Subject Liaisons Research Articles

Swimming Upstream in the Academic Library: Exploring Faculty Needs for Library Streaming Media Collections

Objective - To compare Portland State University’s (PSU) local experience of using streaming media to national and international trends identified in a large qualitative study by Ithaka S+R. This comparison will help librarians better understand if the PSU Library is meeting the needs of faculty with its streaming media collection through a series of faculty interviews. Methods and Intervention - Two librarians from PSU participated in a large, collaborative, two-part study conducted by Ithaka S+R in 2022, with 23 other academic institutions in the United States, Canada, and Germany As part of this study, the authors conducted a series of interviews with faculty from PSU’s Social Work and Film Studies departments to gather qualitative data about their use, expectations, and priorities relating to streaming media in their teaching. Ithaka S+R provided guided interview questions, and librarians at PSU conducted interviews with departmental faculty. Local interview responses were compared to the interviews from the other 23 institutions. Results - PSU Library had a higher rate of faculty satisfaction than in the larger survey. Discussions raised concerns around accessibility of content, which was novel to PSU, and did not meaningfully emerge in the broader study. Local findings did line up with broader trends in the form of concerns about cost, discoverability, and lack of diverse content. Conclusions - The data collected by Ithaka S+R’s survey, which was the first part of their two-part study, is useful as it highlights the trends and attitudes of the greater academic library community. However, the second portion of the study’s guided interviews with campus faculty reinforced the importance of accessibility, the Library’s provision of resources, and the relationships between subject liaisons and departmental instructors. It emphasized that Portland State University’s Library has built a good foundation with faculty related to this area but has not been able to provide for every streaming instructional need. Reasons for this include limited acquisitions budgets, constraints of staff time, and market factors.

Better data management, one nudge at a time

How do you help people improve their data management skills? For our team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, we decided the answer was "one nudge at a time”.
 A study conducted by Wiley and Mischo (2016) found that Illinois researchers are aware of data services available but under-utilize them. Many researchers do not consider data management as a concern distinct from researching and producing scholarly work products. In 2017, the RDS piloted the Data Nudge – a monthly, opt-in email service to “nudge” Illinois researchers toward good data management practices, and towards utilizing data services on campus. The aim of the Data Nudge was to address the gap between knowing about a service and using it by highlighting best practices and campus resources.
 The topics covered in the Data Nudge center around data. Some topics are applicable to everyone, such as data back-up, documentation, and file naming conventions. Other topics are specific to Illinois, like storage options, events, and conferences.
 After four years, the Data Nudge has accumulated over 400 subscribers through word-of-mouth, marketing channels on campus and inclusion in subject liaisons' instructional workshops. It receives stable open rates averaging at 52% (compared to 19.44% average industry rate for Higher Education*) and many compliments from subscribers. We expect the Data Nudge to continue supplementing workshops and training as an effective means of communication to reach researchers on our campus. In the spirit of re-use, we are in the process of archiving the Data Nudge topics in a reusable format, readily adaptable by other institutions. 
 Data Nudge link: https://go.illinois.edu/past_nudges

Using Open Calais to Identify the Research Areas of Engineering Faculty

To meet the research, teaching, and learning needs of their users, academic librarians, particularly those functioning as subject liaisons, are expected to know the institution’s curriculum and research areas so that they can help shape library strategies to meet those needs and to connect users to the library’s resources and services. The present study investigated the use of Refinitiv’s free web demo, Open Calais, as a text mining tool to help learn about the research areas in the University of Tennessee’s Tickle College of Engineering. We investigated the following research questions: What interdisciplinary research areas in the College does Open Calais reveal? What are the differences in Open Calais’ tagging of Scopus and web pages? What terms were uncovered by Open Calais that were unexpected by the subject librarian? The results showed a mixed picture of the usefulness of Open Calais for learning the research areas of the College of Engineering.

Extending the Research Data Toolkit: Data Curation Primers

Niche and proprietary data formats used in cutting-edge research and technology have specific curation considerations and challenges. The increased demand for subject liaisons, library archivists, and digital curators to curate this variety of data types created locally at an institution or organization poses difficulties. Subject liaisons possess discipline knowledge and expertise for a given domain or discipline and digital curation experts know how to properly steward data assets generally. Yet, a gap often exists between the expertise available within the organization and local curation needs.
 While many institutions and organizations have expertise in certain domains and areas, oftentimes the heterogeneous data types received for deposit extend beyond this expertise. Additionally, evolving research methods and new, cutting-edge technology used in research often result in unfamiliar and niche data formats received for deposit. Knowing how to ‘get-started’ in curating these file types and formats can be a particular challenge. To address this need, the data curation community have been developing a new set of tools - data curation primers. These primers are evolving documents that detail a specific subject, disciplinary area or curation task, and that can be used as a reference or jump-start to curating research data. This paper will provide background on the data curation primers and their content detail the process of their development, highlight the data curation primers published to date, emphasize how curators can incorporate these resources into workflows, and show curators how they can get involved and share their own expertise.

Instruction librarians and instructional designers: A natural collaboration

At the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, instructional designers and research and instruction librarians have similar goals yet unique roles and distinct responsibilities. There are eight instructional designers at the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL) who use learning theory and design knowledge to work with faculty to plan and create online courses. At the university’s Atkins Library, 16 instruction librarians, including subject liaisons and first-year writing specialists, connect with faculty and students to further understanding of information literacy and research resources. Recognizing the groups’ common goals of partnering with faculty in course development and creating high-quality online learning resources, group administrators have launched an initiative to introduce the designers and librarians to each other and to their work.

Use and Awareness of Library Services among Faculty at Two Armenian Universities

ABSTRACTThis study surveys instructional faculty at two Armenian universities to determine use and awareness of academic library services and resources including reference, interlibrary loan, subscription databases, subject liaisons, and more. A minority of respondents reported making frequent use of the services investigated, with usage varying according to such factors as academic rank, length of employment, and full- or part-time status. Many participants also had suggestions for services not available at their libraries. These results help illuminate user preferences among faculty at these universities and could help librarians at similar institutions identify underutilized resources to promote or new services to offer.

Book Review: The Subject Liaison’s Survival Guide to Technical Services

What happens when an experienced subject liaison is teamed with a veteran technical services librarian? You get a slim but informative volume that details the fine points of technical services in a way that anyone can understand.The Subject Liaison’s Survival Guide to Technical Services is divided into chapters corresponding to different aspects of library technical services: “Collection Development,” “Budgets and Budgeting,” “Submitting Orders” (from the subject liaison’s perspective), “Acquisitions Ordering” (what the technical services department does with those submitted orders), “Receiving and Processing,” “Cataloging,” and “Collections Maintenance.” While the guide could be read in a single sitting, the way it is arranged also makes it useful as a reference tool. A subject liaison can consult each of the chapters as needed. Each chapter contains a section titled “Questions You Should Be Asking,” which serves as a concise summary of the most important things subject liaisons will need to know during the course of their daily duties.

A New Year Worth Noting

A New Year Worth Noting Marianne Ryan (bio) Turning a calendar’s page to a new year symbolizes a new beginning. Calendars themselves, in concept and as artifacts, can similarly signal a fresh start and often afford an opportunity for reflection. The Gregorian calendar is a good example. Adopted by England and the American Colonies in 1752, its implementation advanced time 11 days, literally overnight. The new calendar purportedly triggered revolt among some British citizens, who demanded the return of that lost time. On the other hand, Ben Franklin applauded the change, noting, “It is pleasant for an old man to be able to go to bed on September 2, and not have to get up until September 14.”1 Regardless of one’s perspective, the transition to Gregorian time was a significant departure from the Julian calendar that had been in place. Historically, calendar reform has been prompted by a perceived need to improve the way things had been done before—in this case, marking time. Journals whose volume numbers change at the start of a calendar year, as portal’s do, often seize that moment to make adjustments, be it with updating the physical design of the publication, shuffling the makeup of the editorial board, or revising the content that is presented. Sunsetting the old and showcasing the new is a characteristic way for a journal to mark time. At once, it can acknowledge the past and announce a new direction, as T. S. Eliot wrote: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language / And next year’s words await another voice.”2 As portal embarks on its 17th year and unveils the first issue of the corresponding volume, number 17, it also introduces a new feature. “Worth Noting” will not so much replace but rather expand upon the concept of a book review column. Designed to highlight what is new and noteworthy, this offering will be broadly inclusive. It will present interviews with scholars and administrators, previews of what is innovative in libraries and the academy, and reviews of design concepts, emerging technologies, assessment approaches, or whatever else may be significant. And—yes—sometimes, reviews of books. Thanks to Tomalee Doan of Arizona State University in Tempe for agreeing to join the portal Editorial Board and take on the role of editing our new feature. We expect that “Worth Noting” will run in each issue, and we welcome your submissions. As our first “Worth Noting” installment, we are pleased to present a data paper, “Subject Liaisons in Academic Libraries: An Open Access Data Set from 2015,” by Neil [End Page 1] Nero and Anne Langley. A data paper has been described as “a short, peer-reviewed publication that is designed to raise awareness of a dataset and its re-use potential.”3 The publication of such a paper is a first for portal. With the launch of our exciting new feature, portal retires the traditional “Reviews” column that has been part of the journal since its inception. Sincere thanks to Fred Rowland of Temple University in Philadelphia, who ably served as that feature’s editor for the better part of nine years, never missing an issue or a deadline. Under Fred’s stewardship, 33 “Reviews” columns were produced and more than 240 individual book reviews published—a truly notable accomplishment. The entire Editorial Board of portal expresses its gratitude to Fred and extends best wishes to him as he takes on new professional challenges. The journal’s masthead, listing feature editors and topics, has been updated to reflect these changes. Marianne Ryan Marianne Ryan is the editor of portal: Libraries and the Academy and the dean of libraries at Loyola University Chicago; she may be reached by mryan21@luc.edu. Notes 1. Jennie Cohen, “6 Things You May Not Know about the Gregorian Calendar,” History channel, 2012, http://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-gregorian-calendar. 2. T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding,” in T. S. Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays 1909–1950 (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962), 141. 3. Katie Green, “Open Access Data Papers at Internet Archaeology,” International Open Access Week, 2013, http://www.openaccessweek...

Subject Liaisons in Academic Libraries: An Open Access Data Set from 2015

The work of subject liaison librarians in academic libraries has morphed to include a variety of roles that reach beyond the traditional. This study captures responses of 1,808 participants from land-grant, Oberlin Group, and Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions to a questionnaire about subject liaison librarians. The questionnaire contains eight demographic questions, five questions about liaison responsibilities, seven outreach and instruction questions, three traditional reference questions, two scholarly communications questions, three collection development questions, and an open-ended question. This is the largest data set compiled to date on academic subject liaison librarians. The data set has been made available on an open access basis in hopes that use of the data will facilitate cross-study comparisons.

Helping patrons find locally held electronic resources: An interlibrary loan perspective

ABSTRACTThe University of North Texas Libraries provide extensive online access to academic journals through major vendor databases. As illustrated by interlibrary loan borrowing requests for items held in our databases, patrons often have difficulty navigating the available resources. In this study, the Interlibrary Loan staff used data gathered from the ILLiad interlibrary loan management system to investigate why patrons request locally available materials. This study resulted in recommendations for the Libraries' linking strategies in EBSCOhost databases. Several user education needs were identified and communicated to the Libraries' Subject Liaisons.

Digital Humanities in the Library: Challenges and Opportunities for Subject Specialists ed. by Arianne Hartsell-Gundy et al. (review)

Reviewed by: Digital Humanities in the Library: Challenges and Opportunities for Subject Specialists ed. by Arianne Hartsell-Gundy et al. Harriett E. Green Digital Humanities in the Library: Challenges and Opportunities for Subject Specialists, ed. Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Laura Braunstein, and Liorah Golomb. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), 2015. 291 pages. $68.00 (ISBN 978-0-8389-8767-4) From early on, academic libraries and library and information science programs have pioneered digital humanities (DH) projects and initiatives. These have included the Valley of the Shadow Project, a digital history project depicting the experiences of Confederate soldiers in the Civil War; the Text Creation Partnership, which produces digital editions of early print books; Documenting the American South, a collection of full-text digital sources on Southern history and culture; and the Walt Whitman Archive, which has writings and other materials about the American poet. Yet only in recent years has the role of librarians noticeably shifted from facilitating access to content to taking a more actively engaged role by collaborating with faculty and initiating DH projects. And this shift is necessary. As Tyler Walters and Katherine Skinner observe in New Roles for New Times: Digital Curation for Preservation (Chicago: ACRL, 2011, p. 72), “Libraries must also be concerned about losing ground within their campus environment by not meeting the digital needs of the scholarly community. If we do not seek to engage with the digital humanities, other entities will.” Featuring firsthand case studies of academic librarians engaging in DH research and teaching, Digital Humanities in the Library: Challenges and Opportunities for Subject Specialists explores the strategies necessary for taking a more active role in DH projects. This volume is divided into four sections: “Reasons for Subject Specialists to Acquire DH Skills”; “Getting Involved in Digital Humanities”; “Collaboration, Spaces, and Instruction”; and “Projects in Focus: From Conception to Completion and Beyond.” Chapters in each section describe in detail diverse projects, collaborations, and initiatives undertaken by librarians over the past decade. Practical in perspective and scope, the book pays particular attention to teaching and learning, providing case studies of collaborations between librarians and faculty in small and large colleges and universities. Other chapters cover strategies for outreach and engagement with stakeholders, researchers, and organizations. Still others offer insightful “how-to” approaches for building infrastructure to support DH scholarship, including digital scholarship centers and learning spaces, and for outreach and sustainability of library-centered digital [End Page 207] projects. The most impactful contributions in Digital Humanities in the Library cast a critical eye on the theory and practice of digital humanities and the role of libraries therein. These include Caro Pinto’s chapter “Construction and Disruption: Building Communities of Practice, Queering Subject Liaisons,” in which Pinto exhorts librarians to “disrupt toward solidarity and innovate toward communities of practice in digital humanities.” Another stimulating chapter is Liorah Golomb’s account of her own text mining project, “Dipping a Toe into the DH Waters: A Librarian’s Experience,” which illustrates the ways in which some librarians are already digital scholars. (p. 49) Many of the lessons in Digital Humanities in the Library could also apply to digital scholarship in the social sciences and sciences. In addition to providing a good overview of current library activity in digital humanities, this volume will be beneficial to librarians looking to become involved in DH and unsure about where to begin. Addressing a wide range of institutions, skills, and projects, Digital Humanities in the Library will help librarians explore the dynamic world of the digital humanities. Harriett E. Green University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Green19@illinois.edu Copyright © 2015 The Johns Hopkins University Press

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.

Subject Matrices: An Innovative, Collaborative Approach to Serving the Agricultural Sciences

In 2009, Kansas State University Libraries (K-State Libraries) moved from subject-based departments to user-based departments. From this change, subject matrices, including the Agriculture and Biological Science Matrix, were developed to address subject-related issues. This matrix is comprised of librarians from many K-State Libraries’ departments and is a conduit for sharing information interdepartmentally and developing collaborative opportunities. Libraries wishing to maintain a traditional subject-liaison model can adapt key principles underlying the matrix. Subject liaisons can go beyond siloed perspectives by soliciting advice from individuals outside the library. Another approach is to disturb established structures and introduce selective pressure to inspire innovation.

Designing Libraries for Research Collaboration in the Network World: An Exploratory Study

Advances in technology and changes in higher education and research are forcing libraries to rethink the services they offer to researchers and how they are presented. Librarians are moving into “higher end support” and adopting new service models based on “deep collaboration” with academic partners. The internal arrangements that form the design of an organization can determine whether it achieves its mission under particular conditions. The present study explores how libraries in 24 leading UK research universities are organizing resources and services to support the research enterprise. Qualitative data were collected from institutional websites and other public domain sources and were analysed using matrix techniques. The results show a trend away from integrated library and computing service organizations; variety in institutional reporting lines, but predominantly in large professional service groups; consistency in internal library groupings, but variation in portfolio and job titles; expansion of specialist positions, with new functional roles complementing traditional subject liaisons; and dedicated spaces, working groups, and integrated websites promoting boundary-spanning activities. The findings confirm and extend prior work and are being used to design a large scale international survey.

There is No Association Between Subject Liaisons’ Perception of Their Work and Faculty Satisfaction with Their Liaisons

Objective – To determine the relationship between librarians’ self-assessment of their liaison responsibilities and faculty’s satisfaction with their liaison’s performance, and the factors influencing these perceptions.
 
 Design – Web-based survey questionnaire. 
 
 Setting – The survey was conducted over the Internet through email invitations. 
 
 Subjects – 354 librarians and 140 faculty members from selected universities and colleges in the United States.
 
 Methods – 602 colleges and universities were selected based on institution size, degrees offered, and financial status using U.S. Department of Education’s 2008 institution data. Each institution was randomly assigned one of three subject designations: chemistry, psychology, or English. A randomly selected faculty member from the designated subject department and their corresponding subject liaison librarian (“liaison”) were contacted for the survey. 
 
 Institution websites were used to locate faculty and liaisons. If a list of liaisons could not be found, then a librarian from the website’s available contact list was randomly selected instead. The chosen individuals were invited via email in April 2010 to participate in the online survey. Before the survey closed in mid-May, up to two follow-up emails were sent to those who had neither responded nor asked to be removed from the contact list. The survey questionnaire was delivered through the Lime Survey platform and consisted of 53 items in 15 questions. 
 
 Main Results – The survey had an overall response rate 41.0%: 58.8% from librarians and 23.3% from faculty. Three hundred and four of the 354 librarians surveyed (85.9%) were self-identified liaisons, although researchers were unable to identify 61 of them through their library websites. 
 
 Most liaisons surveyed had responsibilities in the areas of collection development (96.1%), instruction (87.2%), and reference (82.6%). They provided an average of eight types of liaison services, some of which fall under these categories. The liaisons worked with an average of four academic departments (M=4.12, SD=2.98) and spent approximately 10 hours per week (M=10.36, SD=9.68) on their subject responsibilities. 
 
 The majority of liaisons felt they were successful (62.5%) or very successful (13.8%) in their liaison services and were either satisfied (50.7%) or very satisfied (12.2%) with the liaison relationship with their departments. E-mail (97.2%) was the liaisons’ most frequently cited communication channel. The frequency of contact with their departments had the highest correlation (gamma = -0.567, p < 0.05) with liaisons’ perception of their own performances.
 
 Of the 140 faculty surveyed, 104 indicated that their library had liaisons and 66.3% of them had had some contact with the liaison within the previous 6 months. Faculty who knew their liaison by name (gamma = 0.668, p < 0.05) or who had recent contact with the liaison (gamma = -0.48) were more satisfied with the liaison services than those who did not. Faculty who received more services from their liaisons (gamma = 0.521) also indicated greater satisfaction than those who received fewer services. 
 
 Faculty assigned higher importance than liaisons did to three liaison services: faculty participation in collection development, new publication notices, and copyright information. On the other hand, liaisons ranked the importance of information literacy-related services, including in-class library instruction sessions and integration of library instruction into the curriculum, much higher than did faculty. 
 
 Furthermore, 66 pairs of liaisons and their corresponding subject faculty completed the surveys. Forty-nine of the faculty members out of those matched pairs knew their liaisons and were more satisfied with the liaison services than those who did not. However, no other relationships, such as correlations between faculty satisfaction of their liaisons and liaisons’ assessment of their own performance, could be found between responses of these matched faculty and liaison pairs.
 
 Conclusion – This study highlighted the disparity between faculty’s and librarians’ perceptions of library liaison programs. Most notably, there were no statistically significant relationships between liaisons’ perception and satisfaction of their work and their faculty members’ satisfaction of the liaison services. Faculty and liaisons also differed in their assigned importance to various types of liaison services.
 
 Moreover, while faculty’s satisfaction with liaison services correlated with the frequency of their contact with and the number of services received from their liaisons, their satisfaction did not translate into approval of the library. No statistically significant relationship could be found between faculty’s familiarity or interaction with their liaisons and their satisfaction with their libraries overall.

Integrating Usage Statistics into Collection Development Decisions

Linda Hulbert and Dani Roach described the methodology and systems used at the University of St. Thomas Libraries to analyze usage statistics for both print and electronic resources in order to support collection development decisions. They discussed how the usage statistics are collected, how cost-per-use is calculated, and how standards development will facilitate these processes. Roles of subject liaisons and the collection development committee in the decision-making process are examined.

Enhancing OPAC Records for Discovery

This article proposes adding keywords and descriptors to the catalog records of electronic databases and media items to enhance their discovery. The authors contend that subject liaisons can add value to OPAC records and enhance discovery of electronic databases and media items by providing searchable keywords and resource descriptions. The authors provide an examination of OPAC records at their own library, which illustrates the disparity of useful keywords and descriptions within the notes field for media item records versus electronic database records. The authors outline methods for identifying useful keywords for indexing OPAC records of electronic databases. Also included is an analysis of the advantages of using Encore’s Community Tag and Community Review features to allow subject liaisons to work directly in the catalog instead of collaborating with cataloging staff

Introduction: Gender Issues in Information Needs and Services

Are gender issues in information needs and services really a “trend” worthy of examination in the first decade of the twenty-first century? Isn’t this a passe topic? Aren’t we well into the “post-feminist” era? As the editors of this issue, we answer these questions with a resounding “no!” Although North American society has made enormous strides in the past half-century, we have yet to reach true equality between men and women. Libraries and information workers continue to operate in a social environment where information needs and services are affected by gender and gender politics. Starting in the late 1960s, librarianship as a profession embraced secondwave feminism and its principles and responded creatively on many fronts. “Equal pay for equal worth” became a rallying cry for all the female-intensive professions, including librarianship. The mentoring, promotion, and retention of women in top leadership positions became a priority for many libraries and for the major professional associations as well. Additionally, women (and sympathetic men) in librarianship and other information professions used their skills to improve service to readers who sought information on gender issues. Firm in the belief that information is power, librarians embraced their responsibility to empower women to be full citizens and whole persons. Whether a patron wanted a consciousness-raising novel by Doris Lessing, or a how-to book on succeeding in the male-dominated business world, or a non-sexist fairytale for her child, or medically accurate information on birth control options, public librarians and community information workers responded. Academic libraries created budget lines for acquiring new works of feminist scholarship, designated subject liaisons to emerging women’s studies programs, and occasionally established separate libraries or reading rooms. Dedicated historical archives were also founded; Mason and Zanish-Belcher’s article