scholarly journals Get it from the Source: Identifying Library Resources and Software Used in Faculty Research

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen S. Alcorn ◽  
Erin E. Wentz ◽  
Gregory A. Martin ◽  
Shanti C. Freundlich ◽  
Joanne A. Doucette

Libraries and Information Technology departments aim to support the educational and research needs of students, researchers, and faculty members. Close matches between the resources those departments provide and the resources the institution’s community members actually use highlight the value of the departments, demonstrate fiscally responsibility, and show attentiveness to the community’s needs. Traditionally, libraries rely on usage statistics to guide collection development decisions, but usage statistics can only imply value. Identifying a resource by name in a publication demonstrates the value of that resource more clearly. This pilot project examined the full-text of articles published in 2016-2017 by faculty members at a mid-sized, special-focus institution to answer the questions “Do faculty members have university-provided access to the research tools they need to publish?” and “If not, where are they getting them?” Using a custom database, the presenters indexed every publication by author, publication, resources used, availability of the identified resources, and more. This pilot study can be adapted to projects at other institutions, allowing them to gain a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their own institution’s offerings. In addition, they will be able to identify ways to use that data to negotiate for additional resources, inform strategic partnerships, and facilitate open discussions with the institution’s community.

2017 ◽  
Vol 78 (11) ◽  
pp. 607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolores Skowronek

Located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Alverno College is a small Catholic liberal arts college for women that features a unique ability-based curriculum and a rigorous tradition of assessment of student learning. The library plays an important role by providing resources and services that support the unique curriculum. Until recently, the collection development policy specified that library resources not include textbooks. However, in an effort to address concerns associated with rising textbook costs, student retention, and students’ inability to purchase materials needed for their coursework, the library altered its policy and established an open reserve textbook collection.


2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 659-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atul Ashokbhai Bhatt

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the law faculty members’ information needs and seeking behaviour to provide library resources and services in a better way. Libraries play a very important role in supporting legal education and legal research. The past decade has brought about a sea of change in the relationship between library and user. Information technology enabled new products and services, and the availability of online information resources has changed the provision of services in legal academic institutions. In this context, library professionals working in a legal academic library are required to have a sound knowledge of the information needs, perceptions and information-seeking behaviour of legal academicians and users to ensure solid collection development, to provide effective library services and to satisfy the needs of library users. Librarians are professionally committed to update a core, qualitative and need-based collection for the optimum utilization of the resources for the greater satisfaction of the user community. Design/methodology/approach – This study used questionnaire-based survey methods. A questionnaire was designed and administered to the law faculty to investigate the information-seeking behaviour at the Institute of Law, Nirma University (ILNU). The study is limited to faculty members of ILNU. Data were collected through the surveys based on a well-structured questionnaire and personal interviews. An in-depth literature search on topics related to the research work was also carried out. Findings – The results of this research showed that law faculty members used a range of information sources to pursue their teaching, research and academic work. When they use print resources, many respondents preferred books/reference books, law reports, statutes and journals. The study also revealed that a number of respondents preferred to use Information and Communication Technology-based library resources in comparison to print resources, with most of them stating that they have very good computing skills. This use may be due to availability, advancement and promotion of legal e-resources. HeinOnline is the most preferred online database, followed by Westlaw India and Manupatra. It is also noted that most of the faculty members have reported that Internet-based items are preferred over conventional documents for teaching and that the Internet has expedited the research process; thus, overall dependency on Internet access has increased. Practical implications – The findings of the paper will help library and information science practitioners working in academic law libraries to address the key factors which influence users’ intention to seek information and to intensify their performance to meet user needs and perceptions. Results will also be useful to them in collection development. Originality/value – The paper is relevant and useful to those who are interested to know the trends of information needs and determine the information-seeking behaviour and users’ perceptions for library resources of legal professionals. This study is also useful to librarians who are professionally committed to update a core, qualitative and need-based collection for the optimum utilization of the resources for the greater satisfaction of the user community.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1021 ◽  
pp. 257-260
Author(s):  
Qing Chen

It’s the library’s duty to offer barrier-free service for the disabled. And applied-information technology is applied into the barrier-free service, which may be found helpful to promote the disabled readers’ initiatives and help them seek for information conveniently in library. There are some measures university library can take to offer barrier-free service with applied-information technology such as opening more free computer-training classes for disabled readers to improve their information skills, offering aural OPAC service, posting the copies of library resources by E-mail and providing assistive technology and equipment related to information service. In addition to these measures, some activities like enriching the spiritual and cultural life of the disabled readers and increasing the communication between able-bodied people and the disabled.


2022 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 253-314
Author(s):  
Mohamed Abdel Salam Mohamed Mahmoud El Balshi ◽  

The current study aimed to develop mechanisms for developing the culture of small information technology projects among university students in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by integrating the development of the culture of small information technology projects in the university’s vision, objectives and strategy, and localizing it in the university environment, activating it in the university’s teaching and learning processes, and strengthening the university’s partnership and the outside community to achieve this. The study used the descriptive approach, and the researcher applied a questionnaire consisting of (37) phrases distributed over (4) axes, and the sample amounted to (136) university professors from (5) Egyptian universities. The study found: The need for the university to emphasize in its objectives the teaching of students to build and manage small information technology projects through the development of knowledge and awareness of it, consolidating the values ​​and beliefs that support them, and that the university is interested in formulating a strategy that supports innovation and creativity among faculty members and students, and that the promotions of teachers and assistant professors be linked to their supportive activities for educating students with small IT projects, and to provide paper or digital brochures on opportunities to build small IT projects in the surrounding environment, and to support the practice of cultural activities, and spread the culture of patent in the information technology sector among its students, and that the university’s learning outcomes target the need for graduates to possess positive attitudes and values ​​towards them. and pay attention to educating students about the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on small IT projects, and that the university link the teaching and learning processes, building and managing small information technology projects, and directing its faculty members towards linking the contents of the curricula with the skills of building and managing small information technology projects, with the need to achieve partnership with the external community through the establishment of exhibitions and platforms for marketing information technology projects, and hosting businessmen in seminars or meetings to inform students of their successful experiences.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Angus Johnston

<p>Weeding is the removal and disposal of materials from a library’s collection that meet criteria set out in the collection development policy. Weeding the print collection of an academic library should be viewed as a means of continuously improving the quality of the collection, reflecting changes in the university’s academic curriculum and meeting patrons’ research needs (Dubicki, 2008). Weeding is often neglected however because of time constraints, a desire to maintain the size of a collection, and the belief that a book may be needed some time in the future ...</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Angus Johnston

<p>Weeding is the removal and disposal of materials from a library’s collection that meet criteria set out in the collection development policy. Weeding the print collection of an academic library should be viewed as a means of continuously improving the quality of the collection, reflecting changes in the university’s academic curriculum and meeting patrons’ research needs (Dubicki, 2008). Weeding is often neglected however because of time constraints, a desire to maintain the size of a collection, and the belief that a book may be needed some time in the future ...</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (a1) ◽  
pp. C1311-C1311
Author(s):  
Roberta Oberti ◽  
Serena Tarantino ◽  
Michele Zema ◽  
Marco Milanesio ◽  
Rita Berisio ◽  
...  

The first edition of the ECA European Crystallography School (ECS1), to be held in Pavia (Italy) during the course of IYCr2014, has found good balance between two apparently diverging goals: (i) to help students and young researchers to find their way in modern science, while keeping a special focus on the molecular and crystalline structure to interpret properties and functionality of materials; (ii) to raise the social and academic awareness of the great advances that crystallography has allowed and will allow to many branches of sciences. Students may choose between two formulae, i.e. a 6-day course with lectures and hands-on sessions held by renowned scientists, covering the state-of-the-art of crystallographic methods, theories and applications, at the same time indicating their future perspectives and cutting-edge aspects, or a 10-day Erasmus Intensive Programme, including a 3-day preparatory course and granting 3 ECTS credits. IYCr2014 is a unique opportunity to stimulate and ignite widespread interest in crystallography; therefore, some frontier seminars will be open to University faculty members, students, and to the general public. Efforts will be made to create a nice and friendly environment, with the goal to provide chances for future collaborations. Students will be invited to bring a poster showing their research results, projects or scientific interests. This will allow students to discuss their ideas with experienced crystallographers and favour aggregation. The programme received good support from scientific institutions and vendors, and a great response from the students: more than 110 pre-registrations from 33 countries were already received at the time this abstract was prepared, showing that there is a real need for both fundamental and advanced teaching in crystallography. We hope that this format will be continued and improved so as to provide a stable, periodic rendezvous for students and researchers under the common theme of crystallography.


1999 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark L. Grover

An important responsibility of collection development libraries is to ensure that what is being collected is appropriate for the university’s curriculum and research needs. Unfortunately the large number of techniques that have been developed to measure collections work better with small college collections. As libraries grow and the range of library materials increase, many of these methods have proved to be inadequate. This study explores the use of statistics from the National Shelflist Count Project to gather enough valid statistical information to adequately assess large research collections.


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