Nuanced and Timely: Capturing Collections Feedback at Point of Use

While libraries are using increasingly sophisticated metrics to determine electronic resource’s usefulness, impact, and cost effectiveness, much of these data reflect past usage. More nuanced information is still needed to guide collection managers’ decisions about which content to purchase, borrow, or deselect. To fill this gap, librarians at Oregon State University Libraries and Press and The Ohio State University Libraries are testing the utility of a pop-up survey to gather patron feedback at their point of use. By building an open-source application that inserts a survey between a citation and the full text, librarians are better positioned to capture users’ real-time reasons for selecting a given resource. Usage data can then be linked to qualitative information through questions such as whether a resource is being used for research or teaching; whether a user considers the journal core to their project; or even, if the resource is being used in class or with a student. Inspired by MINES for Libraries® this application was created to understand e-resource use beyond clicks. The authors discuss how the application works, whether users responded to the pop-up survey as expected, and other preliminary findings

Social justice in higher education: The forgotten needs of students with visual impairments in Bangladesh

Students with disabilities face myriad barriers and hurdles to success in higher education settings. Institutions in developing nations often lack the necessary resources to provide accessible instruction, and the absence of clearly defined policies further impedes upholding the educational rights of such a special population. The purpose of this study was to examine how undergraduate students with visual impairments in Bangladesh felt about their experiences related to social justice and challenges in learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A convenience sample of 133 students was recruited from two public universities. The authors developed two instruments, namely, the Social Justice Experiences in Higher Education Scale and the Social Justice Challenges in Higher Education Scale, to measure how the participants felt. The results showed that most of the participants experienced some sort of difficulty in receiving social justice in higher education. However, the differences in the group mean score on social justice experiences and challenges in higher education were not statistically significant between the male and female participants of this study. The outcomes of the study and their implications for rehabilitation research and practice have also been addressed in this paper

University Press Use of E-publishing Platforms for Monographs

This white paper gives an overview of the software applications used by university presses to publish digital monographs. In addition, we will look at routes taken by university presses to move from all print to some e-publishing and list the supplemental online content that is typically offered for a fee

Amplifying Student Voices in Library Publishing through Experiential Learning & High Impact Practices

OSU Libraries Publishing began offering internships as one way to firmly link the program to the library and university teaching mission. Along the way, questions about implementation surfaced. We will consider what best practices are emerging and examine current internship models within library publishing, digital scholarship centers, and academic libraries more broadly. We will also explore what counts as a successful internship (and from whose perspective) and look at some effective ways to evaluate and assess students’ experiences. By focusing on student impact, we aim to broaden the discussion around creating a successful library publishing program. Join us to discuss how library publishing programs can create intentional, meaningful internships

Beyond the search box: Using participatory design to elicit librarians’ preferences for unified discovery search results pages

New unified discovery tools are designed to help students easily identify and retrieve library content. Students want quick and easy discovery of quality sources in a “Google-like” environment. Librarians have often expressed frustration with federated and metasearch systems that cannot take full advantage of discipline specific database features. As new options, such as discovery systems, become available, it remains to be seen if librarians have the same concerns about these new tools. What librarians want in these systems is less well explored than our users. At a local conference, the authors used a participatory design strategy to elicit from the participating librarians their views on what a discovery system should look like and function. Groups of participants drew their idea of what a discovery system should look like. An analysis of the findings reveals what librarians think are important features for these tools. The authors also discuss the use of the participatory design process.This is the author's peer reviewed manuscript. The final article can be found at http://rusa.metapress.com/content/r25335ug77272847/.Keywords: Web-scale discovery, Participatory designKeywords: Web-scale discovery, Participatory desig

From Novice to Expert...For the Motivated: an Exploratory Study of University Press Staff Adoption of E-readers

Books and journal articles are the most familiar forms of disseminating scholarly research, however, the move from "ink-on-paper" to a digital format presents small presses with difficulties. E-books, e-readers and digital publishing demand that presses transform their publishing model and rethink their business practices. Challenges are wide ranging and numerous; inadequate resources hinder press staff ability to develop the necessary skills to create eBooks while lack of experience with e-reading technology limits staff knowledge. With the barrier of device ownership removed, do publishing staff feel better prepared to create new services, develop their skills, and transform their practices? Librarians at Oregon State University Libraries & Press recognized that our press staff lacked personal experience with e-reading technology. We secured funding to distribute four different types of e-readers to the Press staff as part of a larger year-long study of e-reader adoption and use. This poster explores some of the study’s findings and discusses how small presses face challenges as they move into digital publishing. It also looks at some of the emotional and intellectual factors influencing adoption or rejection of e-reader technology by the Press staff, how their experience has changed their business and, their thoughts on the future of the book

Booxter and LibraryThing: Making cultural resource centers library collections visible and accessible

Like other academic libraries, Oregon State University Libraries (OSUL) diligently reaches out to a wide variety of campus groups as part of its mission to develop user-focused services that contribute to student success. Outreach to student groups focuses on equipping “students with tools and resources needed to succeed in and out of the classroom” and is intended to enhance their evolving personal, social, emotional and academic endeavors”—all goals held in common with student service units

Lessons from Two States with Extension Programs for Managing Stress

Recognizing the need for education that addresses social emotional and mental health issues faced by adults, Extension developed two different types of programs. Michigan State University (MSU) Extension developed the RELAX: Alternatives to Anger program (RELAX) to address anger management, and West Virginia University (WVU) Extension created Stress Less with Mindfulness (SLM) to build stress management skills among adults. At a national conference, the two states independently shared their programs’ objectives and delivery implementation and then later cross-trained each other’s Extension team. The research reported here shares the designs of both stress-reduction health programs and the results of a combined two-state SLM evaluation with 1,304 participants. The benefits of SLM included skill learning and practice. Recommendations for practice include state Extension services sharing curricula resources, training teams from each other’s states, and jointly implementing evaluation protocols. Extension professionals looking for established programs that help people gain skills to promote emotional health and stress-reduction may consider implementing one of these community-based programs in their states

How instruction librarians continue learning new concepts and skills throughout their careers

Instruction librarians are at the forefront of introducing learners to new concepts and skills such as evaluation strategies, searching techniques, and trends in scholarly communication. But how do instruction librarians themselves learn new concepts and skills? Especially if they have been a professional for a significant amount of time and have experienced multiple changes in the profession. We conducted a study to learn how mid-career and experienced instruction librarians seek out and learn new professional information, how they find curiosity sparks to keep them engaged in their work, and how they choose to incorporate new ideas or professional competencies into their instructional practice. Mid-career professional development has been characterized by stage-like models depicting growth, stability, and sometimes frustration (Maskit, 2011). These stages have been explored in K-12 teachers, and we wanted to determine how well these stages describe the experiences of mid-career and experienced instruction librarians. We were especially interested in these librarians because many workplaces have multiple generations of workers and must find ways to encourage growth in an age-diverse environment. However, much of the literature and professional development opportunities focus on supporting newer librarians (for example, Flatley and Weber, 2004). We enthusiastically agree that newer librarians should receive significant and thoughtful supports, but were curious to explore the unique challenges mid-career and experienced librarians face based on their accumulated experiences as well as how they sustain their engagement with new ideas. Presented at the European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL) Krakow, Poland October 10, 202