Predatory Open Access Publishing in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Fields

Coinciding with the growth in open access publishing and government requirements for sharing research, suspicious publishers of open access journals have surged in recent years. This presentation highlights predatory open access publishing in STEM fields and encourages librarians to assist in education of new researchers to critically evaluate resources before they publish.Ope

Purchasing E‐Books from Life and Physical Science Society Publishers: Trends and Considerations

This study evaluates e‐book publishing by professional life and physical science societies. In order to be good stewards of their resources, collection managers should always be aware of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions and access issues when contemplating an e‐book purchase. This can be difficult due to the wide variety of publishing models employed by society e‐book publishers. In this study the authors examine various life and physical science societies that publish e‐books, including factors such as DRM and access conditions, and purchasing options. The results provide information for collection managers to consider when purchasing e‐books from society publishers, as well as allows them to advise patrons when access to ebooks may be limited to society members

A Survey of Information Professionals on What Skills STEM Graduates Need Entering the Workforce and What Librarians Teach

How well are science and engineering graduates prepared to transition from student to employee? As the corpus of information continues to expand exponentially, an understanding of competitive knowledge, patents, data management, standards documents, publishing, and navigating literature are becoming increasingly important to research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. We are providing an environmental scan through this survey of information professionals to determine what information professionals feel are important skills new scientists and engineers need to have. The information gathered in this survey will help inform further studies examining what faculty and industrial employers value in student education for new graduates.Ope

What STEM and International Graduate Students Value in Higher Education and Library Services

Background: In 2016, the Ithaka S+R Graduate Student Survey was administered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. According to the Institute of International Education, in 2016 international graduate students made up 49% of total on-campus enrollment. The majority of these students were enrolled in Liberal Arts & Science and the College of Engineering. While there is research into graduate students’ perception of institutions and their libraries, less has been published about STEM and international student perspectives. In this study we examine those perspectives and where they intersect. Methods: We filtered survey respondents to four groups: international STEM graduate students (ISG), STEM students, international students, and none of the above. We applied the answers of these populations to modules in the Ithaka study related to higher education and the role of the library. We conducted the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test (MWW) using RStudio to compare the means of the ISG group and the Non-ISG group. The MWW test was used to detect overlap between the two groups. Then we compared the means of the variables identified to determine whether the STEM or international populations could explain the variance we observed. Results: All graduate student populations examined valued their college experience thus far. In other areas the MWW test showed statistically significant differences between the groups. ISG students valued collaboration with faculty and other students and involvement in extra-curricular activities such as clubs higher than other groups. They also placed less significance on the library as a physical or virtual space for accessing information. International students valued having a high GPA and put more value in the library’s role in supporting research and assisting with ethical issues like plagiarism. They also frequented physical libraries the most. Interestingly, only non-international, non-STEM students highly valued getting a job after graduating. Conclusions: International, STEM, and international-STEM graduate students seem to have perceptions of library service that are distinct from other graduate populations. Librarians and academic institutions should continue to assess the perceptions and experiences of graduate level international STEM students in order to ascertain how we can change or adjust services to meet needs and contribute to student success.Ope

STS Research Agenda Task Force: Survey Results

As part of our charge to provide STS members with recommended areas for exploration in science and technology library research, we sent out a survey in the Fall of 2014. The 258 responses helped create a snapshot of what areas are currently being researched and what could be important areas of future research.Poster presented at the ACRL 2015 Conference in Portland, OR.UT Librarie

The Role of Library School STEM Curriculum in Academic Job Placement

A large job advertisement study revealed a discrepancy between skills required for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) librarians and prior experience in these disciplines. This poster begins investigating library science program curriculum for STEM skills.Ope

The Biodiversity Heritage Library's Impact on Scientific Research

This poster uses content analysis of a series of blog interviews with scientific and social science researchers to analyze the scientific impact of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), an open access digital library comprising primarily legacy literature representing the study of the variation of life on Earth.Ope

STEM and international graduate students: What they value in higher education and library services

While there is research into graduate students’ perception of institutions and their libraries, less hasbeen published specifically about STEM and international student perspectives. This research appliesthe Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test to the 2016 Ithaka S+R Graduate Student Survey, administered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to help determine theperceptions and experiences of graduate level international STEM students.Ope

STEM and international graduate students: What they value in higher education and library services

While there is research into graduate students’ perception of institutions and their libraries, less hasbeen published specifically about STEM and international student perspectives. This research appliesthe Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test to the 2016 Ithaka S+R Graduate Student Survey, administered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to help determine theperceptions and experiences of graduate level international STEM students.Ope