Penn State University Libraries Research Articles

Supporting Open Access Monographs: Penn State University Libraries’ Participation in the TOME Initiative

Supporting Open Access Monographs: Penn State University Libraries’ Participation in the TOME Initiative

Supporting Open Access Monographs: Penn State University Libraries’ Participation in the TOME Initiative

Supporting Open Access Monographs: Penn State University Libraries’ Participation in the TOME Initiative

Understanding and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Academic Libraries

abstract: It is now widely understood that societies must rapidly decarbonize to avoid the worst impacts of future climate change. To contribute to this urgent effort, academic libraries should develop an understanding of the carbon footprint resulting from their activities. This article shares the results of an effort at the Penn State University Libraries to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions generated in one year. It will define the elements of a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, explain the context and process for undertaking this effort at Penn State, share findings, and discuss potential implications for academic libraries.

Automating FDLP eXchange Withdrawal Lists

The Penn State University Libraries (University Libraries) is a large academic research library comprising twenty-four locations and thirty campus libraries across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The University Park campus is the main campus and has five libraries with many different departments that often act independently. As an example, in the main Pattee-Paterno Library, there are four libraries: George and Sherry Middlemas Arts and Humanities/Social Sciences/Education, Life Sciences (part of STEM libraries), William and Joan Schreyer Business, the Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information (Maps and GIS). As a large institution, the scope of projects can be substantial and create opportunities for departments to share their technical skills. These partnerships often manifest as technological innovations that can improve workflow across the organization and be shared with the greater library community.

Customizing Summon for a Specific User Population: A Health Sciences Library’s Experience

The Harrell Health Sciences Library: Research and Learning Commons (HHSL) tailored their discovery solution, Ex Libris Summon, to better meet the needs of its health sciences users. The customizations encourage more sophisticated searching behaviors and improves usability of the library website for browsing and finding known items. HHSL worked with Penn State University Libraries and their Ex Libris Customer Success Manager to create customized search panels as well as turn on features available in Summon. While these customizations are specific to a health sciences library, any library can use these practices to customize their instance of Summon for their user group(s).

Grants and Acquisitions

Penn State University Libraries has expanded its robust scholarly research potential of one of America’s foremost 20th-century writers through the acquisition of the Toby and Betty Bruce Collection of Ernest Hemingway. The Institute of Museum and Library Services recently announced grants totaling $5,253,000 through three programs designed to support and improve library services of Native American, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian organizations. The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) has awarded PALSave Textbook Creation Grants to faculty authors from three of its supported institutions.

Academic Library Video Services: Charting a Post-COVID Course

The vast majority of academic libraries offer streaming video services to support teaching and research, and demand for this already popular format from faculty and students increased when libraries closed their physical locations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its popularity, many users are unfamiliar with copyright and terms of use for video content. Use of streaming video is further complicated by its availability on a variety of platforms using different licensing models. This case study shows how the Penn State University Libraries (PSUL) helped librarians, faculty, and students navigate access to video content for remote instruction during the pandemic. The examples of training library staff, educating faculty and students, and streamlining internal processes can be adapted by all academic libraries to provide greater access to video content. Demand for streaming video will continue even when libraries return to full in-person operations, so these approaches will continue to be relevant.

Free Lunch? Vendor Offers during COVID-19

Academic libraries received numerous free offers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing business literature suggests that there are benefits and costs associated with free offers for both the businesses that provide them and their customers. This study analyzes the free offers received during a three-month period at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The author monitored direct offers from vendors, LIBLICENSE-L@LISTSERV.CRL.EDU, information obtained from peers, and publicly available data from the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC). The offers that would normally require paid institutional subscriptions were included in the study. Databases were the largest offer category (41%), followed-by e-books (20%). Most (76%) required registration by library representatives, allowing vendors to track usage data. Only a small portion (8%) of these free offers was already held at the study site, Penn State University Libraries (PSUL). The implication might be that most of the offers were either new, not high-priority or not affordable for PSUL. The findings of this study suggest free offers provide intangible value for both libraries and vendors that cannot be measured through cost-per-use data analysis. For example, libraries gained opportunities to trial new products without any risk, temporarily expand their collections, and help users during the crisis when access to the library buildings was disrupted. Vendors increased product visibility, gained customer information and usage data, identified potential customers, and created goodwill with the library community. This study is relevant to business librarianship not only because these free offers included business and related disciplines but also because some business librarians engage with vendor relations and need to understand different business models including free offers.

What Would Janeway and Roslin Do?: A Sci-Fi–Watching Library Historian Confronts COVID-19

What Would Janeway and Roslin Do?: A Sci-Fi–Watching Library Historian Confronts COVID-19

Cooking up engagement during a pandemic: The international Great Rare Books Bake Off between the Penn State and Monash University Libraries

In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Monash University Library in Melbourne, Australia, and the Penn State University Libraries in Pennsylvania, USA, leveraged their previously established international sister-library partnership to host a virtual engagement event focused on promoting the partnership and selected special collections at both institutions. The Monash–Penn State Great Rare Books Bake Off, a friendly competition collaboratively developed by the two academic libraries, engaged both institutions’ communities with their collections and resources by inviting participants to bake featured recipes from their collections and post evidence of their experiences on social media platforms. In addition to promoting awareness of the institutions’ international partnership and their respective collections, a primary goal of the collaborative project was to offer their local communities an enjoyable and creative outlet during a difficult time. This illustrative case study describes how the two institutions planned, executed, and assessed the project.

International Students and COVID-19: The Initial Response from the Penn State Libraries

This article describes how the Penn State University Libraries have responded to the unique challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presents to international student populations Additionally, the authors discuss support and service programs for international students that may ease the disruptions expected in upcoming semesters A collaborative approach is emphasized as the libraries work in coordination with stakeholders across the institution to address COVID-19 issues © 2021, Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved

Lessons Learned in Leaving the Library and Coming Back Again

In early March 2020, libraries across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania began to close in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. On March 19, staff members in the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Department at Penn State University Libraries pivoted to providing remote services to Penn State users and library partners from around the world. In addition to describing the difficulties of transitioning to and the realities of working from home, this piece describes the challenges experienced in returning to the library. Considerations for the future are also discussed.

Redistributing work during COVID-19: Penn State University Libraries’ job bank

March 2020 became a pivoting moment for higher education in the United States, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced colleges and universities to switch to remote delivery of instruction within weeks. The impact of this event is deep and far-reaching. There is already a deluge of articles about how most faculty and students have had to adjust to a new way of teaching and learning--or how administrators have had to brace for financial losses. However, little has been written about the situations librarians and library staff are facing.

Representation in the Collection: Assessing Coverage of LGBTQ Content in an Academic Library Collection

Academic library collections have been built and shaped by a focus on dominant voices and perspectives. In order for collections to reflect the value librarianship places on diversity as well as represent multiple perspectives and serve users of diverse backgrounds and identities, collections need to be assessed for coverage of content related to diversity. This article discusses the challenges inherent in engaging in such an assessment, discusses collection assessment methods, and describes an analysis performed on the Penn State University Libraries collections focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer content.

Knowledge Management for Collection Development: Transforming Institutional Knowledge into Tools for Selectors

ABSTRACTIn an organization with a decentralized collection development structure, it can be difficult for selectors to find correct and detailed information at the point of need when engaging in collection development. Institutional knowledge is not always easily shared with others due to the lack of an effective conduit. Simply knowing what is happening and what has happened with purchases, licensing, vendor negotiations, budget planning, and policy creation can be a challenge for those who have not been directly involved. This presentation detailed the speaker’s experience in a new collections role at Penn State University Libraries, where she methodically gathered the information that exists on shared drives, in file cabinets, in dark corners of the intranet, and in the brains of faculty and staff that have worked at the library for many years, and then made it available to selectors in a meaningful way. The presentation discussed projects such as compiling information about annual e-book packages and e-journal backfiles, as well as Penn State University Libraries’ management of theses and dissertations. How those projects were identified and prioritized, as well as the process for compiling that information and making it available, was also discussed.

Fail Early and Often to Succeed: The Case for Rapid Prototyping in Libraries

At Penn State University Libraries, we are endeavoring to support a library and user community in a state of flux by moving from a culture of rigidity to one of flexibility. Changes to Penn State University Libraries’ organizational structures and strategic priorities have been swift and ongoing. In some contexts, we are using rapid prototyping practices to respond with agility to these changes, as well as to the changing needs of our faculty, staff, student, and community users. This article describes the general rapid prototyping approach, showcases the concept in use by a library’s teaching and learning department, and uses a case study to illustrate how these practices can be applied to a specific learning object. We also suggest applications in other, more systemic, areas of organizational work. Key takeaways include encouraging a culture of experimentation, being open to failure, and keeping lines of communication open to strengthen collaboration.

Testing assumptions: Is streaming video really preferable to DVDs?

ABSTRACTThere is a great deal of literature exploring the subscription and purchase models available for streaming video. However, explorations into the use of streaming video and how it compares to that of DVDs have not been done. The author identified a sample set of films at Penn State University Libraries owned in DVD format and available on the Kanopy platform and conducted a comparison between circulation data of DVDs and use data of titles on the Kanopy platform. The results contribute to a discussion about the role of streaming video and DVDs in the long-term access and preservation of films.

Pennsylvania Perspectives of the 2016 Election: A Project to Collect Web and Social Media Content Around Significant Societal Events

During the 2016 election, Pennsylvania was viewed as a crucial state not only for the presidential race, but also for a Senate seat, seats in the House of Representatives, and for state-specific positions. In response to the attention placed on Pennsylvania during the election, Penn State University Libraries undertook a project to document the discourse that occurred online. The resulting project, “Pennsylvania Perspectives on the 2016 U.S. Election,” collected websites and Twitter data in order to document the people, voices, moments, and prominent issues in Pennsylvania. In this practice paper, we describe the project background, scope, collection methodology, lessons learned, and best practices that we discovered, in the hopes that it will inspire others to undertake similar projects to document important societal events at local, state, national, and international levels.

Welcome from the Editors

Welcome from the Editors

Floating collection in an academic library: An audacious experiment that succeeded

ABSTRACTCan a floating collection thrive in a large multicampus academic research library? Floating collections have been successful in public libraries for some time, but it is uncommon for academic libraries and unheard of for a large academic library system. This article will discuss the investigation into the feasibility of a floating collection at Penn State University Libraries, its implementation, and continuation for a period covering 2009 through 2015. Attaining the floating collection, limited to monographs in the general stacks of campus libraries, proved to be easier to implement than imagined and resulted in unintended benefits as well as some surprises.