Adoption of NISO’s Shared Electronic Resource Understanding (SERU) at US Academic Libraries

Following the emergence of electronic resources (e-resources), librarians developed licensing guidelines, standards, models, and understandings to educate, increase efficiencies, and retain rights afforded by copyright law. To reduce licensing burdens, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) released the Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) in 2008, a set of “understandings” created and agreed upon by libraries and vendors. The author conducted a survey in 2017 of licensing practices and SERU use at libraries. The survey analyzed 108 responses from US academic libraries signing at least one license in the twelve months preceding the survey

Trust no agent: Building Strong Negotiation Skills

Let every eye negotiate for itself, And trust no agent. Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, sc. 1 Everybody negotiates, both at work and home. Negotiations in any context can have some pretty big impact on our lives, but in the work environment, they can also have impacts on our colleagues, and our users! Many of the most common areas for major-impact negotiations in libraries are related to technology and contracts, especially software and electronic resource purchases and subscriptions. But even if you don\u27t make major technology purchases, developing expertise in understanding contracts can be helpful for you and your organization - and building negotiation skills can have a positive impact throughout your life! We\u27ll start with a brief overview of contracts and how to evaluate them - then you\u27ll have the opportunity to improve all your negotiations (both formal and informal) through exercises and discussion. With lots of interaction, you\u27ll have the option to bring in examples from your own experiences, and will be encouraged to adapt and formulate your own negotiation style

Developing staff skills in e-resource troubleshooting: training, assessment, and continuous progress

Electronic resource troubleshooting is complex, sophisticated work that often falls to a very small number library staff, even in large institutions. Seeing a need to expand the group of staff capable of diagnosing and resolving e-resource access issues, librarians at the University of Minnesota Libraries developed a training program for E-Resource Management staff. The training program comprised a ten-part workshop, a post-workshop troubleshooting project using real-world examples drawn from user activity logs, ongoing meetings for continuous skill development, and assessment of participant knowledge levels at various stages of the training program. As a result, staff participants demonstrated an increased familiarity in troubleshooting skills and knowledge. This chapter describes the planning, design, and implementation of the training program and offers suggestions for how others might create their own training programs

One Change at a Time: Pop up Usability Testing

Library staff know the bizarre tricks and jargon we use to navigate our system and websites while our users continue to struggle and never get as adjusted. The University of Minnesota Libraries have committed to running monthly web usability tests in-house that illustrate the user\u27s perspective. These tests guide us in implementing changes to our system and websites. With little more than a spare computer, Skype, and a group of diligent and willing staff, we\u27ve been able to learn incredibly useful things about our web sites and applications. In this session, we\u27ll describe our process, some examples of evaluations we\u27ve run, what we\u27ve done with the information, lessons we\u27ve learned along the way, and we\u27ll show you how you too can run usability tests at your library

The state of US health, 1990-2016: Burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors among US states

INTRODUCTION Several studies have measured health outcomes in the United States, but none have provided a comprehensive assessment of patterns of health by state. OBJECTIVE To use the results of the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) to report trends in the burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors at the state level from 1990 to 2016. DESIGN AND SETTING A systematic analysis of published studies and available data sources estimates the burden of disease by age, sex, geography, and year. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Prevalence, incidence, mortality, life expectancy, healthy life expectancy (HALE), years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality, years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 333 causes and 84 risk factors with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) were computed. RESULTS Between 1990 and 2016, overall death rates in the United States declined from 745.2 (95% UI, 740.6 to 749.8) per 100 000 persons to 578.0 (95% UI, 569.4 to 587.1) per 100 000 persons. The probability of death among adults aged 20 to 55 years declined in 31 states and Washington, DC from 1990 to 2016. In 2016, Hawaii had the highest life expectancy at birth (81.3 years) and Mississippi had the lowest (74.7 years), a 6.6-year difference. Minnesota had the highest HALE at birth (70.3 years), and West Virginia had the lowest (63.8 years), a 6.5-year difference. The leading causes of DALYs in the United States for 1990 and 2016 were ischemic heart disease and lung cancer, while the third leading cause in 1990 was low back pain, and the third leading cause in 2016 was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Opioid use disorders moved from the 11th leading cause of DALYs in 1990 to the 7th leading cause in 2016, representing a 74.5% (95% UI, 42.8% to 93.9%) change. In 2016, each of the following 6 risks individually accounted for more than 5% of risk-attributable DALYs: tobacco consumption, high body mass index (BMI), poor diet, alcohol and drug use, high fasting plasma glucose, and high blood pressure. Across all US states, the top risk factors in terms of attributable DALYs were due to 1 of the 3 following causes: tobacco consumption (32 states), high BMI (10 states), or alcohol and drug use (8 states). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE There are wide differences in the burden of disease at the state level. Specific diseases and risk factors, such as drug use disorders, high BMI, poor diet, high fasting plasma glucose level, and alcohol use disorders are increasing and warrant increased attention. These data can be used to inform national health priorities for research, clinical care, and policy

The State of US Health, 1990-2016: Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Among US States.

Introduction: Several studies have measured health outcomes in the United States, but none have provided a comprehensive assessment of patterns of health by state. Objective: To use the results of the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) to report trends in the burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors at the state level from 1990 to 2016. Design and Setting: A systematic analysis of published studies and available data sources estimates the burden of disease by age, sex, geography, and year. Main Outcomes and Measures: Prevalence, incidence, mortality, life expectancy, healthy life expectancy (HALE), years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality, years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 333 causes and 84 risk factors with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) were computed. Results: Between 1990 and 2016, overall death rates in the United States declined from 745.2 (95% UI, 740.6 to 749.8) per 100 000 persons to 578.0 (95% UI, 569.4 to 587.1) per 100 000 persons. The probability of death among adults aged 20 to 55 years declined in 31 states and Washington, DC from 1990 to 2016. In 2016, Hawaii had the highest life expectancy at birth (81.3 years) and Mississippi had the lowest (74.7 years), a 6.6-year difference. Minnesota had the highest HALE at birth (70.3 years), and West Virginia had the lowest (63.8 years), a 6.5-year difference. The leading causes of DALYs in the United States for 1990 and 2016 were ischemic heart disease and lung cancer, while the third leading cause in 1990 was low back pain, and the third leading cause in 2016 was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Opioid use disorders moved from the 11th leading cause of DALYs in 1990 to the 7th leading cause in 2016, representing a 74.5% (95% UI, 42.8% to 93.9%) change. In 2016, each of the following 6 risks individually accounted for more than 5% of risk-attributable DALYs: tobacco consumption, high body mass index (BMI), poor diet, alcohol and drug use, high fasting plasma glucose, and high blood pressure. Across all US states, the top risk factors in terms of attributable DALYs were due to 1 of the 3 following causes: tobacco consumption (32 states), high BMI (10 states), or alcohol and drug use (8 states). Conclusions and Relevance: There are wide differences in the burden of disease at the state level. Specific diseases and risk factors, such as drug use disorders, high BMI, poor diet, high fasting plasma glucose level, and alcohol use disorders are increasing and warrant increased attention. These data can be used to inform national health priorities for research, clinical care, and policy

Licensing Practices of Libraries and Content Providers, Survey Instrument

The document contains the survey tool, as created in Qualtrics, exported as PDF and Word (.docx) documents. It shows the question numbers, survey logic and coded values. The HTML tags are stripped from all questions and answers and the dropdown choices are condensed.This survey tool was designed to assess the current licensing practices and the adoption of NISO's Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) by libraries and publishers. The survey of librarians and publishers with licensing responsibilities intended to answer the following research questions: ● How many libraries use SERU? ● How often is SERU used in place of a negotiated, signed license? ● What proportion of e-resource acquisitions are covered by SERU? ● Do libraries advocate for SERU when speaking with publishers? If so, how often and in what way? ● What are the reasons why a library would not use SERU? ● How much do libraries suggest changes to vendor provided licenses? ● How much licensing/negotiation support do libraries have access to, whether that be licensing librarians or general counsel? ● Who does the negotiation for academic libraries? The survey was in English and completed online

Troubleshooting Fundamentals: A Beginner's Guide

Libraries have been troubleshooting unexpected problems affecting access to content for as long as libraries have provided online content. Library systems and access models have matured as the volume of content delivered via those systems has grown. Thus, finding and fixing the causes of electronic resource access problems has become a complex, time-consuming, and often specialized task.This article describes three fundamental areas -- content, authentication models, and library systems -- with which a new troubleshooter should acquaint themselves in order to become an effective solver of e-resource access problems

Essential skills and knowledge for troubleshooting e-resources access issues in a web-scale discovery environment

Electronic resource access troubleshooting is familiar work in most libraries. But the added complexity introduced when a library implements a web-scale discovery service creates a strong need for well-organized, rigorous training to enable troubleshooting staff to provide the best service possible. This article outlines strategies, tools, and a basic curriculum that librarians can use to both refine their own troubleshooting skills, and systematically introduce those skills to others.Carter, Sunshine J; Traill, Stacie. (2017). Essential skills and knowledge for troubleshooting e-resources access issues in a web-scale discovery environment. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, 10.1080/1941126X.2017.1270096

Subscribe to Open: Modelling an open access transformation, Table 2

Table 2. Impact of a 10% loss of subscribers in a subscribe-to-open model, considering original pricing practices and revenue. Published in Allison Langham-Putrow and Sunshine Carter, "Subscribe to Open: Modelling an open access transformation," College & Research Libraries News 81, no. 1 (2020)