University of Nigeria Library: 2nd Edition of 'The Use of the Library and Study S...: We are glad to announce the publication of the second edition of the library text book - 'The Use of the Library and Study Skills'...
-
The New Library Building
This is the New Library Building
-
The Old Library Building
TThis is the Old Library Building
-
University of North Carolina Ph.D Student Visits UNN Library
University of North Carolina Ph.D Student Visits UNN Library
-
CBT Exams
UNN Physically Challenged Students take the CBT Exams
-
Chief Mike Olorunfemi donates books to the Library
Official Launching of Books Donation by Chief Mike Olorunfemi
-
Visit to Sweden
University of Nigeria Nsukka Vice-Chancellor and team visit Lund University, Sweden
-
Key Library Officers
Know your Deputy University Librarians
Saturday, December 12, 2015
How scholars share journal articles: implications for the library
How scholars share journal articles: implications for the library
By Colleen DeLory, Elsevier | Dec 7, 2015
By Colleen DeLory, Elsevier | Dec 7, 2015
Picture one of your faculty members in her office late at night,
completing a first draft of a new research article. She is reviewing her
document library in Mendeley and saving a few articles into it from
emails colleagues have sent. Noticing a gap, she does a final search and
downloads a few new titles from the library website.
With each task she performs, there is an invisible line back to the library. By looking at many researchers’ processes like these, you can get a more accurate illustration of usage, and consequently, a richer story to report on the extent of the value the library delivers to the institution.
This is one of the goals of the Beyond Downloads project.
Project overview
The Beyond Downloads project is an international collaboration, sponsored by Elsevier, among the University of Tennessee, Project COUNTER, Ciber Research Ltd. and Elsevier. Research team leads included Carol Tenopir and Suzie Allard, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Peter Shepherd (since retired) and Lorraine Estelle, Project COUNTER; Hazel Woodward, Board of Directors of COUNTER and retired Librarian of Cranfield University; and David Nicholas, Director of CIBER Research Ltd. Wouter Haak, Vice President of Research Data Management, is the primary liaison at Elsevier. (See complete Beyond Downloads project team.)
The team is attempting to answer four essential research questions:
To date, they have conducted focus groups and interviews with 29 scholars in the US and UK on how they obtained, saved, shared and used scholarly articles. These findings informed the development of an international survey.
Survey
From roughly November 2014 to mid-January 2015, Elsevier sent the survey invitation to 32,956 authors who had published in an Elsevier journal. The survey was hosted on the University of Tennessee website and 1,000 scholars responded to 34 questions, including rating scales, demographics and open-ended questions for commentary.
Highlights of survey results include:
“It’s clear from the survey results the critical role the library plays in providing access to research and that usage is substantially under reported,” says Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “Libraries need to share these findings with their administration to ensure institutional leaders understand the scholarly environment and the role the library plays in facilitating research processes.”
Calculating usage
Peter Shepherd, Director of Project COUNTER at the time, led efforts to develop a full-text sharing calculator. This proved to be unfeasible given the difficulties in obtaining the data to calculate reliable results. As an alternative, the team suggests a range of sharing with an associated level of confidence be applied to download numbers to estimate a level of actual, post-download usage.
Publications & Presentations
The University of Tennessee team members are in the process of writing journal articles on the Beyond Download results and anticipate publication in 2016. Articles, presentations and other Beyond Downloads artifacts will be listed on the Publications & Presentations page of the Beyond Downloads project website as they become available.
Team members from University of Tennessee, Project COUNTER and Elsevier have also presented at the 2014 and 2015 Charleston Conference and in a recent Library Connect webinar. Suzie Allard and Lisa Christian from University of Tennessee presented at the 2015 SSP Conference in May, and Carol Tenopir will speak about Beyond Downloads at the Annual General Meeting of Project COUNTER during the 2016 UKSG Annual Conference.
Questions
If you have any questions on the Beyond Downloads project, please email libraryconnect@elsevier.com and we will query the project team and post responses on the website.
With each task she performs, there is an invisible line back to the library. By looking at many researchers’ processes like these, you can get a more accurate illustration of usage, and consequently, a richer story to report on the extent of the value the library delivers to the institution.
This is one of the goals of the Beyond Downloads project.
Project overview
The Beyond Downloads project is an international collaboration, sponsored by Elsevier, among the University of Tennessee, Project COUNTER, Ciber Research Ltd. and Elsevier. Research team leads included Carol Tenopir and Suzie Allard, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Peter Shepherd (since retired) and Lorraine Estelle, Project COUNTER; Hazel Woodward, Board of Directors of COUNTER and retired Librarian of Cranfield University; and David Nicholas, Director of CIBER Research Ltd. Wouter Haak, Vice President of Research Data Management, is the primary liaison at Elsevier. (See complete Beyond Downloads project team.)
The team is attempting to answer four essential research questions:
-
What are download counts missing?
-
How much do scholars share and what do they share?
-
What is a more complete use and value of articles?
-
Are there ways to calculate or measure sharing?
To date, they have conducted focus groups and interviews with 29 scholars in the US and UK on how they obtained, saved, shared and used scholarly articles. These findings informed the development of an international survey.
Survey
From roughly November 2014 to mid-January 2015, Elsevier sent the survey invitation to 32,956 authors who had published in an Elsevier journal. The survey was hosted on the University of Tennessee website and 1,000 scholars responded to 34 questions, including rating scales, demographics and open-ended questions for commentary.
Highlights of survey results include:
-
Most respondents obtain their scholarly articles through library subscriptions or databases.
-
Half of respondents share full-text articles most frequently, while
only 14 percent shared references and 16 percent shared URLs.
-
Respondents prefer to share articles (full-text or reference) for
research purposes by email, internal networks and cloud services. They
prefer email, internal networks and learning management software for
teaching purposes.
-
Almost three quarters of respondents want to share the published
version of their own work and 84 percent to share the final published
version of other scholars’ work rather than preprints or accepted
manuscripts.
-
Few scholars (5.6 percent) indicate that they would share less if all articles were available freely on the web.
“It’s clear from the survey results the critical role the library plays in providing access to research and that usage is substantially under reported,” says Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “Libraries need to share these findings with their administration to ensure institutional leaders understand the scholarly environment and the role the library plays in facilitating research processes.”
Calculating usage
Peter Shepherd, Director of Project COUNTER at the time, led efforts to develop a full-text sharing calculator. This proved to be unfeasible given the difficulties in obtaining the data to calculate reliable results. As an alternative, the team suggests a range of sharing with an associated level of confidence be applied to download numbers to estimate a level of actual, post-download usage.
Publications & Presentations
The University of Tennessee team members are in the process of writing journal articles on the Beyond Download results and anticipate publication in 2016. Articles, presentations and other Beyond Downloads artifacts will be listed on the Publications & Presentations page of the Beyond Downloads project website as they become available.
Team members from University of Tennessee, Project COUNTER and Elsevier have also presented at the 2014 and 2015 Charleston Conference and in a recent Library Connect webinar. Suzie Allard and Lisa Christian from University of Tennessee presented at the 2015 SSP Conference in May, and Carol Tenopir will speak about Beyond Downloads at the Annual General Meeting of Project COUNTER during the 2016 UKSG Annual Conference.
Questions
If you have any questions on the Beyond Downloads project, please email libraryconnect@elsevier.com and we will query the project team and post responses on the website.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Read a new book every week!
'Reading maketh a full man
Conference, a ready man
And Writing, an exact man'...Francis Bacon
'A room without books is as a body without soul'...Cicero
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Call for data-led science stories by INASP-supported researchers for publication on SciDev.Net
Call for data-led science stories by INASP-supported researchers for publication on SciDev.Net
Deadline:
Deadline:
Leading science and development news organization SciDev.Net is working with INASP to invite researchers to submit ideas for publication on our global website. One idea will be chosen.
We are looking for original science research that can be turned into thought-provoking visual content (such as infographics) for the SciDev.Net website.
The term ‘data journalism’ can sound complicated, but it simply means a story generated by interrogating data to discover new evidence. Media organizations increasingly choose to display their data-led story through engaging visualizations, to make science research more accessible. The skill of a data journalist is to find a simple, incisive story hidden behind complex numbers.
What we’re looking for
We’re looking for researchers with a good story to tell about the developing world (the global South), which is supported by data.
For example, we worked with a group of researchers who mapped dams in Africa. Combining their data with existing data on malaria outbreaks, they made the link between malaria incidence and proximity to the dam basins where mosquitoes breed. A simple idea, but with wide ramifications for malaria prevention.
How the process works
We take your data presented, say, on an excel spreadsheet. The data needs to be relatively clean (i.e. consistently formatted in columns) but we can help clean it up. We then enter this data into in-house software that visualizes it, i.e. turns it into basic graphs and charts. We work with you to pin down the story these graphs are telling. We can then add the data to more sophisticated software to create interactive graphs. We will help you write content to explain it, and add images and audio to bring it alive, to end up with an engaging visual feature.
Your idea
- The global South includes: Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, South East Asia and the Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia.
- Your subject should fall within SciDev.Net’s core areas of interest, including: agriculture, gender, climate change, clean energy, health, environment, food security, governance, and innovation for development.
- Hot topics include: water, disease, farming, renewables, education, risk management, low-tech innovation, high-tech innovation. Read more on our website.
- Your work can be specific to a region, but must be interesting to a global audience.
What we need from you
- Datasets don’t have to be large, but do need to be relatively clean, i.e. consistently formatted to be readily understandable and straightforward to insert into visualization software. We can help.
- A basic story or narrative inherent in the data. We find this is vital to creating compelling journalism. For example, if your research is on the number of people with higher education emigrating from Africa over 20 years, if the numbers have stayed pretty much the same, it’s difficult to find a story.
- Enthusiasm to work with the media and a clear idea why the story is important to the developing world.
- Research must be in English.
- Individual or team work. Original work, not previously published in mainstream media, although research published in scholarly journals or presented at conferences is welcomed
- Research must be peer-reviewed.
- Research must be applicable to the global South.
- You don’t have to be a senior researcher or widely published, but you do need a new idea with a vision.
- You can live anywhere in the world. There is no need to visit the UK.
What SciDev.Net provides
The editorial, design and digital teams at SciDev.Net will work with you on the process from conception to production. We offer:
- a global platform
- expertise of turning data into good journalism
- support from digital producers and editors
- light media training where required
- visibility
- kudos
- an in-house marketing and social media team to promote your work
Illustrating your data through a media output does not mean you lose control of its accuracy. We have already worked with scientists on their datasets and worked closely with them to ensure accurate reporting. We will discuss ideas and results with you to make sure you are happy with the conclusions.
Working with the media is good training and can benefit your career. The experience should improve your communication skills.
Our most recent project, The Hidden Digital Divide, published in September 2015, has already attracted around 12,000 website views to wide acclaim. The project has been shortlisted in the Information is Beautiful Awards 2015.
How we produced The Hidden Digital Divide:
We wanted to investigate the global digital divide between people who have connectivity and those who don’t, a gap the proliferation of mobile phones was meant to narrow. We used data from the past 30 years showing mobile subscription and internet connectivity and discovered that, while globally more people own mobiles, many more are left offline. As internet penetration improves slowly in the developing world, it is racing ahead in the developed world, meaning poorer countries can never catch up. Our conclusion is that the digital divide is increasing over time rather than narrowing. The case studies tell the stories of some of the people represented by the data.
About SciDev.Net
Our total global audience in 2014 was 78 million. So far in 2015, we have attracted a global audience of around 40 million, or an average quarterly audience of more than 15.5 million. Our content is regularly republished by global media outlets such as the, BBC, Bloomberg, the Guardian, Huffington Post, MSN and Yahoo as well as regional information networks such as AllAfrica, and Asian Scientist, generating a potential global audience of 47 million per month.
Please email your ideas to Lou.delbello@scidev.net as soon as possible and at the latest by 11 December 2015. SciDev.Net will contact the chosen researcher.
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
2nd Edition of 'The Use of the Library and Study Skills' is out! Grab your copy/copies now!
We are glad to announce the publication of the second edition of the library text book - 'The Use of the Library and Study Skills', a publication of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Library, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Sieze this opportunity to learn how to best make use of the library, not only in University of Nigeria, but every other academic library. The book will also enlighten you on 'online resources and web research, copyright policies and intellectual property, citation patterns, etc'. The book is edited by Professor Charles Obiora Omekwu (CLN), Dr. Michael Onuchukwu Okoye (CLN), and Dr. (Mrs) Chinwe Nwogo Ezeani (CLN).
Pages
Popular Posts
-
Mrs Ozioma Eneasoator (Reference Section) This is featuring Mrs Ozioma Eneasator of the Reference Section as she shares a brief informat...
-
Welcome to Nnamdi Azikiwe Library, University of Nigeria Help Desk. Do you need answers to your queries regarding access to any of our re...
-
Click here to view the University of Nigeria Nsukka website This is to inform the University Community that we have new online librarie...
Facebook Page
Library Tweets
Popular Posts
-
On September 1, 2016, the moon will pass in front of the sun, creating a brilliant ring of sunlight visible from Nsukka. When the moon c...
-
Hot seat! Students matching into the CBT centre, after Accreditation. The GSP 111 exam for fresh students was taken on Monday, 2...
-
The University of Nigeria Enugu Campus Library is one of the branch libraries of the main library at Nsukka a.k.a Nnamdi Azikiwe Library. T...
-
The Library Administration recently re-painted the library building as part of the maintenance culture of the University and to keep the re...
-
You can now have access to the inaugural lectures emanating from University of Nigeria, Nsukka , and all other local contents like Theses, ...