College and Research Libraries
January 2004, Vol. 65, No. 1
Abstracts
The Life of the Mind: A Study of Faculty Spaces in Academic Libraries
Debra Engel and Karen Antell
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The value of the academic library as “place” in the university community has recently been debated in the popular and scholarly library literature, but the debate centers on student use of library space rather than faculty use. This study addresses the issue of faculty use of library space by investigating the use of “faculty spaces”—individual, enclosed, lockable carrels or studies—through a series of interviews with faculty space holders at the University of Oklahoma and a survey of ARL libraries. Both elements of the investigation show that faculty spaces are heavily used and highly valued by faculty members, especially those in the social sciences and humanities. The researchers present the results of the interviews and the survey, and explore the reasons for the continuing value of faculty spaces in the age of electronic information.
Development and Validation of the Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale
Doris J. Van Kampen
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This article reports on the development and validation of the Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale, which was designed to assess six dimensions of an individual’s perception of an academic library and the information search process (ISP). A two-part study was undertaken for the development of the instrument. In part one, twenty-one participants completed a pilot questionnaire that assisted the researcher in developing the instrument. In part two, 278 participants completed a revised questionnaire consisting of a 54-item Likert-type scale that assessed levels of library anxiety experienced by students enrolled in a doctoral degree–granting program at an urban southeastern university.
Subject No-hits Searches in an Academic Library Online Catalog: An Exploration of Two Potential Ameliorations
Rumi Y. Graham
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This paper describes a study that explored ways in which users’ subject-searching problems in a local online catalog might be reduced. On a weekly basis, the author reviewed catalog transaction logs to identify topics of subject searches retrieving no records for which appropriate information resources may actually be represented in the catalog. For topics thus identified, the author explored two potential ameliorations of the no-hits search results through the use of authority record cross-references and “pathfinder” records providing brief instructions on search refinement. This paper describes the study findings, discusses possible concerns regarding the amelioration methods used, outlines additional steps needed to determine whether the potential ameliorations make a difference to users’ searching experiences, and suggests related areas for further research.
Reviews of Independent Press Books in Counterpoise and Other Publications
Juris Dilevko and Keren Dali
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Although Counterpoise claims that it reviews books that are reviewed by other publications either infrequently or not at all, almost three-quarters of the books (74.7%) reviewed by Counterpoise are reviewed by a wide variety of other publications, including popular magazines and newspapers. Four core library review tools (Booklist, Choice, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly) review 48.2 percent of all book titles reviewed by Counterpoise, and their reviews are favorable 74.4 percent of the time. Of the books not reviewed anywhere else except Counterpoise, more than half fall into six Library of Congress classification categories, including E (History: America), HQ (The family. Marriage. Women), HV (Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology), and HD (Industries. Land use. Labor). In addition, there is a subset of titles that are frequently and positively reviewed by popular and academic publications, but not by reviewing journals commonly used by librarians.