Processes and Strategies for Collaboratively Purchasing Electronic Resources

Academic libraries collaborate to enhance and expand library services. However, libraries may not pursue collaborative electronic resource acquisitions due to complexity and the lengthy negotiation process. Two University of Minnesota campus libraries conducted a year-long pilot project to investigate intentional and proactive cooperative e-resource acquisitions. This article discusses the key strategies, processes, and lessons learned for collaboratively purchasing content, along with recommended best practices

Adoption of NISO’s Shared Electronic Resource Understanding (SERU) at US Academic Libraries

Following the emergence of electronic resources (e-resources), librarians developed licensing guidelines, standards, models, and understandings to educate, increase efficiencies, and retain rights afforded by copyright law. To reduce licensing burdens, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) released the Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) in 2008, a set of “understandings” created and agreed upon by libraries and vendors. The author conducted a survey in 2017 of licensing practices and SERU use at libraries. The survey analyzed 108 responses from US academic libraries signing at least one license in the twelve months preceding the survey

Next In Line, Please!: Using an Incident Management Tool to Track Reported Library Issues

As library systems move to the cloud and electronic resources outpace print resources, tracking reported issues can be daunting for any sized library. The University of Minnesota Libraries has creatively and strategically re-conceptualized how to use Service Now (an incident management tool (IMT)) to provide patrons AND staff with a single point of entry for reporting problems. While IMTs are common in the IT sector, their level of adoption in libraries is undocumented. The presenters will discuss incident management, tools and triage, as well as the outcome and impact of making the tool successfully work for the Libraries

Trust no agent: Building Strong Negotiation Skills

Let every eye negotiate for itself, And trust no agent. Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, sc. 1 Everybody negotiates, both at work and home. Negotiations in any context can have some pretty big impact on our lives, but in the work environment, they can also have impacts on our colleagues, and our users! Many of the most common areas for major-impact negotiations in libraries are related to technology and contracts, especially software and electronic resource purchases and subscriptions. But even if you don\u27t make major technology purchases, developing expertise in understanding contracts can be helpful for you and your organization - and building negotiation skills can have a positive impact throughout your life! We\u27ll start with a brief overview of contracts and how to evaluate them - then you\u27ll have the opportunity to improve all your negotiations (both formal and informal) through exercises and discussion. With lots of interaction, you\u27ll have the option to bring in examples from your own experiences, and will be encouraged to adapt and formulate your own negotiation style

Developing staff skills in e-resource troubleshooting: training, assessment, and continuous progress

Electronic resource troubleshooting is complex, sophisticated work that often falls to a very small number library staff, even in large institutions. Seeing a need to expand the group of staff capable of diagnosing and resolving e-resource access issues, librarians at the University of Minnesota Libraries developed a training program for E-Resource Management staff. The training program comprised a ten-part workshop, a post-workshop troubleshooting project using real-world examples drawn from user activity logs, ongoing meetings for continuous skill development, and assessment of participant knowledge levels at various stages of the training program. As a result, staff participants demonstrated an increased familiarity in troubleshooting skills and knowledge. This chapter describes the planning, design, and implementation of the training program and offers suggestions for how others might create their own training programs

One Change at a Time: Pop up Usability Testing

Library staff know the bizarre tricks and jargon we use to navigate our system and websites while our users continue to struggle and never get as adjusted. The University of Minnesota Libraries have committed to running monthly web usability tests in-house that illustrate the user\u27s perspective. These tests guide us in implementing changes to our system and websites. With little more than a spare computer, Skype, and a group of diligent and willing staff, we\u27ve been able to learn incredibly useful things about our web sites and applications. In this session, we\u27ll describe our process, some examples of evaluations we\u27ve run, what we\u27ve done with the information, lessons we\u27ve learned along the way, and we\u27ll show you how you too can run usability tests at your library

Ploidy variation in fungi: Polyploidy, aneuploidy, and genome evolution

The ability of an organism to replicate and segregate its genome with high fidelity is vital to its survival and for the production of future generations. Errors in either of these steps (replication or segregation) can lead to a change in ploidy or chromosome number. While these drastic genome changes can be detrimental to the organism, resulting in decreased fitness, they can also provide increased fitness during periods of stress. A change in ploidy or chromosome number can fundamentally change how a cell senses and responds to its environment. Here, we discuss current ideas in fungal biology that illuminate how eukaryotic genome size variation can impact the organism at a cellular and evolutionary level. One of the most fascinating observations from the past 2 decades of research is that some fungi have evolved the ability to tolerate large genome size changes and generate vast genomic heterogeneity without undergoing canonical meiosis

The state of US health, 1990-2016: Burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors among US states

INTRODUCTION Several studies have measured health outcomes in the United States, but none have provided a comprehensive assessment of patterns of health by state. OBJECTIVE To use the results of the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) to report trends in the burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors at the state level from 1990 to 2016. DESIGN AND SETTING A systematic analysis of published studies and available data sources estimates the burden of disease by age, sex, geography, and year. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Prevalence, incidence, mortality, life expectancy, healthy life expectancy (HALE), years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality, years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 333 causes and 84 risk factors with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) were computed. RESULTS Between 1990 and 2016, overall death rates in the United States declined from 745.2 (95% UI, 740.6 to 749.8) per 100 000 persons to 578.0 (95% UI, 569.4 to 587.1) per 100 000 persons. The probability of death among adults aged 20 to 55 years declined in 31 states and Washington, DC from 1990 to 2016. In 2016, Hawaii had the highest life expectancy at birth (81.3 years) and Mississippi had the lowest (74.7 years), a 6.6-year difference. Minnesota had the highest HALE at birth (70.3 years), and West Virginia had the lowest (63.8 years), a 6.5-year difference. The leading causes of DALYs in the United States for 1990 and 2016 were ischemic heart disease and lung cancer, while the third leading cause in 1990 was low back pain, and the third leading cause in 2016 was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Opioid use disorders moved from the 11th leading cause of DALYs in 1990 to the 7th leading cause in 2016, representing a 74.5% (95% UI, 42.8% to 93.9%) change. In 2016, each of the following 6 risks individually accounted for more than 5% of risk-attributable DALYs: tobacco consumption, high body mass index (BMI), poor diet, alcohol and drug use, high fasting plasma glucose, and high blood pressure. Across all US states, the top risk factors in terms of attributable DALYs were due to 1 of the 3 following causes: tobacco consumption (32 states), high BMI (10 states), or alcohol and drug use (8 states). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE There are wide differences in the burden of disease at the state level. Specific diseases and risk factors, such as drug use disorders, high BMI, poor diet, high fasting plasma glucose level, and alcohol use disorders are increasing and warrant increased attention. These data can be used to inform national health priorities for research, clinical care, and policy