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Browsing by Author "Dawson, Diane (DeDe)"

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    Breaking down Silos: Collaborations between electronic resource librarians (ERLs) & scholarly communications librarians (SCLs)
    (2024-03) McLean, Jaclyn; Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    eResources and scholarly communications are intertwined more than ever. We will share how we’ve made connections across these traditional silos to share our individual spheres of knowledge with each other and leverage them to work together on shared projects and interests (e.g., read & publish agreements, APC discounts, etc.).
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    Breaking-up is hard to do: A unique methodology for unbundling a “Big Deal”
    (2014) Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    Academic libraries acquire access to many journal titles through “Big Deal” bundles. As serials prices continue to rise at unsustainable rates it will become increasingly necessary to consider breaking-up these packages and just subscribing to the most important titles individually. Recently, it appeared that the University Library, University of Saskatchewan would likely no longer be able to afford the American Chemical Society (ACS) bundle of 40+ titles, and tough decisions would need to be made. Usage data on each title were readily available – but is that enough evidence? Working under the common assumption that the primary users of this package are the Chemistry Department researchers, a citation analysis was conducted on what ACS journals these users recently published in and cited in their articles. In an effort to engage chemistry researchers and offer them a voice in the process, a survey of their opinions on each ACS title was also conducted. It was hoped that combining data from these three discrete sources: usage statistics, citation analyses, and user feedback, would enable us to arrive at the most conscientious, evidence-based decisions possible. This study took the novel approach of applying a citation analysis technique to usage data and survey responses. Although unconventional, this unique methodology proved useful in this situation. This presentation will describe the steps taken and discuss the benefits and challenges of this method so that librarians may consider whether this approach could be adapted to their own collections analysis needs.
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    Communicating Cancellations to Campus: Strategies Across Canada
    (Ontario Library Association Super Conference, 2018-01-31) Dawson, Diane (DeDe); Sorensen, Charlene; McLean, Jaclyn
    Discover the trends and strategies that emerged from a content analysis of CARL libraries communications around cancellations considering change management.
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    Communicating Collections Cancellations to Campus: A Qualitative Study
    (2021-01) McLean, Jaclyn; Sorensen, Charlene; Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    Academic libraries around the world are cancelling big deal journal subscriptions at an increasing rate. This is primarily due to budgetary challenges, the unsustainable hyperinflationary pricing of these packages, and a need to move toward new open access models. It is a complex situation with many vested interests and stakeholders. Some libraries have been the target of angry backlash from faculty after such cancellations. The purpose of this qualitative study is to discover strategies for communicating to the campus community about collections cancellations so that they will better understand and support the library in making these difficult decisions.
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    Communicating Collections Cancellations to Campus: Qualitative Evidence to Inform Practice
    (2019-06) McLean, Jaclyn; Sorensen, Charlene; Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    Aim In recent years, academic libraries across Canada have experienced severe budgetary challenges due to de-funding, currency instability, and the unsustainable rising costs of e-resources subscriptions. All of this is taking place in a volatile scholarly publishing environment. In these uncertain times, many libraries are being forced to make major collections cancellations decisions, and the focus is increasingly on the “big deal” journal packages. At some institutions, these cancellations attract considerable media coverage and negative backlash from faculty against the library, but at other institutions libraries receive support from their campuses. How can libraries effectively communicate cancellations so that their campus communities understand and support these decisions? The aim of this study was to collect qualitative evidence to answer this question. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 librarians from large research libraries across Canada. Each of the participants had some experience with major collections cancellations decisions and the communications of these decisions to campus stakeholders at their institutions. The interviews allowed participants to reflect on what worked well and what didn’t in their communications strategies. We analyzed the transcripts using qualitative coding methods to reveal recurring themes, lessons learned, and advice for others facing similar situations. Results Recurrent themes from the data include practical strategies, but also higher level thoughts on topics such as stewardship, building trust, and the importance of tying collections decisions to broader issues in scholarly communication. Conclusion Cancellations communications are becoming commonplace for academic libraries in these times of uncertainty. Typically, these communications are reactive in response to circumstances driven by external forces. We hope that the evidence collected in this study supports libraries in the preemptive development of effective and strategic communication practices that results in support and understanding from their campus communities. Furthermore, we anticipate that the results of this project will encourage libraries to raise the awareness of faculty and administrators about the challenges of the current publishing ecosystem and their role in it – therefore advocating for a transition to a more sustainable scholarly communication system.
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    Determining the usability of ebooks using the think-aloud method
    (2009) Berg, Selinda Adelle; Dawson, Diane (DeDe); Hoffmann, Kristin
    The widespread acceptance and enthusiasm for eJournals in recent years has led to an increased interest in developing eBook collections in academic libraries. It is generally assumed that eBooks provide the same level of convenience and usability to patrons as eJournals have. This qualitative research study examined the usability of eBooks by observing the strategies of undergraduate science students while they performed information retrieval tasks in print books and eBooks.
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    Effective practices and strategies for open access outreach: A qualitative study
    (2018) Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    INTRODUCTION There are many compelling reasons to make research open access (OA), but raising the awareness of faculty and administrators about OA is a struggle. Now that more and more funders are introducing OA policies, it is increasingly important that researchers understand OA and how to comply with these policies. U.K. researchers and their institutions have operated within a complex OA policy environment for many years, and academic libraries have been at the forefront of providing services and outreach to support them. This article discusses the results of a qualitative study that investigated effective practices and strategies of OA outreach in the United Kingdom. METHODS Semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 individuals at seven universities in the United Kingdom in late 2015. Transcripts of these interviews were analyzed for dominant themes using an inductive method of coding. RESULTS Themes were collected under the major headings of “The Message”; “Key Contacts and Relationships”; “Qualities of the OA Practitioner”; and “Advocacy versus Compliance.” DISCUSSION Results indicate that messages about OA need to be clear, concise, and jargon free. They need to be delivered repeatedly and creatively adapted to specific audiences. Identifying and building relationships with influencers and informers is key to the uptake of the message, and OA practitioners must have deep expertise to be credible as the messengers. CONCLUSION This timely research has immediate relevance to North American libraries as they contend with pressures to ramp up their own OA outreach and support services to assist researchers in complying with new federal funding policies.
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    Exploring the scholarly communications landscape at the University of Saskatchewan
    (2013) Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    This poster presents the results of an exploratory survey to understand the current publishing behaviours, and open access awareness and attitudes, of faculty at the University of Saskatchewan. The research was conducted in an effort to establish a basis for the potential development of a scholarly communications program at the University Library.
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    Flipping to Diamond Open Access: Interviews with LIS Journal Editors
    (2024-05) Dawson, Diane (DeDe); Borchardt, Rachel; Auch Schultz, Teresa
    Librarians are often at the forefront of advocacy for a transition to an equitable open access (OA) publishing system, but many of our own journals remain behind paywalls or charge inequitable author fees to publish OA. About half of Library and Information Science (LIS) journals use such hybrid models or do not offer OA publishing at all. We recently conducted a survey of editors of LIS journals that have not transitioned to a diamond OA model (without fees for authors) and learned that a journal’s financial situation is a barrier and many editors indicated a lack of awareness of their journal’s budget. It was also apparent that editors may not be fully aware of the diversity of diamond OA funding options available to support this transition. To further investigate these financial and other perceived barriers preventing LIS journals from transitioning to a more equitable diamond OA model, we interviewed 15 lead editors of LIS journals: eight from journals that remain behind a paywall and seven from journals that have successfully transitioned from subscription to a fully diamond OA model. In this session we will discuss preliminary results from this qualitative research, including dominant themes emerging from the initial coding of interview transcripts and our early interpretation of these themes. Ultimately, we hope the results from this research will assist in the development of solutions and supports for LIS journals in making this transition to an equitable diamond OA publishing model. And we anticipate that members of the Library Publishing Coalition may be critical partners in the success of such potential solutions and supports in the future.
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    Integrating research into LIS field experiences in academic libraries
    (Elsevier, 2009) Dawson, Diane (DeDe); Hoffmann, Kristin; Berg, Selinda Adelle
    Field experiences function as a link between LIS theory and practice. Students should be provided with an experience that is a true reflection of the professional environment. The increasing focus on research by academic librarians provides an opportunity and responsibility to integrate research into the field experiences of LIS students.
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    Internal Report: Results of U of S Faculty Survey on Scholarly Communications Behaviours & Needs
    (2014) Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    The intention of this report is to communicate to University Library administration, and interested library employees, the results of a survey of all U of S faculty carried out in November 2012. The report mainly consists of edited raw data; I have removed comments that may have identified respondents and comments that were inappropriate or off-topic. It is my hope that the library may benefit from the rich data collected on faculty behaviours and awareness surrounding scholarly communications (SC) topics such as open access (OA) publishing and archiving, and their evident and expressed needs for support in this area.
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    Investigating the scholarly communications needs of faculty at the University of Saskatchewan: Is there a role for the University Library?
    (2013) Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    This study seeks to understand the current publishing behaviours and attitudes of faculty, across all disciplines, at the U of S in response to the growing significance of OA publishing and archiving. The broad objective of this research is to discover what the current and emerging needs of U of S researchers are in order to determine if scholarly communications services are in demand here. And, if so, to provide an evidence-based foundation for the potential future development of such a program of services at the University Library.
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    Invisible Paywalls: Recognizing Information Privilege in Academia
    (Teaching and Learning Today Conference 2018, 2018-05-01) Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    Academic libraries work hard to make access to online journals as seamless as possible for their campus communities. So much so that students (and some faculty) are typically unaware that paywalls to this content exist for those outside of academia – and those at less wealthy institutions. Open Access to the scholarly literature has the potential to democratize access to information, and include marginalized groups in the conversation. But first we need to recognize our information privilege.
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    New SciComm Services for Researchers: Knowledge Translation, Public Relations, or “Predatory” Publishing?
    (2021-07-22) Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    Like many science librarians I regularly receive concerned emails from faculty asking whether certain publishers or journals are “predatory.” In recent years however a growing number of these inquiries have been regarding what seems to be a new form of publisher seeking to promote the work of scientists… for a fee. They offer the science communication (SciComm) services of professional writers to create high-quality, magazine-style articles on the scientist’s research in accessible language for a general audience. Additional services may include glossy brochures with graphic designing, website production, social media marketing and promotion, and even podcast episodes discussing the research. Faculty encountering these publishers are understandably wary. There has been extensive concern and discussion in academia about so-called “predatory” publishers for the last decade, so much so that any unfamiliar publishing model is treated as suspect - especially those sending unsolicited emails and asking for publishing fees. However, the entities I have investigated appear to be offering a legitimate service with transparent costs. But what needs the service is fulfilling, and what the motivations of their clients are, is debatable. Is it for knowledge translation or mobilization purposes (increasingly required by funding agencies)? Is it for increasing the reach or impact of a researcher’s work? Or is it driven by vanity or ego? In this session I will introduce several examples of these publishers, discuss their business models and the services they offer to clients…and what the potential motivations of their clients may be. My goal is to raise awareness among STEM librarians about this new kind of publishing service so that they are prepared to respond should they receive similar concerned emails from their science faculty!
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    Not on the same page: undergraduates' information retrieval in electronic and print books
    (2010) Hoffmann, Kristin; Dawson, Diane (DeDe); Berg, Selinda Adelle
    Academic libraries are increasingly collecting e-books, but little research has investigated how students use e-books compared to print texts. This study used a prompted think-aloud method to gain an understanding of the information retrieval behavior of students in both formats. Qualitative analysis identified themes that will inform instruction and collection practices.
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    “Outreach by Stealth” and Other Strategies of Effective Open Access Outreach Services to Researchers
    (C-EBLIP Fall Symposium, 2016-10-12) Dawson, Diane (DeDe)
    Many major funders around the world are now mandating that grant recipients make the products of their research publicly available through Open Access (OA) outlets; and many academic libraries now offer support services to assist researchers on their campuses in complying with these funder policies. This presentation will discuss the preliminary results of a sabbatical research project that investigated good practices of successful OA support services offered by academic librarians, and other professionals, at research-intensive institutions in the U.K. The focus of the project was on outreach efforts implemented to help raise the awareness of researchers about OA, their funders' policies, and the services available to support them in making their research products OA. This study is especially important and timely considering that the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications was recently implemented in Canada. Currently, Canadian academic librarians are considering how to bolster their services in response to the growing needs of researchers in this area.