Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Volume 56, Issue 1, Page 15-28, March 2024.
Overlay journals are characterised by their articles being published on open access repositories, often already starting in their initial preprint form as a prerequisite for submission to the journal prior to initiating the peer-review process. In this study we aimed to identify currently active overlay journals and examine their characteristics. We utilised an explorative web search and contacted key service providers for additional information. The final sample consisted of 34 overlay journals. While the results show that new overlay journals have been actively established within recent years, the current presence of overlay journals remains diminutive compared to the overall number of open access journals. Most overlay journals publish articles in natural sciences, mathematics or computer sciences, and are commonly published by groups of academics rather than formal organisations. They may also rank highly within the traditional journal citation metrics. None of the investigated journals required fees from authors, which is likely related to the cost-effective aspects of the overlay publishing model. Both the growth in adoption of open access preprint repositories and researchers’ willingness to publish in overlay journals will determine the model’s wider impact on scholarly publishing.
A perspective on computational research support programs in the library: More than 20 years of data from Stanford University Libraries
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Volume 56, Issue 1, Page 267-283, March 2024.
Presentation of data is a major component to academic research. However, programming languages, computational tools, and methods for exploring and analyzing data can be time consuming and frustrating to learn and finding help with these stages of the broader research process can be daunting. In this work, we highlight the impacts that computational research support programs housed in library contexts can have for fulfilling gaps in student, staff, and faculty research needs. The archival history of one such organization, Software and Services for Data Science (SSDS) in the Stanford University Cecil H. Green Library, is used to outline challenges faced by social sciences and humanities researchers from the 1980s to the present day. To compliment this history, participation metrics from consulting services (1999–2021) and workshops (2000–2021) are presented along with updated workshop participant feedback forms (n = 99) and further illustrate the profound impacts that these services can have for helping researchers succeed. Consulting and workshop metrics indicate that SSDS has supported at least 27,031 researchers between 1999 and 2021 (average of more than 1175 per year). A t-test on the feedback form data indicates that participant knowledge in workshops statistically significantly increased more than one scale point from workshop start to completion. Results also indicate that despite our successes, many past challenges continue to present barriers regardless of exponential advances in computing, teaching, and learning—specifically around learning to access data and learning the software and tools to use it. We hope that our story helps other institutions understand how indispensable computational research support is within the library.
Presentation of data is a major component to academic research. However, programming languages, computational tools, and methods for exploring and analyzing data can be time consuming and frustrating to learn and finding help with these stages of the broader research process can be daunting. In this work, we highlight the impacts that computational research support programs housed in library contexts can have for fulfilling gaps in student, staff, and faculty research needs. The archival history of one such organization, Software and Services for Data Science (SSDS) in the Stanford University Cecil H. Green Library, is used to outline challenges faced by social sciences and humanities researchers from the 1980s to the present day. To compliment this history, participation metrics from consulting services (1999–2021) and workshops (2000–2021) are presented along with updated workshop participant feedback forms (n = 99) and further illustrate the profound impacts that these services can have for helping researchers succeed. Consulting and workshop metrics indicate that SSDS has supported at least 27,031 researchers between 1999 and 2021 (average of more than 1175 per year). A t-test on the feedback form data indicates that participant knowledge in workshops statistically significantly increased more than one scale point from workshop start to completion. Results also indicate that despite our successes, many past challenges continue to present barriers regardless of exponential advances in computing, teaching, and learning—specifically around learning to access data and learning the software and tools to use it. We hope that our story helps other institutions understand how indispensable computational research support is within the library.
The value of digital and physical library services in UK public libraries and why they are not interchangeable
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
This study reports on a series of focus groups of UK public library users to understand how the forced closure of UK libraries caused by the COVID pandemic and the increased use of replacement digital services affected their library use. We specifically focus on digital exclusion and whether this increased as the result of physical library services being inaccessible. We show that although digital exclusion did increase as the result of library closures, digital exclusion was not the best way to characterise our participants’ experiences and digital choices was a more suitable concept. We show how public library users adapted to library closures, how they coped with these closures, and how they intend to use library services in the future. Our participants reported different patterns of use of digital and physical library services, had different experiences of these two modes of library service, and described their value in different terms. We explore what they valued in physical and digital services and show how simple arguments that digital services can replace physical ones do not match the experiences or wishes of those who use these services.
This study reports on a series of focus groups of UK public library users to understand how the forced closure of UK libraries caused by the COVID pandemic and the increased use of replacement digital services affected their library use. We specifically focus on digital exclusion and whether this increased as the result of physical library services being inaccessible. We show that although digital exclusion did increase as the result of library closures, digital exclusion was not the best way to characterise our participants’ experiences and digital choices was a more suitable concept. We show how public library users adapted to library closures, how they coped with these closures, and how they intend to use library services in the future. Our participants reported different patterns of use of digital and physical library services, had different experiences of these two modes of library service, and described their value in different terms. We explore what they valued in physical and digital services and show how simple arguments that digital services can replace physical ones do not match the experiences or wishes of those who use these services.
Characteristics of correction practice and its citation in library and information science journals
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
The correction practice of scientific publications is usually used to correct publication errors by issuing correction notices, and it is less explored compared to retraction practice. The aim of this study is to present an overview of correction practice and to explore the citation situation of correction notices in library and information science (LIS) journals, using 720 correction notices in the Web of Science from 2001–2020. Through bibliometrics and content analysis, we found the correcting rate of LIS was relatively low. The main types of corrected errors occurred in authorship, figure or table, references, etc. Most corrected errors were trivial or minor. The citation situation of correction notices was more complex than expected and could be classified into five types. It was relatively rare to cite both the corrected paper and correction notice in a standardized manner. The remaining four types of citation were unreasonable, which could influence citation practice and reduce the citations of corrected papers. We concluded that the appearance of the correction notice had affected the citation of the corrected papers to some extent, and researchers and databases needed to pay attention to this problem. We also provided some suggestions for improving correction practice.
The correction practice of scientific publications is usually used to correct publication errors by issuing correction notices, and it is less explored compared to retraction practice. The aim of this study is to present an overview of correction practice and to explore the citation situation of correction notices in library and information science (LIS) journals, using 720 correction notices in the Web of Science from 2001–2020. Through bibliometrics and content analysis, we found the correcting rate of LIS was relatively low. The main types of corrected errors occurred in authorship, figure or table, references, etc. Most corrected errors were trivial or minor. The citation situation of correction notices was more complex than expected and could be classified into five types. It was relatively rare to cite both the corrected paper and correction notice in a standardized manner. The remaining four types of citation were unreasonable, which could influence citation practice and reduce the citations of corrected papers. We concluded that the appearance of the correction notice had affected the citation of the corrected papers to some extent, and researchers and databases needed to pay attention to this problem. We also provided some suggestions for improving correction practice.
To pre-filter, or not to pre-filter, that is the query: A multi-campus big data study
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
Library discovery platforms, which provide searchable user interfaces as their front-facing layer, aggregate tremendous amounts of metadata from multiple data streams describing a wide variety of print and electronic resources. Complicating the matter further, resources may differ in availability or delivery time depending not only on their media but also upon the source of the data stream describing them. How should libraries structure end users’ options for searching discovery platforms in light of the many options available? This study used a nonexperimental design and quantitative methods to analyze users’ revealed preferences for query type in twenty-four academic libraries in a data set containing metadata, sans queries, for over 64 million searches. Libraries studied were all located in California, used the same discovery layer software, and served similar user and faculty constituencies; however, the number of query types and pre-filtering options available differed between institutions. Results show that, when users were presented with the choice between search options, most conducted simple, more broad searches rather than complex and specific searches. When search options were highly constrained by the default choice architecture, but complex searches were possible, few users opted out of the default simple search. Implications for usability of discovery layers and the motivations of librarians in choice architecture are nontrivial and are discussed. The desires of librarians and “power user” faculty must be balanced with the fact that most users are novices and users of all abilities are largely habituated to commercial search products which emphasize post-search results filtering.
Library discovery platforms, which provide searchable user interfaces as their front-facing layer, aggregate tremendous amounts of metadata from multiple data streams describing a wide variety of print and electronic resources. Complicating the matter further, resources may differ in availability or delivery time depending not only on their media but also upon the source of the data stream describing them. How should libraries structure end users’ options for searching discovery platforms in light of the many options available? This study used a nonexperimental design and quantitative methods to analyze users’ revealed preferences for query type in twenty-four academic libraries in a data set containing metadata, sans queries, for over 64 million searches. Libraries studied were all located in California, used the same discovery layer software, and served similar user and faculty constituencies; however, the number of query types and pre-filtering options available differed between institutions. Results show that, when users were presented with the choice between search options, most conducted simple, more broad searches rather than complex and specific searches. When search options were highly constrained by the default choice architecture, but complex searches were possible, few users opted out of the default simple search. Implications for usability of discovery layers and the motivations of librarians in choice architecture are nontrivial and are discussed. The desires of librarians and “power user” faculty must be balanced with the fact that most users are novices and users of all abilities are largely habituated to commercial search products which emphasize post-search results filtering.
What’s in a book exchange: Examining contents in relation to steward intentions, geography, and public library collections
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
In the last decade, book exchanges, most prominently those registered with the Little Free Library® network, have attracted the interest of researchers and media alike. Very little is known about what types of books are available in these book exchanges and how their collections compare to those in public libraries. To address this gap in knowledge, we selected a random sample of 42 Little Free Libraries across eight Seattle neighborhoods to inventory their contents. We interviewed the stewards about their stocking and weeding practices. Our inventory shows that most of the books available in Little Free Libraries are children’s, mystery, suspense, self-help/health, and scifi/fantasy books published in the last 10–30 years. Neighborhoods in our sample ranged in socioeconomic and racial diversity measures, but there were no significant differences in LFL contents related to those measures. We also compared our inventory to the collections of nearby public library branches and found Little Free Libraries offer a complementary rather than competitive selection scenario: books in LFLs are generally older, with a lesser proportion of children’s books and higher proportion of fiction books.
In the last decade, book exchanges, most prominently those registered with the Little Free Library® network, have attracted the interest of researchers and media alike. Very little is known about what types of books are available in these book exchanges and how their collections compare to those in public libraries. To address this gap in knowledge, we selected a random sample of 42 Little Free Libraries across eight Seattle neighborhoods to inventory their contents. We interviewed the stewards about their stocking and weeding practices. Our inventory shows that most of the books available in Little Free Libraries are children’s, mystery, suspense, self-help/health, and scifi/fantasy books published in the last 10–30 years. Neighborhoods in our sample ranged in socioeconomic and racial diversity measures, but there were no significant differences in LFL contents related to those measures. We also compared our inventory to the collections of nearby public library branches and found Little Free Libraries offer a complementary rather than competitive selection scenario: books in LFLs are generally older, with a lesser proportion of children’s books and higher proportion of fiction books.
Growth, subject areas, and application of research methods in user studies: A content analysis of articles produced by Pakistani authors
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
Information science profession is concerned with information user and every development in this field has been designed to make it easier for the user to access documents or information. The current study examined user studies to provide understanding about the users, growth in user studies, topics, and methods of user studies. A content analysis method has been adopted and empirical research articles produced by Pakistani authors during the period 2001–2016 have been examined. Out of 518 empirical articles, 185 user studies were selected for examining users, subject and methods. Growth in user studies research was lower from the period 2001 to 2008 but number of studies increased significantly after 2008. Dominant majority of user studies collected data from educational institutions. Academicians and students were the most frequently studied users. Bureaucrats, judges, and other officials have not been examined for elicitation of their needs in spite of the fact that libraries have been established with government departments and courts. In respect of research areas of user studies, information needs and seeking behavior, use and skills of internet and social media, use of electronic resources and satisfaction of users with library services constitute 90% of user studies research. With respect to use of research methodology, quantitative approach (78%) is popular in user studies followed by mixed methods (10%), qualitative (8%), and multimethod (4%). More than one method is used in 14% user studies research. In case of frequency of research methods, questionnaire (72%) is the dominant method followed by interview (14%). The current study is unique because it identified popular topics and methods in user studies research.
Information science profession is concerned with information user and every development in this field has been designed to make it easier for the user to access documents or information. The current study examined user studies to provide understanding about the users, growth in user studies, topics, and methods of user studies. A content analysis method has been adopted and empirical research articles produced by Pakistani authors during the period 2001–2016 have been examined. Out of 518 empirical articles, 185 user studies were selected for examining users, subject and methods. Growth in user studies research was lower from the period 2001 to 2008 but number of studies increased significantly after 2008. Dominant majority of user studies collected data from educational institutions. Academicians and students were the most frequently studied users. Bureaucrats, judges, and other officials have not been examined for elicitation of their needs in spite of the fact that libraries have been established with government departments and courts. In respect of research areas of user studies, information needs and seeking behavior, use and skills of internet and social media, use of electronic resources and satisfaction of users with library services constitute 90% of user studies research. With respect to use of research methodology, quantitative approach (78%) is popular in user studies followed by mixed methods (10%), qualitative (8%), and multimethod (4%). More than one method is used in 14% user studies research. In case of frequency of research methods, questionnaire (72%) is the dominant method followed by interview (14%). The current study is unique because it identified popular topics and methods in user studies research.
Measuring serendipity with altmetrics and randomness
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
Many discussions on serendipitous research discovery stress its unfortunate immeasurability. This unobservability may be due to paradoxes that arise out of the usual conceptualizations of serendipity, such as “accidental” versus “goal-oriented” discovery, or “useful” versus “useless” finds. Departing from a different distinction drawn from information theory—bibliometric redundancy and bibliometric variety—this paper argues otherwise: Serendipity is measurable, namely with the help of altmetrics, but only if the condition of highest bibliometric variety, or randomness, obtains. Randomness means that the publication is recommended without any biases of citation counts, journal impact, publication year, author reputation, semantic proximity, etc. Thus, serendipity must be at play in a measurable way if a paper is recommended randomly, and if users react to that recommendation (observable via altmetrics). A possible design for a serendipity-measuring device would be a Twitter bot that regularly recommends a random scientific publication from a huge corpus to capture the user interactions via altmetrics. Other than its implications for the concept of serendipity, this paper also contributes to a better understanding of altmetrics’ use cases: not only do altmetrics serve the measurement of impact, the facilitation of impact, and the facilitation of serendipity, but also the measurement of serendipity.
Many discussions on serendipitous research discovery stress its unfortunate immeasurability. This unobservability may be due to paradoxes that arise out of the usual conceptualizations of serendipity, such as “accidental” versus “goal-oriented” discovery, or “useful” versus “useless” finds. Departing from a different distinction drawn from information theory—bibliometric redundancy and bibliometric variety—this paper argues otherwise: Serendipity is measurable, namely with the help of altmetrics, but only if the condition of highest bibliometric variety, or randomness, obtains. Randomness means that the publication is recommended without any biases of citation counts, journal impact, publication year, author reputation, semantic proximity, etc. Thus, serendipity must be at play in a measurable way if a paper is recommended randomly, and if users react to that recommendation (observable via altmetrics). A possible design for a serendipity-measuring device would be a Twitter bot that regularly recommends a random scientific publication from a huge corpus to capture the user interactions via altmetrics. Other than its implications for the concept of serendipity, this paper also contributes to a better understanding of altmetrics’ use cases: not only do altmetrics serve the measurement of impact, the facilitation of impact, and the facilitation of serendipity, but also the measurement of serendipity.
Public libraries and crisis management: Iranian public libraries and the dust crisis
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
Dust crisis is one of the most important environmental problems caused by climate change and drought during the last three decades in some parts of Iran, especially in its eastern and western borders. The present study is a qualitative semi-structured interview study of 11 managers and employees of public libraries in the Iranian provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan, Kurdistan, and Kermanshah. In the article, we document that public libraries can take major steps to better manage community needs arising from disasters and emergencies. The findings show that public libraries can take on educational, cultural, executive, and informative roles in the pre-crisis stage, executive and informative roles in the during-crisis stage, and executive and documentation roles in the post-crisis stage. Based on the results, a conceptual model is constructed, showing the role of Iranian public libraries in dealing with the dust crisis as a rotational process. In order to improve the role of public libraries in society, it is necessary that library managers and employees take appropriate measures in the three stages of pre-crisis, during-crisis, and post-crisis.
Dust crisis is one of the most important environmental problems caused by climate change and drought during the last three decades in some parts of Iran, especially in its eastern and western borders. The present study is a qualitative semi-structured interview study of 11 managers and employees of public libraries in the Iranian provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan, Kurdistan, and Kermanshah. In the article, we document that public libraries can take major steps to better manage community needs arising from disasters and emergencies. The findings show that public libraries can take on educational, cultural, executive, and informative roles in the pre-crisis stage, executive and informative roles in the during-crisis stage, and executive and documentation roles in the post-crisis stage. Based on the results, a conceptual model is constructed, showing the role of Iranian public libraries in dealing with the dust crisis as a rotational process. In order to improve the role of public libraries in society, it is necessary that library managers and employees take appropriate measures in the three stages of pre-crisis, during-crisis, and post-crisis.
Effect of evidence-based information management and practice training on librarians’ critical thinking: A randomized educational trial
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
Critical thinking is one of the most important elements in making the right decision in every profession. Evidence based practice shows potential to empower the critical thinking skills of practitioners. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of evidence-based information management and practice (EBIMP) training course on the promotion of medical librarians’ critical thinking. This study is a randomized double-blind educational trial in the form of a parallel trial. A sample of 60 librarians were recruited nationwide in the study through the volunteer enrollment to the evidence-based information management and practice training course. Intervention group received a 10-module virtual course focusing on evidence-based information management. But the control group received a basic course of evidence-based medicine. The courses were delivered through virtual learning system and data was collected through California Standard Critical Thinking Skills Questionnaire Form B (CCTST). Data were analyzed with Covariance Analysis (ANCOVA), Chi-square (χ²), Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Levin tests, and t-test, using SPSS 25. The findings showed that the critical thinking skills of participants after training of the information management and evidence-based practice (EBIMP) had significant improvement in the intervention group compared with the control group regarding the “inference” (4.86 ± 1.94 vs 4.20 ± 1.32), “assessment” (7.90 ± 1.77 vs 5.90 ± 1.70), “Inductive reasoning” (8.67 ± 2.32 vs 6.37 ± 1.87), “deductive reasoning” (6.47 ± 2.04 vs 5.77 ± 1.97) subskills. Education of evidence-based information practice could be effective in promotion of critical thinking skills of medical librarians. This study suggests evidence-based information practice to be added to the curriculum of medical library and information science fields.Trial registration: This study was registered with number 9000.1v1 in Registry of Efficacy and Effectiveness Studies (REES).
Critical thinking is one of the most important elements in making the right decision in every profession. Evidence based practice shows potential to empower the critical thinking skills of practitioners. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of evidence-based information management and practice (EBIMP) training course on the promotion of medical librarians’ critical thinking. This study is a randomized double-blind educational trial in the form of a parallel trial. A sample of 60 librarians were recruited nationwide in the study through the volunteer enrollment to the evidence-based information management and practice training course. Intervention group received a 10-module virtual course focusing on evidence-based information management. But the control group received a basic course of evidence-based medicine. The courses were delivered through virtual learning system and data was collected through California Standard Critical Thinking Skills Questionnaire Form B (CCTST). Data were analyzed with Covariance Analysis (ANCOVA), Chi-square (χ²), Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Levin tests, and t-test, using SPSS 25. The findings showed that the critical thinking skills of participants after training of the information management and evidence-based practice (EBIMP) had significant improvement in the intervention group compared with the control group regarding the “inference” (4.86 ± 1.94 vs 4.20 ± 1.32), “assessment” (7.90 ± 1.77 vs 5.90 ± 1.70), “Inductive reasoning” (8.67 ± 2.32 vs 6.37 ± 1.87), “deductive reasoning” (6.47 ± 2.04 vs 5.77 ± 1.97) subskills. Education of evidence-based information practice could be effective in promotion of critical thinking skills of medical librarians. This study suggests evidence-based information practice to be added to the curriculum of medical library and information science fields.Trial registration: This study was registered with number 9000.1v1 in Registry of Efficacy and Effectiveness Studies (REES).