North Carolina State University Libraries Research Articles

Art’s Work in the Age of Biotechnology: Shaping Our Genetic Futures

Art’s Work in the Age of Biotechnology: Shaping Our Genetic Futures

A New Direction for Library Technical Services: Using Metadata Skills to Improve User Accessibility

An increased awareness about the importance of resource accessibility for all library users has set the stage for transforming traditional cataloger roles into a new realm of possibility. The Acquisitions & Discovery (A&D) and the User Experience (UX) departments of North Carolina State University Libraries have formed a partnership to explore the benefits of working together amidst this climate of innovation and change. A pilot project was created to develop a workflow through which technical services staff can use their metadata skills to help resolve accessibility issues found on the Libraries’ main website. By performing this work, staff can grow in technical expertise, enhance the quality of metadata in web content, and build mutually beneficial partnerships within the library community.

An Accessibility Survey of Libraries: Results, Best Practices, and Next Steps

ABSTRACT Ensuring the accessibility of digital content is a priority for libraries. Digital collections continue to grow, and libraries seek feedback from users and use tools to diagnose and solve accessibility issues. As libraries grapple with this new landscape, they want to know where they stand amongst their peers, what mandates apply to their situations, and how library staff are being trained to address accessibility requirements, among other issues. In 2019, the LYRASIS consortium surveyed its large network of more than 1,000 member galleries, libraries, archives, and museums to discover how these member institutions are approaching accessibility. This paper represents highlights from that survey as well as examples of accessibility efforts from North Carolina State University Libraries.

Questions from Newbies—Facilitating Communication and Professional Development: A Case Study

For new collection managers, it may be intimidating to ask questions about processes that seem to be common knowledge for their more experienced colleagues. To help with this issue, the Collections & Research Strategy department at North Carolina State University Libraries uses a shared document where new collection managers can log questions as they arise. The questions are shared at regular Collections Interest Group meetings and often generate interesting discussions that librarians both new and experienced can benefit from. This case study will provide an overview of the structure of the document, how it is used, and the types of questions that get asked.

Creating Connections, Building Community: The Role of Oral History Collections in Documenting and Sharing Campus Diversity

The collection and sharing of oral history is a growing area that libraries and archives are using to connect with their communities and document campus diversity. This column discusses opportunities for libraries and archives to include diverse and underrepresented voices in the historical record, highlighting the Wolf Tales project from the North Carolina State University Libraries, which was the topic of a talk by Virginia Ferris at the 2018 North Carolina Serials Conference. This column discusses that presentation and briefly examines oral history projects at several other institutions, providing perspective on the efforts to use oral histories to document campus and community diversity in the profession. Further resources for institutions interested in pursuing or growing oral history programs are also provided.

Streamlining Acquisition Workflows Through Collaboration and Innovation

As a selector, have you ever wondered if the resource you requested was ordered? As an acquisitions staff member, are you struggling with keeping track of your order requests from various channels? As a manager, are you finding it challenging to monitor staff work? CORAL, an open source electronic resource management system, proved to be one solution to these concerns for North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries. This article discusses how to manage workflows in CORAL and outlines a NCSU initiative to evolve this tool through collaboration across departments and across the CORAL community.

Data-informed open education advocacy: A new approach to saving students money and backaches

ABSTRACTThe North Carolina State University Libraries has long recognized the financial burden textbook costs place on students. By crosswalking information on use of our textbook collection with textbook cost and course enrollment data, we have begun to map the environment for textbook use at the university and identified opportunities for faculty outreach in promoting alternatives to traditional textbooks, including our Alt-Textbook program. This article describes our programs, our investigation of textbook use patterns, and how we are using these data to inform our practice.

Pulling It All Together: Using CORAL ERM for Serials Acquisitions Management

ABSTRACTIn late 2015, the Serials Unit of the North Carolina State University Libraries Acquisitions & Discovery department began using CORAL as a workflow tool for tracking and processing new orders. While still in a pilot phase, CORAL has proven to be a great improvement on previous tools used to facilitate this work. In their 2016 North Carolina Serials Conference presentation, Hutchins and Minchew reviewed CORAL itself, prior serials new order management workflows and their transition to CORAL, and how the open source electronic resource management system is aiding in the management of the complex sets of steps and individual handoffs involved in serials new orders at North Carolina State University.

A Data-driven Approach to Understanding the Demand-driven Acquisition Program at North Carolina State University

ABSTRACTAs demand-driven acquisition programs become more prevalent, the need for better data about those programs increases. This article details the results of a project at the North Carolina State University Libraries to blend together multiple sources of data, including ILS and COUNTER reports, for the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the intricacies of the demand-driven acquisition program.

Making the Unseen Seen: Discovering Discrepancies and Shedding Light on Automated E-Resource Reconciliation

ABSTRACTTwo characteristics that seemingly define electronic resources now are their dynamic, unstable nature and their overwhelming abundance. To address these issues, The North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries Acquisitions & Discovery Department created two databases to facilitate and automate e-resource reconciliation processes. The first, our ebook reconciliation database, ensures that all purchased content from our ebook packages is discoverable and creates title lists that definitively describe the entitlements for those packages. The second, our ejournal reconciliation database, automates matching integrated library system title lists with publisher and knowledgebase title lists in order to easily generate and distribute work tasks. Both databases help manage the abundance of titles and discrepancies that arise from the varied sources of metadata used during the reconciliation process.

Descriptive Epidemiology for Turtles Admitted to the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine Turtle Rescue Team

Abstract The North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine Turtle Rescue Team has been treating and releasing wild turtles since 1996 and has compiled a collection of almost 4,000 medical records, now available for consultation by researchers via the North Carolina State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center. Data available for each case include county where turtle was discovered, patient identification number, admission date, species, sex and reproductive status, physical examination findings, clinical diagnosis, last case-entry date, length of stay, and final disposition. Additional data in the records include a day-by-day description of treatment and husbandry performed for each turtle. This report summarizes 2,613 turtle cases examined between 1996 and 2012 by the Turtle Rescue Team, including 12 native species of turtle from 63 North Carolina counties. The sex distribution of those of known sex were evenly distributed. The most common presenting condition was vehicular trauma while garden equipment and fish-equipment–related trauma, pet surrender, and other human-induced injury represented an additional 154 cases. Animal attacks and trauma due to unknown causes were also represented. Other conditions diagnosed on presentation included infection, aural abscessation, nutritional disorder, neurologic disorder, buoyancy disorder, prolapse, and other. A small number of turtles were not diagnosed or were healthy. Ultimate disposition data were available for 2,318 turtles, of which 1,227 were released to the wild. The epidemiological data presented here are similar to information collected in Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Medical records from wildlife hospitals and primary care facilities represent an important opportunity to gain valuable insight into the epidemiology of human interaction with native wildlife species.

Using a Data Management Plan Review Service as a Training Ground for Librarians

INTRODUCTION Research Data Management (RDM) offers opportunities and challenges at the interface of library support and researcher needs. Libraries are in a position of balancing the capacity to provide support at the point of need while also implementing training for subject liaison librarians grounded in the practical issues and realities facing researchers and their institutions. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM/SERVICE The North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries has deployed a Data Management Plan (DMP) Review service managed by a committee of librarians with diverse experience in data management and domain expertise. By rotating librarians through membership on the committee and by inviting subject liaisons librarians to participate in the DMP Review process, our training ground model aims to develop needed competencies and support researchers through relevant services and partnerships. AUDIT OF PROGRAM/SERVICE This article presents an audit of the DMP Review service as a training ground to develop and enhance competencies as identified by the Joint Task Force on Librarians’ Competencies in Support of E-Research and Scholarly Communication. NEXT STEPS AND CONCLUSIONS The DMP Review service creates opportunities for librarians to learn valuable skills while simultaneously providing a time-sensitive service to researchers. The process of auditing competencies developed by participating in the DMP Review service highlights gaps needed to more fully support RDM and reinforces the capacity of the DMP Review service as a training ground to sustain and iterate learning opportunities for librarians engaged in research support and partnerships.

Managing Serials Data as a Community: Partnering With the Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb)

The Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb) is a project to develop and maintain a freely available repository of metadata that describes electronic journals and books using a community-managed approach. In preparation for GOKb's public preview at the end of 2014, the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries launched a pilot to create a partnership model for participating libraries. Based on a presentation at the 2015 North Carolina Serials Conference, Eric Hanson, Xiaoyan Song, and Kristen Wilson from NCSU Libraries share their experiences partnering with GOKb, including the workflows and tools that NCSU has established for contributing to GOKb, opportunities for library and vendor partners, and GOKb's linked data service.

Who's on First?: License Team Workflow Tracking With Trello

The North Carolina State University Libraries license team recently made the decision to migrate workflow tracking from its staff intranet tool, Confluence, to the cloud-based project management software, Trello. Using a model of boards, lists, and cards to allow for the management of projects at various levels of granularity, Trello has proved to be a very valuable addition to the Libraries’ licensing process. This article will review NCSU Libraries’ electronic resources licensing workflow, its transition to Trello, and how this software has streamlined the Libraries’ complex license negotiations.

A Beginner's Guide to Creating Library Linked Data: Lessons from NCSU's Organization Name Linked Data Project

As more libraries begin publishing and using linked data, many in the library community may be curious about how they can start creating their own linked data sets. This article will describe the various stages in a linked data creation project, using North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries’ Organization Name Linked Data (ONLD) project (http://lib.ncsu.edu/ld/onld) as an example and sharing specific approaches that the project team took to produce and publish their data set. Best practices for project planning, data clean up, conversion, and publishing linked data are also discussed.

Resource Description and Access: 2014 Update

This article summarizes a presentation given March 14, 2014, at the 23rd Annual North Carolina Serials Conference by Kurt C. Blythe and Christee Pascale. The presenters reviewed the most important developments in RDA from 2013/2014 from a serialist point of view. Additionally, the lessons learned from training for and implementing RDA at North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Libraries were described by Pascale and Blythe respectively.

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.

Effectively Visualizing Library Data

Data visualization has become a hot topic over the last few years. This popularity can be seen everywhere. The New York Times revolutionized itself by creating gorgeous, interactive visualizations of everything from political campaigns to nutrition. (1) There is a suddenly vibrant data visualization blog scene, lead by stellar resources FlowingData and Information is Beautiful. (2) More and more software programs have appeared that make creating compelling visualizations easier and easier, but also more and more data are collected and analyzed digitally. Our new means of collecting data necessitates new means of representation to communicate the message of massive and messy sets of data. The immense success of computing in the second half of the twentieth century has brought about a correspondingly immense challenge: how do we deal with all of this data? Design thinking stepped up to the challenge by allying with statistics to create the half-art, half-science of data visualization. Libraries have not been left behind; everywhere the rise of new forms of data presentation is visible. The Seattle Public Library features a live-updating dashboard showing recent circulations and intricate networks of keywords. (3) The Harvard Library Lab is working on a powerful tool to view collection size and circulation by subject heading. (4) The Indianapolis Museum of Art has a web dashboard that boldly presents their changing quantities of artwork, memberships, visitors, and of course Facebook fans. (5) Brown University Libraries are working on a similar idea that presents live data such as checkouts in embeddable widget form. (6) The North Carolina State University Libraries have an ambitious data visualization project that aims to visualize the usage of reference services, course tools, computer workstations, and group study rooms. (7) These are all great strides being made by innovative libraries. Hopefully, as more examples appear and these frontrunners release their techniques as open-source code, the barrier to entry will diminish for all libraries. In the years to come, public data dashboards on library websites may be as common as catalog search boxes. It is not the aim of this column, however, to enumerate the most beautiful graphs of library data on the web but to demystify the practice of data visualization so that we can begin to create our own. THE PURPOSE OF VISUALIZATION Data visualization has a clear purpose: to aid in our understanding of data. Visualizations help us recognize otherwise obscure trends. Many visualizations offer means of interaction, they do not merely report a single, unassailable truth, but give the end-user an opportunity to explore the data and reach possibly unanticipated conclusions. They help us simplify the interpretation of an intimidating universe of data, intimidating both in terms of the sheer size of datasets, which can consist of millions of data points but also in terms of the dimensions of the data. A dataset might have only a dozen distinct points, but each point could in turn have thousands of aspects to it, a veritable world unto itself. Think of library branches: even large public library systems may have a single digit number of branches, but each of those branches has distinct sets of opening hours, geographic coordinates, items in the collection, staff members, and services. Distilling those differences into a meaningful representation is a challenge. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Data visualization approaches the challenges of size and complexity by fusing the art of design with the logic of statistics. Success hinges on both; a brilliant statistician can produce incoherent spreadsheets, while a talented designer can create misleading visuals. Above all, visualization strives to accurately represent data; mere artistry descends into chart junk and delusion. Figure 1 is representative of everything data visualization seeks to overcome. …

Virtual Browse: Designing User-Oriented Services for Discovery of Related Resources

Although academic libraries are increasingly converting stacks into collaborative spaces and physical books and journals are being replaced by their electronic counterparts, the concept of browsing as a means of discovery is seeing a resurgence in the world of search and discovery. While many users start their online research with electronic databases and library catalogues, interviews with North Carolina State University Libraries patrons provide evidence that physically browsing the shelves to find similar materials is still common. A growing awareness of the need to preserve this type of serendipitous discovery as a complement to keyword searching is inspiring the development of online virtual browsing tools that replace and enhance physical access to library stacks.

The North Carolina State University Libraries Search Experience: Usability Testing Tabbed Search Interfaces for Academic Libraries

Creating a learnable, effective, and user-friendly library Web site hinges on providing easy access to search. Designing a search interface for academic libraries can be particularly challenging given the complexity and range of searchable library collections, such as bibliographic databases, electronic journals, and article search silos. Library Web designers must decide whether to present users with a single search interface—one that searches across content silos by default—or to offer an interface that exposes the various silos available. Designers must also contend with the user's entire search experience and determine how search should appear on the library home page as well as in global navigation systems. In the spring of 2010, the North Carolina State University Libraries sought to answer search design questions for an upcoming Web site design effort. The Libraries evaluated two different search interfaces to determine whether a tabbed search approach with options to pre-select silos is an effective design for end users. Findings show that a tabbed search interface is an effective design device for presenting multiple silos. This study outlines the methods the North Carolina State University Libraries used to conduct usability testing as well as observations, findings, and recommendations about effective design of search on academic library Web sites.