Rethinking Research Libraries in the 21st Century

article here

Council on Library and Information Resources May/June 2008

Excerpts

HOW SHOULD WE be rethinking the research library in a swiftly changing information landscape?

In February, CLIR convened 25 leading librarians, publishers, faculty members, and information technology specialists to consider this question. Participants discussed the challenges and opportunities that libraries are likely to face in the next five to ten years, and how changes in scholarly communication will affect the future library. Essays by eight of the participants—Paul Courant, Andrew Dillon, Rick Luce, Stephen Nichols, Daphnee Rentfrow, Abby Smith, Kate Wittenberg, and Lee Zia—were circulated to participants in advance and provided background for the conversation.¹ CLIR will issue a full report of the meeting, including the background essays, later this summer.

A Vision for the 21st-Century Library

The breadth of the discussion underscored a critical point: the future of the research library cannot be considered apart from the future of the academy as a whole. Researchers are asking new questions and are developing new methodological approaches and intellectual strategies. These methods may entail new models of scholarly communication—for example, a greater reliance on data sets and multimedia presentations. This has profound consequences for academic publications because traditional printed books and journals cannot adequately capture these novel approaches. With the predicted rise in new forms of scholarship, the promotion-and-tenure process, which favors print publications (especially in the humanities), will need to be rethought. As these methods of communication change, the procedures, skills, and expertise that libraries need to manage them will change as well. With growing cross-disciplinary emphasis, it will also be necessary to reassess the organization of higher education—its departments, schools, and centers.

The research library in the 21st century will thus be profoundly influenced by the transformation of scholarship and research and by changes in the traditional organizational structures of a university.

Virtual library shelves

Begin forwarded message:

From: Tim Reynolds <graypennell@GMAIL.COM>
Date: June 24, 2008 9:20:54 AM EDT
To: “DIG_REF@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU” <DIG_REF@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DIG_REF] Zoomi and your library OPAC
Reply-To: Discussion of digital reference services
<DIG_REF@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>

Hi
I got this from another listserv but thought I would share it with
you all.
Pardon the cross posting.

http://zoomii.com/

Now imagine linking this system with your webcat instead of with Amazon.
People will now be able to virtual browse your shelves.

Thinkering spaces

Thinkering Spaces in Libraries

(also search..thinkering..at least 2 more posts)

By jenny

Today I saw one possible future for libraries, and it has me pretty excited. I can look back on my professional career and see a progression of advocating for shifting services to where our users are, making our spaces more collaborative, and reinvigorating libraries as the community center (regardless of type of library). It’s why [...]

Today, many of those pieces came together for me in a pretty amazing package that has the power to reimagine the library as third place, cross some digital divides, and integrate participatory culture into our service model. Even better, it involves people and books, not just technology. So what did I see today? A project called Thinkering Spaces, conceived of by some very smart people at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design and funded by the MacArthur Foundation. After quite a bit of initial visioning and research, this group has built a prototype for a relatively cheap, portable, collaborative space that can be put up and taken down in libraries of any size on the fly.

The point is to bring spaces into libraries that let people collaborate around the content that already exists in in our buildings, add new content to the mix, mash it all up to create something new, and share it with the community. Rinse. Repeat. It’s a way to connect people with the physical world and help them make sense of it by interacting with and changing it. It’s another instance where the library adds value to the equation (the same way it does with books and now games), offering an experience you can’t replicate at home, borne of the community.

Not just playing games: At U-M, virtual-reality researchers are finding real-world uses

article

atricia Anderson was never big on computer games.

But walking a group through a demonstration on the virtual 3-D world called Second Life last week, Anderson told a small crowd she’s found a world of possibilities that virtual reality could have on health care.

“I see so much potential in Second Life,” the University of Michigan Emerging Technologies Librarian told the group. in the future. Almost exactly five years after the creation of Second Life, the development of Wolverine Island — U-M’s presence on the site - is nearly complete.

Applications: virtual medical situations/disaster preparedness

The unintended consequences of electronic records

Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog

By KevinDr. RW: “As we have increasingly used electronic medical records in our hospital and received them from other institutions, we’ve noticed several serious problems with the way in which notes and letters are crafted. Many times, physicians have clearly cut and pasted large blocks of text, or even complete notes, from other physicians; we have seen portions of our own notes inserted verbatim into another doctor’s note. This is, in essence, a form of clinical plagiarism with potentially deleterious consequences for the patient.”

Notes from “Finding and Using Health Statistics”

From: Finding and Using Health Statistics - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.html

(tutorial from…National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) )

Internet Strategies

Page 26 of 40

Using the World Wide Web to best advantage requires mastery over new types of searching that go beyond those found in printed resources.

The Internet also offers new online catalogs of health statistics material. They work like library catalogs but are focused on statistical materials. [One such resource is the Gateway to Data and Statistics of the Department of Health and Human Services.]

Search Engines

Search engines such as Google allow users to search the words within each website and use Boolean logic to find material. However, these automated facilities are not fine tuned to take advantage of the particular structure of health statistics. Because they are based on the experience of other users, search engines require an effort to focus in on particular health statistics series. They are extremely valuable in finding particular references once you know what you are looking for.

Portals

Agencies that create health statistics have invested in the creation of portals that present their data. A good first step is to focus on these for relevant material.

Searching within a Report	Page 27 of 40

At other times, the researcher’s question might lead to a search within one of these resources. Before the advent of the Internet, these kinds of searches were extremely difficult, required an in depth knowledge of the sources and usually involved contacting experts at the statistical offices where material originated. Frequently, they were the only ones who could reliably guide users to the place where they could find their answer. Because the demand for their help greatly exceeded their capacity, users often bypassed useful information and settled for the material available in standard publications. This material was sometimes not as pertinent or accurate as available information that was difficult to find.

Internet and Electronic Reports Open New Strategies

The Internet has now made it possible to discover much of this information because it added access points and made it possible to search within sources. Electronic reports that can either be downloaded from the Internet or obtained in other ways also allow for detailed searching that was not previously available.

Expand the search to web based material

Page 28 of 40

The previous examples show that traditional library methods can provide starting points in a search for health statistics publications. To be successful, the researcher must draw on material in a number of places and diverse formats.

Consequently, searchers might try to:

• Use printed reports and books as the starting point rather than the end of a search. For example, you might start with a standard compilation of health statistics—such as Health, United States. See Example for a detailed discussion of how to use Health US
• Focus on key Internet portals that provide an array of resources and finding aids. [A number of these are introduced in this course. You can find a list of them on the HSRR NLM website.]
• Use both search engines—such as Google or Google Scholar–and online catalogs of health statistics material—such as DHHS’ Gateway to Data and Statistics.

Using a Web Portal

Page 29 of 40

Specialized libraries and organizations have created web portals that make it easier to find and use health statistics. These offer key access points to health statistics.

To use them the researcher:

• Locates a website that lists relevant key sites that point to places where material is organized.
• Takes advantage of the natural structure of health statistics material. Here are some steps for this.
  • Looks for material on the websites of agencies that create it. For example, many users will start at the NCHS website.
  • Focuses on health statistics projects or surveys that address the particular topics of interest. This broad “Table of Contents” approach is a good first step but almost never finds all of the relevant material.
  • Extends the search to other material created by the agencies that managed the most relevant studies.
  • Searches can be materially enhanced by using specialized catalogs of the material. And
  • Digs beyond the apparent content of a work—represented in its title—to find material deep in its tables.

Examples of portals

Page 30 of 40

The next pages describe three examples of portals that cover health statistics.

• University of Michigan’s portal to Statistical Resources on the Web
• CDC’s listing of statistical and scientific resources maintained by its agencies
• DHHS Gateway to Data and Statistics provides an online catalog of websites that have statistical data pertaining to health.

Additional starting points

Several other portals have been built. Go here for a list of some of them.

Going to the Original Sources

Page 31 of 40

One way to find health statistics is to identify the appropriate source—the organization or agency that is likely to collect and report the information and visit their website or look for their publications.

Organizations and Health Statistics

Health statistics are the product of organizations that can conduct large scale data collection, compilation, standardization and analysis. While individual scholars and analysts make important contributions through their work, they largely rely on these institutions to collect the data and make them available.

One important approach to finding health statistics is to visit the web sites maintained by the agencies that produce them. This section introduces the producers and provides links to their main web pages.

A list of key sites can be found here

How to find the major agencies producing health statistics

Page 32 of 40

It is advantageous to approach your search for agency sources by following their organizational structure.

Key sources are located on the websites of:

• The US Department of Health and Human Services
• Other Federal Agencies
• State and Local government health agencies
• Private companies

Go to the Agency Website

Page 33 of 40

If you are looking for material within the mission of a particular agency or private organization, looking at their statistics or data website can help you find it:

• The site may have the material the agency creates.
• It may link to other material and these links could identify more material
• Many agency websites also provide bibliographic resources.

Federal Government Agencies

Page 34 of 40

Agencies within and outside of the Department of Health and Human Services report statistical series that help us track and understand health.

A complete list of federal government agencies that create health statistics and related data can be found at the Department of Health and Human Services Gateway to Data and Statistics.

Department of Health and Human Services

Researchers often begin their searches by focusing on the agencies of the US Department of Health and Human Services because these agencies consider the reporting of statistical series related to health as a part of their core functions.

The following list provides links to principal web locations within the department where statistical data related to health can be located. This list is linked to the main data and statistics website of each agency.

• CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics is the principal agency of the federal government responsible for reporting health statistics. It compiles “statistical information to guide actions and policies to improve the health of our people.”
• NCHS statistical series. For Examples of NCHS data series click here.
• Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research conducts research on health care delivery and quality.  As a part of this work it conducts surveys of health care providers, insurers and the public.  For Examples of AHRQ statistical series click here.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . In addition to the extensive health statistics series compiled by its NCHS, CDC also publishes series based on active and passive surveillance.
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Publishes statistical series that track participation in Medicare and Medicaid. It also reports on health care expenditures.
• Health Resources and Services Administration is “the primary Federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.” HRSA assembled statistical data to support this work and makes this data available in its warehouse.

Page 35 of 40

• The Indian Health Service Reports program statistics that track the health care and conditions of American Indians and Alaskan Natives who live on or near Indian reservations and are served by IHS.
• The National Institutes of Health publishes the statistical series of based on research conducted by its institutes and centers. This work is frequently reported in the scholarly literature. Here are some key resources that offer starting points in searches:
• National Library of Medicine HSR Information Central Data Tools and Statistics
• National Cancer Institute
• National Institute on Drug Abuse
• National Institute on Mental Health
• National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
• National Eye Institute
• National Institute on Aging
• National Institute on Alchol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Data and Statistics Page
• NIAAA’s National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC)
• National Institute on Deafness and Or Communication Disorders
• Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Other Federal Agencies

Page 36 of 40

Federal agencies outside of HHS also compile and report statistical data that are used to create health statistics or support analyses of health statistics.

• The Bureau of the Census provides the basic demographic information used for many of the denominators in health statistics. They also report on disability and health insurance coverage.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports data on workplace injuries and safety
• The National Highway Safety Administration reports on accidents that result in injuries.

State and Local Governments

Page 37 of 40

Many state public health departments maintain statistical offices that compile statistical data for their state.

More information about state related health statistics can be found here.

For a list of state agency sites see here.

Main Features

While each state’s public health statistics are organized differently, key elements of state health data include the following.

Vital Statistics Registration

States record vital health events—such as births, death, marriages and divorces. A detailed discussion of vital statistics is included elsewhere in this course.

State health department websites frequently contain special reports of these vital events focusing on providing detailed information for the state and its counties.

Behavioral Risks

Page 38 of 40

States participate with the CDC in the conduct of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the Youth Risk Factor surveillance System.

Data for each state can be found on CDC’s website.

Detailed state data from this system is frequently available from the state’s Center for health statistics. See for example how North Carolina features this information.

Surveillance of Notifiable Conditions

Public health laws require providers to report cases of certain disorders to their state public health departments.

These include:

• Sexually transmitted diseases and
• Other infectious disorders—such as Tuberculosis, AIDs, Polio, and Mumps

Statistical summaries are published by CDC each week.

State Public health departments also issue periodic summaries of Notifiable conditions.

Step 5 Assess the Results

Page 39 of 40

Once users find material, they should assess its quality and identify sources of uncertainty [error.] Statistical principles are based on the idea that all observation contains uncertainty. Identifying it increases rather than reduces its credibility.

In order to do this, users will need:

• Material about the procedures used to collect the information
• Material that documents its origins and authenticity
• A description of the data collection, compilation and processing methods used by the data creators.
• Measures of uncertainty—i.e. the results of statistical estimates that quantify the likely degree of uncertainty

Many users need to conduct their own assessment of the limits of information they use.

These kinds of users need

• Copies of the original Micro Data Sets. These are frequently released as Public Use Data sets which have been examined to be sure that the identity of the subjects—persons, providers, hospitals and payers cannot be identified.
• Each agency provides detailed information about the availability of its records for analysis. Many allow researchers who promise to protect privacy access under controlled circumstances designed to allow research but at the same time protect subject’s privacy.

Summary

Page 40 of 40

Summary of the Course
In sum, to meet the challenge of finding health statistics, researchers adopt comprehensive strategies.
These strategies:

• Are molded to fit the specific needs of a particular enquiry
• Are built on an understanding of the institutions that create health statistics and the “natural structure” of statistical work including the organizations that compile and report statistics, the studies they field, the reports they issue and the special Internet resources they present.

Searchers must focus on myriad sources. They need to adopt targeted research strategies that:

• Combine traditional library research with specialized approaches.
• Extends searchers beyond traditional printed material found in books and journals to include electronic publications, files and databases.
• Take advantage of specialized cataloging and
• Are based on an understanding of how health statistics are organized.

To read? Try public Library

Cult of the presidency: america’s dangerous devotion to executive power/ healy

Grilled pizzas and piadinas

Five years of my life: an innocent man in guantanamo

Today’s american: how free/ pubbington

Rosalind Creasy’s recipes from the garden

Martyr of the amazon: the life of Sister Dorothy Stang
The greatest gift: th courageous life and martyrdomof siter dorothy stang

yoga for arthritis: the complete guide/fishman

The forever war/Dexter Filkins (336 pages) Taliban..iraq, etc 100,000 first printing, 7 city tour

7 deadly scenarios: a military futurist explores war in the 21st century/ andrew krepinevich

Pres of teh Center for Strategic and budgetary assessments

My sister,my love: the intimate story of story of skyler rampike /Joyce Carol Oates
fictionalized JonBonet Ramset

Saving paradise: how cristianity traded love of this world for crucifixion and empire
Rita Brock

Suprised by hoe: rethinking heaven the resurrection, and the mission of the church/ NT Wright

Using Cellphones in the Classroom (Constructively)

Wired campus article

Excerpt:

1) Check the spelling/definition of a word
2) Research a topic
3) Look up reference images
4) Pull up maps (even with satellite imagery)
5) Document a science lab with built in digital camera/video
6) Fact check on the fly
7) Mail questions to the teacher that they might be embarrassed to ask Classroom response system
9) Take quizzes
10) Record and/or listen to podcasts

[perhaps best done in group settings, not lecture...]

1. 12) Ask a librarian (via voice, IM, or SMS)
   13) receive and store library-catalog-generated text messages of call numbers for books and reserve items

   — jacqui grallo    May 7, 05:48 PM    #

Week 8 Assignment

Write about the Mashup you found on your blog

Repository 66 is a mashup of data from ROAR and OpenDOAR overlayed onto Google maps.
ROAR is a registry of open access repositories, including —

• Dspace which is an open source solution for accessing, managing, and  preserving scholarly works

Closes one to Toledo is at the University of Michigan. Deep Blue provides access to work by
the university community.

• “Eprints are open software  package for building open repositories that are compliant with the “Open Archives  Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting”

  “The EPrints software is not to be confused with “eprints” (or “e-prints”), which are preprints and postprints of research journal articles…”
  [Wikipedia]

Closest is Philosophy of Science Archive in Pittsburg, a “subject repository for documents
relating to the philosophy of science, supported by the University Library and departments of
History & the Philosophy of Science and Philosophy. The repository is offered as a free service to
the philosophy of science community..”

• Fedora is an “open source software gives organizations a flexible service-oriented architecture for managing and delivering their digital content”

  Closest is MatDI.org (Materials Digital Library Pathway) in Cleveland. It is a partnership of 5 universities and NIST. It “aims to provide stewardship for content and services needed across the MS community and in particular for its targeted audience of materials undergraduate and graduate students, educators, and researchers by offering software tools ..” for data management, modeling, teaching and lab support.

• Berkely Electronic Press “publishes high quality peer-reviewed journals that offer cuting edge research quickly and at sustainable prices” in the areas of  economics, business, law, political science, health, medicine, science,and technology.

  Closest location is the Digital Commons at Wayne State University which  “is a service of the Wayne State University libraries. Research and scholarly output included here has been selected and deposited by the individual university departments and centers on campus.”

At Rollyo,

1. Type “librarianblogs” into the search box
2. Click the librarianblogs Searchroll.
3. Search for “privacy”
4. Browse the results and write something about what these bloggers said about privacy in your blog.

There is a wide range of library related issues that use the word privacy. Some deal with internet usage by the public (inside and outside the library) as they post images of others without permission and post about themselves with little regard of how it may effect them later in life, and the right to pursue knowledge (intellectual freedom). Some discuss legal and political ramificatons as the PATRIOTACTas well as philosophical underpinnings of the the role of government in individual lives (issues as surveillance and
information gathering).

Two examples…

• Librarian Net entry

….” having Google toolbar on public computers can, if the advanced mode is activated, constitute a serious privacy leak. Would a university export its user’s server logs to third parties in any other circumstance? Not without a subpoena. Is it time to call on universities, libraries and other public computing spaces to remove the Google Toolbar? I think so.”

• Annoyed Librarian entry
  “I was reminded of the value of privacy so many librarians claim to espouse while reading a post at Library Juice last week that had Rory Litwin engaging in a little revisionist history. From the LJ post: “The Council sessions of the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle in January were interpreted by many as a defeat of the idea that Council should address ‘non library issues,’ [note the scare quotes] as resolutions aimed at defunding the war in Iraq and impeaching President Bush were voted down by wide margins.”" ..
  “he ALA and most librarians claim to respect the privacy of library users. And privacy is a liberal value, based on the liberal values of individual autonomy and tolerance, born in the horrors of the European wars of religion. Liberals value privacy because of the belief that people should be allowed to think and believe what they like without interference. The political claim most at odds with the liberal value of privacy is the leftist claim that the personal is the political. Privacy is the separation of the personal and the political; it is the the assertion that there is a personal sphere that is always separate from the political. Liberals believe in separating the personal and the political. Other political ideologies don’t.

  How much privacy can we have if the personal and the political (and by extension the professional) are intertwined? Not much. If you value privacy, then you will not believe that the personal is the political. You will specifically believe that the two are not identical, and that there is a separation of the two absolutely necessary for peace and justice. If you believe that the personal is the political, then you believe that what you do in private is the business of politicians. That’s exactly what leftists and “progressives” have been arguing since the 1960s, but there’s nothing “liberal” about it.”

Week 7 Assignment

Write a blog entry discussing how you felt about the experience of using YouTube and what you think about this service. Do you see any potential uses for Podcasting in the library? If so what and why?

YouTube is a mixed bag of amateur and professional clips, with varying degrees of quality. It is difficult to search, there is no thesaurus or subject approach. It is user generated, and there does not seem to be any attempt at quality control or quality collection.

Potential uses for podcasting: orientation tours, short how to guides (as database searches, resource and subject guides, recordings of library instruction sessions, added feature on staff directory page (each staff member could have an associated Youtube clip.

These uses could introduce the library and its services to patrons at their
convenience, and could assist them with their research (or at least get them started) when a librarian is not available. Youtube clips may be more easily
understood by those who find print and text resources challenging.