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Discussions of the potential of open access publishing frequently must contend with the skepticism of research authors regarding the need to pay author fees (also known as publication fees). With that in mind, the authors undertook a survey of faculty, postdocs, and graduate students in physical science, mathematics, and engineering fields at two research universities (Cornell University and Syracuse University) asking for their experience with and opinion of paying author fees for publication of research in open access journals. The results of this survey indicated that most respondents had not decided against publishing in an open access journal due to the author fee requirement. Those who had paid them only requested or received coverage for those fees in grant line-items or from institutional sources in a few cases. Responses seemed to combine cautious optimism about open access journals with intense skepticism about their quality and intense opposition to the idea of having to pay any additional costs from their own pockets.

In 2012, this author published a paper describing a method for using the raw data from Web of Science to examine the journals cited by any given group of researchers and then compare that list to lists of 'top journals' of similar disciplines. It was not a straightforward method to use and required a great deal of effort and spreadsheet work by a user in order to properly deploy. Since that time, the Scopus database has made available a workflow that vastly simplifies--and, indeed, improves--this process. In this paper, a method of using Scopus to generate expanded lists of highly cited journals within specific research communities and the comparison of those with published lists of journals for similar disciplines is described. The value of finding these top-cited journals in research communities may be useful to librarians making collection development decisions.

Quantitative measurements can be used to yield lists of top journals for individual fields. However, these lists represent assessments of the entire "universe" of citation. A much more involved process is needed if the goal is to develop a nuanced picture of what a specific group of authors, such as an academic department, is citing. This article presents a method for using ISI Web of Science in conjunction with spreadsheet management to compare lists of top journals from ISI and Eigenfactor with the journal titles that a list of authors are citing in their own publications. The resulting data can be used in collection development, departmental contacts, and in assessing the research interests of an academic department. (Contains 3 figures.)

Acquiring technical standards connects libraries with vendors who are very protective, legally and technologically, of their products. To conform to the technical restrictions placed on standards, librarians must think creatively and adopt a workflow more labor-intensive than with other publications. This article presents a case study of one institution, a basic discussion of the issues surrounding the addition of technical standards to a library collection, and a stepwise process for the situation in which a patron requests an individual standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the definition of a "virtual library" by observing the experiences of two such libraries in the Cornell University Library system: Physical Sciences and Engineering. In the past five years, both of these libraries closed their physical collections because of budget and print use issues. Since the closure of the collections, both libraries--and their librarians--had to imagine what a virtual library could be and what services could support a highly technical user base that relied on e-journals and e-books. This paper discusses staffing considerations, new approaches in collection development, and the evolution of library roles for the libraries operating in this new model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on makerspaces in libraries including Big Tab model, Art Studio model, and improving library staff expertise.

The article presents the authors insights on his support to the Lightsail campaign of the nonprofit organization Planetary Society which aims to prove the spaceborne flight by light.

In this article, the author announces his plan to retire as editor of the periodical, appointment of assistant editor Christine Malinowski to the same and invites applications for the vacant position of assistant editor.

In this article, the author talks about his participation in a project related to the compilation of the history of the Science-Technology Division of the Special Libraries Association, an international professional association for library and information professionals, after the early 1970s. The readers are also asked to send information about their awards, promotions, professional publications and research articles on library science topics to the periodical for publication in the next issue.