Alex Merrill

Institutional discovery environments now serve as central resource databases for researchers in the academic environment. Over the last several decades, there have been numerous discovery layer research inquiries centering primarily on user satisfaction measures of discovery system effectiveness. This study focuses on the creation of a largely automated method for evaluating discovery layer quality, utilizing the bibliographic sources from student research projects. Building on past research, the current study replaces a semiautomated Excel Fuzzy Lookup Add-In process witha fully scripted R-based approach, which employs the stringdist R package and applies the Jaro-Winkler distance metric as the matching evaluator. The researchers consider the error rate incurred by relying solely on an automated matching metric. They also use Open Refine for normalization processes and package the tools together on an OSF site for other institutions to use. Since the R-based approach does not require special processing or time and can be reproduced with minimal effort, it will allow future studies and users of our method to capture larger sample sizes, boosting validity. While the assessment process has been streamlined and shows promise, there remain issues in establishing solid connections between research paper bibliographies and discovery layer use. Subsequent research will focus on creating alternatives to paper titles as search proxies that better resemble genuine information-seeking behavior and comparing undergraduate and graduate student interactions within discovery environments.

Discovery environments are ubiquitous in academic libraries but studying their effectiveness and use in an academic environment has mostly centered around user satisfaction, experience, and task analysis. This study aims to create a quantitative, reproducible framework to test the relevancy of results and the overall success of Washington State University's discovery environment (Primo by Ex Libris). Within this framework, the authors use bibliographic citations from student research papers submitted as part of a required university class as the proxy for relevancy. In the context of this study, the researchers created a testing model that includes: (1) a process to produce machine-generated keywords from a corpus of research papers to compare against a set of human-created keywords, (2) a machine process to query a discovery environment to produce search result lists to compare against citation lists, and (3) four metrics to measure the comparative success of different search strategies and the relevancy of the results. This framework is used to move beyond a sentiment or task-based analysis to measure if materials cited in student papers appear in the results list of a production discovery environment. While this initial test of the framework produced fewer matches between researcher-generated search results and student bibliography sources than expected, the authors note that faceted searches represent a greater success rate when compared to open-ended searches. Future work will include comparative (A/B) testing of commonly deployed discovery layer configurations and limiters to measure the impact of local decisions on discovery layer efficacy as well as noting where in the results list a citation match occurs.

This paper describes the history of Mukurtu CMS and our current project "Mukurtu Hubs and Spokes: A Sustainable National Platform for Community Archiving" funded by the IMLS as part of their National Digital Platform initiative in 2016. This project is an extension of the social, cultural, and technical work of developing the Mukurtu CMS software to the current 2.0.7 release. Mukurtu CMS is community driven software that addresses the ethical curation of, and access to, cultural heritage. The Mukurtu Hubs and Spokes grant will create regional centers of support and training and update the software to a 3.0 release. Each Mukurtu hub will contribute to the software updates and provide local training and support for community users.

This article discusses possible future directions for academic libraries in the post Web/Library 2.0 world. These possible directions include areas such as data literacy, linked data sets, and opportunities for libraries in support of digital humanities. The author provides a brief sketch of the background information regarding the topics and describes how a convergence of technologies and policies has made these directions more evident than in the past.

Purpose - Internet sites about geographical locations attempt to articulate and convey "sense of place", a concept that relates to the unique identity and meaning attached to place. This paper aims to review the variety of resource types, metadata sources, and navigation features that are used by "sense of place" web sites to communicate with and involve the user. Assessment of place-based digital collection sites is discussed.Design methodology approach - Current place-based sites were reviewed to show the diversity and range of content as well as metadata options, applications for users, and web features that make the most of location-specific foci.Findings - Place-based sites present many types of resources and use geospatial, interactive, customization, and other tools to enhance the content, assist the user in finding resources, and develop "sense of place". Assessment of such digital collections is being done but could be used more extensively to improve the sites.Practical implications - Identifying and discussing place-based digital collections will serve to highlight a specialized type of site and collection. Attention to the enhancement of "sense of place" internet sites could further geographical and geospatial interests, education, and web applications.Social implications - "Sense of place" sites provide information about places that have unique history, environmental sensitivity, or special meaning. Digital content is readily available for educational purposes and can be a contribution point for shared history and experience.Originality value - This paper will be of value to those interested in digital collections primarily focused on a geographical location and how web applications can build on the content to convey "sense of place" to users of the site.

Because of efforts such as large-scale book digitization projects, research libraries will increasingly be distinguished by their special and unique collections. In this paper, the authors analyze three software solutions that enable Encoded Archival Description finding aid documents and digital objects (derived from photographs, manuscripts, and other special collection items) to be published online. While several significant market and technological challenges exist, there are available solutions, both commercial and open-source, that enable libraries to publish selected digital collections and items online.

Abstract Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to carry out a survey in order to better understand the nature of handheld mobile computing use by academic library users and to determine whether there is a significant demand for using the library services with these small screen devices. Design/methodology/approach - A survey is created to measure whether people want to access an OPAC with a small screen. Additionally, through open-ended questions, the survey attempts to gain a broader understanding of handheld mobile computing's impact on, and implications for, the services provided by academic libraries. Findings - A total of 58.4 percent of respondents who own a web-enabled handheld device indicate that they would use small screen devices, such as PDAs or web-enabled cell phones to search a library OPAC. Originality/value - The increasing prevalence of handheld mobile computing devices such as PDAs and web-enabled cell phones warrants investigation as to its impact on libraries. This study examines an academic library user population and the potential demand for using the library's catalog with handheld mobile computing devices