Keep IT Simple

SUMMARY

Distance education students are often goal-oriented and task-driven. They do not appreciate roadblocks that prevent them from gaining access to the information or services they need to complete their course objectives. However, Web-based reference support sites are sometimes more frustrating than helpful. This article discusses some of the difficulties of accessing reference services faced by distance education students and examines ways in which librarians should “keep IT simple” when designing the tools and methods to access reference support.     

Maintaining a Federated Search Service

ABSTRACT

A federated search service does not stand still. Software changes on a fairly predictable schedule but content is constantly in flux as vendors make changes in their products and platforms and libraries and librarians make changes in their selection of products and vendors. It is important to have a plan for distribution of maintenance responsibilities and a workflow that integrates the maintenance of the federated search tool into existing routines. The extent to which these routines can be automated is a focus of this article. doi:10.1300/J136v12n03_05     

Service Priorities and Balance: Delivering a Menu of Quality Services That Reflect Users Needs and Tastes

ABSTRACT

With the increasing use of technology, librarians are being asked to provide instruction in a variety of different formats. One way for academic librarians to meet the demand of teaching is for them to take a closer look at what is written in the educational literature about teaching. This article reviews eight academic Web sites that deal with teaching effectiveness and describes their usefulness for librarians and others interested in teaching.     

Automobilia

ABSTRACT

The automotive industry and hobby is very well represented on the World Wide Web. Manufacturers, enthusiasts, parts vendors, and many more add daily to the ever-growing World Wide Web automotive presence. This bibliography highlights some of the most useful and unique automotive Web sites for buying/selling a car, purchasing new and used parts and accessories, and keeping up with the latest news in the very popular world of motorsport.     

About the Web

ABSTRACT

This article reviews selected magazines and journals of interest to academic librarians that include information about the Web. Reviewed titles include library science titles, general educational titles, and popular titles found on newsstands. The titles reviewed are aimed towards two groups of librarians: those most involved with developing content (such as reference librarians and bibliographers), and those involved with Web design, development, and policy issues.     

Searching for Anne Frank on the Internet

ABSTRACT

Teaching the subject of the Holocaust is difficult enough for educators; identifying useful, topical, and appropriate Internet sites is most complicated given the plethora of sites on this subject. This article is a result of visiting and evaluating hundreds of Web sites to highlight those sites that are the most effective for students, teachers, scholars, and librarians.     

The Information Navigation System

Abstract

Today's instruction and reference librarians face new challenges as the gatekeepers to information. The information explosion requires that we create strategies for our customers to navigate through a maze of material. This paper describes a reference tool developed at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to meet the information needs of our researchers and offers practical advice to other librarians interested in providing a similar service.     

A Historical Overview of Internet Reference Services for Distance Learners

SUMMARY

The advent of library services and collections on the Internet revolutionized reference services to students enrolled in distance learning programs. Prior to the Internet, reference librarians who supported distance learning programs had few methods, and many of them costly, to provide the equivalent library services advocated by the ACRL Guidelines. Through the Internet, these librarians were able to approximate the services and resources that had always been available to students who came into the library. This article describes the development of reference services on the Internet in a variety of libraries that support distance learners.     

A Review of “I Found it on the Internet: Coming of Age Online”

SUMMARY

This article will address the problems of developing and implementing a federated searching system and the involvement by reference staff expected to use, teach, and promote it. Implementation of federated search usually begins with developing basic technical functionality and then progresses to increased participation by public service librarians and system users in order to refine searching interfaces and content retrieval mechanisms and display. From the reference perspective, some impediments occurred in utilizing the federated search system since reference staff did not participate in the development of the product; since there was resistance to the concept of the product by instructional staff; and since performance inconsistencies and the use of a complex interface hampered functionality. This article will address the evolution of organizational stakeholder participation in the development of the federated search system at the Loyola Notre Dame Library.     

Ask a UT System Librarian

SUMMARY

University of Texas System libraries initiated a chat reference program to support distance learners enrolled at University of Texas component institutions, including the UT Telecampus Digital Library. Librarians at several geographically distant campuses staffed the collaborative chat reference service.

Librarians assisted students at other UT System campuses, in effect becoming “distance librarians” who must have thorough knowledge of both their own library resources and the resources available at other campus libraries.

Librarians at The University of Texas at San Antonio share their experiences with this collaborative chat reference service.     

Enhancing a Newspaper Collection Using the World Wide Web

Abstract

Serial cancellations have reduced the print newspaper collection at the University of Toledo (UT) Library by about one third since 1990. In the meantime, the number of newspapers publishing on the World Wide Web has skyrocketed, prompting UT to investigate accessing newspapers online. The immediate goal of this project is to provide library users with access to online versions of cancelled print newspapers, and eventually to enhance the collection even further with additional electronic newspapers. This article examines the trends in online newspaper publishing, researches the availability of Web sites in relation to the UT newspaper collection, critically reviews the sites found, and discusses the issues surrounding access to an online collection.     

Internet Reference Services for Distance Education

SUMMARY

Published guidelines for distance learning library services provide a framework for distance education librarians to use in planning services for off-campus students. Other literature in the arena of distance education librarianship provides concrete examples of how reference services have been offered in real settings. This paper attempts to synthesize these two types of literature in order to offer models of reference service for distance learners.     

Advancing Reference Information Systems on the Web

Abstract

Most existing systems of automated reference information files are microcomputer-based. The advent of the World Wide Web has created a new and rich environment for advancing these files into cyberspace. The major attractions of building a Web-based reference information system are: (a) software is virtually “free,” (b) required training is minimal, (c) systems can be accessed by a variety of platforms, and (d) reference librarians around the world are able to share their expertise. The discussion is in the context of the evolution of reference information file systems. A prototype is described to show how to construct a basic Web-based system.     

Vertical software industry evolution: The impact of software costs and limited customer base

ContextSoftware systems are commonly used in a variety of industries as a means of automating organizational business processes. Initially, such software is often developed in-house by the vertical organizations possibly with the support of professional IT service providers; however, in many cases, internally developed software is eventually replaced with the software products provided by independent software vendors. These vendors often use license fees to recover their software development investments, as well as to gain some margin. However, if the vendor’s customer base for a specific type of software is limited, then either the license fees are too high and hence the customers may prefer to develop the software internally, or the margin has to be decreased. As a result, the market for software products of that type may not materialize.ObjectiveThe paper introduces an analytical model that defines the minimum number of customers that the software vendor should have for its software to be less expensive as compared to the in-house software.MethodFollowing a conceptual-analytical approach, a model is constructed wherein the minimum number of a vendor’s customers is represented as a function of other factors affecting software development costs. This model is verified by applying it to estimate the minimum customer base in the segment of telecommunications billing mediation software.ResultsUsing the proposed analytical model, the minimum number of customers and the maximum number of software vendors in this segment are evaluated. The obtained results are found to be in line with the information available from a telecommunications software market database.ConclusionsBased on the model, a preliminary conclusion is made that in industries with high software development costs, heterogeneous legacy systems to integrate with, and a limited pool of potential customers, the number of software vendors is unlikely to be significant, and hence the in-house or custom-made software is unlikely to be superseded by the software products.     

Constraints for the design of variability-intensive service-oriented reference architectures – An industrial case study

ContextService-oriented architecture has become a widely used concept in software industry. However, we currently lack support for designing variability-intensive service-oriented systems. Such systems could be used in different environments, without the need to design them from scratch. To support the design of variability-intensive service-oriented systems, reference architectures that facilitate variability in instantiated service-oriented architectures can help.ObjectiveThe design of variability-intensive service-oriented reference architectures is subject to specific constraints. Architects need to know these constraints when designing such reference architectures. Our objective is to identify these constraints.MethodAn exploratory case study was performed in the context of local e-government in the Netherlands to study constraints from the perspective of (a) the users of a variability-intensive service-oriented system (municipalities that implement national laws), and (b) the implementing organizations (software vendors). We collected data through interviews with representatives from five organizations, document analyses and expert meetings.ResultsWe identified ten constraints (e.g., organizational constraints, integration-related constraints) which affect the process of designing reference architectures for variability-intensive service-oriented systems. Also, we identified how stakeholders are affected by these constraints, and how constraints are specific to the case study domain.ConclusionsOur results help design variability-intensive service-oriented reference architectures. Furthermore, our results can be used to define processes to design such reference architectures.     

A visual token-based formalization of BPMN 2.0 based on in-place transformations

ContextThe Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard informally defines a precise execution semantics. It defines how process instances should be updated in a model during execution. Existing formalizations of the standard are incomplete and rely on mappings to other languages.ObjectiveThis paper provides a BPMN 2.0 semantics formalization that is more complete and intuitive than existing formalizations.MethodThe formalization consists of in-place graph transformation rules that are documented visually using BPMN syntax. In-place transformations update models directly and do not require mappings to other languages. We have used a mature tool and test-suite to develop a reference implementation of all rules.ResultsOur formalization is a promising complement to the standard, in particular because all rules have been extensively verified and because conceptual validation is facilitated (the informal semantics also describes in-place updates).ConclusionSince our formalization has already revealed problems with the standard and since the BPMN is still evolving, the maintainers of the standard can benefit from our results. Moreover, tool vendors can use our formalization and reference implementation for verifying conformance to the standard.     

Integrating Library Reference Services in an Online Information Literacy Course

SUMMARY

The Internet Navigator, an online information literacy course developed by a team of academic librarians in Utah, offers a model for teaching independent research skills to remote students. The course uses an online textbook that doubles as a self-paced tutorial, and a set of assignments that take students step-by-step through the research process. Assignments are submitted by e-mail and evaluated by reference librarian/instructors. Questions on the assignments follow the pattern of a reference interview helping instructors guide students to use useful research strategies and information sources. Other methods of integrating reference services with online learning are discussed.     

HawkHelp

SUMMARY

This article describes the factors that influenced the design of a chat reference service that meets the needs of distance learners as well as traditional students. Emphasis is placed in the importance of collaborative projects, evaluation of software, and planning the organizational structure. An innovative “peer and tier” staffing initiative may extend hours and free reference librarians to concentrate on research and in-depth questions. Finally, a planning effort by information services may lead to a one-stop shopping service that will include student services that often are problematic for the distant learner (counseling, enrollment, financial aid, etc.).     

Appalachian State University Libraries' Ask A Librarian: A Reference Service for ASU Students,Faculty, Staff,and Alumni

SUMMARY

As dynamic content is filling the Internet, so are choices for implementing this service/tool for Web developers. This article concentrates on one of the solutions that offers choices and tools in a single free package. Zope delivers Web-based content using a variety of sources and Internet connections. At Appalachian State University, Ask A Librarian http://www.library.appstate.edu/reference/askref.html concentrates on using Zope, the PostgreSQL database, e-mail, and the Web to offer patrons the opportunity to receive guidance from reference librarians while at a remote location.