Search

University faculty members, librarians, and support staff developed hands-on, consumable, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricular materials that could be inexpensively provided to large audiences. Goals included fostering STEM interest, teaching STEM principles, and encouraging continued exploration in home and school settings. This case describes design processes to realize these goals through basic circuits with paper airplanes and simple origami. Following several design implementations, kits costing ~$0.33 each were created and distributed to learners. Within these kits, learners created a back-lit paper airplane as they explored concepts regarding circuit definitions; open, closed, series, and parallel circuits; shorts; polarity; and current. Additional activities included LED bracelets, cubes, and greeting cards. Within this paper, we document successive design decisions, failures, reflections, and iterations that moved goals to reality. We also describe new design challenges, including waste management, sustained exploration, and advanced concept introductions.

This essay uses the reprocessing of the "Luis Alberto Sánchez papers," the collection of a prominent Peruvian politician and author housed at Penn State University, to argue that ethical and reparative processing needs should be prioritized within an archives' overall extensible processing program. The author explores the tension between two differing threads within the archival literature of: (1) using minimal or extensible processing practices to efficiently process backlogs; and (2) of acknowledging the power of archivists in shaping the historical record and their ethical responsibilities towards communities represented within their collections. This essay argues that archivists should prioritize collections where archival practices have perpetuated in obfuscating or marginalizing the records of traditionally underrepresented communities. It also argues that prioritizing this work capitalizes on the inherent flexibility within an extensible processing framework.

The paper mill crisis, which is polluting the scholarly literature with fake papers, has led to record-breaking article retractions and continues to erode trust in science. While publishers and other scholarly publishing stakeholders have mobilized to address this grave threat to research and publishing integrity, action from the library community has been lacking. This article explores the ongoing impact of the paper mill crisis and its causes. It also reviews the steps being taken across the sector to address it. This includes actions taken by publishers, integrity sleuths and organizations like Retraction Watch, NISO and STM. Based on the severity of the crisis and the current response, this article recommends actions libraries can take to help address the crisis and clean up the mess paper mills have made in the scholarly literature. At a time of declining trust and growing threats facing society, it is critical that all scholarly publishing stakeholders, including librarians, help hold the line on publishing integrity and restore trust in science.

This paper focuses on the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic library operations. In the quest to render fast, effective and efficient services, academic libraries have adopted different technologies in the past. Artificial intelligence technologies is the latest among the technologies currently being introduced in libraries. The technology which is considered an intelligent system, come in the form of robots and expert systems which have natural language processing, machine learning and pattern recognition capabilities. This paper examined the features of AI, the application of AI to library operations, examples of academic libraries with AI technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa, the need for AI in libraries and the challenges associated with the adoption of AI in libraries. The study concluded that AI holds a lot of prospects for the improvement of information services delivery in African academic libraries. Consequently, its adoption is a sinequanon to delivering robust library services in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

To improve customer service, some academic libraries have used a service philosophy statement to foster a shared understanding of service standards. The authors conducted semistructured interviews with heads of public services at academic libraries to understand how the service philosophy statement was used in practice and its impact on staff behavior and service quality. Findings indicated that the statement indeed helped staff cultivate a shared understanding, that public service leaders displayed a macro-level understanding of how a statement influences their service culture, and that there is no agreed-upon model for implementation.

Writing skills are an important part of a student's academic success. Literature suggests that incorporating research into the undergraduate curriculum will not only strengthen their academic writing, but also the quality of the academic experience (Ho, 2011). Thus, allowing students to be active participants through an entire research lifecycle will not only enhance the curriculum but increase student engagement. The research lifecycle, including publication, requires both individual and group based efforts and both are essential to producing a classroom-produced journal. Class-based projects such as this can introduce students to methodologies surrounding original research (Matty, 2005). For publishing research, this includes identifying, evaluating and analyzing an issue and then interpreting and disseminating the results. Not only will students still write the traditional student research paper individually, but the class as a group, will create a professional journal issue that is preserved and indexed in a real online repository. Many studies have shown writing skills have improved due to the back-and-forth nature of journal writing, an aspect of the publication process that is not typically a part of the curriculum or assignment. This article describes how an upper level undergraduate course can enhance the student experience and academic output by creating a professional journal as the semester's culminating class-project. There are many benefits to a class producing and experiencing the research lifecycle through a genuine publication: (1) Students feel pride in their journal being accessible online, in catalogs, search engines, etc., where their work is discoverable by others; (2) Students gain a sense of ownership of their individually authored works that pass the peer-review and editorial decision process of the journal; (3) Identify with being more than just a student, but also a researcher, editor, reviewer, author, etc.; (4) Develop a heightened sense of the research and publication process; and (5) Stimulates higher quality research due to competitive selection of articles to be published.

Citation analysis of 265 Workforce Education and Development (WED) dissertations, theses, and graduate research papers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) was used to (1) determine core serials in the discipline, (2) provide Morris Library with a guide to serials acquisition and maintenance in the discipline, and (3) provide future WED students with a core list of WED journals. This study has applicability as a specific instance of applied citation analysis as well as for academic librarians faced with acquiring and maintaining serials in WED.

Discusses differences in student and faculty expectations in completing student research papers and considers possible implications for academic libraries and the librarian's role. Topics include the library's role in academic life; students' perspectives; professors' perspectives; the research process; and communication breakdowns. (LRW)

Investigates the potential value of bibliometric analysis of freshman English research paper bibliographies to assess student behavior in terms of skills and resources addressed in library instruction sessions. Suggests that students' bibliographies provide a flexible, time-efficient assessment method for the documentation of student library use. (Author/LRW)

The decision for libraries to make print collections available in a digital format has already been made. The question is how to go digital in a way that is practical (e.g., considering funding, staff time) and useful for patrons (both local and remote). Though creating digital versions of paper maps has been standard practice for a decade or more (Allen, 1999), there have been many useful technological advances in recent years such as increased Internet connection speeds and better file compression technology (Peterson, 2001). Given the decrease in technological costs and the increase in technological efficiencies, making paper maps available in a digital format is more feasible than ever before. Due to the nature of cartographic materials, the next step is more challenging--oversized maps are difficult to present in their entirety given the limitation of screen size. The John R. Borchert Map Library at the University of Minnesota is challenged on how to provide access to these digitized items in a way that is useful for their patrons.

A study examined the content of papers presented at the second, third, and fourth national conferences of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Analyses of the papers presented at the first national conference revealed that one-third of them were research reports, whereas proceedings from subsequent meetings contained fewer than one-third research reports. (18 references) (LRW)

The preservation of paper-based artifacts is an essential issue for collection management in academic libraries. In recent years, the library science profession has often favored reformatting through microfilm or digitization, assuming too quickly that information matters, whereas an artifact's medium does not. However, much recent humanities scholarship has demonstrated the significance of physical artifacts per se. In fact, it is often the most cutting-edge scholarship on race, gender, and history that requires the physical artifact itself for research. Although librarians obviously cannot save every physical artifact, any decision on which artifacts to preserve, deaccession, or reformat (and, for that matter, on how to reformat) requires an understanding of the importance of the original physical format. Since texts acquire meaning through an intricate interplay between physical form and abstract information, the reduction of texts to abstract information alone evinces a misunderstanding of the artifacts in our care and an inadequate theory on which to base preservation decisions.

In light of numerous discussions about whether to follow Mark Greene and Dennis Meissner's suggestions to process lightly and broadly, valid reasons remain for continuing traditional practices for many literary correspondence collections. In this case study, the authors use the Kenneth Burke Papers in the Special Collections Library, Pennsylvania State University Libraries, as an example of when it is desirable to provide item-level indexing. Recognizing that the majority of archival records may not require such detailed description, the authors discuss when it is appropriate to examine and index literary correspondents, a practice used with many other literary collections in which name access to literary correspondents is a legitimate, valued interest. (Contains 4 notes and 1 table.)

This study analyzed checkout data from hardback and paperback volumes in the BYU library to determine if there was a difference in circulation rates. Based on usage from 2000 through 2020, hardback volumes are no more likely to circulate than paperbacks over that 20 year range, regardless of when the book was added to the collection or its subject (i.e. humanities, sciences, or social sciences). Also, the average number of circulations for these volumes was low enough that damage to a paperback book was unlikely. Given the lower price of paperbacks, academic library budgets may be better served buying paperbacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes a project undertaken in the Yale University Library to develop a rational approach for the selection and appraisal of collections of faculty papers. Serves as a case study of the application of a method developed by the Minnesota Historical Society to a collecting repository within an academic setting. (Author/LRW)

In this paper, we explore how librarians can teach students to deconstruct the concept of authority using questions and considering contextual needs in STEM fields. We argue that examining the complexities of common signifiers of authority, such as peer review, citation rates, and types of sources, as well as exploring contextual factors such as authority in academic and professional settings, are key to developing an understanding of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Frame "Authority is constructed and contextual" in the sciences. For each signifier of authority, we present ways to approach and discuss the question in the classroom.

Provides background information on the Beinecke Library at Yale University and describes the digitization of a portion of the James Boswell papers to make them more accessible. Discusses funding; the decision making process; the scanning process; and the decision to deliver images on CDs instead of over the World Wide Web. (LRW)

Western Kentucky University Libraries developed a survey similar to its Web-based library satisfaction survey, with identical content for library Web and exit patrons to compare these groups' responses. Focuses on the collection of Web and exit survey responses in a two-week period, transformation of response data for analysis, comparison of the two samples, and discussion of potential use of results. (AEF)