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JffKrlsn › Likes
Have academic peeps already seen the JISC Academic Database Assessment Tool? http://adat.crl.edu/ It lets you compare database coverage and database/ebook platform features. Also lets you search by journal title to see where something is indexed (which I know you can do in Ulrich's, but this seems a little more straightforward).
JffKrlsn, OMG 404 Joe, RudĩϐЯaЯïan and 3 other people liked this
I wrote a little review of it in 2009 in Public Services Quarterly, but it looks like they've added a bit more since then--esp. the e-book section. Pretty handy!
- Megan loves summer
especially handy if your campus can't afford Ulrich's...
- Catherine Pellegrino
Do you have an interesting, hands-on activity for teaching about plagiarism and/or citation that you're willing to share? This great thread from a while ago http://friendfeed.com/lsw... has me thinking about how to better approach requests from faculty who expressly want me to address this.
JffKrlsn liked this
Things I'm thinking about, all inspired by posts in that thread plus Barbara's presentation linked therein: (1) Investigate proper citation/trackbacks/retweeets from blogs or Twitter, why "citing your sources" is expected good citizenly behavior on the internets. (2) Give students a list of works cited and ask them to decipher the list and predict which would be most useful for a particular topic (link being able to create citations with being able to decipher). (3) Give students "edge cases" where it's hard to distinguish plagiarism or not, proper citation or not, and ask them to discuss and determine the principles of what makes something plagiarism. [This idea partially stolen (ETA: really, almost completely stolen) from a Dartmouth College FYE activity.]
- Amandadon't
I'ma gonna PLAGIARIZE this baby here.
- barbara fister
Iris' create your own citation style exercise
- maʀtha
I tell them that citation is the academic equivalent linking to things on Facebook or email. We all know *someone* who sends us the most appalling crap. Don't be that person in your papers.
- Rebecca Hedreen
HA! "Don't be that person on Facebook." And wow, that create your own citation exercise is awesome! I assume this one, right? http://pegasuslibrarian.com/2008...
- Amandadon't
Oh, and this isn't exactly where I heard about the Dartmouth method, but describes it and has an attached powerpoint under the resources tab: http://www.educause.edu/nercomp...
- Amandadon't
Iris's is great! I missed that one before. I'd also add that MLA uses author and page number in text, because they are more likely to be citing a book (and it's polite not to make you skim the entire book to find the idea cited.) APA (Author, Date) is used more, as noted, in fields where currency is important, and that means lots of journal articles, and you can probably read the whole thing.
- Rebecca Hedreen
We also have A Magical Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism by Kate Hart on our Citation Help guide: http://www.katehart.net/2012...
- Rebecca Hedreen
I recently taught a class doing something similar to your #3 idea above, Amandadon't. I adapted scenarios from this LOEX presentation (http://commons.emich.edu/loexcon...). First we created definitions (and reasons) for academic honesty and intellectual property, then I broke the students into groups and each discussed 1 scenario, then we came back together and the students read...
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- Freeda B.
Nice, Freeda, that's perfect!
- Amandadon't
I don't have a tip, but I do have a story I think you guys might like. My brother is a professor at a community college and teaches creative writing. The school uses TurnItIn as their anti-plagiarism service. He got a report back on a student's paper that it was 99% copied; the highlight from the report is that the paper had content lifted from the Satanic Bible. The student's defense...
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- Andy
I developed a class based around using music to illustrated plagiarism, all about The Amen Break and its use in hip hop and elsewhere. Basically played the students sections of different songs, and let them decide which were plagiarized and which had been changed enough to be original, etc. Was fascinating to see how fast they got it when put in that context.
- Jason Griffey
I've been working 12-15 hour days for several months trying to get the technology in place to open our new library on Jan 2nd. If you wanna see what the technology library of the future is like, here's a quick video from a few months ago. It just covers some highlights. I'll post some current pix as we get closer....
Lily, Megan loves summer, JffKrlsn and 8 other people liked this
You can learn lots more here. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/huntlib...
- W!cKeD
(I don't have to wait for the video cause I saw it in October. But seriously, y'all are doing some damn cool stuff.)
- Marianne
Thanks Marianne! the work is killing me but the result will be worth it.
- W!cKeD
Chadwick, I was just going to ask you about the Teaching & Visualization classroom y'all are putting in. Is this in your domain? I'd love to talk with you about it (specifically about the tech side)
- RudĩϐЯaЯïan
I've been interested in your library, and saw some tidbits at the assessment conference several weeks ago. Count me in as a very interested party in the visualization stuff, too!
- kaijsa
Recent discussion on Web4Lib of library 404 pages yielded lots of examples, which I bundled here in bitly. http://bitly.com/bundles...
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JffKrlsn and Amandadon't liked this
Library Terms That Users Understand - http://escholarship.org/uc...
JffKrlsn, Marie and Stephen le Francoeur liked this
"This document is intended to help library web developers decide how to label key resources and services in such a way that most users can understand them well enough to make productive choices. It compiles data from usability studies evaluating terminology on library websites, and suggests test methods and best practices for reducing cognitive barriers caused by terminology, and provides an extensive list of resources."
- Deborah Fitchett
People are *still* studying this? Didn't we figure this out a decade or two ago?
- Blake
Well, on the one hand this is actually a pretty old site, I was just rebookmarking it For Reasons. And on the other hand, a) we keep forgetting it and b) anyway the terms our users use/understand is going to vary by place and time; it's not a problem you can solve once and never deal with again.
- Deborah Fitchett
The document says it's (c)2012, although nearly all of the studies included are from before 2005-6. Interesting. I am too lazy to check whether this is something that is repeated/updated periodically.
- Meg V. Meg
Well, the document info says Feb 2012, which is like decades ago in internet years. (It used to be maintained regularly at http://www.jkup.net/terms but I gather there's been a lot less maintenance recently, for whatever reason.)
- Deborah Fitchett
Question: Are your users often/regularly perplexed by how to use e-books? If so, how is your library helping users? Who in your library is responding/spearheading such support efforts?
JffKrlsn and Christina Pikas liked this
We have handouts, classes, pop-up classes, and on-demand one-on-one hand-holding (in person and over the phone). Also a frequently updated series of classes for reference staff. We do a new round of staff training before Christmas and before Mother's Day. After, there's a new round of patron classes. Here's the page with the handouts: http://gailborden.info/library... One of the two people in charge of all that is Melissa Ziel mziel@gailborden.info
- Betsy #TeamMonique
Thank you so much Betsy!
- Galadriel C.
Yes they are. Depends on how you view it, the answer could be, nobody, the discovery implementation team or the eresource management team.
- aarontay
Aaron, are you able to break out specific tacks covered by the discovery implementation team and the ERM team? I am trying to create a case here that e-book support belongs to everyone (subject librarians, folks at the circulation desk, etc.) - not just the erm team.
- Galadriel C.
We have a ebook guide, created by the last erm team leader when prompted by me. It's very simple compared to most I have seen, just links to various platforms. Like many libraries we are struggling with ebooks management eg uploading marc records etc. Implementation of Summon adds another layer to the confusion with other options. So that's what the discovery implementation team is...
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- aarontay
Yes, our users are regularly perplexed, and right now front-line support happens at the circ and ref desks, with ERM folks as backups. In theory, at least, but only 3-4 public services folks really understand the potential problems, so they end up being the go-to people. Philosophically, I agree with you Galadriel, it's everyone's responsibility. Our ERM folks have done a good job of...
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- Amandadon't
We have a bunch of stuff on our website, offer group and one on one help to customers on both a drop in and appointment basis and classes.
- ♫410 I Coach 'em Up♫
Madison PL has put out a call for SLIS students to staff special ebook helpdesks post-Xmas, FWIW. I'm encouraging my students to take part; that's good résumé fodder right there.
- RepoRat
(And yes, there are WIDESPREAD reports of ebook tech support being a PITA for both public and academic libraries, so there's no reason to feel bad about flailing some.)
- RepoRat
users are def. confused... main campus did a survey last semester and a lot of people said couldn't bcs didn't have a device... YET we do have a lot of usage of our springer ebooks, for example, and using them is exactly the same as using an ejournal from springer so... yes... at my research lab we do classes on using ebooks quite regularly and we do know that people are using them. at mpow it's the same people who do everything. except catalog. we don't catalog.
- Christina Pikas
Reading something on the downsides of instructional screencasts just made me ponder instead creating step-by-step guides with each step consisting of text plus an animated gif. This strikes me as such a probably-terrible idea that I couldn't resist sharing.
i don't know about animated GIFs, but screencast + step by step text wouldn't be a bad thing, I think....
- ~Courtney F
Guide-on-the-Side!!
- Jen
There's a website that lets you create an interactive screencast and automatically creates a step-by-step text+screenshots off it, very niftily, except I can't remember what it's called. (I tested it for a bit but gave up when I found the output didn't work well with (our version of) IE. I don't like IE either, but a sizable proportion of our users still use it so couldn't justify creating something that wouldn't work for them.)
- Deborah Fitchett
I think you're talking about www.iorad.com . I agree, it's a nice idea, but I didn't like the output and lack of data portability...
- JffKrlsn
Yes, that's the one, thanks!
- Deborah Fitchett
Open Access Explained! http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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JffKrlsn, $tephanie•Gardening and jtf liked this
sounds like communism to me
- Blake
Who else has divided up their library into different noise-level zones and posted info about it on their website? So far, I have...
aarontay, JffKrlsn, Jenica and Sir Shuping is just sir liked this
Western Washington University http://library.wwu.edu/feature...
- Stephen le Francoeur
Carleton College http://apps.carleton.edu/campus...
- Stephen le Francoeur
We have a designated quiet floor, but I'm not sure whether it's mentioned anywhere on the website very visibly. (Here for example: http://library.gsu.edu/626... it just says we have a quiet floor.)
- Jason P
University of Western Ontario: http://www.lib.uwo.ca/policie... (there are maps in each building)
- DJF
University of Windsor: http://leddy.uwindsor.ca/quiet-a...
- copystar
Our Scott Library is divided up into various types of space but I'm not sure we've got that on the web anywhere.
- John Dupuis
We have quiet levels, but I don't think the information is on our website: http://pegasuslibrarian.com/2007...
- lris
Quiet study areas in McGill branches: http://www.mcgill.ca/library...
- Megan loves summer
I wrote about some libraries doing this recently: http://chronicle.com/article...
- Jennifer Howard
Our floor maps page on the website indicates which are quiet floors. http://www-lib.uwyo.edu/about...
- kaijsa
I wrote a quick post on a staff blog just now with links to these and other libraries that have designated different spaces for different levels of noise. http://bit.ly/SWrV0K
- Stephen le Francoeur
A colleague just shared this one from NYU. http://nyu.libguides.com/content...
- Stephen le Francoeur
we have a designated floor at the medical library. It's mentioned on the website but not obviously
- Hedgehog
Two floors are designated as "quiet levels" and students call on security to enforce if it gets loud. Other levels have varying decrees about noise but I can't find the info graphic on the website: http://lib.uconn.edu/instruc....
- Galadriel C.
We do. Not sure how long the news will appear on the website, though: https://libraries.mercer.edu/news-ev...
- The LB: #TeamMonique
Oh, you meant actual libraries and literal noise-levels. I was thinking you were talking about some social network and the noise-to-signal ratio. :P
- DAMMIT, MR. NOODLE
Is a vendor sending unordered materials to your library? Report them to the FTC Instructions and info: http://www.aallnet.org/Documen...
JffKrlsn, holly #ravingfangirl and ωαřмaiden ❤Marrit Woman❤ liked this
Does this apply to non-law libraries? I see that it's an AALL initiative, but it's not clear if it's exclusive. :)
- laura x
Yep! Any library can do it. The Consumer Advocacy Caucus of AALL just took a special interest in this and wrote up instructions.
- Sarah G.
Awesome. I will distribute this to our state library list, as public libraries get this kind of crap all the time.
- laura x
Awesome! Three things that people who are not me could do to even the playing field with library vendors. (1) Fill out this form to FTC. It currently won't change things, but will possibly make FTC take a close look at this issue. (2) Organize a wikileaks for vendor contracts project concentrating on libraries that are funded by the government (public, university, court, etc) in states...
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- Sarah G.
Found a citation from 1961 with the wrong journal title. Cited that way 20-30 times in SciFinder and Google Scholar. Naughty scholars, you're supposed to actually *read* the stuff you cite.
suelibrarian, JffKrlsn, OMG 404 Joe and 5 other people liked this
i love it when i go BLAMMO to our researchers and then they fight "but that's not what all these papers say." and then i give them the thing they actually want and they thank me but don't understand why people got it wrong, and i point out people are lazy. researchers think this is magic.
- kendrak
Yep.
- maʀtha
We get a lot of lawyers in looking at long lists of publications--I assume checking out expert witnesses--those always seem to crop up an incorrect citation or two
- Hedgehog
If you have it handy, could you give us the wrong and right citations? Might be handy as an example. If you don't have it anymore, don't worry about it.
- bevedog
A fabulous example of a paper that gets cited that doesn't actually exist is here: http://hdl.handle.net/2142.... Abstract: Gerard Salton is often credited with developing the vector space model (VSM) for information retrieval (IR). Citations to Salton give the impression that the VSM must have been articulated as an IR model sometime between 1970 and 1975. However, the VSM as it is...
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- Sarah
I remember someone arguing that a wrong citation does not imply they didnt read the paper, just that they copied a wrong citation without borthering to check.. Never decided whether this was really a valid defense.
- aarontay
regardless, that's lazy.
- kendrak
I wonder if citation managers have made this situation better or worse.
- RepoRat
I'm trying to find it again. Ultimately my conclusion was that someone must have typed "Z Phys Chem" instead of "J Phys Chem" a million years ago? And then the abbreviation got expanded in later instances? Something crazy.
- Meg V. Meg
Zeitschrift für Physik Chemiewissenschaftforschung
- bevedog
Gesundheit.
- RepoRat
Genau.
- kendrak
Somewhat related thing is blowing up on PAMNET now, apparently Web of Science has crazy bad citation data for some journals due to "nonstandard" journal abbreviations (ApJ vs. Astrophys. J., etc.). Pull quote: "Given how multi-disciplinary research is and how often references are cited in articles from another field, is it really good practice to using high abbreviated acronyms in...
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- Meg V. Meg
URIs, baby. Semanticize those citations! *g, d, r*
- RepoRat
German Democratic Republic?
- OMG 404 Joe
URIs for real. Also it's weird because I can only think of a few journals my folks abbreviate, but not really. (Also it's weird to me but it's always DDR, I often forget that people say GDR. This is what happens when you study post-war German history in Germany.)
- kendrak
("grins, ducks, and runs")
- RepoRat
About to start drafting examples of "information literate assignments" for teaching resources page. Do you have any you're willing to share?
Jen, JffKrlsn, Amandadon't and 2 other people liked this
this has some we recommend to our faculty: http://belmont.libguides.com/content...
- ~Courtney F
feel free to use anything from this workshop handout (a Word doc) http://db.tt/WmMi81yf
- barbara fister
These aren't mine, but I've consulted them: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/signatu...; http://www.library.arizona.edu/service...; http://leddy.uwindsor.ca/designi...; http://www.library.mun.ca/qeii...
- Megan loves summer
This handout (Word doc) was used in a faculty development workshop at MPOW recently: http://www3.saintmarys.edu/library...
- Catherine Pellegrino
^^^ those are awesome!
- barbara fister
Catherine, those are fantastic! Thanks all!
- RudĩϐЯaЯïan
Now to cull and shape. Cull and shape! A good, usable libguide tab will come from all this wonderful, it truly will!
- RudĩϐЯaЯïan
We're working on something similar. I have various materials from workshops, but our instruction coordinator is working on a libguide, which will be much nicer. My eye is on this space, too!
- kaijsa
To avoid confusion with PubMed, PubMed Central is now named PMC. Because switching to an acronym based on a confusing name is good for clearing up confusion. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs...
Kirsten, Galadriel C. and JffKrlsn liked this
Clear a mud.
- Hedgehog
huh. dont get it. Since we on the topic, is pubmed central the same as pubmed central UK and pubmed central canada? whats the difference?
- aarontay
Buh.
- Chelle Chelle Ro Ro
oops look like UK PubMed Central changed names as well
- aarontay
these explanations about ukpmc, etc. will also probably be as clear as mud: http://ukpmc.ac.uk/FAQ#differ
- Rachel Walden
I am actually looking at packages to add to 360core, in 360core, there is just Ukpubmed which I presume includes abstracts..hmm probably wont turn that on. Canada one has a package for full participant titles, same for PMC, will probably turn those on. Suspect the ones that say NIH Portfolio titles, if turned on will result in dead-ends. Trying to avoid turning on Abstract only stuff...
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- aarontay
Now, can we change MedlinePlus to some name not including MEDLINE? Talk about confusing.
- maʀtha
That can be M+, and PubMed Health can be PMH, and users can go WTF. ;)
- Rachel Walden
ePoorly
- Pete #TeamMonique
"Ember Stevens - How to Impress a Librarian" Interesting attempt to teach Boolean in an entertaining way to non-librarians. http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Betsy #TeamMonique, maʀtha, JffKrlsn and OMG 404 Joe liked this
Importing HTML into Google Docs spreadsheets - http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger...
JffKrlsn liked this
Eric Frierson, "The Dynamic Duo: The Web Developer and the Public Services Librarian," In the Library with the Lead Pipe - http://www.inthelibrarywiththe...
JffKrlsn and Betsy #TeamMonique liked this
Pull quote: “Public services librarians will garner more respect from their web development colleagues when they present findings from studies that illustrate real, measured, and significant user needs. Unlike an anecdote from the reference desk, ethnographic study comes with legitimacy. Recommendations seem less like complaints about the systems, and more like steps to take to meeting a shared goal of improved user experience. Conversely, the web developer equipped with the skills to design a system that addresses identified needs gets more respect as well. Instead of blaming inflexible interfaces for bad user experience, web developers can invent solutions and fix problems.”
- Stephen le Francoeur
Did someone hack into ACRL Blog? Really strange posts there now. http://acrlblog.org
OMG 404 Joe and JffKrlsn liked this
There will be new text.
- Marie
There will be text :-p
- Hedgehog
No hacking at all. The real URL for the ACRL's 7 year old blog is acrlog.org; a spammer set up a set at acrlblog.org, the feed for which had long been in my Google Readerr account, dormant for years until a new post yesterday.
- Stephen le Francoeur
i had no idea they changed their address. when did they do that?
- Sir Shuping is just sir
They didn't. ACRL has always had the address at acrlog.org. Some clever spammer registered a slightly different domain at acrlblog.org (note the "b" in there).
- Stephen le Francoeur
Catherine Pellegrino, "RUSQ, Open Access, and Me," Spurious Tuples - http://www.spurioustuples.net/...
(psst: it's Pellegrino)
- Catherine Pellegrino
I thought it was... I before G except after L... I never get that right
- Blake
At least he got the "Catherine" part right. I've been addressed as "Carolyn" three times in the last few months and I'm beginning to wonder what's up.
- Catherine Pellegrino
So much for authority control...
- Stephen le Francoeur
Fixed in the post here and on Tumblr. (For those late to the game, I don't spel so gud sumtimez.)
- Stephen le Francoeur
(thanks, Francour!)
- Catherine Pellegrino
(no problem, Kathy!)
- Stephen le Francoeur
Katy's so fussy about this stuff.
- Jason P
And she should be, jaysen.
- ellbeecee
Jason Clark, "Using the Google Spreadsheets Data API to build a Recommended Reading List," Code Words | ALA TechSource - http://www.alatechsource.org/blog...
JffKrlsn liked this
Pull quote: “In this first column, we will look at the idea behind a ‘data store’ that might power an app or website. In generic terms, a data store is the place where you store the data that you will use. This ‘place’ usually takes the form of a database, but it can be anything from a spreadsheet to a text file delimited by commas. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki....) Our first example will show how to use a Google Docs spreadsheet as your data store. Once you have the spreadsheet and data in place, we’ll create a little HTML and add some Javascript to query the spreadsheet data and produce a recommended reading list.”
- Stephen le Francoeur
How is Google different from traditional Library OPACs & databases? - http://musingsaboutlibrariansh...
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JffKrlsn and Stephen le Francoeur liked this
Updated my bibliography of Discovery related material https://sites.google.com/site... - lots of new stuff appearing. Think will leave out powerpoints
JffKrlsn liked this
Remember when Cengage sued a start up over note-taking, claiming notes are derivative works? Now they acquired something just like it - a way of gathering quotes, sharing quotes, and generating papers with only a little bit of narrative glue. https://mashable.com/2012...
JffKrlsn and Betsy #TeamMonique liked this
This is what happens when research papers are believed to be cut and paste jobs. AARRGGHH!
- barbara fister
Also, the product will save popular quotes, and IP owners will get some kind of kickback. So there will be incentives to feed awful student papers because students who want easy quotes will use the library database that makes it easy to grab quotes without context and not have to read those long boring articles. (So why do we punish students for buying papers? What's the difference?)
- barbara fister
Robo-grading, meet robo-writing!
- barbara fister
Now if we could just get robo-reading, we could do something else with our lives! :)
- Lisa Hinchliffe
I only trust research papers handwritten in little blue essay books.
- Zamms
Hmm. Maybe it's time to start an AutoNarrative firm, a service that takes those quotes and generates a plausible narrative glue. Maybe call it EZResearchPapers? (Yeah, I know, there are probably outfits doing it already.)
- Walt Crawford
And here's why we shouldn't treat papers as mashups - wonderful stuff in here which I haven't totally digested - http://chronicle.com/blogs...
- barbara fister
"...what I have long called the”smash and grab” approach that students employ to produce what we encourage them to pass off as “researched writing:” Scan a list of abstracts like a jewelry store window. Punch through the plate glass to grab two or three arguments or items of evidence. Run off. Re-arrange at leisure."
- barbara fister
" ... For journalists in many kinds of reporting, academic sources are experts, hauled onto stage to speak their piece and shoved off again, perhaps never to be met with again. It’s this sort of smash-and-grab, whether from the journalist’s Rolodex/smart phone, from a scholarly database, or the unfairly-blamed Google (as if this practice were invented by internet search!) that we teach to our students by requiring them to make thesis statements and arguments “supported by sources.”
- barbara fister
It's still being strongly suggested that this is how I should currently write papers. O_o
- Hedgehog
o_0
- barbara fister
This is why students should use the auto-robot paper writer from MIT. Great article Barbara! http://apps.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/scicach...
- OMG 404 Joe
I'd forgotten MIT's paper writer, which has had work published in peer reviewed journals (although I'm guessing the reviewers weren't computers, thus not really peers). So can you seed that with a few choice quotations?
- Walt Crawford
An lis paper generator would be cool.
- OMG 404 Joe
from iPod
If we put a derivative work inside another derivative work, doesn't that mean the universe will collapse?
- Andy
everything is a derivative work, wrapped in n+1 layers of derivative works
- awd (canoeist in th wild)
Oh no, Aaron, we are surrounded by completely original never-been-done-before works all the time. You are a beautiful snowflake.
- Andy
I would link to my Modest Proposal for Eternacopyright (that is: Any entirely original work should be eligible for permanent copyright with modest ongoing fees. Any work *claimed* to be entirely original that is in any way derivative would then go directly into the public domain. The rest? Founder's copyright: 14 years, renewable once) but I'm guessing you get the gist.
- Walt Crawford
Your Library Website Stinks and It's Your Fault - http://www.matthewreidsma.com/...
JffKrlsn and Betsy #TeamMonique liked this
Kinda wish the title of this presentation was a little less provocative.
- Stephen le Francoeur
I'm glad GVSU hired him. I think he's a much better web services librarian than I was!
- Laura H.
I actually found the title refreshing, but this is why I was a bad librarian.
- RepoRat
Maybe something like this "Your Relatively Well-Funded and Adequately Staffed Academic Library's Website Stinks and It's Your Fault."
- Stephen le Francoeur
Point taken. I think "You're Systematically Underfunding Systems Dammit" is kind of a different discussion? (Tho one I wanna have. Loudly. Publicly. About more than systems and web librarianship, though they're certainly part of it.)
- RepoRat
RR, I am so with you on that. We spend how many $$$ on collections and that is all you want to allocate to ensure that they are set up, maintained, accessible, and there for the long haul?
- Stephen le Francoeur
Malinvestment. Malinvestment. Malinvestment. I think there's a crapton of it, in libraries of all sizes and shapes (tho larger ones are particularly prone to it owing to greater inertia). I see ref libns complaining about dead desks and I'm all MALINVESTMENT.
- RepoRat
(also, do not get me STARTED on how MfPOW systematically plundered positions from conservation/preservation for IMO way-overstaffed functions such as coll-dev. I cannot respect that. Guy responsible has retired... but I don't see those positions moving the other way, even though THEY DAMNED WELL SHOULD.)
- RepoRat
Any of your institutions support Libx toolbar or similar? I am thinking of introducing it since we switching over to 360link which is way easier to setup then webbridge but not sure LibX is worth the trouble since it seems 2.0 doesn't work with IE and 1.5 is flaky. Is it worth or fair introducing a tool only Firefox and Chrome users....
JffKrlsn, Galadriel C., OMG 404 Joe and Sir Shuping is just sir liked this
can use (and in our case chrome is blocked - don't ask long story). I also need to try with a good implemention of Libx , I am not sure the google scholar support is working for my attempt. Or is it supposed to work that way?
- aarontay
Yes it is worth doing. Just for the XISBN and Amazon integration itself. Not to mention the right click to load any site through the library proxy. And ability to add searches to the toolbar that are not just your library (eg. u cd add search the uni staff list, worldcat, wikipedia and the nat lib of singapore as bookmarklets in there too)
- Kathryn is Blake in Hindi
BUT - good luck getting the everyday librarians who do info lit (and are not researchers) to realise the gift that they can give to their users who do use FF and Chrome. LibX is like giving 30% of your users a big pot of gold, a smoochy kiss and a giant bowl of yummy oatmeal all at once - but bcs no-one tries to sell it to librarians it is sadly overlooked.
- Kathryn is Blake in Hindi
LibX is worth it. I agree with Kathryn with the caveat that at our institution our tech services librarians and staff love LibX for the easy isbn lookup. It's worth it just for how it works with PubMed as it turns PMIDs into resolver links.
- copystar
i love libx and i got a tweet from a random person at my parent institution who is very thankful for it... the systems people at the parent institution keep hinting at it going away because they don't support it.... so as long as *I* can support it, we'll have it
- Christina Pikas
Our library systems office supports LibX, and I've heard from multiple grad students that they love it for the proxy reload and the lib catalog lookup. To be honest, I often gently suggest to grad students that they use Firefox or Chrome anyway... so I sort of push non-IE browsers on them.
- Amandadon't
We use it. The thing it gets used for most is the "Reload via Proxy" option.
- kristin buxton
I upgraded us to 2.0, and I advertise what I can to our patrons. I've loaded LibX on some of the reference workstations, but the ones for the students don't have it. I might use the smoochy pot of gold oatmeal kiss quote somewhere for promotional material.... Is that ok?
- OMG 404 Joe
:) Joe. The other reason why librarians often do not realize the huge value of LibX is bcs the transparent proxying works off-campus - and most of the time librarians are on campus or on the uni's network at least...Although - correct me if I am wrong - this seems less of an advantage if one is using Zotero as when off campus it automagically sends links through the proxy too?
- Kathryn is Blake in Hindi
Thanks. I have being using libx myself personally for my institution even before openurl was available since 2008. Just wondering if I should officially teach librarians cos now there is a decent openurl. I am just anticipating the whole "we must support every browser, if not we can't launch..." sigh. We have very popular bookmarklet that handles the proxy reload but yes the ISSN/Xisbn hotlink is a very nice thing.
- aarontay
Christina I am trying to solve the pubmed thing. In fact I am going through a long list of bookmarklets, firefox extensions, citation managers etc and trying to put in the new 360link openurl base address..
- aarontay
Look like libx 2.0 is mostly fixed. Works beautifully now. Having a ball testing 360link on various citation managers (Endnote, Mendley, zotero etc) , browser extensions that use link resolvers , bookmarklets...
- aarontay
Will this post be cited more often? Non-content factors that influence citation rates. http://feedly.com/k/rxjWrh
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*snerk*
- laura x
Yeah, what you said.. murgh...
- LibrarianOnTheLoose
It's gonna be great, I'm sure, because our systems guy is great and taking in lots of feedback and criticism and making changes. But given the way I use the catalog, the only real feature so far of the discovery layer is returning hundreds more imprecise, mostly irrelevant results for each keyword search.
- bevedog
Increasing recall is a deliberate strategy with discovery layers; precision is supposed to come by tweaking relevance ranking, which is not a trivial undertaking. Jonathan Rochkind has a walkthrough that I found enlightening: http://bibwild.wordpress.com/2011... . If you really like nerdy details, Naomi Dushay...
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- RepoRat
Thanks for the links, which I will read later. I'm aware that this is deliberate, I'm just not sure how helpful it really is, especially in the case where there really are very few relevant results and the search returns hundreds of "hits." I suppose I will have to re-calibrate my understandings and expectations, but I've always thought that getting back zero results or very few results...
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- bevedog
It's a question of changing expectations, I guess. For you and me, 0 results means "I fscked up my search." For most, it means "library ain't got nothin'; time to try teh g00g." Whereas large result sets aren't too horrible to whittle down by facet, which tends to be an easier strategy to teach (facets being easily visible on search-result pages) than constructing precise searches in the first place is. Rly the best way forward? I dunno. But that's the thinking behind it.
- RepoRat
My favourite implementations of Discovery Layers are the ones that keep the formats siloed. I particularly like the NCSU implementation because it puts Library WebSites results right beside the search results for in context local help: Here's an example: primary sources history http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/search...
- copystar
Given that our undergrads flee to JSTOR because it returns a more manageable number of results, I haven't yet figured out why I'd want a discovery layer.
- barbara fister
Fair cop. Undergrad institutions very possibly don't. They certainly have to weigh the multiple-places-to-search issue against the sifting-results issue. (See David Lewis of Purdue for bold assertions about library resources having significantly overshot undergraduates.)
- RepoRat
E.g. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/173 and http://hdl.handle.net/1805/557 . Screencast for those as likes 'em at http://www.slideshare.net/DataGaz... .
- RepoRat
That's an interesting reaction, Barbara, because JSTOR seems like the harbinger of this stuff in the way it returns any and everything with your keywords in the article, depending on relevance ranking to keep the good stuff at the top. Our plan for "discovery" starts with just the catalog and some other local resources, not with lots of databases, so perhaps that's the difference.
- bevedog
Echoing Steve: if JSTOR returns a more manageable results set than your discovery layer, your discovery layer has some serious problems. Hoo.
- Catherine Pellegrino
I'll try and give David Lewis more of a fair shake another day. For now, I'll just say that the "undergraduate" in the first paper linked above is purely a product of his imagination.
- bevedog
Really? I thought the attributes Lewis adduces (start with the Web, convenience-of-access first, science undergrads disappear fastest) were pretty much common currency. Maybe that's another ARLs-vs-smaller-colleges thing?
- RepoRat
It's...fine as far as it goes. But it's not any kind of study of actual undergrads and actual behavior. He made it up from things he thinks he knows, as I might make up what the day of a public librarian is like from what I know on FriendFeed. It might be wrong or right, but I'd be making it up.
- bevedog
Yeah, that's a fair critique. (Same can usually be said of the stuff I write.) As a minor defense, a lot of that research actually got done between '05 and now, seems to me, so Lewis was a bit ahead of the times.
- RepoRat
To expand just a little, I'd say that it's certainly not wrong that undergrads, like all of us, are finding more of what they want on the web all the time, and finding that what is on the web is often good enough for their purposes, regardless of whether it is the *best* for their purposes. But something that this misses is that, at least at my institution, undergrads seem to be asked to do more complicated research more often than they used to be. Because more is possible, more is asked of them.
- bevedog
Oh, hey. Now THAT is interesting, and definitely worth writing about, if you've a mind. If you want grist for the mill, the undergrad-research posters coming out of UW Eau Claire are freakin' rad, and I can point you to the collection. I am SO impressed with what they do over there.
- RepoRat
Heh. It would involve actual research, I'm afraid. :D Lastly, I think that I simply just bristle at ANY broad-brush characterization of "undergrads" as if the soldiers back from Iraq and Afghanistan that my wife teaches and the idealistic kids from privileged backgrounds that make up a large part of CC's student body and a Chinese kid in biology at the University of California San Diego are suitable for generalizing about. But that's my problem as much as it is anyone else's.
- bevedog
Dorothea, the same is true of undergrads here. Faculty talk about that all the time, where students now can and do work quite effectively with resources that scholars of the previous generation only touched in graduate school, and the results are often great.
- lris
I believe it! Hell, even back in my undergrad days I wrote one or two things that even to my twenty-years-older-and-wiser eyes don't completely suck. So, a couple of questions about that: 1) how much of the student body are these projects actually reaching, and 2) what kind of engagement with library resources and librarians do these projects require (or at least imply)?
- RepoRat
Excellent questions which I'm not personally prepared to answer but really should find out. Next semester?
- bevedog
Educause prolly knows something about question 1. I r liberrian; I should possibly just look that shit up. *g*
- RepoRat
Heh. If you find anything out, please share.
- bevedog
The whole discovery layer thing seems to be a sort of cargo cult for library administrators. At MPOW, the use of Web of Science is an order of magnitude over most other databases. Why? Small sets of key journals that cover a long period of time, strong linking to full-text, meaningful connections between items, and the ability to sort and parse results sets. Discovery Layers do the opposite in every way.
- copystar
I want to Like Mita's comment, esp the cargo cult bit. This, exactly this.
- Jason Griffey
from iPhone
A small piece of devil's advocacy: I like discovery layers because they bring the local digital library and IR back into The Library Proper. It's one less reason for traditional librarians to dismiss all things locally-digital. This may admittedly be poor service to undergraduates who need FIVE ARTIKLES NAO, but I prefer to think of it as bringing the library catalog a bit closer to the broader information world students will perforce live in after they graduate.
- RepoRat
Yes, Dorothea, that's one of our main goals. i also think that "do the stuff the catalog does, but better, and prettier, and without all the limitations that the Stupid ILS Companies impose" is perfectly fine. "Discovery Layer" != "Search 'em all and let God sort it out."
- bevedog
(Those are not the undergraduates I work with, RR.)
- lris
Iris, you forgot the hand gesture.
- DJF
*blank stare* Those are not the undergraduates you work with, Iris.
- RepoRat
What an interesting thread.
- Walt Crawford
++Mita and I'll raise Iris's blank stare with a 0-0 that lasts minutes. When I wrote a not-awful paper as an undergraduate, I did it without searching the literature using library tools. I didn't know about them. I found things the way my teachers did, by seeking out connections and making some of my own. Today libraries want to act like Google (millions of hits! yay!) without having an...
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- barbara fister
And I see no virtue in spending time rejecting dozens of crappy sources in order to locate some that are on target and useful.
- barbara fister
Are you suggesting, Barbara, that the problems of research--for undergraduate or anyone else--are unlikely to be solved (or even improved significantly) by improved search algorithms? Because that's where my mind is going.
- bevedog
No, I think better algorithms would be dandy. Right now what turns up with a so-called "relevance" search is usually rubbish. We can make our searches look like Google fairly easily. We just can't make them act like Google.
- barbara fister
And, speaking from some experience, good relevance algorithms are damn tough.
- Walt Crawford
I guess I'd not argue against better algorithms, if they could be done. Just that Barbara makes me think that it's "easy" to write a relevance algorithm when you can assume that "more links = better." That's not always the case in academic searching, and sometimes it's the opposite. Perhaps a "Relevance Algorithm" facet would be cool, where you could apply different magical sorting techniques to your results.
- bevedog
I doubt anything about algorithms that work is easy. Google invests a lot in theirs. I would like to be able to push buttons for various magical sorting techniques, though. Give me more, give me less, give me local, give me global, give me mainstream, give me edgy, give me relationships by citations, give me articles using the same words in the title... just don't give me everything and tell me it's relevant.
- barbara fister
Great discussion as usual. Currently, the various contenders are still competing on size of index basically because the reason such products exist is to capture 100% of what you own. I suppose also the idea here is users will be doing very narrow specific searches getting few results. 1 or 2 word type keyword search users would be better off in a more specific database like JSTOR (given...
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- aarontay
Got voice mail from ebrary saying all McGraw-Hill titles are being pulled from their Academic Collection by publisher, but "some librarians" may not have gotten e-mail about this. Anyone else actually get this e-mail, or are they just reticent to put down in writing that ~2,500 quality titles are suddenly disappearing from our subscription?
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...and follow up: this publisher abandonment of 3rd party e-book aggregators seems to be the trend. Beginning of end for these kind of large subscription-model collections?
- Dana Longley
I've seen a few journal publishers withdraw from Lexis to build their own platforms
- Pete #TeamMonique
It wouldn't surprise me if it was, considering the crap options available from the ebook aggregators. aggregation made sense for managing print journal subscriptions, for both libraries and publishers. It's not clear that aggregating books does, at least not the same way.
- DJF
We got the follow-up email but not the original email. McG-H is building their own ebook platform. Yay, more information silos!
- Marie
McG-H already has a couple of ebook platforms: AccessMedicine and AccessEngineering. I think I had heard of them pulling out of ebrary. I also heard that you won't be able to download pdfs from AccessMedicine anymore, but I haven't heard that about Engineering.
- Christina Pikas
What bothers me is that ebrary is not offering any sort of discount/refund to their customers who are suddenly losing access to 5%+ (much larger percentage if you just count by quality) of the content we had when we renewed. I may have to recommend we discontinue this subscription altogether.
- Dana Longley
sounds reasonable. other vendors in the same situation have announced adding new books from other sources at the same time.
- Christina Pikas
sigh
- lris
Dana, I have a similar concern. I wonder if their point of view is that you're paying for access to whatever titles are in that group, but that the individual title lists are irrelevant. I disagree.
- Louise "Weezy" Alcorn
I wonder if we could use this as a bargaining chip to reduce the price of our contract with ebrary the next time the contract rolls around.
- OMG 404 Joe
if your argument is that there are fewer books, i doubt it would be a strong bargaining chip since they've promised to fill the void, plus add more books. if your argument is that there are fewer books of quality for your given audience, then you might be on to something.
- Marie
Oh, I didn't see their "promise to fill the void". I wonder with what....
- OMG 404 Joe
Alice in Libraryland - http://futureready365.sla.org/07...
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Usually I offer pull quotes from things I find interesting. For this, I'm suggesting you just read the whole thing, because it's most definitely worth it (not to worry, it's 5 paragraphs long).
- Stephen le Francoeur
Today's web justice driveby: Cooks Source Magazine - http://www.boingboing.net/2010...
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Watching the news of this travel from blog to blog via Big Names in sf fandom has been glorious.
- Deborah Fitchett
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