Creating a Values Based Collections Evaluation Rubric

As libraries and communities consider institutional values and ethical standards in the wake of 2020, we need to scrutinize how those values and standards connect with our collections decisions. Critical Librarianship is at the forefront of work being done by librarians across the country. Related to this concept, there is an existing body of literature about the contents of the collections themselves, with respect to issues like decolonization and open access, but little about the specific business relationships we maintain in order to acquire these collections. Are the values of our partners in the publishing ecosystem aligned with ours? What should we do if a publisher makes decisions or takes actions that go against our stated principles, but their content is relevant to the ongoing work of our patrons? What are the broader implications for our communities of doing business with these publishers? Precisely whose values need to be taken into account when making these decisions? Balancing the needs of our patrons with the principles of critical librarianship is a challenge faced by all collections librarians. Librarians from Purdue University take a critical approach to identifying the values of their institution at multiple levels, including a newly released Libraries strategic plan, to create a values-based rubric for future collection assessment. Business librarians can play an important role in teaching our colleagues how to find company information on the vendors with which we deal to help inform this type of evaluation

Landing the Job: How Special Libraries Can Support Career Research

Special libraries often provide career searching support to their users. Career research has changed significantly over the past decade, as have the resources available to librarians and their patrons. Librarians at Purdue University’s Roland G. Parrish Library of Management and Economics have formed partnerships with other organizations across campus in order to share the cost of specialized career resources, streamline instruction, and best serve students. This article discusses how these cooperative relationships were formed, and also recommends specific specialized career resources that libraries providing career research assistance may want to consider

Discovery and Atmospheric Characterization of Giant Planet Kepler-12b: An Inflated Radius Outlier

We report the discovery of planet Kepler-12b (KOI-20), which at 1.695 ± 0.030 R_J is among the handful of planets with super-inflated radii above 1.65 R_J. Orbiting its slightly evolved G0 host with a 4.438 day period, this 0.431 ± 0.041 M_J planet is the least irradiated within this largest-planet-radius group, which has important implications for planetary physics. The planet's inflated radius and low mass lead to a very low density of 0.111 ± 0.010 g cm^(–3). We detect the occultation of the planet at a significance of 3.7σ in the Kepler bandpass. This yields a geometric albedo of 0.14 ± 0.04; the planetary flux is due to a combination of scattered light and emitted thermal flux. We use multiple observations with Warm Spitzer to detect the occultation at 7σ and 4σ in the 3.6 and 4.5 μm bandpasses, respectively. The occultation photometry timing is consistent with a circular orbit at e < 0.01 (1σ) and e < 0.09 (3σ). The occultation detections across the three bands favor an atmospheric model with no dayside temperature inversion. The Kepler occultation detection provides significant leverage, but conclusions regarding temperature structure are preliminary, given our ignorance of opacity sources at optical wavelengths in hot Jupiter atmospheres. If Kepler-12b and HD 209458b, which intercept similar incident stellar fluxes, have the same heavy-element masses, the interior energy source needed to explain the large radius of Kepler-12b is three times larger than that of HD 209458b. This may suggest that more than one radius-inflation mechanism is at work for Kepler-12b or that it is less heavy-element rich than other transiting planets

Student Information Use and Decision-Making in Innovation Competitions and the Impact of Librarian Interventions

At a large Midwestern university, librarians work closely with an annual undergraduate agricultural innovation competition to guide students through the process of conducting market research and assessing patentability. In 2018, the authors conducted an exploratory study using focus groups of students who had participated in that year’s competition in order to learn how students find and use information in a competition setting, to evaluate the impact of library support on the students’ success, and inform further assessment activities. Results showed that students used information from the library and from their own research, notably seeking out first-hand expertise, to practice evidence-based decision-making

Student Information Use and Decision-Making in Innovation Competitions

At a large university in the Midwestern United States, librarians work closely with an undergraduate agricultural innovation competition. Librarians serve as entrepreneurial information guides, providing business information instruction and consulting with student groups to mentor them through the innovation process. The competition, with a winning prize of $20,000, focuses on developing new products from soybeans to foster environmental stewardship and reduce reliance on petroleum. Competitions are a form of experiential learning, allowing students to fully experience the product design process and practice making evidence-based decisions. In order to progress through this competition, the students’ inventions must be shown to have environmental benefits, technical benefits, feasibility, and novelty. Early stages of the competition require students to investigate and report on the marketability and patentability of their inventions. As a part of this process, students meet with a business librarian and a patent librarian. The business librarian consults with the students on how to conduct market research, and discusses concepts such as ideation, evidence-based decision-making, performing a market analysis, and determining a target market for their products. The patent librarian consults with the students on intellectual property and the United States patent system, focusing on basic patent searching tools and methods and discussing the concept of “novelty” in the area of new inventions. In 2018, the authors conducted focus groups of students who had competed in that year’s competition, to learn how students find and use information in a competition setting and to determine the extent of the impact library support had on the students’ use of information. The groups included students at all points in their undergraduate careers, and some students who had participated in the competition multiple times. This presentation will present the results of the focus groups and how they will inform continued assessment in future iterations of the competition. Themes explored will include information resources, such as market research databases, search engines, and patent search tools; decision-making; the use of information in the design process; librarians as consultants; and future improvements

MGMT 110: Pre and Post Module Standards Quiz

Pre and Post module standards quiz for MGMT 110: Introduction to Management and Information Studies. Offered Fall 2021

Kepler-18b,c, and d: A System of Three Planets Confirmed by Transit Timing Variations, Light Curve Validation, Warm-Spitzer Photometry, and Radial Velocity Measurements

We report the detection of three transiting planets around a Sun-like star, which we designate Kepler-18. The transit signals were detected in photometric data from the Kepler satellite, and were confirmed to arise from planets using a combination of large transit-timing variations (TTVs), radial velocity variations, Warm-Spitzer observations, and statistical analysis of false-positive probabilities. The Kepler-18 star has a mass of 0.97 M_☉, a radius of 1.1 R_☉, an effective temperature of 5345 K, and an iron abundance of [Fe/H] = +0.19. The planets have orbital periods of approximately 3.5, 7.6, and 14.9 days. The innermost planet "b" is a "super-Earth" with a mass of 6.9 ± 3.4 M_⊕, a radius of 2.00 ± 0.10 R_⊕, and a mean density of 4.9 ± 2.4 g cm^3. The two outer planets "c" and "d" are both low-density Neptune-mass planets. Kepler-18c has a mass of 17.3 ± 1.9 M_⊕, a radius of 5.49 ± 0.26 R_⊕, and a mean density of 0.59 ± 0.07 g cm^3, while Kepler-18d has a mass of 16.4 ± 1.4 M_⊕, a radius of 6.98 ± 0.33 R_⊕ and a mean density of 0.27 ± 0.03 g cm^3. Kepler-18c and Kepler-18d have orbital periods near a 2:1 mean-motion resonance, leading to large and readily detected TTVs

Kepler-1656b: a Dense Sub-Saturn With an Extreme Eccentricity

Kepler-1656b is a 5 $R_E$ planet with an orbital period of 32 days initially detected by the prime Kepler mission. We obtained precision radial velocities of Kepler-1656 with Keck/HIRES in order to confirm the planet and to characterize its mass and orbital eccentricity. With a mass of $48 \pm 4 M_E$, Kepler-1656b is more massive than most planets of comparable size. Its high mass implies that a significant fraction, roughly 80%, of the planet's total mass is in high density material such as rock/iron, with the remaining mass in a low density H/He envelope. The planet also has a high eccentricity of $0.84 \pm 0.01$, the largest measured eccentricity for any planet less than 100 $M_E$. The planet's high density and high eccentricity may be the result of one or more scattering and merger events during or after the dispersal of the protoplanetary disk.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, published in The Astronomical Journa

MGMT 110 Introduction to Management and Information Strategies Fall 2021 Syllabus

Syllabus for MGMT 110: Introduction to Management and Information Strategies offered Fall 2021

The View from Somewhere: Institutional Values in Collections Decisions

As educational institutions consider our values and ethical standards in the wake of 2020, libraries need to scrutinize how those values and standards connect with our licensing and purchasing decisions. “Critical Librarianship”, which is based on a foundation of social justice, the belief that everyone deserves equal opportunities and basic economic, political, and social rights, is at the forefront of work being done by librarians across the country. There is an existing body of literature about the contents of the library collections themselves, with respect to issues like decolonization and open access. These collections, used by students, instructors, and researchers, are integral to the learning ecosystem of the university. However, there is little research regarding the specific business relationships we maintain in order to acquire these resources. Are the values of our partners in the publishing ecosystem aligned with ours? What should we do if a publisher makes decisions or takes actions that go against our stated principles, but their content is relevant to the ongoing work of our users? What are the broader implications for our communities of doing business with these publishers? Precisely whose values need to be taken into account when making these decisions? Balancing the needs of our users with the principles of critical librarianship is a challenge faced by all collections librarians. Librarians from Purdue University take a critical approach to identifying the values of their institution at multiple levels, including a newly released Libraries strategic plan, to create a values-based rubric for future collection assessment. This presentation will address these difficult questions and discuss the process of turning institutional values into a tool for collections decisions. We will also discuss the larger implications in education licenses and purchases beyond the library and how this model could be expanded to consider additional business relationships on campus