Research & Collection Services – The Middlebury Blog Network http://sites.middlebury.edu/middblogs Selected Posts from the Midd Blogosphere Tue, 12 Dec 2017 01:53:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1 What’s an Approval Profile, and Why Does the Library Want to Change Ours? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MiddLibraryInformationServices/~3/73G7Tbj5Hls/ Wed, 20 Apr 2016 19:56:41 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/?p=36529 A brown-bag lunch will be held on May 3 at 12:30 pm, in the Crest Room of the McCullough Student Center, to explore the subject of the library’s approval profile. Douglas Black, the library’s Head of Collections Management, will be presenting, with some sweets and coffee to augment your own lunch. He’ll give some history of the approval program in library acquisitions over the years and lead discussion on its role in the academic library collection of the 21st century.

For context, the library selects, acquires, and provides access to materials in many different ways:

  • upon request by students, faculty, and staff
  • automatic purchase of e-books and streaming media based on usage
  • subscriptions
  • package deals on journal subscriptions and purchased journal archives (“backfiles”)
  • one-time purchases of electronic databases, which often require annual maintenance fees
  • gifts/donations
  • and through automatic purchase via an “approval profile.”

Under the approval model, the library utilizes a library vendor (in our case, YBP Library Services) to purchase automatically books that meet certain criteria (e.g., subject, hardbound only, no workbooks, scholarly publishers only, within a certain price range, etc.).  Middlebury typically purchases about 3,000 volumes/year this way, at an average annual cost of $97,000 in the last few years. We recently conducted a thorough analysis of the program’s effectiveness, finding that print books purchased through the approval profile are used much less than those specifically requested. The library believes some of that money could be spent more effectively and would like to gather input from members of the campus community on reshaping the profile.

Please feel welcome to contact your liaison or Douglas Black (dblack@middlebury.edu or x3635) with any questions (whether or not you can attend the meeting), or comment here in the blog.

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Friday Links – May 2, 2014 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MiddLibraryInformationServices/~3/nR1D0i99ELc/ Fri, 02 May 2014 17:00:17 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/?p=33866 At Middlebury, we’ve been using Summon as the discovery layer for our library collections for the last several years.  The recent article from the Chronicle of Higher Education about discovery tools is an interesting read:

As Researchers Turn to Google, Libraries Navigate the Messy World of Discovery Tools

Many professors and students gravitate to Google as a gateway to research. Libraries want to offer them a comparably simple and broad experience for searching academic content. As a result, a major change is under way in how libraries organize information. Instead of bewildering users with a bevy of specialized databases—books here, articles there—many libraries are bulldozing their digital silos. They now offer one-stop search boxes that comb entire collections, Google style.

That’s the ideal, anyway. The reality is turning out to be messier.

Read the rest of the article here

Ideal lengths of tweets, facebook updates, blog posts, etc. (Hint: facebook updates – really, really short)

Dartmouth Pops the Champagne as Basic Programming Language Turns 50 – Basic, the programming language that revolutionized computing by making it accessible to people beyond the worlds of science and engineering, turns 50 this week, and it’s getting a birthday party.

How the 5 hottest tech jobs are changing IT – The IT industry is shifting. Here are five jobs coming to the forefront and how they are transforming the IT department.

How to Delete Yourself from the Internet – You can make yourself “disappear” from the Internet. But be forewarned: Most of the following tactics are irreversible.

Flipped learning skepticism: Is flipped learning just self-teaching?

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Better World Books and library book sales http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MiddLibraryInformationServices/~3/krOuXPZBekM/ Fri, 15 Nov 2013 15:52:53 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/?p=33135 Continue reading ]]> Instead of holding book sales to get rid of unwanted books, we’re now sending withdrawn books to Better World Books, a company that turns them into money for the good of humanity.

In recent years, the quality of our local book sales has been declining because we are receiving fewer large gifts of books than in the past. When we accepted large gifts in the past, we often sorted through them and added appropriate books, which was sometimes a small percentage of the total gift, and put the rest of the books into the book sale. Our book sales had interesting duplicate copies and fun books that wouldn’t be appropriate for an academic library. Without that influx of gift books, the local books sales just consist of withdrawn academic books that relatively few people are interested in purchasing. After all, the reason those books are being withdrawn from the library collection is because nobody is using them, so it’s not surprising that hundreds of those books were left over at the end of the last sale. (We couldn’t even give them away for free.)

Rather than sending them directly to recycling, we found the Better World Books library program. We ship our withdrawn books to them at no cost to us, they market them to a world-wide audience, and when they sell them, a percentage of the profit comes to us and a percentage goes to the BWB Literacy Partners. It’s a very efficient way to dispose of our withdrawn books while benefiting both Middlebury and the world beyond.

If we ever have a quantity of books that we think will be of interest to our local community, we’ll probably put them in a sale, but for now, no book sales are scheduled for the foreseeable future.

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Oberlin Group of 17 Digital Library Unconference http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MiddLibraryInformationServices/~3/hbsKhQXUZ6w/ Wed, 22 May 2013 02:21:53 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/?p=31841 Continue reading ]]> The Oberlin Group of 17 Digital Library Unconference was held on May 21, 2013, at Mt. Holyoke College. With over 30 participants from 14 of the OG17 schools, there was lively discussion on topics including digital library planning and scope, organization and staffing, platforms and tools, data management and preservation policy, digital scholarship/digital humanities, outreach, and archiving born-digital records.

The format of the meeting eschewed the traditional speaker followed by a few questions in favour of a lightning round describing current projects at representated colleges, then brainstorming topics to be further discussed in a series of “break-out” sessions. The format felt more collaborative and productive than simply presenting information. Discussions were deemed successful enough to warrant follow-up meetings.

Attendees from Middlebury: Wendy Shook, Rebekah Irwin, Bryan Carson.

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What’s With This “Quick Search” Thing…? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MiddLibraryInformationServices/~3/VNcT-3YSbCc/ Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:33:45 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/?p=30176 Continue reading ]]> As new students arrive at college campuses everywhere, we all know the first thing they do is … check out their library’s web page (go/library)!

So, once you do that, you might wonder: what’s with this “library quick search” thing?

The library quick search allows you to easily look for various types of materials by selecting the different tabs above the search box.

Specifically, you can think of the different tabs this way:

Summon is the “one-stop shopping” tab.  It searches 90+% of all library resources, including the items we physically own, online journal articles, and digital collections.  Totally lost and about to start weeping?  Start here!

Midcat+ provides a way to search the materials physically held by the library, as well as selected online resources such as eBooks.  This tab also lets you search NExpress, the combined catalog and holdings of 7 New England college libraries, and which you can use to borrow things Middlebury doesn’t own.  If you are looking for a specific book, movie, or CD that you think Middlebury or one of our partner libraries might own, try using this search.

Journals A-Z and Databases A-Z provide a way to look up specific journal or database titles, and see exactly which issues we provide access to.  You can also use a keyword to find all journals or databases containing a specific word in the title or description, e.g. “jazz” or “biology.”

Reserves is a easy way to view course reserves by class or professor name.

Videos searches our DVD and VHS holdings.  Check out the “browse videos by genre” function if you’re looking for, say, film noir or romantic comedies.

And, if you get stuck, there’s always a librarian around to help you figure things out.  Welcome to Middlebury!

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Where do your charitable donations go? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MiddLibraryInformationServices/~3/Pzm5HY67TDs/ Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:55:22 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/?p=29817 Continue reading ]]> It’s dinner time and the telephone rings.  The caller is asking for a donation for a worthwhile charitable cause.  What you may not know is that some non-profit organizations hire professional fundraisers to solicit contributions on their behalf and the fundraisers typically receive a commission of more than half of the amount you pledge, and in some cases they get up to 90% of your pledge.  To provide detailed information on how funds are split between the charities and the professional fundraisers, the Vermont Atty. General’s office has published a helpful report at http://www.atg.state.vt.us/assets/files/WhereHaveAlltheDollarsGone2009.pdf

How does your favorite charity rate?

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Library Preservation Dept. Open House — You’re Invited! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MiddLibraryInformationServices/~3/aNbqkqNHXTA/ Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:42:39 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/?p=28822 Continue reading ]]>

To mark National Preservation Week, the Preservation staff in Davis Family Library is hosting an Open House from 1-4:30pm on Thur., April 26th.  Stop by our workshop in LIB135 to see the various ways we preserve the library’s collections  and to watch our conservation technician at work.  Bring in your own book and paper preservation problems for evaluation by the staff.

See how a book goes from this…

…. to this!

Preservation Week is a collaborative effort supported by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association, Library of Congress and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  To learn more about it see http://www.atyourlibrary.org/passiton

Consider coming by the Preservation Dept. on your way to the Annual Rucker Lecture at 4:30! 

For more information contact Joseph Watson,  jwatson@middlebury.edu  443-5487

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Happy Chinese New Year http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MiddLibraryInformationServices/~3/4Lb-_7spGRc/ Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:34:27 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/?p=27923 Continue reading ]]>
The Library is expanding and improving the Chinese Collection!

A gift of 1,172 titles from Bowdoin College expands our Chinese collection to a total of 5,021 volumes. Many important works on Chinese philosophy, literature, and history were added. The gift books are marked with neon pink flags.

We have re-cataloged the existing Chinese Collection, so that now Chinese books are in the Library of Congress classification order for better access and subject browsing.

The updated records contain Chinese characters, corrected Pinyin transliteration of Chinese names and titles, and added subject headings. While Midcat displays, but does not currently allow searching using Chinese characters, such searches can be performed through WorldCat.

We are still working on this project (and re-cataloged books still need to be re-labeled) so if the item you would like to check out is not on the shelf, or if it is marked “in process” in Midcat, please request it by emailing mevans@middlebury.edu or library_circulation@middlebury.edu and we will get it to you as soon as possible!

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Two New Civil War Collections Won for Special Collections http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MiddLibraryInformationServices/~3/DxhuJMwY54g/ Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:30:32 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/?p=27451 Continue reading ]]>
Erastus Hibbard Phelps Collection

The winning bid on the Archive of Civil War paymaster Erastus Hibbard Phelps, Middlebury Class of 1861, was made at auction by Andy Wentink, Curator of Special Collections & Archives. The archive was one among nearly 350 lots of American History, including Civil War, materials offered by Cowan’s Auctions in Cincinnati, OH, last Friday morning, December 2. The Phelps Archive comprises 334 letters, 4 diaries (3 from Civil War years), 2 bound volumes including a photo album containing portraits of graduates of the Middlebury Class of 1861, many of which are inscribed to Phelps. The archive also includes two photos of Phelps previous to his years at Middlebury, his paymaster sidearm (a Colt 1851 Navy 36 caliber pistol), what is believed to be his sheepskin winter jacket worn on duty, and a leather documents trunk carried during his service.

Andy also made the winning bid on another Civil War archive, 54 Letters of 2nd Lieut. Ephraim L. Hackett, Wisconsin 1st Light Artillery. Born in Maine in 1837, Ephraim L. Hackett was living in Baraboo, Wisconsin, in August 1861, when he enlisted as a Sergeant in the 1st Independent Battery, Wisconsin Light Artillery. Small in number and mobile, the Battery recruited barely over 100 men before being sent into the field in Kentucky that Fall, then went on to fight up and down the Mississippi Valley until the end of the war.

These two important Civil War collections significantly enhance Middlebury’s already impressive Civil War era archival holdings including the Aldace Walker (Middlebury Class of 1862) Letters, the Calvin Parker Letters, the Civil War Archive of Professor Kit Wilson, and nearly 100 Civil War era letters from individual writers.

The purchase of the Phelps and Hackett archives was made possible through the generous partial funding from the Friends of the Davis Family Library, the Middlebury College Museum of Art, the Julian W. Abernethy Fund, and the Davis Family Library.

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New federated search engine: MetaLib http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MiddLibraryInformationServices/~3/vZZYyqjGEDk/ Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:40:05 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/?p=27123 Continue reading ]]>                 The U. S. Government Printing Office is hosting a new federated search engine, called MetaLib, that searches more than 50 government databases covering a broad range of subjects, including energy, the environment, health, defense, geodata and statistics.  The database retrieves reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to selected resources available online.  Three search modes are available: basic, advanced and expert.

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