Studying bibliographic enhancement data for library catalogs

Few studies have examined bibliographic records enhancement in library catalogs. The purpose of this study is to identify the types and sources of bibliographic enhancement data used by libraries, online booksellers, and social cataloging sites. Based on a content analysis of 210 bibliographic records collected from six bibliographic systems, this study identifies 21 types of bibliographic enhancement data and their sources. The typology can help libraries identify, select, use/reuse, and evaluate the bibliographic enhancement data that can be implemented in their catalogs. This study also found that libraries no longer count on catalogers to supply all the bibliographic data, but invite their staff and users to contribute data to their catalogs and incorporate data from external resources. Future research will interview users regarding their use of bibliographic enhancement data and their quality requirements for the data

Exploring data practices of the earthquake engineering community

There is a need to compare and contrast data practices of different disciplines and groups. This study explores data practices in earthquake engineering (EE), an interdisciplinary field with a variety of research activities and dynamic data types and forms. Findings identify the activities of typical EE research projects, the types and forms of data produced and used in those activities, the project roles played by EE researchers in connection with data practices, the tools used to manage data in those activities, the types and sources of data quality problems in EE, and the perceptions of data quality in EE. A strong relation exists among these factors, with a stronger role for test specimens and high quality documentation and more blurring of project roles than in other fields. Suggestions are provided for resolving contradictions impeding EE researchers’ curation and archiving activities and for future research on data practices

Exploring the Development and Maintenance Practices in the Gene Ontology

The Gene Ontology (GO) is one of the most widely used and successful bio-ontologies in biomedicine and molecular biology. What is special about GO as a knowledge organization (KO) system is its collaborative development and maintenance practices, involving diverse communities in collectively developing the Ontology and controlling its quality. Guided by Activity Theory and a theoretical Information Quality Assessment Framework, this study conducts qualitative content analysis of GO’s curation discussions. The study found that GO has developed various tools and mechanisms to gain expert feedback and engage various communities in developing and maintaining the Ontology in an efficient and less expensive way. The findings of this study can inform KO system designers, curators, and ontologists in establishing functional requirements and quality assurance infrastructure for bioontologies and formulating best practices for ontology development

Emerald Ash Borer and the application of biological control in Virginia

The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis; EAB) is an invasive wood-boring beetle whose larvae feed on ash phloem. After only 1-5 years of infestation, the larvae create extensive tunnels under the bark that disrupt the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients, which eventually girdles and kills the tree. Since 2008, EAB has spread to all but the eastern-most counties in Virginia. Bological control is one strategy to limit EAB populations. In this project we study control by native agents (woodpeckers) and imported agents (parasitoid wasps). Mathematical models of host-parasitoid interactions and simulations based on both models and field studies will be presented. Our novel contribution extends the basic Nicholson-Bailey model to a partial refuge system, realized in Virginia where EAB infests both ash and white fringetrees with fringetrees less attractive to the parasitoids. We determine ranges for model parameters that result in stable equilibrium populations

Towards a metadata model for research information management systems

This research is supported by an OCLC/ALISE Library and Information Research Grant for 2016 and a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) of the U.S. Government (grant # LG-73-16-0006-16). This article reflects the findings and conclusions of the authors, and does not necessarily reflect the views of IMLS, OCLC, and ALISE

Practices of Metadata Use in Research Information Management Systems

This poster reports on a study that examines the practices of metadata use in a research information management (RIM) system ResearchGate. Understanding these practices can help institutional repositories to better align their RIM metadata models with researchers’ needs and priorities. The study identified three categories of RIM system users. The study’s preliminary findings suggest that community members are more willing to share their personal information and provide full-texts of their works on ResearchGate compared to readers and personal record managers.This research is supported by an OCLC/ALISE Library and Information Research Grant for 2016 and a National Leadership Grant from the IMLS of the U.S. Government (grant # LG-73-16-0006-16)

Zonder enig voorbehoud

Researchers’ participation in online RIMSs This article examined how researchers participated in research information management systems (RIMSs), their motivations for participation, and their priorities for those motivations. Profile maintenance, question-answering, and endorsement activities were used to define three cumulatively increasing levels of participation: Readers, Record Managers, and Community Members. Junior researchers were more engaged in RIMSs than were senior researchers. Postdocs had significantly higher odds of endorsing other researchers for skills and being categorized as Community Members than did full and associate professors. Assistant professors were significantly more likely to be Record Managers than were members of any other seniority categories. Finally, researchers from the life sciences showed a significantly higher propensity for being Community Members than Readers and Record Managers when compared with researchers from engineering and the physical sciences, respectively. Researchers’ motivations to participate in RIMSs When performing activities, researchers were motivated by the desire to share scholarship, feel competent, experience a sense of enjoyment, improve their status, and build ties with other members of the community. Moreover, when researchers performed activities that directly benefited other members of a RIMS, they assigned higher priorities to intrinsic motivations, such as perceived self-efficacy, enjoyment, and building community ties. Researchers at different stages of their academic careers and disciplines ranked some of the motivations for engaging with RIMSs differently. The general model of research participation in RIMSs; the relationships among RIMS activities; the motivation scales for activities; and the activity, seniority, and discipline-specific priorities for the motivations developed by this study provide the foundation for a framework for researcher participation in RIMSs. This framework can be used by RIMSs and institutional repositories to develop tools and design mechanisms to increase researchers’ engagement in RIMSs.This research is supported by an OCLC/ALISE Library and Information Research Grant for 2016 and a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) of the U.S. Government (grant number LG-73-16-0006-16). This article reflects the findings and conclusions of the authors, and does not necessarily reflect the views of IMLS, OCLC, and ALISE

Determining the User Intent of Chinese-English Mixed Language Queries Based On Search Logs

With the increasing number of multilingual web pages on the Internet, multilingual information retrieval has become an important research topic. While queries are the key element of information retrieval process, mixed-language queries have not yet been adequately studied. This study is to determine the user intents of Chinese-English mixed-language queries submitted to a Chinese search engine, and compares the user intents identified by query content to those identified using additional user behavior data (e.g. clicked results, subsequent queries). The preliminary findings present the distributions of user intents by analyzing query only and additional user behavior data, suggesting a specific searching behavior of Chinese-English mixed-language queries users. The findings of this study could provide useful insights in understanding the searching behavior of Chinese-English mixed-language queries users, and enable web search engines to provide users with more relevant results and more precisely targeted sponsored links.ye

Towards Researcher Participation in Research Information Systems

This poster presents an ongoing collaborative study supported by OCLC/ALISE LIS Research Grant. This mainly includes description and research design of this study. The project explores researcher participation in research identity management systems (e.g., Google Scholar, ResearchGate, ORCID). It will especially discuss about knowledge base of how to design reliable, efficient and scalable solutions for the systems, motivate researchers to participate in the systems, and contribute to the system development in digital library settings. Accurate research identity identification and determination are essential for effective grouping, linking, aggregation, and retrieval of digital scholarship; evaluation of the research productivity and impact of individuals, groups, and institutions; and identification of expertise and skills. There are many different research identity management systems from publishers, libraries, universities, search engines and content aggregators with different data models, coverage and quality. Although knowledge curation by professionals usually produces the highest quality results, it may not be scalable because of its high cost. The literature on online communities shows that successful peer curation communities which are able to attract and retain enough participants can provide scalable knowledge curation solutions of a quality that is comparable to the quality of professionally curated content. Hence, the success of online research identity management systems may depend on the number of contributors and users they are able to recruit, motivate, and engage in research identity data curation. The outcomes of this exploratory research will include but not be limited to a qualitative theory of research identity data and information practices of researchers, quantitative model(s) of researchers’ priorities for different online research identity data and services, the factors that may affect their participation in and commitment to online research identity management systems, and their motivations to engage in research identity data curation. The study’s findings can greatly enhance our knowledge of the design of research identity data/metadata models, services, quality assurance activities, and, mechanisms for recruiting and retaining researchers for provision and maintenance of identity data.Institute of Museum and Library Services; OCLC; Association for Library & Information Science Educatio