Browsing by Author "Coates, Heather L."

Now showing 1 - 10 of 67
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    2016 top trends in academic libraries A review of the trends and issues affecting academic libraries in higher education
    (ACRL, 2016-06) Chabot, Lisabeth; Bivens-Tatum, Wayne; Coates, Heather L.; Kern, M. Kathleen; Leonard, Michelle; Palazzolo, Chris; Tanji, Lorelei; Wang, Minglu; University Library
    Every other year, the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee produces a document on top trends in higher education as they relate to academic librarianship. The 2016 Top Trends report discusses research data services, digital scholarship, collection assessment trends, content provider mergers, evidence of learning, new directions with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy, altmetrics, emerging staff positions, and open educational resources.
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    Academic Historians in Canada Report Both Positive and Negative Attitudes Towards E-books for Teaching and Research
    (2013-12) Coates, Heather L.
    Objective – To understand academic historians’ attitudes towards, and perceptions of, e-books for use in teaching and research. Design – Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews using a grounded theory approach. Subjects – Ten faculty members in departments of history at academic institutions in Southwestern Ontario participated. Methods – Participants were recruited using flyers and email distribution lists. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews lasting 30-60 minutes, between October 2010 and December 2011. After 10 interviews, the authors determined saturation had been reached and ceased recruitment. Interviews were recorded and transcribed for coding. Analysis was conducted using grounded theory procedures incorporating Roger’s Innovation decision model. Main Results – The authors elicited participants' perceptions of e-books without providing a common definition for the concept. Consistent with previous studies, participants were confused about what constituted an e-book, particularly the distinction between e-books and electronic journals and databases. Several comments included illustrate this confusion, indicating the responses collected may represent perceptions of e-resources more generally, rather than e-books in particular. The authors mention that at least one participant who initially responded that they had not used e-books later changed their response as the interview progressed. Unfortunately, the exact number of participants who did so is not reported. Participants reported both negative and positive attitudes towards e-books. Attitudes varied depending on the characteristic discussed. The characteristics identified focused primarily on the delivery mechanism, rather than the content, of e-books. The authors identified four factors each as contributing to positive and negative attitudes. Factors associated with a negative attitude included availability, serendipity, cost, and tradition. These factors stemmed from concerns about changing student research behaviours resulting from the differences between e-books and print books. Factors associated with a positive attitude included convenience, teaching innovations, research practices, and cost benefits. These factors largely reflected benefits to students, such as the ability to access e-books easily (convenience), increased access in general, and the perceived relatively low cost of student e-books. The factor directly benefitting respondents was improved speed and accuracy in their work, enabled by particular technological features. While participants were eager to use e-books in the classroom, there were concerns about implications for research practices. Participants worried that the benefits of browsing and serendipitous discovery would be lost as students chose materials based on convenience rather than other factors, such as quality. Finally, the perceived lack of digitized historical documents available for use as primary sources was also of concern. Conclusions – The authors state that confusion regarding the nature of e-books slows adoption. While participants were exploring ways to incorporate e-books into their norms, values, and research practices, they are unlikely to rely solely on e-books as primary sources. This stems from two perceptions. First, current e-book formats and platforms do not authentically represent all the characteristics of print books. Second, there are insufficient primary sources available as e-books. The validity of these perceptions is not addressed in this article.
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    Altmetrics 101
    (2016-12-08) Coates, Heather L.
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    Autism Spectrum Disorders: Wading through the controversies on the web
    (Taylor & Francis, 2009) Coates, Heather L.
    Autism is one of three developmental disorders in the group known as the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This spectrum of disorders has an estimated prevalence of one in 150 children. Increased awareness and diagnosis has led to an explosion of information available about the disorder. This explosion has made scientific research more readily available, along with inaccurate and spurious information. Autism is a disorder without a known cause or cure and few treatments with sufficient evidence to indicate effectiveness. Due to the variable presentation of autism, there is no single intervention that is effective for all individuals. The complexity of the disorder is addressed by research and practice across several disciplines, including education, psychology, psychiatry, neurology, genetics, and internal medicine. This resource guide will introduce the range of autism spectrum disorders, its various perspectives and treatments, and will point librarians and patrons to introductory resources to provide links for further learning.
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    Big data
    (2015-10-05) Coates, Heather L.
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    Building a community of practice: Situating data management in the transition to electronic lab notebooks
    (2019-05) Coates, Heather L.; Foster, Erin D.; Whipple, Elizabeth C.
    This poster will describe an information management initiative sponsored by the School of Medicine Research Administration. The 4-month pilot involved the rollout of an electronic lab notebook (ELN) system alongside tailored support for developing operational data management plans. Administrative drivers included improving lab efficiency and reducing institutional liability. The pilot primarily focused on the benefits of ELN use and formalizing data management practices. A key goal was to improve the collection of and access to experimental information and improve information management workflows. Integrating data management plan support as part of the ELN pilot contextualizes how the ELN fits into, and can potentially improve, existing lab workflows and highlights the unique information management needs of each research lab.
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    Building data services from the ground up: Strategies and resources
    (Journal of eScience Librarianship, 2014) Coates, Heather L.
    There is a scarcity of practical guidance for developing data services in an academic library. Data services, like many areas of research, require the expertise and resources of teams spanning many disciplines. While library professionals are embedded into the teaching activities of our institutions, fewer of us are embedded in activities occurring across the full research life cycle. The significant challenges of managing, preserving, and sharing data for reuse demand that we take a more active role. Providing support for funder data management plans is just one option in the data services landscape. Awareness of the institutional and library culture in which we operate places an emphasis on the importance of relationships. Understanding the various cultures in which our researchers operate is crucial for delivering data services that are relevant and utilized. The goal of this article is to guide data specialists through this landscape by providing key resources and strategies for developing locally relevant services and by pointing to active communities of librarians and researchers tackling the challenges associated with digital research data.
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    Building the Future of Research Together: Collaborating with a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA)-Funded Translational Science Institute to Provide Data Management Training
    (2014-05-19) Coates, Heather L.
    Objectives: To explore potential collaborations between academic libraries and Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) - funded institutes with respect to data management training and support. Methods: The National Institutes of Health CTSAs have established a well-funded, crucial infrastructure supporting large-scale collaborative biomedical research. This infrastructure is also valuable for smaller, more localized research projects. While infrastructure and corresponding support is often available for large, well-funded projects, these services have generally not been extended to smaller projects. This is a missed opportunity on both accounts. Academic libraries providing data services can leverage CTSA-based resources, while CTSA-funded institutes can extend their reach beyond large biomedical projects to serve the long tail of research data. Results: A year-long series of conversations with the Indiana CTSI Data Management Team resulted in resource sharing, consensus building about key issues in data management, provision of expert feedback on a data management training curriculum, and several avenues for future collaborations. Conclusions: Data management training for graduate students and early career researchers is a vital area of need that would benefit from the combined infrastructure and expertise of translational science institutes and academic libraries. Such partnerships can leverage the instructional, preservation, and access expertise in academic libraries, along with the storage, security, and analytical expertise in translational science institutes to improve the management, protection, and access of valuable research data.
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    Changing the culture of P&T through conversations about research metrics
    (IUPUI University Library, 2019-02-26) Coates, Heather L.
    Since 2012, librarians at the IUPUI University Library have been providing support for faculty use of metrics in dossiers for promotion and tenure. During these consultations to learn about their research, faculty were willing to discuss their values as a scholar, the types of work they feel are most important and valuable, the pressures and expectations of their departments and schools, among other things. The richness of these conversations led us to expand our metrics services beyond provision of data. We developed a proactive strategy to help faculty take charge of their digital profiles and scholarly dissemination, as well as outreach and trainings to engage with campus administrators, associate deans for research, and department chairs, with the goal of promoting responsible use of metrics in the promotion and tenure process. This presentation will describe our approach to consultations, training, and advocacy in developing P&T standards and processes that align with institutional and disciplinary values and promote scholar choice in methodology, product, and dissemination.