Category Archives: Research

Let’s Move! Libraries

International Space Station replica
“Hello everyone,

I am announcing a new project: “Let’s Move! Libraries.” At the project website you will find information on movement-based programs in public libraries throughout North America (think yoga/tai chi/Zumba in the library, StoryWalks, music and movement, walking groups, etc.). The overall goal of this project is to strengthen work already underway in public libraries that seeks to get our communities up and moving.

If you work in a public library in Minnesota, please consider taking a few minutes to fill out this short survey about any programs or services your library provides, has provided in the past, or is planning to provide in the future. The results from this survey will be shared on the project website in Fall 2017.

Please share this message with others you think may be interested in this project. Thank you for your time! I look forward to your feedback.

Noah Lenstra
Assistant Professor
Library and Information Studies
University of North Carolina Greensboro
njlenstr@uncg.edu
http://www.noahlenstra.com/

Share your idea on pathways to youth library leadership!

Take the ALSC Emerging Leader Team Survey!

Complete the survey.

ALSC’s 2017 Emerging Leaders Team invites you to take a three minute survey to help them in studying the potential for new pathways to library leadership for youth and school librarians. Leadership for this survey is defined as the career roles of manager, director, supervisor, etc. The team will present its research and findings in a paper to be released in late June.

The survey submission deadline is April 7.

Complete the survey.

Share your ideas on academic shared spaces

SteacieLibrary
From listserve:

Learning Commons, Knowledge Hubs, Information Commons, and myriad of other names have been associated with the evolving functionality and mission of academic libraries over the past 30 years. This evolution has been both the result of libraries administering a broader range of services, new programs, departments, and initiatives moving into the library’s physical space.

In an effort to learn more about shared spaces within academic libraries, Sasaki invites you to participate in this 31 question survey.

Click here to participate in the survey! 

We seek to better understand what additions have come into the library and what impact they are having on the library’s spatial needs and staff dynamics. Building upon Sasaki’s Academic Librarian Spaces 2015 survey, we hope to further the conversation about the changing spaces within academic libraries. Focusing on “New Neighbors,” an area discussed in the report (pages 22-27).

The survey will close on Friday, April 14th, 2017, and the results will be shared with this list early this summer.

Thank you for your time and participation!
Sincerely,

The Sasaki Team

Bryan Irwin, Principal

Lan Ying Ip, Principal

Code4Lib Issue 37 Call for Papers

The Code4Lib Journal

The Code4Lib Journal (C4LJ) exists to foster community and share information among those interested in the intersection of libraries, technology, and the future.

We are now accepting proposals for publication in our 37th issue.  Don’t miss out on this opportunity to share your ideas and experiences. To be included in the 37th issue, which is scheduled for publication in mid July 2017, please submit articles, abstracts, or proposals at http://journal.code4lib.org/submit-proposal or to journal@code4lib.org by Friday,  April 14, 2017. When submitting, please include the title or subject of the proposal in the subject line of the email message and the acceptance of the Journal’s US CC-By 3.0 license in the body of the message. The editorial committee will review all proposals and notify those accepted by Friday, April 21, 2017.  Please note that submissions are subject to rejection or postponement at any point in the publication process as determined by the Code4Lib Journal’s editorial committee.

C4LJ encourages creativity and flexibility, and the editors welcome submissions across a broad variety of topics that support the mission of the journal. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

* Practical applications of library technology (both actual and hypothetical)
* Technology projects (failed, successful, or proposed), including how they were done and challenges faced
* Case studies
* Best practices
* Reviews
* Comparisons of third party software or libraries
* Analyses of library metadata for use with technology
* Project management and communication within the library environment
* Assessment and user studies

C4LJ strives to promote professional communication by minimizing the barriers to publication. While articles should be of a high quality, they need not follow any formal structure. Writers should aim for the middle ground between blog posts and articles in traditional refereed journals. Where appropriate, we encourage authors to submit code samples, algorithms, and pseudo-code. For more information, visit C4LJ’s Article Guidelines or browse articles from the earlier issues published on our website: http://journal.code4lib.org.

Send in a submission. Your peers would like to hear what you are doing.

-Sara Amato, Coordinating Editor for Issue 37

-Code4Lib Journal Editorial Committee

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.