Beth Bernhardt

Great Expectations: New Organizational Models for Overworked Liaisons Based on the UNCG Libraries Liaison Collections Responsibilities Task Force

Liaisons (subject specialists) keep getting busier. Research instruction, embedding in classes, outreach, collection development, weeding, assessing teaching and collections, promoting scholarly communication issues, and creating online learning objects are all potentially part of what a liaison is expected to do nowadays. So we hope every liaison is very interested—and very good—at all those responsibilities. Is that realistic? And does a liaison have time for all those things? At University of North Caroline at Greensboro (UNCG), library administrators decided it is time to examine how liaisons are organized to manage all of these competing responsibilities. The library formed a Liaison Collection Responsibilities Task Force to benchmark how other libraries might be handling the complexities of liaison responsibilities in innovative ways and to recommend several possible new organizational models for the collection development and public services work of liaisons. Members of the task force will review their benchmark findings and invite the audience to provide their own examples. Then we will present our recommendations for new organization models. Some recommendations will reflect incremental changes; others will be radical. We will ask the audience for feedback on the recommendations and suggestions for other models.

Using Cost Per Use to Assess Big Deals

This presentation from the 23rd North Carolina Serials Conference discussed the Carolina Consortiums recent consortium-wide analysis of its big deal ejournal packages, with cost per use as the primary metric. This session addressed the pros and cons of cost-per-use (CPU) data and considered how consortia and individual schools should best utilize the data. Bernhardt discussed how the Carolina Consortium gathered and analyzed CPU data and the impact the examination had on determining whether individual schools cancelled, renewed, or joined big deals. Seven schools were identified as having big deals with CPU higher than desired. Of those seven, four schools chose to renew their deals, while three chose to cancel. Bucknall determined that while CPU is an important metric to analyze in making renewal and cancellation decisions, it is not the only factor.

Helping Keep the Costs of Textbooks for Students Down: Two Approaches

ABSTRACT Librarians at East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro received a 2-year grant to support a combined alternative textbook project. This project engages in a two-pronged approach to reduce students’ textbook costs and increase their academic engagement. One strategy is to award departmental faculty mini-grants to use materials that would have no cost to their students, including OER or library resources. The second strategy is to identify required texts that the library already owns or can purchase as unlimited-user e-books. Benefits to students include reduced costs and an increased opportunity for engagement and academic success.

Leveraging Vendor Assessments of Usage Data

ABSTRACT This article summarizes a presentation given at the 2017 North Carolina Serials Conference by Judith Nagata. The speaker discussed how her library used vendor-supplied usage data and graphic representations of that data to make decisions about journals and journal packages.

Library Roles in Supporting Creation of Serials: Open Journal Systems at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

ABSTRACT This article summarizes a presentation given at the 2016 North Carolina Serials Conference by Anna Craft. The speaker discussed the University of North Carolina at Greensboros Open Journal Systems (OJS) implementation and librarian roles and responsibilities.

Revolutionizing Scholarship: A Panel Discussion on Text and Data Mining

The panel discussion at the 24th North Carolina Serials Conference, moderated by Beth Bernhardt, offered four different perspectives on text and data mining from Patrick Herron, a faculty member who employs text and data mining in his research; Kevin Smith, an academic library scholarly communications officer; Joel Herndon, a data and visualization specialist; and Roger Strong, a vendor representative. Each discussed their perspective on how text and data mining is changing the way that electronic resources are used. A question-and-answer session followed the panel discussion.

No Crystal Ball: Planning for Certain Future Cuts When the Future Is Uncertain

Slides presented at the Charleston Conference in Charleston, South Carolina in November 2014.

Challenges and Opportunities of Open Access: A Panel Discussion

This years panel discussion, moderated by Beverly Dowdy, offered three perspectives on the current and future trends in open access (OA) from David Crotty, a senior editor from a prominent university publisher; Beth Bernhardt, an assistant dean for collection development and scholarly communications at an academic library; and Dr. Paige Hall Smith, an associate professor at a large state university. Each discussed different opportunities and challenges that open access presents. A question-and-answer period followed, prompting further discussion of the points brought up during the presentations, as well as related issues.