Category Archives: Academic

Academic, CMLE

We hit the road! CMLE visits St. John’s University Library

As part of our commitment to ensuring CMLE members have a lot of opportunities to meet each other in person, to chat about libraries, and to admire the libraries of other members, we are visiting CMLE libraries as a group. And this month we visited the newly renovated St John’s University Alcuin Library!

We’ve shared news of this renovation before, and many members have asked us about their progress. So this was a particularly fun visit, as none of us had seen the final product! (There is still more renovation underway; and should be finished before students start the Fall 2017 semester.)

Thank you to Kathy Parker and her wonderful staff for setting this up for us, and for being such gracious hosts!

We immediately felt welcomed to this lovely library with our own room, and a nice sign! Orville, the CMLE Office Bear, immediately relaxed in this environment, and enjoyed some of the snacks provided. Continue reading We hit the road! CMLE visits St. John’s University Library →

Academic, Resources

Publishers Still Fighting to Bury Universities, Libraries in Fees for Making Fair Use of Academic Excerpts

Fair use logo
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

“On behalf of three national library associations, EFF today urged a federal appeals court for the second time to protect librarians’ and students’ rights to make fair use of excerpts from academic books and research.

Nearly a decade ago, three of the largest academic publishers in the world— backed by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) trade group— sued Georgia State University (GSU) for copyright infringement, insisting that GSU owed licensing fees for the use of excerpts of academic works in its electronic reserve system. Such systems are commonly used to help students save money; rather than forcing students to buy a whole book when they only need a short excerpt from it, professors will place the excerpts “on reserve” for students to access. GSU argued that posting excerpts in the e-reserve systems was a “fair use” of the material, thus not subject to licensing fees. GSU also changed its e-reserve policy to ensure its practices were consistent with a set of fair use best practices that were developed pursuant to a broad consensus among libraries and other stakeholders. The practices are widely used, and were even praised by the AAP itself. ”

(Read the rest of this article!)

Academic, Resources, School Media Specialist

Minnesota Historical Society: Resources for Teachers!

If you are teaching, you are using videos. And the Minnesota Historical Society has a variety of videos available for you, to help you get familiar with their resources and be ready to share them with your students!

“Discover new teaching practices and refresh your pedagogy with these short videos aimed to give introductions to new or modernized teaching ideas, strategies, and social studies skills. Released monthly, the videos will range in topics such as introductions to primary source instruction to literacy practices in the social studies. Watch this page, Facebook, or subscribe to the e-Newsletter for new videos.”

Concept-Based Instruction

Concept-Based Instruction

Segment 1: What is Concept-Based Learning?

Concept-based learning helps students focus on “life’s big ideas” which are applicable to other situations. Learn why concept-based learning is important and how concepts differ from knowledge and skills.

Length: 9 min.
Presenter: Ryan Higbea

Continue reading Minnesota Historical Society: Resources for Teachers! →

Academic, Books, Research

Primary Research Group has published the International Survey of Research University Faculty


Primary Research Group has published the International Survey of Research University Faculty: Use of Academic Library Special  Collections, ISBN 978-157440-439-5

The study presents data from a survey of 500+ faculty at more than 50 major research universities in the USA, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom & Ireland about their use and evaluation of academic library special collections in rare books & documents, film & video, music, photography, rare biological specimens, personal archives, posters and guidebooks and other commercial materials, oral history and many other areas.  The report presents data separately for use of special collections at one’s own university and for use of special collections at other institutions.  The study also gives data on the percentage of faculty that recommend special collections to students, other faculty or other parties. Survey participants name some of their favorite special collections and rate their general level of satisfaction with academic library special collections.

Data in the 196-page study is broken out by more than 10 criteria including but not limited to academic title, age, gender, national origin of university, public/private status, teaching load, tenure status, university ranking and other variables.

The report presents data and commentary on extent of use of various collections, and evaluation of various special collections practices and offerings such as hours of access, quality of digitization, general ease of use, online access, terms of use or borrowing and other factors.

Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:

  • 21.47% of faculty in the Media and Visual and Performing Arts fields accessed photography special collections from outside their institution in the past three years, the most in the sample, followed by those in the Literature and Language fields, 10.00%.
  • Satisfaction with special collections did not vary widely with institution size or type, or with respondent age, gender, political views, or academic field. However, respondents from Canadian universities were relatively more satisfied than were those from other countries with their institution’s special collections,
  • More than a quarter of those age 60 and over found special collections just as easy or easier to find and use than standard library collections, compared to just 11.43% of respondents age 30 and under.
  • Respondents to the far left of the political spectrum reported the highest use special collections based on personal archives or estates, 7.61%, but otherwise political views had no clear impact on utilization of personal archives or estates.
  • 9.73% of respondents teaching more than two courses in the past semester were dissatisfied with levels of online access to collections of catalogs, posters, guides and other commercial materials, compared to less than 3.5% of those teaching two courses or less.For further information view our website at www.PrimaryResearch.com.