Academic library administrators perceive value in their librarians\u27 research

Objective – To explore academic library administrators’ perceived value of their librarians’ research, specifically the importance to the profession and the library community.Design – Qualitative, exploratory study using a survey questionnaire.Setting – Academic libraries in the United States of America. Subjects – 23 library administrators. Methods – During the summer of 2010, one of the authors conducted 20-30 minute telephone interviews with 23 academic library administrators. Interviews were recorded and transcribed for coding. Interview questions 1-3 and 8-19 were content-analyzed; the authors described common themes for each of these questions. Items 4-7 had Likert scale response formats, and a mean and standard deviation were computed for each of these items.Main Results – The benefits of librarians’ research included fulfilling tenure-track requirements, enriching relationships with teaching faculty, library faculty recognition, improved services and programs, collaboration with others, research result application to daily issues, development as librarians, and improved knowledge of the research field. The perceived current changes and future issues for university libraries included increased digitization of collections, scholarly communication, and expanded instructional engagement of faculty and students, as well as future economic downturn and budget cuts. Administrators noted several methods that influenced their thinking: professional meetings, reading professional journals, informal discussions with colleagues, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter.Academic library administrators used a variety of methods to support their librarians’ research. These included tenure-track requirements, research incentives, travel funds, grants, sabbaticals, release time, and shared communication about research. Additionally, there was a substantial perceived interrelationship between how librarians’ research benefited the librarian, the library, the university, and the profession. Recognition and new programs and services were thought to benefit all four areas, and monetary rewards were considered benefits for the first three areas.Conclusion – Based on the sample of 23 academic library administrators, the authors conclude that librarians’ research is perceived as valuable to both the academic and library communities

Open access papers have a greater citation advantage in the author-pays model compared to toll access papers in Springer and Elsevier open access journals

A Review of:&#x0D; Sotudeh, H., Ghasempour, Z., &amp; Yaghtin, M. (2015). The citation advantage of author-pays model: The case of Springer and Elsevier OA journals. Scientometrics, 104(2), 581-608. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1607-5 &#x0D; &#x0D; Abstract&#x0D; &#x0D; Objective – To investigate the citation performance of open access (OA) and toll access (TA) papers published in author-pays open access journals.&#x0D; &#x0D; Design – Longitudinal citation analysis.&#x0D; &#x0D; Setting – Publications in Springer and Elsevier’s author-pays open access journals.&#x0D; &#x0D; Subjects – 633 journals published using the author-pays model. This model encompasses both journals where the article processing charge (APC) is required and journals in which authors can request open access and voluntarily pay APCs for accepted manuscripts.&#x0D; &#x0D; Methods – The authors identified APC funded journals (journals funded by mandatory author processing charges as well as those where authors voluntarily paid a fee in order to have their articles openly accessible) from both Springer and Elsevier, and analyzed papers published in these journals from 2007 to 2011. The authors excluded journals that adopted the APC model later than 2007. To identify Springer titles, the authors created a search strategy to identify open access articles in SpringerLink. A total of 576 journals were identified and double checked in the Sherpa-Romeo database (a database of copyright and open access self-archiving policies of academic journals) to verify their open access policies. The authors then downloaded the journal content using SpringerLink, and using Springer Author-Mapper, separated out the open access articles from the toll access articles. &#x0D; &#x0D; In order to identify the Elsevier APC funded journals, the authors referred to “Open Access Journal Directory: A-Z,” which contained 35 OA journals (p. 584). Once the authors consulted “Sponsored articles” issued by Elsevier and verified titles in Sherpa-Romeo, they identified 57 journals that fit the “author-pays” model. The bibliographic information was downloaded and OA articles were separated from TA articles. The authors confirmed that all journals were indeed OA publications by downloading the full-text from off-campus locations; they also verified that the journals were using the APC model by visiting each journal’s website. &#x0D; &#x0D; Because of the large number of subject areas of the identified journals, the researchers decided to classify the journals into four broader categories: Health Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities. To calculate the impact of OA papers, citation per paper (CPP) was calculated for each subject area. Impact values were calculated on an annual basis as well. The researchers calculated the citation advantage of OA articles as the “difference between the open access and toll access impacts in terms of a percentage of the latter” (p. 585).&#x0D; &#x0D; Main Results – The authors categorized their findings according to three themes: the growth of APC funded OA papers, the number of OA papers by discipline, and citation advantage of OA vs. TA in general and by subject area.&#x0D; &#x0D; Together, Springer and Elsevier published 18,654 OA papers in the APC journals; this number represents 4.7% of the 396,760 papers published between 2007 and 2011. While the number of OA and TA papers has been growing annually, the number of OA papers has been growing more rapidly compared to the TA papers. &#x0D; &#x0D; In terms of subject areas, Life Sciences had the largest number of OA and TA papers (184,315), followed by Health Sciences (149,341), Natural Sciences (121,274), and Social Sciences and Humanities (42,824). Natural Sciences had the most OA papers (5.7%) in terms of the number of papers in this subject area being OA papers, followed by Social Sciences and Humanities (5.2%), Health Sciences (4.6%) and Life Sciences (3.6%). &#x0D; &#x0D; Overall, the researchers found that the impact values of OA papers were larger than those of the TA papers for each year examined. In considering subject areas, in all disciplines except Life Sciences, the most highly cited paper in the field is an OA paper. In Life Sciences, the most highly cited TA paper had 2,215 citations, compared to the OA paper, which had 1,501 citations. Even though the TA paper had more citations, overall, the OA papers had a higher impact (citation advantage). In Health Sciences, the most highly cited OA paper received 1,501 citations, which is 1.2 times the most highly cited TA paper, with 1,252 citations. The citation advantage for the OA group is 33.29% higher than the TA group. In Natural Sciences, the number of citations from the highest cited OA paper is 1,736, or 2.52 times higher than the most highly cited TA paper. The OA papers in this discipline had a 35.95% citation advantage. In Social Sciences and Humanities, the most highly cited OA paper had 681 citations, compared to the TA paper, with 432 citations. For this subject area, the citation impact of the OA paper is 3.14% higher than the TA paper. &#x0D; &#x0D; Conclusions – In sum, the number of article processing charge funded open access papers has grown tremendously in recent years. Furthermore, open access papers have a citation advantage over toll access papers, both annually and across disciplines.</jats:p

Academic Librarians at Institutions with LIS Programs Assert that Project Management Training is Valuable

Objective - To investigate academic librarians\u27 project management education and training, project management skills and experiences, and perceptions of project management courses within the library and information science (LIS) curriculum. Design - Online questionnaire. Setting - 70 universities worldwide with LIS programs and at least one project management course. Subjects - 4,979 academic librarians were invited to complete the online questionnaire. Methods - From the identified institutions, the authors invited academic librarians to participate in a 17-question survey via e-mail. The survey was available in both English and Spanish and was validated via a pilot trial. A total of 649 individuals participated, for a response rate of 13%. The survey included questions related to geographic region and institution affiliation, university education and librarian training associated with project management, project participation and use of project management software or methods, and project management courses in LIS curriculums, and a final open-ended comment section. Main Results - Of the 649 librarians who participated in the survey, 372 were from North and South America (58%). The next highest number of responses came from Europe (38%), followed by low response rates from Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Respondents reported working in a variety of library departments and identified themselves as being one of a director or manager, assistant librarian, or library page. Of the 436 respondents who reported having a university degree, 215 attended an LIS Master\u27s level program, and 12 studied at the doctoral level. The majority of respondents indicated they have had training in project management, participating in formal coursework, conferences, webinars, or other self-directed learning methods. Of the 459 academic library staff responding to the question, 40% considered project management courses of high importance in the university curriculum and 26 % responded that project management courses were extremely important in their field of expertise and working environment (p. 472). The consensus among participants was that project management courses should be included in both undergraduate and graduate level LIS curricula. Conclusion - The high participation of librarians in project management, compared to the limited formal education received, suggests that courses in project management, including software and methodology, are needed in LIS university curricula. Additionally, less than 40% of academic librarian survey respondents were trained in LIS; other professions are working as librarians and therefore may have insufficient knowledge and skills to manage the projects they direct. The research results confirm the relationship between strategic planning and project management skills. The authors conclude that universities should revise their LIS curricula to include and require additional project management courses. © 2017 Sullo

Opportunities to Uncover, Locate, and Learn: The Library Orientation Scavenger Hunt

Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library implemented a Library Orientation Scavenger Hunt for new medical students. This poster presentation describes the details of the scavenger hunt and the resulting benefits for the library users and staff

The Himmelfarb Library Annual Art Show: Celebrating the Creative Abilities of Faculty, Staff, and Students

Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library at the George Washington University has held an annual art show since 1987. Students, staff, faculty, and clinicians from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the School of Public Health and Health Services, the School of Nursing, the GW Hospital, and Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library are invited to submit artwork to be displayed throughout the first floor of the library in a month-long display. The talent of the artists is celebrated at an opening reception where light refreshments are served and students, staff, and faculty mingle and view the art. Library art shows serve as an opportunity to share and celebrate talents outside of the health sciences and as an avenue for networking between all members of the library and medical academic arena. The Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library Annual Art Show fosters a sense of community; the spirit of creativity and imagination weaves its way through the opening reception as well as throughout the library during the span of the show. In addition, the art show helps to promote the visibility of the library, not only through art show marketing efforts but also by attracting new and returning patrons to visit and view the art

What are the causes of hypomagnesemia?

The causes of magnesium depletion and hypomagnesemia are decreased gastrointestinal (GI) absorption and increased renal loss. Decreased GI absorption is frequently due to diarrhea, malabsorption, and inadequate dietary intake. Common causes of excessive urinary loss are diuresis due to alcohol, glycosuria, and loop diuretics. Medical conditions putting persons at high risk for hypomagnesemia are alcoholism, congestiveheart failure, diabetes, chronic diarrhea, hypokalemia, hypocalcemia, and malnutrition (strength of recommendation: C, based on expert opinion, physiology, and case series). Evidence suggests that magnesium deficiency is both more common and more clinically significant than generally appreciated

What is the best way to evaluate and manage diarrhea in the febrile infant?

Routine infant diarrhea requires no lab work or cultures (strength of recommendation [SOR]: C); the degree of dehydration can be determined reliably by percent body weight change (SOR: B). However, bicarbonate may help rule out dehydration (SOR: B); electrolytes and blood urea nitrogen may be useful in evaluating complicated diarrhea with severe dehydration or when intravenous fluids are required; stool cultures are indicated for bloody or prolonged diarrhea, suspected food poisoning, or recent travel abroad (SOR: C)

Assessing Use of Two Discovery Services at Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library

Introduction The Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, at The George Washington University, introduced Health Information @ Himmelfarb, a custom health sciences focused implementation of EBSCO’s Discovery Service (EDS) in the fall of 2012. Less than a year later, the Library Catalog was migrated to Innovative’s Encore. With two different discovery tools delivering some overlapping content and features, librarians wanted to know more about how the two services were being used. Methods A Discovery Task Force completed a staff focus group and a brief demographic survey of Health Information @ Himmelfarb users in spring 2015. All library staff who search the services were invited to the focus group. The demographic survey was embedded in Health Information @ Himmelfarb for three weeks and reached all users who accessed the service at that time. Results The focus group revealed that staff use both discovery tools frequently and use them in somewhat different ways. Some needs were identified for follow up, including better integration of content from the main campus library. The demographic survey had 1,300 responses and confirmed that students were the primary audience for Health Information @ Himmelfarb and that they are using it primarily for class work. Use of Health Information @ Himmelfarb was evenly spread across the three schools Himmelfarb serves (Health Sciences, Public Health, and Nursing), and may indicate a continuing need to include a broad spectrum of resources in the service for searching. A follow up survey to learn more about user satisfaction with the two services is planned for fall 2015

Discovery Assessment and Improvement at an Academic Health Sciences Library: Health Information @ Himmelfarb Five Years Later

Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library was an early health sciences library adopter of web scale discovery with introduction of a customized instance of EBSCO’s Discovery Service (EDS) in 2012. After three years with EDS, the library initiated an evaluation project involving two user surveys and a library staff focus group to assess user satisfaction with the service. Resulting changes included introduction of widgets to improve access to clinical content, addition of radio buttons to the search box to make defaults easier to enable and disable, and a custom course reserves search feature. The improvements launched fall semester 2016