A Systematic Review of Financial Literacy as a Termed Concept: More Questions Than Answers

Financial literacy, as a concept by that name, has only been explored in library science literature for a little over a decade. The concept, and especially the role of libraries in furthering this literacy, is still evolving. This systematic literature review examines the current definition of financial literacy, why financial literacy matters, where the public has been accessing financial literacy education to date, the difficulties encountered, by libraries and others, in providing this education, and how these challenges might be addressed moving forward.     

Kicking the Tires: A Usability Study of the Primo Discovery Tool

Discovery tools offer users a powerful way of searching library holdings as well as external databases and indexes. They are becoming an increasingly common part of the library user experience, and research on the usability of such tools is expanding. In 2012, a mid-sized academic research library implemented Primo Discovery and Delivery by Ex Libris and conducted a diagnostic usability test to investigate how the tool is used without instruction, to discover patterns in searching behavior, and to uncover how compatible Primo is with user search behavior. This article will describe the design and implementation of the usability study. Despite some design flaws, users adapt to the tool over time and can perform effective searches. This article also provides recommendations for future usability studies in specific targeted areas where problems were detected.     

Leading the Way for Financial Literacy Education: A Case Study on Collaboration

Academic libraries have been involved in financial literacy education, and this will likely increase in the future. This article demonstrates how the author, a business and economics librarian, led the way at her institution to bring financial literacy to the campus by participating in the national Money Smart Week (MSW) program sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She formed a planning committee that included individuals from several campus units. This team organized, planned, and delivered 11 events during MSW. The author also discusses survey results and the instrument that was used to gather data from MSW attendees.     

“Once a Foster Child … ”: Identity Construction in Former Foster Children's Narratives

The present study is a thematic narrative analysis (Riessman, 2008 Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. [Google Scholar]) of 17 former foster children's online stories. The author explores the question, “What identities are constructed in narrative tellings about one's foster child experience?” Three pervasive, non-exclusive identities emerged from the former foster children's narratives: victim, survivor, and victor. These identity constructions are discussed in relation to redemptive tellings, wellbeing, and the foster care system.     

The End of Framing as we Know it … and the Future of Media Effects

Framing has become one of the most popular areas of research for scholars in communication and a wide variety of other disciplines, such as psychology, behavioral economics, political science, and sociology. Particularly in the communication discipline, however, ambiguities surrounding how we conceptualize and therefore operationalize framing have begun to overlap with other media effects models to a point that is dysfunctional. This article provides an in-depth examination of framing and positions the theory in the context of recent evolutions in media effects research. We begin by arguing for changes in how communication scholars approach framing as a theoretical construct. We urge scholars to abandon the general term “framing” altogether and instead distinguish between different types of framing. We also propose that, as a field, we refocus attention on the concept's original theoretical foundations and, more important, the potential empirical contributions that the concept can make to our field and our understanding of media effects. Finally, we discuss framing as a bridge between paradigms as we shift from an era of mass communication to one of echo chambers, tailored information and microtargeting in the new media environment.     

What if the Library … Engaging Users to Become Partners in Positive Change and Improve Services in an Academic Library

Participatory and anthropological studies have blended with library customer service design and feedback practices as ways to engage users in deeper and more meaningful conversations about their needs. Formal user studies can be cumbersome, expensive, and time consuming however. Sometimes asking a simple question will work just as effectively in uncovering user needs as other types of approaches. Taking this concept and applying it to the Oklahoma State University Library community resulted in a library-wide study in 2015. Researchers started with a simple question, “What if the library?,” and through interviews, online surveys, and a sticky-note wall, they found out the answer.     

“Yes,We Have an Anti-bullying Policy,But … :” HR Professionals' Understandings and Experiences with Workplace Bullying Policy

Although human resource (HR) professionals have extensive involvement in workplace bullying situations, research is not reflective of their perspective. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the use of anti-bullying policy in organizations. Interviews with 36 HR professionals and analysis of 18 organizational policies revealed many HR professionals believed their organizations had policies that addressed bullying, but the policies did not use the term “bullying.” Others did not believe their organizations had policies that could address bullying or did not know if their organization had a policy. What the HR professionals felt the policies communicated and what the policies actually detailed proved to be divergent. Implications of these findings, limitations, and future research are discussed.     

“If They're Trying to Say Something About My Culture … I'm Confused”: Recognizing and Resisting Authenticity in Latino-Themed Television

The television landscape has expanded to include an ever-increasing crop of culturally themed programs aimed at the Latina/o audience. Assumptions about the audience have shaped this trend, resulting in questions about the effectiveness of niche programming to satisfy viewer taste. This project investigates LatiNation with specific focus on the differences in the reception process based on participants' connection to their ethnic identity. In-depth interviews were conducted with self-identified Latina/o students who were also given a survey with scaled items to measure their connection to their ethnic identity. In general, the findings indicate that audience members produce varied readings of the text showing the participants actively negotiate identity by using LatiNation as an opportunity to both embrace and critique Latinidad.     

Discovery,Management, and Preservation of Geospatial Data Using Hydra

As a growing number of disciplines adopt geospatial technologies in their research, the need for access to geospatial data, in a variety of formats, has grown dramatically. For librarians to meet this demand, we also need to provide preservation, curation, metadata, and discovery services. GeoHydra, our open source toolkit and set of practices, provides these services for Stanford's libraries. We incorporate a variety of geospatial content types from raster imagery to scientific vector data to georeferenced scanned maps, and provide a data model for repositories. We demonstrate the potential of a new architecture and practice for librarianship for geospatial data using the Hydra framework. The digitization and georeferencing of historic map collections, streamlining the acquisition and cataloging of vendor-supplied data, shared cataloging of geographic resources, and citation of geospatial research data are all examples of use cases that GeoHydra serves. Our metadata creation and management strategies implement the ISO (International Standards Organization) suite of geographic standards, and a specialized metadata schema for discovery. We developed XSLT transformations, auto-generation of core elements, unique URIs for place names, and cross-institutional data sharing. With these metadata we built a novel geoportal, EarthWorks, to provide end-user discovery for geospatial data layers using GeoBlacklight technology.     

The Frankfurt Book Fair: 60 Years and Still a Shining Example

The former Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair presents a concise history of what today is the largest international book fair including the key publishers, booksellers and authors who are part of the amazing global event. The interesting initial development and challenges of post World War II and related relocated German publishers are described. The initial efforts as a national book fair from 1949 to the present international event are traced. The turmoil and confrontation of political groups during the 1968 and subsequent years with actions taken was a difficult period for the fair but it survived to grow into a global event.     

Growth and nature of international LIS research: An analysis of two journals

The study explores the publication trends of scholarly journal articles in two core Library and Information Science (LIS) journals indexed under ScienceDirect Database during the period for the period 2000–2010, and for the “Top 25 Hottest Papers” for 2006–2010. It examines and presents an analysis of 1000 research papers in the area of LIS published in two journals: The International Information & Library Review (IILR) and Library & Information Science Research (LISR). The study examines the content of the journals, including growth of the literature, authorship patterns, geographical distributions of authors, distribution of papers by journal, citation pattern, ranking pattern, length of articles, and most cited authors. Collaboration was calculated using Subramanyam's formula, and Lotka's law was used to identify authors' productivity. The results indicated that authors' distributions did not follow Lotka's law. The study identified the eight most productive authors with a high of 19 publications in this field. The findings indicate that these publications experienced rapid and exponential growth in literature production. The contributions by scientists from India are examined.     

‘The Age of Discontent’: Greek Publishing Through Six Years of Austerity

The effects of the 2010–2015 economic recession on the Greek publishing market have been dramatic, by all means, affecting its structure, operation, quantity and quality features. What is interesting to investigate, thereof, is the response of the publishing environment to the economic downturn in the form of resilience, adaptation, innovation and change within the industry. While the ‘crisis’ has had more severe consequences for the firms at the top, connected often (but not always) to media groups, the experienced, specialized small to medium publishers and booksellers proved to be more resilient, sustaining a vibrant and diversified production within a fewer number of books published. New book titles were reduced by 35% between 2008 and 2012, with signs of further containment following to that. At the same time, a number of small, independent booksellers have sprung up, out of the need to support the distinct quality features of literary production, based on the ‘personal quality’ service model. An approximate 8% of the Greeks can be ranked among the ‘medium to systematic’ readers (i.e. reading over 10 books a year); they are the ones to support the volume and diversity of book title production, including some of the bestsellers, while the outbreak of the crisis concurred with a positive development towards the weaker strand of the readership. The international interest in the economic circumstances met in Greece has helped, to some extent, the export of rights of literary works either dealing with the individuals affected, or analyzing the reasons of the default. At the same time, digital innovation may prove to be a sign of a changing book publishing industry, striving to become international.     

Maps & GIS Data Libraries in the Era of Big Data and Cloud Computing

In upcoming years, two major changes in the computing landscape will reshape how map and GIS data libraries (MGDLs) will be required to perform their core functions in the future. These advancements—cloud computing and the “Big Data era”—offer opportunities and challenges for libraries, but most dramatically changes. Commercial cloud computing solutions are available as on-demand service; low-cost, internal private clouds are now a financial possibility. Simultaneously, Geographic Information Science (GISci) data and services have advanced at an ever-increasing pace into the “Big Data,” swelling the types and amounts of GIS data and services available. These two shifts have and will impact the entire GIS world and MGDLs, in response, and will now be required to collect, curate, and make available more data and services than ever. The MGDL community must be prepared to respond and react in order to remain effective. This article explores the evolving landscapes within which MGDLs must operate and examines how their roles and operational organization will be impacted. The hope of the authors is that such analyses will spark community-driven discussion to motivate the next major phase of research and implementation in the world of MGDLs.