Browsing by Author "Rossmann, Doralyn"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 25

All Aboard! The Party's Starting: Setting a Course for Social Media Success
(2013-08) Hansen, Mary Anne; Rossmann, Doralyn; Tate, Angela; Young, Scott W. H.
Social media is more than a way to inform users; social media is a powerful way to build community online. In this webinar hosted by the Library and Information Technology Association, presenters from Montana State University Library will go beyond the basics by demonstrating how to create a social media guide for developing communities on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest. We will explore data tracking and assessment tools such as ThinkUp, HootSuite, Google Analytics, focus group data, and survey methods. We will also discuss strategies for integrating social media efforts into your organization’s strategic plan and educating peer organizations about best practices.
Assessing and Improving Library Technology with Service Blueprinting
(2018-07) Young, Scott W. H.; Mannheimer, Sara; Rossmann, Doralyn; Swedman, David; Shanks, Justin D.
Objective: The objective of this article is to illustrate the application of service blueprinting—a design tool that comes from the service design tradition—for assessing and improving library technology services. Setting: A mid-sized library at a public university in the western United States. Methods: A service blueprint was co-created by library and IT staff in a design workshop in order to map the operational flow of a data visualization display wall. Results: Guided by the service blueprint, the project team identified points of improvement for the service of the data visualization display wall, and developed recommendations to aid further applications of service blueprinting. Conclusions: Ultimately, service blueprinting was found to be a useful tool that can be applied to assess and improve library technology services.
An Assessment of the Relationships Between Resource Development Decisions, Library Collection Usage, and User Perceptions
(Taylor & Francis, 2013-08) Rossmann, Doralyn
Today’s managers of library journal collection budgets experience pressures from shrinking resource allocations and rising costs. Consequently, they seek ways to assess the value of their collections in relation to user needs. This study at a University seeks to understand what resources users (both faculty and graduate student) are citing in their research, the breadth of the information cited that is provided by the library, how the library’s proactive and reactive efforts might influence user satisfaction with the information resources provided, and how user perceptions align and differ from information realities. It takes a unique approach by comparing LibQual survey results and faculty and graduate student citation behaviors.
“Broad” Impact: Perceptions of Sex/Gender-Related Psychology Journals
(Frontiers Media SA, 2022-03-03) Brown, Elizabeth R.; Smith, Jessi L.; Rossmann, Doralyn
Because men are overrepresented within positions of power, men are perceived as the default in academia (androcentrism). Androcentric bias emerges whereby research by men and/or dominated by men is perceived as higher quality and gains more attention. We examined if these androcentric biases materialize within fields that study bias (psychology). How do individuals in close contact with psychology view psychology research outlets (i.e., journals) with titles including the words women, gender, sex, or feminism (sex/gender-related) or contain the words men or masculinity (men-related; Study 1) versus psychology journals that publish other-specialized research, and do these perceptions differ in the general public? While the men-related journal was less meritorious than its other-specialty journal, evidence emerged supporting androcentric bias such that the men-related journal was more favorable than the other sex/gender-related journals (Study 1). Further, undergraduate men taking psychology classes rated sex/gender-related versus other-specialty journals as less favorable, were less likely to recommend subscription (Studies 1–2), and rated the journals as lower quality (Study 2 only). Low endorsement of feminist ideology was associated with less support for sex/gender-related journals versus matched other-specialty journals (Studies 1–2). Decreased subscription recommendations for sex/gender-related journals (and the men-related journal) were mediated by decreased favorability and quality beliefs, especially for men (for the sex/gender-related journals) and those low in feminist ideology (Studies 1–2). However, we found possible androcentric-interest within the public sphere. The public reach of articles (as determined by Altmetrics) published in sex/gender-related was greater than other-specialty journals (Study 3). The consequences of these differential perceptions for students versus the public and the impact on women’s advancement in social science and psychological science are discussed.
Building Library Community Through Social Media
(Library & Information Technology Association, American Library Association, 2015-03) Young, Scott W. H.; Rossmann, Doralyn
In this article academic librarians present and analyze a model for community building through social media. Findings demonstrate the importance of strategy and interactivity via social media for generating new connections with library users. Details of this research include successful guidelines for building community and developing engagement online with social media. By applying intentional social media practices, the researchers’ Twitter user community grew 100 percent in one year, with a corresponding 275 percent increase in user interactions. Using a community analysis approach, this research demonstrates that the principles of personality and interactivity can lead to community formation for targeted user groups. Discussion includes the strategies and research approaches that were employed to build, study, and understand user community, including user type analysis and action-object mapping. From this research a picture of the library as a member of an active academic community comes into focus.
Communicating Library Values, Mission, Vision, and Strategic Plans through Social Media
(American Library Association, 2019-06) Rossmann, Doralyn
Social media communication needs to be aligned with your library’s broader communication plan so that user experience is consistent with messaging from other library venues. Ideally, social media along with all library communication points include language from your library’s values, mission, and vision statements and strategic plan. This article will outline two critical pieces to forming your social media communication strategy: Making a social media plan and applying social media optimization (SMO) to your library’s Web pages. Once set up, your plan and SMO can easily become part of your library’s routine when posting to social networks and creating and editing Web pages.
Creating an Organizationally Embedded Strategic Communication Plan for Libraries
(American Library Association, 2019-02) Rossmann, Doralyn
This is the first in a series of articles appearing in Library Leadership & Management that provides library leaders with an outline for creating a sustainable and consistent communication plan across all platforms and venues. Going beyond traditional marketing and branding, this series suggests a comprehensive approach to communication - both to people and to the computer networks that people use – for everyday communication, for disaster planning, and for the library’s strategic endeavors. There are many elements that can communicate and convey a library’s identity and values – social media posts, budget structures, library guides, strategic plans, etc. A coordinated and strategic plan for communication and outreach will strengthen your library’s value by creating a common experience and understanding by your library community, including library patrons, boards, administrators, and donors as well as internet search engines, social media networks, and their users. This plan will keep the library focused on objectives from the strategic plan and not straying beyond the plan, which could otherwise drain resources from what is trying to be achieved. This first article outlines the purpose and development of a library’s values, mission, and vision statements, a strategic plan, a communication plan, and the embedding of that plan in organizational culture. Subsequent articles explore offshoots of this communication including budgeting message and presentation, social media strategies, and search engine optimization and semantic web identity.
Demonstrating library value at network scale: leveraging the Semantic Web with new knowledge work
(Routledge, 2014-08) Arlitsch, Kenning; OBrien, Patrick; Clark, Jason A.; Young, Scott W. H.; Rossmann, Doralyn
Librarians may enjoy new roles as trusted facilitators who can develop effective and replicable optimization services by delivering measurable value based on metrics that matter to each organization’s leadership. The Montana State University (MSU) Library is engaged in Semantic Web research on several fronts, which we will describe in this article. Our concept of “new knowledge work” encompasses the discoverability, accessibility, and usability of content and services in the Semantic Web. In this article, we survey the following new services that libraries can offer their users and campus partners to aid discovery and understanding of resources at the network scale: 1. Establishing semantic identity for content and entities. 2. Structuring metadata for machine ingest and leveraging external search mechanisms. 3. Centralizing management of faculty activity data for efficient population of Institutional Repository (IR) and other reporting outlets. 4. Developing programmatic social media strategies to connect communities and content. 5. Advancing the role of the library as publisher to include the creation of open extensible book softw
E-book MARC records: do they make the mark?
(UKSG, 2009-11) Rossmann, Doralyn; Foster, Amy; Babbitt, Elizabeth
The rapidly growing market in e-books and the options for library acquisition of these materials lead to questions regarding access. Because MARC records increase use of e-books, and some vendors provide MARC records along with e-book purchases, many libraries use their library catalogues as a conduit to e-books. This article explores the challenges associated with these records. Consider ation is given to the quality of information provided by vendors, user expectations and experiences, and cataloguing workload in today's libraries. The authors seek to educate librarians about the issues associated with e-book MARC records, to empower them with questions to ask of vendors regarding this data, and to encourage them to weigh the costs and benefits associated with using this free information.
Experiences from the Field: Choosing a Discovery Tool for YOUR Unique Library
(Purdue University, 2011) Castaldo, Jennifer; Dulaney, Christine Korytnyk; Klingler, Tom; Rossmann, Doralyn; Wrubel, Laura
Our users want an easier way to search library resources; currently, there are many discovery tools available, which can seem daunting. How do you know which one will work for your unique library? Librarians from different types of libraries—an online library, a land-grant school, a law library, a private university, and a consortium—describe how they evaluated the available products and made decisions on which tools to implement. A variety of platforms are discussed, including: Ebsco’s Discovery Service, III’s Encore Synergy Discovery, Serials Solutions’ Summon, and even a homegrown solution. Discover what libraries are looking for in these tools, strategies for determining which one best fits your needs, and lessons learned throughout the process from the investigation phase to implementation.
Final Performance Report Narrative: Getting Found
(2014-11) Arlitsch, Kenning; OBrien, Patrick; Godby, Jean; Mixter, Jeff; Clark, Jason A.; Young, Scott W. H.; Smith, Devon; Rossmann, Doralyn; Sterman, Leila B.; Tate, Angela; Hansen, Mary Anne
The research we proposed to IMLS in 2011 was prompted by a realization that the digital library at the University of Utah was suffering from low visitation and use. We knew that we had a problem with low visibility on the Web because search engines such as Google were not harvesting and indexing our digitized objects, but we had only a limited understanding of the reasons. We had also done enough quantitative surveys of other digital libraries to know that many libraries were suffering from this problem. IMLS funding helped us understand the reasons why library digital repositories weren’t being harvested and indexed. Thanks to IMLS funding of considerable research and application of better practices we were able to dramatically improve the indexing ratios of Utah’s digital objects in Google, and consequently the numbers of visitors to the digital collections increased. In presentations and publications we shared the practices that led to our accomplishments at Utah. The first year of the grant focused on what the research team has come to call “traditional search engine optimization,” and most of this work was carried out at the University of Utah. The final two years of the grant were conducted at Montana State University after the PI was appointed as dean of the library there. These latter two years moved more toward “Semantic Web optimization,” which includes areas of research in semantic identity, data modeling, analytics and social media optimization
From Acquisitions to Access: The Changing Nature of Library Budgeting
(Taylor & Francis, 2015-07) Rossmann, Doralyn; Arlitsch, Kenning
The cost of building library collections continues to increase, forcing librarians to think differently about their budget models. Increasing costs of IT infrastructure needed to connect to information resources also adds to budget concerns. The idea of changing the emphasis of collections budgets to one of broader access is not new, but formally acknowledging the need to support local technology infrastructure and other means of access may offer a new way of promoting the collections budget to university administrators. We propose a budget model that acknowledges these broader requirements and includes concepts of surfacing and discovery, provision, creation, and acquisition.
Improving Services — At What Cost? Examining the Ethics of Twitter Research at the Montana State University Library
(Council for Big Data, Ethics, and Society, 2016-10) Mannheimer, Sara; Young, Scott W. H.; Rossmann, Doralyn
As social media use has become widespread, academic and corporate researchers have identified social networking services as sources of detailed information about people’s viewpoints and behaviors. Social media users share thoughts, have conversations, and build communities in open, online spaces, and researchers analyze social media data for a variety of purposes—from tracking the spread of disease (Lampos & Cristianini, 2010) to conducting market research (Patino, Pitta, & Quinones, 2012; Hornikx & Hendriks, 2015) to forecasting elections (Tumasjan et al., 2010). Twitter in particular has emerged as a leading platform for social media research, partly because user data from non-private Twitter accounts is openly accessible via an application programming interface (API). This case study describes research conducted by Montana State University (MSU) librarians to analyze the MSU Library’s Twitter community, and the ethical questions that we encountered over the course of the research. The case study will walk through our Twitter research at the MSU Library, and then suggest discussion questions to frame an ethical conversation surrounding social media research. We offer a number of areas of ethical inquiry that we recommend be engaged with as a cohesive whole.
Library-Vendor Relations: Data from a Survey of Libraries and of Vendors [dataset]
(Montana State University ScholarWorks, 2016-02) Ostergaard, Kirsten; Rossmann, Doralyn
Montana State University (MSU) Library Social Media Survey
(2015-12) Young, Scott W. H.; Rossmann, Doralyn; Shanks, Justin D.
This survey is designed to produce demographic and usage data for a community of social media users.
Narrative Budgets: Telling the Story of Your Library’s Value and Values
(American Library Association, 2019-09) Rossmann, Doralyn
A library’s budget should be a reflection of its values and goals, but budget formats do not always lend themselves to telling the library’s story. Your budget message needs to be aligned with your library’s broader communication plan so that user experience is consistent with messaging from other library venues. Ideally, your budget, along with all library communication points, include language from your library’s values, mission, and vision statements and strategic plan. This article outlines traditional budget formats, introduces a format called Narrative Budgeting, and provides an example and outline for creating a narrative budget for your library using language from your library’s strategic plan and mission, vision, and values statements. Once set up, your Narrative Budget can be adapted and used to communicate with a variety of constituents to present an understandable and justifiable use of the library’s allocated resources.
On the Ethics of Social Network Research in Libraries
(2016-05) Mannheimer, Sara; Young, Scott W. H.; Rossmann, Doralyn
Purpose: In this paper, faculty librarians at Montana State University explore the ethical dimensions of conducting research with user-generated social networking service (SNS) data. In an effort to guide Librarian-Researchers, this paper first offers a background discussion of privacy ethics across disciplines, then proposes a library-specific ethical framework for conducting SNS research. Design: By surveying the literature in other disciplines, three key considerations are identified that can inform ethical practice in the field of Library Science: context, expectation, and value analysis. For each of these considerations, the framework is tailored to consider ethical issues as they relate to libraries and our practice as Librarian-Researchers. Findings: The unique role of the Librarian-Researcher demands an ethical framework specific to that practice. The findings of this paper propose such a framework. [Practical Implications] Librarian-Researchers are at a unique point in our history. In exploring SNSs as a source of data to conduct research and improve services, we become challenged by conflicting and equally cherished values of patron privacy and information access. By evaluating research according to context, expectations, and value, this framework provides an ethical path forward for research using SNS data. Originality/Value: As of this article’s publication, there is no existing ethical framework for conducting SNS research in libraries. The proposed framework is informed both by library values and by broader research values, and therefore provides unique guidelines for the Librarian-Researcher.
The Open SESMO (Search Engine & Social Media Optimization) Project: Linked and Structured Data for Library Subscription Databases to Enable Web-scale Discovery in Search Engines
(Taylor & Francis, 2017) Clark, Jason A.; Rossmann, Doralyn
Today's learners operate in digital environments which can be largely navigated with no human intervention. At the same time, libraries spend millions and millions of dollars to provide access to content which our users may never know is available to them. Through the Open SESMO (Search Engine & Social Media Optimization) database project, Montana State University (MSU) Library applied search engine optimization and structured data with the Schema.org vocabulary, linked data models and practices, and social media optimization techniques to all the library's subscribed databases. Our research shows that Open SESMO creates significant return-on-investment with substantial increased traffic to our paid resources by our users as evidenced through analytics and metrics. In the core research of the article, we take a quantitative look at the pre/post results to assess the Open SESMO method and its impact on organic search referrals and use of the collection analyzing data from three distinct fall semesters. Returns include demonstrated library value through database recommendations, connecting researchers to subject librarians, and increased visitation to our library's paid databases with growth in organic search referrals, impressions, and click-through rates. This project offers a standard and innovative practice for other libraries to employ in surfacing their paid databases to users through the open web by applying structured and linked data methods.
Participation-Based Budgeting: Defining and Achieving Normative Democratic Values in Public Budgeting Processes
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2012-01) Rossmann, Doralyn; Shanahan, Elizabeth A.
Achieving public participation is often a goal for public budgeting entities and yet in practice is difficult to accomplish. This study’s purpose centers on three questions: how do public representatives interpret and define their democratic responsibilities; what are their insights regarding opportunities and barriers in participation-based budgeting; to what extent are these goals met? To address these questions, this research employs a case study of a public university budgeting committee; interviews of committee members were conducted; analyses result in a conceptual map of a participation-based budgeting process. Findings reveal that respondents 1) define their mission structurally and procedurally, 2) identify a need ethical behavior and leadership, and 3) recognize that democratic values such as participation and efficiency come into tension with one another. Being open and inclusive comes in the form of the citizen—public administrator dialectic, and it also requires intellectual, ethical and practical engagement with competing democratic values.
Report on the ALCTS Continuing Resources Section College and Research Libraries Interest Group Meeting. American Library Association Annual Conference, Las Vegas, June 2014
(Taylor & Francis, 2015-06) Pennington, Buddy; Rossmann, Doralyn
The ALCTS Continuing Resources Section Collection and Research Libraries Interest Group met on Sunday, June 29, to discuss aspects of the topic Continuing Resources and the Role of Libraries with Publishing in Open Access and Hybrid Journals.