All About Demand-Driven Acquisition

This article reports on a talk delivered at the Mississippi State University Libraries eResource & Emerging Technologies Summit. The author introduces the concept of Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) for e-books and explains how it works. The author discusses predicting and controlling costs, as well as other implementation decisions. Finally, the author discusses the possibility of removing books from a DDA program and speculates on some of the effects of DDA on libraries and scholarly publishing.     

Connecting to nature at the zoo: implications for responding to climate change

Societal response to climate change has been inadequate. A perception that the issue is both physically and temporally remote may reduce concern; concern may also be affected by the political polarization surrounding the issue in the USA. A feeling of connection to nature or to animals may increase personal relevance, and a supportive social context may counteract political tensions. Zoos may provide opportunities for both sense of connection and social support. We surveyed over 7000 zoo and aquarium visitors to examine the ways in which a feeling of personal connection among zoo visitors may encourage concern about climate change. Results show that feeling connected to animals at the zoo is significantly associated with cognitive and emotional responses to climate change, as well as with other social groupings and social responses. Overall, the zoo seems to present a supportive social context for considering the topic.     

The growing (but still limited) importance of evidence in education policy and practice

The last decade of education change has been characterized by the rise of evidence-based policy and practice agendas. Internationally, we are witnessing efforts to increase and incorporate research use in public services. This article examines efforts in education to address the research–practice gap through an emerging field we term knowledge mobilization (KM). We explore some of the controversy surrounding the use of ‘evidence’, outline national and international KM initiatives and consider some of the issues and challenges that arise from the increased interest in evidence and research use in education. We also assess the current state and desirable future directions of efforts to strengthen the role of research and evidence in education.     

Analysis of format duplication in an academic library collection

The issue of format duplication in academic library collections is increasingly complicated and perplexing in an environment of static or dwindling resources, soaring user expectations, dynamic access models, and inconsistent and changing publisher and vendor pricing structures. The problem is further complicated for libraries serving a university with multiple campus locations. This paper surveys recent investigative projects and highlights the work of a Duplicate Formats Task Force at Pennsylvania State University charged with determining the extent and nature of format duplication at that institution.     

Scholar Commons @ USF: Sharing Knowledge Worldwide

Librarians and faculty members are now working together through Open Access (OA) publishing to make faculty-produced scholarly content available to researchers worldwide. The University of South Florida Tampa Library has been working with the Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) Digital Commons platform to create a substantial institutional repository (IR) that includes OA journals, conference proceedings, and data sets, among other materials. Library staff members are currently involved in a variety of activities, including negotiating memoranda of understanding, loading backfiles, registering Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) with CrossRef, designing layout, doing final publication steps, and assisting with technical issues. In 2011, the IR, Scholar Commons @ USF, went live, allowing the library to pull fragmented collections previously hosted on other platforms into a single system with improved discoverability. This article discusses how the repository was established, what is involved, lessons learned, and plans for future directions.     

The Early Childhood Teacher's Voice in the Research Community La Voix de l'Educateur des Jeunes Enfants dans le Monde de la Recherche La Voz del Profesor de la Primera Infancia en la Comuniad Investigadora

This paper focuses attention on the early childhood teacher's place in the research community. It provides a look at the teachers' perspectives of research and then points out ways and reasons for early childhood teachers to become more active as classroom researchers, research partners and consumers of research through pre-service and in-service opportunities. After providing a definition of teacher research as systematic inquiry into one's own classroom, it discusses the value of such research and identifies historical support for it. The paper presents examples of partnership research using a video camera as a tool for data collection and teachers' reactions to it. It also provides quotes of individual teacher's introduction to teacher research and some points to consider in embarking on classroom research. Cette conference traite de la place de l'enseignant de la petite enfance dans le monde de la recherche. Nous allons examiner les perspectives des enseignants en matiere de recherche, puis indiquer comment et pourquoi rendre les enseignants de la petite enfance plus actifs en tant que chercheurs dans le cadre de la classe, partenaires de recherche et consommateurs de recherche grace a des opportunites offertes avant et pendant leur enseignement. Apres avoir fourni une definition de la recherche des enseignants en tant qu'examen systematique de leur propre classe, nous examinerons la valeur de cette recherche a l'aide d'une camera video comme outil de collecte de donnees et les reactions des enseignants. Nous citerons egalement l'opinion d'enseignants formes a cette recherche et nous signalerons quelques aspects a considerer avant de lancer une recherche en classe. Esta charla centra su atencion en la posicion del profesor de pequenos en la comunidad investigadora. Ofrece un idea de las perspectivas de investigacion de los profesores y luego senala maneras y razones para que los profesores de ninos pequenos sean mas activos como investigadoes de clase, socios de investigacion y consumidoes de investigacion a traves de oporunidades de preservicio y en servicio. Despues de facilitar una definicion de la investigacion de profesores como encuesta sistematica del aula propia, se habla del valor de dicha investigacion y se identifica un apoyo historico para la misma. Esta charla presenta ejemplos de investigacion conjunta usando videocamara como herramienta para la recopilacion de datos y reacciones de los profesores. Tambien ofrece citas de introducciones individuales de profesores a la investigacion de profesores y algunos puntos a considerar al emprender la investigacion de una clase.