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NEWS FROM THE FIELD

C&RL News, January 2005
Vol. 66, No. 1

by Stephanie Orphan

CLS launches Your Research Coach

The Research for College Librarianship Committee of ACRL’s College Libraries Section (CLS) has launched a new program to help academic librarians achieve success with publication and conference presentation opportunities. "Your Research Coach" matches an experienced author or presenter (the research coach) with a colleague who can benefit from a seasoned colleague’s advice (the research partner). A research coach may be called upon to help a research partner work through an entire project or to provide more limited assistance, such as proofreading a manuscript. It is also possible that a research partner may obtain assistance from more than one coach on a single project. Complete program details are available on the CLS Web site at www.acrl.org/CLS (select "the Your Research Coach program" from "Programs & Discussion Groups").

ARL selects leadership fellows

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has selected 21 fellows to the ARL Research Library Leadership Fellows Program, a pilot executive leadership program sponsored by ARL member libraries University of California-Los Angeles, Columbia University, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, University of Texas-Austin, and University of Washington. The two-year development program was designed in response to the increasing demands for succession planning at America’s very large research libraries. Librarians selected represent 14 universities in the U.S. and Canada. Additional information about the leadership fellows program is available at www.arl.org/olms/rllf.

EBSCO and NISC partner on GLBT studies database

EBSCO and National Information Services Corporation (NISC) announced a cooperative effort to produce a single, definitive database covering gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) studies. More than 50,000 records selected from NISC’s Sexual Diversity Studies resource will be incorporated into the EBSCOhost database, GLBT Life. Sexual Diversity Studies offers a thorough review of scholarly and popular print, electronic, and Internet publications of the GLBT press and includes coverage of the history, culture, social issues, interests, and concerns of the GLBT community.

ALA accepting grant applications for Jewish literature reading and discussion series

Applications are available for "Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature—Identity and Imagination," a new grant initiative from the ALA’s Public Programs Office and Nextbook, a nonprofit organization that promotes books illuminating 3,000 years of Jewish civilization throughout the United States. "Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature" is a theme-based reading and discussion series that couples the best in contemporary and classic Jewish literature with scholar-led discussions for a lively and engaging exploration of Jewish literature and culture.

ALA and Nextbook are offering grants to public and academic libraries interested in presenting the series. Currently, several college and research libraries are presenting the series, including the University of Alabama Libraries, University of Idaho Libraries, the Career Advising and Planning Services Library at the University of Chicago, the Albert S. Cook Library at Towson University, the Callahan Library at St. Joseph’s College, and the Blough-Weis Library at Susquehanna University. To obtain a grant application and guidelines, please visit www.ala.org/publicprograms. Applications for the next grant cycle must be received by April 1, 2005.

The Public Programs Office will also host an information session on the program at the ALA Midwinter Meeting on Sunday, January 16, 1:00–2:30 p.m.

Thoughts, feelings, and actions: Quantitative comparisons of interactions and relationships among three factors in college students’ information seeking

Ed. note: Each year ACRL awards the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. Recipients are awarded $1,500 cash and a citation donated by Thomson Scientific. Below is a synopsis of the completed dissertation of Yungrang Cheng, the 2003 fellowship winner.

Information seeking is an important topic in library and information science (LIS) research. Thoughts, feelings, and actions are three commonly studied factors. Current information seeking literature reveals two problems: The importance of these factors has not been tested statistically and relationships among these factors are unknown. Research questions for this dissertation are: What is the relative importance of thoughts, feelings, and actions at an early and a later stage of information seeking? How do the relative importance of factors identified at the early stage of the information-seeking process correlate with their relative importance at the later stage?

By using qualitative methods, information-seeking researchers have not been able to answer these questions, but quantitative methods provide answers and useful insights about the information-seeking process. This study employed a questionnaire, maximum likelihood factor analysis, and canonical correlation analysis as quantitative methods. Qualitative methods (interviews and content analysis) were used to identify variables for questionnaire design. Fifteen college students at a midwestern university were interviewed about their information-seeking behaviors while working on their research papers in spring 2002. Twenty-two variables related to thoughts, feelings, actions, were identified and then converted into 47 statements in the questionnaire; 363 students participated in the fall 2003 survey.

Quantitative methods proved to be a useful alternative approach to answer the research questions. The quantitative results indicated that thoughts, feelings, and actions were important factors. However, feelings and actions were more important than thoughts at both the early and the later stages of students’ information seeking. Thoughts, feelings, and actions were correlated with each other between the two stages. Variables related to context and personal characteristics ("other aspects" from the interviews) did not form an independent factor, but rather interacted with variables of thoughts, feelings, and actions during students’ information seeking. In addition to the empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions, the findings can be applied to improve college students’ information-seeking skills.—Yungrang Cheng, Indiana University, yungchen@indiana.edu

Project MUSE announces new pricing and collections for 2005

Project MUSE has announced updated subscription prices for 2005, following an extensive pricing study conducted by industry consultants. The research led MUSE to create a new pricing model for U.S. academic institutions that offers peer-institution–based pricing that combines criteria reflecting relative value and actual usage.

Two new journal collections will also be introduced for the 2005 subscription term, the Basic Research and Basic Undergraduate collections. These collections are subsets of the existing Full Collection option. Titles included in each package were chosen based on a number of criteria, including the journal’s presence in high-quality indexes, inclusion in archival collections, and current MUSE usage by the primary customer segment. Changes have also been made to the Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences collections.

MediaFinder offers site license option

The MediaFinder database of U.S. and Canadian periodicals, a product of Oxbridge Communications, has initiated a new site license program. The database provides access to more than 72,000 print and online titles, including magazines, catalogs, newsletters, journals, newspapers, directories, and yearbooks.

Paratext expands Reference Universe

Paratext has announced the addition of three scholarly resources to its Reference Universe product. The complete index for the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 9th edition; corresponding links to Access Science; and the complete index and list of articles for Routledge’s nine-volume Encyclopedia of Philosophy are now online as part of Reference Universe, which integrates article titles and indexes to over 5,000 specialized encyclopedias and other reference works.

New discussion list from ACRL’s LIS Collections Discussion Group

ACRL’s Library and Information Science (LIS) Collections Discussion Group has created a new electronic discussion list. Librarians who work with LIS collections and/or serve users in the area of LIS are encouraged to join the list to share information and provide and receive professional support. To subscribe, send an e-mail to listproc@ala.org with the message: subscribe LISCDG-L FirstName LastName.

UIUC opens high-density shelving facility

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has opened its high-density shelving facility. More than 110,000 volumes have been transferred to the new building, which will ultimately house 2 million volumes. Industrial-type warehouse shelving is used to house low-usage books in the 40,000-square-foot facility, which has a "cold storage" environment that protects and preserves materials through year-round temperature and humidity controls. Materials can be requested through the online catalog for delivery to campus offices and libraries. A reading room and parking are available for those who need to consult materials on site.

EDUCAUSE releases IT funding study

The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) has published a comprehensive study of the state of information technology (IT) funding in higher education. "ECAR Study of IT Funding in Higher Education" uses survey and interview data to assess the overall trends in IT funding to gauge the adequacy of future funding and identify a set of best practices in the financial management of technology. The study includes summaries of the responses from nearly 500 chief information officers and 400 chief business officers who participated in surveys and individual interviews.

The issues that were researched and reported on include the adequacy of funding for technology renewal, effective IT investment decision making, and approaches to containing IT costs. The complete study is available on the EDUCAUSE Web site (www.educause.edu); it is freely available to ECAR subscribers and may be purchased by nonsubscribers. A summary of the study’s key findings is available to all. EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.

Don’t miss the online information literacy seminar series from ACRL and TLT group

ACRL and TLT Group will be offering their online information seminar series this spring.

Each three-week seminar focuses on a unique aspect of information literacy. Live weekly Webcasts are a featured part of each seminar.

Best Practices in Information Literacy in Undergraduate Education
(February 8–22, 2005)
Live Webcasts: Tuesdays, 3–4:00 p.m. EST
Seminar leaders Nancy Becker and Margit Watts will introduce a variety of resources related to their work in information literacy best practices, present the findings of theACRL Best Practices team, describe key elements of model programs, invite feedback and discussion, and engage participants in activities to help them advance the work of their own Information Literacy Programs.

Effective Collaboration for Campus-wide Information Literacy
(March 10–24, 2005)
Live Webcasts: Thursdays, 3–4:00 p.m. EST
The goal of this workshop is to help participants identify techniques and tools that will enable academic librarians, faculty members, information technologists, instructional design professionals, and others to discover or develop and implement new approaches to collaboration among these groups to achieve maximum integration of the library into the teaching and learning process throughout their institutions.

Information Literacy and Assessment (April 12–26, 2005)
Live Webcasts: Tuesdays, 2–3:00 p.m. EST
This seminar will introduce four important activities and/or documents relevant to assessment of information literacy programs and provide specific examples of how to use them in your library. These include: "Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy That Illustrate Best Practices," "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education," the ARL SAILS (Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) Project, and the TLT Flashlight Project.

ACRL and TLT have partnered to offer this seminar series. ACRL members, those affiliated with TLT subscriber institutions, and ALA members can register at a reduced rate. There is also a discount for registering more than one person from the same institution.

For complete descriptions and links to registration, visit www.acrl.org/e-learning.

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association