Libraries

For many in the library field, Linked Open Data (LOD) is both a common and an enigmatic phrase. Linked Data has been the topic of many articles, books, conference presentations, and workshops in recent years. The topic, however, is one that many are still working to understand. This article is a brief primer and survey of the current LOD landscape for those who are either new to LOD or wish to reacquaint themselves with LOD. The article will start with a basic introduction to LOD, including some of the standards and formats involved. The second half will describe some of the major LOD projects and efforts in various fields, including libraries, archives, and museums, and provide links to selected resources for those who want to learn more.

About the Miami Stories Oral History Project Coordinated by the University Archives, Miami Stories invites groups of people with common experiences-current and former students, faculty, and staff, as well as friends of the University-to offer recollections of their Miami years and to hear reminiscences of those who shared them. A University Bicentennial legacy project that began in 2005, Miami Stories are recorded and stored in digital video formats so that future generations may enjoy and study them, and scholars may have ready access to a variety of perspectives on Miami's past. The Oral History Project coordinators, Valerie Elliott and Jenny Presnell (University Libraries), work with an advisory committee of Library personnel and Miami faculty, along with the assistance of a program associate. The coordinators oversee the project as well as plan, schedule, and conduct interviews. Throughout the year interview teams conduct story circles with diverse groups. These groups have included the Campus Owls dance band, fraternity members, the Hughes Society of 50-year alumni, Miami Student newspaper staff, the Alumni Band, Black Alumni, Educational Leadership alumni, McGuffey School faculty and alumni, and others. It is possible to conduct more interviews at certain times of the year than others; for example, Reunion Weekend is a campus event would be the only time of the year to reach certain alumni and former Miami faculty and staff. The interviews are conducted in a story circle format. In a story circle, a moderator, typically a current Miami faculty or project staff member facilitates a conversation in which participants discuss their Miami experiences. The number of interviewees range from one to eight per interview. Interviews are videotaped by another staff member. While the interview is in progress or immediately afterward (staff and time permitting) keywords are noted on a cover sheet.

Efforts to establish centralized hubs of information relevant to digital humanities (DH) have proven unsustainable over the long term. Comprehensive hubs are currently being re-designed with a smaller scope and focused curation. However, this smaller scope comes with the risk of decontextualization -- a digital humanities project is best understood through the intersection of its subject matter, methodologies and applications, not all of which are captured by any single site. This poster will trace the development and application of 'TaDiRAH' a shared taxonomy of digital humanities research activities and objects, created for the purpose of bridging the divide between related digital humanities hubs.

Classifying and categorizing the activities that comprise "digital humanities" has been a longstanding area of interest for many practitioners in this field, fueled by ongoing attempts to define digital humanities both within the academy and in the public sphere. The emergence of directories that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries has also spurred interest in categorization, with the practical goal of helping scholars identify, for instance, projects that take a similar technical approach, even if their subject matter is vastly different. This paper tracks the development of TaDiRAH, the Taxonomy of Digital Research Activities in the Humanities developed by representatives from DARIAH, the European cyberinfrastructure initiative, and DiRT, a digital humanities tool directory. TaDiRAH was created specifically to connect people with information on DiRT and in a DARIAHDE bibliography, but with the goal of adoption by other directorylike sites. To ensure that TaDiRAH would be usable by other projects, the developers opened drafts for public feedback, a process which fundamentally altered the structure of the taxonomy and improved it in numerous ways. By actively seeking feedback from the digital humanities community and reviewing data about how the source taxonomies are actually used in order to inform term selection, the development of TaDiRAH provides a model that may benefit other taxonomy efforts.

On top of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was also a year when we witnessed racial injustices and were reminded that we need to focus and practice intentionality more than ever. This article reflects on an intentional plan to diversify the student workers in the Makerspace at Miami University Libraries. We are going to discuss our work in four sections: the need and value for more diverse student workers, the hiring plan and strategies, early examples and indicators of success, and an engagement and retention plan. We have also invited three of the students to share and reflect on their experiences and how working in the Makerspace has been beneficial to them both personally and professionally.

Through statewide cooperative programs, Ohio academic librarians have found themselves taking on new support roles not traditionally associated with the library. With OhioLINK's centrally managed electronic thesis and dissertations (ETD) center, librarians have taken on new roles. The presenters will examine their role in supporting the implementation and maintenance of the ETD center at Miami University and The University of Toledo. Learn about the cultural changes involved in moving from paper to electronic theses and dissertations. Discover new roles for librarians as facilitators of change, even outside the library.

Q methodology was used to determine attitudes and opinions about e-books among a group of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates at Miami University of Ohio. Oral interviews formed the basis for a collection of opinion statements concerning e-books versus print. These statements were then ranked by a second group of research participants. Factor analysis of these rankings found four distinct factors that reveal clusters of opinions on e-books: Book Lovers, Technophiles, Pragmatists, and Printers. Two of the four factors take a more ideological approach in their understanding of e-books: Book Lovers have an emotional attachment to the printed book as an object, while Technophiles feel just as strongly about technology. In contrast, the other two factors are more utilitarian: Printers might find e-books more palatable if usability were improved, while Pragmatists are comfortable with both print and e-book formats.

We are swimming in a sea of data. Librarians often contribute to this by counting every possible patron interaction in an attempt to both define their current situation and to predict future staffing, budgetary, and collection needs. This investigation assessed the effectiveness of using various data sources in predicting future library activity and needs. The authors collected data on in-person and chat reference transactions, electronic journal downloads, database queries, and catalog searches from 2009-2012. By analyzing these data points, the authors hypothesized they would find correlations that might be predictive of changes in related library services. Results indicated that the strongest correlations track activity over the course of the academic calendar. While none of the data points examined had strongly predictive properties, the strong correlations between the data points themselves over the period of time studied indicated that any one of them might serve as a stand-alone indicator of usage.

Q-methodology was used to identify clusters of opinions about e-books at Miami University. The research identified four distinct opinion types among those investigated: Book Lovers, Technophiles, Pragmatists, and Printers. The initial Q-methodology study results were then used as a basis for a large-n survey of undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty so that we could have a more complete picture of the demographic and social makeup of the campus population. Results from that survey indicate that academic discipline is strongly associated with the respondents’ opinion types. Gender and educational status are also associated with respondents’ opinion types.

Introduction Open access—literature that is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions1—is one of the most promising strategies for academic libraries and universities continuing the transition from print to digital. The adoption of open access may be inevitable in the long-term, however open access initiatives—and how nuances of open access impact a discipline or an academic department—can still be points of controversy, debate, or confusion on many campuses. Some universities have successfully passed open access policies, yet simply establishing and maintaining productive cross-campus conversations about open access challenge other universities. As we further strategized about implementing open access initiatives on Miami University’s Oxford (Ohio) campus, we encountered anecdotal evidence of faculty acceptance, interest, confusion, and resistance. Motivated by a need to better understand our community, we decided to examine our facultie...

Introduction E-books are gaining an increasing footprint in the collections of academic libraries. In 2007–2008, our research team conducted a study using Q-methodology to identify clusters of opinions about e-books among the population of library users at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Q-methodology is designed to identify and isolate opinion types on a given subject. The research identified four distinct factor types among those surveyed, which we labeled Book Lovers, Technophiles, Pragmatists, and Printers. Briefly, Book Lovers have an inherent affinity for the print form, while Technophiles are primarily interested in the possibilities of new technology as regards the book. Pragmatists are the most neutral of the four types isolated, as they are most interested in content and may see pros and cons to both formats. Printers prefer print books but are distinguished from Book Lovers in that they have specific difficulties with usability of e-books. However, Q-methodology preclud...