Search

This paper focuses on finding the criteria adopted by users to select free information retrieved from the Web for academic use. A close-ended questionnaire was formulated to record the opinions of the respondents. A survey for various categories of users such as post graduate students, research scholars and faculty members from five universities of Chandigarh, Haryana, and Punjab was administered. The category-wise and discipline-wise analysis depicted that quite a good number of respondents applied various parameters while referring to Web resources, but a reasonable number of users did not apply certain parameters to verify the nature of free information being used for educational purposes. The convenience factor leads them to depend on free Web resources which can be accessed anywhere and saves time. The findings of the study suggest that user education programs should be conducted to create awareness regarding the credibility of the subscribed library resources and their effectiveness in enhancing the quality of teaching, learning, and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings light to the existing practice of cataloging in the college libraries of Assam in terms of utilizing the MARC 21 standard and its structure, i.e., the tags, subfield codes, and indicators. Catalog records from six college libraries are collected and a survey is conducted to understand the local users' information requirements for the catalog. Places, where libraries have scope to improve and which divisions of tags could be more helpful for them in information retrieval, are identified and suggested. This study fulfilled the need for local-level assessment of the catalogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of ChatGPT 3.5 in November 2022 ignited a sensation in the academic community, leaving many astounded by its capabilities. This new release more closely emulates human responses than its predecessors. Among its remarkable capabilities, it can answer questions, catalog items in MARC21, recommend reading lists, and make suggestions on a wide array of topics. To assess ChatGPT’s efficacy in aiding library users, the authors of this paper conducted an experiment comparing ChatGPT’s performance with that of librarians in answering reference questions. Thirty questions were randomly selected from the transaction log of the reference inquiries between June 1, 2023 to July 31, 2023 at the Rider University Libraries. These queries constituted 34% of the total user questions during this two-month period. The authors compared the answers by ChatGPT and those by reference librarians for their accuracy, relevance, and friendliness. The findings indicate that reference librarians markedly outperformed their robotic counterpart. An evident issue arises from ChatGPT’s deficiency in understanding local policies and practices. This consequently hinders its ability to provide satisfactory answers in those areas. OpenAI posits that ChatGPT’s proficiency can be enhanced through targeted fine-tuning using locally specific information. At the moment, ChatGPT remains a great tool for librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a defining technology of the 21st century, creating new opportunities for academic libraries. The goal of this paper is to provide a much-needed analysis, interpreted in an international context, on what the leaders of academic libraries in East-Central Europe, and specifically in Hungary, think about AI and its implementation in a library setting. The survey shows that according to library directors AI is more of an opportunity for academic libraries than a threat, and it could provide support in all areas of library operation, including digitising, information service, and education. Findings indicate that a quarter of the Hungarian academic libraries surveyed use AI-supported solutions, mostly in the areas of information retrieval and data processing. Using Rogers (The diffusion of innovations. 5th ed. The Free Press, 2003) diffusion of innovation model, it may be projected that an explosive growth is to be expected in the use of AI in libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional repositories have positioned themselves as an essential service for many libraries. Content-enriched metadata in library records is reported as being helpful to library users in identifying and selecting information objects for their needs. The presence of this extra-enriched content helps users to decide on the relevance of the item without the need to access the full text. Through this paper, we report content enrichment of records in an Institutional Repository using Linked Open Data datasets. In particular, this is done by application of a linked dataset in an institutional repository. The design, implementation, configuration, and workflow of the application is discussed along with implications and potential future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between metadata and a user's ability to effectively locate and select a given resource has been a primary interest of library and information professionals. Important questions about how metadata can best meet emerging search behaviors require continuous and engaged analysis. This paper describes such an analysis of click-through rates for e-book and streaming video resources, attempting to correlate use rates with the presence and character of metadata elements in their associated records. We found no strong correlation between the length of a metadata record, or the presence of individual fields, and higher use rates. A discussion of the implications of these findings for further research is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JSTOR has become a standard offering at most U.S. universities and colleges, as well as a growing number of higher education institutions outside the U.S. This paper will track the growth of JSTOR since its inception in 1995 as an experimental digitization project to today as an archive of over 500 scholarly titles in 40 disciplines. We will consider the two threads of JSTOR's mission—to safeguard titles in a digital form, and to provide access to them as broadly as possible—and assess the value the project has provided to the academic community. In addition, there will be some discussion of future directions and challenges for JSTOR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of librarians in supporting researchers is ever changing and expanding. One of the most significant trends is for libraries to work in conjunction with other units in their institutions, for example information technology units and research offices, to support research data management (RDM). This is because RDM is a complex area involving work roles and expertise that librarians have not traditionally engaged with, and which in the past were largely left in the hands of researchers to manage themselves. Examples include data description and storage, data curation, data preservation, licensing and open access. This paper outlines how three South Australian academic institutions (the University of South Australia, University of Adelaide and Flinders University) have responded to this change. We describe how these libraries provide support (workshops, web pages, library guides and appointments); what tools and software packages are used; what additional skills library staff have had to acquire to provide support; and, what the outcomes were, what worked, and what did not work, and future plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes cataloging rules for Korean materials focusing on the McCune-Reischauer (MR) system, the Korean romanization scheme currently used in the United States. This system has been used for a long time in many Western countries, and was officially adopted by the Library of Congress (LC) for use in the cataloging of Korean language materials. Considering users' information-seeking behavior and searching abilities, however, the MR system has many drawbacks for increasing users' ability to retrieve information. This paper analyzes bibliographic records in academic libraries, the LC, and the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) to identify the issues and problems of the MR system. A user survey conducted demonstrates that the MR system is not a user-customized tool based on users' searching ability. Several solutions are suggested to overcome the limitations of the MR system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the University of Colorado at Boulder's experience in planning and implementing a temporary off-campus storage facility holding approximately 325,000 volumes. Documentation of the need for storage and communication with teaching faculty is discussed. Key decisions determining the selection of materials to be stored are reviewed as well as the technical processing of those materials. Selection of an appropriate facility and ongoing retrieval of items are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While institutional repositories (IRs) often include a built-in search tool and/or are indexed by web search engines, some patrons go directly to the online library catalog with their information need. Rather than hope that users will stumble on the IR from the library website or assume that they will start their research with a Google search, librarians can enhance IR discoverability and usage by integrating its content into the library catalog. With strong teamwork, good communication, and a shared vision, this endeavor transforms the IR and library catalog from separate, siloed platforms into a more cohesive collections package. At the University of San Diego, librarians and administrators across three departments came together to share information and work in concert to explore the benefits of auto-harvesting IR content into the library catalog. Driven by a vision of enhancing discoverability and access, as well as promoting the IR and enriching the catalog, the team members worked cooperatively to identify specific IR collections appropriate for harvest, investigate technical logistics, consult outside vendors (including Innovative Interfaces, Inc./III and bepress), and experiment with implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a survey designed to determine the information seeking behavior of graduate students at the University of Macedonia (UoM). The survey is a continuation of a previous one undertaken in the Faculties of Philosophy and Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh). This paper primarily presents results from the UoM survey, but also makes comparisons with the findings from the earlier survey at AUTh. The 254 UoM students responding tend to use the simplest information search techniques with no critical variations between different disciplines. Their information seeking behavior seems to be influenced by their search experience, computer and web experience, perceived ability and frequency of use of e-sources, and not by specific personal characteristics or attendance at library instruction programs. Graduate students of both universities similar information seeking preferences, with the UoM students using more sophisticated techniques, such as Boolean search and truncation, more often than the AUTh students. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper is designed to measure the use of Information Technology (IT) in the university libraries of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh with an ulterior objective to establish some co-relation between quality in libraries and use of IT. The paper highlights the use of hardware and software facilities in university libraries. It also highlights the access of networks, information services and barriers in IT applications. A survey conducted on four university libraries, namely Panjab University library, Chandigarh; Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla; Punjabi university Library, Patiala; and Guru Nanak Dev University Library, Amritsar found that only Panjab University Library, Chandigarh and GND university library, Amritsar have provided computerised access to in-house databases. The findings presented are based on a survey conducted with the help of questionnaires, interview and observation methods. Library literature reveals that quality depends on merging print culture with digital culture but the result of this survey confirm that print culture is still dominating in university libraries of this region. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper discusses the participation by the Main Library, The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago in the founders' phase of OCLC's CORC project. It outlines the benefits derived from the project, and describes factors which must be taken into consideration when cataloguing Internet resources. Potential user impact and future directions of the project are also analyzed. The library's need to manage and provide access to Caribbean related Internet resources to its users forms a central part of the theme of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents abstracts on topics including the how prototypes can be used as persuasive tools, propensity for library users, and determining the degree to which leading online evidence-based medical textbooks update their treatment recommendations.

The Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium (PALCI) has developed a shared print archive, an archive that promises to maintain rarely used print journals from noted scientific society publishers for a ten year period. The goals for this collaborative project are to ensure access to commonly held print journal titles, to allow libraries to withdraw materials so they may re-purpose valuable space, and to share the responsibility of storing print titles at individual institutions instead of requiring a centralized storage facility. This paper discusses the grassroots origins for this project and the process decisions involved in turning the archive from vision into reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the design and assessment of a proposed library training unit for education graduate students. A literature review of graduate students' information-seeking behavior and training initiatives supports the selection of the course content as well as the assessment of student learning. In addition, research on behaviorist and constructivist learning theories and related instructional design strategies directed the development of the learning environment. The proposal represents a collaborative effort between an institution's librarian and a department faculty member in a required Ethics and Laws in Education class for beginning students. The objectives for the pilot project were to teach students how to use scholarly resources, to mirror the Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL) Information Literacy Competencies, and to include hands-on database demonstrations as well as inquiry-based learning exercises. The learning environment supports students' diverse learning styles and offers opportunities to utilize technology, underscoring its importance to information use and especially to libraries in the digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the past 10 years, technical services experienced tremendous changes due to advances in technology, scholarly communication, research, information retrieval and higher education. Have the employers'' expectations for the head of technical services positions changed in the past 10 years or so? This paper compares employers'' expectations for head of technical services positions in 1996–1998 to those in 2006–2008 to track changes through job ad content analysis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses ways of marketing library wares. An effective publicity strategy is to use promotional giveaway materials. These are mainly personalized items that promote resources and services. Promotional devices that highlight the library will help keep research expertise in the forefront of patrons' minds. Creation of promotional giveaways requires expertise in design and detail. Four major ideas that must be addressed when acquiring promotional materials are identified. They include the audience, creativity, costs and budget and technical issues.

Library guides to Google Scholar reveal the concerns and fears of librarians as they watch their users slip further and further outside of their domain of influence. Comparing these fears against data from recent surveys and studies of students and faculty suggests that a profound change in the role of the library in relation to how users search for and discover information has been underway for some time, and that Google Scholar is only the most recent and visible manifestation of that revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Librarians at the Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center evaluated citation data from clinical trials and patents as potential indicators of library collection strengths and research trends at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. These under-examined resources were of interest because of their relation to translational research, which is a central area of focus in the library's mission. Digital Science Dimensions (Dimensions) was used as a data source to capture the clinical trial and patent data as part of a collaboration between Galter Library and Dimensions. Upon completing a brief pilot using clinical trials to identify collection gaps, various analyses were applied to data for all patents that had Northwestern University as an assignee from 2008 to 2017. The findings were compared with traditional metrics such as Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources (COUNTER) compliant usage statistics and journal impact factor to identify core resources and trends unique to patents. This study is potentially of interest to libraries supporting research-intensive organizations where patents may shed new light on collection use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost three years after Google Scholar's inception, only a third of Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) member libraries link to it from their Web sites. This article reports the results of a July 2007 survey of OhioLINK academic librarians, conducted to find out about their attitudes and current practices regarding promotion of Google Scholar. It compares the findings about placement of Google Scholar on Web sites and inclusion in library instruction with previous research, and includes recommendations for libraries about Google Scholar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective collaboration between archives and technical services can increase the discoverability of special collection materials. Archivists at the University of Dayton Libraries began using Archive-It to capture websites relevant to their collecting policies in 2015. However, the collections were only made available to users from the University of Dayton page on the Archive-It website. Content was isolated in a separate platform and was not promoted to users. Working together, the team of archivists and technical services librarians incorporated the web archive collections into the Libraries' EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) discovery layer. A local data dictionary was created based on OCLC's Descriptive Metadata for Web Archiving report (2018), and metadata was added at the seed and collection levels. The result was indexed content on a single, user-friendly platform. The web archive collections were then marketed to the University of Dayton community, and statistics were generated on their use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic libraries have increasingly adopted web-scale discovery tools in order to meet the expectations of students who want immediate results, efficient algorithms, and a single search box. As they have become the de facto search tool at many libraries, librarians and patrons alike have been forced to confront the way they think about research processes and in some cases, modulate ingrained habits. In this article, the authors explore student perceptions of efficacy, relevancy, and ease of use of a library discovery tool through a 2017 mixed-methods user experience study conducted at three City University of New York (CUNY) campuses. The results from this user study will be useful to other institutions that already have implemented discovery layers within their library and help inform website design, discovery layer design, and pedagogy. By combining student interviews with a task analysis, the authors were able to learn more about student search behaviors, how they respond to challenges, and what they expect from search tools. Identifying these barriers to student use of the Primo discovery tool has helped us articulate best practices for instruction and interface customization that may address these barriers and has illuminated implications for website integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation spaces are quickly being implemented into academic libraries. But while these spaces generate outward excitement from those who wish to use them, they, and the projects introduced within them, can also intimidate students that feel forced to use such spaces. Therefore, it is vital that we not only acknowledge these intimidation factors in developing instruction, but also that we lead students away from any uncertainties surrounding emerging technology use. The approaches described will provide librarian innovation instructors with methods for introducing intimidated, atypical users to nontraditional and emerging technologies and will outline concrete activities that librarians can use to move students toward manageable takeaways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers from the Mercer University School of Medicine and EBSCO Information Services formed a partnership to conduct user testing on the library's EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) interface. The goal of the study was to determine if first-year medical students encountered difficulty when asked to retrieve full-text, eBook, peer-reviewed, and print items relevant to their current research. Participants experienced some confusion when formulating search terms and selecting and applying limiters to refine searches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Established in 2005, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL)'s Libraries' institutional repository (IR) has approximately 99,500 unique items. It is one of the largest and most-used institutional repositories in the United States. This presentation explores how UNL is working to meet the challenge of consistently and accurately identifying individual researchers and their scholarly activities. It examines UNL's metadata practices for its IR, giving a more detailed explanation of personal names and Open Researcher and Contributor ID identifiers. It reviews some typical metadata problems found in UNL's IR. Finally, it explores priorities for metadata maintenance and what is sustainable and worthwhile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Library staff at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell implemented a digital repository to collect and showcase the scholarly output of the medical school and the Northwell Health system. This repository, entitled Zucker School of Medicine Academic Works, promotes scholarship by faculty, trainees, and staff via a centralized public website. With links to the full text and faculty profiles, the repository facilitates access and discoverability in alignment with the value of scholarship at the institution. Subsequent implementation of a research information management system to harvest publications further enhances the goals of tracking, promoting, and reporting impact of the scholarly activities. This article reviews successes and challenges, and collaboration with other stakeholder departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of social media has radically transformed the way we create and consume information. These changes have in turn given rise to new models of librarianship centered on principles of participation, interaction, and collaboration. Over the last decade, academic libraries have eagerly adopted social media as a means of enhancing services and connecting with a new generation of users. But how exactly has this technology changed libraries? In what ways has the social web transformed library services or our relationships with users? This article attempts to assess the impact of social media on academic libraries in the United States through a review of the literature published since 2005. In particular, it looks at how academic libraries have used social media to improve or develop new services. By comparing published case studies with the theoretical literature, this article seeks to separate theory from practice and determine the extent to which the social web has transformed library practice. The author concludes that, despite several noteworthy examples, the majority of social library applications ultimately fail to live up to the transformative potential promised within the literature and that this failure may have more to do with philosophical rather than technical limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discovery tools have been widely adopted by academic libraries, yet little information exists that connects common practices regarding discovery tool implementation, maintenance, assessment, and staffing with conventions for research and instruction. The authors surveyed heads of reference and instruction departments in research and land-grant university libraries. The survey results revealed common practices with discovery tools among academic libraries. This study also draws connections between operational, instructional, and assessment practices and perceptions that participants have of the success of their discovery tool. Participants who indicated successful implementation of their discovery tool hailed from institutions that made significant commitments to the operations, maintenance, and acceptance of their discovery tool. Participants who indicated an unsuccessful implementation, or who were unsure about the success of their implementation, did not make lasting commitments to the technical maintenance, operations, and acceptance of their discovery tool. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since Idaho State University Libraries’ implementation and promotion of EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) in 2014, its electronic resources team continues to troubleshoot seamless content discovery for library patrons. But nothing prepared us for the kind of content issues the Library would have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. This report discusses ways of managing content in EDS to improve discovery of resources, including linking issues to ClinicalKey records and dealing with “bound with” local catalog records. It also addresses obstacles and solutions, as well as the authors’ experience working with EBSCO Support. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article describes a library's implementation of digital resources for research, teaching, and learning at a higher education institution in Portugal. A school specializing in education and teacher education established strategic performance areas related to digital resources for the fulfillment of its mission, which included some functions of the academic library. The library implemented a discovery system, and the school invested in a wider range of resources, including e-books, both acquired and institutionally published. The library's training programs were also revised to promote the new system and electronic resources. This case study describes how an academic library in Portugal responded to institutional needs, illustrating how libraries everywhere must connect to the larger vision and demonstrate value through technologies, integrating digital and print resources to provide access built around users' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article concerns how higher education institutions across the United Kingdom are implementing systems and workflows in order to meet open access requirements for the next Research Excellence Framework. The way that institutions are preparing is not uniform, although there are key areas which require attention: cost management, advocacy, systems and metadata, structural workflows, and internal policy. Examples of preparative work in these areas are taken from institutions who have participated in the Open Access Good Practice initiative supported by Jisc. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to encourage more active learning in the library classroom, the college librarians at the Tidewater Community College/City of Virginia Beach Joint-Use Library turned one of their library instruction classrooms into a dynamic and flexible space using movable seating and iPads. This article explores the reasons for making such a change, the benefits of doing so, how the new classroom has affected librarians' teaching methods, and gives specific information about apps used for class activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Not all digital scholarship or digital humanities centers are created equal. Some focus on service, while others conduct research and analysis or are more experimental with research and development applications. All of these usually claim an important component of collaboration, whether that is the sharing of ideas, resources, tools, or staff expertise. However, collaboration is often talked about but not practiced, whether in the library or across campus. This article highlights how cross-campus collaboration is not just a phrase but an underlying foundation for the development and success of a digital scholarship lab at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). The start-up framework includes defining digital scholarship, leadership roles, steps to success, investing in partnerships, and the foundational documentation that has led to the successful establishment of the library as the digital scholarship hub of the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discovery tools are used in libraries to bring together books, articles, and other resources. Research has focused on user and librarian evaluation of these tools, but there are few evaluations of non-book and non-article sources. Discovery tools can also include metadata for local collections harvested through the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Creating these harvests can be time consuming for staff, so it is important for libraries to understand if and how patrons use these records. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries (UNL Libraries) harvests metadata from local collections into the Encore discovery tool. A study was conducted to analyze patron use of OAI-harvested records. This study analyzed usage data for harvested collections obtained from different discovery sources and referrals through Encore. Google Analytics was used to evaluate searcher behavior differences between content referred through Encore and other referrals. Although discovery through Encore did not result in high numbers of traffic, there is evidence that patrons who discover records through Encore take more time looking through records than patrons using other discovery methods. This increase in time is a measure of engagement and may be reason enough for libraries to consider adding OAI-harvested collections to their discovery tool. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The researchers conducted a task-based usability test of the effectiveness of online research beginning on the library Web site homepage. The participants included five university faculty members, six graduate students, and six undergraduate students. All participants reported feeling satisfied with their overall research experience, though most were unable to effectively complete all the research tasks of the test. The researchers identified weaknesses in the approach and process of many participants, and overall usability issues of the library discovery tool and other library Web site pages and research interfaces. Findings indicate the need to strategically incorporate self-service information literacy and research skills help into the library Web site, and to implement navigation and design changes to the library homepage, discovery tool interface, online catalog, and across all the library's Web services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This conference report examines the entire lifecycle of scholarship from a digital perspective through the lens of Georgetown University Library’s institutional repository (IR), DigitalGeorgetown. It focuses on digital curation and creation of digital resources and scholarship using automated workflows and integration with vendor subscribed discovery service platforms. Specific topics covered include use of open tools like Open Researcher and Contributor ID and SHERPA/RoMEO, integration with Academic Preservation Trust, enhanced discovery through Summon and Schema.org, and use of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Together these tools have helped improve the complete lifecycle of how digital resources and scholarship get ingested, disseminated, and enhanced within Georgetown’s IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following study analyzes user search behavior using a tabbed-search interface. For this study, a transaction log was used to collect information about user searches and included tab used; search terms; date, time, and location of search (on campus or off campus); as well as a unique ID to identify the user session and another ID to identify each transaction. This article explains the process for examining 4,300 search queries conducted on the library homepage during an academic semester and presents findings from the analysis. The article also details enhancements that were made to the tabbed-search interface as a result of the transaction log analysis. Additionally, the article discusses the merits of using a transaction log as a method of ongoing assessment of a library Web site's search interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web-scale discovery service systems and platforms are continuing to evolve and become more commonly adopted in academic libraries. Functioning as more than next-generation catalogs due to their volume and associated Web services, they invite strategic inquiry and launch libraries into deeper questioning and continuous critical thinking concerning discovery system best practices. This article explores emerging library discovery positions and discovery requirements gleaned through position postings from Autocat, Code4Lib, ERIL-L, and NGC4Lib listserv e-mails, from February 2012 through July 2014, along with a 2013 scan of Association of Research Library (ARL) staff directories’ Web sites. As seen through the lens of recent discovery position postings and names of discovery positions at ARL libraries, staffing solutions suggest strategic oversight and deep understanding of discovery systems, metadata, and users. This study of 36 discovery positions reveals directors or managers as comprising the highest number with ten (28 percent), systems with eight (22 percent), cataloging and metadata with seven (19 percent), acquisitions or electronic resources with five (14 percent), user experiences with three (8 percent), access services with two (6 percent), and general technical services with one (3 percent). These emerging discovery positions traverse both traditional technical and public services functions, with the majority, 26 (72 percent), from large research-level institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study was undertaken to probe the effectiveness of Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources (COUNTER) reports with regard to usage of journals and to learn more about the practices adopted by different content providers in generating reports. Under Release 3 of the COUNTER Code of Practice, we closely examined reports from eighteen content providers having accounts with the University of Kashmir library. The University of Kashmir has subscription access to content from nineteen different providers through the UGC-Infonet Digital Library Consortium of India, eighteen of which are COUNTER-compliant. We were thus able to make observations on the practices of the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, Annual Reviews, Cambridge University Press, Emerald, the Institute of Physics, JSTOR, Nature, Oxford University Press, Portland Press, Project Euclid, Project Muse, the Royal Society of Chemistry, Science Direct, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley. We discuss a number of patterns among the provider set that yield ambiguous or incomplete indications of journal usage. We offer to the library community and standard-making bodies a set of recommendations to seek better practices: (1) Providers should archive and make available a minimum of three years of historical usage data in addition to the current/most recent year; (2) Counts for titles that have undergone a title change should appear under the previous name for the applicable year rather than be subsumed in the count for the current form of title; (3) Usage reports for retrospective years should be limited to the title set that was available in the applicable year; (4) Usage reports should be limited to titles on subscription with the client institution; (5) The PR1 (Platform Report 1) should be required to enable librarians to acquire useful platform-specific information, such as popularity and usability of the platform; (6) Required output formats should include both the Tab Separated Values (TSV) and Extensible Markup Language (XML) formats (and we acknowledge that these formats are now required under COUNTER Release 4); and (7) Content providers should exercise great care in communications regarding platform changes to ensure that librarians can discern usage from each platform and combine usage numbers from each when not duplicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers reviews for several articles published in different journals, including the articles "Leadership Mistakes," by Maggie Farrell, "New and Emerging Roles for Medical Librarians," by S. Layla Heimlich, and "Purposeful Mentoring in Academic Libraries," by Kevin M. Ross.

In the spring of 2013, the University Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago was in the unique position of having access to two discovery systems, Summon and WorldCat Local, at the same time. When tasked with choosing between the two systems, librarians undertook a usability study of Summon and WorldCat Local. The goal of this study was two-fold: to test the ease-of-use of each discovery system with an eye toward identifying one tool to retain for the longer term, and to learn about the search behaviors of different types of user groups. Eighteen subjects, consisting of undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty, participated in the study. Participants performed usability tasks using each tool and answered pre-task and post-task questions. While there was no clear preference among study participants for either discovery layer, individual groups did express preferences. Faculty, for example, preferred Summon to WorldCat Local at a rate of five to one. The study findings are explored in detail through an examination of the three major data sets produced by the usability test instrument: results derived from tasks performed by participants as part of the study; themes and trends identified by the investigators within the recorded participant tests; and discovery tool preferences as determined from pre-task and post-task questionnaires administered to study participants. This study has implications for librarians engaged in information literacy instruction, those considering implementing discovery tools, as well as for librarians currently using Summon or WorldCat Local at their libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discovery tools offer users a powerful way of searching library holdings as well as external databases and indexes. They are becoming an increasingly common part of the library user experience, and research on the usability of such tools is expanding. In 2012, a mid-sized academic research library implemented Primo Discovery and Delivery by Ex Libris and conducted a diagnostic usability test to investigate how the tool is used without instruction, to discover patterns in searching behavior, and to uncover how compatible Primo is with user search behavior. This article will describe the design and implementation of the usability study. Despite some design flaws, users adapt to the tool over time and can perform effective searches. This article also provides recommendations for future usability studies in specific targeted areas where problems were detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the support of the library, the faculty, and the administration, Allegheny College recently adopted the strongest type of Open Access policy, a mandate for all faculty scholarship to be placed in the college’s institutional repository. The library’s Head of Technical Services tells how the policy came to be approved and how it is being implemented by the library. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The still relatively new Resource Discovery Systems or RDSs marketed by vendors to institutions have received widespread adoption by library and information services. This article assesses the impact of RDS implementations on existing discovery tool offerings by these services and trends in the ongoing development of RDSs. It aims to place RDSs in multiple contexts (market; institutional; operational; user-driven; societal) via a deliberately ironizing alphabetization, supported by findings from usability testing in a Summon pilot at the University of Cambridge and presentations from UK universities at a Joint Internet-Based Services User Group Workshop, “New Dawn: The Changing Resource Discovery Landscape.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Like many libraries, the Bridge Consortium (the shared library of Carleton College and St. Olaf College) had outgrown the existing catalog and needed to find an improved search interface for collections. Seeking something that would work with the existing Innovative Interfaces Inc.'s Millennium integrated library system, researchers explored everything from catalog enhancements provided by Innovative Interfaces to a completely separate, Web-scale discovery tool. For the past year, they worked to implement VuFind as a catalog overlay, continually customizing and enhancing it based on user feedback. At the same time, they continued to research a broader solution and recommended a discovery tool to their consortium leadership group that they believe will redefine student research at their colleges and give new shape and direction to their consortium. By thinking of discovery as more than a product and staggering their implementation, they were better able to meet their consortium's needs. This article details their evaluation process and provides reflection on the decisions made. Many libraries are considering Web-scale discovery products. As part of the process, they confront questions about open source tools, Web site redesigns, incorporating user feedback, and consortial needs. The researchers hope to contribute to these libraries' processes by outlining their process and considerations, and what they learned along the way to arrive at their current solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although theGuidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Services Providersrecommend that librarians “welcome the patrons and place them at ease … [and] make the patrons feel comfortable in a situation which may be perceived as intimidating, risky, confusing or overwhelming” (Reference and User Services Association, 2004), our literature provides little exploration of welcoming behavior. To fill this gap, we introduce the concept of emotional labor to the library context, presenting a qualitative analysis of librarians' experiences. In addition, we offer recommendations to help librarians manage the emotional aspects of work and discuss implications of librarianship's changing emotional demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated indexing--using a computer to look at individual documents and assign metadata without a person looking at every document--was used to build an interactive online database to store and retrieve pages from a loose-leaf resource (i.e., a resource that changes state over time). A database was designed and more than 30,000 pages in the database were indexed. Digitization, optical character recognition, and computer scripting to extract metadata were the methods used to assign most metadata. In places where the computer program could not assign metadata, a person looked at the document and assigned metadata. The index was audited for errors. The computer script and the human indexer had comparable error rates but computer indexing spent much less time per value assigned. It is recommended that automated indexing be considered in indexing projects, especially where a large number of similar documents are to be indexed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usability testing has become a routine way for many libraries to ensure that their Web presence is user-friendly and accessible. At the same time, popular subject guide creation systems, such as LibGuides, decentralize Web content creation and put authorship into the hands of librarians who may not be trained in user-centered design principles. At Metropolitan State University, researchers performed usability testing on LibGuides in order to see how patrons interact with guides. Researchers completed two rounds of usability testing on a total of ten students, one alumnus, and one community patron. The results indicate that patrons struggled most when encountering jargon, inconsistent language, and visual clutter. Based on their findings, researchers recommend ongoing usability testing of subject guides as well as the creation of a style guide to help librarians create usable, accessible guides. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]