Category: USF Libraries Updates

Email: Elsevier EBA Program Ending July 15, Alternates Available

June 22, 2021 By Carol Ann Davis

Message sent on behalf of Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, to all USF Libraries staff.

The USF Libraries’ Evidence-Based Acquisition (EBA) program for ebooks on the Elsevier platform, which has provided faculty and students the discovery and access to significant scholarly books, is coming to an end on July 15th. The Tampa campus library is in the process of purchasing unowned titles with the most substantial usage or need with the amount remaining in the deposit account by June 30. If you have any requests for Elsevier titles please let us know as soon as possible. C&D will determine if we own them already.

Elsevier records for titles that we are not purchasing and have not been used will be removed from the catalog by July 15. Titles with recent usage that are not selected for purchase on the Elsevier platform will be made available via the Demand Driven Acquisition program on the Ebook Central platform, with associated records loaded into the catalog. Elsevier titles may also be purchased directly through GOBI by emailing lib-orders@usf.edu. If you, or any patron, are seeking an ebook title that you can no longer find in the catalog, please let us know, and we will endeavor to make it accessible for you.

Please let Carol Ann Davis know if you have any questions (borchert@usf.edu).

Email: A New Library Catalog is Coming!

April 21, 2021 By Todd Chavez

Message sent on behalf of Todd Chavez, Dean of the USF Libraries, to all USF faculty.

Dear USF Colleagues,

Due to a recent legislative mandate, all Florida public college and university libraries are migrating to a new integrated, shared library catalog/discovery tool in July 2021. The “look and feel” of the USF Libraries website, catalog, and discovery search interface will not drastically change, but the underlying platform will improve access to and management of academic library collections.

Specifically, this new shared catalog will provide:

  • A shared catalog of library holdings enabling users to search materials owned by any public college or university in Florida.
  • Ability to search a statewide collection of over 400,000 online journals, e-books, and other valuable resources (access is tied to institutional ownership).
  • Access to more than 150,000 unique digital archive items and increased capacity to search and access local digital collections.
  • A statewide open educational community to promote and support textbook affordability and Open Educational Resources (OER’s).

As USF Libraries transitions to the new system, some changes will occur in the coming weeks:

  • As of May 1, U-borrow will be temporarily suspended, BUT book requests will automatically be redirected to ILLIAD, the USF interlibrary loan system, until the new catalog is in place.
  • As of May 27, no new items will be added to the library catalog until the transition to the new catalog is completed.
  • By mid-July the changeover to the new system will take place.

Please check https://lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/new-catalog-and-discovery-migration/ for updates and changes as the USF Libraries transition to the new system. We hope to address any of your questions or concerns through a “Comments” form on the site. Thank you for your patience as we make this change as seamless for you as possible.

Email: USF Libraries Survey: E-Journal Prioritization (Arts & Humanities)

April 16, 2021 By Todd Chavez

Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to Arts & Humanities department chairs and school directors.

Dear Department Chair/School Director,

You are receiving the survey concerning Arts & Humanities titles that were not renewed as part of the Strategic Budget Realignment process. Please distribute this link to the faculty in your department/school.

https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3dX1OBVpFXy5Bxs

We have artificially subdivided the title list into smaller lists by college and department (e.g. CAS: English, CAS: History, etc.) to make the process more manageable. However, we recognize that the interdisciplinary nature of research may mean that faculty in one department would have strong opinions about titles listed in another. Faculty are invited to register their preferences for titles in their specific discipline or for all of the titles listed in this survey. We have provided a “No Opinion” response option where there is truly no intersection with a respondent’s research needs.

Links to data and other helpful information concerning this survey are available here and in the introduction to the survey. Details regarding the USF Libraries’ Revisioning Collection Management process are available as well.

The survey is now open for responses. It will close on April 28 at 5:00PM to allow time to review and analyze results before faculty leave for the summer. Results (including raw data) will be placed on the Faculty Survey Data website once we have completed our work.

Todd

Please note that Dean Chavez also sent the above information to all USF Libraries’ faculty.

picture_as_pdf Email sent from Dean Chavez to Arts & Humanities department chairs and school directors, 4/16/2021

Email: USF Libraries Survey: E-Journal Prioritization (STEM)

April 16, 2021 By Todd Chavez

Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to the STEM department chairs and school directors.

Dear Department Chair/School Director,

You are receiving the survey concerning STEM titles that were not renewed as part of the Strategic Budget Realignment process. Please distribute this link to the faculty in your department/school.

https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d5VIdagrRb8vCiG

We have artificially subdivided the title list into smaller lists by college and department (e.g. CAS: Chemistry, CAS: Geosciences, etc.) to make the process more manageable. However, we recognize that the interdisciplinary nature of research may mean that faculty in one department would have strong opinions about titles listed in another. Faculty are invited to register their preferences for titles in their specific discipline or for all of the titles listed in this survey. We have provided a “No Opinion” response option where there is truly no intersection with a respondent’s research needs.

Links to data and other helpful information concerning this survey are available here and in the introduction to the survey. Details regarding the USF Libraries’ Revisioning Collection Management process are available as well.

The survey is now open for responses. It will close on April 28 at 5:00PM to allow time to review and analyze results before faculty leave for the summer. Results (including raw data) will be placed on the Faculty Survey Data website once we have completed our work.

Todd

Please note that Dean Chavez also sent the above information to all USF Libraries’ faculty.

picture_as_pdf Email sent from Dean Chavez to STEM department chairs and school directors, 4/16/2021

Email: USF Libraries Survey, E-Journal Prioritization (Social Sciences)

April 16, 2021 By Todd Chavez

Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to the Social Sciences department chairs and school directors.

Dear Department Chair/School Director,

You are receiving the survey concerning Social Sciences titles that were not renewed as part of the Strategic Budget Realignment process. Please distribute this link to the faculty in your department/school.

https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cT3XGA1CelYjDme

We have artificially subdivided the title list into smaller lists by college and department (e.g. CAS: Anthropology, CAS: Economics, etc.) to make the process more manageable. However, we recognize that the interdisciplinary nature of research may mean that faculty in one department would have strong opinions about titles listed in another. Faculty are invited to register their preferences for titles in their specific discipline or for all of the titles listed in this survey. We have provided a “No Opinion” response option where there is truly no intersection with a respondent’s research needs.

Links to data and other helpful information concerning this survey are available here and in the introduction to the survey. Details regarding the USF Libraries’ Revisioning Collection Management process are available as well.

The survey is now open for responses. It will close on April 28 at 5:00PM to allow time to review and analyze results before faculty leave for the summer. Results (including raw data) will be placed on the Faculty Survey Data website once we have completed our work.

Todd

Please note that Dean Chavez also sent the above information to all USF Libraries’ faculty.

picture_as_pdf Email sent from Dean Chavez to Social Sciences department chairs and school directors, 4/16/2021

Email: Revisioning Collection Management Updates

April 8, 2021 By Todd Chavez

Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to the deans and Provost.

Colleagues,

This morning, this email was sent to Dwayne Smith so that he can forward it to his distribution list to begin the final review/revise phase of this year’s strategic budget realignment process. Surveys will go to the chairs/directors next Tuesday.

When the survey links are available, I will share them with you so that you can see what the faculty are seeing. In the meantime, you can review the full list of 671 titles impacted by the realignment process and supplemental data on the Faculty Survey Data website.

We plan to have all of this phase completed before the faculty leave for the summer.

Todd

Email: USF Libraries Survey, E-Journal Prioritization

April 8, 2021 By Todd Chavez

Message was sent from Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, to all deans and chairs from the Provost Office.

Dear Department Chair/School Director,

In October 2020, the USF Libraries began Revisioning Collection Management as a response to the 2020–2022 strategic budget realignment process and a decade-long pattern of unsustainable annual cost increases. Due to time constraints, we had to make difficult decisions based on analyses of a series of well-established variables. During the analysis phase we invited – and received – considerable faculty input, but are now entering a formal review/revise phase designed to solicit specific faculty feedback regarding library resources that were not renewed.

This is where we need your help.

On Tuesday, April 13, the USF Libraries will send you a Qualtrics survey concerning these non-renewed titles. We ask you to forward this information to your faculty; please feel free to send the information to graduate students in your departments if you wish to do so. Survey responses will help the library prioritize reacquisition of important resources using the remaining funds available following the strategic realignment process. To make the process more manageable for you and your faculty, lists of non-renewed titles are divided into three broad interdisciplinary clusters – arts and humanities, social sciences, and STEM – with each department receiving the category list most aligned with their content area. Links to data and other helpful information will accompany the survey.

All pertinent information concerning our process is available at lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/. If you are interested in information concerning specific titles, please consult the resources under review and/or retained resources links on this website. If you have follow-up questions, please contact your library liaison.

Thank you, and Go Bulls!

Email: Open access Unpaywall materials now listed in USF’s FindIt! interface

January 13, 2021 By Carol Ann Davis

Message was sent by Carol Ann Davis, Associate Dean, Collections & Discovery, USF Libraries, to USF department chairs.

Please share the following information with the faculty in your areas.

The USF Libraries are pleased to announce the deployment of the Unpaywall (https://unpaywall.org/) application. Unpaywall is an open database of over 28 million scholarly articles available to you by selecting the “Full Text Open Access” link that will appear in qualifying records in the Libraries’ FindIt! search tool results. This service is part of our commitment to provide you with access to the content you need for research and instruction (see https://lib.usf.edu/collections-and-discovery/revisioning/ for more information).

More information on the open access movement and OA initiatives at USF is available here: https://guides.lib.usf.edu/openaccess

Background

For over a decade, the open access (OA) movement has been gaining steam with the proliferation of OA article repositories, OA journals, and grantor requirements to make published research openly available. As a result, millions of items are now freely available, but are often housed and searchable in various venues. Several services have started collating this material into central interfaces to make them more discoverable. One of these is Unpaywall, which harvests open access content from over 50,000 publishers and repositories to provide centralized access to over 28 million free scholarly articles.

Below is an example of how material will display:

Discussion: Open Mic with the Dean

December 10, 2020 By Todd Chavez

Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, met with interested USF Libraries’ faculty and staff, offering a space for open conversation regarding the budget and collections realignment process.

Discussion: Open Mic with the Dean

November 19, 2020 By Todd Chavez

Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, met with interested USF Libraries’ faculty and staff, offering a space for open conversation regarding the budget and collection realignment.

Discussion: Open Mic with the Dean

November 5, 2020 By Todd Chavez

Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, met with interested USF Libraries’ faculty and staff, offering a space for open conversation regarding the budge and collections realignment process.

Discussion: Open Mic with the Dean

October 29, 2020 By Todd Chavez

Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, met with interested USF Libraries’ faculty and staff, offering a space for open conversation regarding the budge and collections realignment process.

Meeting: Personnel Realignment

September 28, 2020 By Todd Chavez

Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, met with the USF Libraries Management Group to discuss personnel reassignments to assist with the USF Libraries budget realignment.

Presentation: USF Libraries All Staff Meeting

September 23, 2020 By Todd Chavez

Todd Chavez, Dean of USF Libraries, held a mandatory meeting with all USF Libraries’ faculty and staff to discuss the libraries’ budget, collection realignment, and working at home.