RSS 1.0Temple University Libraries
ABOUT THE COLLECTION
This collection contains educational contributions and publications of the Temple University Libraries staff.
Recent Submissions
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Visualizing global collaborations: Democratizing access to persistent identifier metadata and analysisThis poster investigates the opportunities and current challenges involved in using persistent identifier (PID) metadata to understand organizational research activity. A 2022 project led by the ORCID US Community (administered by Lyrasis) in partnership with the Drexel University LIS Education And Data Science Integrated Network Group (LEADING) program resulted in a suite of open tools that reduce the barrier to accessing and using ORCID data in meaningful ways. The LEADING fellows created an R script that can be used to retrieve information about publishing collaborations between researchers at a home organization and other organizations across the globe based on metadata from researchers’ ORCID profiles and publication DOI metadata. The resulting dataset can be imported into a Tableau Public dashboard template, resulting in data visualizations that may be shared with stakeholders to demonstrate researcher activity and start a conversation about impact. Despite gaps in the ORCID and DOI metadata, such as authors with no ORCID profile or an incomplete ORCID profile, the data and visualization tools can be used to advance research connections in several ways. The tools allow viewers to explore an organization’s collaborative reach and show opportunities for improving global partnerships. The suite also allows individuals to filter to their own data and could provide support for highly and widely collaborative researchers’ tenure and promotion. This democratized access to aggregated PID data can help individuals and under-resourced organizations without in-house technical staff to retrieve ORCID API data and create custom visualizations. This poster will give viewers ideas on how they can visualize PID and collaboration data for their own organizations to better understand their global footprint and to show opportunities for expanding and diversifying their research partnerships.
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Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion through Purchasing Award-Winning BooksThe presenters’ institution wanted to be deliberate about collecting materials written by and about marginalized groups. Creating a list of awards whose winners we planned to purchase annually allowed us to involve selectors from all disciplines at the outset while enabling future purchasing to happen in a way that does not take up their time. In addition, the plan ensured that collecting materials about diverse groups of people would be ongoing and not a one-time effort. Our process of evaluating awards was distinctive and collaborative and should be of interest to other libraries. Audience members will learn some of the considerations in curating a list of DEI awards and strategies for promoting such an initiative. Though we began with an existing guide to DEI-related awards, selectors at our institution did not feel all the awards on it would be appropriate for our approval plan, as there are cases when neither the author of the book nor the committee selecting the winner have a close relationship with the group described in the book. There is a risk that the award-granting organization could choose a book that presents a particular community in a way that the community finds problematic. In response to this concern, we devised a scheme for categorizing awards by organization type and authorship criteria, which allowed us to be selective about awards. Subject specialists were also given the opportunity to comment on the awards list, whether to add or remove awards from the list. Another concern was that some populations such as Black/African American and LGBT had more awards than others, such as people with disabilities, Native Americans, or Arabs/Arab Americans. To remedy this, we also calculated how many books we expect to receive for each population group, and for populations with especially few awards we plan to request finalists as well as winners. Our promotion efforts involve multiple departments within the Libraries, including acquisitions, cataloging and outreach. The books we receive via the awards plan will become part of a named collection that is searchable through the catalog. We plan to create a QR code linking to a canned catalog search for the awards collection. Catalogers will review and enhance the records to ensure that relevant aspects of either the author’s identity or the subject matter are identified. Outreach plans include sharing photos of new books on social media, putting signs around the new books shelf containing the QR code, emails from liaisons, and a write-up in the library’s email newsletter. We hope to repeat these activities yearly, so that the university community is aware that we continue to think about diversity, equity, & inclusion in our collection development.
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Impact of a Green Roof on Student Study Space Preferences: Does Biophilic Design Matter?This poster presents research on the impact of a biophilic design element of the Charles Library, specifically the green roof views, on student preferences for a study space in the building. The results of a student survey indicate that three factors, quiet, outlets, and favorite location, are higher in importance than "view of library green roof". Based on the survey results and student comments, a case can be made that biophilic design elements in library buildings promote student health and wellness.
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Get Help Finding a Digital Copy: A pandemic response becomes the new normalOur large, urban research university serves a sizeable, diverse community and is open to all. Library building closures in the early stages of the pandemic challenged us to maintain a comparable degree of openness and access virtually. We saw an opportunity to enhance our virtual reference services and keep the library "open" even when our buildings were closed. Since access to our physical collections was suddenly cut off, we established a new Get Help Finding a Digital Copy service that connected patrons to librarians working from home who could help them find digital copies of inaccessible physical items. Our crisis response became part of our permanent virtual reference services and ultimately improved the user experience of our library catalog. This poster will describe the service and present data illustrating how we meet patron needs and keep staff-patron relationships engaged during times of potential disconnection and disengagement. Learning Outcomes: Participants will learn how to enhance traditional email reference services by adding a focus on finding digital copies of inaccessible or inconveniently accessible physical materials. Participants will identify ways of deploying virtual reference technologies already in use at many libraries to facilitate access to their resources, even when buildings are closed, or patrons and staff are at a distance. Participants will learn techniques for helping virtual reference staff adapt to increased request volume and remote work conditions.
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North American Institutional Repositories with University Press ContentTo get a better understanding of the type of North American university press content currently available in institutional repositories, the authors conducted an environmental scan of 50 different institutions with institutional repositories and university presses in the United States and Canada. The data collected only includes institutional repositories that contain university press content, which encompasses a total of 39 institutions. The authors performed a search for press content in each respective public-facing repository and specific content types were recorded based on the item records and any collection descriptions the authors found.
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Future Proofing Civic Data: Exploring the Challenges of Preserving Open Civic Data for the Long TermTemple University Libraries received a Knight Foundation Grant, “Knight News Challenge on Libraries” to lead an exploratory research project, Future Proofing Civic Data, investigating the challenges of long-term preservation for open civic datasets. The project team interviewed over a dozen stakeholders about their use cases and needs and looked at several open civic data initiatives in Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, and the Pittsburgh area, to compare practices and examine real-life examples. We found that there is still much to do in the community to develop systematic best practices in regard to the long-term preservation of datasets. In this white paper we explore 10 important factors that need to be taken into consideration to tackle this challenge successfully. We also look at how libraries could take the lead, or at least participate in the process. First, awareness of existing digital preservation frameworks is key when putting in place a data curation and preservation plan and developing relevant workflows and budget. The library community has developed strong “best practices” in that realm, and models such as OAIS (Open Archival Information System), TRAC (“Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification”), and LOCKSS (“Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) provide robust guidelines that apply to all types of digital materials. We then looked at the selection process for deciding what datasets should be archived. Selection decisions are made based on various criteria, such as the known or expected users of datasets and their needs, what datasets can be archived and made available more easily, and what datasets represent a city or state’s activities more comprehensively. Among other things, single file objects such as CSV or KML files are much easier to archive than more complex formats or API-mediated content. Next we considered concerns related to the description of datasets, examining current metadata practices from a number of open civic data initiatives, and gave suggestions on possible improvements. We then turned our attention to the notion of dataset reliability and authenticity, that is, how do users know that an archived dataset has the same content as the original and can be trusted? We found that datasets require careful stewardship at several levels to remain complete and reliable over time. The loss of reliability or authenticity could be due to a multitude of unintentional causes, or derive from a more intentional temptation to “rewrite history” by one of the parties involved. Versioning is another important factor, as datasets may evolve over time and several versions might be generated for a single dataset, either through regularly scheduled harvests or occasional data restructuring. Versioning may require the development of policies and procedures to ensure that the collection of successive versions is done in an orderly and systematic manner, and that change requests and deletions are handled uniformly. To enable the successful discovery of archived datasets, we need to answer two questions: (1) how will users searching for open civic data know that preserved historical copies of the data exist?, and (2) how can they distinguish between the current active copy of a dataset and the archived versions? The software interface must facilitate a seamless navigation between active copy and archived versions. We looked at intellectual property rights and other legal issues, and the potential need to develop agreements between data creating agencies and archiving agencies in order to clarify the rights to preserve and provide long-term access to a dataset. The organizational model and governance structure chosen for the overall civic data initiative also have consequences for the ability to ensure successful long-term preservation functions. In particular, involving a multiplicity of partners and stakeholders is the best way to ensure that diverse voices are heard and that the project is run with a maximal level of transparency. Furthermore, open communication flows are also essential to ensure that preservation-related policies are applied optimally. This includes communication among the archiving agencies, the civic data creators, and the civic data portal managers. One more important notion when looking at digital preservation endeavors is that technology is only a small part of successful long-term digital preservation, and thinking proactively about organizational commitment and economic sustainability is essential. Finally, we described two prototypes that we developed to explore concrete technical solutions to archive datasets, using OpenDataPhilly as a testbed. Archive-It, or Prototype 1, uses the Internet Archive’s web crawling platform, which takes scheduled virtual captures of websites over time. Dat, or Prototype 2, is a secure and distributed package manager that does versioning of datasets locally, or shares and syncs dataset versions through a peer-to-peer network. Each prototype has pros and cons. We believe that there are clear and advantageous opportunities for libraries, both academic and public, to take a role in supporting the long-term preservation of open civic data, especially given libraries' pre-existing expertise and collection practices. It comports with libraries’ commitments to serve its users, provide research resources, and provide access to information. Furthermore, libraries can also get involved meaningfully in open civic data initiatives in other capacities, such as helping with outreach and community engagement, developing metadata standards and providing search optimization techniques for discovery.
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Moving to Mobile: Space as a Service in the Academic LibraryIn an academic environment that is shifting to hybrid learning modes, librarians must reimagine their space as a service delivered to students. Where do desktop computer labs fit into this vision for libraries that prioritize mobile-first strategies? This article provides a case study of an academic library transitioning to a post-desktop space with recommendations for a successful project.
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Usability as a Method for Assessing DiscoveryThe University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries engaged in three projects that helped identify areas of its website that had inhibited discovery of services and resources. These projects also helped generate staff interest in the Usability Working Group, which led these endeavors. The first project studied student responses to the site. The second focused on a usability test with the Libraries’ peer research coaches and resulted in a presentation of those findings to the Libraries staff. The final project involved a specialized test, the results of which also were presented to staff. All three of these projects led to improvements to the website and will inform a larger redesign.
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3D Printed Arteries: Making Cardiovascular Anatomy Tangible & AccessibleWith accessible 3D printed models of a patient’s coronary arteries, makerspace librarians assisted cardiovascular fellows in understanding coronary fluoroscopic anatomy and improved accessibility to such teaching aids.
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The Third Library and the CommonsThe idea of the “commons” is often invoked in discussions of the academic library’s future, but these references are usually vague and rhetorical. What exactly does it mean for the library to be organized as a commons, and what might such a library look like? Does the concept of the commons offer a useful lens for identifying the library’s injustices or shortcomings? How might we draw on the concept of the commons to see beyond the horizon of the contemporary library, toward a “Third Library” that truly advances decolonial and democratic ends? This essay engages with such questions and explores how the constituent elements of the academic library—its knowledge assets, its workers, and its physical spaces—might be reoriented toward the commons. It argues that such an orientation might facilitate the emergence of a Third Library that is able to organize resistance to contemporary capitalism’s impetus toward the privatization and enclosure of knowledge, and to help recover a democratic conception of knowledge as a public good.
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“Yeah, I Wrote That!”: Incorporating Critical Information Literacy to Build Community Inside and Outside of WikipediaIn this chapter, we examine the relationship between open pedagogical practices and critical information literacy and how they intersect when Wikipedia is introduced in the classroom. Specifically, we discuss the collaboration between a librarian and a course instructor on iterations of Wikipedia assignments across three years and two classes. We unpack the importance of existing infrastructures, such as edit-a-thons and the WikiEdu dashboard, to support bringing Wikipedia assignments into the classroom. We also explore how we worked to connect course content to the renewable assignments and brought larger discussions of representation and community on Wikipedia into the classroom and assignments. Finally, we outline the lessons we learned through this collaboration. In sum, scaffolded projects allowed students to practice their contributions to Wikipedia in a supportive space and fostered critical engagement with course content. In their end-of-semester reflections, students stated that contributing to Wikipedia felt more meaningful and elicited feelings of pride that traditional, disposable assessments did not. They saw themselves as knowledge creators and scholarship creation as part of an ongoing conversation rather than an “end product.” By engaging in peer-review assignments, participating in edit-a-thons, and discussing the assignments with librarians who were not their professors, students also saw their work as part of a broader academic conversation. Through Wikipedia assignments, students can appreciate their own information privilege in terms of access to costly resources and become proactive in sharing that knowledge and their own growing expertise with a wider public.
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The Virtual Blockson: Immersive Technologies for Teaching Primary Source Literacy on the African DiasporaBy overviewing a collaborative project between Temple University’s Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, the Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio, and local Philadelphia educators, this essay explores how experimentation with immersive technology can enhance the work of librarians and teachers seeking to teach primary source literacy. As a recreation of the space and the experience of visiting the Blockson Collection through interactive game-play and multimedia 3D content, the Virtual Blockson aims to combat black erasure from the historical record and school curricula, introducing students to the roles they can play in history’s creation and preservation. This essay will highlight the Virtual Blockson’s design for integrating the Society of American Archivists’ Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy, as well as the Common Core standards for historical understanding and critical thinking. Digital humanities projects that remediate special collections with interactive spatial simulations can offer promising opportunities to contextualize and explore the imbrication of primary source and digital literacies for marginalized communities.
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Mental health solutions for domestic violence victims amid COVID-19: a review of the literatureBackground: Due to COVID-19, domestic violence victims face a range of mental health challenges, possibly resulting in substantial human and economic consequences. However, there is a lack of mental health interventions tailored to domestic violence victims and in the context of COVID-19. In this study, we aim to identify interventions that can improve domestic violence victims’ mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic to address the research gap. Main text: Drawing insights from established COVID-19 review frameworks and a comprehensive review of PubMed literature, we obtained information on interventions that can address domestic violence victims’ mental health challenges amid COVID-19. We identified practical and timely solutions that can be utilized to address mental health challenges domestic violence victims face amid COVID-19, mainly focusing on (1) decreasing victims’ exposure to the abuser and (2) increasing victims’ access to mental health services. Conclusion: Domestic violence is a public health crisis that affects all demographics and could result in significant morbidity and mortality. In addition to emphasizing mental health challenges faced by domestic violence victims, multidisciplinary interventions are identified that could provide timely and practical solutions to domestic violence victims amid the pandemic, which range from tailored shelter home strategies, education programs, escape plans, laws and regulations, as well as more technology-based mental health solutions. There is a significant need for more multipronged and multidisciplinary strategies to address domestic violence amid and beyond the pandemic, particularly interventions that could capitalize on the ubiquity and cost-effectiveness of technology-based solutions.
