The Freedom Collection 2017–2021: Part 1, The Composition of the Freedom Collection and UNCL’s Downloads by Member and Subject

With data provided by a colleague, the author looked at the University of Nebraska Consortium of Libraries (UNCL) downloading activity of Elsevier\u27s Freedom Collection for the 2017-2021 interval. Members include the University of Nebraska at Kearney, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and University of Nebraska Omaha. The author looked at activity by member and by subject at the level of journals\u27 Library of Congress Classifications. This report was submitted in the fall of 2022 to the UNL Libraries Collections Strategies Committee (CSC) and to the members of the Collections Strategies and Open Scholarship (CSOS) department

Use It or Lose It!: Results of a Use Study of the Print Sources in an Academic Library reference collection.

Describes a use study of a reference collection, which found that 7.1 percent of total volumes in the reference collection were used over the course of the fall semester

Bibliography versus Auto-Bibliography: Tackling the Transformation of Traditions in the Research Process

Ms. Babb reports on a study conducted to determine whether researchers will identify the same works recommended by scholarly bibliographies if their searching is limited to the confines of the library catalog and its subject headings. She explores how the auto-bibliography of the catalog compares to more traditionally compiled bibliographies, and what—if anything—is sacrificed when users rely upon auto-bibliography rather than scholarly bibliography

Discovering Jewish Studies Collections in Academic Libraries: A Practical Guide

The U.S. colleges and universities offering non-sectarian educational programs in Jewish Studies rely on the support of their academic libraries for research materials and library services. For college libraries which use Library of Congress Classification scheme, it is a common practice to integrate studies resources into their general library collections. Since Jewish Studies sources span a vast number of subjects within all major disciplines, shelving integration leads to the dispersion of all relevant sources and such dispersion in turn leads to a variety of problems for library professionals and library users. For collection development librarians the problems range from lack of information about collection\u27s size, strengths or weaknesses, and for library users interested in browsing the collection, dispersion of subjects creates a major roadblock. This practical guide aims at providing a solution to such problems. By identifying all relevant Library of Congress call numbers and the corresponding Library of Congress subject headings, the guide offers a simplified access to Jewish Studies sources in general library collections. It is arranged by four major discipline: Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences, and General Works & Bibliographies. Within each discipline, specific LC call number ranges and corresponding subjects are listed. The subjects are further subdivided and precisely identified. The guide will assist collection development librarians, library liaisons, grants and fundraising professionals and especially the Jewish Studies faculty and students, in identifying and locating relevant sources

Hiding in Plain Sight: An Exploration of the Classification of LGBT Materials in Libraries and Bookstores

The goal of this study has been to analyze the classification of prominent, award winning books on LGBT topics, to see how these topics are being treated in libraries and bookstores today. These materials have, in the past, been placed in a variety of locations throughout the library, sometimes with unsavory connotations. This study, however, does more to show the limited reach of even the most acclaimed fiction and nonfiction LGBT titles in today’s libraries and bookstores, with eleven books from the sample appearing in three or fewer institutions. Those books that were frequently held across all institutions visited were frequently organized alphabetically by author or topic, and very few of them were discoverable or browsable based upon their LGBT content.Master of Science in Library Scienc

The Case of the Disappearing E-Book: Academic Libraries and Subscription Packages

One of the standard models for e-book licensing in academic libraries is the subscription package. This study is a one-year analysis of disappeared titles from ebrary\u27s Academic Complete™ collection. During 2013, 3462 titles were deleted. Deleted titles were mainly recent publications (published within the last ten years), with a high number of deletions within the broad subject areas of the social sciences (H), language and literature (P), and history (C, D, E, F). Deleted titles were evenly divided between monographs published by popular presses, and monographs published by scholarly or university presses. It is recommended that deleted titles be closely monitored by subject librarians. Efficient library processes for handling deleted titles must also be implemented. Implications for libraries of changing e-book content are also discussed

Classification Along the Color Line: Excavating Racism in the Stacks

This paper contends that systemic violence is fundamentally a classification problem. The interrogation of the production of racialized library subjects in relation to one another and in relation to political and social conditions may shed light on the intensely complex problems of racism in the United States today. I discuss the ways that sections of library classifications were constructed based on ideas about African Americans in relation to American social and political agendas. My claim is that the structures that were written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are deeply embedded in our libraries and have participated in the naturalization of certain racialized assumptions and associations. In the 21st century we continue to maintain, apply, and refine a flawed structure. My aim is to provide a window into how epistemic violence affects American consciousness about race by revealing some of the ways that our library classifications have been woven together by a group of men who cited and informed one another and ultimately, organized and universalized American history. These classifications are structured around assertions about timeless and fixed national values constructed out of progressive conceptualizations of the nation and its citizenry. A reliance on racial exclusion was necessary for this grand narrative, and scientific theories and classifications provided legitimacy and fuel for racist programs. One of key ways that exclusion was legitimated and supported was through the application of evolutionary theory and principles. Social engineering, white supremacy, and conquest were justified and propelled by beliefs in the evolutionary superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is not by accident that these ideas became foundational to classificatory practice in libraries. In fact, Thomas Dousa has drawn attention to the intellectual climate in which late 19th century library classificationists worked - particularly, the theories and classifications of the sciences and nature as devised by Auguste Compte, Herbert Spencer, and Charles Darwin - and argues that these ideas and systems inspired the introduction of evolutionary principles into bibliographic classifications.[i] The present paper is in agreement with Dousa's claim and argues that such a conclusion carries critical implications for understanding libraries' classifications of race and ethnicity. Emphasis is placed is on the legacy of the classification of books about people of African descent as variously named and conceptualized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The last section of the paper examines the classifications as performatives to examine some of the processes by which racism has become systemic on library shelves. [i] Thomas M. Dousa, "Evolutionary Order in the Classification Theories of CA Cutter and EC Richardson: Its Nature and Limits." NASKO 2, no. 1 (2011): 76

The Jewish Studies Book Awards: a collection development strategy for non-sectarian academic libraries

Article provides an alternative method of building quality collections for Jewish Studies collection development professionals in small and medium-sized academic librarie