Search

This article is about Clemens's early California and Hawaii notebooks (Notebooks IV–VI, Jan. 1865–Apr. 1866), which he used during the period recounted years later in approximately the last quarter of Roughing It. An illustrated reading of the notebook makes three general points: first, that Clemens used pocket notebooks and graphite pencils (the mid-nineteenth-century's portable media) to train himself to write down experience as he saw and heard it; second, that the traces left by this training process were (and are) ironic, because they visibly and comically fail to capture experience; and third, that Clemens referred to the notebooks throughout his career for their evocative gestures (as much if not more than the linguistic contents). Following readings of the notebooks that are grounded in graphite traces and their multiple afterlives in print, this article concludes by hailing their forthcoming publication online, where other scholars and general readership will be able to see their traces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Openfire is an open-source instant messaging (IM) network and a single unified application that meets the needs of chat reference and internal communication. In Fall 2009, the California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) Library began using Openfire and other Jive software IM technologies to simultaneously improve our existing IM-integrated chat reference software and implement an internal IM network. This case study describes the chat reference and internal communications environment at the CSUSM Library and the selection, implementation, and evaluation of Openfire. In addition, the authors discuss the benefits of deploying an integrated IM and chat reference network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced 2-D and 3-D computer visualizations are increasingly being used for recording and documentation, analysis, dissemination, and public engagement purposes. Recent technological advances not only considerably improve data acquisition, processing, and analysis but also enable easy and efficient online presentation. This article evaluates the contributions of advanced 2-D and 3-D computer visualization and discusses the potential of 3-D modeling for recording basketry technology and documenting the state of preservation of baskets. It explores the available analysis, integration, and online dissemination tools, using as case studies recently excavated baskets from Cache Cave in southern California. Results indicate that the proposed methodology, which incorporates reflectance transformation imaging visualizations and photogrammetric 3-D models, which are further processed using 3-D modeling software and integrated analysis tools and then transformed to a Web-based format, is a useful addition to the basketry analysis toolkit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this comparative ethnographic case study, Ethan Chang examines the politics of digital education reform. Drawing on new institutional theory and boundary work, he investigates how two digital technology nonprofit organizations in California drew boundaries to define themselves and ensure their survival in a competitive organizational field. He found that a Silicon Valley organization defined itself through prevailing state and corporate narratives of digital education reform and constructed technologies to accelerate achievement for low-income students. By contrast, an Oakland organization defined itself through expressed commitments to building power among historically excluded communities and communities of color and approached digital technologies to foster shared struggles for racial justice. Based on these findings, Chang develops the concept of a politics of redaction to foreground how actors in positions of power seek to depoliticize justice-oriented reform efforts and maintain inequitable social boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fall of 2015, two librarians at San Diego State University initiated a project to enhance the visibility of some of the library’s numerous electronic resources. Promotional materials were created to highlight some of the main features and functionality of seven specific databases to which the library subscribes. Although there are many factors of this project that warrant further research, the authors can definitively state that usage for six of the seven electronic resources featured in their promotional project did increase when they were advertised to a wider campus population via the library’s website. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit community hospital based in Los Angeles. Its history spans over 100 years, and its growth and development from the merging of 2 Jewish hospitals, Mount Sinai and Cedars of Lebanon, is also part of the history of Los Angeles. The medical library collects and maintains the hospital's photographic archive, to which retiring physicians, nurses, and an active Community Relations Department have donated photographs over the years. The collection was growing rapidly, it was impossible to display all the materials, and much of the collection was inaccessible to patrons. Case Presentation: The authors decided to make the photographic collection more accessible to medical staff and researchers by purchasing a web-based digital archival package, Omeka. We decided what material should be digitized by analyzing archival reference requests and considering the institution's plan to create a Timeline Wall documenting and celebrating the history of Cedars-Sinai. Conclusion: Within 8 months, we digitized and indexed over 500 photographs. The digital archive now allows patrons and researchers to access the history of the hospital and enables the library to process archival references more efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, three librarians at the University of San Diego came together to explore open educational resources (OER). Coming from both technical services and digital collections, we were well-versed in the economic challenges facing today’s libraries. In order to formulate the approach that would work best for our campus, we first had to educate ourselves on the past, present, and possible future of the Open Access movement. While traditionally Open Access has focused on serials, OER offer the opportunity to expand its benefits to other formats. This article examines opportunities and tensions surrounding OER, as well as highlighting major players on the OER landscape. Our efforts began with a focus group for faculty to assess their own knowledge of and opinions on OER. After establishing a stipend budget, we sent out a call for proposals to faculty who were interested in participating in the Copley OER Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Availability studies are used to estimate the proportion of items in a library collection that are available to users, and the proportion of items in a library collection that are unavailable to users as a result of system and/or human errors. Sanjeet Mann of the Armacost Library at the University of Redlands used a series of availability studies to more accurately understand and troubleshoot the e-resources access errors that keep undergraduate students at the university from obtaining the full text of electronic resources. In this presentation, Mann shared the details of his process, his results, and the implications of those results for improving local search systems as well as a conceptual model of e-resource availability errors based on the results of his research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Urban street trees provide many benefits to surrounding communities, but our ability to assess such benefits relies on the availability of high-quality urban tree data. While these data are numerous, they are not available in an easily accessible, centralized place. To fill this gap, we aggregated public and private data into a single, comprehensive inventory of urban trees in California called the California Urban Forest (CUF) Inventory. These data are offered to the public (aggregated to ZIP code) via an online data portal, which at the time of publication contained over 6.6 million urban tree records. In this study, we first describe the assembly and utility of the inventory. Then, we conduct the most comprehensive assessment of the diversity and structure of California's urban forest to date at statewide, regional, and local spatial scales. These analyses demonstrate that California's urban forests are highly diverse and among the most diverse urban forests in the world. We present a new and intuitive metric of species diversity, the top diversity or TD-50 index, which represents the cumulative number of species accounting for the top 50 % abundance of trees in an urban forest. We used species abundance data from 81 well-inventoried cities to demonstrate that the TD-50 index was a robust metric of diversity and a good predictor of comprehensive metrics like the Shannon Index. We also found that small-statured trees, such as crape myrtles (Lagerstroemia cv.) dominate California's urban forests. This aggregated inventory of one of the world's largest urban forests provides the data necessary to assess the structure, diversity, and value of California's urban forests at multiple spatial scales. The inventory's presentation to the public and the information that can be gained from its analysis can be a model for urban forest management worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At California State University, Chico, subject librarians are required to make the best collection decisions with their allocated book purchasing funds. To ensure that the library is adequately meeting the needs of both on-campus and distance students in the social work program, the authors conducted a survey of e-book preferences and usage by students in the social work program. The findings show that while not all students prefer e-books, they are willing and likely to use e-books when purchased by the library. Greater flexibility in format choice can be exercised when developing the social work collection. This case study offers a discipline-specific example of how best to apply scarce resources in the rapidly changing field of collection development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young undergraduate college students are often described as 'digital natives,' presumed to prefer living and working in completely digital information environments. In reality, their world is part-paper/part-digital, in constant transition among successive forms of digital storage and communication devices. Studying for a degree is the daily work of these young people, and effective management of paper and digital academic materials and resources contributes crucially to their success in life. Students must also constantly manage their work against deadlines to meet their course and university requirements. This study, following the ' Personal Information Management' ( PIM) paradigm, examines student academic information management under these various constraints and pressures. A total of 41 18- to 22-year-old students were interviewed and observed regarding the content, structure, and uses of their immediate working environment within their dormitory rooms. Students exhibited remarkable creativity and variety in the mixture of automated and manual resources and devices used to support their academic work. The demands of a yearlong procession of assignments, papers, projects, and examinations increase the importance of time management activities and influence much of their behavior. Results provide insights on student use of various kinds of information technology and their overall planning and management of information associated with their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-user virtual environment Second Life has drawn attention from many librarians who established virtual libraries and information spaces there. Even as interest in Second Life diminishes, it is worthwhile to look at how libraries in Second Life were established and what models they followed. This study examines the purposes, users, collections, and community integration of Second Life libraries. Researchers identified over 75 libraries in Second Life through the professional literature and search results within Second Life. Using this sample, they identified seven general categories of libraries and discuss examples of each. Some Second Life library spaces help to set a scene and contribute to the ethos of a larger space. Other Second Life libraries connect physical libraries with virtual communities. Still others serve communities that exist only in virtual spaces, supporting common interests or role-playing scenarios. Finally, some Second Life libraries expand understandings of what a virtual library might be, whether through imaginative architecture or unusual collections. Second Life libraries offer collections of resources tailored to the needs of individual communities and make them available in different formats. They also offer social and educational programs, much as physical libraries do. Whatever the future of Second Life, the libraries that have been established there raise important questions for future virtual library work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the earlier years of the Web, libraries focused on moving services online and building digital collections, but in recent years, libraries have emerged as key players in the world of digital publishing. Librarians possess all of the necessary skills to act as digital publishers; they join the ranks of many others who have discovered the barriers around digital publishing are lower than ever. Library-based digital publishing solutions have matured to a point that the act of digital publishing could—and should—become a new core competency for the library profession. To explore this hypothesis, the researchers offer a working definition of digital publishing and assess the key roles that traditional publishers have historically offered over time. They find that librarians already possess the requisite skills to become digital publishers, and the collaborative culture of the library profession is a strength for this new role. Examples of digital publishing from two libraries at the University of California-Berkeley offer a proof of concept. Services at these libraries include the conceptualization of overall Web site strategies, a content plan that emphasizes distinctive and original material, and special projects that promote digital publishing at the local level, even as they take advantage of campus- or system-level services. Researchers find that offering library-based Web publishing services can reinforce overall information management programs and also advance the status of libraries within their respective host organizations. The comparative ease of digital publishing has opened an opportunity for librarians to follow the user as they use the Web in creative ways. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Electronic books are evolving at a dizzying pace, challenging academic librarians to keep patrons informed about the growing number of features of these resources and their various and varied limitations. It sometimes seems as if students are pleasantly surprised by the ease with which electronic books are accessible as often as they are frustrated by e-book features that do not satisfy their needs. Librarians receive such feedback readily from local students; distance students’ perspectives are more difficult to keep track of. Pepperdine University Librarians surveyed graduate distance students about their experiences and preferences regarding electronic books. Findings reflect prior studies’ data in terms of desired features, despite the fact that such features actually are available to a great extent. Surprisingly, participants ranked book topic areas and usage preferences identically for both electronic and print books. Answers to the questions posed in the article title are mixed: yes and no. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this case study the authors describe Pepperdine University Libraries’ migration to OCLC's WorldShare Management Services. They elaborate on the rationale for the decision, review some of the challenges and lessons encountered along the way, and briefly discuss some effects of the new system on our libraries. The focus is on technical services and systems, and examples of issues encountered during migration are accompanied by screenshot illustrations. The article concludes with a wish list of desired features. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2008 the University of Hull, Stanford University and University of Virginia agreed to collaborate with Fedora Commons (now DuraSpace) on the Hydra project. This project has sought to define and develop repository-enabled solutions for the management of multiple digital content management needs that are multi-purpose and multi?functional in such a way as to allow their use across multiple institutions. This article describes the evolution of Hydra as a project, but most importantly as a community that can sustain the outcomes from Hydra and develop them further. The data modelling and technical implementation are touched on in this context, and examples of the Hydra heads in development or production are highlighted. Finally, the benefits of working together, and having worked together, are explored as a key element in establishing a sustainable open source solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on international series and electronic resource management, including information on vendor and publisher services and topics related to library schools and continuing education. The article presents abstracts from several journals including the July 2011 issue of "Serials: The Journal for the Serials Community," the June 2011 issue of "Serials Review." Topics include the awarding of the SAGE travel grant to librarian Patrick Carr to attend the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) International conference in England on September 14-16, 2011, a basic serials cataloging workshop at Pepperdine University on August 3, 2011, and the New York Public Library's (NYPL) online catalog changes implemented by software company Bibliocommons.

For libraries beta testing new products, technical knowledge, staff time, and patience are key but often difficult to muster in tough economies. However, for those libraries that can manage the logistics, beta testing can provide tangible benefits. Early beta testers influence vendors to build products the customers really need, not merely what vendors think is needed. Time spent on beta testing can result in saved staff time later, forging beneficial relationships with vendors, and pushing market forces towards mutual goals. This article details the University of Southern California's (USC) Norris Medical Library's beta experience with Pubget's PaperStats and addresses issues libraries should consider before committing to beta testing products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current economic challenges have had a profound impact on collection development, as a good budget has become one which merely remains flat in comparison to the many budgets which have been severely cut. While inflation has steadily eroded collection budgets for many years, the Great Recession exacerbated economic woes as both academic endowments and state tax revenues declined drastically. The Health Sciences Libraries of the University of Southern California address these difficult times by communicating and collaborating with colleagues, customers, and vendors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In early 2008, students approached the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Library with their concerns about the high prices of printed course readers, which are filled with content the library owns or leases. Through investigations of electronic resource licenses, coursepack pilot projects, and campus partnerships, the library worked to reduce the cost of course readers, at times significantly. The exercise highlighted important issues and considerations regarding the licensing of electronic materials, and stressed the importance of communicating specific license terms to users via an electronic resource management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on posters including a Few Clicks a Day: Improving Access, Informing Staff, and Encouraging Communication Using a Blog and a Listserv, by Esta Day; Harmonizing Serials Management: From Discordant Ensemble to Solo Performance, by Leigh Ann DePope; and Has the Literature Used by Medical and Nursing Students Changed over Time?, by Pamela Morgan.

The article discusses topics featured at the 2010 conference of the North American Serials Interest Group, which was held in Palm Springs, California on June 3-6. Topics included communication within the group, cataloging rules for libraries and linked data. The event was attended by several of the group's members, including Magda El-Sherbini, and nonmembers, including Buford Crites, the president of the group Friends of the Desert Mountains and Erik Miller, the founder of the firm Zepheira.

An introduction is presented to articles within the issue discussing topics including an approach to creating a management dashboard of key library statistics, navigational improvements to LibGuides at Eastern Michigan University and the effects of reposting library digital collections on Flickr.