Musings of an Academic Librarian

I wrote this as part of my application for my professional registration in 2018. Understanding and applying BOK's (Bodies of Knowledge) for my professional registration application from 2018 BOK 1 With the growth of the Internet, an increasing number of resources such as journal articles have become available online.    This raises issues for libraries and their users around copyright.      In response to queries from lecturers at New Zealand Tertiary College (NZTC) about using copyright material, I consulted copyright experts in the library field.  In some instances, I asked publishers whether the college could use their journal articles in course readings. Read Tony Millett’s guide and read the conditions of the college’s CLNZ license and discussed it with the General Manager.  Drew up copyright guidelines for NZTC staff and circulated them.  Made a copyright Q and A with questions staff have asked and uploaded it t...

The following are various projects and ideas I had for the library that never took off, for one reason or another. GOBI (collection development tool) Met an EBSCO rep about this.  It sounded great but didn't seem like the library was big enough to need it.  And it would mean not needing Academy Books anymore as a supplier and they have always looked after us well. Library Link app Spent a lot of time getting the app up and running on my phone and changing the settings so it was suitable for the students to use.  It would have made it easier for students to keep track of when their books were due and do renewals. Spine label printer Lookeded at pricing for these - very expensive.  I would have argued for one when I started the job but didn't think about it till later and now that I've redone so many labels by hand (and quite neatly too), there seemed to point in asking for one. EBSCO Discovery Service (all inclusive search solution) Talked to ...

I wrote this in April 2019 for an NZQA monitor who was visitng us to read.  It  describes quite well what I do. NZTC Library Support for Students and Staff NZTC Library provides information resources and support services to all students as well as academic staff.   Another objective of the library is to advance scholarship by ensuring the collection remains current and by providing access to the best available resources. General student support The library supports the learning needs of students by: ·          Providing library tours and orientations ·          Delivering tutorials on using NZTC Library, research databases and eBooks ·          Maintaining online guides to using the resources and library services ·          Helping students to conduct effective searches in EBSCO · ...

Comment from a colleague from Staff Heart Week, August 2019 Sent: Wednesday, 10 April 2019 Hi Angus, I am Eunice an Online student from Africa, I have completed my course successfully. I am grateful that you were very supportive  while providing me with all the books that I needed for this course  without any hesitation. Thank you so much Regards Eunice Wed 18 Dec 19  Hi NZTC , My subject to this message wraps the actual content that I actually have no words to express my gratitude towards all you fine people. I wish all of you a mesmerising, action and fun-packed Christmas and New Year 2020'. Studying at NZTC, being associated with this college for more than six months now, has been a source of immense pleasure. ... I also would like to thank Angus , who was all supportive with me during my pre-assessment long library usages...

This was a very surprising find on Trademe.  It was listed by a charity shop in Christchurch.  I narrowly won the auction after setting an auto-bid of $250.  What I like about it are the thick, hand-cut pages.  It is number 19 of a limited edition of 250 copies and is signed by the author, Paul Gallico.  As a child I read his book "The Snow Goose." The Whittington Press was started by my mother's cousin, John Randle in 1971 in the Cotswolds, England.  The books are printed on presses dating from the 19th century.  They are bought by collectors and libraries and Auckland Libraries have more than 30 of them in the special collections.  I have met John and visited the press on two occasions. 

Herbert Randle (1880-1973), my mother's grandfather, was a professor of philosophy, author and librarian and has a brief entry in Wikipedia .  One of his books, Fragments from Dinnaga , is available in Google Books.   His son, John Niel Randle, won the VC posthumously in WWII and also has a Wikipedia page and is mentioned in various books on the VC which I personally own.

This word cloud shows the current top search terms in EBSCOhost.  The most popular search is "child development."  I'm assuming that students are looking for an online version of Laura Berk's "Child Development."  Unfortunately this book has never been made available electronically (it's a large, illustration heavy book and doesn't suit that format).  The next top search is "early childhood education," a very broad search.  I'm not sure what exactly students are hoping to find?  Then there's "teaching techniques for young children," this is a very popular book that has unfortunately not been released as an eBook.  Students need to go to the library catalogue to find the hard copy of it.  "Beginnings and Beyond" is yet another book that is print only.  I'm not sure why students are looking up "te whariki curriculum." They are given a free copy of it and it is also available online.  "Action r...

I became aware of author mills or vanity publishers during my first secondment as a liaison librarian at AUT.  Author mills spam academics asking for the rights to publish their research using print on demand technology and sell them for exorbitant prices.  They also sell poorly produced books that are in the public domain and can be accessed in multiple formats in the the Gutenberg Project. One example is LAP of which VDM Verlag is a subsidiary. I discovered that we had some shoddy looking books published by VDM on the shelves, even one of their Wikipedia books which are just a collection of Wikipedia articles on a particular topic.  I made sure that book was weeded!  I became fascinated with this shady world of academic publishing.  I read blog posts about VDM.  I looked on Amazon for them where there were thousands of their books on the most obscure subjects.  I even chastised one of our suppliers for listing them for sale on their website.  ...

It's still very easy to find dirty data in Google Scholar since they don't rely on data from publishers or library catalogue records for indexing, instead it's done automatically.  For example go to advanced search and do an author search for "author."  Lot of articles by A Author will come up like the example below. Do a search for "book title" and there are even more random results.

I get the impression that Google doesn't want to promote Google Scholar (GS).  For example, there's no link on Google Search to GS which I find very inconvenient.  There used to be a long time ago, why did they remove it?  GS is not in Google Apps on the Google Search homepage, yet everything else is there like Google Books, Earth and Blogger, even Plus is still there.  Also GS has no presence on Twitter so there's no news about updates and so on, yet there's a handle for Google Analytics and Google AI.  Also the GS homepage has not changed for a long time, unlike Google Search where, for example there is now an option for searching in Maori.  At least advanced search is easier to find in GS, it used to be hidden.

In the academic database Taylor and Francis Online there are both "free" and open access (OA) articles.  What is the difference I wondered?  Free articles are works that the publisher has made freely available - the PDF of the article is not behind a paywall.  However permission is required from T&F to photocopy or republish the article.  With OA articles, T&F says "you are free to share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format," as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author.  To put it simply, OA articles are like "free" articles but with less restrictions.

Back in May 2015 I made a YouTube video on APA 6th.  I have no idea why.  It me took quite some time to make it, particularly with learning how to add a voice-over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J745a8_1PNc&feature=emb_logo

From a lecturer: The topic of values came up so to illustrate I asked what NZTC ones were.  They (the students) mentioned Heart so I asked who at NZTC had shown them heart (being that values get lived, and are not just posters on the walls).  They immediately said the Librarian in how he found resources for them and showed them how to find others also.  Nice one Angus.  Thanks for supporting our students J

Theses 2 photos illustrate the improvements I made to the shelving.  The top photo shows the purple shelf ends I added for displaying new books.  (Purple is one of the college colours).  I also made the shelves higher by adding "extenders" to the top of each shelf.  The photo below shows the sloping shelves I purchased for the children's collection which made the books more visible and easier to browse and that has lead to increased circulation this year.

It was recognition for the initiative I have displayed this year, including: Organizing database trials and then making a proposal for Informit which was accepted Selecting many new books for the library and developing areas of the collection. My suggestion about having the college's theses made available at DigitalNZ and then arranging that Ideas I've had to promote the library's resources, such as adding a link (with an embedded login) to the EBSCO eBooks collection on the NZTC learning platform My enthusiasm for helping students in the library and "getting books into their hands" was also noted.

100 EBSCO eBook milestone for NZTC Posted Mon 13 Feb 17 11:09 am New Zealand Tertiary College’s eBook collection via the EBSCO database has clocked triple digits. Since the addition of new titles in 2016, the College’s collection has passed the 100 mark with its range expanded to add variety and the most up-to-date titles. Young Children in a Digital Age: Supporting Learning  and  Development with Technology in Early Years  and  Childhoods: Growing up in Aotearoa New Zealand  are just two of the titles that have been added to the EBSCO collection. “The advantage of eBooks over print books is that students can access them from a digital device like a smartphone from anywhere and at any time. They don’t need to be borrowed and then returned like physical books so there’s no chance of getting an overdue fine,” said NZTC Librarian Angus Johnston. Another advantage of a digital book is the ability to do a keyword search to find relevant information and ...

I was looking at another small library's website the other day and the catalogue was referred to as the OPAC.  I never use the term when I'm talking to library users, I can't even recall what the acronym stands for.  I'll have to look it up...online public access catalogue.  It's quite a dated term and how would a student know what it means? The same goes for calling the online library at the college Liberty Library (Liberty is the library management system that we use).  For a long time I used the term in my library talks, etc. but then I realised that Liberty library means nothing to students and I have stopped referring to it as such.  I suggested to management that the name be changed on the learning platform from Liberty Library to something else and I was pleased when it was changed to NZTC Library or otherwise the library catalogue.

I have always become anxious when students ask me to help them find articles in a database on a certain topic.  I'm much more at ease when I get asked if the library has a certain book, then it is a simple yes/no answer.  Searching databases effectively is hard.  I have had a lot of practice at it but what I have realized is that I don't make it easy for myself.  For example, when I'm with people, I rush.  I want a quick answer.  Part of me just wants to quickly get rid of the person, another part of me really wants to help. This week a student asked me that she wanted to search articles for references in EBSCO on "adult-run teaching models."  I knew straight away with such vague sounding terms this was not going to be a good search.  I asked the student the right questions like, what do you need this information for?  And what exactly do you mean by "adult-run teaching models?"  Her answers were not very clear so I went and asked one ...

In October of last year (2017), new improved shelving was installed for the children's picture books.  Previously the children's books were shelved at the back of the library.  I moved them as well as the puzzles and games to the front of the library and with the new sloping shelves they have become much more visible to borrowers as they walk into the library.  What I am not surprised to find is that circulation has increased dramatically this year, in particular with the Maori myth and legend picture books.  And forgotten about resources like the jigsaw puzzles are being borrowed again.  Here is a sample of items with their borrowing history over the past 2 years Resource 2016 2017 2018 We're going on a bear hunt 0 2 5 Pania of the Reef 0 0 8 Paikea 0 0 4 The Fish of Maui 2 5 15 How Maui Found his Father and the Magic Jawbone 0 3 7 How Maui F...