(October 14, 2019). Equinox is pleased to announce the successful migration of the Eastern Cluster of Lutheran Seminaries to Koha, the first open source Integrated Library System to be used worldwide. Their migration involved 318,801 bibliographic records and 2,929 patrons at the university. Equinox provided authority control and data services in addition to Koha support, hosting, and implementation. Remote training for Koha was also provided as part of the migration by Equinox.

(October 14, 2019). Tech Logic has appointed Jeff McDaniel as the Director of Sales and Business Development.

(October 14, 2019). Soutron are delighted to announce authorised business partner in Ethiopia, MAKE Enterprise, have been for the last two years working towards a new solution for the National Archives and Library Agency of Ethiopia.After a thorough tender process, the software provided by Soutron was chosen to help the National Archives and Library Agency of Ethiopia manage their extensive collections, archives and records.

    ISBN: 9780812996548
    Author: Strout, Elizabeth

    ISBN: 9781984817990
    Author: Ray, Rachael

(October 11, 2019). The Canadian Association of Research Libraries and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) have joined forces to improve preservation of Canadian publications in Canadian libraries. CARL member libraries and others are committed to ensuring proper stewardship of our Canadian published heritage, in both print and digital forms. With space and resources at a premium, collective efforts to manage print publications are becoming increasingly necessary. In order to study the current situation and recommend future action, CARL and LAC have established a working group to design and implement a national strategy for collective print preservation and access for Canadian publications, building on some very successful regional initiatives. Digitization will be relevant as it impacts print retention requirements and the provision of access. To ensure the national strategy draws upon and complements similar efforts in other countries, the working group will also liaise and collaborate with international print preservation initiatives.

The September 2019 issue of Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL) is available now. In this issue, ITAL Editor Ken Varnum announces six new members of the ITAL Editorial Board. Our content includes a recap of Emily Morton-Owens’ President’s Inaugural Message, “Sustaining LITA“, discussing the many ways LITA strives to provide a sustainable member organization. In this edition of our “Public Libraries Leading the Way” series, Thomas Lamanna discusses ways libraries can utilize their current resources and provide ideas on how to maximize effectiveness and roll new technologies into operations in “On Educating Patrons on Privacy and Maximizing Library Resources.“

Featured Articles:

“Library-Authored Web Content and the Need for Content Strategy,” Courtney McDonald and Heidi Burkhardt

Increasingly sophisticated content management systems (CMS) allow librarians to publish content via the web and within the private domain of institutional learning management systems. “Libraries as publishers”may bring to mind roles in scholarly communication and open scholarship, but the authors argue that libraries’ self-publishing dates to the first “pathfinder”handout and continues today via commonly used, feature-rich applications such as WordPress, Drupal, LibGuides,and Canvas. Although this technology can reduce costly development overhead, it also poses significant challenges. Read more.

“Use of Language-Learning Apps as a Tool for Foreign Language Acquisition by Academic Libraries Employees,” by Kathia Ibacache

Language-learning apps are becoming prominent tools for self-learners. This article investigates whether librarians and employees of academic libraries have used them and whether the content of these language-learning apps supports foreign language knowledge needed to fulfill library-related tasks. The research is based on a survey sent to librarians and employees of the University Libraries of the University of Colorado Boulder (UCB), two professional library organizations, and randomly selected employees of 74 university libraries around the United States. Read more.

“Is Creative Commons A Panacea for Managing Digital Humanities Intellectual Property Rights?,” by Yi Ding

Digital humanities is an academic field applying computational methods to explore topics and questions in the humanities field. Digital humanities projects, as a result, consist of a variety of creative works different from those in traditional humanities disciplines. Born to provide free, simple ways to grant permissions to creative works, Creative Commons(CC)licenses have become top options for many digital humanities scholars to handle intellectual property rights in the US. Read more.

“Am I on the library website?,” A LibGuides Usability Study by Suzanna Conrad and Christy Stevens

In spring 2015, the Cal Poly Pomona University Library conducted usability testing with ten student testers to establish recommendations and guide the migration process from LibGuides version 1 to version 2. This case study describes the results of the testing as well as raises additional questions regarding the general effectiveness of LibGuides, especially when students rely heavily on search to find library resources. Read more.

“Assessing the Effectiveness of Open Access Finding Tools,” by Teresa Auch Schultz, Elena Azadbakht, Jonathan Bull, Rosalind Bucy, and Jeremy Floyd

The open access (OA) movement seeks to ensure that scholarly knowledge is available to anyone with internet access, but being available for free online is of little use if people cannot find open versions. A handful of tools have become available in recent years to help address this problem by searching for an open version of a document whenever a user hits a paywall. This project set out to study how effective four of these tools are when compared to each other and to Google Scholar, which has long been a source of finding OA versions. Read more.

“Creating and Developing USB Port Covers at Husdon County Community College,” by Lotta Sanchez and John DeLooper

In 2016, Hudson County(NJ) Community College (HCCC) deployed several wireless keyboards and mice with its iMac computers. Shortly after deployment, library staff found that each device’s required USB receiver(a.k.a. dongle)would disappear frequently. As a result, HCCC library staff developed and deployed 3D printed port covers to enclose these dongles. This, for a time, proved very successful in preventing the issue. This article will discuss the development of these port covers, their deployment, and what worked and did not work about the project. Read more.

Submit Your Ideas

Contact ITAL Editor Ken Varnum at varnum@umich.edu with your proposal. Current formats are generally:

• Articles – original research or comprehensive and in-depth analyses, in the 3000-5000 word range.
• Communications – brief research reports, technical findings, and case studies, in the 1000-3000 word range.

Questions or Comments?

For all other questions or comments related to LITA publications, contact us at (312) 280-4268 or lita@ala.org.

    ISBN: 9781466884106
    Author: Brackston, Paula

    ISBN: 9781616898410
    Author: Booth, Abigail,

    ISBN: 9780062853431
    Author: Jance, Judith A.

    ISBN: 9781328543967
    Author: Wynne, Clive D. L.

(October 9, 2019). Patron Point announced that the Greenwood Public Library (IN) has selected its patron relationship management system to elevate its web marketing efforts.

(October 9, 2019). Copyright Clearance Center announces the release of RightsLink for Scientific Communications, formerly RightsLink Author, which builds on a market-leading platform to help publishers quickly model and support a wide variety of transformative agreements. Moreover, CCC offers professional services that help organizations address the ever-evolving user expectations, promote a data-driven culture, and drive business model innovation.

New This Week

• Information Research Specialist, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA
• 2020-2021 Library Residency Program (Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship), New York University, Division of Libraries, New York, NY
• Executive Director, Library Connection, Inc, Windsor, CT
• Associate University Librarian, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Visit the LITA Jobs Site for additional job listings and information on submitting your own job posting. New vacancy listings are posted on Wednesday afternoons.

    ISBN: 9780399179518
    Author: Steel, Danielle

    ISBN: 9780399562488
    Author: Moyes, Jojo, 1969-

    ISBN: 9780316435574
    Author: Hilderbrand, Elin

    ISBN: 9780358023937
    Author: Racculia, Kate

    ISBN: 9780316420273
    Author: Patterson, James, 1947-

(October 8, 2019). EBSCO Information Services has partnered with MCN Healthcare to seamlessly integrate skills and procedures content from Dynamic Health into the MCN platform. Dynamic Health is EBSCO's evidence-based resource designed to help nurses and allied health professionals master critical skills. MCN provides custom policy content, document management software and compliance expertise to healthcare organizations.