The Effect of Next-Generation Catalogs on Catalogers and Cataloging Functions in Academic Libraries

Next-generation catalogs or discovery tools (NGCs) overlay existing bibliographic data and repackage it in displays that differ from the traditional catalog. Many implementations of NGCs have revealed errors, omissions, or inconsistencies in the underlying data that had not been apparent in the traditional catalog. This study explored the effect of NGCs on cataloging functions and catalogers in academic libraries, examining catalogers’ participation in the selection and implementation processes, identifying and correcting data problems, changes to procedures or workflow, and staffing.     

Attitudes of OhioLINK Librarians Toward Google Scholar

ABSTRACT

Almost three years after Google Scholar's inception, only a third of Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) member libraries link to it from their Web sites. This article reports the results of a July 2007 survey of OhioLINK academic librarians, conducted to find out about their attitudes and current practices regarding promotion of Google Scholar. It compares the findings about placement of Google Scholar on Web sites and inclusion in library instruction with previous research, and includes recommendations for libraries about Google Scholar.     

Knowing your users and what they want

Abstract

In order to have a successful library program for offcampus students, librarians must understand who their students are and what they want. This paper will address the issues involved in conducting a user survey for off-campus students. The paper will cover details on developing a survey; it will discuss the logistics of sending and receiving; and it will examine one method of evaluation. This work is based on a student survey conducted by the University of Iowa Libraries during November 1998 and March 1999.     

Print Collections Management in the Wake of Digitization

Ross Housewright, a Research Analyst at Ithaka S+R (http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/) delivered the keynote address at the E-Resources Symposium at Mississippi State University on September 16, 2010. Housewright challenged traditional thinking about collection and preservation activities in the academic library setting. He introduced two important Ithaka S+R programs—the Faculty Survey and the What to Withdraw Framework—and discussed how they can assist serials librarians struggling to maintain the proper balance between patron needs, budget pressures, and the library's mission to preserve materials in the age of mixed digital and print collections.     

Valuing knowledge over action: the example of gender in educational leadership

Gender inequalities in educational administration attract calls for research internationally. The degree of concern and the urgent search for cause and cure are characterised as within an epidemic logic, evoking a managerialist ‘scientific’ reliance on evidence-driven change. Taking a poststructuralist approach, the paper uses a study of South African women school principals to position gender research as a tool for change. It considers one area of their experience that impacts on their leadership, marriage, as a vehicle to explore how research might be used. The paper challenges Western Enlightenment teleological cultural assumptions. It suggests that knowledge may be all we have to continue the negotiation of power where there is no solid ground of rightness about what views and actions disempower or the contrary and that it may, in itself, be a powerful force in the face of intractable problems.     

Teaching Undergraduate Business Students to Access Public Company Information: Assessing Students’ Use of Library Resources

During the spring 2007 semester, a large cohort of undergraduates enrolled in the BUS110 course offered through the Stony Brook University College of Business. The business librarian and other library instruction librarians provided single library sessions to all sections of the course. Toward the end of the 1-hour library information session, the students were asked to fill out an online user satisfaction survey to assess how much they had learned and to evaluate the teaching tools and methodology of the librarians. Toward the end of the semester the business librarian posted a follow up survey to the BUS110 Blackboard site to assess whether the students had used the resources demonstrated by the librarians in the library session, whether they had had follow-up interactions with the librarians, and whether they had positive attitudes toward the library, librarians, and business databases. The majority of students had used the databases and had a positive attitude toward the instruction and the library.     

A systematic analysis of quality of teaching surveys

All tertiary institutions in Australia use the same Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ); however, for the internal evaluation of teaching they use their own surveys. This paper performs an analysis of the internal Quality of Teaching Surveys (QTS) used in Australian universities. We classify the questions within the QTS surveys. This classification is used to explore how different universities’ surveys are similar to each other. We find that some universities use a QTS that is quite distinct from other universities. We also investigate whether there is a particular pattern to the types of questions used in the surveys. We find that there are some question types that are employed widely in a typical survey and others that are not. This analysis can be used by universities to determine how their surveys compare to their peer institutions and other institutions across Australia.     

A recipe for effective participation rates for web‐based surveys

One way many universities have approached the process of better understanding and meeting the needs of their students is through student evaluations. The evaluation data provide not only diagnostic feedback but also useful information in terms of the quality of learning and teaching experiences. In an effective quality cycle, the data gathered are analysed and used to make improvements. This is often referred to as ‘closing the loop’. However, for any evaluation data to be of value an important prerequisite for ‘closing the loop’ is that response rates should be sufficiently high to be representative of the student cohort. This paper describes how a faculty within Monash University utilising only web based surveys developed a successful communication strategy to elicit staff and student participation in the unit (subject) evaluation process which achieved a response rate as high as 83.2%.     

A Library in the Metro Station

This paper discusses the results of a survey of patrons of the Metro McGill Library, a facility opened on December 14, 1981, on the pedestrian overpass of the McGill metro station in Montreal. The study shows that this convenient library attracted 5,000 new library users in one year's time.     

International mathematics tests and pupils with special educational needs

Tandi Clausen-May is a principal research officer in the Department for Research in Assessment and Measurement at the National Foundation for Educational Research. In this article, she examines the accessibility for learners with special educational needs of some of the mathematics questions from tests used in the 2003 cycle of two international surveys. Aspects of the language and layout of the questions are considered in relation to the principles of universal design as these are being formulated in the context of test development. Some potential barriers to the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs are identified and possible alter-native wording and presentation of the questions are suggested. Tandi Clausen-May closes her article with a discussion of the way in which some of the principles of universal design might inform the development of more inclusive tests for the future.