Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (Journal)
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Citation Analysis of Engineering Graduate Student Theses Indicates Students Are Using More Electronic Resources
No full textA Review of:
Becker, D. A., & Chiware, E. R. T. (2015). Citation analysis of masters\u27 theses and doctoral dissertations: Balancing library collections with students\u27 research information needs. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 41(5), 613-620. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2015.06.022
Objective – To determine the citation pattern of graduate students’ theses and dissertations.
Design – Citation analysis.
Setting – An institutional repository at a South African university of technology.
Subjects – 201 Engineering Master’s theses and Doctoral dissertations.
Methods – A random sample of Master’s theses and Doctoral dissertations from the Faculty of Engineering were analyzed. The theses and dissertations were drawn from the institutional repository covering the period 2005-2014. References were checked for format of the cited items including journal, book, conference proceeding, online item (resource with a URL other than a journal, book or proceeding), and other (anything not in the first four categories). The date of all journal articles was recorded. Journal titles were analyzed in terms of country of origin, language, availability in the library, and online access. Data were categorized by department to determine if there were any differences in the use of materials by department. Data were also analyzed by degree level.
Main Results – 101 theses and dissertations were analyzed out of a total of 201 available in the institutional repository. Journals were the most used resource (42%), followed by books (30%), other (12%), online (10%), and proceedings (6%). Doctoral students used a higher percentage of journals than Master’s students. Departmental usage differed. Mechanical (54%) and Chemical (48%) Engineering students mainly used journals. Civil Engineering students mostly used resources from the “other” category (31%). Students in Industrial (41%) and Construction (40%) Engineering mostly cited books. Analysis of the “other” category showed a wide variety of resources used (emails, personal interviews, course notes, conference papers, government publications, national and international standards, manuals and guides, technical reports, and technical notes).
The technology university provides access to 79% of the journal titles used by engineering students in their theses and dissertations. 84% of titles are available online. Students mainly used current articles (i.e., from 2000-present). Students heavily favoured journals from the United States of America and Europe, although South African journals were the fifth most cited by country. English language titles dominated, however Portuguese and French titles were the next most commonly cited. Seventy-four titles were referenced more than 10 times.
Conclusion – The authors state that more electronic resources are being used by graduate students, including “online” information. Journals are the most cited information resource held by the library and the majority of journal titles that were cited can be found in the library. The authors conclude that librarians should work with graduate students to encourage the continued use of library resources. They also state that this information can be useful for identifying journals that could be canceled in times of budgetary cutbacks. The authors note that this study provides the university libraries with insight into the use of library holdings, but being limited to engineering, a more comprehensive study of subjects would provide a broader picture of the collection’s use and provide valuable information for collection development
External and Internal Citation Analyses Can Provide Insight into Serial/Monograph Ratios when Refining Collection Development Strategies in Selected STEM Disciplines
No full textA Review of:
Kelly, M. (2015). Citation patterns of engineering, statistics, and computer science researchers: An internal and external citation analysis across multiple engineering subfields. College and Research Libraries, 76(7), 859-882. http://doi.org/10.5860/crl.76.7.859
Objective – To determine internal and external citation analysis methods and their potential applicability to the refinement of collection development strategies at both the institutional and cross-institutional levels for selected science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subfields.
Design – Multidimensional citation analysis; specifically, analysis of citations from 1) key scholarly journals in selected STEM subfields (external analysis) compared to those from 2) local doctoral dissertations in similar subfields (internal analysis).
Setting – Medium-sized, STEM-dominant public research university in the United States of America.
Subjects – Two citation datasets: 1) 14,149 external citations from16 journals (i.e., 2 journals per subfield; citations from 2012 volumes) representing bioengineering, civil engineering, computer science (CS), electrical engineering, environmental engineering, operations research, statistics (STAT), and systems engineering; and 2) 8,494 internal citations from 99 doctoral dissertations (18-22 per subfield) published between 2008-–2012 from CS, electrical and computer engineering (ECE), and applied information technology (AIT) and published between 2005-–2012 for systems engineering and operations research (SEOR) and STAT.
Methods – Citations, including titles and publication dates, were harvested from source materials and stored in Excel and then manually categorized according to format (book, book chapter, journal, conference proceeding, website, and several others). To analyze citations, percentages of occurrence by subfield were calculated for variables including format, age (years since date cited), journal distribution, and the frequency at which a journal was cited. Top journals for selected subfields were identified based on the percentages of authors citing them in each dataset and, for interdisciplinary journals, according to how often citations for them appeared in subfield groups.
Main Results – For each subfield group, distinct patterns emerged for both internal and external analysis in terms of format, currency, and preferred journals. Regarding format of material cited, journals were dominant for external citations and ranged between 40% of citations (CS) to 94% (bioengineering) of formats cited. Formats were more distributed for internal citations, with ECE, SEOR, and STAT exhibiting journal dominance (61%, 30%, and 59% of citations, respectively) and conference proceedings dominant in CS (43%) and AIT (30%). Regarding currency, almost all cited items (>98% for external citations and 96% for internal citations) were published within the last 50 years, with electrical engineering showing the highest percentage of materials cited within the past five years for external citations (47%). For internal citations, applied information technology illustrated the most use of materials in the five-year timeframe (46%). Top journals for each subfield in which only external data were analyzed include Journal of Biomechanics (bioengineering 54%), Engineering Structures (civil engineering 47%), Water Research (environmental engineering 60%). For CS and AIT, the top journal was Communications of the ACM (external CS citations 29%; internal CS 32%; internal AIT 36%). For electrical engineering, the top journals were Electronics Letters (21% external citations) and Proceedings of the IEEE (50% internal citations). SEOR was broken into three categories (systems engineering, SEOR, and operations research), with Systems Engineering being the top journal according to external citations for the subfield of the same name (48%) and Air Traffic Control Quality as the leading SEOR journal (25% internal citations only). Management Science (77% external citations only) was the top journal for operations research. Top STAT journals were Annals of Statistics (96% internal citations) and Journal of the American Statistical Association (60%). Science was the top interdisciplinary journal for external citations (10%) and IEEE: Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence for internal citations (13%).
Conclusion – An approach to citation analysis integrating both internal and external components is useful for institutions aiming to develop balanced STEM collections as well as for collection assessment and budgeting purposes and enables adjustment of serial/monograph ratios to create custom local serial/monograph ratio “blends.” In this institution’s case, internal data suggested a 59:41 serial/monograph ratios versus an external data ratio of 75:25, which indicated that a blended ratio of 67:33 might be appropriate for this institution based on an average of both ratios. In the future, cross-institutional collaboration for external analyses would make it easier for institutions to focus on internal analyses in order to develop appropriate local serial/monograph ratio blends
No Pedagogical Advantage Found Between LibGuides and Other Web Page Information Literacy Tutorials
No full textA Review of:
Bowen, A. (2014). LibGuides and web-based library guides in comparison: Is there a pedagogical advantage? Journal of Web Librarianship, 8(2), 147-171. doi:10.1080/19322909.2014.903709
Abstract
Objective – This study compares two versions of an online information literacy tutorial – one built with Springshare’s LibGuides and one built as a series of web pages – in order to determine if either platform provides a pedagogical advantage in delivering online instruction.
Design – Experimental, posttest only.
Setting – Large, public, primarily undergraduate four-year university in the Western United States of America with 16,000 full time equivalent student enrollment.
Subjects – The sample consists of 812 students enrolled in 25 sections of a 100-level Communications Studies course. Of those students, 89 responded to the study’s posttest survey (11% response rate).
Of the 89 respondents, 53 viewed the LibGuide tutorial: 12 respondents were male, 33 respondents were female, and 8 respondents did not report their gender. Of the 53 LibGuide participants, 47 responded to other demographic questions, and were primarily 18-20 years old (94%), first-year students (79%), and non-Communication Studies majors (91%).
The remaining 36 respondents viewed the web page tutorial: 7 respondents were male, 25 respondents were female, and 4 did not report their gender. Of the 32 respondents that provided demographic information, all participants were 18-20 years old, 31 of 32 were first-year students, and the majority were non-Communication Studies majors (78%).
Methods – Students completed an online tutorial designed to teach them information literacy skills necessary to find resources for a class debate. Each section was randomly assigned to one of two information literacy tutorials: 12 sections viewed a tutorial built with LibGuides and 13 sections viewed a web page tutorial. The two tutorials included identical instructional content and worksheet. Each of the tutorials’ six sections were tied to the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. A seventh section in both tutorials administered a voluntary survey. Six knowledge-based survey questions tested students’ abilities on the six skills covered in the tutorials. Three affective questions asked students to use a four-point Likert scale to report ease (1 = very easy, 4 = very difficult), clarity (1 = very clear, 4 = very unclear), and convenience (1 = very convenient, 4 = very inconvenient) of six research skills, including: identifying keywords and main concepts in a topic, identifying scholarly versus non-scholarly sources, finding relevant scholarly articles, locating a book’s call number in the library catalog and on the shelf, finding newspaper articles, and constructing an annotated bibliography. Two affective survey questions asked students to use a four-point Likert scale (1 = very significant increase, 4 = no increase) to rate the impact the tutorial had on their knowledge of and satisfaction with using the library in each of the six areas of research.
Main Results – The overall response patterns for the six information literacy knowledge-based questions were similar for both groups. Students who viewed the LibGuides tutorial performed better than the web page group on four of the six knowledge-based questions. The web page group performed better than the LibGuides group on two of the six knowledge-based questions. Across the board, students performed poorly on the first question, which measured students’ abilities to form a search
string (39.2% correct in the LibGuides group; 25.7% correct in the web page group), and on the fifth question which asked students to identify the best source of current information from a list of resources (32% correct in the LibGuides group; 17% correct in the web page group).
Response means on the first three affective questions indicate that students in both groups found searching for relevant scholarly articles and constructing an annotated bibliography to be more difficult than the other four skills. Additionally, students in the LibGuide group reported slightly higher means than the web page group concerning the clarity of finding newspaper articles, and were therefore less clear on the task. Students in the web page group reported slightly higher means than the LibGuide group when reporting the convenience of constructing an annotated bibliography, suggesting they found creating a bibliography more inconvenient. Students in both groups also responded similarly to the final two affective questions measuring the perceived impact the tutorial had on their knowledge of and satisfaction with using library resources
A 2CUL Collaborative Ethnographic Assessment of Humanities Doctoral Students: Design, Implementation and Analysis
No full textNo abstract
Enrollment in a Library Credit Course is Positively Related to the College Graduation Rates of Full Time Students
No full textA Review of:
Cook, J.M. (2014). A Library credit course and student success rates: A longitudinal study. College & Research Libraries 75(3), 272-283. doi:10.5860/crl12-424
Abstract
Objective – To determine the impact of a credit-bearing information literacy skills course on student success rates.
Design – Observational Study.
Setting – An academic library at a mid-sized university in Georgia, United States of America.
Subjects – Nine cohorts of students (n=15,012) who entered the institution for the first time, on a full-time basis, each year between 1999 and 2007.
Methods – Aggregate data on each student cohort was gathered from the Department of Institutional Research and Planning. Data included high school ACT and SAT scores, high school graduating GPAs, college graduating GPAs, and college graduation dates. The nine cohorts were each divided into two groups: students who took a credit library course (LIBR 1101) at some point during their student career, and students who did not. For each cohort, a Pearson Chi-Square test was used to determine statistical correlation between library course enrollment and four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates. Z-tests were used to determine a difference in the average graduation GPA of students who did and did not take the course, as well as a difference in the average high school graduation GPA, ACT, and SAT scores of the two groups in each cohort.
Main Results – Graduation rates were positively associated with students who took the library course at some point during their studies. Students who took the library course graduated at higher rates than students who did not: 56% of those students who took the library course graduated within the study’s time frame, compared to 30% of those who did not take the course. On average, there was no significant difference in college graduation GPAs between students who did and did not take LIBR 1101. During the time period of the study, more students who took the course graduated than those who did not, but those students who took the course did not have higher graduating GPAs.
Conclusion – Students who enrolled in LIBR 1101 at some point in their studies graduated at a significantly higher rate than students who did not
Urban Public Libraries Do Not Yet Meet Benchmarks for Web Accessibility by Individuals with Disabilities
No full textA Review of:
Maatta Smith, S. L. (2014). Web Accessibility Assessment of Urban Public Library Websites. Public Library Quarterly, 33(3), 187-204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2014.937207
Abstract
Objective – To determine the extent to which urban public libraries in the United States of America provide web sites which are readily accessible to individuals with disabilities with reference to the Urban Library Council’s EDGE initiative (specifically Benchmark 11, “Technology Inclusiveness”).
Design – Web site evaluation.
Setting – Urban public libraries in the United States of America.
Subjects – The 127 library systems, which were both members of the Urban Libraries Council at the time of the study and located in the United States of America.
Methods – Using the “everyday life information seeking” conceptual framework, an assessment of each of the web sites of the purposive sample of public library systems was performed by an online evaluation tool as well as visually and physically to determine web accessibility and, by extension, technology inclusiveness.
Main Results – The results of the online accessibility evaluation tool revealed that not one of the sites surveyed was free of errors or alerts. Contrast errors (related to color combinations), missing alternative text (providing text alternatives for visual elements), and missing form labels (thereby preventing screen readers from performing searches and navigating to results) were the most common problems. Results of visual and physical scans revealed that many sites lacked specific links and/or resources for persons with disabilities, as well as noting that the resources available used oblique language and required many clicks to access. In addition, the vast majority neglected to feature links to national resources such as the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
Conclusions – The web sites of urban public libraries are not yet completely accessible for persons with disabilities. At the very least they need coding fixes and ongoing maintenance to address the kinds of issues found by the online web evaluation tool used. In addition, resources for disabled persons should be prominently and clearly linked and promoted. Further research is called for, both in non-urban library systems and in testing a wider range of access technologies. Improvement efforts should acknowledge that web design that improves access for persons with disabilities serves the broader community as well
Additional Search Strategies May Not Be Necessary for a Rapid Systematic Review
No full textA Review of:
Westphal, A., Kriston, L., Hölzel, L.P., Härter, M., & von Wolff, A. (2014). Efficiency and contribution of strategies for finding randomized controlled trials: a case study from a systematic review on therapeutic interventions of chronic depression. Journal of Public Health Research, 3(2), 177. doi: 10.4081/jphr.2014.177
Abstract
Objective – To evaluate the efficiency and contribution of additional searching strategies for finding randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in a systematic review.
Design – A methodological case study.
Setting – Biomedical literature.
Methods – A sensitive search (defined as “the ratio of the number of relevant reports identified to the total number of relevant reports in existence”) was conducted of electronic databases, Cochrane CENTRAL database, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, BIOSIS, and Web of Science databases (Science and Social Science Citation Indexes). The following additional searching strategies were conducted: hand-searching contents of relevant journals (Archives of General Psychiatry, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, and Journal of Affective Disorders), citation tracking (forwards tracking using Social Science and Science Citation Index and backwards tracking by looking through reference lists of included studies), screening reference lists of relevant systematic reviews, searching clinical trials registers (ClinicalTrials.gov and ICTRP registers), and contacting first authors of included studies to find any similar unpublished studies.
The number of articles identified by each of these methods was recorded and screened for inclusion in the systematic review. The authors calculated what they labelled as the ‘efficiency’ of each searching strategy (the number of included studies identified by the search method as a proportion of the full text articles screened) and the ‘contribution’ of the search strategies (the ratio of included studies identified by that method to the final number of included studies in the systematic review). The methodological quality of each included study was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool, which is a critical appraisal checklist used to judge the study’s value in the systematic review. The meta-analysis in the systematic review was conducted with and without the studies identified by the additional searching strategies to assess their impact on the review’s findings.
Main Results – In total 50 studies were identified, 42 from electronic database searches and 8 from additional search strategies. As illustrated by the results in Table 1, the most useful additional search strategy was screening reference lists of relevant systematic reviews. Journal hand-searching and contacting authors also contributed to the review.
Of the eight studies identified by the additional search strategies none were judged to have a low risk of bias (four had high risk of bias and four were unclear). Of the 42 included
studies from electronic searches only 11 were judged to have a low risk of bias, whereas 9 studies had a high risk of bias and 22 were unclear.
Excluding the eight studies retrieved from additional search strategies in the systematic review meta-analysis did not influence the results on the effectiveness of the different interventions for chronic depression. These studies were found to be indexed correctly on the electronic databases, but were not identified in the initial search.
Conclusion – Additional search strategies, especially screening reference lists of systematic reviews and hand-searching relevant journals, retrieved a substantial number of relevant studies for a systematic review of interventions for treating chronic depression. However, results of the review’s meta-analysis did not differ when these additional studies (rated as either high or unclear risk of bias) were not included and search methods were time consuming. It might be reasonable to rely on electronic searching strategies when resources for conducting a systematic review are limited or when doing a “rapid review.” The benefits and limitations of additional search strategies should be considered particularly when resources or time for conducting a systematic review are limited.
If the electronic database search is sensitive and includes the Cochrane CENTRAL database additional search strategies may not be necessary, but these findings should be tested in other research areas
Selecting Which Databases to Teach Students in Communication Disorders by Considering Database Pairs that Index Core Journals in the Field
No full textA Review of:
Grabowsky, A. (2015). Library instruction in communication disorders: Which databases should be prioritized? Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship 79(Winter). doi:10.5062/F4707ZFB
Abstract
Objective – There are two objectives in this research article. The first is to identify databases that librarians usually recommend to students for searching topics in communication disorders. The second is to compare these databases’ indexing of core journals in communication disorders, with the purpose of ascertaining which databases should be taught first in a one-shot information literacy session.
Design – A comparative database evaluation using citation analysis.
Setting – 10 universities in the United States of America offering LibGuides for their audiology or speech language pathology programs.
Subjects – Six databases: CINAHL, ERIC, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA), PsycINFO, PubMed/Medline, and Web of Science/Web of Knowledge.
Methods – The author selected 10 universities from the top 20 included in the graduate school rankings for audiology and/or speech language pathology from U.S. News & World Report. The 10 universities selected were chosen because their librarians published online subject guides using LibGuides that suggest databases students can use for searching topics in communication disorders. The LibGuides were then examined to identify the most popular recommended databases that the author subsequently used for comparing coverage of core journals in communication disorders. The author generated a core journals list by selecting the top 20 audiology and speech-language pathology journals from Journal Citation Reports, SCImago Journal & Country Rank, and Google Scholar Top Publications. These three sources produced lists of influential journals in different subject areas by looking at the number of citations the journals have received, alongside other factors. The author searched for 33 journals in total in each of the subject databases previously identified.
Main Results – The author found six databases that were mentioned in the LibGuides of at least half the universities investigated. None of the 6 databases indexed all 33 core journals. The breakdown of the number of journals indexed in each database is as follows: Web of Science/Web of Knowledge indexed 32 of 33 core journals (97%); PubMed/Medline indexed 28 (85%); PsycINFO indexed 27 (82%); CINAHL indexed 25 (76%); LLBA indexed 23 (70%); and ERIC indexed 9 journals (27%).
Conclusion – The author discovered that pairing certain databases allows for coverage of all 33 core journals. These pairings are: PubMed/Medline with PsycINFO, PubMed/Medline with LLBA, PubMed/Medline with Web of Science, Web of Science with PsycINFO, and Web of Science with LLBA. The author suggests that librarians can create instructional materials for all recommended databases, “but use information from this study together with institution-specific factors to decide which databases to prioritize in face-to-face instruction sessions for speech-language pathology and audiology students” (Conclusion)
Evaluation of an Academic Library’s Liquid Designed Website
No full textAbstract
Objective – When the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) at Brigham Young University released a new website with same-look capabilities for computers, tablets, and smartphones, we undertook a summative assessment to review website features and to determine baseline measures of website access via device and patron group.
Methods – The study used a mixed methods approach using three levels of assessment (focus groups, an online survey, and a usability test), with each level informing the subsequent level.
Results – The website changes were well-received by the overwhelming majority of patrons. Device usage was associated with the type of task for which patrons were accessing the website. Computers were used primarily for research-related tasks (e.g., accessing journals, databases, and the main search bar). Smartphones were used primarily for on-the-go tasks (e.g., accessing personal accounts, finding library hours, and reserving group study rooms). Tablets fell between these two. Several website services were identified as being underused. Study results were moderated by time of release (i.e., only half of survey participants had viewed the new website) and access to device (i.e., many patrons did not have access to a tablet or a smartphone).
Conclusions – The summative assessment of the HBLL’s new website was well-received and viewed as a positive change. While most patrons were initially unaware of the same-look feature across devices, this was considered to be a positive change. As devices become more accessible for patrons, it is believed that website access by device will change. A follow-up study is planned to assess any changes in use patterns or use of access devices
