Search results

The purpose of this paper is to presents the very recent development of e-journal publishing services at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. In 2011, the J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte created a new unit in the library, the Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL), which partners with faculty and graduate students in the use of digital and networked research tools to create, disseminate and store new knowledge. E-journal publishing and hosting are among the suite of services offered by the DSL, and we currently publish three journals (https://journals.uncc.edu/).

This report provides an overview of the context of our library’s decision to begin publishing journals, including a discussion of our university’s becoming more research-intensive, our university system mandating increased efficiencies and sharing research with the state citizens, and the library’s own goals of raising awareness of and supporting open access. Also outlined are the technical and procedural choices made, important activities undertaken to develop, define and publicize the new services, campus response to the service and next steps.

This report provides detailed accounting of how a large academic library implemented an electronic publishing service to support open access scholarship. Important activities such as marketing communication, policies development and technical/procedural activities are defined and results described. The report provides observation and lessons learned for academic libraries in development and support of electronic journals.

Library as the publisher is a new concept. This report will be of interest to many libraries who are considering offering publishing services and to libraries that currently offer publishing services.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process and work undertaken by the library anthropologist and the Usability Task Force (UTF) for reconfiguring the library's physical and virtual spaces to meet the educational needs and expectations of users, including students, faculty, and community patrons.

Through formal usability studies and ethnographic research, the paper describes the process and work undertaken by the library anthropologist and the UTF.

Through surveys, focus groups observation data were obtained about the current study and web habits of undergraduates and faculty.

This paper presents an ethnographic approach to policy development and implementation to re‐orient the physical and virtual library environments at a large research library. Libraries and library administrators will find value in the policies established and processes outlined for the development of user‐centered learning spaces.

The chapter summarizes and analyzes the use of User Experience (UX) methods applied to four university libraries – two American and two from the United Kingdom, concluding whether the use of the method may be considered a tool to enhance the user’s participation inside the informational spaces. The first section provides a definition of the term UX and its usage at university libraries. The second section introduces the four chosen international university libraries. Its subsections are divided in how the projects applying UX were performed in each school. The final section compiles and analyzes the results regarding the changes made through the usage of the UX methods inside the libraries and briefly mentions the lack of its presence in Brazil.

The aim of this paper is to design and pilot test a culturally tailored intervention that meets the support needs and preferences of two refugee groups.

The study employed a multi‐method participatory research design and was conducted in two urban centres in western and central Canada. Support was delivered to Sudanese and Somali refugees (n=58), by trained peer and professional helpers, in face‐to‐face groups matched by gender and ethnicity and in telephone dyads. Participants completed three quantitative measures before (pre‐test) and following (post‐test) the intervention. Group interviews with refugee participants and individual interviews with peer and professional helpers conducted at post‐test, elicited qualitative data on perceived impacts and factors influencing impacts of the intervention. Service providers and policy influencers (n=22) were interviewed in groups about the implications of this intervention study for services, programs and policies.

There were significant increases in perceived support and social integration and significant decreases in loneliness following the intervention. Participants reported that they learned how to seek services and supports and how to cope with challenges faced by refugees. Service providers and policy influencers were impressed by the success of the intervention.

No peer support intervention studies focused on the unique support needs of African refugees have been reported. This pilot intervention study demonstrates the supportive power of like‐ethnic peers and could guide subsequent community‐based intervention trials and the design of culturally appropriate health‐related programs.