Oklahoma Libraries Research Articles

Put a ruler in the shot: Lessons from implementing effective resolution for photographed materials

This paper focuses on practical methods to monitor and maintain quality in camera-based digitisation of archival materials with a student team. Drawing on their experience at the University of Oklahoma Libraries Digitization Lab as a supervisor and a graduate student assistant, the authors write about a quality failure due to an equipment change; equipment capability testing; adjustments in the photography process; and then implementation of practical methods and training to bolster the knowledge and skills of a team that had no other experience with digitisation. They discuss employee feedback, and some benefits of working with and developing employees with less experience in digitisation. Finally, they offer recommendations that can improve both digitisation quality and employee success. This paper presents a specific case study at a mid-sized university that is broadly applicable for digitisation professionals in a variety of settings.

LHRT: The Importance of Our History

LHRT: The Importance of Our History

Recruiting, Hiring, & On-Boarding Non-MLS Liaison Librarians: A Case Study

A case study of how the University of Oklahoma Libraries recruited, hired, and then on-boarded three Science Liaison Librarians who held advanced subject degrees but no Masters in Library Science. This study provides suggestions for modifying job postings, interview processes, and on-boarding to appeal to non-MLS subject experts and to fully inform them of the scope of liaison work.

Spatial variation in propagule pressure and establishment of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) within a subtropical reservoir

This work was funded in part by grants from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, through the Sport Fish Restoration Program, Grant F-61-R, and the National Science Foundation (Grant numbers NSF-IOS 1712936 and NSF DEB 1831061) to KDH, the University of Oklahoma Biological Station (through Graduate Research Fellowships to TCH and JEB) and the University of Oklahoma Department of Biology (through Adams Fellowships to TCH and JEB), the Graduate Student Senate at the University of Oklahoma (through a research grant to TCH), and by Sigma Xi through a grant in aid of research to TCH. Open Access fees paid for in whole or in part by the University of Oklahoma Libraries.

Beyond the usual suspects: A case study in choosing an inventory control system

When the University of Oklahoma Libraries began planning a new high-density storage facility, we decided to look beyond the companies that had provided products specifically for libraries. We turned to records management companies, seeking out products used in the finance, insurance, healthcare, and legal industries. This column outlines our requirements and specifications, selection and implementation processes, and our current use of the software.

A Comparative Analysis of Evidence-based Selection, Professional Selection, and Selection by Approval Plan

This study compares three different models for selecting e-books for a research library’s collection. From 2013 to 2018, the University of Oklahoma Libraries contracted with Elsevier for an evidence-based selection (EBS) agreement. The titles in that EBS package were compared to the approval plan parameters to determine which books would have been purchased on approval during those years if Elsevier had been included among the publishers profiled. Subject librarians also made hypothetical selections as though they were placing firm orders from this collection. The approval plan selections and librarians’ selections were compared to usage data to determine how closely each selection model matched patrons’ choices.

A Comparative Analysis of Evidence-based Selection, Professional Selection, and Selection by Approval Plan

This study compares three different models for selecting e-books for a research library’s collection. From 2013 to 2018, the University of Oklahoma Libraries contracted with Elsevier for an evidence-based selection (EBS) agreement. The titles in that EBS package were compared to the approval plan parameters to determine which books would have been purchased on approval during those years if Elsevier had been included among the publishers profiled. Subject librarians also made hypothetical selections as though they were placing firm orders from this collection. The approval plan selections and librarians’ selections were compared to usage data to determine how closely each selection model matched patrons’ choices.

News from the Field

University of Oklahoma Libraries release open source Markdown ConverterNominations sought for ACRL Board of DirectorsThree libraries sign GPO preservation steward agreementsCLIR invites Recordings at Risk applications2018 ACRL Immersion ProgramARL selects 2018–19 Leadership Fellows

People in the News

Bridget Burke has been appointed associate dean for special collections at the University of Oklahoma (OU) Libraries starting next month. Burke will be responsible for the leadership and strategic vision for OU Libraries’ seven distinct special collections. Burke recently visited OU Libraries’ Western History Collections as a member of a team of western American history materials experts to assess and recommend best practices for preservation, acquisition of new materials and enhancement of both the collections’ web presence and its centrality to the scholarly fields of western and Native American history and culture. Currently, Burke is the director of the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. She formerly served as the dean of libraries at North Dakota State University, as well as having held positions at the Boston College University Libraries, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Breaking Health Barriers: How Can Public Libraries Contribute?

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the health information needs of the State of Oklahoma, which ranks 45th among all 50 states in the health status of its citizens. A deficit in collections technology, a lack of knowledge about medical information in service staff, and poor marketing and outreach efforts in lightly populated counties and towns have worked against the provision of solid health information to the populace. The author points out how grants have provided funding for collaboration, partnerships, and training to certification (Medical Library Association’s Consumer Health Information Specialist Certification [CHIS]) for many staff as health information specialists. Although the issue of health information is still significant in Oklahoma, the Oklahoma library community has made inroads in handling a severe community problem in which the author believes that U.S. public libraries should be heavily involved.

An Interview with Wolfgang Kubin

Wolfgang Kubin talks to CLT Deputy Editor in Chief, Jonathan Stalling, about his life as a sinologist, poet, and literary translator. After reflecting on his scholarly and poetic background, Kubin explores his many relationships with Chinese poets from the early 1980s to the present, with special attention to his friendship with poet Gu Cheng and how some of that poet's last works came to be included in the new Chinese Literature Translation Archive founded by CLT at the University of Oklahoma Libraries.

Adding Value to the University of Oklahoma Libraries History of Science Collections through Digital Enhancement

Much of the focus of digital collections has been and continues to be on rare and unique materials, including monographs. A monograph may be made even rarer and more valuable by virtue of hand written marginalia. Using technology to enhance scans of unique books and make previously unreadable marginalia readable increases the value of a digital object to researchers. This article describes a case study of enhancing the marginalia in a rare book by Copernicus.

Creating a digital library of three‐dimensional objects in CONTENTdm

PurposeThis paper aims to describe a project conducted by the University of Oklahoma Libraries to create a digital collection consisting of three‐dimensional scientific objects.Design/methodology/approachThe University of Oklahoma Libraries developed the following methodology for creating a digital collection of three‐dimensional objects. Digital still photographs of six sides of each object where created. These photographs were then used to create videos that emphasized the most interesting feature on each side of the object. These videos were then imported into CONTENTdm using the picture cube feature to create the digital representation of the three‐dimensional object.FindingsThis method was found to be a good method for representing three‐dimensional objects in a two‐dimensional format for inclusion in a digital collection. However, some limitations were encountered. For example, only one interesting feature could be emphasized on each side of the object and the software used to create the digital videos, while easy to use, offered only limited features for enhancing the resulting videos.Practical implicationsThis paper demonstrates a cost effective and resource efficient method of implementing a digital collection of three‐dimensional objects that could be further improved through the use of more advanced video creation software.Originality/valueThis paper offers insight into a new way of representing three‐dimensional objects in a digital library. This information will be useful to digital librarians faced with resource and cost constraints who have collections of three‐dimensional physical objects that would be of interest to their user community.

Libraries and the Local Economy: Partnerships for Economic Growth (A Presentation to the Oklahoma Library Association, March 30, 2011)

Academic and public libraries are facing the challenge of finding new avenues of service and of creating value for their constituencies. This value is in the form of outcomes that result in bettering the people who use libraries and the community at large. The authors feel that librarians must find creative ways to make their communities better and more prosperous. Two reports from the Urban Libraries Council and one report from ACRL echo these challenges and provide good ideas as to where librarians may start their community service efforts. Examples of community based projects from the Tulsa City County Library system are included. This paper was presented to the Oklahoma Library Association on March 30, 2011.

Not Gone with the Wind: Libraries in Oklahoma in the 1930s

Oklahoma in the 1930s dealt with severe depression and drought, both of which affected the development of the state's public libraries. While the libraries experienced growth at the beginning of the century, helped along by the contributions of women's clubs, the establishment of a state library association and agency, and funding legislation, leaner times appeared in the middle years of the 1930s. Oklahoma's libraries began to rejuvenate by the end of the decade, with an increase in services and facilities, and avoided being "gone with the wind" of the Great Depression.

Introduction: The Continuing Depression

Introduction:The Continuing Depression James V. Carmichael Jr. (bio) The "Libraries in the Depression" theme for this issue was proposed on the Library History Round Table (LHRT) listserv prior to the 2009 American Library Association (ALA) meeting, and the motion to pursue a special issue on this theme was formalized at the July 12, 2009, Executive Board meeting of the LHRT by member Bill Olbrich. The editor of Libraries & the Cultural Record, Dr. David B. Gracy II, gave every form of support and encouragement to the idea, and I agreed to serve as guest editor. A call for papers was sent out on the LHRT listserv and the library education listserv, JESSE, in August 2009, and Lee Shiflett and Cheryl Knott Malone were indispensable in helping to vet submissions. A total of twelve abstract submissions were received, from which six were selected for development. Of these, four reached completion and make up this issue. The themes and treatments in this issue are perhaps more seasoned than what has been written by library historians of the Great Depression heretofore. Eileen McGrath and Linda Jacobson provide a thoroughgoing analysis of the first years of the then-new Louis Round Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill, which was dedicated in conjunction with meetings of the Southeastern Library Association and the Southern Educational Association barely a week before Black Friday. Their account runs somewhat contrary to the popular wisdom about libraries as ultimate benefactors of the Great Depression and leaves little doubt that whatever collections and programs may have been initiated during the period, the Depression commensurably stalled growth at the South's largest university library. Of course, some places were hit harder: the University of Mississippi did not have a book budget during the first half of the 1930s, and Whitman Davis, the librarian, wisely used his time securing a BS degree in library science from the University of Illinois. 1 For relatively well-developed university libraries like UNC's, however, the effects of retrenchment may have been more apparent than in Mississippi, which had little to begin with. Like the apocryphal southern tenant farmer, interviewed by a [End Page 251] newspaper reporter about how he was faring in the Great Depression, poorer universities and, indeed, entire states could respond without irony, "Depression? I didn't know there was one going on." Both Eric Novotny and Joyce Latham examine aspects of the effects of the Depression on an urban library—in this case, the Chicago Public Library (CPL). As Novotny's study suggests, the Great Depression provided hubris enough for idealists such as Carl B. Roden, who treasured the ethnic richness of Chicago and its neighborhoods and was anxious to elevate the libraries' mission and impact. Roden was caught off-guard by the perpetual need to restate the benefits of a public library to city officials and citizens who thought the purpose of a library was purely recreational, particularly during the economic crisis and subsequent budget restrictions. It was a challenging decade for which many librarians were unprepared, but Roden tried to adapt. Latham examines the labor response to the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937, a response that resulted in the formation of a new CPL branch in South Chicago. Her account emphasizes the resilience of the library system and the South Chicago Branch services in spite of whatever economic shortfalls occurred. The construction of the branch and the planning that lay behind it are a testament to coalitions and compromises almost unimaginable in 2011. Together, these articles suggest some of the complexity involved in describing a wide-ranging catastrophe like the Great Depression, even when the subject is narrowed to its effects on libraries. Tanya Ducker Finchum and Allen Finchum's chronicle of statewide library development in Oklahoma, one of the states hardest hit by both depression and drought, demonstrates the power of individuals and outside organizations to benefit libraries throughout the country in this era. Many of Oklahoma's libraries experienced growth or augmentation as a result of statewide library efforts, considerable citizen involvement, the relief and impetus provided by the myriad of agencies created by the federal government to confront the Depression, and the...

Accurate Answers to Reference Queries May Be Provided Less Frequently Than Expected

A review of:
 Hernon, P., & McClure, C. (1986). Unobtrusive reference testing: The 55 percent rule. Library Journal, 111(7), 37-41.
 
 
 Objective – To determine the number of government documents reference questions that are answered correctly by professional library staff.
 
 Design – The authors utilized unobtrusive reference testing: reference queries posed to library personnel who were unaware they were being evaluated. As opposed to other designs that require the researcher’s presence in the setting, unobtrusive testing utilizes proxies to administer test questions to the subjects, reducing the possibility of reporter bias.
 
 Setting – Twenty-six public and academic libraries participating in the U.S. Government Printing Office Depository Program located in the Western, Southern, and Midwestern United States. The Federal Depository Program consisted of 1400 libraries at the time of the study. One public and one academic library were chosen for each city.
 
 Subjects – Reference and government documents librarians. These two staff types were selected in order to compare the accuracy of each group’s responses to the queries.
 
 Methods – A set of 15 predetermined factual and bibliographic questions were developed by the authors and administered to library staff respondents by proxies. Government documents were selected as the foundation for the test questions. In selecting federal depository libraries for their sample the authors could ensure all queries may hypothetically be answered using U.S. Government Printing Office documents, as all of the libraries would hold the resources in question.
 
 Graduate students enrolled in the University of Arizona and University of Oklahoma library science programs were trained by the authors to serve as proxies. The proxies posed as library users and administered the set of queries at each selected library. Reference librarians and government documents librarians were tested separately, receiving seven and eight questions respectively at each library visited. Over a four-month period a total of 390 questions were posed and their answers recorded.
 
 Main Results – The respondents correctly answered 241 of 390 queries (62 percent). Government documents librarians accurately answered 65 percent of questions, while reference librarians successfully responded to 59 percent. Hernon and McClure derived the “55 percent rule” for reference accuracy from these results and previous unobtrusive studies conducted by both the authors and other researchers. This body of research estimates the rate of accurate answers of factual and bibliographic questions to be between 50 and 62 percent.
 Data regarding the “interview and search process” (I&S), defined as the activities between the time a query was posed and when a resolution was provided, also yielded intriguing findings. Regardless of the question asked, the average I&S duration was three to five minutes. Two-thirds of the accurate answers were supplied within three minutes, and 89 percent within five minutes of the initiation of I&S. The duration of I&S did not vary significantly by library type or librarian type.
 
 Reasons for the provision of inaccurate answers included providing the wrong data (64 percent of instances), responding with “don’t know” and ending the interaction (20 percent), or claiming the library did not own a source that would answer the query (15 percent). Other findings included the fact that respondents infrequently offered referrals, which took place in 17 percent of all interactions, and that the three geographic regions studied had an even distribution of correct answers.
 
 Conclusions - Based on their research results as well as those of similar unobtrusive studies, the authors propose two rules regarding reference assistance that apply to public and academic libraries. First, reference librarians correctly answer approximately 55 percent of factual and bibliographic queries received (the 55 percent reference rule). Second, librarians spend no more than five minutes on most factual and bibliographic questions (the five-minute answer rule).
 
 Ultimately, Hernon and McClure recommend reevaluating the centrality of reference services to library operations. If trained professionals are unable to answer more than 60 percent of factual questions correctly, should reference services continue to receive such considerable staffing and funding? Or, alternatively, should libraries increase efforts to improve the accuracy of answers? The authors close by challenging the profession to address the need for strategic assessment of reference effectiveness.

Integrating Metadata Creation into Catalog Workflow

The University of Oklahoma Libraries recently undertook a project designed to integrate digital library metadata creation into the workflow of the Cataloging Department. This article examines the conditions and factors that led to the project's genesis, the proposed and revised workflows that were developed, the staff training efforts that accompanied implementation of the project, and the results and benefits obtained through the project's implementation. The project presented several challenges but resulted in an improved workflow, greater use of Cataloging Department resources, and more accurate and useful metadata while increasing the Library's capacity to support digitization efforts in a timely fashion.

Digital Information and Knowledge Management: New Opportunities for Research Libraries

This slim, easily read volume is a compilation of papers presented at a conference, “Digital Information and Knowledge Management: New Opportunities for Research Libraries,” sponsored by the University of Oklahoma Libraries and held March 3–4, 2005, in Oklahoma City. As such, it provides a snapshot of the thinking at that time about these topics and features glimpses of opportunities for libraries in the twenty-first century. Keynote speaker Kaufman provides an overview of where libraries have been and where they are heading. Her advice to those working in this transformed future is to make choices that will help research libraries integrate themselves into the fabric of university life and research. Dillon asserts, “the future of libraries is likely to be where it has always been, in providing a particular community with value-added information services that they cannot get elsewhere” (p. 39) by focusing on and promoting what they do and do well. By comparing two digital library projects, Panitch and Michalak emphasize the need for research libraries to focus on performing work of a scholarly nature in this arena. Baker shares information about projects, both successful and not, so that research librarians can continue their long tradition of collaboration to make future changes. She suggests that in general librarians are ahead of the curve compared to their faculty when it comes to seeing the need to change how information and knowledge are handled and disseminated. Cullen warns of the dangers of simply being overwhelmed by the rapid increase of information and challenges readers to take measures that make it useful to others. What new skills and experiences will librarians of the future need? Baker answers this question in her paper. The final chapter by Shirk describes ways the tools for visualizing information might be applied by librarians to create an improved map of library collections. Much has changed since the 2005 conference that serves as the basis of this book. Libraries, for example, are in partnership with Google to better organize and retrieve digital information. New tools in the area of social networking are being applied daily in libraries as research librarians reach out to their users and meet them in their spaces, thus integrating themselves into the campus fabric. This book provides an excellent historical overview of the issues and concerns of research librarians around digital information and knowledge management. After reading it, those wishing to learn about current applications and challenges should consult the journal literature.

Collection Management and Strategic Access to Digital Resources: The New Challenges for Research Libraries. Papers Presented at the 2004 University of Oklahoma Libraries Conference

Collection Management and Strategic Access to Digital Resources: The New Challenges for Research Libraries. Papers Presented at the 2004 University of Oklahoma Libraries Conference