing cataloging rules and standards, the presenters looked at some of the problematic aspects of integrating resources, and suggested ways in which catalogers can...
Discusses the ease and usefulness of conducting usability studies and provides an example of usability testing at Oregon State University undertaken to improve the DSpace Electronic Thesis/Dissertation (ET/D) submission process.
With more and more cartographic data being created and released only as GIS datasets, map catalogers will eventually find themselves moving away from Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) as their primary bibliographic description schema and moving towards the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). This move will be necessitated in large part...
Although the Dunns’ learning styles and Gardner’s multiple intelligences theories are two distinct areas of research, they do not oppose each other and can be used together to improve learning. The design of this tutorial is an attempt to integrate students’ learning styles and their unique blend of intelligences in...
How are academic libraries organizing themselves in order to engage in the content selection and digitization of local collections? Are libraries creating new positions or units, assigning responsibilities to existing departments, setting up cross-functional collaboration among existing departments, or using a combination of these strategies? Who holds responsibility for the...
Recent publications about the rising cost of college textbooks by the Public Interest Research and the US Government Accountability Office have caused student groups across the country to explore novel ways to address the problem. Students, publishers, bookstores and academic libraries, because of their role of managing course reserves, are...
This article details the development of the Library Instruction Wiki (http://instructionwiki.org): an effort to develop a web-based, knowledge sharing resource. Though some library instruction is specific to a given institution or class, much of what instruction librarians teach is similar. Library instructors have repeatedly expressed the desire to share resources,...
Expectations for technology proficiency in counseling and counselor education have increased; nevertheless, very little information is available in the counseling literature which describes how to effectively evaluate online resources from a design and utility standpoint. This study provides a model for such assessments, employing an affordable small scale usability study...
Since 2001, librarians at Oregon State University’s Valley Library have been working to build a “teaching library” supported by a clearly articulated instruction program. From the start, we believed that we needed to assess the “teaching library’s” impact, not only to determine the success or failure of our efforts but...
The ALCTS Technical Services Administrators of Medium-Sized Research Libraries Discussion Group discussed several topics within an overarching theme at the 2006 annual conference in New Orleans: “Threats to and Opportunities for Technical Services Departments”. Topics discussed within that general theme included: Future of the Catalog, Future of Cataloging as a...
In this paper, we describe a fusion approach to finding opinionated blog postings. Our approach to opinion blog retrieval consisted of first applying traditional IR methods to retrieve on-topic blogs and then boosting the ranks of opinionated blogs based on combined opinion scores generated by multiple assessment methods. Our opinion...
This article describes the selection, implementation, configuration, and assessment of a proprietary federated search product. The decisions made and processes used to facilitate the implementation are outlined. Users' perception of the product based on a usability study and survey responses are presented. Also described are unique and innovative implementations of...
Search sessions consist of a person presenting a query to a search engine, followed by that person examining the search
results, selecting some of those search results for further review, possibly following some series of hyperlinks, and perhaps
backtracking to previously viewed pages in the session. The series of pages...
Objective ‐ The authors describe a simple and effective tool for selecting digitization
projects from competing alternatives, providing decision makers with objective,
quantitative data.
Methods ‐ The paper adopts the value engineering methodology for the selection,
evaluation and ranking of digitization project proposals. Project selection steps are described. Selection criteria...
Reviews 5 multicultural poetry books for children and young adult that are appropriate for counselors working with culturally diverse young clients. Cultures addressed include Native American, Black American, Asian Pacific American and Hispanic American.
Oregon State University’s recent response to the crisis in scholarly communications recognizes that teaching faculty must be involved in communicating an appropriate response to their faculty colleagues. As authors, editors, and peer reviewers, direct faculty action can encourage publishers to lower costs and can enhance the availability of research. The...
At Oregon State University (OSU), writing instructors and librarians collaboratively teach research writing and information literacy in first year composition courses (FYC). A four-week unit focuses on the connections between critical thinking, writing and learning, and information literacy. This paper describes the process of developing, implementing, and refining this collaborative...
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...
Oregon State University Libraries has developed a variety of digital collections that support the university‘s commitment to natural resources research. Two of these collections are the Umpqua Basin Explorer and the Middle East Water Collection. The existence of both of these digital initiatives represents the ongoing collaborative work between librarians,...
We present new observational data on small-angle light scattering properties of natural, random shaped particles, as contrasted with spherical particles. The interest in
this "shape effect" on scattering arises from the need for a suitable kernel matrix for use in the laser diffraction method (LD) of particle sizing. LD is...
Using off-the-shelf search technology provides a single point of access into library resources,
but we found that such commercial systems are not entirely satisfactory for the academic library
setting. In response to this, Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries designed and deployed
LibraryFind, a metasearch system. We conducted a usability experiment...
This article presents a case study of how Oregon State University Libraries (OSUL) organized to accomplish digitization activities. Digitization activities are broken down into 6 major categories: management, copyright, digital imaging, metadata, hardware/software/web design, and selection. The OSUL departments responsible for tasks within each of these sets of responsibilities are...
At Oregon State University a library collection assessment is a required part of the review process for every new academic program proposal. Over time, this assessment has moved away from a brief statement regarding the adequacy of the collection to support the new program to a more thorough evaluation and...
Librarians at Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries used the discussion board features of Blackboard courseware to create an interactive experience for graduate students at a distance who could not attend the on-campus “Literature Review Workshops.” These recently developed workshops have been extremely popular with graduate students across the disciplines and...
In July 2005, the Oregon State University Libraries began accepting electronic versions of student theses and dissertations into ScholarsArchive@OSU, the library’s institutional repository. By January 2007, all Oregon State University graduate students were required to deposit their final research. This paper compares past processes and workflows for print theses and...
Usability, user studies, and evaluating user experiences have been a part of academic libraries for many years. In the last 20 years libraries have created ad hoc usability teams to do user studies. Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries started its ongoing team in 2006, resulting in an increased focus on...
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...
This article describes a technique using the Thomson Reuters' Journal Citation Reports and the SHERPA RoMEO Web site to identify a set of core journals in a discipline and determine whether the journals' publishers allow preprint or postprint archiving in their copyright transfer agreements.
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...
Since September 2006, the Oregon State University (OSU) Archives has concentrated on the preparation of collection-level finding aids for all new collections received by the Archives and for collections that have no descriptive information available online. This article presents a preliminary analysis of the results of this approach, demonstrates the...
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...
ticTOCs, a new journal table of contents service, provides users a free resource for managing RSS feeds for new content from selected journals. This service could be used as a complement and in some cases as an alternative to other table of contents providers. Using RSS feeds provided by publishers,...
On September 10, 2008, the Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries shut its doors for the annual In-Service Day event. Eighty employees from all three OSU libraries gathered at the Valley Library on the OSU main campus. Karyle Butcher, university librarian, strongly supports this annual event planned by library staff for...
Abstract:
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate librarians' attitudes towards instruction in virtual reference transactions and to review relevant literature.
Design/methodology/approach – Librarians who provide virtual reference services are surveyed about attitudes towards providing instruction via virtual reference software. In addition to gathering demographic information respondents...
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current state of worldwide mobile usage; mobile technologies; libraries' use of mobile technologies including a review of library mobile catalog options, both vendor-supplied and in-house created; perspectives from current library leaders and innovators on the importance of incorporating...
This article presents the results of an exploratory study asking faculty in the first-year writing
program and instruction librarians about their research process focusing on results specifically
related to serendipity. Steps to prepare for serendipity are highlighted as well as a model for
incorporating serendipity into a first-year writing course.
The Oregon ExplorerTM (www.oregonexplorer.info) strives to support informed decisions and actions by people concerned with Oregon's natural resources and environment. The Oregon Explorer's multi-media environment integrates archived digital documents, mapping and decision support tools, and finding aids for specific natural resource issues and topics. This paper presents the chronology of...
A library’s Web site is well-recognized as the gateway to the library for the vast majority of users. Choosing the most user-friendly Web architecture to reflect the many services libraries offer is a complex process, and librarians are still experimenting with what works best for their users. As part of...
At Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries, librarians are evaluating the decade-old information commons in the transition to a learning commons. Visits to commons spaces at libraries across the country provided perspective on this transition. This paper describes the development of the OSU Libraries Information Commons, identifies themes from our trips...
This article seeks to make a compelling case for authors’ rights training through emphasis on academic librarians’ dual roles as both authors and as liaisons to research and teaching faculty. Using the example of the Rights Well Workshop developed at Oregon State University Libraries, the article demonstrates the value of...
The Oregon Spatial Data Library (http://spatialdata.oregonexplorer.info/) provides easy and convenient ways to find, access, and share geospatial data. Developed in partnership with the Oregon Department of Administrative Services (DAS), the Oregon Spatial Data Library provides access to spatial data including "framework" data for the State of Oregon. Framework datasets serve...
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...
This article discusses findings from a longitudinal research study that examined the way graduate students carry out the literature review and how they were impacted by attending a library literature review workshop. The literature review research process serves as an important gateway for graduate students’ into their scholarly communities’ practices,...
Library faculty are often tenure track, requiring a record of significant publishing and service before achieving tenure. However, meaningful tools and methods for evaluating the scholarship of librarianship frequently fall short of providing an accurate picture of the scholarship of any particular candidate. The authors conducted a case study analyzing...
Oregon State University Libraries piloted a one-year ILL purchase on demand service beginning in February 2009. An online survey was used to measure patron satisfaction and determine future borrowing and recommendation behavior. These results, along with patron comments, were used to explore future success of the service and ways to...
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...
Purpose: The paper discovers how many American Research Libraries produce podcasts, on what subjects they are produced and how those podcasts are promoted.
Design/methodology/approach: The researchers looked at each American Research Library’s website in December 2009 to determine if the library has a podcasting initiative and if so, what topics...
This issue of the Oregon Library Association Quarterly is dedicated to exploring the multiple meanings of service, the way
we accomplish service through our programs and policies, and the deeply held beliefs and feelings that drive us to serve.