American Serials Research Articles

Integrating preservation into librarian workflows

The core mission of libraries is to ensure perpetual access to the record of knowledge. As a review of the NASIG webinar (formerly North American Serials Interest Group), ‘Integrating Preservation into Librarian Workflows’, by Jill Emery and Sunshine Carter, this article examines working models constructed to sustain perpetual access for their institutional communities. In reflecting on these data-intensive practices, both presenters now recognize that previously impactful collection development business decisions were being made in the dark. Reviewing the webinar also reveals that this issue of preservation access has two critically distinct aspects, which should not be conflated as interchangeable. One is concerned with long-term preservation and the other addresses a library’s ability to provide post-cancellation access to its user community, given budgetary or physical space constraints. The following is an analysis of how effective the processes explored in the webinar are in addressing both post-cancellation access and long-term perpetual access goals. Based on a 2018 NASIG survey, results indicated that many organizations in scholarly communications lacked preservation policies. In June 2022, as a result of the survey, NASIG released the model digital preservation policy as a template to guide consequential and explicit decision-making by addressing issues including scope, roles, responsibilities, tools and techniques. These policy issues are important for librarians to understand before negotiating content licenses, in sustaining long-term discovery and access, and when developing collaborative access frameworks to address collection development and maintenance challenges.

Preparing Library and Information Science (LIS) Students for Scholarly Communication Librarianship

A growing number of academic librarians have been responsible for scholarly communication (SC) roles and responsibilities, and other related services. Previous studies (Finlay, et al., 2015) show an increase in job opportunities for librarians with SC expertise. Eighty-four percent of the students in the Hollister (2017) study described the SC as either relevant or very relevant to their career goals. However, a recent search (2021) within ALA accredited programs in Library and Information Science (LIS) reveals that only 6 out 48 offer a course in scholarly communication, and no program offered a course on related areas. Given a growing demand for wide range of SC services it is imperative for LIS programs to prepare students for these emerging new roles and responsibilities. To that end, I developed a course on SC and other related concepts based on the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) core competencies for SC librarians and the SC common responsibilities identified in previous studies (Hackstadt, 2020). This study will explore the extent to which the course addresses the core competencies for SC roles and responsibilities. The study will employ a self-assessment survey designed to measure the difference in students’ knowledge pre and post course completion regarding the SC core competencies. The NASIG core competencies for SC librarians align with roles and responsibilities of SC librarians as described in previous studies. Therefore, the focus on NASIG core competencies makes the results from this study broadly useful for instructors of SC courses.

A Call to Develop Standards for Those Delivering ‘Research Practice’ Training

The nature of the research endeavour is changing rapidly and requires a wide set of skills beyond the research focus. The delivery of aspects of researcher training ‘beyond the bench’ is met by different sections of an institution, including the research office, the media office and the library. In Australia researcher training in open access, research data management and other aspects of open science is primarily offered by librarians. But what training do librarians receive in scholarly communication within their librarianship degrees? For a degree to be offered in librarianship and information science, it must be accredited by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), with a curriculum that is based on ALIA’s lists of skills and attributes. However, these lists do not contain any reference to key open research terms and are almost mutually exclusive with core competencies in scholarly communication as identified by the North American Serials Interest Group and an international Joint Task Force. Over the past decade teaching by academics in universities has been professionalised with courses and qualifications. Those responsible for researcher training within universities and the material that is being offered should also meet an agreed accreditation. This paper is arguing that there is a clear need to develop parallel standards around ‘research practice’ training for PhD students and Early Career Researchers, and those delivering this training should be able to demonstrate their skills against these standards. Models to begin developing accreditation standards are starting to emerge, with the recent launch of the Centre for Academic Research Quality and Improvement in the UK. There are multiple organisations, both grassroots and long-established that would be able to contribute to this project.

REPRESENTATION OF POOR PEOPLE IN TELEVISION SERIES: LOST LIFES IN EXTREME REPRESENTATIONS

This article analyzes the representation of poor people through main characters in globally popular American serials. The study employs a systematic content analysis to identify and analyze the main characters who are representing poor people in four serials; Friends, The O.C., 2 Broke Girls and Shameless. We have chosen these American serials because of their popularity and high global rating. Before we started to analyze the serials, we gave an overview of the relationship of popular culture and serials, extremity, and researchers, statistics about poor people to have a realistic perspective. We also studied the latest popular serials and poor people’s representation through main characters of these serials. We have analyzed the serials under six categories to see how poor people are imaged. According to our hypothesis and the results, when American serials focus on poor characters, they are represented as extreme characters in a negative way generally.

Book Review: Fundamentals of Electronic Resources Management

The North American Serials Interest Groups’s (NASIG) Core Competencies for Electronic Resources Librarians, published in 2013, casts light on a growing problem in twenty-first-century libraries: aspiring electronic resources librarians need an astonishing variety of skills.1 Because of their complex nature, these skills must be cultivated on the job. This book, by academic librarians Verminksi and Blanchat, provides a practical approach for such cultivation. Readers new to e-resources will find value in the authors’ clear descriptions of daily workflows, while those with more experience will find the explanations of “the interconnection between workflows and systems” (vii) enlightening. Chapters are divided into sections, each of which could warrant an entire book. This organizational structure provides readers with guideposts by which they can navigate the chapter or branch out into further research.

Nursing and Allied Health Resources–Patron Driven Acquisition, a Pilot at The University of Alabama Libraries

This article is a report of a session presented by Mangala Krishnamurthy and Connie Stovall (a contributor to the presentation) of the University of Alabama Libraries at the 2015 North American Serials Interest Group conference. A patron-driven acquisition (PDA) pilot project was initiated in fall 2013 at the University of Alabama (UA) Libraries mainly serving the Nursing and Allied Health subject areas. Since the Capstone College of Nursing at UA offers an online Doctor of Nursing Practice program and partners with two other schools in the UA system, UA Libraries collaborated with the other libraries in the University System. The project uses Rittenhouse’s R2 Digital Libraries’ PDA module as the basic platform. The Capstone College of Nursing liaison discussed in detail the selection, management, assessment, promotion, and communication part of the project in addition to second year plans for the project.

African American Historical Serials Collections

African American Historical Serials Collections

Reports of Conferences, Institutes, and Seminars

This quarter's column features a report from Electronic Resources and Libraries, held in Austin, Texas, and online March 16–19; New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) Annual Conference: Coming up Roses: Growing Towards the Future, held in Worcester, Massachusetts, at the Hogan Campus Center, College of the Holy Cross on April 11; North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) 29th Annual Conference: Taking Stock and Taming New Frontiers, held in Fort Worth, Texas, May 1–4.

Getting to the Core of the Matter: Competencies for New E-Resources Librarians

As nascent librarians, Emma Lawson and Roën Janyk compared the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) “Core Competences for Electronic Resources Librarians” with the body of knowledge obtained from their Library and Information Science (LIS) graduate program. They noticed the LIS curriculum still focuses on the more traditional public and technical services roles instead of newer areas of librarianship, notably electronic resources management. Prescriptive in nature, the presentation offered concrete solution for LIS programs regarding the preparation of new electronic resource librarians.

Building a Better Knowledgebase: A Community Perspective

This article is a report of a concurrent session presented by Katherine Hill and Maria Collins of North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries at the 2013 North American Serials Interest Group conference. NCSU Libraries is a participant in the Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb) project, which will provide an openly available knowledgebase for Kuali Open Library Environment (OLE). Results from a survey conducted by NCSU librarians are discussed, which focus on the e-resource management community and their expectations of the data provided in knowledgebases. The survey investigates problems and improvements in respect to data quality. Respondents also commented on their expectations of a community-managed project as well as the viability of a project like GOKb. Future directions and initiatives in the knowledgebase space were also summarized in the presentation.

Library Reorganization, Chaos, and Using the Core Competencies as a Guide

Starting in the fall of 2012, the staff at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Library began to plan for a library-wide reorganization of staff and services. Every staff member would be affected by the reorganization process, including the library’s serials and e-resources team. In what could be a most chaotic time, the serials and e-resources team chose to use the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) draft version of core competencies for electronic resource librarians as a guide to help in selecting members for the e-resources team that would emerge following the reorganization. The presentation on which this article is based reviews the situation at UTA, the core competencies, and how the serials/e-resources team used the core competencies along with a self-assessment tool to help select the most qualified staff for the team.

NASIG's Core Competencies for Electronic Resources Librarians Revisited: An Analysis of Job Advertisement Trends, 2000–2012

During its relatively short existence, the electronic resources librarian has often shared responsibilities with other areas of librarianship. To highlight the uniqueness and provide a level of understanding about the position, the North American Serials Interest Group developed NASIG's Core Competencies for Electronic Resources Librarians based on a study which analyzed the occurrence of descriptors – responsibilities and qualifications – from job ads posted between 2005 and 2009. The aim of this article is to build on NASIG's Core Competencies by expanding the time period considered. Data from the additional years brings to light both rising and declining trends reflecting changes in electronic resources librarian responsibilities and requirements. The author contends that the findings reported in this article may be useful for refining NASIG's Core Competencies as the profession evolves.

Law, Urban Violence and Order: Cop Shows as a Brazilian TV Genre

A new type of Brazilian drama series has taken place on local TV - the cop shows. Although they are not popular as the telenovela (soap operas), definitively they came to stay. International channels like Fox and HBO are benefited by Tax Benefits Rule which provides financial conditions for the production of those home market, and are now competing with the two greatest media Brazilian groups – Record and Globo. The worldwide success of “Cidade de Deus” (City of God, 2002, Fernando Meirelles), released abroad like a gangster movie, and “Tropa de Elite” (Elite Squad, 2005, Jose Padilha), Berlin Golden Bear Award 2008, which sequel “Elit Squad: The Enemy Within” (2010) became the biggest box office record of Brazilian Cinema, could be partially contributed to motivate that new kind of production, which mix up social exclusion, urban violence with the very known old formulas of American serials, as the franchise “Law and Order” and its various spin-offs.

Reimagining the criminal: the marketing of Louis Feuillade’s Fantômas (1913–14) and Les Vampires (1915) in the United States

This article examines the marketing of Louis Feuillade’s Fantômas (1913–14) and Les Vampires (1915), arguing that these series’ representations of crime and their fascinating criminal antagonists were significantly altered in order to appeal to and compete for an American audience. It also revises previous scholarship that maintained that Fantômas failed in the United States when it was released in 1913; the series enjoyed a prolonged circulation that culminated in a 1916 re-release through an American distributor, the Mutual Film Corporation. The strategy of classifying these notable crime films as detective films, emphasizing the detective figures over the fascinating criminals, depicting the films’ criminal element as masculine and distributing these films in weekly installments in the style of American serials indicates Gaumont’s concerted effort to culturally negotiate their two most celebrated crime film series to remain commercially viable in a changing international market.

2013 North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) 28th Annual Conference: Art of Information, Architecture of Knowledge

2013 North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) 28th Annual Conference: Art of Information, Architecture of Knowledge

Serials Spoken Here

AbstractThis quarter's column features a report from the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians (OVGTSL), held May 15–17, 2013, in Richmond, KY; the 29th Annual North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) Conference, held June 5–9, 2013, in Buffalo, NY, including a separate report on the June 6 RDA & Serials preconference; and, the American Library Association's Annual Conference, held June 27–July 2, 2013, in Chicago, IL.

Serials Spoken Here

This quarter's column features a report from the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians (OVGTSL), held May 15–17, 2013, in Richmond, KY; the 29th Annual North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) Conference, held June 5–9, 2013, in Buffalo, NY, including a separate report on the June 6 RDA & Serials preconference; and, the American Library Association's Annual Conference, held June 27–July 2, 2013, in Chicago, IL.

Exporting perilous Pauline: Pearl White and serial film craze

Exceptionally popular during their time, the spectacular American action film serials of the 1910s featured exciting stunts, film tricks, and effects set against the background of modern technology, often starring resourceful female heroines who displayed traditionally male qualities such as endurance, strength, and authority. The most renowned of these queens was Pearl White, whose career as the adventurous character Pauline developed during a transitional phase in the medium's evolving production strategies, distribution and advertising patterns, and fan culture. In this volume, an international group of scholars explores how American serials starring Pearl White and other female stars affected the emerging cinemas in the United States and abroad. Contributors investigate the serial genre and its narrative patterns, marketing, cultural reception, and historiographic importance, with essays on Pearl White's life on and off the screen as well as the queen genre in Western and Eastern Europe, India, and China.Contributors are Weihong Bao, Rudmer Canjels, Marina Dahlquist, Monica Dall'Asta, Kevin B. Johnson, Christina Petersen, and Rosie Thomas.

Serials in the park: Proceedings of the North American Serials Interest Group, Inc. 18th Annual Conference, June 26-29, 2003, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon Edited by Patricia Sheldahl French and Richard Worthing

This indexed volume comprises 40 chapters covering the 2 pre-conference programmes, 3 plenary sessions, I3 concurrent sessions and 19 workshops that took place at the conference. The Poster sessions are summarised and the conference registrants noted. Many of the chapters include short lists of notes or bibliographic references. In a few instances the recorders of sessions mention a bibliography that was distributed. It would have been very useful to have had these included in the publication.

Transforming serials: The revolution continues. Proceedings of the North American Serials Interest Group, Inc. 17th Annual Conference, June 20-23, 2002, the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. Edited by Susan L Scheiberg and Shelley Neville.

These proceedings have also been published in The Serials Librarian, Volume 44, Nos. 1/2 and 3/4. The book comprises 43 chapters covering the preconference programmes, plenary sessions, concurrent sessions and workshops that took place at the conference. There is also a summary of the conference poster sessions, a list of the conference registrants, and the volume concludes with an index. A useful feature is the summary at the beginning of each chapter. As the annual conference of the North American Serials Interest Group, the presenters and recorders were mostly from North American academic institutions. The issues under discussion, though, are those faced by librarians internationally.