Citation Cartel Journals Denied 2011 Impact Factor

Thomson Reuters released the 2011 edition of the Journal Citation Report (JCR) on Thursday, promoting increased coverage of regional journals and listing 526 new journals receiving their first journal impact factor. Far less conspicuous was a list of 51 journals that were suspended from this year’s report due to “anomalous citation patterns.”

An Investigation of Affect of Service Using a LibQUAL+™ Survey and an Experimental Study

Among specialized applications of the well-known SERVQUAL scale for measuring perceptions of service quality, the LibQUAL⁺™ survey system has found widespread use in assessment of the quality of libraries. Three main dimensions of library quality have been identified: Information Control, Library as Place and Affect of Service. Using data from an application of the LibQUAL⁺™ survey, we investigate the relative difficulty of answering questions in each of these three areas, estimate the importance of each dimension in contributing to overall satisfaction with the library, and study differences in responses between user groups. We determine that Affect of Service (AS), similar to empathy in the general scale, is the most difficult dimension to evaluate. This is unfortunate because we find that AS is also the most important dimension in determining overall satisfaction with the library. We find that user characteristics are relevant in influencing both response rates and ratings of the AS scale items.

In a follow up experiment to the LibQUAL survey we study the effect of user characteristics, such as type of user (student or faculty) and experience (length of association) on Affect of Service ratings. We determine that there is an interaction effect with experience moderating the impact of user type on perceptions of AS. Similar results are found in the case of another university service, a computer help desk.

Our findings have implications for the administration and interpretation of LibQUAL surveys. The results also have implications for front line library staff members who should be mindful to provide individual, caring attention to undergraduates who are not favorably disposed towards their library services until they are both experienced and familiar with the library.

'Neglected' PhD students ignorant of latest research formats, study finds.

'Neglected' PhD students ignorant of latest research formats, study finds. Elizabeth Gibney reports

...despite being technologically savvy, Generation Y doctoral students know little about the range and authenticity of research information available in new formats such as online databases, e-journals and repositories, and few know how to access it.
They also have little understanding of open access and copyright. Many believe supervisors would not approve of citing open-access papers and only 26 per cent know that funders are beginning to expect open access to the research they support.....

Best Databases 2011: Librarians Decide Which Databases Make the Grade

Please have a look at this!  Some of our databases are mentioned.

New Resource to Help Discover Data Sets: Thomson Reuters Begins Previewing Data Citation Index

An interesting development!

This new research resource creates a single source of discovery for scientific, social sciences and arts and humanities information by connecting foundational research within data repositories around the world to related peer-reviewed literature in journals, books, and conference proceedings already indexed in the Web of Knowledge.

The European Library - connecting knowledge

" Designed to meet the needs of the research community worldwide, our online portal offers quick and easy access to the collections of the 48 National Libraries of Europe and leading European Research Libraries.
Users can cross-search and reuse over 9,550,651 digital items and 103,420,910 bibliographic records."

Open Access, A2K & Scholarly Communication (LibGuide from Denise Nicholson at Wits)

This LibGuide provides useful information about the Open Access Movement, open access publishing and scholarly communication trends.

iPad library services

iPad use in Libraries
see also 4 linked articles at Additional resources in the Fumsi Focus

Invitation to subscribe to Denise Nicholson's copyright issues blog

(I received this invitation from Denise Nicholson, the Copyright Services Librarian at Univ of the Witwatersrand, and thought others might like to subscribe to this useful service - Eileen) 

" I invite you and your colleagues to subscribe to my free online information service called Copyright & A2K Issues - for examples of previous items.  The topics covered include copyright, plagiarism, digitisation issues, library issues, traditional knowledge, mobile technologies, conference alerts, open access, open
publishing/scholarship, issues affecting access to information and freedom of expression, open learning resources, issues affecting access for persons with sensory-disabilities, useful resources & websites, etc.
If you are interested, please email me (Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za)  with "Subscribe to Copyright & A2K Issues" in the subject field so I can add your nameto the service.
Regards
Denise"

 Empty your Inbox: 4 ways to take control of your email

If your email Inbox is out of control, you might want to rethink your methods for organizing your email and emptying your Inbox. Developing a new approach to processing your Inbox can help you to gain more control, improve your response time, and keep up with critical actions and due dates.