Student Reliance on Faculty Guidance in the Selection of Reading Materials

Academic librarians have traditionally built undergraduate core collections based on the suggestions of college faculty and on selection tools such as Books for College Libraries and Choice. The assumption that these materials meet the course-related reading needs of undergraduates is founded on the premise that the teaching faculty will provide guidance to their students, either directly or through reading lists, in selecting appropriate books. This study, undertaken in the Purdue University General Library, shows that undergraduates do not depend on teaching faculty as a primary resource to aid in the selection of reading materials from the library nor do they make extensive use of titles selected on the basis of critical merit as identified in either Choice or Books for College Libraries.     

Information Needs and Information Seeking Behavior of Agricultural Scientists in Malaysia

Knowledge about the information needs and seeking behavior of scientists could play a vital role in meeting their information needs effectively. Libraries can use this knowledge for re-orienting their collections and facilities to attune them to the needs of the scientific community. This study explores information needs and seeking behavior of Malaysian agricultural scientists. It was found that research scientists spent 16% of their office time on reading and literature searching, whereas academicians spent 9.3% of their time for this purpose. The study also revealed that scientists preferred using primary sources of information, particularly journal and review articles. Informal communication with professional colleagues was also considered important for exchanging current research information. A large number of the participants felt that they had not been keeping in touch with scientific literature due to deficient library collections and services. This article recommends that science and technology libraries should periodically survey the information needs of their users, assess their collections and facilities, and strengthen their promotional activities.     

A Multicultural Studies Collection Enhancement Group:

Librarians in small academic libraries rarely have the time or personnel to develop their collections adequately. All too frequently their holdings lag behind the research needs of faculty and students. To offset this tendency Dickinson College funded a faculty summer study group with the specific charge of enhancing the library's holdings in the area of Black of African American Studies. The results were impressive. For once faculty were forced to consider research materials when they created new courses or embellished old ones, while the library received the extra plus of high profile purchasing with a strong likelihood of use. This article suggests that such preemptive collection development-the focused purchasing in specific areas prior to their introduction to the curriculum-could serve as a useful model in other cross-disciplinary endeavors.     

Social Science Sponsored Researchers

This study examined the use of academic libraries by academic sponsored researchers in the social sciences at five universities in the greater Boston area. It provides information about researchers use of the library during the proposal development and research stages; it inquires into other information sources employed by the researchers; and it collects data about the types and ages of information materials used in support of the respondent's research projects. Analysis of the responses indicates that for the majority of the researchers, the library was used between one and five times during their proposal development work but that the resources of the library were not a factor in the development of their research proposals. While the researchers indicated that they had used or expected to use their campus libraries as well as other libraries during the course of their research, they also expected to obtain research related information from other sources. They ranked their personal collections first in importance as the place they turned to for information materials in support of their research activity, with their campus library or libraries ranked second.     

Information systems and collection development in public libraries

Collection development in public libraries is performed by one or more librarians who make use of a variety of selection tools. Computers and information systems are becoming increasingly important tools for selectors because they offer alternatives for assessing user needs, for gathering information about published materials, and for obtaining materials quickly. This paper describes a case study of twelve public library systems, the tasks they perform, and the sources they use in collection development. The selectors reported satisfaction with their jobs, increasing reliance upon information systems and electronic resources, and the need for system improvements to support selection for local collections in a publishing climate responsive to popular taste.     

Room for archives? Use of archival materials in <Emphasis Type="Italic">No Gun Ri</Emphasis> research

Archivists have long tried to understand users from the viewpoint of their archival collections. Such an approach misses important perspectives about use in, and users of, archives; how they perform research and develop knowledge while using archives. This study aims to comprehend the use of archival materials in research from the users’ perspective. It attempts to understand users’ perceptions of the impact of archival collections on their research, how and when archival materials are involved in the research process and how much weight they grant those materials in support of their thesis, from an actual research topic, the No Gun Ri massacre. The case of the No Gun Ri incident provides a good example of how archival materials play a role in historical discussions and an opportunity to look at archival contributions. No Gun Ri researchers acknowledged that archival documents were essential source materials for details about the incident and a major player in stimulating controversies and, consequently, provided the impetus for further publications. General recordkeeping situations also provided a circumstantial context of the incident. However, No Gun Ri researchers agreed that oral history was the most valuable and influential evidence for their major ideas and used archival documents to provide hard facts about the details of oral history. There are some unique research patterns of No Gun Ri researchers identified in this study which are different from the typical assumptions of archivists.     

Understanding users’ needs and making collections choices

Understanding user needs has always been the key to building relevant collections and designing appropriate services. The availability of electronic resources and the many choices of format and access methods have made understanding library users even more critical. Librarians can use formal and informal methods to gather information about users. Formal methods include surveys and focus groups. The information gathered can be used for selection and service. It should also be used to reshape the scholarly information system to better meet the needs of undergraduates and researchers, beginning users and sophisticated users’ and users who are doing in-depth research and those who just want a small amount of information quickly.     

What to Do Until the Expert Comes:

Students can be encouraged to work on multicultural and international topics in a small library (under 150,000 volumes) in spite of unhelpful subject headings and collections weak in resources directed to these issues. Tested methods include relearning the collections, using the world at large as a resource, restructuring assignments and topics, and developing new search strategies and using available materials in new ways to make maximum use of what is hidden in the collection.     

The Importance of “Focusness”: Focus Groups as a Means of Collection Management Assessment

ABSTRACT

In order to assess the Library's collection, the Collection Development Assessment Team at Cleveland State University used focus groups to complement the information gathered in LibQUAL+?. Groups of undergraduates, graduates, and faculty participated in four separate focus groups. All groups reported they were essentially satisfied with the collection but also wanted better local collections and used OhioLINK to supplement their research; fewer users also utilized the rich resources of the public library systems. In keeping with previous surveys, all groups wanted more full-text available electronically, faster access to materials, and a more navigable website. It appeared that the more sophisticated the user, the more satisfied they were with the collection. The Special Collections focus group would like to have more materials digitized, improved accessibility to the collection and website, and increased interaction with the community to heighten awareness of the collection and in order to gather more primary materials for the collection.     

Current Issues in Music Reference

Abstract

The climate of change in music reference represents a challenge to librarians. The three issues in the library literature that probably have the greatest impact on music reference service and are the subject of this paper are changes in users, sources, and modes of access to sources. These three issues are certainly related, as users need to use sources, and they need to know how to access them in order to use them. Reference librarians are called upon to mediate this process. Music library collections have their own peculiarities, however. Because they contain a wider variety of materials than many other kinds of library collections, reference librarians for music collections must be aware of the format, content, and intended uses of these materials, as well as the research patterns of their patrons. In the recent past, as cultural norms have changed with the paradigm of Western culture, users have wanted to use music libraries in new ways, and librarians are challenged to accommodate them. The musical genres used and requested by today's library patrons are different than they once were, both for listening and for academic study. Musical reference sources are being issued in electronic formats, and this represents a challenge for some users. The expanded use of interlibrary loan and electronic access to materials represents new opportunities and challenges. Music librarians are being called upon to provide services to patrons they may never see.     

Sex and Scholarship:

The first official transaction of the Institute for Sex Research, when it was incorporated in 1947, was to purchase the research materials and erotica collected by Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey. These materials now form the core of the largest collection of materials relating to human sexual behavior. The library, art, film, and photograph collections are open to qualified scholars and professionals with demonstrable research needs. Although the collections are not open to the general public, access to information contained in the collections is possible through the Information Services Department of the Institute.     

Beyond the fringe: Administratively decentralized collections at the University of Michigan

Little is known about the materials that university departments purchase for their own use. This study examines materials purchased for other departments at the University of Michigan, whether these materials were also held in the University of Michigan Libraries' collections, and the subjects of the materials purchased. Titles purchased for departmental collections were searched in the libraries' online public catalog to determine whether they were held by the University Libraries, and if so, their subject. The majority of titles purchased for departmental libraries were held in the University Libraries collection. As a whole, the purchases were concentrated in science, technical, and medical fields; moreover, titles in these fields were more likely than others to be duplicated in the University Libraries. This study provides initial insight into the relation of independent departmental collections and raises many questions about the relation of such collections to central university libraries.     

Use of print and electronic resources by agricultural science students in Nigerian universities

A two-part questionnaire was designed to elicit information on use of print and electronic resources by agricultural science students in Nigerian universities. 912 respondents from faculties of agriculture in three Nigerian universities completed the questionnaires. The results revealed that agricultural science students most prefer to use textbooks (42.1%) among print materials, while The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) is the most preferred among electronic resources available in their libraries (52.2%). Major problems faced by the agricultural science students include inadequate access to full Internet connectivity and lack of skills on their part to use available electronic databases properly. The study recommends restructuring library collections by increasing the number of agricultural textbooks and databases to meet the information use and retrieval needs of agricultural science students. Other recommendations include establishing Internet-ready computer centers to complement teaching, learning, and research in the library.     

Citation Analysis as a Tool for Collection Development and Instruction

The authors analyzed bibliographies from three departments’ undergraduate senior theses, with the goal of improving both collection development and information literacy instruction. Though undergraduate students were not citing major journals or key authors, the study revealed popular research topics, which will inform collection development. The finding that the library owned 70% of the journal articles undergraduates cited suggests that they are more likely to cite what their own institution owns, and thus a strong collection can have a significant influence on undergraduate work. The data also prompted conversations with faculty about their expectations and current strategies for guiding undergraduate research, which will allow librarians to improve instruction.     

Exploitation and exploration: An analysis of the research pattern of Nobel laureates in Physics

As the representative of prominent scientists, understanding the Nobel laureates’ research patterns throughout their careers are helpful to promote the science development. We use the BERT model to vectorize the laureates’ papers and calculate the similarity matrices among them, and detect the research topics of each laureate by Affinity Propagation clustering. We further propose relevant indexes based on Kuhn's ‘essential tension’ hypothesis and divide the laureates’ research topics into the Prize-winning topic, the topic semantically closest to the Prize-winning topic, and other non-Prize-winning topics. The empirical analysis of 117 Nobel laureates in Physics shows that they have a similar research pattern, that is, they tend to explore 2 to 3 topics alternately in different periods, but they usually identify the core research topics early and mainly focus on exploiting them throughout their careers, and other non-Prize-winning topics they explore are often related in some way to the Prize-winning ones.     

Now Tell Us What You Want: Information-Seeking Habits of Health Sciences Faculty

Over the years, library collections have vastly changed due to an ever-growing presence of resources available online. Many libraries have experienced a dramatic decrease in the circulation of physical materials with the shift to online availability of materials. It is of great value to ensure libraries are meeting the needs of their users, and this can be accomplished by identifying their information-seeking patterns. The aim of this article is to examine how faculty use the library and to identify what services and resources are of value to their work.     

Biotechnology awareness study, Part 2: Meeting the information needs of biotechnologists

The second part of the biotechnology awareness study focused on health sciences libraries and how well they are meeting the needs of biotechnologists working in the study's nine medical centers. A survey was conducted over a three-month period to assess the demand for biotechnology-related reference services at nine libraries and the sources the librarians used to answer the questions. Data on monographic and current serial holdings were also collected. At the end of the survey period, librarians were asked for their perceptions about biotechnology research at their institutions and in their geographic areas. Their responses were compared to the responses the scientists at the nine schools gave to the same or similar questions. Results showed few biotechnology-related reference questions were asked of the librarians. The recorded questions dealt with a range of biotechnology subjects. MEDLINE was used to answer 77% of the questions received during the survey period. More detailed notes in MeSH and a guide to online searching for biotechnology topics were suggested by the librarians as ways to improve reference service to this group of researchers. Journal collections were generally strong, with libraries owning from 50% to 87% of the titles on a core list of biotechnology journals compiled for this study. All libraries subscribed to the five titles most often cited by the scientists surveyed. Generally, librarians were unaware of the biotechnology-related research being done on their campuses or in their geographic areas.     

Access to Serials Collections in Four Nigerian Universities

Abstract

The author surveyed four university libraries in southwest Nigeria regarding access to their serials collections. It was found that in the libraries surveyed, undergraduates not in their final year often had at most limited access to the collections. This can be attributed to a variety of reasons including security and a lack of space; however, of more importance still is the fact that the collections are intended to cater mainly to researchers. In addition, it was found that the libraries usually provide open access to their serials collections, the collections are generally understaffed and suffer from a shortage of current, relvant journals.     

Test collection reliability: a study of bias and robustness to statistical assumptions via stochastic simulation

The number of topics that a test collection contains has a direct impact on how well the evaluation results reflect the true performance of systems. However, large collections can be prohibitively expensive, so researchers are bound to balance reliability and cost. This issue arises when researchers have an existing collection and they would like to know how much they can trust their results, and also when they are building a new collection and they would like to know how many topics it should contain before they can trust the results. Several measures have been proposed in the literature to quantify the accuracy of a collection to estimate the true scores, as well as different ways to estimate the expected accuracy of hypothetical collections with a certain number of topics. We can find ad-hoc measures such as Kendall tau correlation and swap rates, and statistical measures such as statistical power and indexes from generalizability theory. Each measure focuses on different aspects of evaluation, has a different theoretical basis, and makes a number of assumptions that are not met in practice, such as normality of distributions, homoscedasticity, uncorrelated effects and random sampling. However, how good these estimates are in practice remains a largely open question. In this paper we first compare measures and estimators of test collection accuracy and propose unbiased statistical estimators of the Kendall tau and tau AP correlation coefficients. Second, we detail a method for stochastic simulation of evaluation results under different statistical assumptions, which can be used for a variety of evaluation research where we need to know the true scores of systems. Third, through large-scale simulation from TREC data, we analyze the bias of a range of estimators of test collection accuracy. Fourth, we analyze the robustness to statistical assumptions of these estimators, in order to understand what aspects of an evaluation are affected by what assumptions and guide in the development of new collections and new measures. All the results in this paper are fully reproducible with data and code available online.