Patron Access Research Articles

Special libraries, special challenges: An ethical framework for access to problematic historical medical films

Medical films, once a staple of medical education in the twentieth century, are now scarce collection items. Many 16 mm films have been weeded from collections because of their outdated content and obsolete format, and those that remain can suffer rapid deterioration from improper storage conditions. Digitization is imperative to preserve these remnants of our cultural heritage. After digitization is complete and rights are cleared, libraries typically make their collections openly accessible online, but this practice is sometimes complicated due to the content of historical medical films. Without a mechanism to regulate patron access to films with potentially problematic content, libraries must tightly restrict these newly preserved resources. This paper presents a framework that defines problematic content based on four criteria and proposes a tiered approach to access.

Reprints, reboots and retcons: standardizing comics cataloging with the Best practices guide from the GNCRT

Response to a plethora of historical forces that devalue comics, including hostile cataloging standards, led to the creation of the Best practices for cataloging comics and graphic novels using RDA and MARC21. The guide supports comics cataloging using current standards, recognizing the great diversity in this sequential art medium, as well as needs particular to public, academic and special libraries. With this, and related current and future projects, the Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table (GNCRT) hopes to promote equity in comics cataloging, and improve patron access to comics.

Technical Issues: Creating a Troubleshooting System with Microsoft Outlook

As electronic resources routinely account for a sizable portion of library budgets, electronic resources librarians are under increasing pressure to ensure constant access to these resources. Therefore, developing troubleshooting skills and resources is critical for maintaining electronic access for patrons. This article emphasizes the significance of troubleshooting in electronic resources librarianship by highlighting articles on troubleshooting, the NASIG Core Competencies, and the subsequent need for troubleshooting systems that integrate with email. Therefore, this article details how to create an Outlook-Based Troubleshooting System to assist electronic resources librarians in efficiently resolving access issues.

Caveat emptor: Scan quality of Elsevier's digital backfile PDF collection

Scans of journal articles originally published in print, otherwise known as digital journal backfiles, benefit library patrons by providing near instantaneous access to important older information and full-text searchability. Digital backfiles can serve as a reliable surrogate for their corresponding print journals which could be removed from the library, freeing up space for other patron services. Both benefits are realized when the scanned articles are of sufficient clarity to replace the print versions. Several studies have analyzed small and subject-narrow sections of Elsevier's digital backfile. This article contains a scan-quality analysis from 1578 journals that contain nearly four million articles and represents a significant portion of Elsevier's entire digital journal backfile. We divided journals into three categories and five discipline-specific classifications and compared them by logistic regression for differences in scan quality. Approximately 4.2 % of the articles analyzed contained illegible text, tables, or figures. This data may inform a library's acquisition, retention and space-planning decisions that in turn will affect a patron's access to and use of electronic journal articles.

E-resource librarians perceptions on library patron privacy

Libraries are tasked with upholding a code of ethics for patron privacy according to the Library Bill of Rights and the American Library Association's (ALA) Code of Ethics. However, patrons' personal identifiable information (PII) is being shared through various channels. As libraries move to more technical and digital based collections this creates more challenges to safeguarding patrons' privacy. This technical environment is where information now serves as a platform for library assessment analysis, access for patrons, and demonstration of impact.This study examines the values of e-resource librarians about privacy, the environmental factors influencing decisions, and if the e-resource librarian has a role in their organization's privacy standards. Data was collected through surveys, and the study found that there is a direct correlation between an organization having a policy on privacy and the e-resource librarians' values being represented in their role. There are also indications that the e-resource librarian believes their employer shares their values on privacy. Lastly, the study revealed two major external driving forces on privacy policy are vendors and US privacy policy.

Juvenile Biography Collection: EDI Analysis and Enhancement

Inherent bias in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and non-LCSHs impedes patron access to materials. To improve discoverability of their juvenile biography collection, librarians at the University of Central Florida Libraries utilized a 39 item Qualtrics questionnaire to analyze the subject headings in the bibliographic records of 952 juvenile biographies. Each biography was evaluated for elements of the biographee’s gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. The resultant data was incorporated into local subject headings yielding 2,972 additional points of discoverability. More inclusive Library of Congress subject headings, and terms from Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms (LCDGT) and Homosaurus were also added.

Book Review: The Electronic Resources Troubleshooting Guide

The discovery and access of electronic resources is full of challenges. Complicated relationships between vendors, integrated library systems, link resolvers, and knowledge bases both guarantee the occurrence of patron access problems and obscure the root cause. In The Electronic Resources Troubleshooting Guide, the authors provide frameworks for solving any technological problem and then break down the components of electronic resources (e-resources) access. This book is ideal for those who have found themselves in a position where they need to develop familiarity with the problems that may occur with e-resources, as well as manager who seek to formalize e-resources troubleshooting policies.

Librarians’ Response During COVID-19

The worldwide coronavirus pandemic has caused librarians to rethink how they can contribute to their respective communities. In addition to forcing libraries to shutter their doors and requiring librarians to work remotely, the pandemic has given rise to new and more urgent needs for health-related resources. The changes in librarian working conditions, patron access, and increased needs for health resources and information have meant that physical and digital resources and services have been creatively reimagined to provide necessary resources. Makerspaces have been repurposed to create personal protective equipment for the community, library catalogs have been expanded to provide inventory control of items not part of the usual library inventory, and librarians have worked to provide necessary information for health care professionals and the public. This article describes the efforts of librarians to repurpose their resources and services to better serve their communities in the time of the COVID-19 crisis.

How Data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services Describe Ways Public Libraries Provide Health and Wellness Information Services.

ObjectiveThis article describes how funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) provided resources for state and public libraries to deliver health information to their patrons.MethodsThree IMLS publicly available data collections were used: State Library Administrative Agency Survey data; State Program Report system; and the Awarded Grants Search portal. Data about health related projects from these two administrative data sources for 36 competitive award projects since 2015 and 143 projects supported via the formula-funded Grants to States Program between 2015-2018 (inclusive) were included. Descriptive statistics about projects with a health and wellness focus were presented within the context of others supported by Grants to States.ResultsCompetitive projects supported public libraries’ health resources and built librarians’ skills to facilitate patron access to health information. The Grants to States program supported 143 projects associated with health undertaken by 29 states plus Puerto Rico between 2015 and 2018. The IMLS $14.4 million investment during this period leveraged an additional $5 million from state and local sources to support health information projects in public libraries. Finally, data from the State Library Administrative Agency Survey showed that in addition to projects that relied on IMLS Grants to States funds, 29 state libraries provided program assistance in health literacy to the public libraries in their jurisdictions in 2018.ConclusionsThe findings point to a need to determine whether there are ways to collect additional information via IMLS’s data systems to further support state and public libraries in meeting patron health information needs. The lessons learned in the analyses in this article offer useful food-for-thought about how IMLS might work with our data stakeholders to continue to modify each of these data sources to describe the role of libraries in an increasingly complex information landscape.

Preservation and Access for Born-digital Electronic Records: The Case for an Institutional Digital Content Format Registry

ABSTRACT Since 2014, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library has taken custody of a growing number of collections of “born-digital” records, largely through the University Archives. These collections comprise a panoply of digital content formats, ranging from those in common use to obscure varieties from the early days of personal computing. As such, they pose a challenge to digital preservation and access. Knowing what software to use to open files in formats that have fallen out of use is often difficult, let alone installing obsolete software on contemporary operating systems. At the same time, the sheer bulk of collections, as well as an accelerating rate of born-digital accessions from faculty and campus offices, makes it difficult to assess these files at the time of acquisition. These challenges suggest the need for preservation policies on digital formats in collections of electronic records, as well as for firsthand knowledge of the software required to facilitate curator control over and patron access to these collections. This article presents an overview of an evolving approach taken by archivists and librarians at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to build the policies, technical knowledge, and systems for an effective preservation and access program for electronic records. Their implementation of a local digital content format registry, while young, suggests that archivists and digital preservationists would benefit from further development of tools and practices focused on born-digital formats, and the thoughtful integration of institutional knowledge with international format registries.

Why are bathrooms inclusive if the stacks exclude?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to deploy a critical discourse analysis (CDA) to consider exclusionary practices enacted by academic libraries as evidenced through resource provision. Specifically, this paper looks at the inclusion of trans and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) individuals in library guides, TGNC naming practices in abstracts and the physical shelving of transgender studies texts. This paper concludes with a discussion of methods to overcome such exclusionary practices in the future.Design/methodology/approachThis paper deploys CDA as informed by queer theory, affording a lens to consider how language and information are structured such that particular power dynamics emerge placing symbolic value on discursively normal identities. CDA helps illuminate when, how and why TGNC individuals remain excluded within academic librarianship practices.FindingsFindings show continued investments in heteronormative and cisnormative structures concerning information provision and access for TGNC patrons. TGNC patrons using library guides consistently fail to see any mentioned made of their respective identities aside from research about their identities. Patrons seeking information of personal value (i.e. coming out resources) find few resources. Further, library stacks and databases enact consistent microaggressions such as fetishizing, deadnaming and misgendering.Research limitations/implicationsThis project contains considerable social implications, as it pushes against a continued recalcitrance on the part of academic libraries to invest in neutrality by showing its failures regarding TGNC persons.Practical implicationsThis study possesses a considerable set of practical implications and highlights tangible problems that could be addressed with relative ease by academic librarians through either systemic reorganization of information or TGNC patrons. Alternatively, this work also suggests that if such reformations are not possible, academic librarians can take it upon themselves to call attention to such issues and purposefully mark these failings, thus making it clear that it is a current limitation of how libraries function and invite patrons (both cisgender and transgender) to challenge and change these representations through research and advocacy.Social implicationsThis project contains considerable social implications as it pushes against a continued recalcitrance on the part of academic libraries (and librarianship more broadly) to invest in neutrality. This study contests the idea that while possessing neutrality academic libraries also posit themselves as inherently good and inclusive. By showing the violence that remains enacted upon transgender and gender nonconforming folks through multiple venues within the academic library, this study makes clear that statements of negativity are thrust onto TGNC patrons and they remain excluded from an institution that purports to have their well-being as one of its core values.Originality/valueThe deployment of CDA within information science is still a relatively new one. While linguists have long understood the multiplicity of discourse beyond language, the application of this method to the academic library as a discursive institution proves generative. Furthermore, the relationship between academic libraries and their LGBTQ+ populations is both underrepresented and undervalued, a problem exacerbated when focusing on how transgender and gender nonconforming patrons see themselves and their relationships to the academic library. This paper shows the dire state of representation for these particular patrons and provides groundwork for positively changing such representations.

It’s Automatic: Library Automation as a Catalyst For Transformation

Between October 2018 and February 2019, the Warrenton Community Library began a transformation of library services. With the funding and support available through a 2017 voter-approved levy and a joint LSTA grant with the neighboring Seaside Public Library, this small coastal library was able to introduce a full suite of online services to its patrons. Just as importantly, Warrenton was able to join a shared ILS environment and facilitate patron access to a wider range of resources. Previously, the library used card-based checkout. A simple MARC software application was used to create a catalog of bibliographic records accessible only to staff. In 2018, the license for the MARC database expired and the library no longer had a catalog of its materials. The collections became accessible only by browsing. Warrenton patrons embraced the many outstanding services provided at the library: a diverse selection of resources, collection development that is responsive to patron needs, and a supportive, small-town atmosphere. However, it was time to embrace the opportunities afforded to Oregon libraries in the digital age. This LSTA project, for which I served as Project Manager Librarian, resulted in many expanded services. These included circulation and expanded resource sharing in a shared ILS. Warrenton also joined the Oregon Digital Library Consortium, developed a new library website, and provided patrons with access to Gale databases. For this article, I will be focusing on the systems and cataloging aspects of the project. Through the four months of automation work spent in Warrenton, I gained a new appreciation for the interconnectedness of library services, as the change in systems drove transformations both anticipated and unexpected.

An Analysis of “Request It” Print Delivery Service in the Alma Library Management System and Its Impact on Physical Browsing in a Midsized Private Academic Library

The ability to browse a circulating library collection has been shown to be an important component of access and discovery for library patrons. While we are unable to definitively identify all times when patrons browse collections, we can examine when there is a higher likelihood they are not. Faculty from University Libraries at the University of Denver engaged in a study examining what types of books were most likely to have a checkout transaction that originated from a patron request in the library catalog. By examining this data, they were able to determine which disciplines (Education, American History, Social Science, Fine Art, and Law) were more likely to request books than other disciplines, and in which subjects browsing was less likely to occur.

Using E-Journal Subscription Inventories to Improve Internal Documentation and Patron Access

ABSTRACT Librarians have been struggling to maintain accurate information in their library catalogs since electronic resources became the preferred format. Adelphi University Libraries’ (AUL) technical services unit realized its catalog’s data no longer reflected actual periodical holdings or online access entitlement, and this article documents one library’s process towards improved data. By using Google spreadsheets to conduct a subscriptions inventory, AUL improved periodical subscription details and holdings statements for increased patron access to e-journals.

Book Review: Licensing Electronic Resources in Academic Libraries: A Practical Handbook

The proliferation of electronic resources (e-resources) arguably brings several benefits to libraries, including instant, from-anywhere access for patrons and automated workflows for technical services that are potentially more efficient. However, it also brings new challenges. One of these challenges is licensing the many e-resources offered through the contemporary library. Halaychik and Reagan address this challenge in Licensing Electronic Resources in Academic Libraries: A Practical Handbook. This resource primarily covers three license-related topics in five chapters. Chapters 1 and 3 discuss the basics of licensing and licensing law. Chapters 2 and 4 address the licensing process through the full life cycle of licenses. The final chapter discusses negotiating licenses.

Curating, Not Weeding

ABSTRACTTrends in local usage and networked access suggest refocusing traditional emphasis on storing print in library space that could serve other library student–success goals. This case study of a weeding project describes a rules-based (quantitative) and expert analysis (qualitative) approach to “right-sizing” a section of the collection. Though this process proved time-consuming, it balanced the competing goals of preservation and access for local patrons while effectively communicating with faculty. As a result, the librarian developed a process that could be expanded to maintain other areas of the print collection.

Just-In-Time: A Case Study of Buying Instead of Borrowing at the University of North Texas Libraries, 2014–2017

ABSTRACTThere is a trend among academic libraries to increase collaboration between interlibrary loan and collection development to improve patron access to materials and build library collections. Instead of borrowing returnable materials, interlibrary loan may initiate purchases that will become part of the library's collection. This can mean anything from an organizational change combining interlibrary loan with the acquisitions unit or creating new workflows to facilitate purchasing. At the University of North Texas Libraries, the Interlibrary Loan office is a unit of the Access Services Department. Buying instead of borrowing for the ILL unit began with a Demand Driven Acquisitions (DDA) program and has expanded with the establishment of the University of North Texas Libraries' access-based collection development policy. Interlibrary Loan provides “Just-In-Time” (JIT) access to materials not available through regular interlibrary loan sources and adds relevant materials to the Libraries' collections.

Digitizing Audiovisual and Nonprint Materials: The Innovative Librarian’s Guide. By Scott Piepenburg. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2015. Pp. vii+94. $50.00 (paper). ISBN 978-1-4408-3780-7.

<i>Digitizing Audiovisual and Nonprint Materials: The Innovative Librarian’s Guide</i>. By Scott Piepenburg. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2015. Pp. vii+94. $50.00 (paper). ISBN 978-1-4408-3780-7.

Communication and Collaboration in Library Technical Services: A Case Study of New York University in Abu Dhabi

ABSTRACTNew York University Abu Dhabi Library has developed new strategies to increase efficiency in technical services processing between units based in New York and Abu Dhabi. This case study discusses the challenges specific to the international context and the methods used to overcome them, increase speed processing, and ultimately improve patron access to materials. A key factor in successful implementation was the strategic decision made by library administration to provide the newly-hired technical services librarian with three months of cross-training in New York before permanently moving to Abu Dhabi. A specific model of communication was put into action leading to the resolution of many problems and inefficiencies. In addition, a broader study of global communication tools was conducted and resulted in best practices for other library units within the university network. This case study outlines the background, communication processes and outcomes.

Wisconsin School for Girls Inmate Record Books: A Case Study of Redacted Digitization

Abstract The Wisconsin School for Girls collection housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) archives contains a variety of documents from the institution's period of operation. Inmates who were admitted to the institution were predominately juvenile females at the time of the records' creation; because of this, the contents of the records are protected by Wisconsin state statutes, which mandate restricted access for patrons as well as limitations on the use of the information contained within the records. This article examines how the restrictions on the collection continue to protect the privacy of the inmates and their descendants, what procedures WHS has in place to ensure continued trust in their custodianship, why a repository like WHS would value a collection with access restrictions, and who the primary patron group of this collection might be. Finally, this article argues that redacted digital representations of a limited number of the institution's records (with an option for patrons to a...