Archives des mots-clés : academic libraries

Research Data Management Services in Academic Libraries in the US: A Content Analysis of Libraries’ Websites

Posté le par

Authors : Ayoung Yoon, Teresa Schultz

Examining landscapes of research data management services in academic libraries is timely and significant for both those libraries on the front line and the libraries that are already ahead.

While it provides overall understanding of where the research data management program is at and where it is going, it also provides understanding of current practices and data management recommendations and/or tool adoptions as well as revealing areas of improvement and support.

This study examined the research data (management) services in academic libraries in the United States through a content analysis of 185 library websites, with four main areas of focus: service, information, education, and network.

The results from the content analysis of these webpages reveals that libraries need to advance and engage more actively to provide services, supply information online, and develop educational services.

There is also a wide variation among library data management services and programs according to their web presence.

URL : http://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16788/18346

E-books in academic libraries: results of a survey carried out in Sweden and Lithuania

Posté le par

Authors :  Elena Maceviciute, Tom D. Wilson, Arūnas Gudinavičius, Andrius Šuminas

Introduction

This paper reports on a study of e-books issues in academic libraries in two European countries representative of small language markets – Sweden and Lithuania.

Method

Questionnaire surveys, using the same instrument, were carried out in Swedish and Lithuanian academic libraries.

Analysis

Quantitative analysis was performed using the descriptive statistics capability of SurveyMonkey.

Results

The survey’s results reveal some interesting similarities and differences in the two countries. Business models for e-book acquisition in both countries show similarities – the most popular additional model is purchase for perpetual ownership.

One significant difference is that some of the Lithuanian academic librarians appear to have less direct knowledge of e-book acquisition, relying upon the Lithuanian Research Library Consortium to effect licence agreements with publishers and aggregators.

Another significant difference is that academic libraries in Lithuania have a higher degree of access to e-books in the national language than is the case in Sweden.

Conclusion

The findings show that the factors driving adoption of e-books, is composed of somewhat different elements in the two countries. Swedish librarians regard the need to keep up with technology and access and availability as the two main forces driving adoption of e-books in academic libraries.

Lithuanian librarians see economics as the main factor, together with technology and demand from students.

URL : http://www.informationr.net/ir/22-3/paper762.html

 

 

Using Peer Review to Support Development of Community Resources for Research Data Management

Posté le par

Authors : Heather Soyka, Amber Budden, Viv Hutchison, David Bloom, Jonah Duckles, Amy Hodge, Matthew S. Mayernik, Timothée Poisot, Shannon Rauch, Gail Steinhart, Leah Wasser, Amanda L. Whitmire, Stephanie Wright

Objective

To ensure that resources designed to teach skills and best practices for scientific research data sharing and management are useful, the maintainers of those materials need to evaluate and update them to ensure their accuracy, currency, and quality.

This paper advances the use and process of outside peer review for community resources in addressing ongoing accuracy, quality, and currency issues. It further describes the next step of moving the updated materials to an online collaborative community platform for future iterative review in order to build upon mechanisms for open science, ongoing iteration, participation, and transparent community engagement.

Setting

Research data management resources were developed in support of the DataONE (Data Observation Network for Earth) project, which has deployed a sustainable, long-term network to ensure the preservation and access to multi-scale, multi-discipline, and multi-national environmental and biological science data (Michener et al. 2012).

Created by members of the Community Engagement and Education (CEE) Working Group in 2011-2012, the freely available Educational Modules included three complementary components (slides, handouts, and exercises) that were designed to be adaptable for use in classrooms as well as for research data management training.

Methods

Because the modules were initially created and launched in 2011-2012, the current members of the (renamed) Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Working Group were concerned that the materials could be and / or quickly become outdated and should be reviewed for accuracy, currency, and quality.

In November 2015, the Working Group developed an evaluation rubric for use by outside reviewers. Review criteria were developed based on surveys and usage scenarios from previous DataONE projects.

Peer reviewers were selected from the DataONE community network for their expertise in the areas covered by one of the 11 educational modules. Reviewers were contacted in March 2016, and were asked to volunteer to complete their evaluations online within one month of the request, by using a customized Google form.

Results

For the 11 modules, 22 completed reviews were received by April 2016 from outside experts. Comments on all three components of each module (slides, handouts, and exercises) were compiled and evaluated by the postdoctoral fellow attached to the CEO Working Group.

These reviews contributed to the full evaluation and revision by members of the Working Group of all educational modules in September 2016. This review process, as well as the potential lack of funding for ongoing maintenance by Working Group members or paid staff, provoked the group to transform the modules to a more stable, non-proprietary format, and move them to an online open repository hosting platform, GitHub.

These decisions were made to foster sustainability, community engagement, version control, and transparency.

Conclusion

Outside peer review of the modules by experts in the field was beneficial for highlighting areas of weakness or overlap in the education modules. The modules were initially created in 2011-2012 by an earlier iteration of the Working Group, and updates were needed due to the constant evolving practices in the field.

Because the review process was lengthy (approximately one year) comparative to the rate of innovations in data management practices, the Working Group discussed other options that would allow community members to make updates available more quickly.

The intent of migrating the modules to an online collaborative platform (GitHub) is to allow for iterative updates and ongoing outside review, and to provide further transparency about accuracy, currency, and quality in the spirit of open science and collaboration.

Documentation about this project may be useful for others trying to develop and maintain educational resources for engagement and outreach, particularly in communities and spaces where information changes quickly, and open platforms are already in common use.

URL : Using Peer Review to Support Development of Community Resources for Research Data Management

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.2017.1114

Information in the ecosystem: Against the “information ecosystem”

Posté le par

Authors : Timothy B. Norris, Todd Suomela

The “information ecosystem” metaphor is widely used in academic libraries and has become nearly ubiquitous when speaking of the information systems that support scholarly communication and varied forms of data sharing and publication.

The trending use of this language arises from non-academic applications — for example in big data (the Hadoop ecosystem) or software development (the node.js ecosystem) — and there remains little critical examination of the use of this metaphor.

Indeed, the definition of ecosystem as the set of relations between living organisms and their surrounding non-living environment is apparently not directly a part of the metaphor.

This paper first describes the emergence of ecological thinking and how it was influenced by early information science and then explores how different “ecologies” are used within the academy, including in the emergent field of information ecology.

A short critique of the metaphor is then posed and the paper concludes that the information ecosystem metaphor is useful, yet at the same time there are dangerous elements that render aspects of human societies and natural ecosystems invisible.

URL : http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6847

The interactive library as a virtual working space

Posté le par

Author : Andreas Degkwitz

The internet and the new digital media are challenging the traditional business model of academic libraries and enable new capabilities of information provisioning and new shapes of collaborations between the librarians and the users.

To pick up the demands and the expectations of the many users, whose information behavior is heavily influenced by the internet, a new business model for academic libraries has to be designed urgently.

The aim of the project is to analyze and to identify the organizational and technical requirements of a business model for the future library, which is based on the potential of the internet and the new media.

The result is a pilot study about the interactive, multi-user driven library as the future business model for libraries.

URL : The interactive library as a virtual working space

DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10214

Learning Analytics and the Academic Library: Professional Ethics Commitments at a Crossroads

Posté le par

Authors : Kyle M.L. Jones, Dorothea Salo

In this paper, the authors address learning analytics and the ways academic libraries are beginning to participate in wider institutional learning analytics initiatives. Since there are moral issues associated with learning analytics, the authors consider how data mining practices run counter to ethical principles in the American Library Association’s “Code of Ethics.”

Specifically, the authors address how learning analytics implicates professional commitments to promote intellectual freedom; protect patron privacy and confidentiality; and balance intellectual property interests between library users, their institution, and content creators and vendors.

The authors recommend that librarians should embed their ethical positions in technological designs, practices, and governance mechanisms.

URL : Learning Analytics and the Academic Library: Professional Ethics Commitments at a Crossroads

Alternative location : http://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16603

Maintaining collections with a flat budget

Posté le par

Authors : Sara E Morris, Lea Currie

This paper focuses on the various processes, methods and tough decisions made by the University of Kansas Libraries to provide library materials while maintaining a flat collections budget for over eight years.

During this period, those responsible for the Libraries’ collections have implemented quick stop- gap measures, picked all the ‘low-hanging fruit’, and eventually canceled a large journal package. This case study will help other librarians facing the reality of maintaining collections at a time when budgets, changing formats and publication practices are all obstacles to providing patrons with what they need.

URL : Maintaining collections with a flat budget

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.334