The approval plan profiling session

The approval plan profiling session, when vendor and library meet to establish specifications for a new approval plan, has received little attention in the literature. Preparation for the session requires decisions on a range of issues bearing upon the ultimate success of an approval plan such as publisher scope, subject specifications, duplication control, and budget. Organization of the session itself is also important. In addition to creation of a new profile, the profiling session is an excellent opportunity for library staff and the vendor, working together closely for a day or more, to lay the foundation for a strong and lasting relationship. This article is primarily intended for librarians new to the administration of approval plans. It outlines the steps necessary to organize a successful profiling session, whether for an entirely new approval plan, or for a new plan replacing a plan with another vendor.     

科技期刊编辑应重视编辑应用文的写作训练

阐明编辑应用文写作的意义,总结出编辑应用文写作训练的措施.认为:编辑应用文是开展编辑工作的工具,是展示编辑主体形象的标牌,编辑应用文的写作是提高编辑业务水平的重要手段;要写好编辑应用文,重要的是应加强理论和编辑业务修养,提高语言表达能力,掌握文体写作规范.     

公文开头方式与整体写作思路的对应关系及适用情况探析

本文从公文开头的要素构成着手,对公文开头方式的形成及与公文整体写作思路的对应关系进行了较深入的分析,概括出九种公文整体写作思路类型,并对公文开头方式的适用情况作了探索性解读,以期能对公文开头的写作规律有更深入的认识和把握,为公文写作实践提供方法指导。     

An expert system for predicting approval plan receipts

This paper explores the use of expert systems technology in one aspect of library acquisitions, the approval plan profile. The methodologies for determining whether a requested title would be received on approval were encoded in an expert system. The system design and test is described. Some of the advantages to using expert system technologies and the difficulties which were encountered are described. The future potential of expert systems for library acquisitions is addressed. A selected bibliography is included.     

Interdisciplinary Synergy: A Partnership Between Business and Library Faculty and Its Effects on Students’ Information Literacy

In today's information-rich environment, business faculty are challenged to teach students how to conduct effective business research and evaluate information critically. We describe collaboration between business professors and reference librarians in an introductory business course. Students were surveyed before and after completion of a Business Discovery Project requiring use of print and electronic sources in writing a research paper on a publicly traded company. Student perceptions indicated increased abilities in communication skills, research skills, use of business information sources, and composition skills; paired t tests showed these increases to be significant.     

Strategic Planning

ABSTRACT

Grounded in a campus-wide strategic planning effort and funded through a campus-wide lottery-based grant, the library at a small state-supported institution began a year long initiative with the primary objective of familiarizing faculty with the concept of information literacy. All librarians facilitated a series of hands-on, discipline-based workshops offered to faculty. The workshops served as the groundwork for the initial steps toward embedding information literacy concepts into the general education curriculum with the majority of classroom faculty participating in one of the workshops by the end of the academic year. This paper outlines the history and steps taken in the process.     

科技期刊青年编辑初次撰写编辑学论文实践探索

结合笔者所在编辑团队写作经验,提出了科技期刊青年编辑初次撰写编辑学论文的3个主要步骤:阅读文献、注重积累;抓住灵感、及时成文;打磨初稿、反复推敲。由此,科技期刊青年编辑通过实现编辑学论文写作零的突破,积极开展编辑学研究,逐步助力个人职业发展,为建设期刊强国添砖加瓦。     

Dynamic profiles using sentiment analysis and twitter data for voting advice applications

Nowadays, political campaigns combine traditional media channels with social media platforms, opening new and promising possibilities for parties and candidates looking for better political strategies and visibility. Voting advice applications (VAAs) recommend parties and candidates that are close to a citizen's political preferences and require the constrution of candidate and party profiles. Profile generation is an essential task in the development of VAAs and requires two steps: an unbiased design of political questionnaires and the collection of all candidates' answers. This paper presents an extension of a VAA, implemented in within the project Participa Inteligente (PI), a social-network platform designed for the 2017 Ecuadorian national elections. This work concentrates on the implementation of dynamic candidate profiling using Twitter data and sentiment analysis as an additional element to the static profile generation of VAAs. The implementation of a dynamic element for VAAs could help mitigate the effect of biased recommendations given during the construction of candidate and party profiles. At the end of this work, the dynamic profile is compared with the classic static elements developed within the PI project. The results show the level of similarities and differences between each of the elements in profile generation. This work provides an ideal basis for future research in the area of VAAs and their interfaces. Additionally, it opens up a broader spectrum of applications for policymakers including decision-making and collaborative working environments toward e-empowerment.     

A Review of “Nations of the World: A Political,Economic, and Business Handbook”

This case study presents the revision of an upper-division one-shot instruction session to include an online tutorial that introduces students to business information sources prior to the library session. In order to complete the assignment and prepare for the library session, students are prompted to find specific information using the given resource, and then consider questions regarding the information retrieved. Students in a 3000-level business writing class responded positively to the activity while providing a good amount of material to inform further iterations of the assignment.     

Using Consumer Data to Illustrate How the Library Channel Drives Digital Sales

The library channel is often underappreciated as a key part of a publisher’s business strategy. In an age where publishers are constantly seeking new revenue and marketing opportunities, presence in the library—digitally—can yield significant growth. This paper examines the library channel, its business model based on library lending, the performance of eBooks and audiobooks across all subjects, and consumer reading behavior. Digital Book Clubs, a relatively new phenomenon, are also defined and illustrated with examples demonstrating the library’s valuable role in increasing discoverability and ultimately sales.     

Developing a Marketing Orientation in Hospital Library Services: A Case Report

When the four Providence Health & Services libraries in Oregon regionalized services and resources, the transition, which was originally met with apprehension from some library users, turned out to be a resounding success. Despite a loss of two-thirds of the professional staff and a decreased budget, the new regionalized library experienced an increase in business and recognition. While many factors contributed to the success, a creative marketing and outreach campaign was a key component. This column describes the steps taken to promote regionalized library reference services and online resources.     

Reconsidering Consultants' Strategic Use of the Business Case for Diversity

The business case for diversity—the practice of connecting human differences to an organization's bottom line—has been critiqued for its compromised treatment of human difference. Through a grounded in action discursive analysis of 19 interviews with diversity consultants, this research identifies three occupational demands that prompted consultants to use the business case: organizational access, motivation, and emotion work. The analysis also identifies strategies consultants used that met these demands without relying on the business case: connecting to mission statements, connecting to individual tasks, appealing to personal experience, sequencing, combining, balancing discourses of emotion and business, drawing on spiritual grounding, and using humor. By identifying these alternatives, this analysis seeks to decrease consultants' dependence on the business case when meeting occupational demands and consequently mitigate the negative effects that scholars have attributed to its common use and consequent discursive dominance in diversity work. Additionally, the conclusions suggest that diversity professionals and scholars might more explicitly use the notion of “discursive merger” to advocate for social change in organizations.     

Selecting an approval plan vendor II: Comparative vendor data

This article is the second of three which are intended to reduce the time, cost and risk of selecting a domestic approval plan vendor for a college or university library. The authors compare data collected from eight major United States approval plan vendors covering nine areas: company background, employee background, customer service, profile and title selection, profile maintenance, materials forms/slips/returns handling, financial practices, statistical reporting and miscellaneous data. The authors caution that these comparative data cannot substitute for the specific, timely inquiry which should be made when a vendor selection decision is imminent.     

The evolving approval plan: how academic librarians evaluate services for vendor selection and performance

A survey of 291 academic librarians addressed the question of how libraries choose approval plan vendors, specifically how much emphasis is placed on various approval plan services and product features in choosing between competing approval plan vendors and how vendor performance is rated in those areas. Traditional services, including expertise in managing approval plans, e.g., profiling, and acquisitions services, customer service, and discount rate, along with corporate reputation and business practices, retained their core status. Electronic financial transactions was found to be very important to the libraries already using these services. Outsourcing services, e.g., cataloging or physical processing, with approval plan vendors, although newer, appear established and of considerable interest to some segments. Vendor performance was rated highest in corporate reputation, approval plan management, and in electronic financial transactions. Libraries with approval budgets under $100,000 expressed a degree of satisfaction with approval plan vendors on a level similar to larger libraries.     

An introduction to outsourcing

Outsourcing as a business strategy is discussed in relation to library practices. While contracting out services is being touted as a solution to many management problems, some government operations are moving to reduce use of contractors. As with other business arrangements, preliminary steps before considering outsourcing, such as defining quality and the expectations of both parties, must be taken. Acquisitions and collection development librarians have extensive experience with managing contracts with vendors but also have to think in new terms and develop new relationships, with vendor services expanding. Acquisitions librarians have many skills to offer in managing outsourcing arrangements, and general management and leadership abilities will still be necessary both for the staff working within the library and the contract services.     

Is the partnership working?: evaluating the approval plan vendor

An evaluation of a Blackwell U.S.–U.K. approval plan is ongoing during 1997–98. The goals of this evaluation are: to determine if appropriate books are being received in each subject; to obtain feedback from faculty members involved in selection; and to evaluate Blackwell as an approval plan vendor. The plan’s purpose and context are also being reviewed, especially budgetary and staffing issues. An evaluation procedure was written, statistical reports and lists of titles received on each profile were produced and distributed to departments, and discussions were held among liaison librarians and faculty members analyzing this data. Blackwell’s performance as an approval vendor will be measured against specific performance criteria, including publisher coverage and prevention of duplication. Results from the project to date include revision and improved coordination of subject profiles, experience using Blackwell’s Collection Manager Web site, and preparation for possible participation in an OhioLINK statewide approval plan.     

Teaching Specialized Legal Research: Business Associations

Business associations are a complex substantive topic that can be included in an advanced legal research course that teaches students sophisticated research, writing, and citation skills. This article presents the basic substantive law regarding business associations necessary to deliver instruction about advanced legal research, writing, and citation. This article also offers a model syllabus with suggested sources and assignments for students. These research assignments require students to perform tasks such as citing primary and secondary sources, learning advanced research skills using loose-leaf materials, assimilating information from multiple sources into cogent narratives, locating information using various electronic resources, digests, and other secondary sources, and locating and using forms pertinent to business association agreements. This article also provides an instructor with twenty-five suggested sources to use in assigning materials to students. These sources consist of both print and electronic versions. They additionally consist of treatises, monographs, guides, model statutory materials, electronic databases, Web sites, form guides, casebooks, a digest, and a citation manual.     

Next Generation Cataloging

During the past several years the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) noted increasing concern from the library community regarding the future of cataloging. In response to this concern and to the rapidly changing metadata environment, OCLC is taking steps to further a paradigm shift toward early acquisition of metadata in WorldCat directly from the entities responsible for content purchased by libraries—chiefly the publisher supply chain. This shift in thinking requires the acknowledgement that metadata is dynamic and will change over time and relies upon the automated capture of metadata early in the publishing cycle as well as automated processes to help make the early metadata “good enough.”     

Why Diverse Zines Matter: A Case Study of the People of Color Zines Project

Historically, zines have been an alternative outlet for niche topics, or writers and writing, that are ignored by mainstream media. Zines are significant because they offer the opportunity for connection, community, and networking between those interested in these diverse topics. The developments in digital technology have enabled zines to extend into the online sphere: this increased access has resulted in increased participation (by readers and writers). This paper will focus on (digital) zines that are created by people of colour (POC). In recent years, there has been much discussion and media coverage about the lack of diversity in cultural output, and various campaigns, to promote diverse writing have followed. Through a case study of the POC Zines Project—a community-building project that promotes zines by POC—this paper will look at how creators of zines are experimenting with digital formats and social platforms, and will consider what mainstream publishers can learn from this. As Radway (in: Anouk (ed) From codex to hypertext. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 2012) outlines “zine-ing is a social phenomenon, a form of social action driven by desires for new forms of sociability and new ways of being in the world” (p. 140): this paper will highlight the important of social collaboration and production on opening up the creative process and offering a response to the under-represented in traditional publishing.