Becoming the authoritative source: taking repositiories centre stage

Institutional repositories can be a storehouse of the research of an institution. There are many internal and external needs to find, use and report on the entirety or parts of an institution’s research output. This paper examines how to harness environmental factors to make an institutional repository the central and authoritative source of the research material output of a university. How to take it from “a place” to put research to making it “the place” and moving it from a nice-to-have service to one with a solid, sustainable future, one that the academic community values, supports and uses rather than sees as yet another administrative burden. A key value of research material is its authoritativeness. Researchers want to be able to say “this is my paper” or “this is the corpus of my research”. Research organisations want to be able to say the equivalent for all their researchers. The value of this identification is not just an assertion of authorship. It is also valued because the material can be authoritatively used to feed research discovery services and e-portfolios, fulfil reporting requirements to government and funders, substantiate promotions and back-up grant applications, and assist with benchmarking academic success in any given field. There are also many other uses for a repository.. The UNSWorks repository at the University of NSW will be used as a case study for this paper. The factors that can support the role of a repository as the authoritative source of research output are evaluated. The implications for interoperability with other institutional and external systems are identified, as are the resource implications and how success can be measured

Rsquared: researching the researchers. A study into how the researchers at the University of New South Wales use and share research data

This paper presents a research study of data usage, creation and sharing within different research communities at UNSW. The study identifies emerging data usage and management needs within the e-research life cycle of diverse research communities. Comparison is made with the outcomes of other studies that have examined e-researcher work practices in relation to their data. The paper examines the findings to understand what role researchers see libraries having, and discusses the development of a framework that libraries can use to support the curation and management of data and the development of tools and library support services that can be used across disciplines

Adding up the Flipped Subscription Model

One of the common pathways proposed to achieving a global open access scholarly publishing model is the “flipped” approach. In this scenario, journal publishers “flip” their pricing model from subscription to gold open access (gold OA) and library budgets are redirected from supporting subscriptions to Article Publishing Costs (APCs) associated with gold OA. Initiatives such as OA2020, and more recently Plan S, have to varying degrees advocated for this approach. Underlying the flipped model is the assumption there is enough money in the global academic library subscription system to cover the costs of a scholarly publishing model based on APCs. A number of studies have tested this assumption including the Mellon Foundation Pay It Forward report which focused on large, research intensive universities in North America and the Max Planck Digital Library Open Access Policy white paper which used global market reports and publishing figures to derive their calculations. However, is this assumption valid for other sized universities or using different analytical approaches? In 2018, the Matariki Network of Universities (an international collaborative venture of seven medium sized universities) used its unique partnership to test this assumption for medium-sized universities using shared subscription and publishing data. The project had two specific objectives. Firstly, to determine if the amount of money paid by Matariki institutions for journal subscriptions both individually and collectively is enough to cover APC costs of a flipped model. Secondly, to determine what the average APC cost would need to be if each Matariki institution only had their subscription budget to cover gold OA publishing. This paper describes the approach taken in the study and outlines the findings in comparison to other studies. It will also discuss the implications of the results in the context of current initiatives supporting a flipped model

Correspondence - Extended Library Hours

Correspondence regarding increasing library weekend hours. Includes a reports entitled Cost Estimate in Response to ASG Resolution 89-4-F outlining costs of guards, students, and library staff; Friday & Saturday Evenings Turnstile Count for the period October 27 to November 12; Finals Week Patrons Between 5:00 - 10:00 PM for the 1988-89 school year; Circulation Weekend Statistics for the period October 27 to November 12, 1989; and Reference Weekend Statistics for the period October 27 to November 12, 1989

Building on what works: towards a library assessment capability maturity model

This paper outlines progress toward a library assessment capability maturity model (LACMM) within the context of an activity based benchmarking project across an international network of libraries. The network is developing a shared response to the question: “if we enable and support the academic endeavour how do we measure our effectiveness?” Approach To frame the development of a LACMM, technology enhanced learning benchmarks have been introduced. Surveys have been used to assess processes used for representative activities and programmes that support wider institutional strategic imperatives in key areas; namely the library and student experience, and library support for teaching and learning. Findings Sustained engagement by the stakeholders has enabled a process for mapping these activities to a LACMM to emerge. A broader set of auxiliary activities have extended the shared development of the project, in particular, through face to face contact across the network. This contact has resulted in an increased commitment to sharing more detail about individual formative and summative assessment activities. Adapted methodologies allowed each of the libraries to commit resources addressing competing priorities and variant academic calendars. Research or practical implications Comparison of institutions possessing similar characteristics has enabled the network to identify details of assessment capability. This increased understanding of relative performance has implications across the network where accountability and evidence of demonstrated value is increasingly demanded. Quality assurance processes are being strengthened as best practice assessment activities are identified, and through highlighting areas for further investigation. Originality and value of the proposal Developing a LACMM drawing from the activities of an international network of academic libraries is unique. This model can support libraries as they increasingly seek approaches to demonstrate value and provide evidence of successful outcomes

Competitive Algorithms for Layered Graph Traversal

A layered graph is a connected graph whose vertices are partitioned into sets L0=s, L1, L2,..., and whose edges, which have nonnegative integral weights, run between consecutive layers. Its width is {|Li|}. In the on-line layered graph traversal problem, a searcher starts at s in a layered graph of unknown width and tries to reach a target vertex t; however, the vertices in layer i and the edges between layers i-1 and i are only revealed when the searcher reaches layer i-1. We give upper and lower bounds on the competitive ratio of layered graph traversal algorithms. We give a deterministic on-line algorithm which is O(9w)-competitive on width-w graphs and prove that for no w can a deterministic on-line algorithm have a competitive ratio better than 2w-2 on width-w graphs. We prove that for all w, w/2 is a lower bound on the competitive ratio of any randomized on-line layered graph traversal algorithm. For traversing layered graphs consisting of w disjoint paths tied together at a common source, we give a randomized on-line algorithm with a competitive ratio of O(log w) and prove that this is optimal up to a constant factor

Alcohol metabolizing genes and alcohol phenotypes in an Israeli household sample

BACKGROUND: Alcohol dehydrogenase 1B and 1C (ADH1B and ADH1C) variants have been robustly associated with alcohol phenotypes in East Asian populations, but less so in non-Asian populations where prevalence of the most protective ADH1B allele is low (generally <5%). Further, the joint effects of ADH1B and ADH1C on alcohol phenotypes have been unclear. Therefore, we tested the independent and joint effects of ADH1B and ADH1C on alcohol phenotypes in an Israeli sample, with higher prevalence of the most protective ADH1B allele than other non-Asian populations. METHODS: A structured interview assessed lifetime drinking and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in adult Israeli household residents. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped: ADH1B (rs1229984, rs1229982, and rs1159918) and ADH1C (rs698). Regression analysis examined the association between alcohol phenotypes and each SNP (absence vs. presence of the protective allele) as well as rs698/rs1229984 diplotypes (also indicating absence or presence of protective alleles) in lifetime drinkers (n = 1,129). RESULTS: Lack of the ADH1B rs1229984 protective allele was significantly associated with consumption- and AUD-related phenotypes (OR = 1.77 for AUD; OR = 1.83 for risk drinking), while lack of the ADH1C rs698 protective allele was significantly associated with AUD-related phenotypes (OR = 2.32 for AUD). Diplotype analysis indicated that jointly ADH1B and ADH1C significantly influenced AUD-related phenotypes. For example, among those without protective alleles for ADH1B or ADH1C, OR for AUD was 1.87 as compared to those without the protective allele for ADH1B only and was 3.16 as compared to those with protective alleles for both ADH1B and ADH1C. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds support for the relationship of ADH1B and ADH1C and alcohol phenotypes in non-Asians. Further, these findings help clarify the mixed results from previous studies by showing that ADH1B and ADH1C jointly effect AUDs, but not consumption. Studies of the association between alcohol phenotypes and either ADH1B or ADH1C alone may employ an oversimplified model, masking relevant information