Do Holdings Have a Future?

Summary

Holdings are multipurpose data which libraries use to acquire and control publications, display information to users, and manage physical and sometimes virtual items. This workshop focused on how the various functions interact, what further services librarians will demand from automation of their holdings, and what they can do in the meantime to make their holdings more useful. The workshop gave special attention to the USMARC Format for Holdings Data (MHFD), its features, advantages and difficulties, and its particular role in conveying serials information. It explored possibilities for adapting the format to solve the special problems associated with multiple versions and title changes.     

Do Museum Exhibitions Have a Future?

Abstract A 50‐year retrospective return to the first volume of Curator: The Museum Journal suggests that colleagues half a century ago were vitally aware of the cultural potential of museums, the well‐being of visitors, the need for interpretation and learning, and even the appeal of staying open 24 hours a day. So the more things change, the more they stay the same? The question leads to others: Are exhibitions an obsolete medium? Can museums keep pace with the interactions available elsewhere: virtual games, video arcades, jazz clubs, even a good Chinese restaurant? Is the glass half full of optimism or pessimism?     

How Many Libraries Do We Need?

ABSTRACT

According to the American Library Association, there are 119,000 libraries in the United States. But how many do we need? In this vision session report, Arizona State University Librarian James J. O’Donnell addresses this question through the lenses of discovery tools, usability, and marketing strategy. He also addresses the need for a more global and collaborative approach to collection building in libraries. This deliberately provocative talk provides several different ways to think about the answer to the title question—and several answers.     

The Plugged-in Reference Librarian: Who Do We Think We Are?

In recent years, academic reference librarians often find themselves working in closer proximity to computer workstations, labs, and information commons. They are spending a greater portion of their time assisting library users with the vast array of software and hardware used to access library resources. This study examines whether an increased demand for technological knowledge and proficiency is reflected in job expectations for academic reference librarians. Researchers compared randomly chosen academic reference librarian job advertisements from 1999 to those from 2011, examining both job responsibilities and candidate qualifications. Results were mixed, with some variables gaining prominence but others declining. There was no apparent increase in demand for technological skills and responsibilities overall.     

Reference Ethics - Do We Need Them?

No abstract available for this article.     

Do We Have It? A Comparative Analysis of Library Journal Holdings and Works Referenced in Faculty Publications

Libraries often wonder if their collections can support their faculty’s research. Large citation databases, such as Scopus or Web of Science, can help automate such a review process. This session will present findings about to what extent faculty were able to complete their journal publications without utilizing interlibrary loan. Using data gathered from Scopus, the range and date of journals referenced by faculty at my home institution will be compared with holdings from my library’s electronic resources knowledge base to determine the level of overlap. Results will be presented by journal discipline to highlight any variation among the science, social science, and arts and humanities divisions. Special emphasis will be given to using this data to inform decisions about purchasing journal backfile collections.     

Teaching Cost-Effective Research Skills: Have We Overemphasized Its Importance?

Surveys of law librarians show concern with the lack of cost-effective research skills of law students and new associates. Some commentators call for greater emphasis on the subject in legal research classes. To explore whether the subject merits increased instructional attention, the author surveyed second- and third-year law students at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law about their summer research experiences. The purpose of the survey was to find out how much importance summer employers placed on containing online research costs. The student survey results contradict the commonly expressed view that employers are greatly concerned with containing online research costs. The author posits that law library surveys generally reflect the experiences of large firm librarians, whereas the great majority of students and practicing attorneys do not work at these organizations. The concerns of these librarians might not be as relevant for students who work at smaller firms and government organizations. The author notes that the survey results suggest that there is no need for increased emphasis on cost-effective research at schools that do not have a large percentage of students who go on to work at large firms.     

How Much Do We Really know About Equity's Impact on Relational Communication? Issues in Measuring Equity in Communication Research

This study examined the question of whether the short global measure of equity that is typically used in communication research has fidelity to the manner in which equity was originally conceptualized. Participants were 100 pairs of college students in close relationships. They reported equity in their relationships using Hatfield's 1-item measure and also a component measure calculated with Walster et al.'s original formula for computing equity. The two measures correlated only r = .28 (students) and .26 (partners). Correlations between these measures and other relational properties that are theoretically related (e.g., satisfaction, closeness) did not provide definitive support for either measure as being a valid measure of equity. These findings have significant implications for study of equity and relational communication, especially relational maintenance, because they cast question on how valid our measurement of equity has actually been.     

Do old Norms Have a Place in New Media?

Emerging business models for news have the potential to affect the nature of democracy. As the economic foundations of mainstream journalism become increasingly shaky, a new economic model is emerging in the form of news organizations operating as nonprofits. These are mostly run by former newspaper journalists bringing with them traditional journalistic norms they worked under previously; now they are operating under a vastly different economic framework. These organizations are producing a growing amount of public affairs news while mainstream news production shrinks. The research question examined here is whether this emergent form (1) changes but maintains core norms and practices of the journalistic culture from which it arose, or (2) transforms norms and practices into something new. I briefly review norms and practices of traditional journalism to create a framework against which to compare behaviors at one nonprofit news organization, MinnPost, through ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews. My findings indicate that MinnPost values some traditional norms (e.g. loyalty to citizens); other norms are valued but not fulfilled in a traditional way (e.g. comprehensiveness of news coverage); yet others are largely eschewed (e.g. forum provision). This suggests a set of evolving journalistic tenets, which observations indicate are linked to MinnPost's economic structure. It points toward how emerging business models are changing journalism, and by extension could be affecting American democracy. This paper is part of a larger project investigating how nonprofit news organizations are changing the information available in local news environments.     

Why Do We Indulge? Exploring Motivations for Binge Watching

This study explored an expanded definition and motivations for binge-watching behavior. In addition to the number of episodes, the amount of time, frequency, and engagement in binge-watched programs were considered for the binge-watching definition. Study findings revealed that over half of the respondents of this study were light binge viewers. In addition, among a total of seven motivations identified in literature, only the entertainment motivation is a significant predictor of binge watching for those with a low level of binge watching, while both passing time and entertainment were found to be significant predictors for those with a high level of binge watching.     

Do Serials Have a Place in the Institutional Digital Repository?

ABSTRACT

The institutional repository (IR) can provide a system for digitizing print serials for online delivery and a way to archive and preserve serial content already available online. Organizing serial content in IRs varies based on the architecture of each repository. In this presentation, Kay Teel of the Metadata Department at Stanford University Libraries discussed different approaches IRs use to manage serial content. She gave examples illustrating the inconsistent treatment of serials in the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR) and described a conceptual model for serials in the SDR to provide an improved user experience finding and accessing digital serial content.     

Electronic Serials Cataloging: Now That We're Here,What Do We Do?

Summary

Many aspects of electronic serials cataloging have not yet developed standard practice, or are still in transition. This article will explore some problematic issues in electronic serials cataloging first by presenting current CONSER policy in these areas and then by examining the practices of three institutions who are cataloging electronic serials. For brevity, the term “electronic serial” will be used to mean “remote access computer file serial” unless the more specific term is needed for clarity. The five topics covered in this discussion are: Access and Location Information, Multiple Versions, Definition of Electronic Serial, Bibliographic Access Points and Display of Computer File Characteristics.     

Electronic Copyright Rights: Do You Have What You Need?

Publishing agreements have long operated with certain assumptions about what books are and what publishers do. These assumptions are increasingly at odds with the new technological forms in which books are created and marketed, from e-books and Kindle 2 read-aloud works to so-called “vooks” that incorporate on-demand streaming video and other internet-based features in conjunction with hard copy books. Publishers’ contracts need to be re-thought in light of these changed circumstances. Specifically, publishing contracts today should focus on the activities in which the publisher may engage, and not the form in which the work may be presented, a point that was made clear several years ago in the Random House v. RosettaBooks litigation. In defining these activities, contracts should track the language of the exclusive rights enumerated in §106 of the Copyright Act. Finally, to the extent that books are becoming “audiovisual works” publishers may be able to shift to a work-made-for-hire model for obtaining ownership, rather than relying on grants from individual authors.