Copyright (c) 2009 University of Connecticut All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs Recent documents in UConn Libraries Published Works en-us Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:53:57 PDT 3600 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/20 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/20 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:35:21 PDT Colleges and universities' missions are typically comprised of educating students, training professionals, engaging in scholarship and research, promoting creative activity, improving healthcare, and providing public service. Academic libraries exist to support these core functions, yet most academic libraries are organized based on library functions rather than the primary missions of their college or university. This paper describes one academic library's attempt to align library strategy and structure with its university's academic plan. Brinley Franklin http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/19 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/19 Mon, 11 May 2009 08:54:27 PDT JPEG 2000 is the product of thorough efforts toward an open standard by experts in the imaging field. With its key components for still images published officially by the ISO/IEC by 2002, it has been solidly stable for several years now, yet its adoption has been considered tenuous enough to cause imaging software developers to question the need for continued support. Digital archiving and preservation professionals must rely on solid standards, so in the fall of 2008 the authors undertook a survey among implementers (and potential implementers) to capture a snapshot of JPEG 2000's status, with an eye toward gauging its perception within this community.The survey results revealed several key areas that JPEG 2000's user community will need to have addressed in order to further enhance adoption of the standard, including perspectives from cultural institutions that have adopted it already, as well as insights from institutions that do not have it in their workflows to date. Current users were concerned about limited compatible software capabilities with an eye toward needed enhancements. They realized also that there is much room for improvement in the area of educating and informing the cultural heritage community about the advantages of JPEG 2000. A small set of users, in addition, perceived problems of cross-codec consistency and future file migration issues.Responses from non-users disclosed that there were lingering questions surrounding the format and its stability and permanence. This was stoked largely by a dearth of currently available software functionality, from the point of initial capture and manipulation on through to delivery to online users. David Lowe http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/18 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/18 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:56:05 PST Brinley Franklin http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/17 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/17 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:43:11 PST Brinley Franklin http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/16 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/16 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:21:47 PST David Lowe http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/15 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/15 Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:26:56 PDT At the University of Connecticut, we have been enticing graduate students to join graduate student trainers to learn how to answer the following questions and improve the breadth of their research: Do you need to find articles published outside your primary discipline? What are some seminal articles in your field? Have you ever wanted to know who cited an article you wrote? We are participating in Elsevier's Student Ambassador Program (SAmP) in which graduate students train their peers on "citation searching" research using Scopus and Web of Science, two tremendous citation databases. We are in the fourth semester of these training programs, and they are wildly successful: We have offered more than 30 classes and taught more than 350 students from March 2007 through March 2008. Chelsea Hammond Reference http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/14 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/14 Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:56:42 PDT In June 1891, Shimshon Gerye, a Jewish immigrant from Galicia (a region that now falls across the border of Ukraine and Poland) living in Sedalia, Missouri, received a letter from a cousin back home. The content of the letter was probably rather mundane (a request to send money, inquiries about health), but its timing was somewhat unusual: in the thirty-five years that Shimshon had been living in America, this was apparently the first he had heard from his family in Europe. What survives of the ensuing correspondence, written in Yiddish and spanning a one-year period, provides an interesting view of the situation of the immigrant and the pressures of assimilation, as well as the Yiddish language in America at the end of the nineteenth century. Nicholas Eshelman http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/13 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/13 Tue, 06 May 2008 07:16:49 PDT The reference librarian's task is to translate the patron's question into one that can be answered with the library's resources. The first element of that task is to know what the patron wants; the second is to know what resources the library has and how to use them. Reference librarians must learn continuously throughout their careers, both because new resources become available, but also because patrons present questions requiring new resources. This article will focus on how to determine what kind of information the patron needs through the reference interview. Stephanie Willen Brown Reference http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/12 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/12 Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:12:45 PDT Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe the tools and strategies that were employed by C/W MARS to successfully develop and implement the Digital Treasures digital repository.Design/methodology/approach - This paper outlines the planning and subsequent technical issues that arise when implementing a digitization project on the scale of the large, multi-type, automated library network. Workflow solutions addressed include synchronous online metadata record submissions from multiple library sources and the delivery of collection-level use statistics to participating library administrators. The importance of standards-based descriptive metadata and the role of project collaboration are also discussed.Findings - From the time of its initial planning, the Digital Treasures repository was fully implemented in six months. The discernable and statistically quantified online discovery and access of actual digital objects greatly assisted libraries unsure of their own staffing costs/benefits to join the repository.Originality/value - This case study may serve as a possible example of initial planning, workflow and final implementation strategies for new repositories in both the general and library consortium environment.Keywords - Digital repositories, Library networks, Data management.Paper type - Case study Michael J. Bennett Digital Projects http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/11 http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/11 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:36:23 PDT A longitudinal study of three discrete online public access catalog (OPAC) design enhancements examined the possible effects such changes may have on circulation and resource sharing within the automated library consortium environment. Statistical comparisons were made of both circulation and interlibrary loan (ILL) figures from the year before enhancement to the year after implementation. Data from sixteen libraries covering a seven-year period were studied in order to determine the degree to which patrons may or may not utilize increasingly broader OPAC ILL options over time. Results indicated that while ILL totals increased significantly after each OPAC enhancement, such gains did not result in significant corresponding changes in total circulation. Michael J. Bennett Interlibrary Loan