Tag Archives: academic librarian

Academic, Research

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

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, 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.
Academic, Resources

Western Sydney University and ProQuest team up for free digital textbooks

Digital textbooks can encourage learning

Textbooks have long been a source of financial strain on college students, and can sometimes interfere with the accessibility of higher education as a whole.

To try and help with this issue, Western Sydney University and ProQuest teamed up to provide free digital textbooks to incoming university students through the University’s library. This article from No Shelf Required includes statements from both the University and ProQuest regarding the collaboration. Some of the goals for collaboration include making the cost of college more affordable, and textbooks more accessible, particularly to students with disabilities. The digital textbooks come from 60 academic publishers and can be accessed by students via Ebook Central which is ProQuest’s ebook platform. Continue reading Western Sydney University and ProQuest team up for free digital textbooks →

Academic, Research, Resources, School Media Specialist, Special

Contribute to the ACRL Framework Sandbox

If you are in an academic library, or looking at academic information (as many of you are), you may want to be involved in a sandbox project from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). You can look through the contributions and information other people are creating, and you are very much encouraged to contribute information yourself! No need to be a member; they want contributions from everyone, so feel free to dive in here and browse around for information that might be relevant to you and your library! Continue reading Contribute to the ACRL Framework Sandbox →