Identifying and Troubleshooting Link-Resolution Issues with ILL Data

Troubleshooting when a link resolver goes wrong can be difficult as it usually relies on the user to report the problem. Using data on interlibrary loan requests that have been cancelled because the materials are available online is one way that libraries can examine where link resolvers may be failing. For the 2012/2013 school year, the Samford University Library looked at this cancelled interlibrary loan request data to determine where their new link resolver and knowledgebase needed further customization to improve the user experience. This process not only identified a number of problems all along the link resolution chain, but it also put in place an ongoing process for identifying and troubleshooting link resolution issues in the future.     

Nonprofit Management & Leadership

Abstract

During 2008, the Hilton M. Briggs Library, South Dakota State University, successfully migrated its holdings from EBSCO A-Z® locator tool to SFX® link resolver, an Ex Libris product. This project presented itself as an opportunity to identify and solve issues relating to hidden titles after the migration. These hidden titles were a major source of frustration in testing and maintaining the SFX system. Eight main contributing factors were identified and solutions were developed. These solutions should be instructive when problem solving in similar projects.     

The 5K Run Toolkit: A Quick,Painless, and Thoughtful Approach to Managing Print Journal Backruns

Increasingly, academic libraries are choosing to discard or place in storage print journals that are now available online. The identification of these titles and related collection analysis activities are often time-intensive. The approach at the University of Saskatchewan Library was to develop an online toolkit that combined available data from disparate sources including the integrated library system, SFX link resolver, and OCLC's WorldCat and then present them in a collaborative open source environment. This paper demonstrates how the careful combination of existing data presented in a simple online format allowed subject specialists to make accurate print journal deselection decisions quickly and painlessly.     

The 5K Run Toolkit: A Quick,Painless, and Thoughtful Approach to Managing Print Journal Backruns

Abstract

Increasingly, academic libraries are choosing to discard or place in storage print journals that are now available online. The identification of these titles and related collection analysis activities are often time-intensive. The approach at the University of Saskatchewan Library was to develop an online toolkit that combined available data from disparate sources including the integrated library system, SFX link resolver, and OCLC's WorldCat and then present them in a collaborative open source environment. This paper demonstrates how the careful combination of existing data presented in a simple online format allowed subject specialists to make accurate print journal deselection decisions quickly and painlessly.     

Determining Usage When Vendors Do Not Provide Data

ABSTRACT

When library resource vendors do not provide usage data in consistent, manipulable formats, librarians must find other means to enable themselves to make data-driven collection development decisions. At Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) Libraries, two different approaches have been implemented: OpenURL link resolver analysis and EZproxy log analysis using grep, a GNU open source command-line utility. This column provides an overview of each solution.     

Improving OpenURL Menus: User Testing of Revisions to SFX® Menus

Twenty-one volunteers tested the usability of revisions to the Texas A&M University Libraries' SFX® OpenURL link resolver menus, including the addition of Ex Libris' new bX™ recommendation service and a plug-in which pulls additional information about the journal into the menu. The volunteers also evaluated the quality and desirability of the bX recommendations and discussed their preferences for help options and full-text format. Results of the usability testing are reported along with the resultant menu changes. This study will be of interest to librarians implementing or redesigning OpenURL menus as well as those interested in the user experience.     

Improving OpenURL Menus: User Testing of Revisions to SFX® Menus

Abstract

Twenty-one volunteers tested the usability of revisions to the Texas A&M University Libraries' SFX® OpenURL link resolver menus, including the addition of Ex Libris' new bXâ?¢ recommendation service and a plug-in which pulls additional information about the journal into the menu. The volunteers also evaluated the quality and desirability of the bX recommendations and discussed their preferences for help options and full-text format. Results of the usability testing are reported along with the resultant menu changes. This study will be of interest to librarians implementing or redesigning OpenURL menus as well as those interested in the user experience.     

Managing a Comprehensive Cost-per-Use Project in a Large Academic Library

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a study to evaluate title-level cost per use (CPU) for most recurring resources at The University of Alabama Libraries. The study relied on cost and usage data from FY2016. The purpose of the project was to identify titles for cancellation and to establish CPU for most titles ordered individually and those within packages for use in future contract negotiations. The analysis began with a list of all recurring titles having a cost of $1,000 or more. The review involved 1,035 titles with an initial objective to highlight all titles with a CPU of $200 or more. Titles exceeding this CPU threshold received additional review, with several identified for cancellation. This article presents the findings and provides an overview of the process used to collect CPU on a large scale. The article outlines some of the challenges faced by libraries when trying to align data that are stored in various silos and the limitations for various platforms and software used when collecting CPU data. The findings from this study formed the basis for a LibGuide developed and used to raise awareness of the need for cancellations. The data also assisted with future contract negotiations.     

媒体报道、会计信息透明度与管理者在职消费行为关系研究

利用387家沪深A股上市公司2011至2014年的相关数据,基于回归分析,考察了媒体报道对上市公司管理者在职消费行为与会计信息透明度之间的调节作用。研究发现,管理者在职消费行为与会计信息透明度呈显著负相关,媒体报道能够抑制该负相关关系。同时,随着正面报道与负面报道的增加,管理者在职消费行为和会计信息透明度的负相关关系将会减弱,即正面报道与负面报道的外部监督效果显著。这说明媒体报道可以约束管理者在职消费行为,对提高中国上市公司的会计信息透明度起到非正式外部监督的作用。     

Out of Work,Out of Mind: Response Errors in Retrospective Reports of Unemployment

This article examines several aspects of the validity of retrospective reports of unemployment, obtained by a comparison of respondent reports with company records for a sample of workers from a large manufacturing firm. We find that reports of the total amount of unemployment in the calendar year prior to the interview are reasonably accurate, but reports of the timing of spells of unemployment within the year are much less accurate. Estimates of a regression model relating response error to measures of respondent characteristics, the length of the recall period, the difficulty of the reporting task, and the likely salience of the events show that the salience measures are clearly the most important and that time and demographic factors are relatively unimportant predictors of response error.     

The effects of covariate adjustment in generalized linear models

Results from classical linear regression regarding the effects of covariate adjustment, with respect to the issues of confounding, the precision with which an exposure effect can be estimated, and the efficiency of hypothesis tests for no treatment effect in randomized experiments, are often assumed to apply more generally to other types of regression models. In this paper results pertaining to several generalized linear models involving a dichotomous response variable are given, demonstrating that with respect to the issues of confounding and precision, for models having a linear or log link function the results of classical linear regression do generally apply, whereas for other models, including those having a logit, probit, log-log, complementary log-log, or generalized logistic link function, the results of classical linear regression do not always apply. It is also shown, however, that for any link function, covariate adjustment results in improved efficiency of hypothesis tests for no treatment effect in randomized experiments, and hence that the classical linear regression results regarding efficiency do apply for all models having a dichotomous response variable.     

Scale estimators for symmetric stable distributions

This paper reports on a simulation comparison of scale estimators for symmetric stable distributions in terms of their ability to identify the population with the greater scale. The modified geometric mean is found to be superior to the sample standard deviation and the Fama-Roll estimator for the larger values of the characteristic exponent, while the Fama-Roll estimator is judged superior for the smaller values. Further, this study sheds some light on the question of the appropriate sample size for discriminating risk measurement in investment analysis when the samples are taken from symmetric stable distributions.     

Characteristics of Serial Title Changes and Recognition of New Serial Works: Theoretical and Practical Implications

The paper reports findings from a study to identify characteristics of serials with title changes and then make recommendations for recognizing new works for these serials. Findings show title changes occur due to underlying subject, function, corporate, geographic, frequency, or format changes, with 80.8% of the changes being subject or function changes. It is recommended that reasons for title changes be determined from clear statements in text or elsewhere, and that new works be recognized based upon the requirements of a definition of a work. With the FRBR definition, a new work would be recognized only for a significant subject or function change.     

Bayesian nonparametric modelling of the link function in the single-index model using a Bernstein–Dirichlet process prior

This paper proposes the use of the Bernstein–Dirichlet process prior for a new nonparametric approach to estimating the link function in the single-index model (SIM). The Bernstein–Dirichlet process prior has so far mainly been used for nonparametric density estimation. Here we modify this approach to allow for an approximation of the unknown link function. Instead of the usual Gaussian distribution, the error term is assumed to be asymmetric Laplace distributed which increases the flexibility and robustness of the SIM. To automatically identify truly active predictors, spike-and-slab priors are used for Bayesian variable selection. Posterior computations are performed via a Metropolis-Hastings-within-Gibbs sampler using a truncation-based algorithm for stick-breaking priors. We compare the efficiency of the proposed approach with well-established techniques in an extensive simulation study and illustrate its practical performance by an application to nonparametric modelling of the power consumption in a sewage treatment plant.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

This quarter's column features a report from Electronic Resources and Libraries held March 16–19, 2014, in Austin, TX; another from Potomac Technical Processing Librarians (PTPL) held in Annapolis, MD, on October 17, 2014; and several reports from ALA Midwinter held January 30–February 3, 2015, in Chicago, IL. By necessity, these reports are not exhaustive in covering the respective conferences.     

Model checks for Cox-type regression models based on optimally weighted martingale residuals

We introduce directed goodness-of-fit tests for Cox-type regression models in survival analysis. “Directed” means that one may choose against which alternatives the tests are particularly powerful. The tests are based on sums of weighted martingale residuals and their asymptotic distributions. We derive optimal tests against certain competing models which include Cox-type regression models with different covariates and/or a different link function. We report results from several simulation studies and apply our test to a real dataset.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

This quarter's column features a report from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference, held March 25–28, 2015, in Portland, OR; a couple of reports from the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians (OVGTSL) Conference, held May 18–20 in Terre Haute, IN; one report from NASIG, held May 27–30 in Washington, DC; and several reports from the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, held June 25–30 in San Francisco, CA. Topics discussed range from scholarly publishing, copyright and authors’ rights—including as they relate to zines—privacy and analytics, and linked data.     

Making Usage Data Meaningful

This article reports the findings of a study of licensed database usage among libraries in the NC LIVE consortium. Researchers developed North Carolina-based library peer groups in order to build context for libraries’ usage data reports and to identify benchmarks and trends across those libraries that are top performers within each group. Additionally, researchers examined the use of selected databases across multiple library types to determine whether certain library characteristics or activities are related to database use. Researchers found that a number of library characteristics and activities predict database use, but the results vary depending upon the type of library and the database studied.