Latino Reference Resources

The Hispanic and Latino presence in the US predates the existence of the US itself. Spanish exploration and colonization of North, Central, and South America in the sixteenth century began with the establishment of colonies in Puerto Rico in 1509. Florida, Texas, California, and the Southwest were regions of intense Spanish and (in Texas and further west) Mexican exploration, colonization, and cultivation throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. As recently as 160 years ago, Texas was still part of Mexico; California and the entire Southwest comprised northernmost Mexico until 1848, when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended hostilities in the Mexican American war. In that war, Mexico lost nearly half its territory, and that treaty guaranteed both US citizenship and retention of property rights to Mexicans living in the territory ceded to the US. As it worked out, however, many Mexican American landowners were dispossessed of their lands soon after the war and had to face other forms of discrimination. A generation later, the Mexican revolution (1910- 21) prompted emigration to the US, a flow that continues to the present day

Distance Learning Student Survey 2016: Summary

The following is a report which was presented to the Reference & Instruction Division of Parks Library summarizing the 2016 Distance Learning Committee\u27s Distance Learning Student Survey findings

Latino Resources on the Web

Use of the World Wide Web in academic libraries has grown exponentially since the mid-1990s and the introduction of easy-to-use browser software such as Mosaic and Netscape. In academic settings, librarians, faculty, and enterprising computer science or engineering students were among the first to recognize and to make use of the potential of this new publishing medium. Early pioneers saw the Web as a unique space in which to organize through hypertextual links various Internet resources. Besides organizing existing material, new information sources could easily be created, mounted on a server, and accessed by others. A solid Latino presence was quickly established on the Web in the form of librarian Richard Chabnin\u27s scholarly CLNet, then at UCLA, and in the irrepressible Ego Web, constructed by Felipe Campos 207 at the University of Texas, Austin.1 It is odd to look back at that time-not that long ago-and recall the marvel and excitement of waiting for Mosaic to load the CLNet home page onscreen. Since those early days, numerous other Latino Web resources and hypertext lists have been developed, but in many ways, these two pioneering sites still represent the opposite poles ofWeb site developmentthose sites developed by subject and content specialists, and those developed by amateur enthusiasts. For Latino resources, there is value in both approaches

Instruction: Core Competencies

The ISU Library’s Instruction Competencies Task Force reviewed and adapted the national ALA/ACRL Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians Standards to guide instruction-related professional development and teaching practices of ISU librarians who teach

Are You Out There? Challenges of Connecting with Distance Learners

Many colleges and universities have increased the number and breadth of distance learning (DL) courses and online degree programs. In a growing DL environment, more rigorous and sustained attention to DL needs is necessary to encourage recognition of the campus academic library as a viable resource, and to facilitate its access and use by students who may never visit campus. With low staffing and stripped budgets, what can libraries do to ensure that online and physical collections and services are easily available to DL students, many of whom live at a great distance from campus? An initial environmental scan done by librarians and campus staff on a DL library taskforce identified areas of concern. To begin working on these issues, a library DL committee was formed. That committee initiated a series of surveys to both DL instructors and students to hear from them directly concerning what was working well and what challenges might exist in using our library’s collections and services at a distance. The student survey has been especially helpful and has been repeated three times over five years, most recently in 2016. The DL committee has used survey results from over 900 student survey respondents to guide improvements to the library website, off-campus login, communication issues, the provision of interlibrary loan services, and online instruction. The committee has collaborated with various campus units and staff, including the Registrar’s Office, campus DL administrators and staff, the campus Teaching Improvement center, instructional technology staff who create DL courses, and IT staff, among others. This presentation will address some of the major issues students identified as problems, and the changes we have implemented, including our library’s efforts to reach out and regularly connect with our growing number of DL students. </p

Inflation of Diversity Journals in an Academic Library Collection: Implications for Data Tracking in Diversity Collection Development and Maintenance

Academic libraries at institutions seeking to improve the recognition and acceptance of multicultural diversity on their campuses frequently subscribe to journals on topics such as women’s studies, U.S. racial and ethnic studies, queer studies and disability studies. In some cases, these topics relate to specific academic programs at the institutions, but just as frequently, they may not. Maintaining separate subject and budgeting lines for these areas is an important strategy that allows libraries to track their diversity holdings, assess costs, and ensure coverage. At Iowa State University Library, we have separate lines for these areas. One important outcome that has resulted from this practice is the ability to provide bibliographers with inflation data specifically for diversity serials, which tend otherwise to be overlooked and unreported in broad subject-focused serials pricing and inflation data. In this paper, we provide analysis of the inflation within each of the diversity areas we track, compare inflation across those areas, and relate our inflation data to the inflation of academic serials more broadly. We will discuss implications of these data for collection development and maintenance of diversity journal collections