5 tails wagging dogs a funny thing happened on the way to the form. in the past decade, many libraries believed they were developing or using automated systems to produce catalog cards, or order slips, or circulation control records. the trauma of aacr2 implementation has helped many to realize belatedly that they have, in fact, been building data bases. libraries must relate their own machine-readable records to each other in a new way as they face new applications. further methods of relating and using records from different libraries, and even different networks, are becoming necessities in our increasingly interdependent world. a narrow view of the process of creating records has often resulted in introduction of nonstandard practices that provide the required immediate result, but create garbage in the data base. in effect, letting the tails wag the dogs. for many years, john kountz and the tesla (technical standards for library automation) committee addressed this issue forcefully, but were as voices in the wilderness. the problems created are the problems of success. the expectations libraries have developed have outstripped their practices. many libraries are only now seriously addressing the practices they have used to create data bases that already contain hundreds of thousands of records. precisely because of its success, the oclc system is a useful case in point. in general, oclc has adhered closely to marc standards. in call number and holding fields, national standards have been late forthcoming, and libraries have often improvised. meeting the procrustean needs of catalog cards has ofttimes blinded libraries to the long-term effects of their practices. multiple subfield codes to force call number "stacking" and omission of periods from lc call numbers are two examples of card-driven practice. not following recommended oclc practice of fully updating the record at each use has created archive tapes requiring significant manual effort to properly reflect library holdings. variant branch cataloging practices create dilemmas. some malpractices have resulted from attempts to beat pricing algorithms . some, like retaining extraneous fields or accepting default options when they are incorrect, merely reflect laziness or shortsighted procedures. while implementing systems in the present, libraries must keep a weather eye to the future. what new requirements will future systems place on records being created today? brian aveney letter from the editor: a blank page letter from the editor a blank page kenneth j. varnum information technology and libraries | june 2020 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v39i2.12405 nothing is as daunting as a blank page, particularly now. as i sat down to write this issue’s letter, i was struck by how much fundamental uncertainty is in our lives, so much trauma. a blank page can emphasize our concerns that the old familiar should return at all, or that a new, better, normal will emerge. at the same time, a blank page can be liberating at a time when so much of our social, professional, and personal lives needs to be reconceptualized and reactivated in new, healthier , more respectful and inclusive ways. we are collectively faced with two important societal ailments. the first is the literal disease of the covid-19 pandemic that has been with us for only months. the other is the centuries-long festering disease of racial injustice, discrimination, and inequality that typifies (particularly, but not uniquely) american society. while some of us may be in better positions to help heal one or the other of these two ailments, we can all do something in both, as different as they are. lend emotional support to those in need of it, take part in rallies if your personal health and circumstances allow, and advocate for change to government officials at all levels from local to national. learn about the issues and explore ways you can make a difference on either or both fronts. i hope i am not being foolish or naive when i say i believe the blank page before us as a society will be liberating: an opportunity to shift ourselves toward a better, more equitable, more just path. * * * * * * to rephrase humphrey bogart’s rick blaine in casablanca, “it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people library association divisions don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” but despite the small global impact of our collective decision, i am glad our alcts, llama, and lita colleagues chose a united future as core: leadership, infrastructure, futures. watch for more information about what the merged division means for our three divisions and this journal in the months to come. sincerely, kenneth j. varnum, editor varnum@umich.edu june 2020 https://core.ala.org/ mailto:varnum@umich.edu microsoft word december_ital_fifarek_final.docx president’s message: for the record aimee fifarek information technologies and libraries | march 2017 1 for a long time, i’ve have an idea that when a new president of the united states is elected, sometime after he's sworn in, amid all of the briefings, a wizened old man sits down with him to have the talk. in my imagination the messenger is some cross between the templar knight from indiana jones and the last crusade and the international express man from neil gaiman and terry pratchett’s good omens: officious yet wise. he tells the new president the why of it all, the real reasons why important things have happened in the ways they have, making all the decisions that seemed so wrong now seem inevitable. and probably not for the first time the new president thinks to himself “what have i gotten myself into?” this is clearly reflective of my desire for there to be, if not a reason for everything that happens, then at least some record of it all that can be reviewed, synthesized, and mined for meaning by future leaders. it’s the librarian in me i suppose. although being lita president bears absolutely no resemblance to being president of the united states, i have been thinking about this little imagining of mine a lot lately. this is probably because, now that i am midway through my presidential cycle (vice president, president, past president), i realize how much of what i’ve done has been marked by the absence of such a record. i did not receive a “how to be lita president” manual along with my gavel, and no one gave me the lita version of the talk. the one person who could have done it, lita executive director jenny levine, was as new to her position as i was to mine, so we have learned together and asked many questions of those around us with more experience. we are in the midst of election season, and will soon have a new president-elect. bohyun kim and david lee king are both excellent candidates (http://litablog.org/2017/01/meet-yourcandidates-for-the-2017-lita-election/); those of you who have not yet voted have a difficult choice. in order to make a little progress toward developing that how-to guide i thought i’d document a few of things i’ve learned since being lita president. being lita president also means being president of a division of the american library association. when i was elected i expected to manage the business of the library information technology association—board meetings, committee appointments, presidential programs and lita forums. seeing the board complete the lita strategic plan (http://www.ala.org/lita/about/strategic) was a great accomplishment at this level. while it’s possible for a division leader to have minimal interactions with “big ala” during their aimee fifarek (aimee.fifarek@phoenix.gov) is lita president 2016-17 and deputy director for customer support, it and digital initiatives at phoenix public library, phoenix, az. president’s message | fifarek https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v36i1.9808 2 term and still be successful, my priority for my presidential year—increasing value litans receive from membership, especially those who are not able to attend in-person conferences—meant that i needed to learn more about how ala works. after a year and a half, i have a much better understanding of the association’s budgeting, publishing, and technology practices, and how all of these are impacted by declines in membership and decreasing revenues. future lita leaders are going to need to continue to be engaged at the larger organizational level if we are to be able to use lita’s technological knowledge and expertise to support ala’s efforts to maximize efficiency while minimizing costs. being lita president means speaking not just to, but for, an incredibly diverse community. my plan when i became lita president was to blog on a more regular basis. however, i didn’t expect some of my first communications to be about a mass shooting in dallas (in advance of the forum in ft. worth) or working with the board to craft a statement on inclusivity after the us presidential election. the proverbial curse “may you live in interesting times” has certainly been true this year. having to speak to the lita community about those issues made me acutely aware of my responsibility to adequately represent you when we’ve also been asked to weigh in on technology policy issues at the federal level such as the call for increased gun violence research and rescinding isp regulations on privacy protection. the decision by the board to include advocacy and information policy as a primary focus for the strategic plan was certainly prescient. we are fortunate that our president elect, andromeda yelton, is both well-versed in the issues and able to speak eloquently to them1. being lita president means being part of more than one team i’m continually amazed at the hard work and dedication that board members (http://www.ala.org/lita/about/board), committee and interest group chairs (http://www.ala.org/lita/about/committees/chairs), and anyone who fits into involvement our member persona (http://litablog.org/2017/03/who-are-lita-members-lita-personas/). the success of lita as an organization is entirely due to the time and passion of this team. but when you become lita president-elect you get a new team—the other division vice presidents. this cohort travels to ala hq in chicago in october after they are elected to meet each other and the incoming ala president and learn about the structure of ala. i have learned much from the other presidents this year, and we have had a number of truly productive discussions about how the divisions can collaborate and learn from each other to more effectively serve our members. lita is directly benefitting from the expertise of the other groups and they are in turn looking to us for both our technical skillset and the successes we’ve had over 50-years as an association. information technologies and libraries | march 1017 3 consider this a new preface to the how to be lita president manual. i hope that my successors find it useful, and that it will serve as an inspiration for any litans out there who are thinking about putting their name on the ballot in future years. it has been a marvelous and educational experience. and the gavel is pretty cool, too. references 1. making ala great again, publisher’s weekly, feb 17, 2017. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/72814making-ala-great-again.html editorial board thoughts | dehmlow 53 mark dehmloweditorial board thoughts the ten commandments of interacting with nontechnical people m ore than ten years of working with technology and interacting with nontechnical users in a higher education environment has taught me many lessons about successful communication strategies. somehow, in that time, i have been fortunate to learn some effective mechanisms for providing constructive support and leading successful technical projects with both technically and “semitechnically” minded patrons and librarians. i have come to think of myself as someone who lives in the “in between,” existing more in the beyond than the bed or the bath, and, while not a native of either place, i like to think that i am someone who is comfortable in both the technical and traditional cliques within the library. ironically, it turns out that the most critical pieces to successfully implementing technology solutions and bridging the digital divide in libraries has been categorically nontechnical in nature; it all comes down to collegiality, clear communication, and a commitment to collaboration. as i ruminated on the last ten plus years of working in technology, i began to think of the behaviors and techniques that have proved most useful in developing successful relationships across all areas of the library. the result is this list of the top ten dos and don’ts for those of us self-identified techies who are working more and more often with the self-identified nontechnical set. 1. be inclusive—i have been around long enough to see how projects that include only technical people are doomed to scrutiny and criticism. the single best strategy i have found to getting buy-in for technical projects is to include key stakeholders and those with influence in project planning and core decision-making. not only does this create support for projects, but it encourages others to have a sense of ownership in project implementation—and when people feel ownership for a project, they are more likely to help it succeed. 2. share the knowledge—i don’t know if it is just the nature of librarianship, but librarians like to know things, and more often than not they have a healthy sense of curiosity about how things work. i find it goes a long way when i take a few moments to explain how a particular technology works. our public services specialists, in particular, often want to know the details of how our digital tools work so that they can teach users most effectively and answer questions users have about how they function. sharing expertise is a really nice way to be inclusive. 3. know when you have shared enough—in the same way that i don’t need to know every deep detail of collections management to appreciate it, most nontechies don’t need hour-long lectures on how each component of technology relates to the other. knowing how much information to share when describing concepts is critical to keeping people’s interest and generally keeping you approachable. 4. communicate in english—it is true that every specialization has its own vocabulary and acronyms (oh how we love acronyms in libraries) that have no relevance to nonspecialists. i especially see this in the jargon we use in the library to describe our tools and services. the best policy is to avoid jargon and explain concepts in lay-person’s terms or, if using jargon is unavoidable, define specialized words in the simplest terms possible. using analogies and drawing pictures can be excellent ways to describe technical concepts and how they work. it is amazing how much from kindergarten remains relevant later in life! 5. avoid techno-snobbery—i know that i am risking virtual ostracism in writing this, but i think it needs to be said. just because i understand technology does not make me better than others, and i have heard some variant of the “cup holder on the computer” joke way too often. even if you don’t make these kinds of comments in front of people who aren’t as technically capable as you, the attitude will be apparent in your interactions, and there is truly nothing more condescending. 6. meet people halfway—when people are trying to ask technology-related questions or converse about technical issues, don’t correct small mistakes. instead, try to understand and coax out their meaning; elaborate on what they are saying, and extend the conversation to include information they might not be aware of. people don’t like to be corrected or made to feel stupid—it is embarrassing. if their understanding is close enough to the basic idea, letting small mistakes in terminology slide can create an opening for a deeper understanding. you can provide the correct terminology when talking about the topic without making a point to correct people. 7. don’t make a clean technical/nontechnical distinction— after once offering the “technical” perspective on a topic, one librarian said to me that it wasn’t that they themselves didn’t have any technical mark dehmlow (mdehmlow@nd.edu) is digital initiatives librarian, hesburgh libraries, university of notre dame, notre dame, indiana. 54 information technology and libraries | june 2009 perspective, it just wasn’t perhaps as extensive as mine. each person has some level of technical expertise; it is better to encourage the development of that understanding rather than compartmentalizing people on the basis of their area of expertise. 8. don’t expect everyone to be interested—just because i chose a technical track and am interested in it doesn’t mean everyone should be. sometimes people just want to focus on their area of expertise and let the technical work be handled by the techies. 9. assume everyone is capable—at least at some level. sometimes it is just a question of describing concepts in the right way, and besides, not everyone should be a programmer. everyone brings their own skills to the table and that should be respected. 10. expertise is just that—and no one, no one knows everything. there just isn’t enough time, and our brains aren’t that big. embrace those with different expertise, and bring those perspectives into your project planning. a purely technical perspective, while perhaps being efficient, may not provide a practical or intuitive solution for users. diversity in perspective creates stronger projects. in the same way that the most interesting work in academia is becoming increasingly more multidisciplinary, so too the most successful work in libraries needs to bring diverse perspectives to the fore. while it is easy to say libraries are constantly becoming more technically oriented because of the expanse of digital collections and services, the need for the convergence of the technical and traditional domains is clear—digital preservation is a good example of an area that requires the lessons and strengths learned from physical preservation, and, if anything, the technical aspects still raise more questions than solutions—just see henry newman’s article “rocks don’t need to be backed up” to see what i mean.1 increasingly, as we develop and implement applications that better leverage our collections and highlight our services, their success hinges on their usability, user-driven design, and implementations based on user feedback. these “user”-based evaluation techniques fit more closely with traditional aspects of public services: interacting with patrons. lastly, it is also important to remember that technology can be intimidating. it has already caused a good deal of anxiety for those in libraries who are worried about long-term job security as technology continues to initiate changes in the way we perform our jobs. one of the best ways to bring people along is to demystify the scary parts of technology and help them see a role for themselves in the future of the library. going back to maslow’s hierarchy of needs, people want to feel a sense of security and belonging, and i believe it is incumbent upon those of us with a deep understanding of technology to help bring the technical to the traditional in a way that serves everyone in the process. reference 1. henry newman, “rocks don’t need to be backed up,” enterprise storage forum.com (mar. 27, 2009), www.enterprise storageforum.com/continuity/features/article.php/3812496 (accessed april 24, 2009). editorial board thoughts: services and user context in the era of webscale discovery mark dehmlow information technology and libraries | june 2013 1 early implementations of discovery systems were revolutionary in their ability to bring together metadata from masses of scholarly resources into super indexes but they were also somewhat unsophisticated in that their initial focus was primarily on the aggregation of data. the data is critical, but the debates over vendors' unwillingness to share data have overshadowed other important features and functionality that are important to making discovery systems valuable, especially in the areas of getting users the actual resources that they find, delivering the most relevant results, and being more aware of the full user context not merely their search query. the user context is a multidimensional matrix encompassing: (1) level of experience, (2) comprehensiveness of their research need, (3) type of scholarly materials the user primarily works with, (4) user discipline, and also (5) what physical or virtual location the user is performing their research from. missing services and opportunities a major issue that continues to confound me is the lack of fully integrated request and delivery services that many discovery systems lack. of course, all of them implement full text linking to every online article that they can create a link to, but as the sphere of scholarly data stretches beyond just articles, library print collections and delivery services have continued to be neglected primarily because implementing those services in an intuitively integrated way, beyond the "link to your old opac" methodology, remains a complex task. my main concern with this deficit is that there is a significant amount of scholarly material only available in print and to focus primarily on electronic access limits the ability of our users to perform comprehensive research and reduces access to significant resources and services that libraries provide. during the transition from print to online, we need to consider user behaviors and preferences while ebook technology becomes more user-friendly, especially for academic materials which are often difficult to access and use because of clunky digital rights management and distribution models. the most recent ithaka study on faculty research behaviors noted that 80% of faculty respondents still find it much or somewhat easier to read an entire book in print versus in electronic format.1 this will change over time as the technology evolves, but it will be quite some time before all written works are available online and researchers often needs access to the long tail of unique resources that support very narrow and niche knowledge areas. mark dehmlow (mdehmlow@nd.edu), a member of lita and the ital editorial board, is the director, information technology program, hesburgh libraries, university of notre dame, south bend, indiana. editorial board thoughts: services and user context in the era of webscale discovery | dehmlow 2 some of the discovery systems have integrated the dlf recommended interoperability standards seamlessly2 into their interfaces, but some don't provide much more than a link back to the libraries’ traditional opac interface, often in a completely different user interface that requires the user to make a cognitive shift. and even those vendors who do integrate basic ils functionality don't intuitively integrate other important library services such as localized delivery or interlibrary loan services. for many of our users, particularly faculty and graduate students, their goal is to exhaustively evaluate every useful resource in the pursuit of their research, not only the easiest and quickest to access. in addition to these deficits also lies untapped opportunity. the aggregation of so much bibliographic data in these systems could allow for providers to build more intuitive connections between primary resources and bibliographic records that relate to those resources. one of our librarians recently commented that it would be really valuable if we could connect all of the book reviews in the webscale index to the actual bibliographic record for the book placing the related information for the book at the primary point of access for the user. another librarian commented on how valuable it would be to integrate user generated comments about books from worldcat.org in a similar way. i believe one of the next major opportunities for discovery systems is to begin building holistic connections between the objects in their indexes, perhaps using linked data techniques. relevancy refactored determining actual relevancy of an item to a user query is a much more nuanced business than standard term frequency — inverse document frequency (td-idf). even when used in concert with field weighting for metadata like author and title, this type of algorithm has mixed effectiveness because while math can easily indicate how often a series of words occur in a document, it requires considering the whole user context to best derive what a user is looking for. perhaps one of the more interesting developments in relevancy enhancements is the incorporation of social and usage analytics. this more intricate adjustment to relevancy calculation is what makes google so powerful — they can take how often a website is referenced in other websites and how often users go to a website to impact a website’s relevancy to a user query. ex libris is currently using similar strategies with something they call scholar rank. they enhance their document relevancy through using their bx recommender service (a “users who downloaded this article also down loaded these articles” – style service that is based on link resolver log analysis) and data like impact factor.3 the physical and virtual location of a user provides another unique context that doesn’t get much attention. recently, we made our default search box the library catalog for searches performed in our stacks, the idea being that a user is most likely looking for things in our collection if they are in the tower. they can easily jump to the webscale search if they like by clicking an adjacent tab. another specialized context is for our users are our subject pages, which have lists of library resources that relate to specific disciplinary areas. where possible, each of these pages features a information technology and libraries | june 2013 3 subject quicksearch box which currently utilizes metasearch to provide discipline scoped results. we would like to eventually replace these popular metasearches with the benefits of a webscale search, but scoped by. serials solutions’ summon is able to provide through its “discipline-scoped search” feature.4 conclusion libraries are still struggling with how to market and position these massive indexes in the context of their websites and the other services they provide. in part, discovery systems induce discomfort for library professionals because the ways in which relevancy is calculated are becoming more opaque. in the face of all this ambiguity, i still believe that these systems are incredibly useful and valuable for support of different research needs at different levels – getting novice users quick access to a handful of scholarly resources and augmenting the deep research process of our expert users. many of these systems on the market are evolving into more complex search tools, but there is a lot of room for these systems to grow as well. if you were to take the best of each of the systems and put them together, you might actually be on your way to having a complete solution. for libraries as we continue to license products and implement these solutions, it is important to develop a more complex understanding of what our users need and then ensure our discovery systems will translate their simple keyword query into results they are actually looking for and then help them easily request the materials that turn up in those results. references 1. ross housewright, roger c. schonfeld, and kate wulfson, ithaka s+r us faculty survey 2012. (ithaka s+r, 2013), pg. 32. http://sr.ithaka.org/sites/all/modules/contrib/pubdlcnt/pubdlcnt.php?file=http://sr.ithaka.org /sites/default/files/reports/ithaka_sr_us_faculty_survey_2012_final.pdf&nid=502 (accessed june 3, 2013). 2. john mark ockerbloom et al., dlf ils disovery interface task force (ils-di) technical recommendation: an api for achieving effective interoperation between traditional integrated library systems and external discovery applications. https://project.library.upenn.edu/confluence/download/attachments/5963787/dlf_ils_disco very-april08_draft.pdf (accessed june 3, 2013). 3. "primo scholar rank plain and simple," youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydly9qpppyq (accessed june 3, 2013). 4. summon: features & functionality,” serialssolutions.com http://www.serialssolutions.com/en/services/summon/features-functionality/search (accessed june 3, 2013). http://sr.ithaka.org/sites/all/modules/contrib/pubdlcnt/pubdlcnt.php?file=http://sr.ithaka.org/sites/default/files/reports/ithaka_sr_us_faculty_survey_2012_final.pdf&nid=502 http://sr.ithaka.org/sites/all/modules/contrib/pubdlcnt/pubdlcnt.php?file=http://sr.ithaka.org/sites/default/files/reports/ithaka_sr_us_faculty_survey_2012_final.pdf&nid=502 https://project.library.upenn.edu/confluence/download/attachments/5963787/dlf_ils_discovery-april08_draft.pdf https://project.library.upenn.edu/confluence/download/attachments/5963787/dlf_ils_discovery-april08_draft.pdf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydly9qpppyq http://www.serialssolutions.com/en/services/summon/features-functionality/search editorial | truitt 107 marc truitteditorial: computing in the “cloud” silver lining or stormy weather ahead? c loud computing. remote hosting. software as a service (saas). outsourcing. terms that all describe various parts of the same it elephant these days. the sexy ones—cloud computing, for example—emphasize new age-y, “2.0” virtues of collaboration and sharing with perhaps slightly mystic overtones: exactly where and what is the “cloud,” after all? others, such as the more utilitarian “remote hosting” and “outsourcing,” appeal more to the bean counters and sustainabilityminded among us. but they’re really all about the same thing: the tradeoff between cost and control. that the issue increasingly resonates with it operations at all levels these days can be seen in various ways. i’ll cite just a few: n at the meeting of the lita heads of library technology (holt) interest group at the 2009 ala annual conference in chicago, two topics dominated the list of proposed holt programs for the 2010 annual conference. one of these was the question of virtualization technology, and the other was the whole white hat–black hat dichotomy of the cloud.1 practically everyone in the room seemed to be looking at—or wanting to know more about—the cloud and how it might be used to benefit institutions. n my institution is considering outsourcing e-mail. all of it—to google. times are tough, and we’re being told that by handing e-mail over to the googleplex, our hardware, licensing, evergreening, and technical support fees will total zero. zilch. with no advertising. heady stuff when your campus hosts thirty-plus central and departmental mail servers, at least as many blackberry servers, and total costs in people, hardware, licensing, and infrastructure are estimated to exceed can$1,000,000 annually. n in the last couple of days, library electronic discussion lists such as web4lib have been abuzz— or do we now say a-twitter?—about amazon’s orwellian kindle episode, in which the firm deleted copies of 1984 and animal farm from subscribers’ kindle e-book readers without their knowledge or consent.2 indeed, amazon’s action was in violation of its own terms of service, in which the company “grants [the kindle owner] the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable digital content and to view, use, and display such digital content an unlimited number of times, solely on the device or as authorized by amazon as part of the service and solely for [the kindle owner ’s] personal, noncommercial use.”3 all of this has me thinking back to the late 1990s marketing slogan of a manufacturer of consumer-grade mass storage devices—remember removable hard drives? iomega launched its advertising campaign for the 1 gb jaz drive with the catch-line “because it’s your stuff.” ultimately, whether we park it locally or send it to the cloud, i think we need to remember that it is our stuff. what i fear is that in straitened times, it becomes easy to forget this as we struggle to balance limited staff, infrastructure, and budgets. we wonder how we’ll find the time and resources to do all the sexy and forward-looking things, burdened as we are with the demands of supporting legacy applications, “utility” services, and a huge and constantly growing pile of all kinds of content that must be stored, served up, backed up (and, we hope, not too often, restored), migrated, and preserved. the buzz over the cloud and all its variants thus has a certain siren-like quality about it. the notion of signing over to someone else’s care—for little or no apparent cost—our basic services and even our own content (our stuff) is very appealing. the song is all the more persuasive in a climate where we’ve moved from just the normal bad news of merely doing more with less to a situation where staff layoffs are no longer limited to corporate and public libraries, but indeed extend now to our greatest institutions.4 at the risk of sounding like a paranoid naysayer to what might seem a no-brainer proposition, i’d like to suggest a few test questions for evaluating whether, how, and when we send our stuff into the cloud: 1. why are we doing this? what do we hope to gain? 2. what will it cost us? bear in mind that nothing is free—except, in the open-source community, where free beer is, unlike kittens, free. if, for example, the borg offer to provide institutional mail without advertisements, there is surely a cost somewhere. the borg, sensibly enough, are not in business to provide us with pro bono services. 3. what is the gain or loss to our staff and patrons in terms of local customization options, functionality, access, etc? 4. how much control do we have over the service offered or how our content is used, stored, marc truitt (marc.truitt@ualberta.ca) is associate university librarian, bibliographic and information technology services, university of alberta libraries, edmonton, alberta, canada, and editor of ital. 108 information technology and libraries | september 2009 repurposed, or made available to other parties? 5. what’s the exit strategy? what if we want to pick up and move elsewhere? can we reclaim all of our stuff easily and portably, leaving no sign that we’d ever sent it to the cloud? we are responsible for the services we provide and for the content we have been entrusted. we cannot shrug off this duty by simply consigning our services and our stuff to the cloud. to do so leaves us vulnerable to an irreparable loss of credibility with our users; eventually some among them would rightly ask, “so what is it that you folks do, anyway?” we’re responsible for it—whether it’s at home or in the cloud—because it’s our stuff. it is our stuff, right? references and notes 1. i should confess, in the interest of full disclosure, that it was eli neiburger of the ann arbor district library who suggested “hosted services as savior or slippery slope” for next year’s holt program. i’ve shamelessly filched eli’s topic, if not his catchy title, for this column. thanks, eli. also, again in the interest of full disclosure, i suggested the virtualization topic, which eventually won the support of the group. finally, some participants in the discussion observed that virtualization technology and hosting are in many ways two sides of the same topical coin, but i’ll leave that for others to debate. 2. brad stone, “amazon erases orwell books from kindle,” new york times, july 17, 2009, http://www.nytimes .com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html?_ r=1 (accessed july 21, 2009). 3. amazon.com, “amazon kindle: license agreement and terms of use,” http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/ display.html?nodeid=200144530 (accessed july 21, 2009). 4. “budget cutbacks announced in libraries, center for professional development,” stanford university news, june 10, 2009, http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/june17/layoffs-061709 .html (accessed july 22, 2009; “harvard libraries cuts jobs, hours,” harvard crimson (online edition), june, 26 2009, http:// www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=528524 (accessed july 22, 2009). we can do it for free! using freeware for online patron engagement public libraries leading the way we can do it for free! using freeware for online patron engagement karin suni and christopher a. brown information technology and libraries | march 2021 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v40i1.13257 karin suni (sunik@freelibrary.org) is curator, theatre collection, the free library of philadelphia. christopher a. brown (brownc@freelibrary.org) is curator, children’s literature research collection, the free library of philadelphia. © 2021. “public libraries leading the way” is a regular column spotlighting technology in public libraries. in the early weeks of the pandemic, the special collections division of the free library of philadelphia (https://freelibrary.org/) responded to the library’s call for fun and interactive online engagement. initially staff members released games and buzzfeed-inspired lists via various social media accounts to amuse patrons, distract from the lockdown, and provide educational programming. as the list of activities grew, we realized this content needed a more substantial home; the return on investment of time for the development and production of an online game to be released once on social media was not sufficient. activities and passive programming that took hours to create could easily fall victim to social media’s algorithms and be quickly buried in a patron’s feed. the free library’s official blog was an insufficient option because it promoted all library programming, and our goal was to highlight the value of our division and the materials housed within it. we resolved these issues by creating an online repository solely with freeware systems (https://bit.ly/funwithflpspeccoll). the repository provides a stable landing page wherein the special collections division content builds meaningful connections with patrons of all ages. this model can be readily adapted and is a valuable tool for library workers promoting their own online engagement. repository framework it was clear that our division could not add to the burden of an overworked it staff by requesting support for digital engagement. we needed to seek external alternatives that would interest patrons and could be managed with limited training. before we began our search, we brainstormed a list of requirements: • an inexpensive and user-friendly hosting platform • a pleasing look and easy navigation • the ability to be updated frequently and easily • the flexibility to adapt and expand as our requirements change our search led us to the google suite of products, specifically google sites and google drawings. google sites and google drawings integrated perfectly with each other, and we appreciated their usability and relative simplicity. once we selected the software, we knew we needed a list of best practices to guide the repository’s creation: ● to establish a visual connection with our official website, the repository would primarily use the free library’s branded color scheme. ● all thumbnails created would be square, allowing us to reuse the image as promotional material on different social media accounts. mailto:sunik@freelibrary.org mailto:brownc@freelibrary.org https://freelibrary.org/ https://bit.ly/funwithflpspeccoll information technology and libraries march 2021 we can do it for free! | suni and brown 2 ● all members of the division can create content, but the ability to update and edit the repository would remain limited to ensure consistency. these guidelines have proven effective. the color scheme and thumbnail rules formed a framework wherein we could work productively without “reinventing the wheel.” limiting administrative abilities has allowed us to maintain a controlled vocabulary within the repository, better unifying the content. repository software the google suite, specifically google sites, is advantageous for library workers looking to create professional-looking content quickly. it is free with a google account and built-in templates allow users to build a fully functional website within a few hours with little-to-no design experience. as with all freeware, google sites has quirks. the foremost is that while there are options for customization, these options are finite. there are a limited number of layout, header, and font designs meaning that anyone using the software must temper their vision to fit within the confines of the program. google drawings is far more flexible, in part because it is a much simpler program. users familiar with software like powerpoint or ms paint have the ability to design images for headers, thumbnails, etc. two drawbacks we encountered with this freeware are the restrictions on image upload size (a consideration for our division given the archival files used in our digital collections) and the limited ability to create word art. for our division, the advantages of these software products outweigh their limitations. content framework the repository houses programming devised primarily with freeware. an early discovery was a suite of activities from flippity (https://www.flippity.net). designed for educational use, flippity provides templates for a variety of online activities including memory games, matching games, and board games. our primary focus has been on the first two, although we continue to explore new aspects of this suite as templates are added. flippity works with google sheets and can integrate images from google drawings. jigsaw planet (https://jigsawplanet.net/) has been used extensively by libraries and museums during the pandemic. it allows creators to easily turn images into puzzles that are played online, either on the site itself or through embedding the puzzle. the site allows registered users to access leaderboards, and it allows creators to track how many times puzzles have been played. in addition to the ease of use, the major benefit of jigsaw planet is that the patron can customize their experience by changing the number of pieces to fit their preferred level of difficulty. the desire for audio and video content has surged over the last several months, and we have sought to meet that need through the use of a variety of software. in regard to video, youtube is not a new tool, but the majority of our pre-pandemic programs were not filmed. with the shift to crowdcast and zoom, we now have a library of online lectures and other events that have been uploaded to youtube and can be viewed repeatedly and at any time. with a dedicated home for this content, we have been inspired to seek out older videos of special collections programming across multiple channels and link them to the repository. https://www.flippity.net/ https://jigsawplanet.net/ information technology and libraries march 2021 we can do it for free! | suni and brown 3 one of the newest additions to our offerings has been the podcast story search from special collections (http://bit.ly/flpstorysearch), which explores stories based on, inspired by, or connected to material artifacts. the podcast is recorded and edited using zencastr and audacity and is posted on anchor, which also distributes it to major listening apps. in recent weeks, our division has added images, blog posts, and additional con tent for current and past exhibitions. this is the first formal exhibition compilation since the special collections division began in 2015, and we are delighted that it is available for the public to explore. the material is arranged using templates and tools available in google sites, allowing patrons to view image carousels, exhibition tags, and past programs. the inclusion of this material marks a shift away from the repository functioning as a response to the need for pandemic-related content to a living history of our division and our work promoting the special collections of the free library. accessibility accessibility and equity of access lie at the core of library service. sadly, we were not initially focused on this point, and our content was not fully accessible, e.g., text was presented in thumbnails only which limited the use of screen readers to relay information. as the content expanded, we sought to make the space as inclusive as the freeware limits allowed. alternative text was added to images and information was not limited within thumbnails. this is an ongoing process, but one that is necessary to reach as many patrons as possible. analytics site visits and other statistics for a library’s online presence are always important, but especially so during the pandemic when restricted physical access has driven more patrons to online resources. our plan for capturing this information was two-pronged. first, we used bit.ly to create customized, trackable links for our content. these are used within the repository and on social media and in other online promotions. this has proven to increase repository traffic while providing information on how patrons discover our content. the statistics generated from bit.ly are only available for 30 days for free accounts, albeit in a rolling 30-day window. knowing this, we transcribe the statistics monthly into a spreadsheet to maintain a consistent account of patron access. our second prong is google analytics, a freeware option that only tracks data within the repository. google analytics connects a single google account to google sites, but the integration is seamless and the data remains available indefinitely. this provides a visual breakdown of statistics, including maps and graphs that are easily shared with other stakeholders. by using both tools we are able to surmise who is visiting the repository, where they are finding the links, and which sections are popular with our patrons. conclusion the special collections repository was created in response to a growing need for online patron engagement during the early weeks of the pandemic. our division strove to engage the public with fun, educational programming and activities primarily using freeware. this has proven to be successful with the general public and members of our division. the statistics from the site have both informed content creation and engendered a better appreciation for the repository from our administration. as we move forward, the repository is evolving into a comprehensive collection of what the special collection division does and how we meet the need for patron engagement http://bit.ly/flpstorysearch information technology and libraries march 2021 we can do it for free! | suni and brown 4 online and in person. it is a framework that can be used by library workers across a multitude of areas and specialties, housing activities from story times and passive programming to book clubs and lectures. repository framework repository software content framework accessibility analytics conclusion barnettellis 22 information technology and libraries | march 2005 the metascholar initiative of emory university libraries, in collaboration with the center for the study of southern culture, the atlanta history center, and the georgia music hall of fame, received an institute of museum and library services grant to develop a new model for library-museum-archives collaboration. this collaboration will broaden access to resources for learning communities through the use of the open archives initiative protocol for metadata harvesting (oaipmh). the project, titled music of social change (mosc), will use oai-pmh as a tool to bridge the widely varying metadata standards and practices across museums, archives, and libraries. this paper will focus specifically on the unique advantages of the use of oaipmh to concurrently maximize the exposure of metadata emergent from varying metadata cultures. t he metascholar initiative of emory university libraries, in collaboration with the center for the study of southern culture, the atlanta history center, and the georgia music hall of fame, received an institute of museum and library services grant to develop a new model for library-museum-archives collaboration to broaden access to resources for learning communities through the use of the open archives initiative protocol for metadata harvesting (oai-pmh).1 the collaborators of the project, entitled music of social change (mosc), are creating a subject-based virtual collection concerning music and musicians associated with social-change movements such as the civil-rights struggle. this paper will specifically focus on the advantages offered by oai-pmh in amalgamating and serving metadata from these institutional sources that are significantly different in kind.2 there has been a great deal of discussion within the library community as to the possibilities oai-pmh holds for harvesting, aggregating, and then disseminating research metadata. however, in reality, only a few of institutions (be they museum, archives, or libraries) have actually begun to utilize oai-pmh to this end. there are some practical, historical barriers to implementing any shared system for distributing metadata across institutions that are, more than in degree, different in kind. one of these significant differences is of metadata cultures and practices. libraries have traditionally incrementally assigned metadata at an item level within their collection(s). the strength of this model is that at least a minimal amount of metadata is assigned to a very high percentage of items within the collection. the challenge of such a system is that for such metadata records to interoperate within a shared database and through a common interface (for example, the traditional union catalog), the metadata fields have been quite rigidly defined compared to those within archival and museum environments. due to tradition as well as the sheer volume of items collected by libraries, metadata at an item level are not greatly detailed or contextualized. often, items within library collections lack robust relationary mapping to other items within or outside of the collection, as is done, for example, in archival processing. content contextualization is highly valued by archival metadata practices and culture as the central tenet of metadata creation. items at a subcollection level almost always have metadata derivative from and deferential to that of the collection-level metadata. the great benefit of archival practices in metadata assignment is a contextualization of content that reflects the background, the topographic place in time and space of a given portion of a collection and its organic, emergent relationship to the whole. the weaknesses of this model are a great inconsistency in description details and variables (at the collection and subcollection levels), as well as very disparate levels of granularity within the hierarchy of the structure of a collection at which metadata are assigned. such disparities among institutional types feed an unnecessary level of misunderstanding by libraries of the metadata culture and aims of archives as well as those of museums. museums often have very skeletal documented (as opposed to undocumented) metadata about their collections or objects therein. often museums are not funded to make metadata on their collections freely available. it is common, in fact, for curatorial staff to view metadata as intellectual property to which they serve as gatekeepers, reflecting a professional value placed upon contextualizing materials for users. this is done on a user-by-user or exhibition-by-exhibition basis, depending on user background or the thesis of a given exhibition. additionally, museums perceive information on the aboutness of their collections to be a class of capital with which they can always potentially cost-recover or generate income. within the culture of museums, staff have traditionally been disinclined to make their collections available in an unmediated manner. additionally, there has been resistance to documenting information about collections in a systematic way. there is even greater resistance to adhering to any prescriptions on metadata as would be required for compliance with even the most minimally structured database. such regulation would discriminate the mosc project: using the oai-pmh to bridge metadata cultural differences across museums, archives, and libraries eulalia roel eulalia roel (eulalia.roel@gmail.com) is coordinator of information resources at the federal reserve, atlanta. against the nuanced information required for each and every object within a collection. � why oai-pmh to bridge these cultures? oai-pmh was selected by the mosc project as a means to bridge some of these substantial disparities. the protocol is often mistakenly assumed to function only with metadata expressed as unqualified dublin core (dc). in fact, the protocol functions with any metadata format expressed by extensible markup language (xml); this is the minimal requirement for content to serve metadata through oai-pmh. this includes those formats that have been well received by institutions other than libraries, such as xml encoded archival description (ead) as it is used in archives. as per 4.2 of the oai-pmh guidelines for repository implementers, communities are able to develop their own collection description xml schemas for use within description . . . elements. if all that is desired is the ability to include an unstructured textual description, then it is recommended that repositories use the dublin core description element. seven existing schemes are: dublin core, encoded archival description (ead), the eprints schema, rslp collection description schema, uddi/wsdl, marc21, and the branding schema.3 the oai protocol has often been partnered with unqualified dc metadata, as this is the most minimal metadata structure necessary for participation in an oai harvesting system. not only are these dc fields unqualified, no fields are actually required. no structure or regulations are codified outside of requiring metadata contributors to adhere to this unqualified metadata schema. therefore, the oai protocol requires minimal technology support and resources at any given contributing site (such support varying more widely across institutions than even their metadata practices themselves). this maximizes flexibility in metadata contribution, as well as maximizing interoperability between the collective data pool from which a user can search. granted, this unregulated framework does come at a cost of inconsistency in metadata detail and quality. however, the great advantage of such nominal requirements is that they enable contributors with minimal metadata-encoding practices to participate in the metadata collaborative. following is an example of a record as it may appear in the mosc collection:
oai:atlantahistorycenter.com:10 2003-03-31 south:blues south:mississippi-delta-region
long hall recordings morris, william blues .. comment: sound amateur recording 2003-05-16 sound recording http://atlantahistorycenter.com/ porcelain/10
additionally, with no fields required by the dc schema, institutions can have absolute discretion as to what metadata are exposed if this is a concern (as may be for privacy considerations for archives or for intellectualproperty concerns for museums). however, one of the great strengths of implementing oai-pmh is that, while the threshold for regulating metadata is low, the protocol can also handle any metadata format expressed by xml, including data formats significantly more structured than dc; for example, ead, text encoding initiative (tei), and tei lite-defined documents. scholars are then able to access these scholarly objects via one point, while still being able to collectively access and utilize all metadata objects available in all collections, from the most to the least robust. the aim of the mosc project participants in selecting oai-pmh is to maximize participation from fairly disparate kinds of organizations, with equally disparate kinds of metadata cultures and practices. in comparison to other, currently available methods of metadata aggregation, oai-pmh is maximally forgiving of discordant metadata suppliers. thereby, the hope is, metadata contributions are maximized. concurrently, the protocol the mosc project | roel 23 24 information technology and libraries | march 2005 allows for highly robust metadata formats. as the cost for inclusion in aggregated systems, in some cases metadata objects are stripped down. this need is eliminated when oai-pmh is utilized. the use of the protocol allows for the inclusion of objects consisting of the most skeletal unqualified dublin core elements, while still accommodating the most complicated metadata objects. optimally, this is a means to achieve a critical mass of contributed resources that will enable end users to utilize the mosc project as the premier site and a primary resource for information on materials about music and musicians associated with social-change movements. � acknowledgment the author would like to express her sincerest gratitude to the institute of museum and library services for funding the music of social change project. references 1. “metascholar: an emory university digital library research initiative,” emory university libraries web site. accessed sept. 1, 2004, http://metascholar.org/; “the center for southern culture,” university of mississippi web site. accessed sept. 1, 2004, www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/; “atlanta history center,” atlanta history center web site. accessed sept. 1, 2004, www.atlantahistorycenter.com/; “georgia music hall of fame,” georgia music hall of fame web site. accessed sept. 1, 2004, www.gamusichall.com/home.html; “institute of museum and library services: library-museum collaboration,” institute of museum and library services web site. accessed sept. 1, 2004, www.imls.gov/grants/l-m/index.htm. 2. “implementation guidelines for the open archives initiative protocol for metadata harvesting,” open archives initiative web site. accessed sept. 1, 2004, www.openarchives.org/ oai/openarchivesprotocol.html#introduction. 3. “4.2 collection and set descriptions,” open archives initiative web site. accessed sept. 1, 2004, www.openarchives.org/ oai/2.0/guidelines-repository.htm#setdescription. editorial | truitt 3 marc truitt marc truitt (marc.truitt@ualberta.ca) is associate university librarian, bibliographic and information technology services, university of alberta libraries, edmonton, alberta, canada, and editor of ital. marc truitt editorial: and now for something (completely) different t he issue of ital you hold in your hands—be that issue physical or virtual; we won’t even go into the question of your hands!—represents something new for us. for a number of years, ex libris (and previously, endeavor information systems) has generously sponsored the lita/ex libris (née lita/endeavor) student writing award competition. the competition seeks manuscript submissions from enrolled lis students in the areas of ital’s publishing interests; a lita committee on which the editor of ital serves as an ex-officio member evaluates the entries and names a winner. traditionally, the winning essay has appeared in the pages of ital. in recent years, perhaps mirroring the waning interest in publication in traditional peerreviewed venues, the number of entrants in the competition has declined. in 2008, for instance, there were but nine submissions, and to get those, we had to extend the deadline six weeks from the end of february to midapril. in previous years, as i understand it, there often were even fewer. this year, without moving the goalposts, we had— hold onto your hats!—twenty-seven entries. of these, the review committee identified six finalists for discussion. the turnout was so good, in fact, that with the agreement of the committee, we at ital proposed to publish not only the winning paper but the other finalist entries as well. we hope that you will find them as stimulating as have we. even more importantly, we hope that by publishing such a large group of papers representing 2009’s best in technology-focused lis work, we will encourage similarly large numbers of quality submissions in the years to come. i would like to offer sincere thanks to my university of alberta colleague sandra shores, who as guest editor for this issue worked tirelessly over the past few months to shepherd quality student papers into substantial and interesting contributions to the literature. she and managing editor judith carter—who guest-edited our recent discovery issue—have both done fabulous jobs with their respective ital special issues. bravo! n ex libris’ sponsorship in one of those ironic twists that one more customarily associates with movie plots than with real life, the lita/ex libris student writing award recently almost lost its sponsor. at very nearly the same time that sandra was completing the preparation of the manuscripts for submission to ala production services (where they are copyedited and typeset), we learned that ex libris had notified lita that it had “decided to cease sponsoring” the student writing award. a brief round of e-mails among principals at lita, ex libris, and ital ensued, with the outcome being that carl grant, president of ex libris north america, graciously agreed to continue sponsorship for another year and reevaluate underwriting the award for the future. we at ital and i personally are grateful. carl’s message about the sponsorship raises some interesting issues on which i think we should reflect. his first point goes like this: it simply is not realistic for libraries to continue to believe that vendors have cash to fund these things at the same levels when libraries don’t have cash to buy things (or want to delay purchases or buy the product for greatly reduced amounts) from those same vendors. please understand the two are tied together. point taken and conceded. money is tight. carl’s argument, i think, speaks as well to a larger, implied question. libraries and library vendors share highly synergistic and, in recent years, increasingly antagonistic relationships. library vendors—and i think library system vendors in particular—come in for much vitriol and precious little appreciation from those of us on the customer side. we all think they charge too much (and by implication, must also make too much), that their support and service are frequently unresponsive to our needs, and that their systems are overly large, cumbersome, and usually don’t do things the way we want them done. at the same time, we forget that they are catering to the needs and whims of a small, highly specialized market that is characterized by numerous demands, a high degree of complexity, and whose members—“standards” notwithstanding—rarely perform the same task the same way across institutions. we expect very individualized service and support, but at the same time are penny-pinching misers in our ability and willingness to pay for these services. we are beggars, yet we insist on our right to be choosers. finally, at least for those of us of a certain generation—and yep, i count myself among its members—we chose librarianship for very specific reasons, which often means we are more than a little uneasy with concepts of “profit” and “bottom line” as applied to our world. we fail to understand the open-source dictum that “free as in kittens and not as in beer” means that we will have to pay someone for these services—it’s only a question of whom we will pay. carl continues, making another point: i do appreciate that you’re trying to provide us more recognition as part of this. frankly, that was another consideration in our thought of dropping it—we just didn’t feel like we were getting much for it. marc truitt (marc.truitt@ualberta.ca) is associate university librarian, bibliographic and information technology services, university of alberta libraries, edmonton, alberta, canada, and editor of ital. 4 information technology and libraries | march 2010 i’ve said before and i’ll say again, i’ve never, in all my years in this business had a single librarian say to me that because we sponsored this or that, it was even a consideration in their decision to buy something from us. not once, ever. companies like ours live on sales and service income. i want to encourage you to help make librarians aware that if they do appreciate when we do these things, it sure would be nice if they’d let us know in some real tangible ways that show that is true. . . . good will does not pay bills or salaries unless that good will translates into purchases of products and services (and please note, i’m not just speaking for ex libris here, i’m saying this for all vendors). and here is where carl’s and my views may begin to diverge. let’s start by drawing a distinction between vendor tchotchkes and vendor sponsorship. in fairness, carl didn’t say anything about tchotchkes, so why am i? i do so because i think that we need to bear in mind that there are multiple ways vendors seek to advertise themselves and their services to us, and geegaws are one such. trinkets are nice—i have yet to find a better gel pen than the ones given out at iug 14 (would that i could get more!)—but other than reminding me of a vendor’s name, they serve little useful purpose. the latter, vendor sponsorship, is something very different, very special, and not readily totaled on the bottom line. carl is quite right that sponsorship of the student writing award will not in and of itself cause me to buy aleph, primo, or sfx (oh right, i have that last one already!). these are products whose purchase is the result of lengthy and complex reviews that include highly detailed and painstaking needs analysis, specifications, rfps, site visits, demonstrations, and so on. due diligence to our parent institutions and obligations to our users require that we search for a balance among best-of-breed solutions, top-notch support, and fair pricing. those things aren’t related to sponsorship. what is related to sponsorship, though, is a sense of shared values and interests. of “doing the right thing.” i may or may not buy carl’s products because of the considerations above (and yes, ex libris fields very strong contenders in all areas of library automation); i definitely will, though, be more likely to think favorably of ex libris as a company that has similar—though not necessarily identical—values to mine, if it is obvious that it encourages and materially supports professional activities that i think are important. support for professional growth and scholarly publication in our field are two such values. i’m sure we can all name examples of this sort of behavior: in addition to support of the student writing award, ex libris’ long-standing prominence in the national information standards organization (niso) comes to mind. so too does the founding and ongoing support by innovative interfaces and the library consulting firm r2 for the taiga forum (http://www.taigaforum.org/), a group of academic associate university librarians. to the degree that i believe ex libris or another firm shares my values by supporting such activities—that it “does the right thing”—i will be just a bit more inclined to think positively of it when i’m casting about for solutions to a technology or other need faced by my institution. i will think of that firm as kin, if you will. with that, i will end this by again thanking carl and ex libris—because we don’t say thank you often enough!—for their generous support of the lita/ex libris student writing award. i hope that it will continue for a long time to come. that support is something about which i do care deeply. if you feel similarly—be it about the student writing award, niso, taiga, or whatever—i urge you to say so by sending an appropriate e-mail to your vendor’s representative or by simply saying thanks in person to the company’s head honcho on the ala exhibit floor. and the next time you are neck-deep in seemingly identical vendor quotations and need a way to figure out how to decide between them, remember the importance of shared values. n dan marmion longtime lita members and ital readers in particular will recognize the name of dan marmion, editor of this journal from 1999 through 2004. many current and recent members of the ital editorial board—including managing editor judith carter, webmaster andy boze, board member mark dehmlow, and i—can trace our involvement with ital to dan’s enthusiastic period of stewardship as editor. in addition to his leadership of ital, dan has been a mentor, colleague, boss, and friend. his service philosophy is best summarized in the words of a simple epigram that for many years has graced the wall behind the desk in his office: “it’s all about access!!” because of health issues, and in order to devote more time to his wife diana, daughter jennifer, and granddaughter madelyn, dan recently decided to retire from his position as associate director for information systems and digital access at the university of notre dame hesburgh libraries. he also will pursue his personal interests, which include organizing and listening to his extensive collection of jazz recordings, listening to books on cd, and following the exploits of his favorite sports teams, the football irish of notre dame, the indianapolis colts, and the new york yankees. we want to express our deep gratitude for all he has given to the profession, to lita, to ital, and to each of us personally over many years. we wish him all the best as he embarks on this new phase of his life. 240 i ournal of library automation vol. 7 i 3 september 197 4 book reviews case studies in lihm1·y computer systems, by richard phillips palmer. new york: r. r. bowker, 1973. 214p. $10.95. surely one of the most annoying and disappointing aspects of the literature of library automation is the complete lack of uniformity or standards for reports of individual accomplishments. thus one reads the continuing stream of reports of automated processes in individual libraries with only the remotest idea of which of the projects described are actually operating, which are in the process of being implemented, and which are merely proposals that still exist exclusively in the minds of their creators. in this volume, richard palmer has brought together a number of descriptions of operating systems, upon which he has imposed his own standards of presentation. in all, six circulation, eight serials, and six acquisitions systems are described; in each case the description is divided into six parts. first, in a section entitled "environment," the library, its collections, and its users are briefly described. some idea is provided of the library's total budget, or at least its materials budget, and unusual features of the library are given. next, the objectives of the automated system are stated, generally with some indication of what prompted automation to be considered and what features of the previous manual system were less than satisfactory. a section entitled "the computer" describes the hardware used in some detail (and this information is summarized in a table at the end of the book) , and the next section, "the system," gives a lengthy and detailed description of how the system works. the last section in each case is devoted to observations by palmer, indicating the significance to the library of the automated system, and often pointing out problems that have been noted. the least satisfactory section of the book is the final chapter, "summary and observations," in which palmer lays out the stated costs of each system in such a way that they may be directly compared, even though he knows the figures have been derived in various manners and are therefore not directly comparable. palmer's warning to the reader that "unit costs ... should not be compared without noting that they were not computed on a standard basis" makes even more mystifying his arrangement of those costs in tabular form. a second area that seems weak is the suggestion that the book constitutes an effective rebuttal to the criticisms of ellsworth mason. it seems unlikely that anything short of a very thorough systems analysis, showing all of the problems, alten1atives, costs, and benefits of both manual and machine systems, will satisfy mason. despite these very minor reservations, the book is well worthy of study. it presents, in nontechnical language, some of the most carefully and honestly described systems descriptions to be found in the literature, suggesting by example that many of the individual applications described in the journals, including lola, might well be better than they are. pete1· simmons school of librarianship university of british c@lumbla information systems, se1'vices and centers, by herman m. weisman. new york, n.y.: wiley-becker-hayes, 1972. 265p. $10.95. isbn: 0-471-92645-0. weisman states that his work "is not a text on automated information technology," and mechanization is pretty well dismissed in one page of critical discussion. ellsworth mason is singled out for his "amusing, facetious and bitter account of a [sic] melancholy experience at mechanization." use of automated services for information work is covered in less than a page. the work is supposed to be a university-level text and "reference source" on "the practices of information transfer and use" on the "retailer" level. it is almost entirely limited to industrial and government scientific and technical information services. libraries are defined in passing as a "specific type of information system . . . largely limited with some few exceptions to the passive repository function. . . ." however, "if the organization has a library, consultation with the librarian and use of his mechanisms for acquisition and purchase are advisable." it is also suggested that acquisitions are "recommended by the systems advisory committee . . . selected and purchased by the director of the information system and the documentation unit head," and the onorder file is maintained as a list (to be distributed monthly, perhaps) and in card form. the section on cataloging is equally instructive in advising that the acquisition process has provided "subject" as one of three elements needed for descriptive cataloging. the book swings dizzily back and forth from this lilliputian (or is it laputan?) perspective to the more olympian outlook suggested by a seventeen-page appendix which is the text of a charter for the united engineering information service with an expected annual budget of $1.2 million. it also seesaws from the uselessly general to the exquisite detail of an operations manual with hardly a pause for breath. we are told at the start of the chapter on "documentation practicesinformation services" that it "is more efficient to provide [information dissemination services] than to have individuals scurrying about searching for information." a summary of the "procedural flow" follows immediately: "1. ... all requests and inquiries no matter how received or to whom addressed are logged and assigned a control number. 2 .... the head of inquiry services is responsible for monitoring all requests and inquiries. . . . all incoming requests are entered on the inquiry form .... " most examples appear to be drawn from the author's experience as manager of information services, national bureau of standards. some are useful. strauss' scientific and technical libraries: their organization and administration was another wiley-becker-hayes volume issued during the same year. it is impossible to avoid imagining the publisher's marketing division people counting the respective memberships of the special libraries association and the american book reviews 241 society for information science as distinct markets for the two works. however, the first three-quarters of weisman's work is a duplication distinguished from strauss mainly by the shallowness of its coverage and the poverty of its prose. weisman's only notable contribution is thirty pages about information analysis centers, which might be worth a school reading assignment. the assignment will be at some risk, depending .on students' toleration for such words as "essentialness," "beneficialness," "collaborationists," and such phrases as "parameters of data points," as in "an indexed bibliography becomes a more useful document, since it can indicate to a user exactly the type of data contained as well as parameters of data points." "relevance," as weisman notes, "is not always synonymous with competence." justine roberts university of california san francisco k1wwing books and men; knowing computers, too, by jesse h. shera. littleton, colo.: libraries unlimited, 1973. 363p. $13.50. isbn: 0-87287-073-1. the only clumsy thing about this book is its pretentious title, which not only gives little indication of the book's contents but is discordant with the lucid and vigorous style of the writing. kbam;kc,t is a selection of writings and speeches by dr. shera, done between 1931 and 1972, all but one previously published. but only a few are reprinted unchanged; most have undergone revision to some significant extent, and one has been almost doubled in length in revision. even the oldest papers are not unduly "dated," and the author's reflections on the use and abuse of computers in libraries are as timely now as when first written. the twenty-nine papers published here are presented under six headings, each representing an area of librarianship in which dr. shera has been a major influence: philosophy of librarianship, library history, reference work in the library, documentation, the academic library, and library education. most of lola's readers, it is hazarded, will find 242 journal of library automation vol. 7/3 september 1974 the section on documentation of most interest. reviewing kbam;kc,t is no fit occasion for attempting to evaluate jesse shera's contributions to librarianship. he is established, and this selection from his writings contains many of his important and influential papers and others, inevitably, less weighty. throughout, however, they bear shera' s characteristic combination of clarity, intelligence, vision, and a forthrightness bordering on truculence, the mix spiced judiciously with attic salt. in a disarming preface shera suggests that the collection may be "more of an addition to library shelves than to library literature." be that as it may, many of the writings were originally published in somewhat obscure journals, and it is helpful to have them gathered in this convenient form. george piternick school of librarianship the university of british columbia a library management game: a report on a research project, by p. brophy, m. k. buckland, g. ford, a. hindle, and a. g. mackenzie; with an appendix by l. c. guy. (university of lancaster occasional papers, no.7) university of lancaster library, 1972. 90p. £ 1.00. isbn: 0901699-14-4. in the context of the need for greater managerial expertise in libraries, the state of managerial education in library schools, and the place of games in this education, the authors describe in this document the development of a simplified probablistic model of a loan and duplication system. while it is perhaps the novelty of concept exhibited by the game which first attracts attention, closer examination reveals that the game is but the vehicle upon which is carried a far-ranging analysis of the state of library management. a dynamic model utilizes three input variables-loan period, titles bought, and duplicates purchased-and three output measures-satisfaction level, document exposure, and collection bias-of the effective manipulation of the former within the constraint of budget to illustrate complex interactions within a library system. sufficient flexibility (e.g., variation of loan periods according to popularity of volumes and/ or status of user) enables different policies to be selected to effect the stated objectives of the player (library "manager"). comparison of selected outputs illustrates that while choosing and implementing policies may be simple (a "game editor" interprets a player's decisions to the computer), judging their merits is not. policy (l) decreases collection bias at the expense of average document exposure per issue, while policy ( q) has the opposite effect, for similar costs and total issues; policy (t) increases satisfaction level and decreases collection bias in comparison with policy ( q), at a cost of 8,000 units of expenditure. evaluation of the policy decision rests on a value judgment (as in the real world) . although description of the game and probabilities upon which it is based occupies a considerable portion of the volume, the authors considered not only the practicability of such a game but also its usefulness in teaching and cost of utilization. an appendix devoted to an in-depth study of education for library management concludes that: in britain and, to a lesser extent, the united states this aspect of library education needs considerable strengthening; games such as that described are most suited to specialized courses for experienced librarians but there is a place for similar ones in firstlevel courses; and a larger proportion of the profession needs to comprehend the concepts put forward in this and other studies before better management techniques will be applied to libraries. this volume is an important contribution to the literature of library management, illustrating that the effect that computers can have on the practice of librarianship goes far beyond the mere substitution of machines for clerical workers. george ]. snowball sir george williams unive1·sity library montreal, canada \ orthographic error patterns of author names in catalog searches 93 renata tagliacozzo, manfred kochen, and lawrence rosenberg: mental health research institute, the university of michigan, ann arbor, michigan an investigation of error patterns in author names based on data from a survey of library catalog searches. position of spelling errors was noted and related to length of name. probability of a name having a spelling error was found to increase with length of name. nearly half of the spelling mistakes were replacement errors; following, in order of decreasing frequency, were omission, addition, and transposition errors. computer-based catalog searching may fail if a searcher provides an author or title which does not match with the required exactitude the corresponding computer-stored catalog entry ( 1). in designing computer aids to catalog searching, it is important to build in safety features that decrease sensitivity to minor errors. for example, compression coding techniques may be used to minimize the effects of spelling errors on retrieval ( 2, 3, 4). preliminary to the design of good protection devices, the application of error-correction coding theory ( 5, 6, 7) and data on error patterns in actual catalog searches ( 8, 9) may be helpful. a recent survey of catalog use at three university libraries yielded some data of the above-mentioned kind (10). the aim of this paper is to present and analyze those results of the survey which bear on questions of error control in searching a computer-stored catalog. in the survey, users were interviewed at random as they approached the catalog. of the 2167 users interviewed, 1489 were searching the catalog for a particular item ("known-item searches"). of these, 67.9% first entered the catalog with an author's or editor's name, 26.2% with a title, and 5.9% with a subject heading. approximately half the searchers had a written citation, while half relied on memory for the relevant in94 journal of library automation vol. 3/2 june, 1970 formation. paradoxically, though most known-item searchers tried to match primarily an author and only secondarily a title, there were in the sample of searches many more cases of exact title citation than of exact author citation. imperfect recall of author name of the 1489 "known-item" searches, 1356 could be verified against the actual item. from the total nwnber of searches ( 1260) in which the catalog user had provided an author's (or editor's) name, those works were subtracted which did not have a personal authorship ( 208) or had multiple authors or multiple editors ( 127). this left 925 searches, of which 470 had complete and correct author entries, while 455 contained various degrees of imperfection in the author citation. table 1 gives the distribution of incorrect and/or incomplete author citations. in the study an author's name was defined as incomplete when the first name, or the two initials, or one out of two initials was missing. table 1. incorrect and/or incomplete author names categories university of michigan libraries i ii iii total general library 144 25 6 175 undergraduate library 94 35 4 133 medical library 110 27 10 147 -total 348 87 20 455 in category i (the most numerous) the author's last name was correct, but the author citation as a whole was either incomplete or incorrect; i.e., there were mistakes and/or omissions in the first and middle name or initials. most of the searches in category i were incomplete rather than incorrect. since in category i there is nothing wrong with the author's last name, the searcher's ability to gain access to the right location in the catalog is presumably not impaired as long as the last name is not too common. once the searcher has entered the catalog, he will make use of other clues, such as title or knowledge of the topic, to identify the right item. but if the name is smith or brown or johnson, and the catalog is a large one, to have an incomplete author's name may be equivalent to having no name at all. (in the university of michigan general library catalog, which contains over four million cards, the entry "smith" extends over eight drawers, and the entries "brown" and "johnson" over four drawers each.) in an automated catalog it is easy to limit the set of entries from which the right item has to be selected by intersecting the last name of the author with some other clues. incompleteness of the author name may then not be a serious handicap. orthographic error patternsftagliacozzo 95 category iii includes all searches in which the searcher had an author that turned out to be wrong. the error in this case was not in incompleteness or misspelling of the author's name, but in the identity of the author. no further analysis of this group was conducted. category ii is the one which forms the object o£ the present report. the analysis concerns mainly position and type of errors, and the incidence of errors as related to name length. position of errors in author names the location of errors in the author citation is important for manual systems, such as traditional library card catalogs, as well as for automated systems. table 2 shows the distribution of e in the sample of incorrect author citations from all three libraries, where e is the position of the letter, counting from left to right, in which an error appeared. in the fourteen cases in which more than one error occurred in the same name, only the first error was considered. in a few cases the error involved a string of letters (e.g., friedman for friedberg). in such cases the position of the first letter of the string determined the location of the error. table 2. position of error in last name of author incorrect names e no. % cumulative % 1 2 2.3 2.3 2 11 12.6 14.9 3 11 12.6 27.6 4 19 21.8 49.4 5 13 14.9 64.4 6 12 13.8 78.2 7 7 8.0 86.2 8 6 6.9 93.1 9 3 3.4 96.6 10 2 2.3 98.9 11 1 1.1 100.0 total 87 table 2 shows that about half the incorrect author names had errors in one of the first four letters, while the other half had errors in one of the following letters, from the fifth to the eleventh position. the most frequently misspelled is the fourth letter, which is responsible for 21.8% of the total number of errors occurring in the sample. the ordinal number indicating the position of the error is not, by itself, a sufficient indicator of the area where the error occurred. an error in the third letter, for instance, is close to the beginning of the name if the 96 ]ourml of library automation vol. 3/ 2 june, 1970 name is 9 letters long, but close to the end if the name is 4 letters long. in table 3 l indicates the length (the number of letters) of the authot name and pa the location of the error-i.e., the position of the first letter, counting from left to right, where an error appears. the incorrect author names of the sample ( 87) have a length of between 3 and 12 letters. the column on the right of the table, el, indicates the distribution of names of a given length. the row at the bottom of the table gives the distribution of errors occurring in a given position. mistakes are shown to occur anywhere from the first letter to the eleventh letter. when the error consists in the addition of a letter to the end of the correct name, pa is beyond the name itself. the figures which appear next to the diagonal line, on the right, indicate mistakes of this sort. a sununary inspection of the table produces the impression that errors are clustered toward the end of the names, or at least that they are more prevalent in the second half of the name than in the first half. this seems to be a direct consequence of the fact that the first column of the table (errors in position 1) is almost empty. it is tempting to say that errors very rarely occur in the first letter of a proper name. but is this really so? it is true that english-speaking people place particular emphasis on initials, to the extent that initials are often sufficient for identifying well-known figures. the special attention given to the first table 3. position of error vs. length of name length (l) errors (pe) frequency (el) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 3 1 1 4 1 3 5 5 1 2 1 7 6 1 3 6 21 7 4 2 6 19 8 2 3 2 16 9 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 10 1 1 2 1 2 7 11 1 1 2 12 1 1 total 2 11 11 19 13 12 7 6 3 2 1 87 orthographic error patternsjtagliacozzo 97 letter of a name would certainly contribute to the scarcity of errors in such a letter. but it is also possible that when errors in the first letter occur, they so transform the name that it becomes unrecognizable. several such authors may have ended up in the category of non-verified authors necessarily excluded from the analysis. it would be interesting to verify whether the "serial-position effect" that some authors found in the spelling of common nouns is present also in the spelling of proper names. according to jensen and to kooi et al., the distribution of spelling errors in relation to letter position closely approximates the serial-position curve for errors found in serial rote learning ( 11, 12). to ascertain if this is the case for author names, a data base much larger than that used for this study would be needed. distribution of errors and length of names is the probability of a catalog searcher misspelling the name of an author dependent to any extent on the length of the name? table 3 shows the frequency of occurrence of names of a given length in the 87 misspelled names (column el). the next step was to calculate the distribution of the length of author names in the whole group of verified author citations provided by the catalog searchers. this group, it should be remembered, does not include multiple authors, multiple editors or nonpersonal authors. the ratio of the corresponding figures in the two distributions will give the percentage of names of a given length having spelling mistakes (table 4) . table 4. probability of errors in recall of author names of a given length length frequency of frequency of percentage of of name incorrect names all names incorrect names 2 1 3 1 9 11.1%} 4 5 87 5.7% 4.9% (short 5 7 169 4. 1% names) 6 21 215 9.8%"\ 7 19 191 9.9% j 10.5% (medium 8 16 127 12.6% names) 9 8 59 13.6%} 10 7 36 19.4% 14.3% (long 11 2 26 7.7% names) 12 1 5 20.0% 87 925 there is an observable trend toward an increase of mistakes with length of name. of course, the two extremes of length distribution are scarcely 98 journal of library automation vol. 3/2 june, 1970 represented, and this is probably responsible for inconsistencies in the percentage disb·ibution. grouping names into three length categories (i.e., short names, middle-length names, and long names) makes more apparent differences in percentages of incorrect names. the differences are significant at the .01 level of confidence. type of error in author names errors which occurred in the spelling of the last names of authors were grouped into four broad categories: replacement errors, omission errors, addition errors, and transposition errors. while it is true, especially in badly mangled words, that an error can often be said to be of any of several types, it was generally easy to identify the simplest necessary transformation of the letters, and to assign the incorrect name to the type of error corresponding to that kind of transformation. in some cases this meant adding a string of letters or replacing one string by another. altogether the sample of 87 incorrect authors contained 104 errors. eleven names exhibited two errors each, three had three errors, and the remaining just one error. of the 104 errors, 50 were replacement errors; these are cases in which one letter or string of letters of the correct name has been replaced by a different letter or string of letters (e.g. hoiser for hoijer, friedman for friedberg). the most common replacement errors appear in table 5, in order of decreasing frequency. table 5. single-letter replacement errors no. of errors correct lettet' incorrect letter 6 0 a, a, a, a, p, r 5 a, e, y, y, y 4 y a, i, u, z 3 a i, o, 0 3 s c, r, z 3 v b, f, w 2 e i, 0 2 g c, r 28 not included in the table are the 10 letters which were each replaced just once and the 12 strings of letters. in four cases, the replaced letter was the second of a double letter. there were 34 omission errors in all. four of these involved a string of letters; all the rest were single-letter omissions. eleven single-letter omissions occurred in the last letter of the name (e.g. abbot instead of abbott), and 19 in the middle of the name (e. g. brent instead of orthographic error patternsjtagliacozzo 99 brendt). table 6 gives the frequency distribution of the omitted letters. the asterisk indicates that the omitted letter was the second of a double letter. table 6. single-letter omission errors no. of error in middle error in final letter errors position position omitted 8 5 3 e 4 4 a 4 40 t 3 1 20 n 2 2 h 2 2 i 2 20 1 2 1 1 s 1 1 c 1 1 d 1 1 r 30 addition errors totaled 18. in one case the addition consisted of a string of letters, while in the others only one letter was added. addition errors can occur in the middle of a name (e.g. berelison for berelson) or at the end of it (e.g. haller for halle). in the latter case, the added letter is found beyond the last letter of the correct name (these were the errors on the right of the diagonal in table 3). the distribution of addition errors is shown in table 7. the asterisk indicates that the added letter duplicated the previous letter. table 7. single-letter addition errors no. of error in middle errors position 5 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 l 1 17 error in final position 4 1 1 1 .l added letter s c e i a f 1 m n z 100 journal of library automation vol. 3/2 june, 1970 there were two transposition errors: ie for ei and ai for ia. in cases of second and third errors in the name, there were five replacement errors, seven omission errors, and five addition errors. table 8 summarizes the type of errors encountered in the sample of incorrect authors. figures in this table include strings as well as single letters, and second and third errors, as well as first errors. table 8. distribution of types of errors middle position replacement errors omission errors addition errors transposition errors conclusion four trends could be observed: 44 21 10 2 final total position 6 50 13 34 8 18 2 104 1) vowels usually replaced vowels, and consonants usually replaced consonants. apparently the probability of misspelling a single letter was slightly higher for vowels than for consonants. with the latter, there is some indication that the substitution was guided by phonetic similarity ( " » • 1 d b "b" "f" " ") e.g., v is rep ace y , or , or w . 2) most omissions in which the correct name had a double letter occurred at the end of the word. 3) replacement errors tended to come earlier in words than did omissions and additions. (this is not due to the fact that addition and omission errors contained a disproportionately high number of final errors; even when these final errors are excluded, replacement errors still come earlier than other types.) 4) second and third errors in a name have comparatively few replacement errors. acknowledgment this work was supported in part by the national science foundation, grant gn 716. references 1. kilgour, f. g.: "retrieval of single entries from a computerized library catalog file," proceedings of the american society for i nfo1'11ultion science, 5 ( 1968), 133-136. 2. nugent, william r. : "compression word coding techniques for information retrieval," journal of library automation, 1 (december 1968), 250-260. orthographic error patternsjtagliacozzo 101 3. ruecking, frederick h ., jr.: "bibliographic retrieval from bibliographic input; the hypothesis and construction of a test," journal of library automation, 1 (december 1968), 227-238. 4. dolby, james l. : "an algorithm for noisy matches in catalog searching." in: a study of the organization and search of bibliographic holdings records in on-line computer systems: phase i. (berkeley, cal. : institute of library research, university of california march 1969 ), 119-136. 5. peterson, william w.: error correcting codes (new york: wiley, 1961). 6. alberga, cyril n.: "string similarity and mispellings," communications of the acm, 10 ( 1967), 302-313. 7. galli, enrico j.; yamada, hisao m.: "experimental studies in computer-assisted correction of unorthographic text," ieee transactions on engineering writing and speech, ews-11 (august 1968), 75-84. 8. tagliacozzo, r., et al.: "patterns of searching in library catalogs." in: integrative mechanisms in literature growth. vol iv. (university of michigan, mental health research institute, january 1970). report to the national science foundation, gn 716. 9. university of chicago graduate library school: requirements study for future catalogs, (chicago : university of chicago graduate library school, 1968) . 10. tagliacozzo, renata; rosenberg, lawrence; kochen, manfred: access and recognition: from users' data to catalog entries (ann arbor, mich.: the university of michigan, mental health research institute, october 1969, communication no. 257) . 11. jensen, arthur r.: "spelling errors and the serial-position effect," journal of educational psychology, 53 (june 1962), 105-109. 12. kooi, beverly y.; schutz, richard e.; baker, robert l.: "spelling errors and the serial-position effect," journal of educational psychology, 56 ( 1965), .334-336. the binary vector as the basis of an inverted index file donald r. king: rutgers university, new brunswick, new jersey. 307 the inverted index file is a frequently used file structure for the storage of indexing information in a document retrieval system. this paper describes a novel method for the computer storage of such an index. the method not only offers the possibility of reducing storage requirements fot an index but also affords more mpid processing of query statements expressed in boolean logic. introduction the inverted index file is a frequently used file structure for the storage of indexing information in document retrieval systems. an inverted index file may be used by itself or with a direct file in a so-called combined file system. the inverted index file contains a logical record for each of the subject headings or index terms which may be used to describe documents in the system. within each logical record there is a list of pointers to those documents which have been indexed by the subject heading in question. the individual pointers are usually in the form of document numbers stored in fixed-length digital form. obviously, the length of the lists will vary from record to record. the purpose of this paper is the presentation of a new technique for the storage of the lists of pointers to documents. it will be shown that this technique not only reduces storage requirements, but that in many cases the time required to search the index is reduced. the technique is useful in systems which use boolean searches. the relative merits of boolean and weighted term searches are beyond the scope of this paper, as are the relative merits of the various possible file structures. the binary vector as a storage device the exact form of each document pointer is immaterial to the user of a document retrieval system as long as he is able to obtain the document he desires. the standard form for these pointers in most automated systems is a document number. note that each pointer is by itself a piece of information. however, if one thinks of a "peek-a-boo" system, the document 308 journal of library automation vol. 7/4 december 1974 pointer becomes simply a hole punched in a card. in this case the position of the pointer, not the pointer itself, conveys the information. the new technique presented in this paper is an extension of the "peeka-boo" concept. a vector or string of binary zeroes is constructed equal in length to the number of documents expected in the system. the position of each vector element corresponds to a document number. that is, the first position in a vector corresponds to document number one and the tenth vector position corresponds to document number ten. a vector is constructed for each subject heading in the system. as a document enters the system, ones are inserted in place of the zeroes in the positions corresponding to the new document number in the vectors for the subject headings used to describe the document. as an example, assume the following document descriptions are presented to a system using binary vectors: document number 1 2 3 subject headings a,b,d c,e a,c the binary vectors for terms a, b, c, d, and e before the insertion of the indexing data would be as follows: subject heading a b c d e vector 000 ... 0 000 ... 0 000 ... 0 000 ... 0 ooo ... ·o after the insertion of the indexing information, the same vectors would appear as follows: subject heading a b c d e vector 101 ... 0 100 ... 0 011 ... 0 100 ... 0 010 ... 0 the binary vector seems to have several advantages over the standard form of storage of document numbers in an inverted file. first, the records are of fixed length since the vectors are all equal in length to the expected number of documents in the system. space may be left at the end of each vector for the addition of new documents. periodic copying of the file may be used to expand the index records with additional zeroes added at the end of each record during the process. consequently, unless binary vector/king 309 there are limitations of size imposed by the equipment, only one access to the storage device will be needed to retrieve the index record for a term. the second advantage offered by the binary vector method appears in the search process. most modern computers have a built-in capability of performing boolean logical manipulations on binary digit vectors or strings. thus, when boolean operations are specified as part of a query, the implementation of the operations within the· computer is considerably easier and faster for binary vectors than for the standard form of inverted files. other investigators of the use of the binary digit patterns or vectors have not fully explored its advantages and disadvantages. bloom suggests, without an explanation or evaluation, the use of bit patterns as the storage technique for inverted files in large data bases in the area of management information systems.1 davis and lin, again in the area of management information systems, propose bit patterns as the means of locating pertinent records in a master file. 2 they do not compare the method with other possible techniques. sammon discusses briefly the use of binary vectors as a storage technique, but dismisses it on the basis that the two-valued approach obviates the possible assignment of weights to index terms in describing documents. 3 gorokhov discusses the use of a modified binary vector approach in a document retrieval system implemented on a small soviet computer.4 faced with the need to minimize storage requirements for his inverted file, gorokhov concentrated on developing a technique for locating and removing strings of zeroes occurring in the binary vectors used within the system. since these zeroes represent the absence of information they could be removed if there were a way to indicate the position in the original vector of the ones that remained. he proposed the removal of strings of zeroes and the inclusion of numeric place values with the remaining vector elements. his result is a file with variable-length index records. the abandoning of the pure binary vector obviates the process, and gorokhov found it necessary to expand the vector elements into the original vector before logical operations could be applied. even though he does not state so explicitly, gorokhov seems to have found his method more efficient than the standard inverted file. gorokhov' s suggestion has led to the development of an algorithm for the compression of binary vectors. heaps and thiel have also discussed the use of compressed binary vectors as the basis of an inverted index file. 5• 6 aside from a brief description of the method for implementing the concept, they offer no comparison of the binary vector with the standard inverted file. storage requirements an immediate reaction to the concept of binary vectors is to state that they will obviously take more storage space than the standard inverted file. a closer study shows that this is not always the case. the storage requirements for the two types of files may be calculated as follows: 310 journal of library automation vol. 7/4 december 1974 d·n 1. mbv = 8 bytes 2. msr = d · i · k where: ( binary vector file) (standard inverted file) m = storage requirements in bytes d = number of documents in the system n = number of index terms in the system i = average depth of indexing in the system k = size in bytes of a document number stored in the file using equations 1 and 2 we find that the storage requirements for the binary vector file are, in fact, less than the requirements for the standard inverted file if n < 8 •] • k. it is well lmown that the distribution of the use of index terms follows a logarithmic curve. in simple terms, one might say that a few terms are used very frequently and many terms are used infrequently. this condition implies that in a binary vector file the records for many terms will contain segments in which there are no "ones" in any byte. a method for removing these "zero" bytes is called compression. compression algorithm the technique for the compression of binary vectors as described here is designed specifically for the ibm 360 family of computers and similar machines. the extension to other machines should be obvious. within the ibm 360 the byte, which contains eight binary digits, is the basic storage unit, and with the eight binary digits it is possible to store a maximum integer value of 255. for the purpose of describing a proposed compression algorithm for the binary vector in the ibm 360, the term subvector will be defined as a string of contiguous bytes chosen from within the binary vector. a zero subvector will be a subvector each of whose bytes contains eight binary zeroes. a nonzero subvecto1· will be a subvector each of whose bytes contains at least one binary one. to compress a binary vector in the ibm 360 the following steps may be taken: 1. divide the binary vector into a series of zero subvectors and nonzero subvectors. subvectors of either type may have a maximum length of 255 bytes. for zero subvectors longer than 255 bytes, the 256th byte is to be treated as a nonzero byte, thus dividing the long zero subvector. 2. each nonzero subvector is prefixed with two bytes. the first of the prefix bytes contains the count of zero bytes which precede the nonzero subvector in the uncompressed vector. the second prefix byte contains a count of the bytes in the nonzero subvector. 3. the compressed vector then consists of only the nonzero subvectors together with their prefix bytes. 4. a two byte field of binary zeroes will end the compressed vector. binmy vector/king 311 the compression of the vectors creates variable-length records and removes the advantage of having records which are directly amenable to boolean manipulation. the effect of file compression on such manipulation in the search process is not as severe as it might appear. for the search process, the compressed vector may be expanded into its original form. the process of expansion of the binary vectors is relatively simple, and since only those index term records which are used in a query need to be expanded at the search time, the search time is not significantly affected. as an example of the use of the compression algorithm consider the following binary vector. 01100000/10000000/ seven zero bytes j00000001j10000000j ... the slashes indicate the division of the vector into bytes. the vector might be read as indicating the following list of document numbers: 2, 3, 9, 80, and 81. in a standard inverted file with each document number assigned three bytes of storage, fifteen bytes would be required to store these numbers. the compressed vector which results from the application of the algorithm is the following: 00000000j00000010j01100000/10000000j00000111/00000010/ 00000001/10000000/ ... again the slashes separate the vector into bytes. for the purpose of the following discussion consider each byte in a vector to be numbered sequentially beginning with byte one at the left. in the uncompressed vector bytes one and two form a nonzero subvector. consequently, the first four bytes in the compressed vector can be interpreted as follows: byte one. binary zero indicating that no zero bytes were removed preceding this subvector. byte two. binary two indicating that the following nonzero subvector is two bytes long. bytes three, four. bytes one and two of the original vector. bytes three through nine of the original vector are a zero subvector, and bytes ten and eleven form a second nonzero subvector. consequently, the second four bytes of the compressed vector are interpreted as follows: byte five. binary seven indicating that a zero subvector of seven bytes has been removed. byte six. binary two indicating that the following two bytes are a nonzero subvector. bytes seven, eight. bytes ten and eleven of the original vector. thus the binary vector has been reduced from eleven bytes to eight 312 journal of library automation vol. 7/4 december 1974 bytes while the space required to record the document numbers in the standard inverted file remains fifteen bytes. memory requirements for the standard inverted file and the binary vector file to compare memory requirements for the standard inverted file and the compressed binary vector file, we base our comparison on the total number of postings in the file. in the standard inverted file the storage space for the postings is equal to the number of postings times the length of a single posting, which is usually two, three, or five bytes. memory requirements for the compressed binary vector file are more difficult to estimate because the distribution of document numbers within the record for each index term is not known. the fact that a single byte in the binary vector file may contain between zero and eight postings is extremely important. the worst possible case occurs if the postings in the binary vector are spaced in such a way that each nonzero byte contains only one posting, and these bytes are separated by zero bytes. consider the following example: ... /00000000/00010000/00000000/00000100/ ... in this case the compression algorithm will remove the zero bytes, but will add two bytes (the prefix bytes) for each nonzero byte. the resulting compressed vector will be essentially the same length as the standard inverted file record if each posting is three bytes long in the standard inverted file. it might seem that the distribution of one posting per byte for the entire vector represents an even worse situation. it is clear that the compression algorithm will, in this case, not reduce the size of the vector. however, it must be remembered that in the standard inverted file each posting will require at least two bytes and perhaps three bytes. thus, the length of the record in the standard inverted file is two or three times longer than the corresponding binary vector regardless of compression. in data used in two model retrieval systems prepared to compare the standard inverted file and the binary vector file there are 6,121 documents with a total of 94,542 postings. an examination of the binary inverted file for the model systems discloses that there are only 55,311 nonzero bytes in the binary vector file. thus there seems to be some form of clustering of the document numbers in each index term record. if each nonzero byte in this binary vector is isolated by zero bytes, two prefix bytes would be added for each byte. thus the total memory requirements for the postings in the compressed file would be 165,933 bytes. less storage space is required if some nonzero bytes are contiguous. on the other hand, the standard inverted file will require 189,084 bytes if a two-byte posting is used, or 283,626 bytes if a three-byte posting is used. further study of the clustering phenomenon is needed. binary vector /king 313 model retrieval systems to test some of the conjectures about the differences between the standard inverted file and the binary vector file, two model systems were prepared for operation on an ibm 360/67. details of the systems and pl/1 program listings are available elsewhere. 7 the data base used was obtained from the institute of animal behavior at rutgers university. in the data base 6,121 documents were indexed by 1,484 index terms. a total of 94,542 postings in the system gives an average depth of indexing of 15.4 terms per document. both inverted files were stored on ibm 2314 disc storage devices. to ease the problem of handling variable-length records in both files the logical records for each index term were divided into chains of fixed~ lehgth physical records. for the standard inverted file a physical record size of 331 bytes was chosen. the entire file required 702,713 bytes including record overhead. for the uncompressed binary vector file a physical record size of 1,286 bytes was chosen to include overhead and space for up to 10,216 document numbers. when the compression algorithm was applied, with a physical record length of 130 bytes, the memory requirements for the binary vector file were reduced to 281,450 bytes, or 41 percent of the space required to store the standard inverted file. a series of forty searches of varying complexities were run against both files. the "time" function of pl/1 made it possible to accumulate timing statistics which excluded input/output functions. search times for the binary vector file include expansion of the compressed vectors, boolean manipulation of the vectors, and conversion of the resultant vector into digital document numbers. the times for the standard inverted file are for the boolean manipulation of the lists. the following points were noted in the analysis of the times: 1. in twenty-two of the forty queries for which comparative timings were obtained, the search of the binary vector file was faster, in one case by a factor of thirty-five. in the eighteen cases in which the search of the standard inverted file was faster, the search of the standard inverted file was at most 6.17 times faster. 2. the range of the total times for the binary vector file was .79 seconds to 9.72 seconds. the range for searching the standard inverted file was .15 seconds to 202.98 seconds. the fact that the search times for the binary vector file are within a fairly narrow range, in contrast to the wider range of times for searching the standard inverted file, has important implications for the design of an on-line interactive document retrieval system. in such a system it is important that the computer respond to users' requests not only rapidly but consistently. the narrower range of the search times provided by the binary vector file will assist in producing consistent times. 3. the search times for the binary vector file, exclusive of expansion and conversion times, are unaffected by the number of postings con314 journal of library automation vol. 7/4 december 1974 tained in the index terms used in a query. on the other hand, the number of postings in the records used from the standard inverted file appears to cause the differences in search times for that file. to test the conjectures! that 1. search times for the binary vector file are related to the number of index terms in the query, and 2. search times for the standard inverted file are related to the number of postings in the index terms in the query, a correlation analysis was performed. the following correlation coefficients were obtained: v a1'iables 1' number of terms in query and search .960 times for the binary vector file. number of postings in query terms and .979 search times for standard inverted file. the relationships indicated above are significant at the .001 level. no attempt was made to compute an average search time per term for the binary vector file or average search time per posting for the standard inverted file. such times would have meaning only for the model systems. summary the binary vector is suggested as an alternative to the usual method of storing document pointers in an inverted index file. the binary vector file can provide savings in storage space, search times, and programming effort. references 1. burton h. bloom, "some techniques and trade-offs affecting large data base retrieval times," proceedings of the acm 24 ( 1969). 2. d. r. davis and a. d. lin, "secondary key retrieval using an ibm 7090-1310 system," communications of the acm 8:243-46 (april1965). 3. john w. sammon, some mathematics of information storage and retrieval (technical report radc-tr-68-178 [rome, new york: rome air development center, 1968]). 4. s. a. gorokhov, "the 'setka-3' automated irs on the 'minsk-22' with the use of the socket associative-address method of organization of information" (paper presented at the all-union conference on information retrieval systems and automatic processing of scientific and technical information, moscow, 1967. translated and published as part of ad 697 687, national technical information service). 5. h. s. heaps and l. h. thiel, "optimum procedures for economic information retrieval," information storage & retrieval6:131-53 (1970). 6. l. h. thiel and h. s. heaps, "program design for retrospective searches on large data bases," information storage & retrieval8:1-20 (1972). 7. d. r. king, "an inverted file structure for an interactive document retrieval system" (ph.d. dissertation, rutgers university, 1971). yiotis ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ 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฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ 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฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ 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฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ reference is dead, long live reference: electronic collections in the digital age heather b. terrell information technology and libraries | december 2015 55 abstract in a literature survey on how reference collections have changed to accommodate patrons’ webbased information-seeking behaviors, one notes a marked “us vs. them” mentality—a fear that the internet might render reference irrelevant. these anxieties are oft-noted in articles urging libraries to embrace digital and online reference sources. why all the ambivalence? citing existing research and literature, this essay explores myths about the supposed superiority of physical reference collections and how patrons actually use them, potential challenges associated with electronic reference collections, and how providing vital e-reference collections benefits the library as well as its patrons. introduction reference collections are intended to meet the immediate information needs of users. reference librarians develop these collections with the intention of using them to answer indepth questions and to conduct ready-reference searches on a patron’s behalf. library users depend on reference collections to include easily navigable finding tools that assist them in locating sources that contain reliable information in a useful, accessible format and can be accessed when the information is needed. the expectation for print reference collections is that they are comprised of high-use materials—the very reason for their designation as noncirculating items is ostensibly so that materials are available for on-demand access by both patrons and staff, who use them frequently. however, librarians and patrons alike have acquired what margaret landesman calls “online habits,” to wit, the most-utilized access point to information is often the 24/7 web.1 in a wired world, where the information universe of the internet is not only on our desktops, but also in our pockets and on our fashion accessories, the role of the print reference collection is less relevant in supporting information and research aims. in no other realm have the common practices of both users and librarians changed more than in how we seek information. nevertheless, a technology-related panic seems to be at the boil, with article titles like “are reference books becoming an endangered species?”2 and “off the shelf: is print reference dead?”3 words like “invasion” are used to describe the influx of electronic reference sources. we read about the heather b. terrell (hterrell@milibrary.org), a recent mlis degree graduate from the school of library and information science, san jose state university, is winner of the 2015 lita/ex libris student writing award. mailto:hterrell@milibrary.org reference is dead, long live reference: electronic collections in the digital age | terrell | doi: 10.6017/ital.v34i4.9098 56 “unsustainable luxury” of housing hundreds—sometimes thousands—of unused books on the open shelves. all this handwringing leads us to wonder why librarians in the field need this much coaxing to be cajoled into weeding their print reference collections in favor of electronic reference resources. does this format transition really constitute such a dire situation? what if the decline of print reference usage isn’t a problem? and what’s so luxurious about dusty, overcrowded shelves full of books no one cares to use? in “the myth of browsing,” barclay concludes that “the continued over-my-dead-body insistence that no books be removed [from libraries] is an unsustainable position.”4 a survey of the relevant literature reveals that staff resistant to the transition from print to electronic reference collections often share three core presumptions about reference: • users prefer using print sources, and the importance of patrons’ ability to browse the physical collection is paramount. • the reliability of web-based reference sources may be questionable, especially when compared with the authority of print reference materials. • access to print materials is the only option that certain users (namely, those without library cards) have for being connected to information. there also seems to be a more subtle assumption at play in the print vs. electronic reference debate—that print books are more “dignified,” cultivating a scholarly atmosphere in the library. certain objections to removing print reference collections to closed stacks and using the newly freed public space to build a cooperative learning commons, for instance, tend to devolve into hysterics about the potentiality of libraries becoming “no better than a starbucks.” the “no better” variable in this equation is a cosmetic one—librarians aren’t worrying about libraries serving up a flavored “information latte” for vast profit margins—they are worrying that libraries will be perceived as a place to loiter, use the internet, and “hang out,” rather than a place for serious study. one thing for librarians who worry about this potential outcome to consider is that loyal coffee shop denizens would be up in arms to learn that their favorite shop was being closed or its services being reduced or eliminated. the implications are clear. perhaps libraries should consider the café model: a collaborative “no-shushing” zone—the difference between a library and a coffee house being that at a library, people are able to explore, learn, and be entertained using the resources provided by the institution. at homer babbidge library at the university of connecticut, staff considered it important to “maintain a vestige of the reference collection, so that students were reminded they had entered a special place where scholarship was tangible.”5 however, users considered the underutilized stacks of books a waste of space that could be better used for cooperative work areas or information technology and libraries | december 2015 57 computer access stations. the students’ needs and interests were heeded, and homer babbidge library’s learning commons has been a successful endeavour. reference collections: history and purpose brief points about the history of reference services lend context to the arguments presented in favor of building electronic reference collections. grimmelman points out that “it’s almost a cliché to assert that the internet is like a vast library, that it causes problems of information overload, or that it contains both treasures and junk in vast quantities.”6 from the earliest dedicated reference departments to the 24/7 reference model developed in response to progressing technology, tyckoson affirms that “one thing remains constant—users still need help. the question . . . is how to provide the library’s users with the best help.”7 browsing collections in libraries are newer than one might assume. prior to world war ii, academic library faculty could browse to find reference materials that met the information needs of students, but undergrads weren’t even allowed in the stacks.8 in public libraries, reference collections were open to users, but reference rooms were considered to be, first and foremost, the domain and workplace of the reference.9 this raises the question, what is the domain and workplace of the contemporary reference librarian? arguably, the answer to this query is wherever the information is, for example, online. ready reference collections arose from the need to make the most commonly used resources in the library convenient and readily available for patron use.10 the most commonly used resources in contemporary libraries are those found online—again, where the information is. both users and librarians now turn to the web as the first resort for answering quick reference queries, and they turn to online databases and journals for exploring complex research questions. meanwhile print works that were once used daily sit moldering, gathering dust on the shelves either because they are outdated or because no one thinks to find them when the answer is available at the swipe of a finger or the click of a mouse from where they sit, whether that’s in the library or in, ahem, a coffee shop. “the convenience, speed, and ubiquity of the internet is making most print reference sources irrelevant,” tyckoson says.11 print preference, browsing collections library use is increasing—but, as landesman and others point out, it is increasing because users want access to computers, instruction in technology, study spaces, or just a place to be that’s not home, not school, and not work. users do not come to the library for reference sources— researchers and scholars prefer to access full-text works via their computing devices.12 the argument that users prefer print sources is antiquated, and the emphasis on building browsing collections of physical reference materials reflects a misguided notion that users crave tactile information. landesman is blunt: “when it is a core title, users want it online.”13 reference is dead, long live reference: electronic collections in the digital age | terrell | doi: 10.6017/ital.v34i4.9098 58 statistics bear her assertions out. studies show that usage of print reference collections is minimal and that users strongly prefer online access to reference materials. • at stetson university, usage statistics gathered during the 2003–4 academic year showed that only 8.5 percent of the library’s 25,626 reference volumes were used during that period.14 • a year-long study by public libraries revealed that only 13 percent of winter park (fl) public library’s collection of 8,211 reference items was used.15 • when texas a&m university converted its reference collection’s primary format from print to e-books, a dramatic increase of the e-versions of reference titles was recorded.16 • in a survey of william & mary law library users, a majority of respondents indicated that they consciously select online reference sources over print, citing convenience and currency as top reasons for doing so.17 scanning the shelves may seem to some to be the most intuitive way to search for information, but in actual practice, browsing is ineffective—books at eye level are used more often, patrons are limited to sources not being used by another patron at any given moment, and overcrowding of the shelves results in patrons overlooking useful materials.18 browsing is the least effective way for patrons to “shop” a collection. searching by electronic means overcomes the obstacles inherent in browsing the physical shelves when using well-designed search algorithms that employ keywords on the basis of accurate metadata. landesman indicates that if librarians commit to educating patrons on the use of the reference databases, ebooks, and websites they offer, online reference will be “a huge win for users.”19 it should be noted: no one suggests that print reference should be eliminated entirely, at least not yet. smaller print reference collections result in better-utilized spaces; they ensure that remaining resources in the physical collections are used more effectively—only the items that are actually high-use are included, which makes these sources easier to locate; books formerly classified as reference materials are able to circulate to those interested in their specialized content. smaller print reference collections serve patrons in myriad ways, including freeing up funds that can be used to enhance electronic reference collections. digital reference services are just another way of organizing information—there is no revolution here, unless it is in providing information with more efficiency—with breadth, depth, and access that surpasses what is possible via a print-only reference collection. the inevitable digital shift is a very natural evolution of patron-driven library services rather than cause for consternation on the part of library service providers. web reliability: google and wikipedia those who argue that the reliability of online sources is questionable are typically referring to google results and wikipedia entries, which have little bearing on a library’s electronic collections information technology and libraries | december 2015 59 of databases and e-books, but has plenty to do with a library’s reference services: these two sources are very often used in lieu of printed fact-finding sources such as atlases, subject or biographical dictionaries, and specialized sources like bartlett’s familiar quotations—which was last printed in 2012 and has recently gone digital. for questions of fact, google is often a convenient and “reliable enough” source for most queries; authority of the results yielded by a google search is not always detectable, and is sometimes intentionally obscured, so the librarian must vet results carefully and select the most reliable sources when providing ready reference to patrons. however, google is far more than just its main search page. for instance, google scholar allows searchers to locate full-text articles as well as citations for scholarly papers and peer-reviewed journal articles. in general, there are many tools on the web, and librarians must expend effort determining how to make the best use of each. in particular, google is better suited to some information tasks than others—it’s up to the librarian to know when to use this tool and when to eschew it. wikipedia has been the subject of much heated debate since its inception in 2001, but in a study conducted by nature magazine, the encyclopedias britannica and wikipedia were evaluated on the basis of a review of fifty pairs of articles by subject experts and found to be comparable in terms of the number of content errors—2.9 and 3.9, respectively.20 deliberate misstatements of fact, usually in biographical entries, are cited as evidence that wikipedia is utterly unreliable as a reference source. in fact, print sources have been plagued with the same issues. for many years, the dictionary of american biography contained an entry based on a hoax claiming a (nonexistent) diary of horatio alger—and while the entry was removed in later editions, the article was still referred to in the index for several years after its removal.21 if anything, it seems that format might provide a false sense of assurance that a source’s authority is infallible. all reference sources include bias, and all will include faulty information. the major difference between print and electronic sources is that in the digital era, using the tools of technology, these errors can be corrected quickly. what some see as declining quality of a source based on its format is simply a longstanding feature of human-produced reference works, dissociated from any print vs. web debate. access: collection vs. policy some academic and public libraries intend to decrease or discontinue purchasing print-based reference sources so funds can be diverted to build electronic reference collections; they weed print reference to make room for information commons containing technology used for accessing these electronic collections. the basic assumption in the objection to this practice is that the traditional model of in-person reference is integral to a functioning reference collection, that access to information depends on that information being printed on a physical page. reference services are provided virtually via chat, im, and email. reference services are provided via the library’s website. reference services are provided by roving librarians, reference is dead, long live reference: electronic collections in the digital age | terrell | doi: 10.6017/ital.v34i4.9098 60 librarians engaging in one-on-one literacy sessions, and in large-group training sessions. long gone are the days of the reference librarian who waits patiently at her station for a patron to approach with a question. since the reference services model no longer mandatorily includes a stationary point on the library map, nor does providing quality reference depend solely on the depth and breadth of the print reference collection, how are print reference collections used? as indicated previously, about 10 percent of print reference collections are used by patrons on a regular basis. concern for the information needs of library users who do not have library cards is well-intentioned, but the question remains: if 90 percent of a collection goes unused, even when those users without library cards have access to these materials, is the collection useful? as stewart bodner of nypl says, “it is a disservice to refer a user to a difficult print resource when its electronic counterpart is a far superior product.”22 how users want to receive their information matters—access should not depend on whether a user can obtain a library card. for those libraries with high concentrations of patrons who do not qualify for library cards (e.g., individuals who do not have a fixed home address, or who cannot obtain a state-issued id card), libraries might reconsider their policies rather than their collections. computer-only access cards can be provided on a temporary basis for visitors and others who are unable to obtain permanent cards. san francisco public library recently instituted a welcome card for those members of the community who cannot meet identification requirements for full library privileges. the welcome card allows the user full access to computers and online resources and permits the patron to check out one physical item at a time.23 when compared with purchasing, housing, and maintaining vast print reference collections, this is a significantly less costly and far more patron-centered solution to the problem of access to electronic information sources— librarians should be advocates for users, with the goal being access to knowledge, no matter its format. conclusion: building better hybrid collections most library professionals agree that libraries should collect both print and electronic sources for their reference collections, but the ratio of print to digital is up for debate. as more formats with improved capabilities appear, researchers find that patrons prefer those sources that provide them with the best functionality. it is essential to look to the principles on which reference services are founded. one of those principles is to build collections on the basis of user preferences. librarians must consider what the reference collection is for and whether assumptions about patron preferences are backed by evidence. in essence, considering what “reference” means to users rather than defaulting to the status quo. a reference collection development policy must be based on what is actually used often, not on what has the potential to maybe be used sometime in the future. the library is not an archive, preserving great tomes for posterity—the collections in a library are for use. with less emphasis on print materials, librarians might focus on the wealth of sources available electronically via information technology and libraries | december 2015 61 databases and ebooks, as well as open-source, free online resources. librarians must cultivate an understanding of the resources patrons use and the formats in which they prefer to access information. as heintzelman and coauthors state, “a reference collection should evolve into a smaller and more efficient tool that continually adapts to the new era, merging into a symbiotic relationship with electronic resources.”24 rules of reference that were devised when print works were the premier sources of reference information no longer apply. reference librarians must lead the way in responding to the digital shift—creating electronic collections centered on web-based recommendations, licensed databases of journals, and ebooks—with a focus on rich, interactive, and unbiased content. weeding reference collections of outdated and unused tomes, moving some materials to the closed stacks while allowing others to circulate, and building e-book reference collections allows libraries to provide effective reference services by cultivating collections that patrons want to use. much of the transition from print to electronic reference collections can be accomplished by ensuring that resources are promoted to patrons and staff, that training in using these tools is provided to patrons and staff, that librarians become involved in the selection of digital collections, and that the spaces where print collections were formerly housed are used in ways the community finds valuable. one need not worry about the “invasion” of e-reference or the “death” of print reference. the two can coexist peacefully and vitally, as long as librarians maintain focus on selecting the best material for their reference collections, no matter its format. references 1. margaret landesman, “getting it right—the evolution of reference collections,” reference librarian 44, no. 91–92 (2005): 8. 2. nicole heintzelman, courtney moore, and joyce ward, “are reference books becoming an endangered species? results of a yearlong study of reference book usage at the winter park public library,” public libraries 47, no. 5 (2008): 60–64. 3. sue polanka, “off the shelf: is print reference dead?” booklist 104, no. 9/10 (january 1 & 15, 2008): 127. 4. donald a. barclay, “the myth of browsing: academic library space in the age of facebook,” american libraries 41, no. 6–7 (2010): 52–54. 5. scott kennedy, “farewell to the reference librarian,” journal of library administration 51, no. 4 (2011): 319–25. 6. james grimmelmann, “information policy for the library of babel,” journal of business & technology law 3 (2008): 29. reference is dead, long live reference: electronic collections in the digital age | terrell | doi: 10.6017/ital.v34i4.9098 62 7. david a. tyckoson, “issues and trends in the management of reference services: a historical perspective,” journal of library administration 51, no. 3 (2011): 259–78. 8. donald a. barclay, “the myth of browsing: academic library space in the age of facebook,” american libraries 41, no. 6–7 (2010): 52–54. 9. tyckoson, “issues and trends in the management of reference services.” 10. carol a. singer, “ready reference collections,” reference & user services quarterly 49, no. 3 (2010): 253–64. 11. tyckoson, issues and trends in the management of reference services,” 293. 12. landesman, “getting it right,” 8. 13. ibid., 10. 14. jane t. bradford, “what’s coming off the shelves? a reference use study analyzing print reference sources used in a university library,” journal of academic librarianship 31, no. 6 (2005): 546–58. 15. heintzelman, moore, and ward, “are reference books becoming an endangered species?” 16. dennis dillon, “e-books: the university of texas experience, part 1,” library hi tech 19, no. 2 (2001): 113–25. 17. paul hellyer, “reference 2.0: the future of shrinking print reference collections seems destined for the web,” 13 aall spectrum 24–27 (march 2009). 18. barclay, “the myth of browsing.” 19. landesman, “getting it right.” 20. jim giles, “internet encyclopaedias go head to head,” nature 438, no. 7070 (2005): 900–901. 21. denise beaubien bennett, “the ebb and flow of reference products,” online searcher 38, no. 4 (2014): 44–52. 22. mirela roncevic, “the e-ref invasion-now that e-reference is ubiquitous, has the confusion in the reference community subsided?” library journal 130, no. 19 (2005): 8–16. 23. san francisco public library, “welcome card,” sfpl.org/pdf/services/sfpl314.pdf (2014): 1–2. 24 . heintzelman, moore, and ward, “are reference books becoming an endangered species?” http://sfpl.org/pdf/services/sfpl314.pdf introduction 126 standards for library automation and isad's committee on technical standards for library automation (tesla) the 1'0le of isad's committee on technical standards for library automation is examined and discussed. a p1'dcedu1'e fo1' the reaction to and initiation of standards is described, with reference to relevant standards organizations. the development, implementation, and maintenance of standards might best be characterized as the complexity of simplification-complex insofar as a standard represents a universally applicable ideal which is usually the result of arduous negotiation and compromise; simplification since a standard, once recommended and followed in practice, forms a firm reference point for the achievement of specified objectives. thus, if a standard exists, it can be referenced or used immediately and variant wheels do not have to be invented. unfortunately, to use, reference, or advocate a standard requires an awareness of available standards or the process whereby standards evolve. it is at this point that standards again become complex-in fact, they become a maze, which perhaps can be characterized by questions such as: is there a standard already? who is responsible for it? where are copies of this standard available? and so on (a maze familiar, certainly, to all of us). n is precisely to address the mazelike aspect of the standards "game" that the committee on technical standards for library automation ( tesla) has been established. in short, tesla intends to act as a twoway clearinghouse, hopefully to bring user and supplier into a meaningful dialogue wherein the requirements of both might be satisfied. technical standards and data dependence within this context the emphasis by tesla shall be on technical standards for library automation (e.g., standards relating to electronic data processing devices and techniques). concurrently, however, there are instances where device and data become inseparably linked. for example, the standatds fot libraty automation 127 relationship between the physical dimensions of a machine-readable patron badge and the amount and, therefore, type of data which can be me~ chanically encoded in it; or the character set used by a terminal and the minimum processing potential and, thus, hardware which must be internal to the terminal to receive, transmit, and display that character set. because it would be foolish to ignore this relationship, tesla in its clearinghouse function will stress and foster the involvement of individuals or organizational units within the american library association wherever data-dependent technical standards are involved. ala-originated and maintained technical standards though certainly no mystery, there is little evidence that the direct cost and personal involvement for a published and practiced standard is popularly known. for example, it has been indicated by those within the standards business that an adopted standard might culminate an investment of over a million dollars and represent the expenditure of tens of man-years. the cost, for example, leading to and including the final publication by the american national standards institute (ansi) of the standard for bibliographic information interchange on magnetic tape (ansi z39.21971), more popularly known as marc, has not been published. it is suspected, however, that the cost of the marc standard was monumental. in short, and by way of this example, it can be safely assumed that neither the american library association nor isad nor tesla will become standards organizations in the strict sense of the word. in fact such a capability is not desirable, since organizations such as ansi, electronics industry association (eia), institute of electronic and electrical engineers (ieee), national microfilm association ( nma), etc., exist and are geared specifically to this activity. rather, the american library association and isad should, and must, participate actively in the standards processes available to them to insure a meaningful user-voice in the development of standards by those organizations. to provide for participation in the standards process at the membership level is precisely tesla' s role. thus, when placed in operation, such standards will reflect the library community's requirements, contributing to and fostering library automation rather than hindering it. at least one of the anticipated results would be the development of equipment addressing library needs directly, and so preclude the custom fabrication of specialty devices which while satisfying the needs of a few libraries-expensively, cannot satisfy libraries in generaleconomically. what is provided by tesla? tesla specifically has established a procedure whereby the membership of the american library association might either teact to proposals for standards regardless of origin, or initiate proposals for standards for membership reaction. the results of this procedure, whether reactive or initia128 journal of library automation vol. 7/2 june 1974 tive, would be communicated to the membership in terms of the status and position taken for each proposal, and to the originator and to ala's official representative in full detail for subsequent application. the tesla procedure the procedure is geared to handle both reactive (originating from the outside) and initiative (originating from within ala) standards proposals to provide recommendations to ala's representatives on existing, recognized standards organizations. to enter the procedure for an initiative standards proposal the member must complete an "initiative standards proposal" using the outline which follows: initiative standard proposal outline the following outline is designed to facilitate review by both the committee and the membership of initiative standards requirements and to expedite the handling of initiative standards proposals through the procedure. since the outline will be used for the review process, it is to be followed explicitly. where an initiative standard requirement does not require the use of a specific outline entry, the entry heading is to be used followed by the words "not applicable" (e.g., where no standards exist which relate to the proposal, this is indicated by: vi. existing standards. not applicable). note that the parenthetical statements following most of the outline entry descriptions relate to the ansi standards proposal section headings to facilitate the translation from this outline to the ansi format. all initiative standards proposals are to be typed, double spaced on 8%" x 11" white paper (typing on one side only). each page is to be numbered consecutively in the upper right-hand corner. the initiator's last name followed by the key word from the title is to appear one line below each page number. i. title of initiative standard proposal (title). ii. initiator information (forward). a. name b. title c. organization d. address e. city, state, zip f. telephone: area code, number, extension iii. technical area. describe the area of library technology as understood by initiator. be as precise as possible since in large measure the information given here will help determine which ala official representative might best handle this proposal once it has been reviewed and which ala organizational component might best be engaged in the review process. iv. purpose. state the purpose of standard proposal (scope and qualifications). v. description. briefly describe the standard proposal (specification of the standard). vi. relationship of other standards. if existing standards have been identified which relate to, or are felt to influence, this standard proposal, cite them here (expository remarks). vii. background. describe the research or historical review performed relating to this standard proposal (if applicable, provide a bibliography) and your findings (justification). standards for librm·y automation 129 viii. specifications. specify the standard proposal using record layouts, mechanical . drawings, and such related documentation aids as required in addition to text exposition where applicable (specification of the standard). please note that the outline is designed to enable standards proposals to be written following a generalized format which will facilitate their review. in addition, the outline permits the presentation of background and descriptive information which, while important during any evaluation, is a prerequisite to the development of a standard. the reactor ballot (figure 1) is to be used by members to voice their recommendations relative to initiative standards proposals. the reactor ballot permits both "for" and "againsf' votes to be explained permitting the capture of additional information which is necessary to document and communicate formal standards proposals to standards organizations outside the american library association. as you, the members, use the outline to present your standards protesla reactor ballot reactor information name __________________ __ title organization address city___ state ___ zip __ telephone ---------identification number for standard requirement -----------for ------------against reason for position: (use additional pages if required) fig. 1. tesla reactor ballot posals, tesla will publish them in ]ola-tc and solicit membership reaction via the reactor ballot. throughout the process tesla will insure that standards proposals are drawn to the attention of the applicable american library association division or committee. thus, internal review usually will proceed concurrent with membership review. from the review and the reactor ballot tesla will prepare a majority recommendation and a minority report on each standards proposal. the majority recom130 journal of library automation vol. 7/2 june 1974 receipt screen division rej/acp1 publish tally representative title/i.d. number date date date date date date date target fig. 2. tesla standards scoreboard mendation and minority report so developed will then be transmitted to the originator, and to the official american library association representative on the appropriate standards organization where it should prove a standards for library automation 131 source of guidance as official votes are cast. in addition, the status of each standards proposal will be reported by teslain jola-tc via the standards scoreboard (figure 2). the committee ( tesla) itself will be nonpartisan with regard to the proposals handled by it. however, the committee does reserve the right to reject proposals which after review are not found to relate to library automation. tesla's composition tesla is comprised of representatives both from the library community and library suppliers to insure a mix of both users and producers for its review of standards proposals. in addition, rotating membership on tesla will insure a continuing movement of voices from different segments of the library and library supplier communities to shortstop the pressing of vested interests. at this time, the members of tesla and the term for each are: ms. madeline henderson chairperson, task force on automation of library operations and federal library committee u.s. department of commerce/nos washington, dc 20234 term ends: 1974 mr. arthur brody chairman of the board bro-dart industries 1609 memorial ave. williamsport, pa 17701 term ends: 1975 dr. edmund a.' bowles data processing division international business machines corporation 10401 fernwood rd. bethesda, md 20034 term ends: 1974 mr. anthony w. miele assistant director technical services illinois state library centennial building springfield, il 62706 term ends: 1975 standards library mr. jay l. cunningham director, university-wide library automation program university of california, south hall annex berkeley, ca 94720 term ends: 1976 mr. richard e. uttman p.o. box 200 princeton, nj 08540 term ends: 1976 mr. leonard l. johnson director of media services greensboro public schools drawer v greensboro, nc 27402 term ends: 1975 mr. john c. kountz (chairman) associate for library automation office of the chancellor the california state university and colleges 5670 wilshire blvd., suite 900 los angeles, ca 90036 term ends: 1976 in addition to acting as a clearinghouse for standards for isad, and the maintenance of the standard proposal and reactor ballot procedure, tesla intends to urge the establishment of an ala collection of stan132 journal of library automation vol. 7/2 june 1974 dards applicable to libraries to handle requests for information from the library community. thus, while currently each member is left to "do it himself," there appear to be definite economies in the centralization of such a collection and the periodic publication of indices to relevant standards. sources of information relating to standards to provide a source of guidance at this time for the types of available standards, to list the many existing standards, and to index the originating standards organizations would consume several issues of jola. therefore, in the following are very brief recapitulations of the more relevant organizations impacting library automation standards. the list is very incomplete as might be expected. for those interested in a comprehensive review of standards, global engineering, 3950 campus drive, newport beach, ca 92660, maintains and annually publishes their directory of engineering document somces .. this directory, now in its second edition, lists over 2,000 standards organizations and the prefixes used by those organizations in publishing their standards, to permit global engineering's customers to specify standards for purchase. ( global engineering's primary function is the sale of original copies of standards and specifications.) american national standards institute, inc. (ansi)-the american national standards institute, inc. ( 1430 broadway, new york; ny 10019) does not write standards. rather, ansi has established the procedures and guidelines to be followed in the development of standards that will be labeled american national standards. the actual work is done by ansi members and other interested groups and individuals, using the ansi procedures in the development of standards. only after these groups have demonstrated to ansi's satisfaction that the proposed standard has been developed in accordance with the procedure established by ansi will it be approved and published as an american national standard. in addition, ansi publishes materials relating to standards, of which the ansi reporter, a journal dedicated to standards, probably represents the single best source for information relating to current standards issues. however, the scope of ansi is very broad. thus for library and library automation activities specific committees of ansi, rather than ansi itself, are relevant; specifically, ansi committees: ph5 (microfilm). see national microfilm association below. x3 ( computers and information processing); x4 (business machines and supplies). both of these subcommittees are sponsored by the computer and business equipment manufacturers' association ( cbema), which is also their secretariat. cbema ( 1828 l st. nw, washington, dc 20036) periodically provides indices to the published standards of x3. an insight into the breadth of x3's activities can be implied from figure 3, ansi x3 standards committee organization. x3 currently has standards fo1' library automation 133 bema iso/tc 97 secreuiriat information processing systems technical advisory board (ipstab) computers and lnfonnation processing american national standards institute american national standards committee ~=:.:.:.:;:.~::::::;;r:----1 consumer members -i i i i i i :------, : i : i : i i -i i standanls department administrstion secretariat a standards advisory committee coordination dpg advisory committee on plans & policy policy dpg standards conmittee technics/ '-----staff line staff i i i standards standards internanonal planning & steering ·advisory requirements committee coi.wittee coi.wittee (ssc) (lac) (sl'arc) i study groui's i i•• requiredl i i hardware gro141 software gro141 systems g10141 recognition section language section data communications sectio~ ma" m:ro "s" iqa1 ocr ic3j1 pl/1 ic3s3 data communications 113a7 mica 113j3 forman physical media section x3j4 cobol systems technology section x3j7 apt "t" "au x3jb algol magnetic tape & cauettea 113'19 1/0 lntarfaca x3b1 documentation section x3b2 perforated tape "k" x3b3 punched cards x3b4 edge punched carda x3k1 documentation 11387 megnetic disc. 1131<2 flow charta 1131<5 vocabulary x3kb network-oriented lnfonnation syatama data representation section ml" x3l2 cod"" x3l5 labels 113lb data repntsontatkln fig, 3, ansi x3 standards committee organization, 134 ]oumal of librmy automation vol. 1/2 june 1974 over fifty member organizations. the ala representative on x3 is mr. james rizzolo of the new york public library. an excellent overview of x4's scope and activities was published in the secretary (nov. 1973) under the title "what's being done about office equipment standards." from the library viewpoint x4' s activities in credit cards, typewriter keyboards, and forms are of interest. at this writing x4 has nine user, fifteen producer, and nine general interest members. the ala is not currently represented on x4. z39 (library work, documentation and related publishing practices) sponsored by the council of national library associations. with thirtysix subcommittees ( sc), z39 covers library related activities from machine input records ( sc/2) through standard order forms ( sc/36). it was through z39 that marc became the american national standard (z39.2-1911). z39 publishes a quarterly entitled news about z39. z39 is located at the school of library science, university of north carolina, chapel hill, nc 27514. fifteen standards have been published by z39. the ala representative to z39 is fred blum of eastern michigan university, ypsilanti, whose excellent summary of z39 appears in the winter 1974 issue of library resources & technical services. national microfilm association (nma)-the national microfilm association has an organization of standards committees and a standards board as shown in figure 4. information relating to their standards is published from time to time in the ]oumal of mic1·ographics. a recent article, entitled "standards: nma standards committee scope of work," (vol. 7, no. 1 [sept. 1973] ), briefly describes the subcommittees internal to nma's standards organization and the scope of each. of particular interest to libraries is the sponsorship by nma of ansi-ph5. micrographic standards are listed in an nma publication ( rr1-1974 resource report). copies of this resource report may be obtained by contacting the nma at suite 1101, 8728 colesville rd., silver spring, md 20910. international organization for standardization (iso)-this organization is truly international with representatives from thirty-five nations. the secretariat of iso is ansi (see above). while iso parallels ansi in its coverage, it differs organizationally. thus, the committees/subcommittees of ansi have in large measure their equivalent technical committees, subcommittees, and working groups in the iso. standards developed by the iso and published by them are reported regularly in the ansi reporter (referred to above). most recently, the january 11, 1974 ansi reporter contained an article outlining iso publications and describing five iso titles. marc, by the way, is also iso standard 2709. the iso technical committees ( tc) of immediate interest to library automation are tc 37 (terminology), tc 46 (documentation), tc 95 (office machines), and tc 97 (computers and associated information processing systems, nma standards board i i i i i i microfiche inspection & materials & operational public equipment quality con. supplies practices records i i i i i i microdrafting terminology info. storage rotary reduction facsimile & retrieval cameras ratios i i i i i i flow chart newspapers com format com com ecology symbols & coding quality software fig. 4. nma standards organization 136 journal of libmry automation vol. 7/2 june 197 4 peripheral equipment and devices, and media related thereto). as an indication of the technical areas covered by tc 97, its organization is shown in figure 5. electronic industries association (eia)-the electronic industries association maintains a broad variety of standards for hardware and related peripheral equipment. such areas as cathode ray tube (crt) terminals, the luminescence of cathode ray tubes themselves, television transmission, and data communications are dealt with by the eia standards. an excellent source of eia standards is the publication produced by the eia entitled index of eia and jedec standards and engineering publications ( 1973 revision and no. 2). copies are available through the electronic industries association, engineering department, 2001 i st. nw, washington, dc 20006. the ala is not a member of the eia, by definition. the institute of electt·onic and electrical engineers (ieee)-the institute of electronic and electrical engineers, inc. is a professional organization which, in addition to its professional activities, maintains standards. many of these standards relate to library automation in such areas as keyboards for terminals and transmission types for data communications. while each monthly issue of the ieee publication spectrum contains annotated lists of new standards, a full index to the ieee standards is available by contacting the ieee headquarters, 345 e. 47 st., new york, ny 10017. national bureau of standards (nbs)-the national bureau of standards, u.s. department of commerce, has the responsibility within the federal government for monitoring and coordinating the development of information processing standards and publishing proved data standards for data elements and codes in data systems. thus, the national bureau of standards works closely with federal departments and agencies, the american national standards institute (ansi), and the international orgatlization for standardization (iso). of specific interest to library automation are the fedeml information processing standards (fips) and the fips index published by nbs. the annual fips index (fips pub 12-1) is a veritable gold mine of information relating to ansi, iso, federal government participation and representatim,1 in the standards process, and the role of nbs itself. fips 12-1 is available from the superintendent of documents, u.s. g.p.o., washington, dc 20402 (sd catalog no. c 13:52: 12-1). while the material above should provide a brief overview of the standards arena in which tesla will function and some insight into the scope of standards activities, it is not to be construed as a definitive compilation of standards organizations. as indicated earlier, over 2,000 such organizations are known to be active currently. iso/tc97 computers aiid ill formation processing usa sci sc2 sc3 sc4 sc 5 sc 6 sc7 s c8 'igk character character program lung digital data problem numerical data elements vocabulary ill put/ output definition l control of l their coded sets lcodinc recognition languages transmission analysis machines representations sec: france france usa italy usa usa germany france usa i i i wgi wg i 'ig2 prog\i~niiig wgi vocabulary optical magnetic ink laitguage for vocabulary maintenance character character numeric control for numeric recognition recognition of machines control usa switzerland belgium usa france we 1 'ig2 wg3 wg4 igs 'ig6 magnetic punched punched 1/0 iiisllwweiita tioi magnetic tape cards tape equipneiit tape disk packs usa france italy germany usa germaiiy fig. 5. iso/tc 97 organization chart 138 ] ournal of libm1'y automation vol. 7/2 june 197 4 finally, an invitation during the formative period of tesla a list of potential standards areas for library automation was developed. potential technical standa1'ds a1·eas 1. codes for libraries and library networks, including network hierarchy structures. 2. documentation for systems design, development, implementation, operation, and post-implementation review. 3. minimum display requirements for library crts, keyboards for terminals, and machine-readable character or code set to be used as label printed in book. 4. patron or user badge physical dimension ( s) and minimum data elements. 5. book catalog layout (physical and minimum data elements) : a. off-line print b. photocomposed c. microform 6. communication formats for inventory control (absorptive of interlibrary loan and local circulation). 7. data element dictionary content, format, and minimum vocabulary, and inventory identification minimum content. 8. inventory labels or identifiers (punched cards, labels, badges, or ... ) physical dimensions and minimum data elements. 9. model/minimum specifications relating to hardware, software, and services procurement for library applications. 10. communication formats for library material procurement (absorptive of order, bid, invoice, and related follow-up). you are invited to review this list and voice your opinion of any or all areas indicated by means of the reactor ballot in ]ola-tc in this issue. or, if you've a requirement for a standard not included in this list, use the initiative standard proposal outline to collect and present your thoughts. henceforth, future issues of ]ola-tc will contain a reactor ballot and the scoreboard. the ball is in your court! send ballots and/or initiative standard proposals to: john kountz, chairman, isad-tesla, 5670 wilshire blvd., suite 900, los angeles, ca 90036. communications ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ 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฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ 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฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ 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฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ an evaluation of finding aid accessibility for screen readers kristina l. southwell and jacquelyn slater information technology and libraries | september 2013 34 abstract since the passage of the american disabilities act in 1990 and the coincident growth of the internet, academic libraries have worked to provide electronic resources and services that are accessible to all patrons. special collections are increasingly being added to these web-based library resources, and they must meet the same accessibility standards. the recent popularity surge of web 2.0 technology, social media sites, and mobile devices has brought greater awareness about the challenges faced by those who use assistive technology for visual disabilities. this study examines the screen-reader accessibility of online special collections finding aids at 68 public us colleges and universities in the association of research libraries. introduction university students and faculty today expect some degree of online access to most library resources. special collections libraries are no exception, and researchers now have access to troves of digitized finding aids and original materials at university library websites nationwide. as part of the websites of higher education institutions, these resources must be accessible to patrons with disabilities. section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 first prohibited exclusion of the disabled from programs and activities of public entities, and the 1990 americans with disabilities act (ada) mandated accessibility of public services and facilities. section 508 of the rehabilitation act, as amended by the workforce investment act of 1998, also requires accessibility of federally funded services. since the passage of these laws, libraries at us colleges and universities have made progress in physical and electronic accessibility for the disabled. according to the employment and disability institute at cornell university, 2.1 percent of noninstitutionalized persons in the united states in 2010 had a visual disability.1 the us census bureau counted nearly 8.1 million people (3.3 percent) who reported difficulty seeing and 2 million who are blind or unable to see.2 these numbers indicate that there are students, faculty, and patrons outside the academic community with visual impairments who are potential consumers of online special collections materials. as ada improvements increasingly pave the way for greater enrollment numbers of students with visual impairments, libraries must anticipate these students’ need for fully accessible information resources. kristina southwell (klsouthwell@ou.edu) is associate professor of bibliography and assistant curator at the western history collections, university of oklahoma, norman, ok. jacquelyn slater (jdslater@ou.edu) is assistant professor of bibliography and librarian at the western history collections, university of oklahoma, norman, ok. mailto:klsouthwell@ou.edu mailto:jdslater@ou.edu an evaluation of finding aid accessibility for screen readers | southwell and slater 35 library websites and the constantly changing resources they offer must be regularly evaluated for compatibility with screen readers and other accessibility technologies to ensure access. perhaps because special collections materials are relatively late arrivals to the internet, their accessibility has not received as much attention as more traditional library offerings like published books and periodicals. the goal of this study is to determine whether a sampling of special collections finding aids available on public us college and university library websites are accessible to patrons using screen readers. internet access and screen readers blind and low-vision internet users have various types of assistive technology available to them. these include screen readers with text-to-speech synthesizers, refreshable braille displays, text enlargement, screen magnification software, and nongraphical browsers. guidelines for making websites accessible via assistive technology are available from the w3c’s web content accessibility guidelines (wcag 2.0).3 these rules provide success criteria for levels a, aa, and aaa for web developers to meet. many websites today still do not conform to these guidelines, and barriers to access persist. screen-reader users access information on the internet differently than sighted persons. the keyboard usually replaces the monitor and mouse as the primary computer interface. webpage content is spoken aloud in a strictly linear order, which may differ from the visual order on screen. instead of visually scanning the page to look for the desired content, screen-reader users can use the “find” or “search” function to look for something specific or use one of several options for skimming the page via keyboard shortcuts. these shortcuts, which vary by screen reader, allow navigation to the available links, headings, aria landmarks, frames, paragraphs, and other elements of the page. a recent webaim survey of screen-reader users indicated 60.8 percent navigated lengthy webpages first by their headings. using the “find” feature was the second most common method (16.6 percent), followed by navigation with links (13.2 percent) and aria landmarks (2.3 percent). only 7.0 percent reported reading through a long website without using navigational shortcuts.4 some websites also offer a “skip navigation link” at the beginning of a page, which allows the user to skip over the repetitive navigational information in the banner to hear the “main content” as soon as possible. these fundamental differences in the way screenreader users access internet content are the key to making websites that work well with assistive technology. literature review accessibility studies of library web sites in higher education have primarily focused on the library’s homepage and its resources and services. more than a decade ago, lilly and van fleet and spindler determined only 40 percent and 42 percent, respectively, of academic library homepages were rated accessible using bobby accessibility testing software.5 a series of similar studies followed by schmetzke and comeaux and schmetzke, which found accessibility rates of library homepages fluctuating over time, decreasing from a 2001 rate of 59 percent to 51 percent in 2002, information technology and libraries | september 2013 36 and rising back to 60 percent in 2006.6 providenti and zai iii examined academic library homepages in kentucky, comparing data from 2003 and 2007. they also found low accessibility rates with minimal improvement in four years.7 many accessibility studies have focused on one of the mainstays of academic library sites: databases of e-journals. early studies by coonin, riley, horwath, and others found significant accessibility barriers in most electronic content providers’ databases.8 problems ranged from missing and unclear alternative text to inaccessible journal pdfs saved as images instead of text. as awareness of web accessibility in library resources spread, research studies began to find that most databases were section 508 compliant but still lacked user-friendliness for users of assistive technology.9 more recent studies examined the actual usability of journal databases and the challenges they pose for the disabled. power and labeau still found vendor databases that were not section 508 compliant and others that were minimally compliant but lacked functionality.10 dermody and majekodunmi found that students were hindered by advanced database features intended to improve general users’ experiences.11 disabled students were also confronted with excessive links, unreadable links, and inaccessible pdfs. related studies have focused on providing guidelines for accessible library web design and services. brophy and craven highlighted the importance of universal design in library sites because of the ever-increasing complexity of web-based media.12 vandenbark provided a clear explanation of us regulations and standards for accessible design and outlined basic principles of good design and how to achieve it.13 recent works by samson and willis addressed best practices for reference and general library services to disabled patrons. samson found no consistent set of best practices between eight academic libraries studied, noting that five of the eight based their services on reactions to individual complaints instead of using a broader, proactive approach.14 willis followed up on a 1996 study by surveying technology and physical-access issues for the disabled in academic health sciences libraries. she found improvements in physical access, but technological access proved to be a mixed bag. while library catalogs were more accessible because they were available online, library webpages continued to pose problems for the disabled. significant deficiencies in the provision of alternative text and accessible media formats were observed.15 finding no comparable evaluations of special collections resources, in 2011 we examined the screen-reader accessibility of digitized textual materials from the special collections departments of us academic library websites.16 our study found that 42 percent of the digitized items were accessible by screen reader, while 58 percent were not. published at the same time, lora j. davis’ 2012 study evaluated accessibility of philadelphia area consortium of special collections libraries (pacscl) member libraries’ special collections websites and compared their performance to popular sites such as facebook, wikipedia, and youtube. davis found that the special collections sites had error rates comparable to the popular sites, but demonstrated that a low number of error codes in automatic checkers does not necessarily mean the page is usable for nonsighted people.17 davis concluded that it is difficult to “meaningfully assess site accessibility” an evaluation of finding aid accessibility for screen readers | southwell and slater 37 using only automatic accessibility checkers.18 our current research study addresses this issue by incorporating manual tests of the special collections finding aids we examined. the results provide some insight into the screen-reader user’s experience with these materials. method the researchers evaluated a single online finding aid from the websites of each of the 68 us public university and college libraries in the association of research libraries. they were analyzed with automated and manual tests during the 2012 fall academic semester. the evaluated finding aids were randomly selected from each library’s manuscripts and archives collections. selection was limited to only collections that have a container list describing manuscript or archives contents at least at box level. evaluations were performed on the default display mode of the selected finding aids. if the library’s website required a format choice instead of a default display (such as html or pdf) the html version was selected. the automated web-accessibility checker wave 5.0 by webaim was used to perform an initial assessment of each finding aid’s conformance to section 508 and wcag 2.0 guidelines. the wavegenerated report for each finding aid was used to compile a list of codes for the standard wave categories: errors, alerts, features, structural elements, and wai-aria landmarks. we recorded how many libraries earned each type of code, as well as how many times each code was generated during the entire evaluation process. manual testing of each finding aid was performed with the webbie 3 web browser, a text-only browser for the blind and visually impaired. webbie’s ctrl-h and ctrl-l commands were used to examine the headings and links available on each finding aid to determine whether patrons who use screen readers could navigate the finding aid by using its headings or internal links. the study concluded with a manual test by screen reader directed by keyboard navigation. system access to go (satogo) and nvda were used for this test. results overview basic descriptive data recorded during the selection process shows that 65 of the 68 finding aids tested were displayed as webpages using html, xhtml, or xml coding. the remaining three finding aids were displayed only in pdf, with no other viewing option available. only 25 of 68 finding aids were offered in multiple viewing formats, while 43 were only available in a single format. twenty of the finding aids were displayed in a state or regional database, while four used archon, one used contentdm, and four used dlxs. wave 5.0 web accessibility evaluation tool the three finding aids available only in pdf cannot be checked in wave, which is limited to webpages. therefore 65 finding aids were evaluated with this tool. the results show that the majority of tested finding aids (58 of 65, or 89.23 percent) had at least one accessibility error (see information technology and libraries | september 2013 38 table 1). the most common errors were missing document language, missing alternative text, missing form labels, and linked images missing alternative text. only seven of the finding aids had zero accessibility error codes. missing document language was noted for 63 percent of finding aids. language identification is important for screen readers or any text-to-speech applications, and it is a basic level a conformance requirement to meet wcag 2.0 criteria. the finding aids tested for this study contain primarily english materials, but they also describe materials in other languages, particularly spanish and french manuscript and book titles. without language identification, these words are spoken incorrectly with english pronunciation. furthermore, increasing popularity of mobile devices with voicing capabilities will likely make language identification helpful for many users, whether or not they use a screen reader for a disability accommodation. error number of libraries total number of occurrences broken skip link 4 6 document language missing 41 41 empty button 1 1 empty form label 4 7 empty heading 15 16 image map area missing alternative text 2 2 linked image missing alternative text 12 28 missing alternative text 15 36 missing form label 23 29 missing or uninformative page title 7 7 table 1. wave 5.0 errors (n = 65). the number of errors found for missing alternative text (36 instances at 15 libraries), linked images missing alternative text (28 instances at 12 libraries), and image map areas missing alternative text (two instances at two libraries) is surprising. alternative text for graphic items is one of the most basic and well-known accessibility features that can be implemented. the fact that it has not been provided when needed in more than a dozen finding aids suggests that these libraries have not performed the most rudimentary accessibility checks. missing or empty form labels and empty buttons, found at 24 libraries, can cause significant problems for screen-reader users. form labels and buttons allow listeners to identify and interact with forms such as search boxes. lack of accessible descriptive information makes them challenging to use, if not impossible. because headings are used with screen readers to facilitate quick keyboard navigation of a page, the presence of empty headings deprives screen-reader users of the information they need to scan the page the way a sighted patron does. similarly, skip links are used to jump to the main content of a page, bypassing the repetitive information in headers and sidebars. broken skip links were an evaluation of finding aid accessibility for screen readers | southwell and slater 39 present at four libraries, eliminating their intended advantage. missing or uninformative page titles were found at seven libraries, six of which were from pages using frames for display. when frames are used, each frame must have a clear title so listeners can choose the correct frame to hear. wave’s alerts category identifies items that have the potential to cause accessibility issues, particularly when not implemented properly (see table 2). a total of 43 percent of the finding aids reported missing first level headings, 30 percent had a skipped heading level, and nearly 17 percent had no heading structure. missing and disordered headings cause confusion when screenreader users try to navigate a page with them. listeners may think they have missed a heading, or they may have difficulty understanding the order and relationship of the page’s sections. alert number of libraries total number of occurrences accesskey 3 15 broken same-page link 9 18 link to pdf document 3 5 missing fieldset 1 1 missing first level heading 28 28 missing focus indicator 13 13 nearby image has same alternative text 9 1,071 no heading structure 11 16 noscript element 8 9 orphaned form label 2 2 plugin 1 1 possible table caption 3 4 redundant alternative text 4 9 redundant link 26 264 redundant title text 18 1,093 skipped heading level 20 22 suspicious alternative text 6 6 suspicious link text 1 5 tabindex 8 74 underlined text 8 142 unlabeled form element with title 1 2 very small text 11 20 table 2. wave 5.0 alerts (n = 65). at first glance, the most frequently encountered alerts appear to be for nearby images with the same alternative text (1,071 instances at nine libraries), and redundant title text (1,093 instances information technology and libraries | september 2013 40 at 18 libraries). on closer inspection, it is clear the vast majority of these alerts came from just three libraries using archon and are due to the inclusion of an “add to your cart” linked arrow image at the end of each described item. this repetitive statement is read aloud by the screen reader, making for a tedious listening experience. redundant links accounted for the next largest group of errors (264 instances at 26 libraries). most of these came from a single library using contentdm. its finding aid included a large number of subject headings linked to a “refine your search” option. excessive links clutter the navigational structure used by screen readers. broken same page links, present on nine finding aids, also hamper quick navigation within a page. other alerts reported at several libraries indicated failure to provide descriptive information or adequate alternative text for form labels, table captions, fieldsets, and links. the presence of these problems underscores the fact that descriptive information needed by screen reader users is not reliably available in finding aids. the remaining alerts for accesskey, tabindex, plugin, noscript element, and link to pdf document simply highlight areas that should be checked for correct implementation and do not confirm the presence of an access barrier. the features, structural elements, and wai-aria landmarks codes in wave identify the coding elements that make online content more accessible. features help users with disabilities interact with the page and read all of the available information on it, such as alternative text for images and form labels (see table 3). fully 83 percent (54 of 65) of library finding aids evaluated included at least one accessibility feature. the most commonly used features are alternative text and linked images with alternative text. a total of 53 libraries used some form of alternative text. wave reported that skip navigation links were available on only four finding aids, accounting for just 6 percent of libraries. a manual check of the source code, however, located a total of six finding aids feature number of libraries total number of occurrences alternative text 45 142 element language 2 2 form label 5 16 image button with alternative text 4 4 image map area with alternative text 2 5 image map with alt attribute 3 3 linked image with alternative text 19 31 long description 1 6 null or empty alternative text 10 21 null or empty alternative text on spacer 9 30 skip link 4 4 skip link target 5 5 table 3. features (n = 65). an evaluation of finding aid accessibility for screen readers | southwell and slater 41 with functioning skip links, all correctly located at or near the beginning of the page. this discrepancy indicates that accessibility checkers are not fail proof and must be followed by manual tests. the two added libraries raise the total to just 9 percent of libraries with skip links. considering the value of skip links to users of assistive technology, it is unfortunate they are not present on more pages. the structural elements noted by wave are the elements that help with keyboard navigation of the page and contextualizing layout-based information, such as tables or lists (see table 4). most libraries (64 of 65, or 98 percent) used at least one structural feature on their finding aids. lists and heading levels 2 and 3 are the most frequently used, followed by heading levels 1 and 4. although heading levels should be ordered sequentially to provide logical structure to the document, heading level 1 was skipped at 28 libraries (see table 2). table header cells, included at the 9 libraries using data tables to display container lists, are key to making tables screen-reader accessible. inline frames were used at seven libraries, as opposed to six libraries that used traditional frames. while inline frames are considered more accessible than traditional frames, using css is preferable to using either type. structural element number of libraries total number of occurrences definition/description list 11 86 heading level 1 33 54 heading level 2 43 150 heading level 3 42 295 heading level 4 25 108 heading level 5 1 2 heading level 6 0 0 inline frame 7 7 ordered list 6 16 table header cell 9 38 unordered list 41 715 wai-aria landmarks 1 3 table 4. structural elements (n = 65). wai-aria landmarks are element attributes that identify areas of the page such as “banner” or “search.” they serve as navigational aids for assistive technology users in a manner similar to headings. only one of the finding aids included three wai-aria roles. while aria landmarks are becoming more common on the internet in general, the data collected for this study indicates they have not yet been incorporated into library finding aids. information technology and libraries | september 2013 42 webbie 3 text browser analysis because screen reader users often use a webpage’s headings and links for navigating by keyboard commands, their importance to accessibility cannot be overstated. a quick check of any page in a nongraphical browser will reveal the page’s linear structure and reading order as handled by a screen reader. a text-only view of a website shows the order of headings and links within the document. webbie 3’s ctrl-h and ctrl-l commands were used to evaluate the 65 finding aids for the presence of headings and links for internal navigation. finding aids were rated on a pass/fail basis in three categories: • presence of any headings • presence of headings for navigating to another key part of the finding aid (e.g., container list) • presence of internal links for navigating to another key part of the finding aid headings/links yes no finding aid has at least one heading 59 (91%) 6 (9%) headings are used for navigation within finding aid 44 (68%) 21 (32%) links are used for navigation within finding aid 37 (57%) 28 (43%) headings and/or links used for navigation within finding aid 49 (75%) 16 (25%) table 5. use of headings and links for navigation (n = 65). while 91 percent had at least one heading, just 68 percent actually had headings that enabled navigation to another important section of the document, such as the container list. that means one-third of all finding aids encountered during this study could not be navigated by headings. even those that did have enough headings with which to navigate did not always have the headings in proper sequential order, or were missing first-level headings. this lack of adequate structure, given the length of some manuscript-collection finding aids, can make reading them with a screen reader tedious. finding aids with few or no headings prevent users of assistive technology from conveniently moving between sections, as a sighted reader can by visually scanning the page and selecting a relevant portion to read. even fewer finding aids offered links for navigating between sections of the finding aid. while 57 percent included such links, 43 percent did not. a total of 25 percent of pages tested lacked both headings and links of any kind for navigation within the finding aid. inclusion of headings or links to the standard sections of the finding aid facilitates keyboard navigation. additional headings or links to individual series or boxes provide even more options an evaluation of finding aid accessibility for screen readers | southwell and slater 43 for screen reader users. this is particularly helpful for patrons whose queries aren’t easily found using a search function – for example, when a patron does not know the specific terms to use for searching. only the most patient visitor will listen to an entire finding aid being read. screen reader test a manual screen reader test of each finding aid was completed by the researchers with satogo and nvda. both screen readers were used to ensure that success or failure to read the content was not because of any particular screen reader software. despite the 89 percent error rate noted by the automatic accessibility checker, the screen readers were able to read the main content of all 65 finding aids. the three pdf-only finding aids in the original group of 68 were also tested by opening them with the screen reader and adobe reader together. adobe reader indicated all three lacked tagging for structure and attempted to prepare them for reading. this resulted in all three being read aloud by the screen reader, but only one of the three was navigable by linked sections of the finding aid. the remaining two finding aids had no headings or links. while it is encouraging that the main content of all 68 finding aids could be read, some functioned poorly because of how the information is organized and displayed. finding aids serve as reference works for researchers and as internal record-keeping documents for the history of the collection. as such, they typically have a substantial amount of administrative information positioned at the beginning. biographical, acquisition, and scope and content notes are common, as are processing details and subject headings. sighted users can glance at the administrative information and skip to the collection summary or container list as needed. screenreader users can bypass this administrative information by using headings or links when they are supplied. users of the one-third of finding aids in this study that lacked these shortcuts must skim, search, or read the entire finding aid. inclusion of extensive administrative information without providing the means to skip past it creates a significant usability barrier. the descriptive style and display format of the container list also posed problems during this test. lengthy container lists displayed in tables are difficult to understand when spoken because tables are read row-by-row. this separates the descriptive table header cells, such as “box” and “folder” from the related information in the rows and columns below. as a result, the screen reader says “one, fifteen” before the description of the item in box 1, folder 15. it is hard to follow a long table, and the listener must remember or revisit the column and row headers to make sense of the descriptions. most screen readers have a table-reading mode for data tables that will read the header cell with the associated content, but only if the table has been marked up with sufficient tags. container-list-item descriptions that begin with an identification number or numeric date (e.g., 2012/01/13) are particularly unclear for listeners. these long sequences of numbers seem out of context when spoken by the screen reader, and it can be difficult to infer the relationship between the number and the item. item descriptions that are phrased as brief sentences in plain language result in finding aids that are more easily understood. application of findings information technology and libraries | september 2013 44 most special collections personnel in academic libraries are not responsible for the design of their websites, which are part of a larger organization that serves other needs. it is important that special collections librarians communicate to administrative and systems personnel that finding aids must be accessible to the visually disabled. libraries cannot rely on a content management system’s claims of being section 508-compliant to ensure accessibility, because that does not automatically guarantee the information displayed in the system is accessible. proper implementation of any content management system’s accessibility features is a key factor in achieving accessibility. librarians can take the first step toward improving accessibility of their special collections’ online finding aids by experiencing firsthand what screen reader users encounter when they use them. this can be done by conducting the same automated and manual tests described in this study. the following key checkpoints should be considered: accessible finding aids should • be keyboard navigation-friendly; • include alternative text for all graphics; • have descriptive labels and titles for all interactive elements like forms; • offer at least one type of navigational structure: o skip links and internal navigation links, o sufficient and properly ordered headings, or o wai-aria landmarks; and • linear reading order should be correct and simulate visual reading order, particularly for the container list. conclusion this study indicates that special collections finding aids at us public colleges and universities can be accessed by screen-reader users, but they do not always perform well because of faulty coding and inadequate use of headings or links for keyboard navigation. it is clear that many finding aids available online today have not been evaluated for optimal performance with assistive technology. this results in usability barriers for visually impaired patrons. special collections librarians can help ensure their electronic finding aids are accessible to screen-reader users by conducting automatic and manual tests that focus on usability. the test results can be used to initiate changes that will result in finding aids that are accessible to all users. an evaluation of finding aid accessibility for screen readers | southwell and slater 45 references 1. “disability statistics,” employment and disability institute, cornell university, 2010, accessed december 20, 2012, www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/acs.cfm. 2. matthew j. brault, “americans with disabilities: 2010,” us census bureau, 2010, accessed december 20, 2012, www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf. 3. “web content accessibility guidelines (wcag) 2.0,” world wide web consortium (w3c), accessed december 20, 2012, www.w3.org/tr/wcag. 4. “screen reader user survey #4,” webaim, accessed december 20, 2012, http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey4. 5. erica b. lilly and connie van fleet, “wired but not connected,” reference librarian 32, no. 67/68 (2000): 5–28, doi: 10.1300/j120v32n67_02; tim spindler, “the accessibility of web pages for mid-sized college and university libraries,” reference & user services quarterly 42, no. 2 (2002): 149–54. 6. axel schmetzke, “web accessibility at university libraries and library schools,” library hi tech 19, no. 1 (2001): 35–49; axel schmetzke, “web accessibility at university libraries and library schools: 2002 follow-up study,” in design and implementation of web-enabled teaching tools, ed. mary hricko (hershey, pa: information science, 2002); david comeaux and axel schmetzke, “web accessibility trends in university libraries and library schools,” library hi tech 25, no. 4 (2007): 457–77, doi: 10.1108/07378830710840437. 7. michael providenti and robert zai iii,“web accessibility at kentucky’s academic libraries,” library hi tech 25, no. 4 (2007): 478–93, doi: 10.1108/07378830710840446. 8. bryna coonin, “establishing accessibility for e-journals: a suggested approach,” library hi tech 20, no. 2 (2002): 207–20, doi: 10.1108/07378830210432570; cheryl a. riley, “libraries, aggregator databases, screen readers and clients with disabilities,” library hi tech 20, no. 2 (2002): 179–87, doi: 10.1108/07378830210432543; cheryl a. riley, “electronic content: is it accessible to clients with ‘differabilities’?” serials librarian 46, no. 3/4 (2004): 233–40, doi: 10.1300/j123v46n03_06; jennifer horwath, “evaluating opportunities for expanded information access: a study of the accessibility of four online databases,” library hi tech 20, no. 2 (2002): 199–206; suzanne l. byerley and mary beth chambers, “accessibility and usability of web-based library databases for non-visual users,” library hi tech 20, no. 2 (2002): 169–78, doi: 10.1108/07378830220432534; suzanne l. byerley and mary beth chambers, “accessibility of web-based library databases: the vendors’ perspectives,” library hi tech 21, no. 3 (2003): 347–57. 9. ron stewart, vivek narendra and axel schmetzke, “accessibility and usability of online library databases,” library hi tech 23, no. 2 (2005): 265–86, doi: 10.1108/07378830510605205; suzanne l. byerley, mary beth chambers, 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for serving students with disabilities,” reference services review 39, no. 2 (2011): 244–59, doi: 10.1108/00907321111135484. 15. christine a. willis, “library services for persons with disabilities: twentieth anniversary update,” medical reference services quarterly 31, no. 1 (2012): 92–104, doi: 10.1080/02763869.2012.641855. 16. kristina l. southwell and jacquelyn slater, “accessibility of digital special collections using screen readers,” library hi tech 30, no. 3 (2012): 457–471, doi: 10.1108/07378831211266609. 17. lora j. davis, “providing virtual services to all: a mixed-method analysis of the website accessibility of philadelphia area consortium of special collections libraries (pacscl) member repositories,” american archivist 75 (spring/summer 2012): 35–55. 18. davis, “providing virtual services to all,” 51. june_ital_rubel_final picture perfect: using photographic previews to enhance realia collections for library patrons and staff dejah t. rubel information technology and libraries | june 2017 59 abstract like many academic libraries, the ferris library for information, technology, and education (flite) acquires a range of materials, including learning objects, to best suit our students’ needs. some of these objects, such as the educational manipulatives and anatomical models, are common to academic libraries but others, such as the tabletop games, are not. after our liaison to the school of education discovered some accessibility issues with innovative interfaces' media management module, we decided to examine all three of our realia collections to determine what our goals in providing catalog records and visual representations would be. once we concluded that we needed photographic previews to both enhance discovery and speed circulation service, choosing processing methods for each collection became much easier. this article will discuss how we created enhanced records for all three realia collections including custom metadata, links to additional materials, and photographic previews. introduction ferris state university’s full-time enrollment for fall 2015 was 14,715 students. of these students, 10,216 are big rapids residents and the other 4,499 are either kendall college of art and design students or at other off-campus sites across michigan.1 during the 2014-2015 school year, flite had 14,647 check-outs including 2,558 check-outs of items in reserves, which is where our realia collections are located.2 however, reserves includes other items in addition to these collections, thus making analysis of circulation statistics problematic. another problem with conducting such an analysis is that the educational manipulative collection already had photographic previews and the tabletop game collection is a pilot project, so there is no clear before and after comparison. we can, however, demonstrate that enhancing the catalog records for our anatomical model collection had an incredibly significant impact, jumping from a handful of check-outs from 2014-2015 to almost 450 in 2016. literature review although there are very few libraries using photographic previews for their realia collections, the ones that do described similar limitations with bibliographic records and goals that only dejah t .rubel (rubeld@ferris.edu) is the metadata and electronic resources management librarian, ferris state university, big rapids, mi. picture perfect: using photographic previews to enhance realia collections for library patrons and staff | rubel | https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v36i2.9474 60 photographic previews could meet. most realia collections that warranted this extra effort are either curriculum materials or anatomical models, which is not surprising considering how difficult they are to describe. as butler and kvenild noted in their article on cataloging curriculum materials, “patrons struggled to identify which game or kit they sought based on the…information in the online catalog,” because “discovering curriculum materials in the catalog and getting a sense of the item are not easy when using traditional catalog descriptions...”3. as they continue, “the inventory and retrieval problems…were compounded by the fact that existing catalog records were not as descriptive as they should be.”4 this was also a problem for our collections because our names and descriptions were often not intuitive or precise. in addition, as loesch and deyrup discovered while cataloging their curriculum materials collection, “…there was great inconsistency among the oclc records regarding the labeling of the format…,”5 which was another issue we needed to address. although the general material designation (gmd) has since been rendered obsolete, flite continues to use it to highlight certain material. this choice is due to some limitations with our library management system as well as our discovery layer, namely the lack of good mapping or use of the 33x fields. until this is rectified with a more modern system, we have it found it easier to retain certain gmds like “sound recording”, “electronic resource”, and “realia”. thus, we needed to standardize our terms for each collection. another problem that our predecessors indicated photographic previews might resolve was missing objects or pieces of objects.6 this becomes especially important for our tabletop games collection because most of those pieces are very small and too numerous for a piece count upon return. fortunately, “previews…can aid users in making better decisions about potential relevance, and extract gist more accurately and rapidly than traditional hit lists provided by search engines.”7 ideally, a preview will display an appropriate level of information about the object it represents in order “…to support users in making a correct judgement about the relevance of that object to the user’s information need.”8 greene goes further by listing the main roles for previews of which the first two are the most applicable for photographic previews: aiding retrieval and aiding users in quickly making relevance decisions.9 for these uses, photographic previews of realia are ideal because users can examine the object without needing to see its details and they expect them to be abstract, not exhaustive, unlike digital surrogates that an archive would use.10 as greene also notes, the high-level goal of any preview is to "...communicate the level and scope of objects to users so that comprehension is maximized and disorientation is minimized."11 a common finding among all the previous projects was that even a single photograph provides more readily comprehensible information than several lines of description. as moeller states regarding their journal project, "they [previews of each issue's cover] give the researcher or student an immediate idea of the nature of the journal."12 he goes further to give the example of an innocuous journal title for a propagandist serial whose political nature is transparent once you view its imagery. from a staff perspective, photographic previews can also easily illustrate the number of information technology and libraries | june 2017 61 pieces and an object's condition or orientation. this can be very useful in determining whether something is missing or damaged without having to do a time-consuming individual piece count upon check-in. but as butler and kvenild discuss, layout within each photograph is key for illustrating missing pieces.13 unfortunately, aside from a few small projects mentioned in butler and kvenild's article, there are not many examples of photographic previews for realia collections currently being used by academic libraries. one reason might be software limitations. innovative's media management module is still unique among ils/lms software in that most vendors either provide a separate digital repository for special collections digital surrogates or they incorporate images into the catalog using third party software like syndetic solutionstm. another reason for the lack of photographic previews within catalogs may simply be the rarity of realia in academic libraries. every library certainly has a few unique pieces, like a skeleton for the pre-medical students, but often not enough to consider them an entire collection much less a complex enough collection to warrant the extra effort to create photographic previews of each item. at flite, we had already crossed that threshold of complexity. therefore, this article will start by discussing our educational manipulative collection, which provided the basis for how we would catalog and process the tabletop games and anatomical models. educational manipulative collection our first foray into creating photographic previews was completed by the previous cataloger with over 300 items cataloged in 2004 and another 30-40 added to the collection over the next decade. unlike the other realia collections, the educational manipulatives were cataloged using innovative’s course reserves module, so no attempt was made to find or create oclc records. nevertheless, the minimal metadata is very consistent across the collection, which supports greene’s recommendation “…that it was important to define a set of consistent attributes at the high level of the collection if any effective browsing across the collections was to be provided.”14 in our case, we rely on a combination of the gmd ([realia]), a custom call number prefix (toys box #), and a limited amount of local subject headings as shown below with “manipulatives” as the common subject for the entire collection. 690 = (d) current local subject headings in use as of 12/3/15: art. infant/toddler. block props. magnets. boards. manipulatives. cognitive. music. discovery box. oversize books. discovery. posters. dramatics. puppets. finger puppets. story apron. flannel board. story props. gross motor. woodworking. picture perfect: using photographic previews to enhance realia collections for library patrons and staff | rubel | https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v36i2.9474 62 due to the nature of descriptive metadata, photographic previews of the educational manipulatives made logical sense because “the images…are not the content. they are the metadata, the description of the materials.”15 as moeller describes, innovative’s media management module links images and many other file types directly to bibliographic records without requiring users to click an additional link unless they want to view a larger image of a thumbnail.16 similar to butler and kvenild’s project, all of our photos were 900 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall, which is slightly smaller than their default width of 1000 pixels.17 one advantage of using the media management module is its ability to automatically create thumbnails 185 pixels wide by 85 pixels tall. a bigger advantage is that the images are hosted on the same server that runs our catalog, which allows us to freely distribute the images in an intuitive manner (thumbnails instead of links) without having to worry about authentication to a shared folder from off-campus, unlike our pdf files. unfortunately, our liaison to the school of education recently discovered some accessibility issues with media management that forced us to consider whether we should change the embedded photographic previews to external links. the most significant of these problems is simply the language of the proprietary viewer software. because it is written in java, if you click on a thumbnail for a larger image, many browsers, like chrome, will not run it and those that will often require a security exception to do so. we have attempted to ameliorate some of these issues by providing an faq entry on which browsers are best for viewing these images and how to add a security exception for our website, but unless or until innovative rewrites this software in a different language, these accessibility issues will persist because java is being phased out of many browsers. butler and kvenild also noted its slow response time compared to their own server.18 another issue they mentioned was that the thumbnails would not be visible in their consortial catalog, so they needed to add links in the 856 field for these users.19 this is less of an issue for us because we do not contribute any of our realia records to our consortia catalog, but moeller’s concern that in general “…enhancements involving scanned images…will not be easily shared with other libraries,”20 is entirely valid. unlike oclc records, there is no way to share attached or embedded images as part of the metadata and not the content. contrariwise, butler and kvenild’s concerns regarding catalog migration are very pertinent because we are considering moving to a new lms within the next few years.21 although we acknowledge that “utilizing 856 tags is an indirect method of accessing the images, as users must take the intiative to follow the links,” we will eventually have to move and link our photographic previews to ensure accessibility after migration.22 tabletop game collection unlike the educational manipulatives, the majority of the tabletop game collection was previously cataloged in oclc, so finding good bibliographic records was easy. once downloaded, we decided to add a unique gmd ([game]), custom call number prefix (board game box #), and local subject heading “tabletop games”. however, our emerging technlogies librarian who coordinated this information technology and libraries | june 2017 63 pilot project felt that the single subject heading was not descriptive enough. so he gave us a spreadsheet with more specific subject headings such as “deck building”, “historical”, and “resource management” that we added as genre/form subject headings in the 655_4 field. he also suggested that we add links to the rule books, which we did using the 856 field and the link text “connect to rule book (pdf)”. because tabletop games are commercial products, finding images online was also easy. at first, we had some concerns about copyright, but we are not reselling these products or using the image as a replacement for the item. so, we concurred with butler and kvenild that “…the images in our project fall under copyright fair use.”23 another plus to using commercial images is that we could use more than one to show various aspects of setup and play. the downside to this benefit is image sizes and content photographed varied widely, so we used our best judgement in creating labels and tried to keep them as consistent as possible. to ensure consistency across the collection, we decided that the first image should always be the top of the game’s box labeled “box cover” or “box cover – front” if there was a “box cover – back” image. (we only displayed the back of the box cover if there was significant information about the game printed on it.) then we added up to five additional images showing parts of the game like “card examples”, “game pieces”, and “game set-up”. overall, this number of images worked very well in both encore’s attached media viewer and the classic catalog/web opac, but there is a slight duplication in images by syndetic solutionstm for a few games. this results in a larger version of the box top image displaying to the right of the title and above the smaller thumbnails of images we added using media management. in regards to piece counts, we presumed that we would need photographic previews to aid in piece counting upon return of a tabletop game. however, our emerging technologies librarian assured us that because we are an educational institution, we could contact the vendor for free replacement pieces at any time. he also emphasized that unlike the educational manipulatives or the anatomical models, this was a pilot collection, so extensive processing would not be a good investment of our labor. fortunately, the anatomical model collection would require images for piece counts as well as several other cataloging customizations to increase discoverability and speed circulation. anatomical model collection similar to our educational manipulative collection, but not nearly as extensive, our anatomical model collection has been a part of flite since its inception. unlike the manipulatives, which are used primarily by the early childhood education students, the anatomical models support a range of allied health programs including but not limited to dental hygiene, radiology, and nursing. the majority of our two dozen models were purchased in the 20th century and, like the manipulatives, the majority were cataloged using innovative’s course reserves module. unfortunately, none of these records were very descriptive, some being so poor as to be merely a title like “jawbones” and a barcode. so, the first task was to match objects with oclc records. fortunately, this task picture perfect: using photographic previews to enhance realia collections for library patrons and staff | rubel | https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v36i2.9474 64 became easier once we discovered that it was easier to match the object to the vendor’s catalog image and then search oclc by vendor model name or number than it is to decipher written descriptions if you do not know human anatomy. once good bibliographic records were downloaded, we decided to add one of three gmds depending on the type of model ([model], [chart], or [flash card]), a custom call number prefix (model #), and one or more of the local subject headings shown below. 690 = (d) anatomy model. anatomy chart. anatomy models. anatomy charts. dental hygiene model. dental model. dental hygiene models. dental models. technically, all dental models could be used as anatomical models, but not vice versa. therefore, the common subject headings for the collection are “anatomy model” and “anatomy models”. to make things easier to shelve, retrieve, and inventory, we also designed numeric ranges for the call numbers, as shown below, so we would know what type of model we should expect when referring to a specific model number. 099 = (c) model #00x following this hierarchy: 001-099 anatomical charts and flash cards 100-199 articulated skeletons 200-299 disarticulated skeletons and bone kits 300-399 organs 400-499 skulls (anatomical and dental hygiene) 500-599 other dental models (dental studies, dental decks) we also scanned and linked pdfs of the heavily worn model keys with the link text “connect to key pdf” before washing and rehousing all the models. once they were clean, they were ready for their shoot with ferris state university’s media production team. due to winter break, media production was able to shoot the majority of the collection fairly quickly. they returned to us high-resolution tiffs the same size as those for the manipulatives, 900 pixels by 600 pixels. in case of java viewer failure, we requested that there be one top-level image that showcases exactly what the model contains with images of individual pieces or drawers as the succeeding images. for example, our disarticulated skeletons are housed in small plastic carts with three drawers in each cart. therefore, the first image would be a shot of all the pieces of the disarticulated skeleton and the second image would be the contents of the top drawer, the third image the contents of the middle drawer, and the last image the contents of the bottom drawer. in this specific example, we re-used the images that we posted in the catalog information technology and libraries | june 2017 65 record by pasting them on top of the cart to show circulation staff what to expect in each drawer upon check-in. overall, photographic previews for this collection appear to be working very well for both catalog users and circulation staff “…to inform users about size, extent, and availability of collections or objects.”24 in fact, they have been working so well for this collection that usage has increased exponentially compared to previous years. figure 1. circulation statistics 2014-2016 conclusions and future directions although we implemented photographic previews for three realia collections, we could not define any standard workflow for the process beyond correcting or downloading the metadata first and adding the images second. part of this is due to our working primarily with legacy collections because we often discovered issues, like the model keys, while working through another issue. the other part is due to the nuances involved in processing realia in general. even with good, readily available catalog records like those for the tabletop games, time still had to be spent separating, organizing, and rehousing game pieces as well as hunting down useful images. unfortunately, any type of realia processing, even if it is just textual description, is much more time-consuming than the majority of academic library cataloging. adding in the extra steps to create, upload, and link a photographic preview can nearly double that labor investment. notwithstanding, as butler and kvenild advocate “…not supplying images as metadata for items that most need them (i.e. kits, games, and models) is to make them nearly irretrievable. providing bare-bones traditional metadata for these items is analogous to delegating them to the backlog shelves of yesteryear.”25 367 317 114 10 1 444 24 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 2014 2015 2016 circulation statistics manipulatives models games picture perfect: using photographic previews to enhance realia collections for library patrons and staff | rubel | https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v36i2.9474 66 unfortunately, neither the library management system nor the third-party catalog enhancement market currently provides a good solution to this problem. considering how great an impact photographic previews have had in the online retail market, this lack of technical support is surprising. yes, syndetic solutionstm is a great product for cover images and tables of content for books. however, once you go beyond traditional resources, there is a great need to allow institutions to submit their own images as part of catalog record enhancement and not to serve as separate digital surrogates in a digital respository. this could be done either within the library management system, like the media management module, or as an option for catalog enhancement where libraries could add images to either a shared database or their own database using standard identifiers on a third-party platform like syndeticstm. further research on photographic previews is also sorely needed. as of this writing, we only have a handful of case studies and some guiding philosophy on the use of previews. consultation with internet retailers and literature on online marketing might be more applicable than library science research to evaluate their impact, but research into their direct impact vs. textual descriptions on catalog use would be ideal. references 1. fact book 2015 – 2016 (big rapids, mi: ferris state university institutional research & testing, 2016), http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/admision/testing/factbook/factbook15-162.pdf, 47. 2. ibid, 12. 3. marcia butler and cassandra kvenild, “enhancing catalog records with photographs for a curriculum materials center,” technical services quarterly 31 (2014): 122-138, https://doi.org/10.1080/07317131.2014.875377, 122-124. 4. ibid, 126. 5. martha fallahay loesch and marta mestrovic deyrup, “cataloging the curriculum library: new procedures for non-traditional formats,” cataloging & classification quarterly 34, no. 4 (2002): 79-89, https://doi.org/10.1300/j104v34n04_08, 82. 6. butler and kvenild, “enhancing catalog records with photographs,” 128. 7. stephan greene, gary marchionini, catherine plaisant, and ben shneiderman, “previews and overviews in digital libraries: designing surrogates to support visual information seeking,” journal of the american society for information science 51, no. 4 (2000): 380-393, https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(2000) 51:4<380::aid-asi7>3.0.co;2-5, 381. 8. ibid. information technology and libraries | june 2017 67 9. ibid, 384. 10. ibid, 385. 11. ibid. 12. paul moeller, “enhancing access to rare journals: cover images and contents in the online catalog,” serials review 33, no. 4 (2007): 231-237, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.serrev.2007.09.003, 235. 13. butler and kvenild, “enhancing catalog records with photographs,” 128. 14. greene et. al., “previews and overviews in digital libraries,” 388. 15. butler and kvenild, “enhancing catalog records with photographs,” 124. 16. moeller, “enhancing access to rare journals,” 234. 17. butler and kvenild, “enhancing catalog records with photographs,” 129. 18. ibid, 132. 19. ibid, 126. 20. moeller, “enhancing access to rare journals,” 237. 21. butler and kvenild, “enhancing catalog records with photographs,” 131. 22. ibid, 135. 23. ibid, 134. 24. greene et. al., “previews and overviews in digital libraries,” 386. 25. butler and kvenild, “enhancing catalog records with photographs,” 136. reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. using server-side include commands for subject web-page management: ... northrup, lori;cherry, ed;darby, della information technology and libraries; dec 2004; 23, 4; proquest pg. 192 tutorial using server-side include commands for subject webpage management: an alternative to database-driven technologies for the smaller academic library lori northrup, ed cherry, and della darby frustrated by the time-consuming process of updating subject web pages, librarians at samford university library (sul) developed a process for streamlining updates using server-side include (sst) commands. they created text files on the library server that corresponded to each of 143 online resources. include commands within the html document for each subject page refer to these text files, which are pulled into the page as it loads on the user's browser. for the user, the process is seamless. for librarians, time spent in updating web pages is greatly reduced; changes to text files on the server result in simultaneous changes to the edited resources across the library's web site. for small libraries with limited online resources, this process may provide an elegant solution to an ongoing problem. the migration of print ed subject guides and p athfinders to web pages began almost concurrently with th e creation of library web sites. dunsmore relates that this online mi gra tion durlori northrup (lanorthr@samford.edu) is reference librarian, ed cherry (cecherry @samford.edu) is the automation librarian, and della darby (dhdarby@samford. edu) is the coordinator of reference and government documents at samford university library, birmingham, alabama. in g the 1990s was follow ed almost immediately by articles on the d esig n, construction, usability , and maintenanc e of web-ba sed subject guides. 1 a scan of recent literat ure (for example, dean; roberts; davi dson; grimes and morris; and galvanestrada) suggests that onlin e access to library resources has becom e the norm, and that librarian s struggle with the tim e necessary to maintain th ese guides online. 2 in an effort to reduce time sp en t maintainin g subject guides to int erne t, print, and online resources, librari ans are discove ring more efficient methods of resource management for their web-mounted subject guid es and pathfinder s. roberts , davidson, and ga lvanestrada d escr ibed variations of database-driv en technology th at generate dynamic subject guides to library res ources; a common database of reso urces that have been descriptive ly enhanced for retrieval pro v ides the backbone for a system th at crea tes subject guid es for the user at the point of query. ' patrons can then search for materials that ma y cross disciplinary lines, and receive a more targeted result list than the y would ha v e rece ived had they only combined two s tatic subject bibliographi es from related fields. the primary advantage to this type of retrieval system , for the librarian, is that updates can be done at one central location-within the database-and will then appear when the upd ated item is viewed on any portion of the library 's web site generated from that database . libraries that have adopted databa se-driven technologies hav e done so because their resource listings have exceeded m anageable capacity. selected resourc es from the int erne t or from librar y electronic holdin gs have reached a numb er that is difficult for available staff to maintain , especially acro ss hundr eds of static web pages. for one library , this might mean a collection of mor e than two hundred; for larger librar y, this critical point might be reached only after eight hundred resources were gathered. at some 192 information technology and libraries i december 2004 point in the collection of resourc es, the amount of work n ecessa ry to create a database-driven syste m will be less than the pot en tial workload for updating individual pages. for the creat ors of these databasedri ven systems of resource retri eva l and displa y, th e time inve sted in the database sys tem grea tly outweighs th e potential time lost in upd ating what davidson has describ ed as "hundreds of p ages of html containing multipl e occurrences of the same information , each of which nee ds to be checked and updat ed in response to even trivial changes in title or url." 4 however, the investm ent of time and labor neces sary to th e creation of a populated database should not be downplayed. davidson also notes "th e process of recrea ting or migrating an entire site to a databa se-driven platform is timeand lab or -intensive ."5 indeed, rob er ts sugg es ts that the labor and time required of library staff to get the sys tem running at full potenti al outweighs any technical issues involved in creating th e database. 6 in galvanestrada 's case, librarians created tools spe cific to the sys tem to facilitate entr y of dat abase information , th ereby incr easi ng initial time and lab or investm ents. 7 this method for handling a multiplicity of web pages and resources may work well for colleges and universities with hundreds of resources to be repeated across searche s or subject pages. for some libraries , howeve r, the critical amount of resources tha t can spur tha t type of d ecision ma y never be reached. a closer loo k at one small acad emic library 's efforts to reduce time spent in updating static html subject guides may be helpful to other librari es in similar situations . samford's situation samford univ ers ity is a smallto medium-sized institution , with about 2,900 undergr aduate and 1,500 gradu ate students. the campus h as five reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. information units: the university library, the law library, the education curriculum center, the career development center, and the drug information center. the university library is the primary information center for all disciplines except law. within the reference department, which is one of several university library departments, four full-time librarians are responsible for general reference, government documents reference, and maintenance of the department's designated web pages on the library's web site. like the majority of academic libraries, samford university library (sul) provides subject access to its electronic resources. sul' s practice is to provide static-subject web pages that include a list made up of (1) peri odical databases of primary subject importance, databases of secondary importance, and general databases; (2) reference books; and (3) web sites. each reference librarian is responsible for the creation and maintenance of selected subject pages and departmental pages. the department also maintains a page with an alphabetical list of all sul subscription databases and some free databases. it is from this list of commonly used resources that librarians select materials to fill the top portion of the subject pages . subject pages have undergone several metamorphoses in recent years. one major change was to add brief descriptions to each title on the database list while maintaining links to pages that held more in-depth information about each of the databases. because a database may be listed on two or more subject pages, these changes required a considerabl e amount of repetitious updating . the initial changes were made to the alphabetical list, and then the html code was copied into each of the subject pages where the title was listed. copying and pasting in this way helped to ensure consistency across subject pages. when a recent review of sul's web-site statistics indicated that the description pages were receiving little or no activity, the reference librarians decided to enlarge the descriptions under each database title on the list and remove the links to the description pages. this would provide more initial information for the patron while eliminating the web team's maintenance of underutilized pages. making these changes across all the sul subject pages and some other affected pages resulted in hours of html correction . for each change made to the alphabetical list of resources, several other subject web pages had to undergo the same change. for example, librarians were copying the information for academic search elite (ase) and infotrac onefile across every subject page. recently, faced with another update of all of the subject pages due to a database name change, the reference librarians decided to find a method that would minimize the repetition of effort required for this and future overhauls of the sul database lists. some informal discussion among reference librarians and with the automation librarian had concerned recent literature on database-driven web sites; however, the general consensus was that sul had neither the time nor the need to take such a significant leap. the total number of items on the alphabetical list of resources at that time was 144. adopting a new platform of operation in a database-driven model seemed too large an undertaking for sul' s small list of resources. the reference coordinator consulted with the automation librarian about the possibility of using include statements in place of each database title and description. the web team was already using include statements for the headers and footers of all library web pages. include commands include commands are a type of ssi code. fagan explains that through using ssi codes, a web author with no knowledge of programming can insert set groups of data into an html web page. carefully constructed statements within the html page give the server a command to locate and insert a piece of information (a date, a text file, a program). when a user requests a page (clicks on a link for the page), the server loads the page, inserting the requested material in place of the ssi code on the page ." the web server executes ssi code before the web page is transferred to the browser making the request. this means that the use of ssi is not browser-dependent. ssi directives work regardless of security or privacy controls in the browser, such as disabling javascript or cookies. mach notes that this type of retrieval and substitution can be especially helpful for material that is used repeatedly on several library web pages. the web author can create one file containing the information used on several pages; then, when a change is made to that file, it is repeated across all web pages that include that file. 9 as mentioned above, sul web pages all include the same header and footer; these headers and footers do not appear in the original html code for the pages . instead, there is a command that tells the server to locate the header and footer files and include them when the page is loaded on a browser. the user does not know that ssi coding was used; for the user, the page appears complete. if a change needs to be made in a footer , then the change is made to the file containing that information. changes appear on all pages that refer to the edited footer file. library literature on the use of ssi somewhat slow to adopt ssi capabilities, librarians have recently made excellent use of this elegant resource . using server-side include commands i northrup, cherry, and darby 193 reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. current articles tend to be written with the understanding that many librarians who work on their library's web site may not have the experience or levels of access necessary to make server changes. articles focus more on the implementation of the syntax at the level of web-page maintenance and less on server technology. authors in the most recent publications have been more likely to offer examples, and to speculat e on uses that, while they are not entirely innovative, hav e not been fully taken advantage of in the past. using ssi to include text files in a web page has been mentioned as a possibility since the first article, but later articles have tended to amplify the possibilities for this type of include command. in a slight shift of emphasis, later articles have tended to downplay the added server strain that was once a matter of great concern for ssi users. ssi statements have probably been in use in libraries since servers were capable of processing them; documentation accompanying servers includes information on their use, as do some html manuals for beginning web-page creators. reference to the use of ssis in a library environment does not appear until 2000. notess's article provides a good, concise overview, and points to several helpful resources for the webmaster. notess mentions common uses of ssi commands that will provide knowledge about the page, such as "current date and tim e, the ltrl of the page, the directory in which the file is located, the kind of browser the user has, or pull in content from separate files to construct the page before it is delivered." he elaborates on this point by stating that "a simple text file can contain the content [for a web page], and people with no html experience can be given access to change that text." 10 while he mentions this possibl e use of the ssi include command for text files, notess's examples all concern the echo command. notess does mention that ssi can possibly cause server strain but states that "includes add very little extra load" [emphasis added]. 11 later articles tend to mirror notess's in describing situations appropriate for the use of ssi and in noting possible difficulties and concerns. mach's article assumes a bit more knowledge of servers and also access to server set-up features, but it is written in clear explanatory language and provides exc ellent examples of commonly used ssi commands, including figures to illustrate those uses. she elaborates on notess's suggestion about text files, and makes the suggestion that if non-html files are the targets of ssi commands, that they be given an extension such as .txt, so that they will not be indexed as web pages. 12 also notable is her assertion that "most web servers should be able to handle the extra load of parsing all files and simply using th e .html extension already in place." 13 written with an eye to those who are not web or server administrators, pagan's article one year later provides many example screen shots and a step-by-step guide to implementing ssi. the information here is similar to that in mach 's article, but the style is more accessible to the less-experienced web site developer. like mach and notess, fagan mentions the use of non-html files and clarifies the idea of having an "all-text file, which could be ftp'd to the web server." 14 as with the other authors, she mentions that enabling ssi on a server can result in the loss of "at least microseconds of time" as pages are parsed and reconstructed for the browser .15 she explained, though, that "ssi is used on large web sites in some fairly complex ways without causing any discernible time lag . the question is one of how busy your web server is; if it is not overburdened with requests, it will easily handle the additional load of parsing files." 1" she rightly asserts that slow internet connections or older, slower patron pcs are more likely to cause delays than is ssi load on a server. 17 194 information technology and libraries i december 2004 these articl es demonstrate an organic movement toward wider use of ssi capabilities. all of them mention the potential to use ssi for portions of pages that are the same, such as headers and footers. each of them also mentions the use of ssi to include text files that web authors without html experience can edit. what they do not cover is the use of ssi to include text files that are repeatedly used in the body of multiple web pag es. examples given are for web page s with significant blocks of text that might be written at different times by different authors. the use of ssi include commands at sul to insert pieces of identical text across many pages, while not groundbr eaking , is significant in light of libraries' recent efforts to handle large numbers of electronic resources. sul's experience as the literatur e and server technology have advanc ed over the last few years, there has been a noticeable move from emphasis on the strain that ssi can cause to acknowledgement that the technology has become more capable in handling that strain. this is not to say that strain on the server does not occur. the user manual for apache servers clearly states that "while this load increase is minor, in a shared server environment it can become significant." 18 however, the increases in server speed and capability certainly make it more feasible to use ssi in quantity than it was in the past, and library literature supports that view. informal information from web discussions and web-development sites is much more emphatic . recent discussion on thelist at evolt.org focused on this issue and elicited the following from baratta: "today's servers are super charged compared to just a few years ago, and most people won't see the traffic levels that give ssi overhead a chance to affect serving time." 19 reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. the server statistics at sul bear out this theory. the library's six-yearold apache server last year averaged slightly more than 300,000 hits per month. the average increases somewhat to around 340,000 hits during the nine months of samford' s fall and spring semesters. this total number of hits includes all catalog searches as well, as this server also hosts sul' s automated library system. despite this seemingly large number of hits, the server usually reports that it is 80 percent to 90 percent idle even during the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. time slot during which it does the major portion of its work. at the time these statistics were gathered, ssi was already in use for the inclusion of urls, last update dates, and some header and footer information. the commands directing the server to provide this information to the browser are more taxing to the server than commands employing the include command. after the addition of four to ten include commands on each of thirtyseven subject pages, and the construction of one alphabetical list consisting only of 143 include commands, the load on the server remains at less than 20 percent. this load is on a server with a 200 mhz powerpc processor, with 512 mb of ram. certainly each library has its own server situation, and this solution for handling occasional updates to electronic resources information on library web pages may not work for all. consultations with the automation librarian or computer technology department should verify specific limitations and requirements for using ssl sul also tested to see whether the use of ssi would result in longer page load times. the download of two identical (to the user) pages, one static and the other built from include directives, was timed. there was no visible difference between the two. a more rigorous test may have detected a difference measurable in milliseconds. however, sul librarians feel that the user's connection speed has a larger effect on the page load time than the use of ssl background the evolution of this process for sul moved rather quickly from inception to application, involving only slight changes to the library's normal processes for updating web pages. the most time-consuming tasks involved creating the include .txt files at the outset, and then providing a database of the completed include commands. each time a database title is added to the collection, the automation librarian creates a persistent uniform resource locator (purl) for that database. this is due to the tendency of the database vendors to alter the url through which access is gained and because the library sometimes switches vendors for its databases. with this procedure in place, the automation librarian can make the change to the url in one place and every link to that database will connect properly. this saves considerable time and effort for the librarians who maintain the subject pages. librarians were in the habit of using that purl to create a section of html that presented the database link to the patron. figure 1 illustrates a portion of html code for ebsco' s ase as it appears in a text editor. in addition to appearing in subject pages on various topics, subscription databases and commonly used web resources are listed in one alphabetical listing. this page, updated first when changes are made, is where librarians came to copy the current code for a database. in this way, sul attempted to keep pages consistent. text for a database could be copied and pasted into the html editor as a librarian worked to update the pages. while this seemed like a smooth process, the simple reality of having to copy and paste one database change to, potentially, all subject pages was too time-consuming to make it an efficient process. updates to the subject pages and alphabetical list are done as time permits. often, one or two librarians were unable to make the changes until weeks had passed, resulting in a web site that was inconsistent and sometimes misleading. for instance, dates of database coverage might change and be documented on the alphabetical list, but not on all the subject pages listing that database. the way sul does it now when it was decided to try the include commands as an alternative for updating database information and streamlining the update process for librarians, changes were made over the course of three days, and occurred in three phases. in phase one, the alphabetical list was carved into 143 individual .txt files, each of which contained information for one database or web resource. each .txt file was saved on the server with a name corresponding to the purl that is used for that database, or with an easily recognizable name constructed from the title or url of the resource. the html code in figure 1 became a .txt file titled eb-ase.txt. using the purl for the title of the file makes it more easily recognizable and acquaints librarians with the purls already in use. in phase two, one librarian created an excel file containing the following: (1) an alphabetical list of resource names; (2) existing names for the corresponding .txt files; and (3) component parts of an include command for each resource. the final column concatenates these component parts together resulting in a ready-made include command for each resource. figure 2 illustrates a portion of this table. in phase three, librarians used th e table of include commands to select the resources they wanted on thei r pages. this entailed replacing a block using server-side include commands i northrup, cherry, and darby 195 reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. of html code with one include command . the examp le of html code in figure 1 would be reduced to the following statem ent: fig. 2. database names, .txt file names, and resultant include commands in addition, librarians who are using this simple technique do not need extensive training. the creation of the excel database of include commands allows for quick additions to an existing page, or the creation of new subject pages. librarians using the include commands can simply copy and paste them; there is no need for them to understand the syntax or to be able to repeat it. this makes using ssi particularly attractive to staff who do not want the added burden of further training in html. the librarian responsible for creating the .txt files and the excel database of statements demonstrated the copying and pasting of the include statements to all the other librarians who edit html pages in a one-time tenminute training session. the only additional training issue has involved page structure. since the library uses a table structure for the subject pages, all table tags are included in the database .txt files. making sure that librarians understand that they do not need to recreate the table tags has been the only additional training issue for the department. as librarians begin to use these commands, links to resources across subject pages will look the same and will provide the user with the same information. this increased uniformity results in a more professional appearance for the web site as a whole. disadvantages this revolution in the maintenance of subject pages has not been without its disadvantages. the primary complaint by librarians using ssi include commands is that they cannot preview their changes in their html editors. sul's department uses the coffeecup html editor, which allows previews, but the previews are not visible for items that are retrieved using ssis. this is because the page is not fully assembled until the server assembles it. when the librarian views the page in the editor, 196 information technology and libraries i december 2004 reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. prior to uploading it to th e server, the include commands are without tar gets. the target .txt files are on the server. when a user requ ests a p age, include commands pull in the missing pieces (the .txt files, or other files); th en, th e completed pag e is seamlessly presented to the us er via his or her brow ser. as mach notes, "preview ing a web page without crucial element s . . . can be di sconcerting, esp ecially to visuall y oriented d esigners."20 in sul's experienc e with thi s particular issue, librarian s who are uncomfortable loading pages with locally invisible elements can load th em into temporary fold ers on the server, check them for errors there, and then move them to th eir appro priate dir ectories . conclusion situational factors have allowed sul to imple ment this change with surprising ease and speed. because the library has its own server, and because th ere is an automation librarian on staff, communicati on and chan ge have been easy and efficient. librar y staff deduce that it is becau se the include command of ssi is b eing u sed more than other possible commands that the librar y is not experiencing an increase in loadin g tim e on its pages. of course, the size of sul's reso urce list makes this kind of soluart & tec h ebsco tion feasible ; certainly, if the librar y were working with hundreds of resources, it would be more likely that a datab ase -driv en strategy would be ad op ted . the simplicity and elegance of the ssi include command process has encourage d adoption, and sul ha s seen no ill effects from the us er side of operations. librarian web au th ors qui ckly overcame any slight di sco mfort with the new proc ess and are now able to devote a portion of editing time to other, less m ono tonous tasks. references and notes 1. carla dun smore, "a qualitative study of web-mounted pathfinders created by academic business libraries," libri 52, no . 3 (sept. 2002): 140-41. 2. charles w. dea n , "th e public electronic libr ary : web-based subj ec t guides," library hi tech 16, no. 3-4 (1998): 80-88; gary rob erts , "designi ng a database-driven web site, or, the evolution of the infoiguan a," computers in libraries 20, no. 9 (oct. 2000): 26-32; bryan h. davidson, "database-driven, dynamic content delivery: providing an d managing access to online resources using microsoft access and ac ti ve server pages," oclc systems and services 17, no . 1 (2001): 34-42; marybeth grimes and sara e. morris , "a co mp ari so n of academic librarie s' webliographies, " internet reference services quarterly 5, no . 4 (2001): 69-77; laur a ga lv an -estra da, "moving towards a user-cent ere d, database-driven web site at th e ucsd libraries," index to advertisers 179 200 lita internet reference services quarterly 7, no. 1-2 (2002): 49-61. 3. roberts, "infoiguana "; davidson, "da tabase driven"; galvanestrada, "user -cen tered, database-driv en web site." 4. davidson, "database driven," und er " int roduction ." 5. ibid., under "developm ent conside ra tions." 6. roberts, "infoiguana ," 32. 7. ga lvan-estrada, " u ser -centered, database-driven web site, " 55-56. 8. jody co ndit fagan, "server -side includ es made sim ple, " the electronic library 20, no. 5 (2002): 382-83 . 9. michelle mach, "the service of serv er -side includes," information technology and libraries 20, no. 4 (2001): 213. 10. greg r. notess, "serv er side includes for site management," online 24, no. 4 (july 2000): 78, 80. 11. ibid. 12. mach, "se rvice of server-side includ es," 216. 13. ibid., 214. 14. fagan, "server -side includ es m ade simple," 387. 15. ibid., 383. 16 . ibid. 17. ibid. 18. apache httpd server project, "apac h e http server version 1.3: secu rity tips for server configurati on," th e apache softwar e foundation. accessed oct. 29, 2003, http: / / httpd. apac he.org/ docs / misc / sec urity _tips .html. 19. an th on y baratta, e-mail to th elis t mailing list, may 16, 2003, accessed nov . 4, 2003, http:/ / lists.evolt.or g/ archive/ week-of-mon-20030512/140824.html. 20. mach, "service of serv er -side includ es," 217. cover 2, 191, covers 3--4 using server-side include commands i northrup, cherry, and darby 197 digital native librarians, technology skills, and their relationship with technology jenny emanuel information technology and libraries | september 2013 20 introduction a new generation of academic librarians, who are a part of the millennial generation born between 1982 and 2001,1 are now of the age to either be in graduate school or embarking on their careers. often referred to as “digital natives” because their generation is believed to have always grown up online and with technology ubiquitous in their daily lives,2 many agree that this generation is poised to revolutionize library services with their technology skills.3 younger academic librarians believe that their technology knowledge makes them more flexible and assertive in libraries compared to their older colleagues, and they have different ways of completing their work. they refuse to be stereotyped into the traditional “bookish” idea of librarianship and want to transform libraries into technology-enhanced spaces that meet the needs of students in the digital age, redefining librarianship.4 this paper, as part of a larger study examining millennial academic librarians, their career selection, their attitudes, and their technology skills, looks specifically at the technology skills and attitudes toward technology among a group of young librarians and library school students. the author initially wanted to learn if the increasingly high-tech nature of academic librarianship attracted millennials to the career, but results showed that they had a much more complex relationship with technology than the author assumed. literature review the literature concerning the millennial generation focuses on their use of technology in their daily lives. millennials are using technology to create new ways of doing things, such as creating a digital video for a term project, playing video games instead of traditional board games, and connecting with friends and extended family worldwide through email, instant messaging, and social networking.5 they use technology to create new social and familial networks with friends that are based on the music they listen to, the books they read, the pictures they take, and the products they consume.6 they believe that their relationship with technology will change the way society views and relates to technology.7 with technology at their fingertips on a nearly constant basis, millennials have gained an expectation of instant gratification for all of their wants and needs.8 jenny emanuel (emanuelj@illinois.edu) is digital services & reference librarian, university of illinois, urbana. mailto:emanuelj@illinois.edu digital native academic librarians, technology skills, and their relationships with technology | emanuel 21 millennials believe that technology is not a passive experience, as it was for previous generations.9 to them, technology is active and an experience by which they live their lives.10 they have grown up with reality television, which means anyone can have his or her fifteen minutes of fame. in turn, this means being heard, having their say, and becoming famous online are all natural experiences that can be shared by anyone.11 because they can create their own customized media and make media consumption an interactive, as opposed to a passive and hierarchical, experience, they believe that everyone’s opinion counts and deserves to be heard.12 even though they believe they are the greatest generation and expert users of technology, others have a different view. for example, bauerlein argues that they are not intellectually curious, are anti-library, and blindly accept technology at face value while not understanding the societal implications or context of technology. they also consume technology without understanding how it works.13 within libraries, technology skills related to new librarians have been studied by del bosque and lampert, who surveyed librarians from a variety of library settings with less than nine years experience working as professional librarians. the survey found the majority (55 percent) understood that technology played a large part of their library education, but a similar percent (57 percent) did not expect to work in a technical position upon graduation. respondents also thought there was a disconnect between the technology skills taught in library school and what was needed on the job, with job responsibilities being much more technical than they expected. thus, even though more experienced librarians expected recent graduates to fill highly technical roles, library school did not prepare them for these roles and students did not opt to go to library school to gain strong technology skills. based on survey comments, the researchers noted two categories of new librarians: those who have a high level of technical experience, usually from a previous job in a technology related industry, and those who struggle with technology. for those who struggle with technology, technology was not the reason they decided to become librarians, and they wish their library school had more hands-on opportunities for technology instruction instead of teaching theoretical applications.14 method to understand, in part, the technology skills of millennial academic librarians and their attitudes toward technology, the author developed a two-part research study including an online survey and individual interviews with millennial librarians and library school students. first, an exhaustive three-part survey was created covering multiple aspects of millennial academic librarians, including demographics, career choice, specialization, generational attitudes, management, and technology skills. although the survey focused on many areas of data collection, this paper focuses only on technology skills. the survey was disseminated in may 2012 to 50 american library association (ala) accredited library schools in the united states as well as online outlets geared toward new librarians, including the new members round table (nmrt) electronic discussion list, nextgen-l (next generation librarians list), the ala emerging leaders program alumni electronic discussion list, and the ala think tank on facebook. the survey was information technology and libraries | september 2013 22 open for 10 days. the survey also asked participants if they would be willing to participate in a follow-up interview. a total of 161 participants volunteered for a follow-up interview. interviews began once the survey closed, and individuals were contacted via email to schedule an interview at their convenience. a total of 20 interviews were conducted in may and june 2012. the interviews were conducted using the audio-only function of skype and were recorded using the mp3 skype recorder software. the author then transcribed all of the interviews and coded the transcripts. the interview utilized open-ended questions to gather individual stories and offer support to the quantitative demographic and qualitative survey questions.15 the interview questions were semistructured and asked participants to explain in detail their path to becoming an academic librarian and their attitudes toward technology. results there were 315 valid survey responses. the birth years of participants ranged from 1982 to 1990 (see figure 1). the respondents were nearly evenly divided between library school students (45.5 percent) and individuals having already obtained a mls degree (52.1 percent). concerning the format of their library school program, 38.4 percent earned the degree at an institution entirely in person, 19.6 percent completed the degree entirely online, and 42.0 percent went to a program that was a mix of in person and online courses. figure 1. birth-year distribution of survey participants. 41 35 64 50 45 39 33 22 2 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 digital native academic librarians, technology skills, and their relationships with technology | emanuel 23 quantitative data millennials believe it is very important for librarians to understand technology, with 99 percent reporting that it is important or very important. data on skills related to technology were gathered through several questions, notably by using a list of technologies commonly used in academic libraries and asking respondents to rate their comfort level before starting library school, after library school, and at the present time. the results are illustrated in table 1. technology before library school after library school at the present time adobe dreamweaver 1.93 2.5 2.46 adobe flash 2.28 2.61 2.66 adobe photoshop 2.66 3.15 3.22 computer hardware 3.03 3.27 3.32 computer networking 2.54 2.85 2.83 computer security 2.56 2.96 2.91 content management systems (cms) 2.34 3.32 3.29 course management systems (blackboard, moodle, etc.) 3.37 4.22 4.22 file management issues 3.00 3.72 3.67 html 2.56 3.56 3.48 image editing/scanning 3.47 3.87 n/a information architecture 1.86 2.67 2.58 integrated library systems—back end n/a 3.05 2.93 integrated library systems—front end n/a 3.53 3.39 linux/unix 1.58 1.83 1.86 mac os x 2.92 3.31 3.45 microsoft access 2.55 3.19 3.26 microsoft excel 3.94 4.37 4.40 microsoft windows 4.57 4.67 4.71 microsoft word 4.66 4.76 4.79 mobile devices 4.27 4.51 4.60 powerpoint 4.43 4.62 4.65 programming languages (c++, .net, etc.) 1.53 1.94 1.84 relational databases 1.87 2.66 2.66 screen capture software (camtasia, captivate, etc.) 2.10 3.26 3.32 server set up/maintenance 1.56 1.85 1.84 video conferencing 2.61 3.36 3.54 video editing 2.28 2.90 2.94 web 2.0 (rss, blogs, social networking, wikis, etc.) 3.79 4.54 4.49 web programming languages 1.55 1.99 1.92 xml 1.60 2.40 n/a table 1. average comfort level with technologies before and after library school and at the current time. scale: 1 = very uncomfortable to 5 = very comfortable. this list can be split into categories based on the level of technical skill required. individuals were most comfortable with technologies that are used rather than technologies that enable people to create content, which generally require a higher level of skill. for example, people were comfortable with using content management systems (cms) and software used to create information technology and libraries | september 2013 24 webpages, such as dreamweaver, but they were not comfortable with the information architecture skills, css, and html needed to create more complex websites. there was also a lack of understanding about relational databases, which serve as the back end of many online library resources that all librarians use to accomplish most reference work. other deficiencies include linux, an operating system commonly used to run servers, as well as server set up and administration, which run all web-based library resources and services. there is also a strong lack of computer programming understanding and skills, including c++ and .net, as well as web programming languages such as php, asp, and perl. however, when asked which technologies they would like to learn, respondents listed computer and web programming languages the most often, along with other high-level technology skills, including xml, database software and vocabularies, geographic information systems (gis), adobe photoshop, and statistical software, such as spss. data from the technology questions also show that people are learning about technology in library school, but they are learning more about technology they already know how to use than technologies that are new to them. there are a couple of exceptions, including cms, course management systems, html, and screen casting software, with which respondents grew notably more comfortable while in library school (see table 1). more than 84 percent of respondents were required to take a technology course in library school, and they generally believed library school prepared them well to deal with the technological side of librarianship, rating 3.23 on a 1–5 scale. however, respondents did note that most of their technology skill was self-taught (81.7 percent), with only 47.5 percent stating that coursework contributed to their skills. an open-ended question asked what specific technology skills individuals wanted to learn. the results indicate that millennial librarians desire to learn more of the higher-level technology skills, especially programming, which was indicated in 28 of the 97 responses. other skills that were frequently noted include various elements of web programming, including scripting, xml, html, photoshop, microsoft access, spss, and gis. all of these skills either involve content creation (such as scripting, xml and html) or are complicated software that can require a great deal of training to master. see figure 2 for a tag cloud of technologies respondents want to learn. figure 2. coded tag cloud indicating responses to question, “are there any other technologies you want to learn?” digital native academic librarians, technology skills, and their relationships with technology | emanuel 25 clear trends emerged when millennial librarians were asked about technologies that will be most important to libraries in five year. mobile devices, including e-readers (such as the amazon kindle), apps, and tablet computers were the most common category of responses, followed by social media and social applications aimed at libraries. cmss for managing website content was also very popular, and website design was also common. advanced knowledge of database design, including relational database design, and the storage of library data frequently were mentioned, skills that were on a higher level than simply using databases to retrieve information online. web 2.0 applications were also commonly mentioned, but it is unknown if these overlapped with social media. e-books, not unexpectedly, were very popular. the most popular technology individuals wanted to learn was programming, which came up 25 times, indicating there may be a gap in the technical skills that librarians have and the skills they need to have. see figure 3 for a visualization of coded responses. figure 3. coded responses to question, “what three technologies will be most important to libraries in five years?” qualitative data interview participants exhibited a wide variety of diversity and roughly matched the demographics of survey participants. demographic information for survey participants was gathered from their survey responses. ten of the interviewees were born in 1984 or 1985, with the remaining ten born during the remaining years between 1982 and 1989. three participants were male, one did not indicate sex on the survey, and the remaining 16 participants were female. fifteen identified their race as white, two african american, one middle eastern, one hispanic, and one from multiple races. interview participants were from 14 different states. all participants were given pseudonyms for purposes of data analysis. the interview transcripts were coded into information technology and libraries | september 2013 26 broad categories, including attitudes about being digital natives, and technical skills relating to career choice. digital native issues related to being digital natives came up often when millennial librarians were asked to talk about their experiences using technology before they began library school, in library school, and on the job. however, not all considered themselves a digital native, very tech savvy, or able to pinpoint exactly what their tech skills are. most, however, did believe that there were differences in technology use and attitudes between librarians who were younger versus older librarians. childhood technology most remember when they first had a computer in their home as a child, so it was not a part of their lives from birth, but rather from a young age that most participants remember. betty and diana recall always having technology in their homes growing up because their parents worked in technology careers or had an interest in it as a hobby. as diana stated, “both [parents] worked in the it field, so when i was really little, they spent an astronomical amount of money on a computer back in the mid to late 1980s, so i’ve always grown up with technology.” others remember first being exposed to computers in school, with catharine saying, “i can remember being in elementary school and being on a computer and having specialized training. not just in typing but they even pulled people out of class to learn how computers work.” heather vividly remembers her family getting their first computer: “we got one in my house when i was like in the sixth grade and that was a huge thing.” participants also remember having internet access as a child. betsy noted, “i had a prodigy (online service) account when i was seven, when most people did not even know what the internet was at that point.” gabby said, “i think they call people between 21 and 30 the ‘in between’, because they knew what it was like before technology, but they also know how to use technology . . . because i remember before computers.” kelly talked extensively about how she grew up with technology: i think we got our first computer when i was in the fifth grade. i definitely grew up with it. i used it in school. i remember what life was like before computers, though. i have that little bit of perspective there. but it was definitely part of my daily life. and in college i joined facebook back when it was only for college students and now people cannot remember that now. but i used email, was one of the first users of gmail. i got a little more into it in college. olivia also talked about her use of technology as a child: we had a computer in my house. we were very fortunate because my dad was on top of that. so we had a computer since i was a little kid. so i would play around on that a lot, like aol and prodigy. i had the basic skills. and in high school we were taught basic word processing and excel. so i’ve always been in front of a computer. digital native academic librarians, technology skills, and their relationships with technology | emanuel 27 concept of the digital native most people believed they are digital natives because they have been working with technology for a long time, which sets them apart from older generations who they thought did not work extensively with technology until they were adults. catharine stated, “i know it has been a part of my life forever so probably my age does have something to do with it.” catharine talked about the differences in technology skill between herself and her older colleagues, but added, “i don’t feel there is an unwillingness for them to learn technology. i just don’t think they had experiences at the time, where maybe we’re just afforded more opportunities.” however, when pressed, not all considered themselves digital natives. abby recalls a class discussion about the idea of digital natives and how younger people may not be as good with technology as they perceive. because of this, she was hesitant to refer to herself as a digital native, even though growing up she believed technology was a part of her life. others, such as betsy, are reluctant to call themselves digital natives because they remember when their family first got a computer and it was not always in their household. there were also a couple of outliers who were reluctant to call themselves digital natives because they did not grow up with technology in the same ways as did many of their peers. rachel grew up in a poorer home that always got technology second-hand, and she always thought they were behind others. although her family first had an apple computer in the 1980s, she did not recall using it, and just thought of it as a sort of “new appliance” in her house. her family did not emphasize technology use and saw it as something not worth investing in until they had to, which gave her a different perspective of using technology only as necessary and as “one of those things that sometimes i just don’t want to deal with.” samantha grew up in a rural area that only had dial-up internet, which embarrassed her and did not work as well as she thought it should, so she did not use it, leading to a belief that she did not grow up on the internet in the same way as her peers. because of this, she did not consider herself a digital native: i’m still able to relate to those in a different generation who have no idea where to start [with technology], because i was at that state recently. . . . i’m at the in-between stage, so i can handle both ends of the [technology use] spectrum. but yeah, i’m not a digital native. technology reaction participants assumed that, because of their age, they were not as scared or intimidated by technology as they thought some of their colleagues were. heather talked about how learning new things would initially make her nervous, but then would get excited about what the new program or application could do for herself or her work. francis stated, “i’m not afraid of the technology.” she also talked about the differences between herself and her older colleagues: if you ask them something different or to learn something new, they will make it more complicated. i’m so used to exploring my options, i don’t think about it. those 20–30 years older than me are comfortable knowing what they know how to do but not necessarily exploring new ways of doing something that they already know how to do. they feel pretty comfortable and confident in their skills information technology and libraries | september 2013 28 but aren’t really looking to test the waters to see if there is a different way to do something. . . . i’m willing to try. i see a lot of people that are afraid they are going to break something and don’t want to click on it. and i have the confidence that if i click on something, then i can pretty much undo whatever that does. so not necessarily skills, but a different mindset or something. as francis inferred above, younger librarians, because they have always used technology, believe they can quickly learn new technologies. quinn, a current student, also talked extensively about this: i definitely think my age has a lot to do with how comfortable i am with it. because there are various ages within [my library school] and i have definitely noticed that older people fear it a bit more. i guess i can attribute my age to being embedded in technology. because i’ve always had it, well i haven’t always had it, but i had it young enough to feel like it is a part of me, as opposed to new fangled and wasn’t with it in the beginning. . . . i’m not afraid of it, i’m not afraid to mess around with it and mess things up. because you can always reboot or start over. i think that’s the biggest thing, like i will work on something and mess around with it until i figure it out as opposed to someone who is older who wants to know something exactly the right way so they don’t want to do anything bad to it. heather stated: i think i’m a bit more open to new technologies than some of my older colleagues. . . . i have the feeling i know a little bit more. . . . i’m not sure it is just because my comfort level was higher or maybe their experiences make them more cautious about new things, but i think the younger librarians are more quick to latch on to new things. other participants shared this same belief when talking about the difference in work styles and technology use among different ages in their workplace. technology skills the individual technology skills individuals described focus on the use of technology, not the creation of it. francis described this: i don’t have any programming or coding [experience] or building physical computers or anything like that, but just general using a variety of devices like the ipad, iphone, everything is all integrated. i like being able to use technology in my personal life. no one responded that they knew how to program and work with servers, though edward said he had “fiddled with linux as a server” but did not spend a lot of time with it. olivia and quinn, however, did express interest in learning how to program, understand the back end, and create emerging technologies. betty mentioned using sql and xml in her workplace and aired her frustrations that people just expect to be able to use technology without learning how it actually works and what went into making that device or service. several people mentioned working in web design, but only a couple people mentioned creating webpages with html and css, though several had experience using tools such as dreamweaver or frontpage. ian mentioned that it was part of her public library job to assist patrons with using their personal devices, while others digital native academic librarians, technology skills, and their relationships with technology | emanuel 29 stated that when they have technology problems, they simply contact their it departments. many participants mentioned using social media and various web 2.0 applications such as facebook and twitter, both personally and professionally. when asked to compare their tech skills from before they became librarians to after, some described minor changes in skills, such as learning html, but others mostly indicated that library school helped them learn new applications, existing technologies, or new technology resources, most without going into detail. quinn talked about her tech skills in relation to what she is learning in library school: i think they [technology skills] are actually above average. i’ve taken a few of the courses that are offered in terms of tech, and they are totally below what i already know. but other classmates have thought it was really hard. but i’ve had prior knowledge of it. patricia stated she started using online tools more extensively after learning about them in library school. one talked extensively about using webinar software and libguides to deliver instruction online, while another stated library school inspired her to start a blog that she did not keep up, and another became an extensive twitter user. jan focused on digital librarianship while in library school because she saw it as the future of libraries. she thought that library school helped her do some “encoding on some projects and how to do webpages,” but it barely touched on the skills needed to actually perform a job within digital librarianship. she would like to get more into the development side of library technology, but in her current job there is not the time or support to further advance those skills. a couple of participants talked about learning about usability and the evaluation of technologies. a few interview participants mentioned the tech skills of people even younger than they are, or current college students they work with. betty did not see younger coworkers understanding what is needed to develop or understand the back end of technology and believed younger workers do not use technology to communicate as effectively as they could. edward, who works at a for-profit career college that has many poorer and nontraditional students, stated, it is “not just the 50 year olds, but the 18 year olds who don’t know how to attach documents to an email.” when pressed as to why she thinks young students struggle with basic technology tasks, he stated, “at times i think that has a lot more to do with their k–12 experience and if they had access to computers and stuff. i don’t know. it just blows me away sometimes.” gabby, currently working in appalachia, said, “not everyone here has computer skills, not everyone has access to it at home or maybe can’t make it to the library. . . . i think it is awesome to have those things at your fingertips, but not everyone does.” on the other hand, diana believed that she does not “have the same relationship with technology like i’m seeing some of the college students now where they are hooked in all the time and they are just going for it”. she also said that she “wouldn’t call myself a digital immigrant, but i’m very comfortable using technology but not to the extent i’m seeing many people i see now.” information technology and libraries | september 2013 30 tech skills related to career choice the researcher sought to determine the role of technology in determining the career choice of librarianship. those interview participants who talked about using technology did not mention it as a reason they became a librarian. survey responses indicated that opportunities to use technology were an important reason to become a librarian, but participants did not stress technology during the interviews. participants were much more likely to specify their love of the academic atmosphere or their general interest in research first and then maybe think of technology as an afterthought. gabby mentioned, after a long list of things that influenced her career choice, “and technology and stuff.” only taylor talked extensively about how technology influenced her choice. a current library school student, she wanted to go into archives and is really excited about how much information is being digitized and put online: you know how everything on microfiche is now digital? everything seems to be digitized as well, you know books and e-books and journals. being able to take something and scan it and put it online for users to access. it is definitely an important thing. so yeah, that definitely influenced me on becoming a librarian. jan decided to specialize in digital librarianship while in library school because she saw it was the future of library work. rachel, who has observed similar attitudes among her classmates, shared this thinking as well. however, heather admitted she did not have a lot of technology experience before going to library school and did not believe that her master’s program prepared her to go into the technology oriented digital librarianship. several participants talked about how their background using search engines such as google and doing research online would make them better librarians, but none talked about these as factors related to choosing librarianship as a career. abby talked about how she always uses google to look things up, and that it is nice to have found a career that rewards such use. diana discussed how she had always been good at finding information online since she was a child, which helped her narrow her career choice to academic librarianship, as she believed it was the best match for these skills. instead of talking about how technology influenced their career choice, participants were more likely to talk about the fact that technology did not influence them. abby stated, “i don’t think [technology influenced me] because i didn’t really know that librarians needed a lot of technology skill.” edward stated he, “didn’t do any technology in library school because i didn’t want to go in that direction,” reiterated this. rachel, who strongly did not consider herself a digital native, stated she was drawn to librarianship, specifically access services, because she liked working with print books rather than using online resources to find information. she commented, i really liked looking for books and i used the card catalog when i was a kid, but i can use a computer to help people find things, but it was like, i really just liked finding the books rather than electronic digital native academic librarians, technology skills, and their relationships with technology | emanuel 31 information. i guess i feel like it feels comfortable and safe, like books. and you can hold them and you can touch them. and sometimes i feel like they should always be a part of the library. i took a digital libraries course this past semester and i felt like i was the only one being like, “no, we still need physical books,” so i was actually realizing how intimidated i am with technology. i’m totally willing to adapt, and i’m willing to work on these issues, but i do feel like i want the library to still be a place that has the traditional feel. samantha also did not feel like a digital native, as she grew up in a rural area that only had access to dial-up internet. she went on to describe how she did not work with online tools until college and she was relieved when she did not have to use such tools during a year off between college and graduate school. although she recognized technology use by librarians is helping libraries not becoming obsolete, she only learned what she needed to learn in order to complete library school, so it did not influence her career choice. implications millennials are very comfortable with technology, though there are limitations to their skills. for the most part, they have a lifetime attachment to technology,16 but they do remember a time without having a computer in their homes or when computers were something only used at school and for basic instruction. as interview participant frances put it, “nothing like how students get to use them now.” millennial grew up with computers, but early on, they were not advanced enough to do the multimedia creation and application building that is done now, and they mostly use resources that were developed by others. however, millennial librarians in this study do see the utility that computers have in everyday life, and by high school, many stated that computer use was required for them to go about their academic and personal lives, but they thought that technology in its current state with online research resources and social networking did not come about until they were in college. additionally, most interview respondents said that library school helped acculturate them into using technology more frequently. however, not everyone in the study grew up with a computer or internet access in his or her home. two interview respondents refused to call themselves digital natives. one said she grew up in an environment without much money, and the only technology her family had access to was often secondhand and several years behind. the other participant grew up in a rural area that did not have access to high-speed internet, and as a result, she was rarely online until college. both individuals believed that technology was definitely not a factor in them being drawn to librarianship, and they were more interested in the circulation and the print resources than in specializations that require a high level of technical knowledge. other participants were quick to acknowledge that there are many members of their generation who, for one reason or another, do not have an interest in technology and may not have had the resources growing up to have incorporated it into their daily lives. some participants noted there was some computer instruction starting in elementary school, but it was very basic computer literacy, and most of their technology learning occurred at home when there was the time to focus on tasks that were more complicated. information technology and libraries | september 2013 32 even though study participants remember a time without technology in their homes and they believe that technology did not mature to its current state until they were in college, they have used it for a much larger percentage of their lives than older generations. for that reason, they are quick to learn new technologies as they become available or are required based on professional needs. they also believe that because computers had matured alongside them, they are not afraid to break them. interview participant abby states, “i have a lot of faith in technology.” millennials believe that they can experiment with technology without fear that it will become inoperable or cause additional headaches in the future. they are also not wedded to particular technologies and do not get frustrated by current technologies and applications because they think something newer and better is always around the corner. one disconnect in the technology skills of millennials is that most of them are accustomed to using technology, not creating it or understanding the back end infrastructure. as one interview participant said, “they expect everything to be easy, but they don’t understand what went into trying to make it easy.” although many librarians indicated they use tools such as camtasia to create multimedia projects, many thought they had weak skills in this area and desired to learn more. they are also most likely to edit content on webpages using a cms system such as drupal or libguides instead of creating more elaborate websites utilizing information architecture principles or more complex web programming languages (such as php) or relational databases (such as mysql). they rely on dedicated tech people to set these up and maintain the servers that house these services, but they desire to learn more about these technologies themselves. there is also a strong desire to learn more traditional computer programming languages such as c++, c#, and perl. many participants thought library school only affected their technology skills marginally, and they desire to learn higher-order skills that can be applied to their job. millennials are comfortable learning front-end technologies on their own, but they need help understanding the technology behind the tools they use in their daily lives. conclusion this mixed-methods study examined many characteristics of millennial librarians, and this article noted their technology skills and attitudes toward technology. the findings indicate that technology did not play a major role in their decision to become academic librarians. the data also reveal that, although millennial librarians mostly grew up with technology and believe this sets their skills apart from older librarians, their skills are mostly in using technology tools and not in creating them. they also believe their status as digital native has allowed them to recognize that librarianship is changing as a career. however, millennial librarians still respect their older colleagues and the skills associated with traditional librarianship and are firmly rooted in traditions. millennial librarians just want to be able to shape the profession in their own way. digital native academic librarians, technology skills, and their relationships with technology | emanuel 33 references 1. william strauss and neil howe, millennial and the pop culture: strategies for a new generation of consumers in music, movies, and video games (great falls, va: life course associates, 2006). 2. haidee e. allerton, “generation why: they promise to be the biggest influence since the baby boomers,” training and development 55, no. 11 (2001): 56–60; don tapscott, growing up digital: the rise of the net generation (new york: mcgraw-hill, 2008). 3. rachel singer gordon, the nextgen librarian’s survival guide (medford, nj: information today, 2006); sophia guevara, “generation y what can we do for you?” information outlook 11, no. 6 (2007): 81–82; diane zabel, “trends in reference and public services librarianship and the role of rusa: part two,” reference & user services quarterly 45, no. 2 (2005): 104–7. 4. gordon, the nextgen librarian’s survival guide. 5. gordon, the nextgen librarian’s survival guide; lisa johnson, mind your x’s and y’s: satisfying the 10 cravings of a new generation of consumers (new york: free press, 2006); william strauss & neil howe, millennial rising: the next great generation (new york: vintage, 2000); tapscott, growing up digital; ron c. zemke, claire raines, and bob filipczak, generations at work: managing the clash of veterans, boomers, xers, and nexters in your workplace (new york: amacom, 2000). 6. johnson, mind your x’s and y’s; tapscott, growing up digital. 7. strauss and howe, millennial and the pop culture. 8. zemke, raines, and filipczak, generations at work. 9. tapscott, growing up digital. 10. strauss and howe, millennial and the pop culture; tapscott, growing up digital. 11. l. p. morton, “targeting generation y,” public relations quarterly 47, no. (2002): 46–48; p. paul, “getting inside gen y,” american demographics 23, no. 9 (2001): 42–49. 12. paul, “getting inside gen y”; tapscott, growing up digital. 13. mark bauerlein, the dumbest generation: how the digital age stupefies young americans and jeopardizes our future (or, don’t trust anyone under 30) (new york: penguin, 2008). 14. darcy del bosque and cory lampert, “a chance of storms: new librarians navigating technology tempests,” technical services quarterly 26, no. 4 (2009): 261–86. 15. carol h. weiss, evaluation: methods for studying programs and policies (upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall, 1998). 16. allerton, “generation why ”; tapscott, growing up digital. tech skills related to career choice mitigating bias in metadata: a use case using homosaurus linked data article mitigating bias in metadata a use case using homosaurus linked data juliet l. hardesty and allison nolan information technology and libraries | september 2021 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v40i3.13053 juliet l. hardesty (jlhardes@iu.edu) is metadata analyst, indiana university. allison nolan (anolan147@gmail.com) is library and information science graduate student, indiana university. © 2021. abstract controlled vocabularies used in cultural heritage organizations (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) are a helpful way to standardize terminology but can also result in misrepresentation or exclusion of systemically marginalized groups. library of congress subject headings (lcsh) is one example of a widely used yet problematic controlled vocabulary for subject headings. in some cases, systemically marginalized groups are creating controlled vocabularies that better reflect their terminology. when a widely used vocabulary like lcsh and a controlled vocabulary from a marginalized community are both available as linked data, it is possible to incorporate the terminology from the marginalized community as an overlay or replacement for outdated or absent terms from more widely used vocabularies. this paper provides a use case for examining how the homosaurus, an lgbtq+ linked data controlled vocabulary, can provide an augmented and updated search experience to mitigate bias within a system that only uses lcsh for subject headings. introduction controlled vocabularies are a vital part of how individuals and communities are understood and discussed in scholarly discourse and research. controlled vocabularies are also a way to standardize terminology and allow items to be grouped by common subjects for easier discovery and access points. while larger, more universally recognized vocabularies like the library of congress subject headings (lcsh) exist, they are often slow to be updated and they reflect a largely white, heterosexual, cisgender, male, christian-centric point of view.1 when the terminology used to define a systemically marginalized group is determined by those outside of the group, often the terms are outdated or reflect a biased perspective.2 the prevalence and continued use of outdated metadata and vocabularies in discovery systems creates a cycle of biased search practices that can be difficult to break without the help of information professionals and outside resources. controlled vocabularies that have been created by or have the input of marginalized communities tend to be more inclusive and up to date. unfortunately, these vocabularies often are not known to the public or to researchers not well versed in metadata practices. providing access to controlled vocabularies created by marginalized communities and linking them to existing vocabularies such as lcsh can help make the search process more representative of the people who are using discovery systems and can connect them to resources that better represent themselves and their needs in a complex information world. lcsh terms are available as linked data, a format that enables online machine-readable connections between concepts and terms, and there needs to be an effort to make systems using lcsh terms more inclusive and representative of marginalized communities. the project described in this article built and gathered feedback on a proof-of-concept javascript application to show how defined connections between vocabularies can be used to provide alternative and mailto:jlhardes@iu.edu mailto:anolan147@gmail.com information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 2 often enhanced access to library catalog resources. in this instance, simple knowledge organization system (skos) relationships link lcsh subject terms to the homosaurus linked data vocabulary, an “international linked data vocabulary of lgbtq terms that supports improved access to lgbtq resources within cultural institutions.”3 skos is “a common data model [from the w3c] for sharing and linking knowledge organization systems via the web.”4 this project uses skos:exactmatch relationships defined by the homosaurus to enable researchers to use homosaurus terms to search a library catalog and retrieve relevant results based on the connected lcsh terms that are already in the catalog record.5 subject searches are conducted when the homosaurus term and the lcsh term match exactly, since the lcsh term’s presence in the library catalog record indicates a specific grouping of records could have this subject term applied. if the homosaurus term does not match exactly to the lcsh term, a keyword search is conducted using the homosaurus term to retrieve library catalog results where the homosaurus term appears in any indexed field in the catalog record, including creator-supplied title and abstract information. using a vocabulary like the homosaurus this way helps to connect researchers to resources that more accurately reflect systemically marginalized communities and potentially more accurately reflects the researchers themselves. by providing connections for users that they would otherwise have difficulty finding without the help of a librarian or other information professional, projects such as this one hope to combat the cycle of biased metadata and biased research practices that has dominated academic research. literature review students in higher education who identify as members of systemically marginalized communities can continue to experience marginalization within higher educational institutions, and the academic library setting is no exception. brook, ellenwood, and lazzaro provide analysis of multiple studies showing the effect of mostly white staffing in academic libraries, the impact this can have on reference services provided to patrons from marginalized communities, and the overwhelming and intimidating spaces in sizable academic libraries that can be “compounded for students who already feel that they do not belong on campus on the basis of their race.” 6 when considering how this experience impacts using an online library catalog or digital repository system for conducting research, these same students can find themselves not well represented.7 additionally, crossing disciplines to capture intersectionalities of an identity can be complicated by narrow controlled vocabulary terms which compound problems that already make interdisciplinary research difficult.8 drabinski proposes that the library catalog should be treated as a biased text that requires critical thinking to understand.9 subject headings from authorities such as the library of congress will never be unbiased as attitudes, perspectives, and identities change over time. it is therefore important to leverage information literacy competency standards put forward by the association of college & research libraries and teach students how to critically engage the library catalog as another information source. library instruction is one way to ease the challenges faced by marginalized researchers in higher education, helping researchers effectively use a system like a library catalog that incorporates biased subject headings. however, with interdisciplinary research, materials are often dispersed across information systems and physical locations, and there is still the challenge to identify and locate everything relevant to the research topic.10 using available fields within the library catalog record itself (the 590 in marc, for example) can identify cross-disciplinary resources. examples are provided by hogan for black lgbtq resources and latina lesbian literature.11 what all of these efforts seem to point to is what hannah buckland proposes: changing the framing of catalog records from “aboutness” to information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 3 “fromness,” providing “culturally-responsive metadata” that j. l. colbert recognizes can create an “equitable subject access” experience that “center[s] the information needs and information seeking behaviors of those whom our systems disenfranchise.”12 these changes can often only be implemented locally due to language variation and localized community relevance; but colbert then considers how linked open data might prove useful to combine or relate different subject or community vocabularies. “when we decenter the idea that for every concept there is one controlled term to describe it, we allow the play of seemingly opposite ways of thinking. . . . a linked open data catalog allows libraries to complement, replace, or even reject the standards that have been decided for us and our patrons.”13 librarians and archivists have suggested and tried other methods to mitigate the impact of systemic marginalization. these efforts go beyond the use of controlled vocabularies in the creation of catalog records. one of the earliest and most significant examples of this is dorothy porter’s work in organizing the collections she managed at howard university. up to that point in the 1930s and 1940s, dewey decimal classification (ddc) was used to organize works on the shelf. many libraries of the time were predominantly white institutions and dorothy porter remembered them using ddc to shelve anything by a black author or about the black experience under the ddc heading for colonization (325) or slavery (326).14 porter instead organized her collections based on subject matter, genre, and author, categorizing the work based on what it was about rather than the race of the author or the race of any people mentioned in the work. this subtle yet fundamental shift shows the real impact that libraries have on access to collections for their audiences. hope a. olson and dennis ward created a proof-of-concept microsoft access database interface connecting mary ellen capek’s a women’s thesaurus to the dewey decimal classification scheme to offer an end user interface for searching a ddc system using the thesaurus terminology. the idea, initially from joan mitchell (then editor of ddc), was to develop “a means of making ddc accessible from the point of view of a marginalized knowledge domain—in particular, creating a means of browsing ddc from a feminist/women’s studies perspective.”15 variables were defined from characteristics of different classifications to enable a systematic match to thesaurus terms. dorothy berry’s work at university of minnesota libraries to gather and digitize african american-related materials from across archival collections for aggregating in umbra search african american history shows an option for pulling a collection from other collections and highlighting what would otherwise remain marginalized items from marginalized communities.16 discovering these materials required searching with a variety of terms used over time to refer to african americans. adding collection level context at the folder level for these materials allows aggregation without losing original place and context, while at the same time centering the marginalized communities represented in these materials by gathering them from these various and marginalized original locations. archives for black lives in philadelphia is “a loose association of archivists, librarians, and allied professionals in the philadelphia and delaware valley area responding to the issues raised by the black lives matter movement.” within this group, the anti-racist description working group has compiled an annotated bibliography and metadata recommendations to address racist and antiblack archival description.17 the recommendations focus on the black community but can be applied more broadly when describing records by and about any marginalized community. the information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 4 recommendations include decentering “neutrality” and “objectivity” for “respect” and “care,” particularly when deciding on controlled vocabulary terms to use in archival description. specific recommendations to use “terminology that black people use to describe themselves,” to recognize that this “terminology changes over time, so description will be an iterative process,” and to consult “alternative cataloging schemes created by the subjects of the records being described when and if they are available” provide an approach that looks for descriptive terms from within the community and moves away from terms applied to a community by others.18 paying attention to the controlled vocabularies applied to archival description helps to change the narrative and the power structure of the historical record, centering those who have been marginalized and oppressed and increasing discoverability and access to their stories and perspectives. allowing for changes in controlled vocabulary terms keeps systems flexible enough to accommodate changes in a community’s terminology over time. linked data relationships can connect term changes for more comprehensive searching while also identifying the current controlled vocabulary term to use. the lavender library, archives, and cultural exchange (llace) community archives in sacramento, california is an archive for a marginalized community.19 in developing archival and circulating library collections that serve the queer community, the library collections use a thesaurus of queer terms from dee michel for classification and the archival collections use subject headings from michel’s thesaurus along with lcsh.20 the focus, again, begins with the community being served and recognizes that widely used controlled vocabularies like lcsh do not serve these collections or communities well. starting with a community-specific vocabulary and then connecting lcsh terms centers the collections and community first and then makes connections to the larger library and archives community possible. other efforts have used alternatives or supplements to common vocabularies and schemes. the xwi7xwa library’s use of the brian deer classification system at the university of british columbia incorporates names and terminology from the first nations community to better represent that community beyond what something like library of congress classification provides. using accurate names of nations and peoples, according to the head librarian, ann doyle, helps create identity among users of the collection and “shapes the research and types of questions that people ask.”21 the national indian law library began cataloging using local terminology only. as it moved records online and sought to be more discoverable and cooperative with other libraries, this local terminology was synchronized with lcsh and specialized terms for federal indian law and tribal law were kept as a supplement.22 doing this work is not only about changing terms on catalog records but also learning and making connections with communities who have been marginalized by these systems. farnel et al. explain the process of decolonizing both the library catalog and digital collections description at university of alberta libraries through investigation, analysis, partnering with other institutions doing this work and, most importantly, reaching out to indigenous communities represented in these records to engage and learn about the most appropriate terminology to use.23 different methods and attempts to center the marginalized in cataloging and collection description show it is possible and essential to voice the concerns of those least represented in order to have the most impact on all researchers using these resources. widely used controlled vocabularies like lcsh continue to be a major way to aggregate collections and provide common access points. groups like the association for library collections and technical services’ information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 5 cataloging and metadata management section subject analysis committee continue to work to change terms in these vocabularies to provide better and more accurate representation for systemically marginalized communities, but the process is slow and will likely never be enough.24 incorporating vocabularies from systemically marginalized communities for use either on the cataloging/description side or for researchers to use for search and discovery offers possibilities for more inclusive experiences that center marginalized voices and expand the options for research questions to ask and answer. methodology to test this idea that connections provided between a systemically marginalized community’s controlled vocabulary and a more generalized vocabulary like lcsh could be helpful, a proof-ofconcept information retrieval aid was conceived. the idea was to create a lightweight javascript application that could use a select set of terms from the homosaurus (http://homosaurus.org), an lgbtq+ vocabulary originally created by ihlia lgbt heritage (https://www.ihlia.nl/?lang=en) and now also used in its linked data form by the digital transgender archive (https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net), to connect to lcsh terms and provide search links against a library catalog (iucat, https://iucat.iu.edu, indiana university’s online library catalog) that uses lcsh for subject headings. homosaurus version 1 was used initially and did not identify connections to lcsh terms. analysis of homosaurus terms against lcsh terms suggested some connections could be made and for initial construction of the proof-of-concept application these were used, but with the recognition that these connections were not coming from the community vocabulary. this was a problem since the point in mitigating bias is to use the community’s definitions and any outside interpretations are necessarily not going to reflect the community’s intentions. as the application concept continued to form and the initial term comparison work continued, homosaurus version 2 was released containing explicit connections to lcsh terms, using skos:exactmatch for mapping those connections. those connections in version 2 are not expressed as linked data but are provided in the vocabulary’s site for each term. the proof-of-concept work switched to using select terms from homosaurus version 2 in order to make use of the lcsh connections now being provided by the community.25 the proof-of-concept application used the select set of homosaurus version 2 terms downloaded as json-ld and added in the lcsh terms using the supplied skos:exactmatch relationship. the user interface provided visual connections from the selected homosaurus term to its narrower, broader, and related terms within homosaurus. any exact matches to lcsh terms and any use for terms homosaurus indicated should be replaced by this term were provided together. the visual layout for the application is directly influenced by the ihlia lgbt heritage collections browse interface.26 in ihlia’s system, after searching for a term (“love,” for example), the interface provides broader, narrower, related, and used for terms as suggestions for other ways to discover items in these collections in a visually connected bubble layout surrounding the search term. those connections are linked and can be used to navigate ihlia’s controlled vocabulary, which also happens to be powered by a local non-linked data form of the homosaurus vocabulary. in the proof-of-concept application, for terms where there is an lcsh exact match, the lcsh term was used for the connection to search iucat and was only revealed on screen if the exact match (lcsh) bubble was clicked by the user (see fig. 1). http://homosaurus.org/ https://www.ihlia.nl/?lang=en https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/ https://iucat.iu.edu/ information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 6 figure 1. information retrieval aid showing the homosaurus term “transgenderism” linked to search iucat. exact match (lcsh) shows the lcsh term “gender nonconformity” (also linked to search in iucat) along with narrower, broader, and related homosaurus terms. the initial proof-of-concept information retrieval aid javascript application was shared with and tested by olivia adams, a graduate student at indiana university working as the library coordinator for the lgbtq+ culture center library at indiana university (https://lgbtq.indiana.edu/programs-services/library/index.html). this library has adapted the llace classification system, the shelving organizational scheme developed by the lavender library in sacramento, california (http://lavenderlibrary.com), for organizing its own physical collection of resources. the lgbtq+ culture center library also has its own online library catalog that makes use of an established local list of tags for items included in that system (https://www.librarycat.org/lib/iuglbtlibrary/). the information retrieval aid application was first presented to the lgbtq+ culture center library coordinator for general impressions and feedback. additionally, specific tasks were proposed. please note that the proposed tasks use a vocabulary term as an example that is offensive and outdated. the results of this testing, along with feedback from the homosaurus editorial board, clarified the need to change the information retrieval aid to supply this additional contextual information (available in homosaurus as a description for the term). the tasks presented for trying the information retrieval aid were the following: https://lgbtq.indiana.edu/programs-services/library/index.html http://lavenderlibrary.com/ https://www.librarycat.org/lib/iuglbtlibrary/ information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 7 • you want to find resources at iu about transgenderism. what do you think of the resources that iucat is offering through this information retrieval aid? • how do the homosaurus terms you are seeing here compare to the llace classification terms or the tags/subjects you use in the lgbtq+ library catalog? • what is the importance of transparency for the lcsh terms in relation to community values (for terms that are different and only shown in the hidden section right now)? “transgenderism” is a term homosaurus connects to lcsh’s term “gender nonconformity” with an exact match relationship (http://homosaurus.org/v2/transgenderism). to provide results for answering the first question, the proof-of-concept information retrieval aid interface showed the homosaurus term with a linked search in iucat that provided results using the lcsh term as a subject search.27 the second question was asked to get a sense of the relevance of the homosaurus terms to the collections organized and housed in the lgbtq+ culture center library. the third question about the importance of transparency for the lcsh terms in relation to community values was meant to investigate how a system like this proof-of-concept information retrieval aid might be used by the community of researchers and patrons using the culture center’s library, and if the mechanism to mask the lcsh term in favor of the homosaurus term is useful or not. the code for this javascript web application in its current state is available on github at https://github.com/jlhardes/metadatabias. the initial proof-of-concept application was developed by justina kaiser, at the time an information and library science graduate student at indiana university. the current code is a fork of her project, also available on github (https://github.com/juskaise/metadatabias). discussion sharing this proof-of-concept information retrieval aid using homosaurus terms with the lgbtq+ culture center librarian revealed the importance of usability testing and being receptive to a community’s needs. an introduction and explanation of the controlled vocabulary and the community it represents was a recommended addition since the term list presented was not initially easily identified. additionally, the interface terminology of narrower/related/broader/exact match/use for is familiar in the library world but not necessarily for the casual user. this terminology is still in use by the information retrieval aid but is under review for updated labels that are easier to understand. this initial version kept any use for terms hidden unless the user clicked on that bubble in the interface to see them. the reasoning was to give more emphasis to the homosaurus term and to keep any potentially derogatory or harmful terms still in use by lcsh out of the way of researchers (even though the searches conducted against the catalog might need to use those terms if no other linked data connection is available). feedback here was helpful: hiding terms that homosaurus does not recommend might hinder discovering results if the researcher wants to search on a term that is no longer used by the community or is considered derogatory or harmful. this is a useful lesson in that covering up the past is not helpful to those in a marginalized community who have experience with that marginalization or those trying to learn about the past experiences of a marginalized community. also, being able to find all relevant resources can mean a variety of terms (both current in the community and no longer current) might be necessary. the homosaurus editorial board also explained that use for terms are sometimes slang terms and are not always considered derogatory. this information is helpful in figuring out how to present lcsh terms in the interface http://homosaurus.org/v2/transgenderism https://github.com/jlhardes/metadatabias https://github.com/juskaise/metadatabias information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 8 in the context of the homosaurus terms. additionally, moving use for terms next to related terms connected these sets of terms better than placing use for terms with exact match terms. further feedback from the homosaurus editorial board regarding the example term used for testing showed the terms and their connections to other terms do not supply enough information to express the full meaning of the term within the community. without supplying the homosaurus description for the term “transgenderism” (“pathologizing term often used in the medicalization of transgender people; use only in historical context,” see http://homosaurus.org/v2/transgenderism), the term can come across in the information retrieval aid as a preferred term from the community when, in fact, it is not. this was a critical update needed for the information retrieval aid to be effective as a research tool. in using the proof-of-concept interface to search against iucat, it was noted by the lgbtq+ culture center librarian that using the lcsh term to conduct a subject search against the catalog might not produce useful results if the homosaurus term is not an actual exact match to the lcsh term. in this case the homosaurus term should be searched in the catalog as a keyword instead of a subject, so the search is conducted on all indexed fields in the catalog record. in the example tried for the term “transgenderism” the skos:exactmatch relationship is defined as the lcsh term “gender nonconformity” (see fig. 1). even though the relationship is identified in homosaurus as an exact match, searching for “gender nonconformity” as a subject term in the catalog (267 results) and “transgenderism” as a keyword in the catalog (289 results) arrives at different result sets with different types of entries (see figs. 2 and 3). use for terms, while not always representative of the community providing the vocabulary, do have possible historical relevance if present in supplied information (such as a title) and can be connected to the catalog via keyword searching as well. there is an importance to revealing these differences within the library catalog and providing results that reflect the terms used by the community. the library’s applied terminology via subjects organizes a different set of resources compared to searching for terminology available via titles or other information supplied by authors and creators. when considering who is part of a community and who is not in this scenario, there are benefits to trying to work around or in addition to the library’s applied organizational scheme. subject searching in the catalog provides another view (and set of results) for those familiar with the community’s terminology. those approaching a research topic from outside of a community are able to learn more about how to find resources most effectively, moving from the catalog’s terminology to the community’s terminology. after trying the proof-of-concept information retrieval aid, the lgbtq+ culture center librarian provided feedback that this could be useful for people new to studying the lgbtq+ community and unfamiliar with the community’s terminology. with an introduction and explanation of the controlled vocabulary in place and an easy-to-follow interface to guide users through the vocabulary terms, effective searches against the catalog that also reveal terminology used by the community and differences between that terminology and the catalog’s terminology can be both educational and useful for research. http://homosaurus.org/v2/transgenderism information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 9 figure 2. searching indiana university’s online library catalog (iucat) for the lcsh term “gender nonconformity” as subject shows 267 results. information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 10 figure 3. searching indiana university’s online library catalog for the homosaurus term “transgenderism” as keyword shows 289 results. one of the largest obstacles to connecting marginalized communities to reliable, representative controlled vocabularies is the lack of controlled vocabularies that are readily available as linked data. unless an individual or organization has made the effort to establish connections between a community’s vocabulary and lcsh, the representative vocabularies stand alone and remain difficult to discover or use. the proof-of-concept testing of this project illustrates not only the need for connections to community-created controlled vocabularies, but also that having access to those vocabularies can result in more accurate and effective searches and usage of catalog resources. although vocabularies like lcsh contain outdated terms, having access to a variety of terms that are acceptable at different points in a community’s history can be useful for researchers who may not be as informed about certain systemically marginalized communities and whether certain terms have been completely eliminated, reclaimed, or replaced by more accurate terminology. efforts to mitigate bias in metadata via linked data are representative of a larger effort to correct a long-standing issue in libraries and other fields where the voices and perspectives of marginalized individuals have been overshadowed by the voices and needs of the majority. in addition to working to update large, generalized vocabularies and trying to incorporate these voices and information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 11 perspectives, this change in method is meant to add those voices and center their importance. by linking community-created vocabularies and placing them front and center in the search process, metadata can become a tool with which to center the voices of marginalized communities and move toward a more equitable method of searching, finding, and using resources. conclusion the information retrieval aid is still progressing beyond a proof-of-concept but it has seen significant updates since its initial implementation. figure 1 shows the initial proof -of-concept that was tested. introductory information has been added to explain the homosaurus vocabulary and the information retrieval aid tool itself. more terms are available (although still not the full set of homosaurus version 2 terms) and the term list in json-ld is being used to automatically populate the term list in the interface. if available, the term description is provided for more complete context. additionally, no terms are hidden in the bubble navigation and use for is located with related terms now. future work for this project includes incorporating the full list of homosaurus terms; reconsidering the category names (narrower/related/broader/exact match/use for) to determine if there are better labels to use for these categories that will be easier to understand for a general research audience; and testing the tool with researchers new to lgbtq+ terminology as well as those more knowledgeable about the lgbtq+ community and its terminology and history. additional areas of work that welcome investigation include automating the term list generated for use with the information retrieval aid (via api calls, for example) to help reflect any changes or updates made to the community vocabulary over time; the technical implications of connecting this information retrieval aid to a search engine beyond indiana university’s online library catalog; and using this tool with controlled vocabularies from other systemically marginalized communities, such as the bc first nations subject headings, the glossary of disability terms from the north carolina council on developmental disabilities, or atria: women’s thesaurus from the institute on gender equality and women’s history.28 what difference does it make to use a different search engine that incorporates lcsh terms? likewise, is it possible to connect other linked data (or non-linked data) controlled vocabularies from systemically marginalized communities and is that effective for retrieving information and improving research outcomes? the work so far shows the possibility of centering systemically marginalized voices by using the system more effectively, making linked data work to connect and update the terminology and search terms available for research. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the lgbtq+ culture center librarian at indiana university for spring 2020, olivia adams, for her helpful review and feedback of the initial proof -of-concept information retrieval aid. we would also like to thank brian m. watson, editorial board member of homosaurus.org, for their help with using homosaurus version 2 terms and the homosaurus editorial board, particularly k. j. rawson, for reviewing and supplying article feedback. the authors also acknowledge the work of justina kaiser who created the initial code behind the information retrieval aid. information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 12 endnotes 1 hope a. olson, “mapping beyond dewey’s boundaries: constructing classificatory space for marginalized knowledge domains,” library trends 47, no. 2 (fall 1998): 238. 2 the term “systemically marginalized group,” used recently by dr. nicki washington from duke university at the september 3, 2020, indiana university center for women in technology talk, “‘bring a folding chair’: understanding and addressing issues of race in the context of stem,” was revealing to the authors as a better term to use than “historically marginalized communities.” this is significant in that it emphasizes the continued oppression and marginalization of these communities, rather than viewing these communities’ struggles as something of the past that has been overcome/surmounted. 3 “mission, history, editorial board,” homosaurus vocabulary site, accessed march 2, 2021, http://homosaurus.org/about. 4 “skos simple knowledge organization system reference,” w3, published august 18, 2009, https://www.w3.org/tr/skos-reference/. 5 “skos:exactmatch,” skos simple knowledge organization system namespace document—html variant, 18 august 2009 recommendation edition, w3, last modified august 6, 2011, https://www.w3.org/2009/08/skos-reference/skos.html#exactmatch. 6 freeda brook, david ellenwood, and althea eannace lazzaro, “in pursuit of antiracist social justice: denaturalizing whiteness in the academic library,” library trends 64, no. 2 (fall 2015): 259, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/610078. 7 holly tomren, “classification, bias, and american indian materials” (san jose state university, 2003), http://ailasacc.pbworks.com/f/biasclassification2004.pdf. 8 amelia koford, “how disability studies scholars interact with subject headings,” cataloging & classification quarterly 52, no. 4 (2014), https://doi.org/10/gf542p. 9 emily drabinski, “queering the catalog: queer theory and the politics of correction,” library quarterly: information, community, policy 83, no. 2 (april 2013), https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/669547. 10 sara a. howard and steven a. knowlton, “browsing through bias: the library of congress classification and subject headings for african american studies and lgbtqia studies,” library trends 67, no. 1 (summer 2018), https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2018.0026. 11 kristen hogan, “‘breaking secrets’ in the catalog: proposing the black queer studies collection at the university of texas at austin,” progressive librarian 34 (2010), http://www.progressivelibrariansguild.org/pl/pl34_35/050.pdf. 12 j. l. colbert [ https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5733-5168], “patron-driven subject access: how librarians can mitigate that ‘power to name’,” in the library with the lead pipe, november 15, 2017, http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2017/patron-driven-subject-access-howlibrarians-can-mitigate-that-power-to-name/. http://homosaurus.org/about https://www.w3.org/tr/skos-reference/ https://www.w3.org/2009/08/skos-reference/skos.html#exactmatch https://muse.jhu.edu/article/610078 http://ailasacc.pbworks.com/f/biasclassification2004.pdf https://doi.org/10/gf542p https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/669547 https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2018.0026 http://www.progressivelibrariansguild.org/pl/pl34_35/050.pdf http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2017/patron-driven-subject-access-how-librarians-can-mitigate-that-power-to-name/ http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2017/patron-driven-subject-access-how-librarians-can-mitigate-that-power-to-name/ information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 13 13 j. l. colbert, “patron-driven subject access.” 14 avril johnson madison and dorothy porter wesley, “dorothy burnett porter wesley: enterprising steward of black culture,” public historian 17, no. 1 (winter 1995): 25, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3378349; janet sims-wood, dorothy porter wesley at howard university: building a legacy of black history (charleston, sc: the history press, 2014), 39; zita cristina nunes, “cataloging black knowledge: how dorothy porter assembled and organized a premier africana research collection,” perspectives on history: the news magazine of the american historical association (november 20, 2018), https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december2018/cataloging-black-knowledge-how-dorothy-porter-assembled-and-organized-a-premierafricana-research-collection. 15 hope a. olson and dennis b. ward, “feminist locales in dewey’s landscape: mapping a marginalized knowledge domain,” in knowledge organization for information retrieval: proceedings of the sixth international study conference on classification research (the hague, netherlands: international federation for information documentation, 1997), 129. 16 dorothy berry, “digitizing and enhancing description across collections to make african american materials more discoverable on umbra search african american history,” the design for diversity learning toolkit, northeastern university libraries, august 2, 2018, https://des4div.library.northeastern.edu/digitizing-and-enhancing-description-acrosscollections-to-make-african-american-materials-more-discoverable-on-umbra-search-africanamerican-history/. 17 alexis a. antracoli et al., anti-racist description resources (philadelphia, pa: archives for black lives in philadelphia, 2019), i, https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/ardr_final.pdf. 18 antracoli et al., “anti-racist description resources,” 5. 19 diana k. wakimoto, debra l. hansen, and christine bruce, “the case of llace: challenges, triumphs, and lessons of a community archives,” american archivist 76, no. 2 (fall/winter 2013), http://www.jstor.org/stable/43490362. 20 according to the article, “the word queer is used throughout this article as the most general, over-arching term to describe communities and individuals who support llace and make it possible.” diana k. wakimoto et al., “case of llace,” 439; dee michel, ed., gay studies thesaurus, rev. ed. (urbana, il, 1990). 21 catelynne sahadath, “classifying the margins: using alternative classification schemes to empower diverse and marginalized users,” feliciter 59, no. 3 (june 2013): 16. 22 monica martens, “creating a supplemental thesaurus to lcsh for a specialized collection: the experience of the national indian law library,” law library journal 98, no. 2 (spring 2006). https://www.jstor.org/stable/3378349 https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2018/cataloging-black-knowledge-how-dorothy-porter-assembled-and-organized-a-premier-africana-research-collection https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2018/cataloging-black-knowledge-how-dorothy-porter-assembled-and-organized-a-premier-africana-research-collection https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2018/cataloging-black-knowledge-how-dorothy-porter-assembled-and-organized-a-premier-africana-research-collection https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2018/cataloging-black-knowledge-how-dorothy-porter-assembled-and-organized-a-premier-africana-research-collection https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2018/cataloging-black-knowledge-how-dorothy-porter-assembled-and-organized-a-premier-africana-research-collection https://des4div.library.northeastern.edu/digitizing-and-enhancing-description-across-collections-to-make-african-american-materials-more-discoverable-on-umbra-search-african-american-history/ https://des4div.library.northeastern.edu/digitizing-and-enhancing-description-across-collections-to-make-african-american-materials-more-discoverable-on-umbra-search-african-american-history/ https://des4div.library.northeastern.edu/digitizing-and-enhancing-description-across-collections-to-make-african-american-materials-more-discoverable-on-umbra-search-african-american-history/ https://des4div.library.northeastern.edu/digitizing-and-enhancing-description-across-collections-to-make-african-american-materials-more-discoverable-on-umbra-search-african-american-history/ https://des4div.library.northeastern.edu/digitizing-and-enhancing-description-across-collections-to-make-african-american-materials-more-discoverable-on-umbra-search-african-american-history/ https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/ardr_final.pdf http://www.jstor.org/stable/43490362 information technology and libraries september 2021 mitigating bias in metadata | hardesty and nolan 14 23 sharon farnel et al., “rethinking representation: indigenous peoples and contexts at the university of alberta libraries,” international journal of information, diversity, & inclusion 2, no. 3 (2018), https://doi.org/10.33137/ijidi.v2i3.32190. 24 alcts is a division of the american library association— http://www.ala.org/alcts/mgrps/camms/cmtes/ats-ccssac; sac working group, “report of the sac working group on alternatives to lcsh ‘illegal aliens,’” american library association institutional repository, submitted june 19, 2020, https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/14582/sac20-ac_report_sac-working-groupon-alternatives-to-lcsh-illegal-aliens.pdf. 25 this is a moment to acknowledge the work of several homosaurus editorial board members, including brian m. watson, who is studying and working with linked data at university of british columbia; chloe noland from american jewish university; and walter “cat” walker from the william h. hannon library and one national gay and lesbian archives. there was never a request to add these lcsh term connections, but the timing was incredibly helpful, and the effort greatly appreciated. 26 example search for term “love” that results in browsable terms in a visual interface: https://www.ihlia.nl/search/index.jsp?q%3asearch=love&q%3azoekterm.row1.field3=&lang =en. 27 “gender nonconformity,” (search results, iucat, indiana university, accessed march 2, 2021), https://iucat.iu.edu/?utf8=%26%2310004%3b&search_field=subject&q=gender+nonconfor mity. 28 bc first nations subject headings (vancouver, bc: xwi7xwa library first nations house of learning, march 2, 2009), http://branchxwi7xwa.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2011/09/bcfn.pdf; “glossary of disability terms,” north carolina council on developmental disabilities, accessed march 8, 2021, https://nccdd.org/welcome/glossary-and-terms/category/glossary-ofdisability-terms; “search in the women’s thesaurus,” atria—institute on gender equality and women’s history, accessed march 8, 2021, https://institute-genderequality.org/libraryarchive/collection/thesaurus. https://doi.org/10.33137/ijidi.v2i3.32190 http://www.ala.org/alcts/mgrps/camms/cmtes/ats-ccssac https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/14582/sac20-ac_report_sac-working-group-on-alternatives-to-lcsh-illegal-aliens.pdf https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/14582/sac20-ac_report_sac-working-group-on-alternatives-to-lcsh-illegal-aliens.pdf https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/14582/sac20-ac_report_sac-working-group-on-alternatives-to-lcsh-illegal-aliens.pdf https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/14582/sac20-ac_report_sac-working-group-on-alternatives-to-lcsh-illegal-aliens.pdf https://www.ihlia.nl/search/index.jsp?q%3asearch=love&q%3azoekterm.row1.field3=&lang=en https://www.ihlia.nl/search/index.jsp?q%3asearch=love&q%3azoekterm.row1.field3=&lang=en https://iucat.iu.edu/?utf8=%26%2310004%3b&search_field=subject&q=gender+nonconformity https://iucat.iu.edu/?utf8=%26%2310004%3b&search_field=subject&q=gender+nonconformity http://branchxwi7xwa.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2011/09/bcfn.pdf https://nccdd.org/welcome/glossary-and-terms/category/glossary-of-disability-terms https://nccdd.org/welcome/glossary-and-terms/category/glossary-of-disability-terms https://institute-genderequality.org/library-archive/collection/thesaurus https://institute-genderequality.org/library-archive/collection/thesaurus abstract introduction literature review methodology discussion conclusion acknowledgements endnotes of the people, for the people: digital literature resource knowledge recommendation based on user cognition wen lou, hui wang, and jiangen he information technology and libraries | september 2018 66 wen lou (wlou@infor.ecnu.edu.cn) is an assistant professor in the faculty of economics and management, east china normal university. hui wang (1830233606@qq.com) is a graduate student in the faculty of economics and management, east china normal university. jiangen he (jiangen.he@drexel.edu) is a doctoral student in the college of computing and informatics, drexel university. abstract we attempt to improve user satisfaction with the effects of retrieval results and visual appearance by employing users’ own information. user feedback on digital platforms has been proven to be one type of user cognition. through conducting a digital literature resource organization model based on user cognition, our proposal improves both the content and presentation of retrieval systems. this paper takes powell's city of books as an example to describe the construction process of a knowledge network. the model consists of two parts. in the unstructured data part, synopses and reviews were recorded as representatives of user cognition. to build the resource category, linguistic and semantic analyses were used to analyze the concepts and the relationships among them. in the structural data part, the metadata of every book was linked with each other by informetrics relationships. the semantic resource was constructed to assist with building the knowledge network. we conducted a mock-up to compare the new category and knowledge-recommendation system with the current retrieval system. thirty-nine subjects examined our mock-up and highly valued the differences we made for the improvements in retrieval and appearance. knowledge recommendation based on user cognition was tested to be positive based on user feedback. there could be more research objects for digital resource knowledge recommendations based on user cognition. introduction the concept of user cognition originates in cognitive psychology. this concept principally explores the human cognition process through information-processing methods.1 the concept characterizes a process in which a user obtains unknown information and knowledge through acquired information. as information-science workers, we may explore the psychological activities of users by analyzing their cognitive processes when they are using information services.2 a knowledge-recommendation service based on user cognition has become essential since it emphasizes facilitating collaborations between humans and computers and promotes the participation of users, which ultimately improves user satisfaction. a knowledge-recommendation system is based on a combination of information organization, a retrieval system, and knowledge visualization.3 however, when exploring digital online literature resources, it is difficult to quickly and precisely find what we want because of the problem of information organization and retrieval. most search results only display a one-by-one list view. mailto:2012101040015@whu.edu.cn mailto:1830233606@qq.com mailto:jiangen.he@drexel.edu of the people, for the people | lou, wang, and he 67 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i3.10060 thus, adding visualization techniques to an interface could improve user satisfaction. furthermore, the retrieval system and visualizations rely on information organization. only if information is well designed can the retrieval system and visualization be useful. therefore, we attempt to improve retrieval efficiency by proposing a digital literature resource organization model based on user cognition to improve both the content and presentation of retrieval systems. taking powell’s city of books as an example, this paper proposes user feedback as first-hand user information. we will focus on (1) resource organizations based on user cognition and (2) new formats on search results based on knowledge recommendations. we will purposefully employ data from users’ own information and give knowledge back to users in accordance with the quote “of the people, for the people.” related work user cognition and measurement user cognition usually consists of a series of processes, including feeling, noticing, temporary memory, learning, thinking, and long-term memory.4 feeling and noticing are at an inferior level, while learning, thinking, and memory are comparatively superior. researchers have so far tried to identify user cognition processes by analyzing user needs. there are four levels of user needs according to ma and yang5 (see figure 1.) in turn, user interests normally reflect potential user needs. users who retrieve information on their own show feeling needs. users who give feedback show expression needs. users who ask questions show knowledge needs, which is the highest level. the methods to quantify user cognition require visible and measurable variables. existing studies have commonly used website log analysis or user surveys. website log analysis has been proven to be a solid data source to record and analyze both user interests and information needs.6 user surveys, including online questionnaires and face-to-face interviews, have been widely used to comprehend user feelings and user satisfaction.7 user surveys generally measure two kinds of relationship: between users and digital services and between users and the digital community.8 with a survey, we can make the most of statistics and assessment studies to analyze user satisfaction about an array of standards and systems of existing service platforms, service environments, service quality, and service personnel, which provides some references and suggestions for future study of user experience quality, platform elements, interaction process , and more.9 however, neither log data nor surveys can obtain first-hand user information in reallife settings. eye tracking and the concept-map method can be used to understand user behavior in the course of user testing.10 however, these approaches are difficult to adapt to a large group of users. therefore, a linguistic-oriented review analysis has become an increasingly important method. user content, including reviews and tags, could be analyzed through text mining and become valuable data sources to learn their preferences for the product and service in the areas of electronic commerce and digital libraries.11 this type of data has been called “more than words.”12 information technology and libraries | september 2018 68 figure 1. understanding user cognition by analyzing user needs. user-oriented knowledge service model the user-oriented service model includes user demand, user cognition, and user information behavior. a service model based on user demand chiefly concentrates on the motives, habits, regularities, and purposes of user demand to identify the model of use demand so that the appropriate service is adopted.13 service models based on user cognition attach importance to the process of user cognition, the influence that users are facing,14 and the change of library information services under the effects of series of cognitive processes (such as feeling, receiving, memorizing, and thinking).15 a service model based on user information behavior focuses on interactive behavior in the process of library information services that users participate in, such as interactions with academic librarians, knowledge platforms,16 and others. studies have paid more attention to the pre-process of the user-oriented service model, which analyzes information habits and user behaviors.17 studies have also proposed frameworks of knowledge services, design innovations,18 or personalized systems and frames of the knowledge service model, but they have not succeeded in implementing or performing user testing. knowledge service system construction most studies of knowledge service system construction are in business areas. numerous studies have explored knowledge-innovation systems for product services.19 cheung et al. proposed a knowledge system to improve customer service.20 vitharana, jain, and zahedi composed a knowledge repository to enhance the knowledge-analysis skills of business consultants.21 from of the people, for the people | lou, wang, and he 69 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i3.10060 the angle of user demand, zhou analyzed the elements of service-platform construction and found that crucial platforms should serve knowledge service system construction. 22 scholars proposed basic models for knowledge management and knowledge sharing, but they did not simulate their applications.23 knowledge management from the library-science perspective is very different from that in the business area. library knowledge management usually refers to a digital library, especially a personal digital library.24 others explore and attempt to construct a personalized knowledge service system,25 while fewer studies about system designs are based on the results of user surveys in accordance with documented surveys. we rarely see a user-feedback study combined with the method of using users’ own knowledge. users themselves know what they desire. if user-oriented studies separate the system design from user-needs analysis or the other way around, the studies may miss the purpose. therefore, we propose a resource-organization method based on users’ own knowledge to close the distance between the users and the system. resource-organization model based on user cognition there are normally two ways to construct a category system. one method gathers experts to determine categories and assign content to them; the category system comes first and the content second. the other method is to derive a category tree from the content itself, as we propose in this paper. in this way, the content takes priority over the categorization system. in this paper, we focus on this second way to organize resources and index content. resource organization requires a series of steps, including information processes, extraction, and organization. figure 2 shows the resource-organization model based on user cognition. this model fits the needs of digital resources with comments and reviews. the model has two interrelated parts. one is for indexing the content, and the other is for knowledge recommendations. for the first part, the model integrates all the comments and reviews of all literature in an area or the whole resource. the core concepts and the relationships among the concepts are extracted through natural language processing. the relationships between concepts are either subordination and correlation. a triple consists of two core concepts and their relationship. the triple set includes all triples. next, all books are indexed by taxonomy in the new category system. however, the indexing of every book is not based upon the traditional method, which is to manually determine each category by reading the literature. we use a method based on the books’ content. while we are extracting the core concepts from all books we extract the core concepts from every book by the same semantic-analysis methods and build up triples for the individual book. then the triples of this book can match the triple set in the new category system. once a triple in a single book yields a maximum matching value, the core concepts in the triple set will be indexed as the keywords of the book. a few examples of the matching process will be discussed in the empirical study (in the section “indexing books”). the first part is about comments and reviews, which are unstructured data. the second part is to make use of structural data in the bibliography to build a semantic network. structural data, including titles, keywords, authors, and publishers, is stored separately. we calculate the information technology and libraries | september 2018 70 informetrics relationships among the entities. the relationships can be among different entities, such as between one author and another or between an author and a publisher. then two entities and their relationship compose a triple. the components in triples are linked to each other, which makes them semantic resources. furthermore, the keywords in structural data are not the original keywords before the new category system but are the modified keywords. finally, the reindexed resources (books in the new category) and semantic resources (the triples from structural data) are both used to build the knowledge network. figure 2. resource-organization model based on user cognition. however, why is it important to use both unstructured data and structural data? the reason is to complete the entire content of a literature resource. neither of them can fully represent the whole semantics for a literature resource. structural data lacks subjective content, and unstructured data lacks basic information. thus, a full semantic network can be built using both kinds of data. of the people, for the people | lou, wang, and he 71 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i3.10060 resource-organization experiment object selection located in portland, oregon, powell’s city of books (hereafter referred to as “book city”) is one of the largest bookstores in the united states, with 200 million books in its inventory. book city caught our eyes for four reasons. (1) the comments and reviews of books on book city’s website are well constructed and plentiful. the national geographic channel established it as one of the ten best bookstores in the world.26 atlantis books, pendulo, and munro's books are also on the list. among these bookstores, only book city and munro’s books have indexed the information of comments and reviews. since user reviews are fundamental to this study, we restricted ourselves to bookstores that provided user reviews. (2) we excluded libraries because literature resources have been well organized in libraries. it might not be necessary to reorganize them according to user cognition. however, we can put this topic in the future study. (3) book city is a typical online bookstore that also has a physical bookstore. unlike amazon, book city, indigo, barnes & noble, and munro’s books have physical bookstores. however, they all have technological limitations on retrieval-system and taxonomical construction compared to amazon. thus, it is necessary to investigate these bookstores’ online systems and optimize them. (4) the location was geographically convenient to the researchers. the authors are more familiar with book city than other bookstores. moreover, we plan on conducting a face-to-face interview for the user study. it is doable only if the authors can get to the bookstore and the users who live there. in all, we choose book city as a representative object. data collection and processing on december 22, 2015, we randomly selected the field “cooking and food” and downloaded bibliographic data for 462 new and old books that included title, picture, synopsis and review, isbn, publication date, author, and keywords. in our previous work we described how metadata for all kinds of literature can be categorized into one of three types: structural data, semistructural data, and unstructured data.27 (see table 1). title, isbn, date, publisher, and author are classified as structural data. titles can be seen as structural data or unstructured data depending on the need. titles will be considered as an indivisible entity in this paper as titles need to retain their original meanings. keywords are considered as semistructural data for two reasons: (1) normally one book is indexed with multiple keywords, which are natural language; and (2) keywords are separated by punctuation. each keyword can individually exist with its own meaning. however, in the current category system, keywords are the names of categories and subcategories. since we are about to reorganize the category system, the current keywords will not be included in the following steps. we use the field “synopsis and review” in the downloaded bibliographic records as the source of user cognition. synopses and reviews are classified as unstructured data. all synopses and reviews of a single book are first incorporated into one paragraph, since some books contain more than one review. structural data will be stored for constructing a knowledge network. unstructured data will be part-of-speech tagged and word segmented by the stanford segmenter. all the books’ metadata are stored into the defined three data types and separate fields. each field is linked by the isbn as the primary key. information technology and libraries | september 2018 72 category organization first, the frequencies of words in all books are separately calculated after word segmenting so that core concepts are identified by the frequencies of words. in total, 29,370 words appeared 43,675 times, after excluding stop words. the 206 words in the sample that occurred more than 105 times appeared 34,944 times. this subset was defined as the core words according to the pareto principle. table 1. data sample. field content data type title a modern way to eat: 200+ satisfying vegetarian recipes structural data isbn 9781607748038 date 04/21/2015 publisher ten speed press author anna jones kwds cooking and food-vegetarian and natural semistructural data synopsis and review a beautifully photographed and modern vegetarian cookbook packed with quick, healthy, and fresh recipes that explore the full breadth of vegetarian ingredients—grains, nuts, seeds, and seasonal vegetables—from jamie oliver's london-based food stylist and writer anna jones. how we want to eat is changing. more and more people cook without meat several nights a week and are constantly seeking to . . . unstructured data we are inspired by zhang et al., who described a linguistic-keywords-extraction method by defining multiple kinds of relationships among words.28 the relationships include direct relationship, indirect relationship, part-whole relationship, and related relationship. • direct relationship. two core words have a relationship directly to each other. • indirect relationship. two core words are related and linked by another word as a media. • part-whole relationship. the “is a” relation. one core word belongs to the other. it is the most common relationship in context. • related relationship. two core words have no relationships but they both appear in a large context. the first two relationships can be mixed with the second two relationships. for instance, a partwhole relationship can have either a direct relationship or an indirect relationship. for this study, we combined every two core words into pairs for analysis. for example, the sentence “a picnic is a great escape from our day-to-day and a chance to turn a meal into something more festive and memorable” would result in several core-word pairs, including of the people, for the people | lou, wang, and he 73 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i3.10060 “picnic” and “meal,” “picnic” and “festive,” and “meal” and “festive.” for “picnic” and “meal,” there is an obvious part-whole relationship in this context. we observed all their relationships in all books and determined their relationship as a direct part-whole relationship because 67 percent of their relationships are part-whole relationship, 80 percent are direct relationship, and others are related relationship. this is the case when two core words are in the same sentence. for two words in different sentences but within one context, we define the words’ relationship as a sentence relationship. for example, “ingredient” and “meat” in one review in table 1 have an indirect relationship because they are connected by other core concepts between them. therefore, the relationship between “ingredient” and “meat” is an indirect part-whole one in this context. for other cases, two concepts are either related if they appear in the same context or are not related if they do not appear in the same review. thus, all couples of concepts are calculated and stored as semantic triples. figure 3. parts of a modified category in “cooking and food” based on user cognition. the next step is to build up a category tree (figure 4). a direct part-whole relationship is that between a parent class and child class. an indirect part-whole relationship is the relationship between a parent class and a grandchild class. a related relationship is the relationship between sibling classes. information technology and libraries | september 2018 74 compared to the modified category system (figure 3), the current hierarchical category system (figure 4) has two major issues. first, some categories’ names are duplicated. for example, the child class “by ingredient” contains “fruit,” “fruits and vegetables,” and “fruits, vegetables, and nuts.” second, there are categories without semantic meaning, such as “oversized books.” these two problems brought out disorderly indexing and recalled many irrelevant results. for example, the system would let you refine your search first if you type one word in search box. however, refining is confusing by parent class and children class. searching “diet” books as an example, the system suggests you refine your search from five subcategories of “diet and nutrition” under three different parent classes. however, the modified category system has avoided the duplicated keywords. furthermore, the hierarchical system based on users’ comments maintains meaning. figure 4. parts of current category system in “cooking and food.” indexing books we found that the list of keywords was confusing due to the inefficiency of the previous category system. it is necessary to re-index the keywords of each book based on the modified category system. we stand on the data-oriented indexing process. the method to detect the core concepts of each book is the same as that for all books in section 4.3. taking the book a modern way to eat as an example, triples are extracted from the book, including “grain-direct part whole-ingredient,” “nut-direct part whole-ingredient,” “vegetarian-related-health,” and so on. using all triples of the book to match with the triples set from all books in section 4.3, we index this book to categories by the best match parent class. in this case, 5 out of 9 triples of a modern way to eat are matched with the parent class “ingredient.” another two are matched with “natural” and “technique,” and of the people, for the people | lou, wang, and he 75 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i3.10060 the other two cannot correctly match with the triples set. then, a modern way to eat will be indexed with “cooking and food-ingredient,” “cooking and food-natural,” and “cooking and food-technique.” 4.5 semantic-resource construction the semantic resource is constructed based on structural data that was prepared at the beginning. the informetrics method (specifically co-word analysis) will be used to extract the precise relationship among the bibliography of books, as we previously proposed.29 we construct all structural data together and conduct co-words matrixes between each title, publisher, date, author, and keyword. for example, the author “anna jones” co-occurred with many keywords to varying degrees. the author co-occurred with the keyword “natural” four times and “person” seven times. according to qiu and lou, the precise relationship needs to be divided by the threshold and formatted as literal words.30 therefore, among the degree of all relationships between “anna jones” and other keywords, the relationship between “anna jones” and “natural” is highly correlated, and the relationship between “anna jones” and “person” is extremely correlated. triples are composed of two concepts and their relationships. then a semantic resource is finally constructed that could be used for knowledge retrieval. figure 5. an example of the knowledge network. once the semantic resource is ready, the knowledge network is presentable. we adopted d3.js to display the knowledge network (figure 5). the net view automatically exhibits several books related with an author william davis, which is placed in a conspicuous position on the screen. the forced map can be reformed when users drag any book with the mouse, which will be the noticeable center of other books. the network can connect with the database and the website. information technology and libraries | september 2018 76 5. user-experience study on knowledge display and recommendation there are two common ways to evaluate a retrieval system. one is to test the statistic results, such as the recall and precision. the other is a user study. since our aim is “of the people, for the people,” we chose to conduct two user-experience studies over the statistical results. as such, we can obtain what users suggest and comment on our approach. user-experience study design in february 2016, with the help of friends, we recruited volunteers by posting fliers in portland, oregon. fifty volunteers contacted us. thirty-nine responses were received by the end of march 2016 because the other eleven volunteers were not able to enroll in the electronic test. since we needed to test the feasibility of both the new indexing category and the knowledge recommendation, we set up the user study into two parts, including the comparison of the simple retrieval and the knowledge recommendation. first, we requested permission to use the data source and website frame from book city. however, we cannot construct a new website for book city due to intellectual-property issues. therefore, we constructed a practical mock-up to guide users to simulate a retrieval experiment. following the procedure of the user experience design, we chose mockingbot (https://mockingbot.com) as the mock-up builder. mockingbot allows the demo users to experience a vivid system that will be developed later. the mock-up supports every tag that can be linked with other pages so that subjects could click on the mock-up just as they would on a real website. the demo is expected to help us (1) examine whether our changes would meet the users’ satisfaction and (2) gather information for a better design. then we performed face-to-face, userguided interviews to first gain experience on the previous retrieval system and then compare them with our results. we concurrently recorded the answers and scores of users’ feedback. in the following sections, we will describe the interview process and present the feedback results. study 1: comparison of simple retrieval first, subjects were asked to search related books written by “michael pollan” at powells.com (figure 6). as such, all subjects used the search box based on their instincts. then they were asked to find a new hardcover copy of a book named cooked: a natural history of transformation. we paid attention to the ways that subjects located the target. only five of them used keyboard shortcuts to find the target. however, thirteen subjects stated their concerns regarding the absence of refinement options. furthermore, we noticed that six subjects swept (moused over) the refinement area and then decided to continue eye screening. in the meantime, we recorded the time they spent looking for the item. after they found the target, all subjects gave us a score from one to ten that represented their satisfaction with the current retrieval system. of the people, for the people | lou, wang, and he 77 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i3.10060 figure 6. screenshot of retrieval results in the current system. in the comparison experiment, we placed our mock-up in front of subjects and conducted the same exam above. in the mock-up, we used the basic frame of the retrieval system but reframed the refinement area. in the new refinement area (figure 7), we added an optional box with refinement keywords in the left column to narrow the search scope. the logic of the refined keywords comes from the indexing category, as we mentioned in the section on the indexing books. “michael pollan” was indexed in six categories: “biographies,” “children’s books,” “cooking and food,” “engineering manufactures,” “hobby and leisure,” and “gardening.” thus, when subjects clicked the “cooking and food” category, they can refine the results to only twelve books rather than the seventy books in the current system. users can obtain accurate retrieval results faster. after the subjects completed their tasks, they gave us a score from one to ten representing their satisfaction with the modified retrieval system. figure 7. refinement results in the modified category-system mock-up. information technology and libraries | september 2018 78 study 2: knowledge recommendation in this experiment, we conducted two tests for two functions on knowledge visualization. one tested the preferences for the net view, and the other tested the preferences for the individual recommendation. for the net view, we guided subjects to search for “william davis” in the mock-up and reminded them to click the net view button after the system recalled a list view. then, the subjects could see the net view results in figure 5. we recorded the scores that they gave for the net view. as for the recommendation on individual books, we adopted multiple layers of associated retrieval results for every book. users could click on one book and another related book would show in a new tab window. we asked subjects to conduct a new search for “william davis.” then they could browse the website and freely click on any book. once they clicked on davis’s book wheat belly: lose the wheat, lose the weight, and find your path back to health, the first recommendation results popped up (figure 8). the recommendation results about wheat in the field of “grain and bread” showed up, including good to the grain: baking with whole grain flours and bread bakers apprentice: mastering the art of extraordinary bread. others about health and losing weight showed up also, such as paleo lunches and breakfasts on the go. all related books appeared because the first book is about both wheat and a healthy diet. a new window showing relevant authors and titles would pop up if the mouse glided over any picture. we asked the subjects about their thoughts on the new recommendation format and recorded the scores. figure 8. an example of knowledge recommendation. users’ feedback as a result, knowledge organization and retrieval received a positive response (tables 2 and 3). first, subjects complained about the inefficiency of the current retrieval system in that it took so long to find one book without using shortcut keys (ctrl-f). three quarters of them were not satisfied with the original search style due to the search time length. however, 67 percent of the subjects gave a score of more than eight points for the refined search results of our new system. of the people, for the people | lou, wang, and he 79 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i3.10060 only two of them thought that it was useless since they were the two users who only took ten seconds to target the exact result. second, 67 percent and 74 percent of the subjects, respectively, thought that the knowledge recommendation and net view were useful and gave them six points. however, five subjects gave scores of one point because they maintained that it was not necessary to build a new viewer system. table 2. the time to find the exact result in the current system. answers # of users fewer than 10 seconds 2 10 to 30 seconds 4 30 seconds to 1 minute 12 more than 1 minute 21 table 3. statistics of quantitative questions in the questionnaire. score questions 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 total satisfied with original results 0 0 0 0 1 9 14 9 4 2 39 preference of refined results 2 10 14 6 5 0 0 0 0 0 37 preference of results in net view 1 8 10 6 4 1 2 3 1 3 39 preference of knowledge recommendation 3 6 4 8 5 6 0 3 1 2 38 during the interview, subjects who gave scores of more than eight points spoke positively about the vivid visualization of the retrieval results, using words such as “innovative” and “creative.” for instance, user 11 said, “bravo changes for powell, that’d be the most innovative experience for the locals.” among the subjects who gave scores of more than six points, the comments were mostly “interesting idea.” for instance, user 17 commented, “this is an interesting idea to explore my knowledge. i had no idea powell could do such an improvement.” some users offered suggestions to improve the system. for example, user 12 suggested that the system was not comprehensive enough to confidently assess whether the modified category system was better than the previous system. user 25 (a possible professional) was very concerned about the recall efficiency since the system might use many matching algorithms. discussion and conclusion in this paper, a digital literature resource organization model based on user cognition is proposed. this model aims to make users exert subjective initiative. we noticed a significant difference between the previous category system and the new system based on user cognition. our aim, which was “of the people, for the people,” was fulfilled. taking powell’s city of books as an example, it is purposeful to describe how to construct a knowledge network based on user cognition. the user experience study showed that this network implements an optimized exhibition of a digital-resource knowledge recommendation and knowledge retrieval. although user cognition includes many other processes of user behavior, we only used the literal expression. it turned out to be a positive and possible way to reveal users’ cognition. information technology and libraries | september 2018 80 we find that there is much more space for the construction object of digital resource knowledge recommendation based on user cognition. for one, in this paper we only take the familiar book city as a study object and books as experiment objects and determined favorable positive effects, which indicates that the digital resource knowledge link can be applied to physical libraries and bookstores or other types of literature. even though libraries have well-developed taxonomy systems, they can be compared with or combined with new ideas. for another, users adore visual effects and user functions. the results show promise in actualizing improvements to book 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wen lou, “library resources semantization based on resource ontology,” electronic library 32, no. 3 (2014): 322–40, https://doi.org/10.1108/el-05-2012-0056. 28 lei zhang et al., “extracting and ranking product features in opinion documents,” in international conference on computational linguistics (2010): 1462–70. 29 lou and qiu, “semantic information retrieval research,” 4; qiu and lou, “constructing an information science resource ontology,” 202; yu, qiu, and lou, “library resources semantization,” 322. 30 qiu and lou, “constructing an information science resource ontology,” 202. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir-11-2012-0203 https://doi.org/10.1108/ajim-10-2013-0114 https://doi.org/10.1108/el-05-2012-0056 abstract introduction related work user cognition and measurement user-oriented knowledge service model knowledge service system construction resource-organization model based on user cognition resource-organization experiment object selection data collection and processing category organization indexing books 4.5 semantic-resource construction 5. user-experience study on knowledge display and recommendation user-experience study design study 1: comparison of simple retrieval study 2: knowledge recommendation users’ feedback discussion and conclusion acknowledgements references and notes president’s message thomas dowling information technologies and libraries | december 2015 doi: 10.6017/ital.v34i4.9150 1 the lita governing board has had a productive autumn, and i wanted to share a few highlights. keeping an eye on how better to understand and improve the member experience, we have a couple of new groups getting down to work. lita local task force i'm writing this shortly after returning from lita forum 2015, which was a fantastic meeting. i'm glad that so many people were able to attend, and i hope even more will come to forum 2016. but we know many members cannot regularly travel to national meetings, and even the best online experience can lack the serendipitous benefits that so often come from face-to-face meetings. the new lita local task force will be responsible for creating a toolkit to facilitate local groups’ ability to host events, including information on event planning, accessibility, and ensuring an inclusive culture at meetings. so you’ll be able to host a lita event in your own backyard! (if your backyard has a couple of meeting rooms and good wireless.) forum assessment and alternatives task force as we begin work on lita local events, we are also turning our eyes to our national meeting. planning the next lita forum is essentially a year-round process. we assess the work we’ve done on previous forums, of course, but the annual schedule often doesn’t afford an opportunity to strategically rethink what forum is and how it can best serve the members. to address that issue, we’re convening another new task force, on forum assessment and alternatives. this group will look critically at how forum advances our strategic priorities, and will also look at other library technology conferences to help identify how forum can continue to distinguish itself in a rapidly changing environment. lita personas task force finally, as i write this, the board is in the final stages of creating a personas task force as a tool for better understanding our current and potential new members. a well-constructed set of personas, representing both people who are lita members and people who aren’t—but who could be or should be—will become a valuable tool for membership development, programming, communications, assessment, and other purposes. each of these task forces will work throughout 2016 and deliver their results by midwinter 2017. it is worth noting that we could only convene these groups because we have a strong list of volunteers on tap. if you haven’t filled out a lita volunteer form recently, please considering doing so at http://www.ala.org/lita/about/committees. thomas dowling (dowlintp@wfu.edu) is lita president 2015-16 and director of technologies, z. smith reynolds library, wake forest university, winston-salem, north carolina. http://www.ala.org/lita/about/committees mailto:dowlintp@wfu.edu lita local task force forum assessment and alternatives task force lita personas task force 247 buyer be wary! in the september 1974 issue of jola, the "highlights of isad board meeting" reflects the library automation community's growing concern with misrepresentation of products and misleading or fraudulent claims. a proposal was made that isad create a mechanism to monitor relevant advertising in order to inform and protect' its constituency and, indeed, the entire profession. it is paradoxical that this concern is being voiced at a time when the relationship between the public and private sectors seems closer than at any other time in the recent past. in general, librarians and vendors are good friends. there is an atmosphere of mutual respect, and we no longer raise eyebrows upon learning that a librarian-colleague has gone "commercial." indeed, librarians and libraries are learning from the business world to create products and market them in order to support desired internal services. the growing entrepreneurial efforts of libraries are linkirig the two groups with a yet firmer bond. unfortunately, but inevitably, there are a few flies in the ointment. with regularity, we pick up professional literature to find advertising which sounds too good to be true. an investigation will usually indicate that, in fact, it is not true. we are often visited by salesmen describing incredible advances in their particular areas. the pressure applied by these people can be distasteful and even intolerable. or we may receive a onepage brochure from an unknown company, touting its latest, very competitive system, and listing the familiar names of well-respected librarians as advisors. almost always, we are lucky and are able to discover for ourselves the true nature of the products being advertised. our misfortune may begin when an ambitious salesman finds his or her way into the office of an administrator or politician who does not have adequate preparation for the onslaught of facts, figures, and fallacies. what are the best ways of misrepresenting a product? most approaches fall into one of the following categories: ( 1) misleading advertising, with unclear statements and imprecise use of vocabulary; ( 2) claims that one, or several, or many other libraries are using the product with satisfaction (when this indeed is not the case); ( 3) specific statements that a large and prestigious library is about to sign a contract for servic~s or products (although investigation will reveal no such intention); ( 4) lists of experts in the field who are presumed to be associated with the company in an advisory or consultant role (but who are unaware of this use of their names); and ( 5) approaches to federal, state, or local agencies to appeal 248 journal of library automation vol. 7/4 december 1974 the procedures used by libraries in requesting bids or awarding contracts. at this point, a note of caution must be inserted. strategies of advertising and marketing usually involve one or more of the above techniques to a certain extent. we all practice minor exaggerations and simplifications in our professional lives in order to accomplish certain goals. it would be unwise and unfair to accuse an advertiser of misleading his market on the basis of one of these "small exaggerations." in resolving this issue, our concern must be with those individuals or organizations who are constantly found with a large discrepancy between the word and the deed. what methods can be used as protection against these tactics? there are several reliable paths: ( 1) be aware of and alert to the possibilities of misleading claims and misrepresentation; ( 2) follow up a sales pitch with a few phone calls to those institutions that are described to be using the product or about to sign the contract; ( 3) maintain a reasonable amount of resistance to the sales talk; ( 4) use the library profession's invisible college to determine the validity of the claims and the experiences that others have had with the firm; and ( 5) support the attempts of our professional societies, such as ala and asis, to require organizations to maintain certain advertising standards. the library market is expanding and maturing; therefore, these growing pains associated with increased marketing efforts are not unexpected. with adequate education and awareness on the part of the buyer, with some pressures placed on advertisers by the professional community, and with a tolerance for the normal tendencies of advertising and marketing, we will be able to resolve a difficult situation with grace and without hard feelings. susan k. martin reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. engelond: a model for faculty-librarian collaboration in the information age scott, walter information technology and libraries; mar 2000; 19, 1; proquest pg. 34 one-stop place for presenting scholarly research. staff support includes consultation in any aspect of the bailiwick project, including design issues, interface development, and training in software. staff members do not provide programming nor do they do any work in researching or assembling sites. each faculty member is assigned an information arcade consultant at the point of submitting a bailiwick application. the consultant serves as a primary contact person for technical support, troubleshooting, basic interface design guidance, and referrals to other staff both in the libraries and on campus. at present, the current level of staffing has been sufficient to accommodate this sort of assistance, which is not unlike the assistance provided to any patron who walks in the door of the information arcade. as a computing facility, the information arcade provides public access to a host of multimedia development workstations for scanning images, slides, and text, and for digitizing video and audio. at these multimedia stations, a large suite of multimedia integration software and web publishing software is made available for public use. staff at the public services desk have a strong background in multimedia development and web design and can provide some one-on-one training on a walk-in basis beyond technical support and troubleshooting. all of these hardware and software resources are available to bailiwick content providers, who can choose to do their development work in the information arcade or at their home or office. finally, since there is a close relationship between the information arcade and the university libraries web site, system administration and web server support is all handled inhouse as well. there are few artificial barriers imposed by the technology, thereby permitting content providers to focus on their creative expression and scholarly work. with only minimal reallocation of existing resources, the university of iowa libraries has been able to launch the bailiwick project and continue to develop it at a modest pace. one of the components most essential for its continued success, however, is the ability to scale up to meet the expected demand over the next several years. technical infrastructure challenges are not overwhelming as yet. an analysis still needs to be made to determine how quickly creators are developing their sites, what the implications are for network delivery of these resources, what reasonable projections there are for disk space, and who is using the resources. perhaps more importantly, though, adequate staffing will always remain a concern. some faculty wish to work more closely with library staff consultants than time allows, and the consultants would certainly find it enriching to be more intimately involved with the development of each bailiwick site. marketing of the bailiwick project has been discrete (to say the least) because of the limited staffing available. however, embedded in the collaboration inherent in bailiwicks is the potential for stronger involvement with faculty in obtaining grant funding to support the development of specific bailiwick sites. a model for research libraries bailiwick is a project that allows the university of iowa libraries, and specifically the information arcade, to focus on the integration of technology, multimedia, and hypertext in the context of scholarship and research. to date, most of the bailiwick sites represent disciplines in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. this matches the overall clientele of the information arcade (given its location in the university of iowa's main library), but it also reflects the fact that these disciplines have been tradi34 information technology and libraries i march 2000 tionally undersupported with respect to technology. nevertheless, individual faculty in these disciplines have integrated some of the most creative applications of the technology in their everyday teaching and research, in part because of the existence of the information arcade and the groundwork laid by the libraries for the past several years. with the information arcade's visibility on campus, and with similar resources and support in the information commons-a sister facility in the hardin library for the health sciences-the university of iowa libraries are well regarded on campus as a leader in information technology, electronic publishing, and new media. thus, faculty and students alike are accustomed to turning to the libraries for innovation in technology and the bailiwick project is a natural fit. bailiwick is now fully integrated as part of a palette of new technology services and scholarly resources included within the libraries' support of teaching, learning, and research at the university of iowa. engelond: a model for faculty-librarian collaboration in the information age scott walter the question of how best to incorporate information literacy instruction into the academic curriculum has long been a leading concern of academic librarians. in scott walter (walter.123@osu.edu), formerly humanities and educaton reference librarian, university of missouri-kansas city, now is information services librarian, ohio state university. reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. recent years, this issue has grown beyond the boundaries of professional librarianship and has become a general concern regularly addresssed by classroom faculty, educational administrators, and even regional accrediting organizations and state legislatures. this essay reports on the success of a pilot program in course-integration information literacy instruction in the field of medieval studies. the author's experience with the "enge/and" project provides a model for the ways in which information literacy instruction can be effectively integrated into the academic curriculum, and for the ways in which a successful pilot program can both lead the way for further development of the general instructional program in an academic library, and serve as a springboard for future collaborative projects between classroom faculty and academic librarians. in 1989 the chronicle of higher education reported on the proceedings of a conference on teaching and technology held near the richmond, indiana campus of earlham college.1 conference speakers identified a number of concerns for those involved in teaching and learning at the end of the twentieth century. chief among these were recent advances in information technology that threatened "to leave students adrift in a sea of information." earlham college librarian evan i. farber and his fellow speakers called upon conference attendees to develop new teaching strategies that would help students learn how to evaluate and make use of the "masses of information" now accessible to them through emergent information technologies, and to embrace a collaborative teaching model that would allow academic librarians and classroom faculty members to work together in developing instructional objectives appropriate to the information age. the concerns expressed by these faculty and administrators for the information literacy skills of their students may have still seemed unusual to the general educational community in the late 1980s, but, as behrens and breivik have demonstrated, such concerns have been a leading issue for academic librarians for more than twenty years. according to its most popular definition, information literacy may be understood as "[the ability] to recognize when information is needed and ... the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information."2 it has become increasingly clear over the past decade that educators at every level consider information literacy a critical educational issue in contemporary society. perhaps the most frequently cited example of concern among educational policy-makers for the information literacy skills of the student body can be found in ernest boyer's report to the carnegie foundation, college: the undergraduate experience in america (1987), in which the author concludes that "all undergraduates should be introduced to the full range of resources for learning on campus," and that students should spend "at least as much time in the library ... as they spend in classes."3 but while boyer's report may be the most familiar example of such concern, it is hardly unique. as breivik and gee have described, a small group of educational leaders have regularly expressed similar concerns over the past several decades. moreover, as bodi et al. among others, have demonstrated, the rise in professional interest in information literacy issues among librarians in the past decade is closely related to more general concerns among the educational community, especially the desire to foster critical thinking skills among the student body. by the mid-1990s, professional organizations such as the national education association, accrediting bodies such as the middle states association of colleges and schools, and even state legislators began to incorporate information literacy competencies into proposals for educational reform at both the secondary and the post-secondary levels. the confluence over the past decade of new priorities in educational reform with rapid developments in information technology provided a perfect opportunity for academic librarians to develop and implement formal information literacy programs on their campuses, and to assume a higher profile in terms of classroom instruction. for the past two years, a pilot project has been underway at the miller nichols library of the university of missouri-kansas city that not only fosters collaborative relations between classroom faculty members and librarians, but promotes the development of higherorder information literacy skills among participating members of the student body. engelond: resources for 14th-century english studies (www.umkc.edu/lib i engelond/) incorporates traditional library instruction in information access as well as instruction in how to apply critical thinking skills to the contemporary information environment into the academic curriculum of participating courses in the field of medieval studies. our experience with the engelond project provides a model for the ways in which information literacy instruction can be effectively integrated into the academic curriculum, and for the ways in which a successful pilot program can both lead the way for further development of the general instructional program in an academic library, and serve as a springboard for future collaborative projects between classroom faculty members and librarians. the impetus for collaboration "most medieval web sites are dreck," or so wrote linda e. voigts, curators' professor of english at the university communications i walter 35 reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. of missouri-kansas city, in a recent review of her participation in the engelond project for the medieval academy news. describing the impetus for the development of the project in terms of a complaint increasingly common among members of the classroom faculty, voigts provides a number of examples from recent years in which students made extensive, but inappropriate, use of web-based information resources in their academic research. in one example, voigts describes a student who made the mistake of relying heavily on what appeared to be an authoritative essay for her report on medieval medical practices. the report was actually authored by a radiologist "with little apparent knowledge of either the middle ages or of premodern medicine." "how can those of us who teach the middle ages," voigts asked, "help our students find in the morass of rubbish on the internet the relatively few pearls? how can we foster skills for distinguishing between true pearls and those glittery paste jewels that dissolve upon close examination?"4 by the time voigts approached the miller nichols library during the fall 1997 semester for suggestions about the best ways to teach her students how to "sift the web" in their search for resources suitable for academic research in medieval studies, the issue of faculty-librarian collaboration in internet instruction was a familiar one. in a representative review of the literature, jayne and vander meer identified three "common approaches" that libraries have taken to the problem of teaching students how to apply critical thinking skills to the use of web-based information resources: (1) the development of generic evaluative criteria that may be applied to web-based information resources; (2) the inclusion of web-based information resources as simply one more material type to be evaluated during the course of one's research (i.e., adding lo.st updated : 27.april 1999 ! enge/and supports the research of students in dr . linda ehrsam voigts' chaucer (english 4121512 ) and medieval literature ii (english 555a) courses at the university of miss ouri-k ansas city. the site was created by the university libraries' public services staff with the collaboration of dr . voigts . we hope it will serve as a prototype for future collaborative efforts integrating library resources, course content. and multi-media technologies these pages contain syllabi for both courses, links to internet resources (including web sites. news groups and online discussion groups relevant to medieval studies) . a guide to evaluating both online and print research tools. a list of materials held on reserve at miller nich ols library for the use of these classes. and links to the merlin library catalog and a wide range of databases available through the university libraries . audionisual resources include rea!audio streams of dr. voigts reading from chaucer's canterbury tales and troi/us and criseyde . also included is joshua merrill's 'from gatehouse to cathedral a phot ograp hic pilgrimage to chaucerian landmarks .' , ,~ • • i ~ i i ju l . • i t• ii i i i ' • "i h d1,t i lt.;l 1.,,ld~.;, ..,;,.,"' r'\uu,v i io 1.;:,u.ji .;l ,t. '•·" ;,t.,:, ),j l..,l<;i~.;tl.., .... j -'-' ' • j ~ figure 1. engelond home page the web to the litany of resources, popular and scholarly, print and electronic, typically addressed in a general instructional session); and (3) working with faculty to integrate critical thinking skills into an academic assignment that asks students to use or evaluate web-based information resources relevant to their coursework. 5 while the engelond project focused primarily on the last of these options, our work on the project also fostered the use of the first two approaches in our broader instructional program. engelond's landscape the engelond web site provides access to a number of resources for participating students. these resources may be categorized as course-specific (e.g., course syllabi), information literacyrelated (e.g., a set of evaluative criteria for use with web-based information resources), or multimedia (e.g., sound recordings of voigts reading excerpts from chaucer's works in middle english). all of these resources are accessible from the engelond home page www.umkc.edu/lib/engelond/) (see figure 1). several links are also provided throughout the site to resources housed on the library's web site, including access to electronic databases and subject-specific guides to relevant resources in the print collection. although students make use of all of these resources during the course of the semester, the emphasis in this essay will be on describing the nature and use of the information literacy-related resources. as behrens and euster have noted, recent interest in information literacy instruction has been guided to a degree by concern over student ability to make effective use of new forms of information technology. this concern is addressed in the engelond project by its "internet resources" page, through which students are acquainted with the architecture of the internet and are provided with annotated references (and links) to a number of electronic resources (including web portals) that will allow them to begin their research in medieval studies. students making use of the page are 36 information technology and libraries i march 2000 reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. introduced, for example, to a variety of the different types of information resourc e s available through the internet, including web sites, telnet sites, news groups, and discussion lists. users are also directed to related resources on the library web site, including a guide to print resources for the study of chaucer and an annotat ed guide to web-based information resources generally useful for the study of literatur e . 6 also provided on the engelond site is a discussion of evaluative criteria that students might apply to their selection of web-based information resources for academic research. designed to address voigts' initial concern about the issue of teaching students how to apply critical thinking skills to their use of the web, the "criteria" page provides a general discussion of the nature of webbased information resources, the ways in which such resources differ from traditional resources, and the kinds of questions that students must ask of any web-based resource before making use of it in their academic work . reflecting the idea that information literacy skills are best taught in connection with a specific subject matter, the "criteria" page includes references to a number of illustrative examples of web-based resources in medieval studies. this page also reflects the evolutionary nature of the engelond project, since new illustrations are added as each successive group of student users discovers different examples (both positive and negative). also included on this page is a link to the library 's "quick reference guide to evaluating resources on the world wide web," a generic version of the criteria developed for use with the broader instruction program at the miller nichols library . 7 while the resources described above introduce students to the information landscape in the field of medieval studies and provide them with evaluative tools tailored to subject-specific concerns in making use of web-based information resources in their academic work, the final information literacy-related resource made available through the engelond site is perhaps of the greatest interest. the "class picks" page presents the results of participating students' web site evaluati on assignments. on this page , user s will find student evaluations of web-based resources in medieval studies that draw not only on the information literacy skills provided through traditional library instruction, but also on the subject-specific knowledge that students gain as part of their academic coursework. jayne and vander meer wrote that faculty-librarian collaboration in internet instruction is most effective when students are asked to draw both on generic informational literacy skills and on information and evaluative criteria specific to the subject matter being addressed.8 as they concluded, " [to] benefit fully from the web's potential, stud ents need training and guidance from librarians and faculty." incorporating discussions of site design, organization of information, and veracity of content, the web site evaluations found on the "class picks" page demonstrate that participating students have learned both from the librarian and the scholar, and hav e begun to consider the best ways to incorporate web-based information resources into their day-to-day academic work. in a review of "the harvard chaucer page " (http:/ / icg.fas. harvard .edu / -chaucer /) , for example, students note the general appeal of the site, but criticize it both for technical problems in its design and for editorial choices that limit its utility for academic research: the harvard chaucer is an insightful , colorful look at the author and his times, but is dappled conspicuously with misspellings, repeated phrases , sentence fragments, broken links, and unfinished pages . translations of medieval texts provided on the site are often anonymou s, making it hard to tell if the translation is credible and an acceptable resourc e for serious research in chauce r studies. if one is interested in pursuing a topic found on the harvard chaucer , s / he is well advised to explore the site for ideas and background information, but to go elsewhere for authoritative sources .. . 9 in another review , this one of "the medieval feminist index" (www.haverford.edu / library/ reference/mschaus/mfi/mfi.html), students provide a discussion of the scholarly authority of the site as well as a description of the results retrieved in sample searches of the index for materials relevant to the study of chaucer. 10 the review concludes with further examples of issues relevant to chaucer studies that might be effectively investigated with information identified through this resource. in both reviews, students demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate a web site both for its design and for its content , and the ability to express the strengths and weaknesses of a site from the point of view of a student concerned with how to make use of a web-based information resource in his or her academic work. as a result, the reviews found on the "class picks" page not only demonstrate the successful approach to course-integrated information literacy instruction promoted through the engelond project, but also provide a useful student resource in their own right. the collaborative approach in her review of faculty-librarian partnerships in information literacy instruction, smalley wrote that, in the best-case scenario, "the student gains communications i walter 37 reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. mastery in using some portion of internet resources, as well as exposure to resources intrinsically important to disciplinary pursuits. in doing the web-based exercises, students see information seeking and evaluation as essential parts of problem solving within the field of study." 11 the three information literacy-related resources found on the engelond site"internet resources," "criteria, " and "class picks" -demonstrate one approach to providing course-integrated information literacy instruction in such a way that the classroom faculty member and the academic librarian can work collaboratively and productively to meet their mutual instructional goals . both the classroom faculty member and the cooperating librarian are able to meet their instructional goals using the engelond model because of the collaborative nature of the information literacy instruction provided to the participating students. students enrolled in voigts' chaucer class during the winter 1999 semester received information literacy instruction focused both on information access and critical thinking while completing successive iterations of the web site evaluation assignment required for the course. a brief overview of the collaborative teaching process should suggest ways in which the participating faculty member and librarian were able to draw successfully both on generic information literac y skills and on subjectspecific knowledge while conducting course-integrated library instruction using the engelond site. participating students during the winter 1999 semester began with a general introduction to the electronic resources available through the miller nichols library at the university of missouri-kansas city (e.g., using the online catalog and databases such as the mla bibliography) . students were then presented with an introduction to the problem of applying critical thinking skills to the use of web-based information resources, as described on engelond's "criteria" page. following this introductory session conducted by the cooperating librarian, the cooperating faculty member provided students with a number of illustrative examples of the inappropriate use of electronic resources for academic research in medieval studies. from the beginning, the librarian and the faculty member modeled an integrated approach to the evaluation of information resources for their students; one that drew both on generic critical thinking skills and on specific examples of how such skills might be applied to resources in their field. following this initial session (which took place during the first week of the semester) , students were asked to complete an evaluation of a web site containing information they might consider using as part of their academic work. individual sites were chosen from among those accessible through the subject-specific web portals provided on the "internet resources" page. students were provided both with the library's "quick reference guide to evaluating resources on the world wide web" and with the more extensive description of web site evaluation available on the "criteria" page . students completed these initial reviews over the following week and submitted copies to both the faculty member and the librarian . in preparation for the second instructional session (which took place during the third week of the semester), the faculty member and the librarian evaluated each review twice (individually, and then together). reviews were evaluated for the clarity of their criticism of a site, both from the point of view of information organization and design and from the point of view of the significance of the information for student research in the field . sites that seemed to merit further review by the entire class were selected from 38 information technology and libraries i march 2000 this pool of evaluations and were discussed in greater detail by the instructors. the second instructional session took the form of an extended review of the sites selected in the meeting described above . in each case, students were asked to describe their reaction to the site in question. in cases where more than one student had evaluated the same site, each student was asked to present one or two distinct points from his or her review. the instructors then presented their reactions to the site. again, the librarian and the faculty member modeled for the students an approach to the critical evaluation of information resources that drew not only on the professional expertise of the librarian, but also on the scholarly expertise of the faculty member . by the end of this session, students had been exposed to three separate critiques of the selected web sites: the student's opinion of how the information presented on the site might be used in academic research; the librarian 's opinion of how effectively the information was organized and presented, and how its authority, currency, etc ., might differ from that of comparable print resources; and, finally, the faculty member's opinion of the place and value of the information provided on the site in the broader scheme of the discipline. following this session, the students were assigned to groups in order to develop more detailed evaluations of the web sites discussed in class. as before, these assignments were submitted both to the faculty member and to the librarian. after further review by both instructors, the assignments were returned to the students for a third (and final) iteration, and then mounted to the "class picks" page. by the conclusion of this assignment, participating students had learned not only how to apply critical thinking skills to web-based information resources, but had begun to think about the nature of reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. electronic information and the many forms that such information can take. the web site evaluations included on the "class picks" page demonstrate the students' ability to successfully evaluate a web-based information resource both for its design and for its content, and to suggest the academic situations in which its use might be warranted for a student of medieval literature. evaluating engelond during the winter 1999 semester, we attempted to evaluate the success of the information literacy instruction provided through the engelond project. while the web site evaluations produced by the students provided one obvious measure of our instructional success, we attempted to learn more about the ways in which students used the materials provided through the engelond site by polling users and by examining use patterns on the site. both of these latter measures confirmed what the instructors already suspected: students enrolled in participating courses were making heavy use of the information literacy-related resources housed on the engelond site and saw the skills fostered by those resources as a valuable complement to the disciplinary knowledge being gained in the traditional classroom. as part of a general evaluation of the instructional services provided by the library during the course of the semester, students participating in the engelond project were asked open-ended questions such as: "what features of the engelond web site did you find most useful as a student in this course?"; "how did the existence of the engelond site and the collaboration between your classroom instructor and the library enhance your learning experience in this course?"; and "what aspects of the library instruction that you received as part of this course do you believe will be useful to you in other courses or in regards to lifelong learning?" among the specific items cited most often by students as being useful to them in their academic work were two of the information literacy-related resources: "internet resources" and "class picks." likewise , information literacy skills such as familiarity with the structure of the internet and the ability to critically evaluate web-based information resources were listed by almost every student as skills that would be useful both in other academic courses and in their daily lives . moreover, two graduate students who were participants reported that their experience with engelond had led them to incorporate information literacy instruction into the undergraduate courses that they taught themselves. any conclusions about the appeal of the information literacyrelated resources housed on the engelond site based on these narrative responses were reinforced by a study of the use statistics for the same period. through the first three months of the winter 1999 semester ganuary-march), the engelond site recorded approximately one thousand "hits" on its main page.12 in each month, the most frequently accessed pages were the three information literacy-related resources described above, with the "criteria" page regularly recording the greatest number of hits . among the other most-frequently visited pages on the site were the multimedia resource page (" audio -visual"), the "syllabi" page, and the "quick reference guide to chaucer" (housed on the library web site, but accessible through the "internet resources" page). taken in conjunction with the narrative responses provided on the evaluation form , these use statistics suggest that the information literacy resources provided through the engelond site have become a fullyintegrated, and greatly appreciated, feature of the academic curriculum in medieval studies in the department of english at the university of missouri-kansas city. a model for future collaboration the engelond project has not only been a success with students who have enrolled in participating courses, but has had a significant influence on the broader instructional program at the miller nichols library. it has served as a template for future collaborative efforts between the classroom faculty and the library in terms of integrating information technology and information literacy into the academic curriculum. in terms of the instructional program at the miller nichols library, our experience with engelond helped lay the groundwork for the development of new instructional materials and for new instructional programs . it was through engelond, for example, that we first provided electronic access to our point-of-service guides to library materials in various subjects (e.g., the "library guide to chaucer"). as of the end of the winter 1999 semester, we have made almost all of our pathfinders available on the library web site and are now considering ways in which these might be effectively incorporated into the work being done by our faculty in developing web-based coursework. also, it was through engelond that our subject specialists started collecting and annotating web-based information resources of potential use to our students and faculty. now, subject specialists are developing "subject guides" to web-based resources in a number of fields and promoting their use among faculty members who , like voigts, are concerned about the quality of the web-based information being used by their students in their communications i walter 39 reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. !' miller nichols library about the tl tc services schedule workshops staff technology for learning and teaching center a umkc faculty service figure 2. tltc home page academic work. both our pathfinders and our subject guides to web-based resources are available online (www. umkc.edu/lib /instruction/guides/ index.html). finally, the instructional session on the critical evaluation of webbased resources that has been the centerpiece of library instruction for the engelond project has now been adapted for inclusion in our normal round of instructional workshops. while support for such innovations in our instructional program clearly existed within the library prior to the initiation of the engelond project, the project's success has provided an important spur to the development of instructional services in the library. the commitment to collaborative instructional programming demonstrated by the engelond project has also helped pave the way for the development of the university of missouri-kansas city's new technology for learning and teaching (tlt) center. housed in the miller nichols library, the tlt center offers faculty workshops in the use of information technology and a place in which classroom faculty, subject specialists, and educational technologists may collaborate on the development of projects such as engelond. further information on the tlt center is available online (www.umkc.edu/tltc/) (see figure 2). initiating a culture of collaboration between members of the classroom faculty and academic librarians can be a difficult task (as so much of the literature has shown). in reviewing our experience with engelond, we have benefited from the suggestions that hardesty made some years ago about the means of supporting the adoption across campus of an innovative instructional model: (1) the librarian must present information literacy instruction in such a way that it does not threaten the role of the classroom faculty member as an authority in the subject matter of the course; (2) the new approach to instructional collaboration must be adopted on a limited basis at first, rather than requiring that all instructional programs immediately adopt the new approach; and (3) the results of a successful pilot projects 40 information technology and libraries i march 2000 must be "readily visible to others" on campus. 13 designed as a pilot project, engelond has successfully demonstrated that classroom faculty and academic librarians can collaborate to meet their mutual instructional objectives, both in terms of information literacy instruction and in terms of academic course content. as information technology continues to gain a central place in the educational mission of the college and university, it is likely that the sphere of mutual instructional objectives between classroom faculty and academic librarians will only increase. our careful approach to raising the instructional profile of librarians on campus has been rewarded, too, both by an increasing number of faculty members seeking course-related instruction in our electronic classroom as part of the regular instructional program of the library, and by the institutional commitment of resources to the tlt center, which will become the nexus of instructional collaboration between faculty and librarians on our campus. during the 1999-2000 academic year, no fewer than three academic courses in medieval studies will make use of the engelond site. as more faculty become aware of the services provided by the tlt center, such collaborative approaches to information literacy instruction will likely become more evident across a variety of disciplines. the lessons learned over the past two years of project development will be invaluable as we move to provide courseintegrated information literacy instruction to an increasing number of students in an increasingly broad variety of courses. acknowledgments the engelond project has benefited from the work of a number of individuals over the past two years, reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. further reproduction prohibited without permission. especially ted p. sheldon, director of libraries at the university of missouri-kansas city, and marilyn carbonell, assistant director for collection development, both of whom were instrumental in developing the plan for a pilot project in courseintegrated information literacy instruction with professor voigts. the design for the engelond site was developed by john laroe, former multimedia design technologist at the miller nichols library. the original text for the site was written by voigts, laroe, and t. michael kelly, former humanities reference librarian at the miller nichols library. additional text and resources for the site have been developed over the past year by voigts and myself. in addition, a number of librarians and staff members in the public services division of the miller nichols library devoted time to critiquing the site and to assisting with the creation of the embedded audio files. these contributions may not always be evident to the students who benefit from the project, but they were instrumental in our ability to successfully meet our instructional objectives during the 1998-99 academic year. references and notes 1. thomas j. deloughry, "professors are urged to devise strategies to help students deal with 'information explosion' spurred by technology," chronicle of higher education 35 (march 8, 1989), a13, al5. 2. shirley j. behrens, "a conceptual analysis and historical overview of information literacy," college & research libraries 55 guly 1994): 309-22; patricia senn breivik, student learning in the information age (phoenix, ariz.: oryx pr., 1998); "final report of the american library association presidential committee on information literacy" (1989), as reproduced in breivik, student learning in the information age, 121-37 (quotation is from pp. 121-22). for another recent overview of the development of the theory and practice of information literacy at every level of american education over the past two decades, see kathleen l. spitzer and others, information literacy: essential skills for the information age (syracuse, n.y.: eric clearinghouse on information and technology, 1998). 3. ernest l. boyer, college: the undergraduate experience in america (new york: harper & row, 1987), 165; patricia senn breivik and e. gordon gee, information literacy: revolution in the library (new york: macmillan, 1989); sonia bodi, "critical thinking and bibliographic instruction: the relationship," journal of academic librarianship 14 guly 1988): 150-53; barbara b. moran, "library /classroom partnerships for the 1990s," c&rl news 51 (june 1990): 511-14; sonia bodi, "collaborating with faculty in teaching critical thinking: the role of librarians," research strategies 10 (spring 1992): 69-76; hannelore b. rader, "information literacy and the undergraduate curriculum," library trends 44 (fall 1995): 270-78; spitzer and others, information literacy; and breivik, student learning in the information age, 7-8. on the relationship between trends in educational reform favoring the development of critical thinking skills and their relationship to the place of information literacy instruction in higher education, see also joanne r. euster, "the academic library: its place and role in the institution," in academic libraries: their rationale and role in american higher education, gerard b. mccabe and ruth j. person eds. (westport: greenwood pr., 1995), 7; craig gibson, "critical thinking: implications for instruction," rq 35 (fall 1995): 27-35. 4. linda ersham voigts, "teaching students to sift the web," medieval academy news (nov. 1998): 5. 5. elaine jayne and patricia vander meer, "the library's role in academic instructional use of the world wide web," research strategies 15 (1997): 125. see also topsy n. smalley, "partnering with faculty to interweave internet instruction into college coursework," reference services review 26 (summer 1998): 19-27. 6. behrens, "a conceptual analysis and historical overview of information literacy," 312; euster, "the academic library," 6; scott walter, "umkc university libraries: quick reference guide to chaucer." accessed sept. 24, 1999, ww.umkc.edu/lib/ instruction/ guides/ chaucer .html; scott walter, "umkc university libraries: subject guide to literature." accessed sept. 24, 1999, www.umkc.edu/lib/ instruction/ guides/literature.html. all references to specific pages on the engelond site will be made to the page title, e.g., "internet resources." because engelond has been designed in a frameset, it will be easier for interested readers to access the main page at the url provided in the text and then make use of the navigational buttons provided there. 7. scott walter, "umkc university libraries: quick reference guide to evaluating resources on the world wide web." accessed sept. 24, 1999, www.umkc.edu/ lib/ instruction/ guides/ webeval.html. 8. jayne and vander meer, "the library's role in academic instructional use of the world wide web," 125. 9. laura arruda and others, review of "the harvard chaucer page." accessed accessed sept. 24, 1999, www.umkc.edu/lib/engelond. 10. sherrida d. harris and jennifer kearney, review of "the medieval feminist index: scholarship on women, sexuality, and gender." accessed sept. 24, 1999, www.umkc.edu/lib/engelond. 11. smalley, "partnering with faculty to interweave internet instruction into college coursework," 20. 12. in january 1999 engelond received 368 hits, with the three most frequently accessed items being "criteria" (157), "internet resources" (130), and "class picks" (128). in february the total number of hits dropped to 216, with the most frequently accessed items being "criteria" (130), "audio-visual" (59), and "internet resources" and "class picks" (both with 46). in march the total number of hits was 323, with the favorite resources again being "criteria" (113), "internet resources" (74), and "class picks" (65). statistics are based on a study of the daily use logs. accessed sept. 24, 1999,www.umkc.edu/ _reports/. 13. larry hardesty, "the role of the classroom faculty in bibliographic instruction," in teaching librarians to teach: on-the-job training for bibliographic instruction librarians, alice f. clark and kay f. jones eds. (metuchen: scarecrow pr., 1986), 171-72. communications i walter 41 editorial ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀฀ ฀฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ ฀ editorial board thoughts | eden 109 editorial board thoughts bradford lee eden musings on the demise of paper w e have been hearing the dire predictions about the end of paper and the book since microfiche was hailed as the savior of libraries decades ago. now it seems that technology may be finally catching up with the hype. with the amazon kindle and the sony reader beginning to sell in the marketplace despite the cost (about $360 for the kindle), it appears that a whole new group of electronic alternatives to the print book will soon be available for users next year. amazon reports that e-book sales quadrupled in 2008 from the previous year. this has many technology firms salivating and hoping that the consumer market is ready to move to digital reading as quickly and profitably as the move to digital music. some of these new devices and technologies are featured in the march 3, 2009, fortune article by michael v. copeland titled “the end of paper?”1 part of the problem with current readers is their challenges for advertising. because the screen is so small, there isn’t any room to insert ads (i.e., revenue) around the margins of the text. but new readers such as plastic logic, polymer vision, and firstpaper will have larger screens, stronger image resolution, and automatic wireless updates, with color screens and video capabilities just over the horizon. still, working out a business model for newspapers and magazines is the real challenge. and how much will readers pay for content? with everything “free” over the internet, consumers have become accustomed to information readily available for no immediate cost. so how much to charge and how to make money selling content? the plastic logic reader weighs less than a pound, is one-eighth of an inch thick, and resembles an 8½ x 11 inch sheet of paper or a clipboard. it will appear in the marketplace next year, using plastic transistors powered by a lithium battery. while not flexible, it is a very durable and break-resistant device. other e-readers will use flexible display technology that allows one to fold up the screen and place the device into a pocket. much of this technology is fueled by e-ink, a start-up company that is behind the success of the kindle and the reader. they are exploring the use of color and video, but both have problems in terms of reading experience and battery wear. in the long run, however, these issues will be resolved. expense is the main concern: just how much are users willing to pay to read something in digital rather than analog? amazon has been hugely successful with the kindle, selling more than 500,000 for just under $400 in 2007. and with the drop in subscriptions for analog magazines and newspapers, advertisers are becoming nervous about their futures. or will the “pay by the article” model, like that used for digital music sales, become the norm? so what should or do these developments mean for libraries? it means that we should probably be exploring the purchase of some of these products when they appear and offering them (with some content) for checkout to our patrons. many of us did something similar when it became apparent that laptops were wanted and needed by students for their use. many of us still offer this service today, even though many campuses now require students to purchase them anyway. offering cutting-edge technology with content related to the transmission and packaging of information is one way for our clientele to see libraries as more than just print materials and a social space. and libraries shouldn’t pay full price (or any price) for these new toys; companies that develop these products are dying to find free research and development focus groups that will assist them in versioning and upgrading their products for the marketplace. what better avenue than college students? related to this is the recent announcement by the university of michigan that their university press will now be a digital operation to be run as part of the library.2 decreased university and library budgets have meant that university presses have not been able to sell enough of their monographs to maintain viable business models. the move of a university press to a successful scholarly communication and open-source publishing entity like the university of michigan libraries means that the press will be able to survive, and it also indicates that the newer model of academic libraries as university publishers will have a prototypical example to point out to their university’s administration. in the long run, these types of partnerships are essential if academic libraries are to survive their own budget cuts in the future. references 1. michael v. copeland, “the end of paper?” cnnmoney .com, mar. 3, 2009, http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/03/ technology/copeland_epaper.fortune/ (accessed june 22, 2009). 2. andrew albanese, “university of michigan press merged with library, with new emphasis on digital monographs,” libraryjournal.com, mar. 26, 2009, http://www .libraryjournal.com/article/ca6647076.html (accessed june 22, 2009). bradford lee eden (eden@library.ucsb.edu) is associate university librarian for technical services and scholarly communication, university of california, santa barbara. marcive: a cooperative automated library system virginia m. bowden: systems analyst, the university of texas health science center at san antonio, and ruby b. miller: head cataloger, trinity university, san antonio, texas. 183 the marcive library system is a batch computer system utilizing both the marc tapes and local cataloging to provide catalog cal'ds, book catalogs, and selective bibliographies for five academic libra1·ies in san antonio, texas. the development of the system is traced and present procedures are described. batch retrieval from the marc 1·ecords plus the modification of these records costs less than twenty cents per title. computer costs fo1' retrieval, modification, and card production average six-ty-six cents per title, between seven and ten cents per card. the attributes and limitations of the marcive system are compm·ed with those of the oclc system. in san antonio, texas, a unique cooperative effort in library automation has developed, involving the libraries of five diverse institutions: trinity university, the university of texas health science center at san antonio (uthscsa), san antonio college (sac), the university of texas at san antonio (utsa), and st. mary's university. these institutions are utilizing the marcive library system which was developed by and for one library, that of trinity university. the marcive system is a batch, disc oriented computer system utilizing both local cataloging and the marc tapes to produce catalog cards, book catalogs, selective bibliographies, and other products. development the trinity university library has been involved in library automation since 1966.1 when the library reclassified its collection from dewey to the library of congress classification in1966, a simplified machine-readable format was developed and used for storage on computer. this format contained the following bibliographic elements: accession number, call number, author, title, and imprint date. in 1969 the library decided to reformat the computer data base into a marc ii compatible format in order 184 ] ournal of library automation vol. 7 i 3 september 197 4 to build a data base of bibliographic records that could be the basis for all future automated systems within the library. the resulting system, marcive, was designed jointly by the head cataloger, ruby b. miller, and the library programmer, paul jackson, a graduate student in trinity's department of computer science. since in 1969 literature on completed library automation projects was sparse, no other system was used as a guide. the marcive format was based on the designers' interpretation of the 1969 edition of the marc manual. the name, marcive, evolved when the programmer facetiously claimed that his format was so advanced he would call it the marc iv format. the computer room operating staff, ignoring the space between the marc and iv, combined the two, producing marciv. an e was added later for ease of pronunciation. the marcive system was designed initially as a system for data storage and retrieval. the update, select, and acquisitions list programs were operative in september 1970. the next month uthscsa inquired as to the possibility of producing catalog cards as part of the marcive system. within the brief span of three months, by january 1971, trinity university library produced 4,289 catalog cards and uthscsa produced 1,719 catalog cards via marcive. in february 1974, the five participating libraries produced a total of 29,000 catalog cards, with trinity accounting for 10,740 cards. continued development of the marcive system was delayed in 1971 by changes in computer center personnel and equipment. in 1972 new programs were developed to incorporate the marc tapes into the marcive system. the size of the marc data base, which is now held on three discs, was a major problem. modifications were included to accept input from magnetic tape and typewriter terminals using the apl language as well as keypunched cards. the original restriction of the system to classifications with one to three alphabetic letters followed by numbers, such as used by lc and nlm, was modified to accept dewey decimal classification to accommodate san antonio college. this restriction had been incorporated in an attempt to insure that the call number would be properly formatted, thus simplifying retrieval in the select program and grouping in the acquisitions list and update programs. computer configuration the marcive system is a disc oriented system which was programmed for an ibm 360/44 using the mft operating system. this computer model was designed for scientific programming and was manufactured in limited quantities. the programs were written in basic assembly language since adequate higher level language compilers for the 360 i 44 were not available at the trinity computer center. in 1971 the programs were converted to run under dos, and in 1972 they were converted for processing on the ibm 370/155 using the os processing system. since the initial promarcne/bowden and miller 185 grams were written in basic assembly language, the subsequent programs have also been written this way. marcive format the marcive format is an adaptation of the marc ii format. the definition of the marc ii format is a", .. format which is intended for the interchange of bibliographic records on magnetic tape. it has not been designed as a record format for retention within the files of any specific organization ... [it is] a generalized structure which can be used to transmit between systems records describing all forms of material capable of bibliographic descriptions . . . the methods of recording and identifying data should provide for maximum manipulability leading to ease of conversion to other formats for various uses."2 adaptation of the marc ii format is common among users. an analysis by the recon task force found much variation among the use of the fixed fields, tags, indicators, and subfields. 3 the oclc system can regenerate marc ii records from oclc records although they contain only 78 percent of the number of characters in the original marc ii record. 4 the developers of the marcive system studied the marc manual and decided that the leader and directmy were not necessary for program manipulation. such information can be generated by a conversion program. the marc mnemonic codes were chosen instead of the numeric ones because all bibliographic data were being coded locally and it was felt that mnemonics would be easier to work with. the mnemonic codes are the ones designated in the marc manuals except that "si" was substituted for "se." rules for assigning indicators, subfields, and delimiters are those described by marc. the basic structure of the marcive format is illustrated in figure 1. the differences between marcive and marc are as follows: 1. marcive's leader consists of three fields: length of disc space, status code, and length of record. in converting marc the following elements of the marc leader are incorporated in the marcive leader fields: length of disc space, status code, and length of record. 2. marcive does not contain the marc record directory, but rather places the tags and subfield codes in front of the actual data. 3. in the conversion from marc ii to marcive, fixed fields such as date of publication are omitted. 4. all data elements in marcive are treated as variable tags even though they contain fixed field data. 5. marcive uses the mnemonic code names for the input of data rather than the numeric marc codes. for example "mep" is used for coding a person as main entry rather than "llo." the mnemonic tag names are stored in the machine format and not the numeric marc tags. ,, ·' 186 j oumal of libra1'y automation vol. 7 i 3 september 197 4 '""d ~ .... ~ 0 i5 cj " "' .oj "' "' .oj § ~ s s " '""' p:; ql "' ql ~ cj "' fin fin-data data elements ..sl 0"' ~ z z <:<:: "' 0 <:<:: <:<:: 1"'1 fjp< ~ tag .g elements bil .g bil ~ b!l"' fl "' "' .s "' bil c/) e-< c/) e-< "' "' " "' p >-1 "' >-1 length of disc space. this identifies the number of seventy-two byte blocks a record uses. the marcive records average 350 characters or three to six blocks. blank. this field is used by the update program. length of record. identifies the actual number of characters a record .contains. fin tag. this is the marcive control tag and must precede each record. it contains four subfields: accession number, type of material, location of material, and call number. tag name. after the fin tag, any of the marcive tags may be input as long as they conform to the proper sequence (i.e., main entry must pi·ecede title). each tag is followed by its subfield codes and the data elements. fig. 1. marcive fo1•mat st1'uctu1'e. 6. all first indicators are input except for the first indicator in the contents note. 7. most of the second indicators are not input, except for the filing indicators which are included in the marcive format. 8. marcive adds one variable tag to the marc format called "fin." it serves the function of the marc 090 local holdings tag. the fin tag must be the first variable tag in each marcive record and must contain four data elements: ( 1) accession number; ( 2) type of material code (monograph, serial, etc.); ( 3) location of material within library (reference, reserve, etc.); ( 4) local call number. even though marcive is not a pure marc format, there has been an attempt to code most of the data elements into marcive. a marcive to marc conversion is being written by one of the marcive libraries in order to merge its marcive data base with a purchased marc data base. marcive master data bases each of the m arcive users maintains a separate data base of its holdings, which is called its marcive master. this master file contains a complete bibliographic record for each title cataloged by the library, including marc cataloging and local cataloging. when a library modifies a marc record, the modified record is recorded in that library's marcive master. the various libraries' marcive masters have not been merged, although this is being considered. each library has prefaced all of its accession numbers with a unique library code just in case a merged data base is desired. marc-con data base the largest data base in the system is the marc-converted data base, marcive/bowden and miller 187 hereafter referred to as marc-con. this data base contains only pure marc data that have been converted into marcive machine format. no original cataloging or local modifications of marc are contained in the marc-con data base. marcive programs convert-this program reformats the weekly marc tapes into the marcive machine format. marc-update-this program merges the weekly converted marc tape with the marc-con disc file. an index sequential ( isam) file containing lc card number, fifty characters of the title, and the disc address of the marc reoord is generated. the isam file is in lc card number order. in 1974 the marc-con data base filled three 3330 disc packs. there are three tape back-up files: one file consisting of original marc records, one of the marc-con records, and a third with the isam file. deleted records and replaced records are annually purged from the marc-con files. a new set of back-up tapes for the disc packs is created every three months in order to facilitate regeneration of the disc packs should damage occur. marc-list-this program lists marc records in title sequence from the tape. once every six to eight weeks the list is cumulated and printed. these lists are used for searching until the annual cumulation of the nuc is received. this provides current listings of records on the marc tapes that are not easily available in the national union catalog. this listing will be eliminated in 1974, when access by title to the marc-con data base is available. marc-search-this program searches for lc numbers on the marc-con file using the isam file. a file of the matched records is produced on tape or disc as specified along with a listing of these records. this listing contains the marc-con complete bibliographic entry (figure 2). although access is currently only by lc card number, access by title algorithm ( 3, 1, 1) is expected in 197 4. replace-the purpose of this program is to modify marc-con records to fit the needs of the individual library. these modifications can be done automatically to all records or on a single record basis by the library. the automatic changes are specified on a control card and include twenty-two options such as assignment of accession number, usage of dewey class number instead of lc, and changing "u.s." in subject headings to "united states." an example of a single modification would be the changing of a series entry from t~·aced to untraced. most marcive participants use a combination of automatic and single changes. the output from the replace program may be input to all other marcive programs, such as edit, catalog card, update, etc. edit-this program verifies the format of the input. valid tags and subfields as well as correct sequence of tags are checked. multiple spaces 188 journal of library automation vol. 7/3 september 1974 library code t0000100fin ab~pa3877.a1~d5~ t0000102lcn a~?0-022854 ~ t0000104lano a~eng~ t0000106lant a~enggrc~ t0000108ddc a~882j.01~ t0000110mepf a~aristophanes.~ t0000112tiln ac~plays;~newly translated into english vbrsb by patrie dickinson.~ t0000114ihp aabc~london,~new york,~oxford university pr~ss,~1970-~ t0000116col ac~v. ~21 em.~ t000011hpri ablb.0.75 (v. 1)~{$2.95 u.s.)~ t0000120siru a~oxford paperbacks, 216-~ t0000122noc a~1. acbarnians. knights. clouds. wasps. peace,1 t0000124aeps ade~dickinson, patrie,11914-1tr.~ t0000200fin ab1nd1097.w4~m613~ t0000202lcn a173-4j7272 ~ t0000204lano a~enq1 t0000206lant a~engita~ t0000210meps a~monti, franco.~ t0000212til ac~african masks;~[translated from th~ italian by andrew hale].1 t0000214imp aabc~london,~new york,1hamlyn,~1969.~ t0000216col adc~j-157 p.169 col. illus.~20 em.~ t0000218pri a,15/-~ t0000220siru a~cameo~ t0000222nog a,translation of le maschere africane.~ t0000224sut az,masks, african,africa, west., fig. 2. search listing of marc-con data. are compressed to one, implied subfields are added, and a limited number of punctuation marks are generated. actual bibliographic data are not checked so spelling errors are not detected by the program. those titles which do not conform to specifications are rejected and an explanatory message is generated. a library may choose one of three forms of listings of output: (1) full-edit, (2) mini-edit, or (3) error-edit. the full-edit marcive!bowden and miller 189 950564 fin,cb6950564,m,rp, qs,4,jk49t,1961;, 950564 meps a, kimber, !diana jclifford, 950564 til ac,janatomy and physiology, (by> jdiana !clifford jkimber 950564