International Journal of Librarianship
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254 research outputs found
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Making Open Resources Discoverable: Collaborative Approaches for Enhanced Access
Full text linkThis article explores collaborative efforts to enhance the discoverability of open access resources. It highlights the pivotal role of librarians, educators, library system platform vendors, and publishers in improving access to these valuable resources. Through collective expertise and cooperation, these collaborative approaches aim to unlock the potential of open resources, benefiting researchers, students, and the broader academic community. By working together and leveraging their collective knowledge, these collaborative efforts promise to tap into the wealth of open resources, making them more accessible for professors, students, and the broader academic community
Bridging the Gap: Integrating Archival Descriptive Best Practices in an Item-Level Dominated Museum Culture
Full text linkLibraries, archives, and museum collections are distinct collecting entities that share similarities in their concepts and workflows, yet diverge in their fundamental approaches to descriptive work. While librarians and archivists are frequently associated due to their placement within institutional hierarchies and shared academic backgrounds, librarians and museum registrars are more naturally aligned in the realm of metadata. Both librarians and registrars traditionally emphasize item-level description whereas archivists prioritize a creator and collection-based approach. This article aims to explore the challenges of maintaining archival descriptive best practices within a museum culture that predominantly emphasizes object collections and item-level documentation. By identifying tools, techniques, and strategies archives can implement, museum staff can better understand and appreciate the unique contributions of archival practices. Additionally, advocating for archival standards to senior staff will foster a more comprehensive and holistic approach to cataloging and preserving cultural heritage. By recognizing the value of both item-level and collection-based approaches, the museum can create a more robust and interconnected system of documentation, enhancing the overall quality and accessibility of their collections and archives
A Discourse Analysis of Online Library Resources: A Study of Students’ Projects abstract
Full text linkMany students in tertiary institutions have not followed the normal structure of writing their projects’ abstracts. Despite lecturers' efforts to supervise students in order for them to follow projects’ writing rules, there are disparities in the patterns of writing project abstracts by undergraduate students in Nigeria. This study investigates online abstract from students’ projects submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of first degrees in Nigeria universities. It adopts Hyland’s (2000) and Swales and Feak’s (2009) Models of Move Analysis. The study also adopts a qualitative research design; with data collected at random from colleges with online abstracts of undergraduates’ projects stored in the library on-line institutional repository. Findings reveal that universities in Nigeria has no agreed patterns of abstract structure for students’ project; none of the projects has complete macro and micro patterns of abstract, and none has the concluding part of a standard abstract. The study concludes that Nigeria University students' abstract writing does not meet the acceptable global standard. However, universities should organize a project writing workshop with a greater emphasis on how to write an acceptable abstract
Organizers of Museum History: Honoring the Labor of Librarians and Archivists in the Bureau of American Ethnology
Full text linkIn 1879, the United States funded care for the records of government-funded geological, ethnographic and archaeological explorations in the American West, in what later became known as the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) within the Smithsonian Institution. But who was doing the organizing of library and archival sources so integral to this scientific mission? This article highlights eight women working in the Bureau of American Ethnology library and archives in the early 20th century, including head librarians and archivists Jesse Thomas, Ella Leary, Miriam Ketchum, Carol Jopling, Mae Tucker, and Margaret Blaker, as well as library assistants Louvenia Russell and Ella Slaughter, who were classified as laborers but also conducted library work for the Bureau. We suggest that each of these women served as “glass shoulders,” creating an administrative and scholarly infrastructure that enabled the work of others, even as they advocated for their own value within the Bureau and the wider museum structure. In focusing on how librarians and archivists care for museum collections, we also examine how their work remains almost invisible in museum circles. Telling these stories enables us to honor the work of librarians and archivists in creating and curating museum histories, and to consider how this labor and expertise can be recognized and highlighted
Open Secrets: Exploring Institutional Spending on Open Access
Full text linkA robust corpus exists on Open Access (OA) spending within libraries, however there is less literature on assessing OA expenditures across colleges and universities. Due to the nature of the fragmented and uneven investment in OA, researchers are likely not optimizing institutional resources on Article Processing Charges (APCs) as part of the open access environment. This article describes how personnel at University of Oregon Libraries built a Power BI model to encapsulate and visualize our institution’s open access outlay as well as apprise researchers of their options for selecting OA publication venues based on APCs and impact metrics
Leveraging Specialized Resources to Develop Innovative Library Services: Suzhou Second Library’s Experiences with “A Library within a Library” Model
Full text linkTheme libraries have emerged as a new service model to meet the demand from the public for a diverse service with resources that are both inclusive and specialized. The "a library within a library" is currently the main practice model of theme libraries. Influenced by that concept, the recently constructed and opened Suzhou Second Library includes a number of theme libraries, such as “Suzhou Literature Library," "Music Library," and "Design Library." The establishment of these theme libraries within the Suzhou Second Library allows the library to build special community-focused collections that are culturally rich, to collaborate with local cultural organizations to create quality public programs that highlight the collections, and to actively engage the public with special events and exhibits surrounded by multimedia, digital special effects. These programmatic efforts have greatly improved public’s awareness of the valuable resources held at the library and thus increased the effectiveness of this new service model
Breaking up the Big Deal? A quantitative approach
Full text linkThis paper explores the methodology used to assess the value of a Big Deal package while inter-institutional negotiations were ongoing. Analysis was performed primarily with quantitative factors, including usage, cost, cost per use, and faculty citations. After identifying the highest and lowest performers in these categories, librarians were able to eliminate them easily from further deliberation. Then weighted scoring was applied to moderate performing titles. Weighting identified additional titles that could be sorted, leaving a smaller pool for title by title deliberation performed by a team of librarians, and a final pool of ‘must have’ titles to be collated and presented to administrative stakeholders
Evaluation of a PDA Pilot Program to Address Equity and Diversity in Academic Library Acquisitions
Full text linkIn the summer of 2023, Stony Brook University Libraries (SBUL) embarked on a transformation, shifting from a traditional liaison-based system to a teams-based approach. This transition reflects a broader trend in academic libraries toward optimizing operational efficiency and resource allocation amidst evolving staffing and budgetary challenges. Central to this transformation is the redefined role of the Division of Collection Strategy and Management, which now oversees all areas of collection development. This paper examines SBUL’s decision to pilot a user-centered collection development strategy, implementing a multiple-publisher Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) model while maintaining traditional firm order requests from faculty and students. We explore the methodology of transitioning acquisition workflows, the rationale behind adopting a user-centric approach, and the implications of this model on aligning library collections with the diverse needs of the campus community. The new collections team at SBUL identified three main goals for this pilot program: 1) enhancing and diversifying the collection, 2) identifying organizational efficiencies, and 3) implementing fiscal controls. The analysis draws on data collected during the pilot to offer insights into best practices for evolving library acquisition strategies in response to shifting user expectations and campus diversity in an environment of organizational constraints
Barriers in LIS Scholarship in India: Some observations: Some Observations
No full textAlthough LIS research output, globally, has increased in recent years, why is there a dearth in LIS research from countries like India in the Global South? What barriers and challenges impede LIS researchers’ active participation in scholarly communications? Is there a bias against research output from the Global South? These are some of the questions that the author investigated with the help of ACRL’s Research and Scholarship Grant (2019 - 2020). The author collaborated with a librarian colleague in India at a second stage of the project to collect supplementary data. The second phase of the research was supported by the Marcia Tuttle International Travel Grant from NASIG (2020 - 2021). Important findings include the need for Open Access and training in academic writing standards which could help resolve some of the challenges. Learning from our Global South colleagues may assist with our work with international students and students from multiple backgrounds
Finding the Right Platform : A Report on Building a Publishing Platform Crosswalk
Full text linkThis Report from the Field introduces a collaboratively authored set of documentation that compares digital publishing platforms that are typically used by library publishers. This report discusses how we created this set of crosswalks that compare 10 publishing platforms, most of which are academy-owned and open-source. These platforms are used to create eBooks, digital humanities projects, journals, collections, and community projects, and the crosswalks compare a set of common features each has, including hosting options and cost, ingestion options, interactivity, archive and preservation features, export options, accessibility, and other features. We walk readers through how to use this Creative-Commons-licensed tool to compare platforms, features, and project types, with the hopes that users (be they librarians or authors) can easily compare and make decisions about which platform might best suit their publishing needs