LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research Electronic Journal, 2012
This paper constitutes a trial of a game-and decision-theory based approach that is intended to e... more This paper constitutes a trial of a game-and decision-theory based approach that is intended to examine elements of the complexities of scholarly communication as an economic endeavor. Both individual and institutional kinds of games are analyzed in order to determine what factors would affect the real economic use of game and decision theories. There are interrlationships between the two kinds that add complexity to any possible application. Further, this analysis includes ideal and practical factors that affect real economic application. As is shown here, there are serious challenges to application of the theories, but also important indicators for the furtherance of individual and institutional interests by means of negotiation.
Library and Information Science Research E-Journal, 2015
Objective. Scientists are afflicted by what has been anecdotally referred to as the phenomenon of... more Objective. Scientists are afflicted by what has been anecdotally referred to as the phenomenon of "Least Publishable Unit" (LPU). This project is an effort at empirical analysis of the phenomenon. Method. Three months of the journals JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine were analyzed to identify work that has been funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Next, the database Medline was searched to discover the total number of publications by each researcher and the publications that acknowledge the single specified funding source (the grant mentioned in the journals). Results. Biomedical researchers who published in JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine were found to have a substantial number of publications from 2010 through 2013. Those publications are indicative of a huge literature that has to be searched in order to find work relevant to information seekers' needs. Moreover, each researcher has several publications stemming from work funded by a single NIH grant. Contribution. The implications of this research for libraries are primarily the explosion of content and the potential duplication of publications.
Progress in education for academic librarianship has been hindered by an adherence to training, r... more Progress in education for academic librarianship has been hindered by an adherence to training, rather than to graduate education. While recommendations from within and outside the profession have urged the upgrading of education, developments have been slow in coming. All of librarianship should share a common core curriculum, but the complexities of academic Iibrarianship (and the environment in which academic libraries operate) point to subject and functional specializations necessary for some personnel. Education for academic librarianship should prepare students for the roles they are to assume within the community of higher education.
The present study seeks to ascertain the current usage and status of CD-ROM products in academic ... more The present study seeks to ascertain the current usage and status of CD-ROM products in academic libraries. The survey asks how many products libraries own or subscribe to, how these are paid for, which titles are held, and how many workstations are supported. Libraries are also asked about usage and cost of CDs. Related areas are also investigated. Questions are asked regarding online search activity and expenditures for the years 1989-1990 and 1984-1985; statistical tests are employed to determine if there has been a significant change in these categories over the time period in question. Finally, libraries are asked if they have canceled print sources as a result of online or CD availability.
As Diane Zabel points out, the literature on information literacy is voluminous.1 Amidst the chal... more As Diane Zabel points out, the literature on information literacy is voluminous.1 Amidst the challenges of volume and multiple points of view, there are some astute observations, innovative approaches, and critical assessment. Of necessity, the works referred to here do not represent the expanse or the diversity of thought on information literacy, but they will offer a substantive grounding for the present study. A seemingly logical place to begin is the standards on information literacy propounded by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).2 These standards address the importance of identifying an information need, the skill required to use structured resources, and the critical acumen necessary to the evaluation of retrieved information. We can probably stipulate for the time being that the content of the standards is necessary, but is it sufficient? That is, are the standards and the accompanying performance indicators exhaustive with regard to the goals of an in...
This paper addresses the level of publishing productivity of faculty for the years 1991 through 1... more This paper addresses the level of publishing productivity of faculty for the years 1991 through 1993 at institutions with membership in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The sources of data are the three citations indexes produced by the Institute for Scientific Information. Both raw and normalized data are presented. In addition, these measures are compared with some library-related information, as well as some other institutional data such as numbers of doctorates awarded. Rankorder correlation is employed to examine relationships between variables. In addition, goodness-of-fit tests are used to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between the publishing data and the other variables.
Higher education in the United States faces many challenges and many criticisms today. Some of th... more Higher education in the United States faces many challenges and many criticisms today. Some of the criticisms are politically based, some concentrate on finances, others attack a variety of elements of factors. A potential means of analysis of the predicament of higher education is that of Marxist dialectics. Oppositions can be examined as they are manifest within the organizations, and the causes of the oppositions can be described. This study applies the dialectical method to provide a diagnosis of some of the essential problems faced at this time. No prognosis or remedy is presented here; the first step is the description of the problems.
The need for postpositivist or antipositivist methods in the social sciences, including library a... more The need for postpositivist or antipositivist methods in the social sciences, including library and information science, is well documented. A promising alternative synthesizes critical realism and phenomenology. This method embraces ontological reality in all things, including human and social action. The ontology underlying the realist phenomenological approach recognizes, following Bhaskar, intransitive and transitive objects of knowledge (mind-independent reality and individual and social perceptions of that reality). The synthesis encompasses some particular elements, including perceptions of parts and wholes, the reconciliation of presence and absence, and the essential character of intentionality. Withholding judgment (exercising a particular kind of skepticism) enables inquirers to delve into the historicity and background of action. Potential uses of the method are manifold; some specifics are examined here.
One aspect of faculty effectiveness can be measured through research productivity, and publicatio... more One aspect of faculty effectiveness can be measured through research productivity, and publication and citation rates can serve as an indicator of that productivity. This study, the fourth in a series to examine LIS faculty and program productivity as measured by publication and citation, uses the same methodology as the previous investigations. A consistent data instrument (the Social Science Citation Index) provided publication and citation data for LIS faculty, covering the years 1999 to 2004. Tables show the faculty and programs with the highest publication and citation rates, both overall and per capita, as well as a cumulative ranking of LIS programs based on faculty research productivity. This study, in conjunction with the three previous, documents an increase in LIS research productivity, suggesting an increase in faculty effectiveness.
Little is known about the costs academic libraries incur to implement and manage institutional re... more Little is known about the costs academic libraries incur to implement and manage institutional repositories and the value these institutional repositories offer to their communities. To address this, the authors report the findings of their 29 question survey of academic libraries with institutional repositories. We received 49 usable responses. Thirtyfour of these responses completed the entire survey. While meant to be exploratory, results are varied and depend on the context of the institution. This context includes, among other things, the size of the repositories and of the institutions, the software used to operate the repositories, such as open source or proprietary, and whether librarians mediate content archiving, or content producers directly deposit their own material. The highlights of our findings, based on median values, suggest that institutions that mediate submissions incur less expense than institutions that allow selfarchiving, institutions that offer additional services incur greater annual operating costs than those who do not, and institutions that use open source applications have lower implementation costs but comparable annual operating costs with institutions that use proprietary solutions. Furthermore, changes in budgeting, from special initiative to absorption into the regular budget, suggest a trend in sustainable support for institutional repositories. Our findings are exploratory but suggest that future inquiry into costs and the value of institutional repositories should be directed at specific types of institutions, such as by Carnegie Classification category.
The present study examines citation characteristics of a selection of the literature on academic ... more The present study examines citation characteristics of a selection of the literature on academic librarianship, drawing specifically from three source titles: College & Research Libraries, the Journal of Academic Librarianship, and portal: Libraries and the Academy. The analysis focuses on references in these journals' articles published from 2001 through 2008, as well as citations to those articles, most cited individuals, and the incorporation, or lack thereof, of literature outside the profession of librarianship. The limitations of empirical citation analysis are clearly stated, and the effects of those limitations on conclusions are described.
This study builds on a previous one that focused on publishing productivity of faculty at ARL ins... more This study builds on a previous one that focused on publishing productivity of faculty at ARL institutions for the period 1991–1993. The present research expands the analysis to the period 1995–1997 and adds an examination of faculty activity at selected ACRL institutions for the two time periods. Measures of total publications and per capita publications per institution increased significantly for both groups over the two time periods. The increases indicate that, for what is likely to be a complex set of factors, faculty feel the need to communicate more and are turning to traditional print outlets for at least some of the communication. Deliberations on the future of scholarly communication should incorporate the views and practices of faculty.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present ways for managers to attain the phenomenologica... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present ways for managers to attain the phenomenological attitude. Achieving effective communication in organizations like libraries and information agencies is a difficult challenge. The business literature offers some suggestions, but those fall short. Application of phenomenological methods by managers can help meet the challenge and bring people together around the intended messages. Design/methodology/approach – Of utmost importance to effective communication is transcending what can be called the “natural attitude” in favor of the “phenomenological attitude”. This requires recognition by managers of the unique relationship of self and other, plus the realization that action is intentional (meaning that being conscious means being conscious of something). This paper presents ways for managers to attain the phenomenological attitude. Findings – Phenomenological methods of communicating have the potential to engage and involve everyone in...
Concerns about higher education abound, and these include concerns about productivity.The present... more Concerns about higher education abound, and these include concerns about productivity.The present study extends two previous examinations of faculty publishing productivity covering the years 1991 to 1993 and 1995 to 1997. Both members of ARL and a group of institutions included in ACRL's data set are included. For both groups there are some increases in mean total numbers of publications, although the rate of increase has decreased since the second time period. Per capita rates of publication demonstrate an even flatter pattern. In recent years, there have been some changes in the dynamics of universities' faculties; there are more part-time faculty and more faculty who are not on the tenure track. These factors, coupled with the publishing data, point to activities that all academic librarians should be aware of.
LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research Electronic Journal, 2012
This paper constitutes a trial of a game-and decision-theory based approach that is intended to e... more This paper constitutes a trial of a game-and decision-theory based approach that is intended to examine elements of the complexities of scholarly communication as an economic endeavor. Both individual and institutional kinds of games are analyzed in order to determine what factors would affect the real economic use of game and decision theories. There are interrlationships between the two kinds that add complexity to any possible application. Further, this analysis includes ideal and practical factors that affect real economic application. As is shown here, there are serious challenges to application of the theories, but also important indicators for the furtherance of individual and institutional interests by means of negotiation.
Library and Information Science Research E-Journal, 2015
Objective. Scientists are afflicted by what has been anecdotally referred to as the phenomenon of... more Objective. Scientists are afflicted by what has been anecdotally referred to as the phenomenon of "Least Publishable Unit" (LPU). This project is an effort at empirical analysis of the phenomenon. Method. Three months of the journals JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine were analyzed to identify work that has been funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Next, the database Medline was searched to discover the total number of publications by each researcher and the publications that acknowledge the single specified funding source (the grant mentioned in the journals). Results. Biomedical researchers who published in JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine were found to have a substantial number of publications from 2010 through 2013. Those publications are indicative of a huge literature that has to be searched in order to find work relevant to information seekers' needs. Moreover, each researcher has several publications stemming from work funded by a single NIH grant. Contribution. The implications of this research for libraries are primarily the explosion of content and the potential duplication of publications.
Progress in education for academic librarianship has been hindered by an adherence to training, r... more Progress in education for academic librarianship has been hindered by an adherence to training, rather than to graduate education. While recommendations from within and outside the profession have urged the upgrading of education, developments have been slow in coming. All of librarianship should share a common core curriculum, but the complexities of academic Iibrarianship (and the environment in which academic libraries operate) point to subject and functional specializations necessary for some personnel. Education for academic librarianship should prepare students for the roles they are to assume within the community of higher education.
The present study seeks to ascertain the current usage and status of CD-ROM products in academic ... more The present study seeks to ascertain the current usage and status of CD-ROM products in academic libraries. The survey asks how many products libraries own or subscribe to, how these are paid for, which titles are held, and how many workstations are supported. Libraries are also asked about usage and cost of CDs. Related areas are also investigated. Questions are asked regarding online search activity and expenditures for the years 1989-1990 and 1984-1985; statistical tests are employed to determine if there has been a significant change in these categories over the time period in question. Finally, libraries are asked if they have canceled print sources as a result of online or CD availability.
As Diane Zabel points out, the literature on information literacy is voluminous.1 Amidst the chal... more As Diane Zabel points out, the literature on information literacy is voluminous.1 Amidst the challenges of volume and multiple points of view, there are some astute observations, innovative approaches, and critical assessment. Of necessity, the works referred to here do not represent the expanse or the diversity of thought on information literacy, but they will offer a substantive grounding for the present study. A seemingly logical place to begin is the standards on information literacy propounded by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).2 These standards address the importance of identifying an information need, the skill required to use structured resources, and the critical acumen necessary to the evaluation of retrieved information. We can probably stipulate for the time being that the content of the standards is necessary, but is it sufficient? That is, are the standards and the accompanying performance indicators exhaustive with regard to the goals of an in...
This paper addresses the level of publishing productivity of faculty for the years 1991 through 1... more This paper addresses the level of publishing productivity of faculty for the years 1991 through 1993 at institutions with membership in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The sources of data are the three citations indexes produced by the Institute for Scientific Information. Both raw and normalized data are presented. In addition, these measures are compared with some library-related information, as well as some other institutional data such as numbers of doctorates awarded. Rankorder correlation is employed to examine relationships between variables. In addition, goodness-of-fit tests are used to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between the publishing data and the other variables.
Higher education in the United States faces many challenges and many criticisms today. Some of th... more Higher education in the United States faces many challenges and many criticisms today. Some of the criticisms are politically based, some concentrate on finances, others attack a variety of elements of factors. A potential means of analysis of the predicament of higher education is that of Marxist dialectics. Oppositions can be examined as they are manifest within the organizations, and the causes of the oppositions can be described. This study applies the dialectical method to provide a diagnosis of some of the essential problems faced at this time. No prognosis or remedy is presented here; the first step is the description of the problems.
The need for postpositivist or antipositivist methods in the social sciences, including library a... more The need for postpositivist or antipositivist methods in the social sciences, including library and information science, is well documented. A promising alternative synthesizes critical realism and phenomenology. This method embraces ontological reality in all things, including human and social action. The ontology underlying the realist phenomenological approach recognizes, following Bhaskar, intransitive and transitive objects of knowledge (mind-independent reality and individual and social perceptions of that reality). The synthesis encompasses some particular elements, including perceptions of parts and wholes, the reconciliation of presence and absence, and the essential character of intentionality. Withholding judgment (exercising a particular kind of skepticism) enables inquirers to delve into the historicity and background of action. Potential uses of the method are manifold; some specifics are examined here.
One aspect of faculty effectiveness can be measured through research productivity, and publicatio... more One aspect of faculty effectiveness can be measured through research productivity, and publication and citation rates can serve as an indicator of that productivity. This study, the fourth in a series to examine LIS faculty and program productivity as measured by publication and citation, uses the same methodology as the previous investigations. A consistent data instrument (the Social Science Citation Index) provided publication and citation data for LIS faculty, covering the years 1999 to 2004. Tables show the faculty and programs with the highest publication and citation rates, both overall and per capita, as well as a cumulative ranking of LIS programs based on faculty research productivity. This study, in conjunction with the three previous, documents an increase in LIS research productivity, suggesting an increase in faculty effectiveness.
Little is known about the costs academic libraries incur to implement and manage institutional re... more Little is known about the costs academic libraries incur to implement and manage institutional repositories and the value these institutional repositories offer to their communities. To address this, the authors report the findings of their 29 question survey of academic libraries with institutional repositories. We received 49 usable responses. Thirtyfour of these responses completed the entire survey. While meant to be exploratory, results are varied and depend on the context of the institution. This context includes, among other things, the size of the repositories and of the institutions, the software used to operate the repositories, such as open source or proprietary, and whether librarians mediate content archiving, or content producers directly deposit their own material. The highlights of our findings, based on median values, suggest that institutions that mediate submissions incur less expense than institutions that allow selfarchiving, institutions that offer additional services incur greater annual operating costs than those who do not, and institutions that use open source applications have lower implementation costs but comparable annual operating costs with institutions that use proprietary solutions. Furthermore, changes in budgeting, from special initiative to absorption into the regular budget, suggest a trend in sustainable support for institutional repositories. Our findings are exploratory but suggest that future inquiry into costs and the value of institutional repositories should be directed at specific types of institutions, such as by Carnegie Classification category.
The present study examines citation characteristics of a selection of the literature on academic ... more The present study examines citation characteristics of a selection of the literature on academic librarianship, drawing specifically from three source titles: College & Research Libraries, the Journal of Academic Librarianship, and portal: Libraries and the Academy. The analysis focuses on references in these journals' articles published from 2001 through 2008, as well as citations to those articles, most cited individuals, and the incorporation, or lack thereof, of literature outside the profession of librarianship. The limitations of empirical citation analysis are clearly stated, and the effects of those limitations on conclusions are described.
This study builds on a previous one that focused on publishing productivity of faculty at ARL ins... more This study builds on a previous one that focused on publishing productivity of faculty at ARL institutions for the period 1991–1993. The present research expands the analysis to the period 1995–1997 and adds an examination of faculty activity at selected ACRL institutions for the two time periods. Measures of total publications and per capita publications per institution increased significantly for both groups over the two time periods. The increases indicate that, for what is likely to be a complex set of factors, faculty feel the need to communicate more and are turning to traditional print outlets for at least some of the communication. Deliberations on the future of scholarly communication should incorporate the views and practices of faculty.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present ways for managers to attain the phenomenologica... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present ways for managers to attain the phenomenological attitude. Achieving effective communication in organizations like libraries and information agencies is a difficult challenge. The business literature offers some suggestions, but those fall short. Application of phenomenological methods by managers can help meet the challenge and bring people together around the intended messages. Design/methodology/approach – Of utmost importance to effective communication is transcending what can be called the “natural attitude” in favor of the “phenomenological attitude”. This requires recognition by managers of the unique relationship of self and other, plus the realization that action is intentional (meaning that being conscious means being conscious of something). This paper presents ways for managers to attain the phenomenological attitude. Findings – Phenomenological methods of communicating have the potential to engage and involve everyone in...
Concerns about higher education abound, and these include concerns about productivity.The present... more Concerns about higher education abound, and these include concerns about productivity.The present study extends two previous examinations of faculty publishing productivity covering the years 1991 to 1993 and 1995 to 1997. Both members of ARL and a group of institutions included in ACRL's data set are included. For both groups there are some increases in mean total numbers of publications, although the rate of increase has decreased since the second time period. Per capita rates of publication demonstrate an even flatter pattern. In recent years, there have been some changes in the dynamics of universities' faculties; there are more part-time faculty and more faculty who are not on the tenure track. These factors, coupled with the publishing data, point to activities that all academic librarians should be aware of.
Uploads
Papers by John Budd