Cataloging Electronic Theses and Dissertations: Updates and Perspectives from the Mississippi State University Libraries

Over the last two decades, electronic submission of theses and dissertations has become more common, and cataloging processes have evolved as well. At the same time, the Resource Description and Access (RDA) cataloging guidelines, which are better designed to describe digital resources, was widely implemented in 2013 in order to replace the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2), which emphasize the description of a physical item. These changes have brought unceasing challenges into cataloging workflows. Especially with the development of linked data and the semantic web, catalogers consistently need to adapt measures to local conditions. This paper describes the recent issues that have occurred at the Mississippi State University Libraries and how local practices addressed these concerns to enhance bibliographic data and authority data for better discovery of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Eighteenth Century Chinese Painted Enamelware Materials and Techniques

This article explains the historical background of painted enamelware during the Kangxi reign (1662-1722). Using a microscopic examination, the innovative rose-pink enamel technique is revealed, which is different from the European The Purple of Cassius recipe. Through XRF analysis, iron-red glaze made in Jingdezhen workshops is chemically different from gold-red enamel made in Peking imperial ateliers

Global Awareness and Pandemic in Predatory Journals and Publishing: A Bibliometric Analysis

Open access publishing not only increases accessibility to library materials and publications but also provokes the growth of predatory journals. The objectives of this study were to 1) corroborate the increasing concern of predatory journals, 2) identify journals publishing articles that commented on this issue, and 3) pinpoint occupations, academic disciplines, and geographic locations of these authors. This bibliometric study covered 2010-2020 tracking the library and information science literatures on the subject of predatory journals and outlined the trends. Analytical results of this study showed that there was an increasing global awareness of predatory journals among academic librarians and the scholarly community. The findings suggest a critical need for establishing information literacy in academia in the context of predatory journals, prompting academic librarians and scholarly authors to collaboratively deal with the pandemic of predatory publications

Cataloging Electronic Theses and Dissertations: Updates and Perspectives from the Mississippi State University Libraries

Over the last two decades, electronic submission of theses and dissertations has become more common, and cataloging processes have evolved as well. At the same time, the Resource Description and Access (RDA) cataloging guidelines, which are better designed to describe digital resources, were widely imple-mented in 2013 in order to replace the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2), which emphasize the description of a physical item. These changes have brought unceasing challenges into cataloging work-flows. Especially with the development of linked data and the semantic web, catalogers consistently need to adapt measures to local conditions. This paper describes the recent issues that have occurred at the Mississippi State University Libraries and how local practices addressed these concerns to enhance bib-liographic data and authority data for better discovery of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Exhibition Review: “A Selection of African American Art and Artists’ Books” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Watson Library

A review of “A Selection of African American Art and Artists’ Books”, a 2022 library exhibit, for inclusion in ARLIS/NA's Library Exhibitions Review Issue 1

Volume 42, Number 2, June 2022 OLAC Newsletter

Digitized June 2022 issue of the OLAC Newsletter

Volume 42, Number 3, September 2022 OLAC Newsletter

Digitized September 2022 issue of the OLAC Newsletter

EFFECTS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET ON CARDIOVASCULAR OUTCOMES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

BACKGROUND: A Mediterranean dietary pattern is widely recommended for the prevention of chronic disease. We sought to define the most likely effects of the Mediterranean diet on vascular disease and mortality. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Central Register without language restriction for randomized controlled trials comparing Mediterranean to control diets. Data on study design, patient characteristics, interventions, follow-up duration, outcomes and adverse events were sought. Individual study relative risks (RR) were pooled to create summary estimates. RESULTS: Six studies with a total of 10950 participants were included. Effects on major vascular events (n = 477), death (n = 693) and vascular deaths (n = 315) were reported for 3, 5 and 4 studies respectively. For one large study (n = 1000) there were serious concerns about the integrity of the data. When data for all studies were combined there was evidence of protection against major vascular events (RR 0.63, 95% confidence interval 0.53-0.75), coronary events (0.65, 0.50-0.85), stroke (0.65, 0.48-0.88) and heart failure (0.30, 0.17-0.56) but not for all-cause mortality (1.00, 0.86-1.15) or cardiovascular mortality (0.90, 0.72-1.11). After the study of concern was excluded the benefit for vascular events (0.69, 0.55-0.86) and stroke (0.66, 0.48-0.92) persisted but apparently positive findings for coronary events (0.73, 0.51-1.05) and heart failure (0.25, 0.05-1.17) disappeared. CONCLUSION: The Mediterranean diet may protect against vascular disease. However, both the quantity and quality of the available evidence is limited and highly variable. Results must be interpreted with caution

Volume 43, Number 2, June 2023 OLAC Newsletter

Digitized June 2023 issue of the OLAC Newsletter