American Library Association Journals
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Migrating Collections Materials Purchasing from a Legacy Payments Workflow to the Campus E-Procurement Platform
No full textThis article examines the experience of a large research library when it migrated its collectionsmaterials purchasing onto its university’s outsourced e-procurement platform. Previously, the libraryused a homegrown legacy workflow to export invoice data directly from the integrated library system(ILS) to Accounts Payable to initiate payments to suppliers. Adopting the procurement platformhas produced benefits for both the university and the library by bringing the library into alignmentwith standard campus workflows and improving visibility into collections materials spending. Themove has also posed challenges for the library, which has had to adapt to new tasks in anothersystem running parallel to its ongoing acquisitions work in the ILS. The article describes the legacyworkflow, the campus platform, the migration project, and the library’s continuing efforts to optimizeits workflows to meet the campus platform’s requirements while completing work in the ILS asefficiently as possible
Going Wild...Again: Second Children’s Book Creators Team Announced for Conservation Work
No full textThis September, nearly two years to the month, a second group of children’s book authors, illustrators, and publishing professionals will embark on a two-week-long volunteer trip in South Africa with Wild Tomorrow, a nonprofit focused on reconnecting and restoring habitat for threatened wildlife in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Exploring Diversity and Intersectionality in Belpré Award Books, 2009–2023
No full textThe Pura Belpré Award, named after Puerto Rican librarianand author Pura Belpré, is an annual award to recognizeLatine1 authors/illustrators whose work celebrates andaffirms the Latine cultural experience.2 The award was createdin 1996 by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)and REFORMA (The National Association to Promote Libraryand Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking)to address the overwhelming need for more diverse literature inlibrarie
In Brief
No full textALABAMACullman County Public LibraryIn August 2023, a former city councilpersonchallenged three juvenile booksat Cullman County Public Library,seeking their removal. They took issuewith positive representation of twospirit,lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,queer/questioning, intersex, an
Proactive Public Awareness: AMBER Alerts
No full textThe first three hours in child abduction cases are crucial to theoutcome and safe recovery of the victim. In 2006, the Office ofJuvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), withinthe Department of Justice (DOJ), released a report that statedshocking statistics. This report revealed that 76% of childrenreported missing were found deceased within the first threehours, and 88.5% of missing children were found deceasedwithin the first twenty-four hours after first reported missing.1 The America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response(AMBER) Alert System broadcasts emergency alerts to the publicto aid in the search for actively abducted childre
Get to Know …
No full textA positive attitude and natural curiosity are the qualities thathave buoyed Sinai Wood through many changes during herdistinguished career in government information. Today, she is anAssociate Professor Documents Librarian at Baylor UniversityLibraries. Her work with gov docs dates back to her service as aparaprofessional while she was getting her library degree at TexasWoman’s Universit
Reframing Information Literacy Competency Standards and Frameworks for Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
No full textAs an emerging disruptive technology, a new high tide of Generative AI and ChatGPT has beenrocking the academic landscape worldwide.1 Generative AI is an artificial intelligence technologythat uses large language models and deep learning technology to generate new content, includingtext, images, audio or video.2 According to OpenAI (https://openai.com/), ChatGPT stands forGenerative Pre-Trained Transformer. Based on a large language model, ChatGPT is an AI-poweredchatbot generating natural language responses when it interacts with online users.3 Announcedby OpenAI on September 25, 2023, ChatGPT(4.0) can speak, listen, and process images whileinteracting with users.4 ChatGPT(4.0) will provide ChatGPT Plus users with two new innovativefunctions: voice interaction and image interaction. Instead of typing texts, users can directly talk toChatGPT(4.0) and ChatGPT(4.0) will respond with five different synthetic voices, including differentemotions, pitches, speeds, and tones, to create an immersive feeling like conversing with a realperson. Also, the updated ChatGPT(4.0) can see and analyze the images uploaded by ChatGPT Plususers. The rise of Generative AI and ChatGPT has revived the scholarly enthusiasm of reinspectinginformation literacy competency standards and frameworks in the age of artificial intelligenc
Book Review: Inclusive Cataloging: Histories, Context, and Reparative Approaches
No full textThe introduction of Inclusive Cataloging: Histories, Context, and Reparative Approaches sets forth two aims: “to record the efforts of so many librarians who have worked to improve our systems and collections, as well as to inspire those who have yet to enact change that this work is scalable, possible, and necessary” (x). Editor Amber Billey observes that the “racial reckoning” brought on by the murder of George Floyd, combined with the pandemic forcing librarians to work from home, brought a sudden attention to “the bias and oppression found within our collections and organization systems” and fueled projects countering harmful past practices. Billey describes the summer of 2020 as a turning point: “We have experienced a shift within the profession” (xi). Inclusive Cataloging is about the projects that originated in that summer of upheaval
Predatory Publishing and Global Scholarly Communications
No full textPredatory publishing has proven to be a complex, mutable phenomenon in scholarly communication, with numerous debates and controversies surrounding its definition and measurement (operationalization). A cursory search of the LISTA (Library, Information Science Technology Abstracts) database results in more than 400 academic treatments of predatory publishing since 2010 (with Beall’s coining of the term “predatory publishing”), with more than ninety appearing just since 2023.1 Monica Berger’s Predatory Publishing and Global Scholarly Communications presents an expertly and thoroughly researched critical appraisal of predatory publishing that places the practice into the context of larger scholarly communication debates, such as open access
AI Chatbots and Subject Cataloging: A Performance Test
No full textLibraries show an increasing interest in incorporating AI tools into their workflows, particularlyeasily accessible and free-to-use chatbots. However, empirical evidence is limited regarding theeffectiveness of these tools to perform traditionally time-consuming subject cataloging tasks. In thisstudy, researchers sought to assess the performance of AI tools in performing basic subject headingand classification number assignment. Using a well-established instructional cataloging text as abasis, researchers developed and administered a test designed to evaluate the effectiveness of three chatbots (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot) in assigning Dewey Decimal Classification, Library of Congress Classification, and Library of Congress Subject Heading terms and numbers. The quantity and quality of errors in chatbot responses were analyzed