Category Archives for Planning, Research & Analytics
The secret lives of ebooks : A paratextual analysis illuminates a veil of usage statistics
The paratextual study leads to a closer investigation of the usage statistics themselves and concludes that despite industry standards, they are not calculated consistently across vendor platforms and that while these data are invisible to researchers outside of the library, … Continue reading
Five Trends Changing Higher Education That Librarians Need to Watch | From the Bell Tower
Higher education has a reputation for staying the same. That’s never been more of a myth than right now. Some of the changes have little impact on academic librarians. Others require more of our attention. Read More
The three types of library professionals who absolutely must read the new ACRL/OCLC Academic Library Impact report
The report’s introduction includes a key question, familiar to librarians: “How well can academic library administrators and staff demonstrate that the academic library is useful to students?” Read More
Metrics: Human-Made, but Humane?
The basic notion that we can and should apply standardized criteria for intellectual achievement and contribution is central to much of contemporary education. In higher education, such standardization in the form of metrical evaluation is patently biased, as any number … Continue reading
Distribution features and intellectual structures of digital humanities: A bibliometric analysis
The purpose of this paper is to conduct a retrospective bibliometric analysis of documents about digital humanities, an emerging but interdisciplinary movement. It examines the distribution of research outputs and languages, identifies the active journals and institutions, dissects the network … Continue reading
Canadian Librarians: Creating innovative strategies on their path to success – Interview with Stephen Abram
Canadian Library Month occurs every October and during this time librarians have the chance to celebrate their activity and users have the chance to reflect on the important role libraries play in their lives. To learn more about libraries in … Continue reading
Research: The good, the bad, and the anxious
In research and in life, human beings are prone to uncertainty and susceptible to the circular thinking of worry. According to the DSM-5, anxiety is anticipation of future threat. Sometimes that threat comes in the form of an overlooked article … Continue reading
Dialogic Approaches to Strategic Planning in Academic Libraries: An Appreciative Inquiry Case Study at Oviatt Library
This article provides an overview of the status of strategic planning in academic libraries. It discusses the trend towards “dialogic” (e.g. Appreciative Inquiry) rather than “diagnostic” (e.g. SWOT) approaches to strategic planning—a trend aligned with a dialogic movement in organization … Continue reading
Learning Leaders: Mark Lassoff and Coding, Design Skills (Interview)
“If we’re truly going to be professionals, we’ve got to use professional tools; that is one of the steps of creating professional digital content. The other is really skilling up and learning the techniques—the design, not just the instructional design … Continue reading
Enhancing the research and publication efforts of health sciences librarians via an academic writing retreat (Case Studies)
This case study describes the South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association (SCC/MLA) initiative to develop an academic writing retreat for members who sought the necessary time and support to advance their research projects toward publication. Read More