Dana W. R. Boden

Miniature Cattle: For Real, For Pets, For Production

Miniature cattle—the mere mention in conversation has elicited various reactions. Most common have been smiles, chuckles, outright laughter, or the query, “Are you serious?” Upon completely serious assurances that they do exist, the next response tends to be an incredulous, “Really?” That is followed closely by a myriad of questions: When did they get started?; Are they known breeds?; Why would you want miniature cattle?; How

Connecting Print and Electronic Titles: An Integrated Approach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Libraries make heavy investments in electronic resources, with many of these resources reflecting title changes, bundled subsets, or content changes of formerly print material. These changes can distance the electronic format from its print origins, creating discovery and access issues. A task force was formed to explore the enhancement of catalog records to increase the connections between print and electronic titles, thus improving patron discovery and access to electronic resources. The investigation considered the relationships between parent and dependent titles, title changes, and publication subsets. The resulting recommendations included interdepartmental cooperation, record-display best practices, and methods for tracking catalog-record enhancements.

Academic Librarians’ Views of the Chair's Professional Development Role

The purpose of this study was to determine not-yet-tenured university library faculty members’ views of 27 methods their department chair may use to support and enhance the faculty members professional development. The methods were derived from earlier qualitative research on department chairs in higher education. While academic teaching department chair roles have been the subject of the research literature for many years, little research has addressed library faculty perceptions of the department chairs role. The survey instrument used consisted of two parts: (1) a demographics section, consisting of five questions; and (2) a researcher-developed survey of faculty perceptions of the department chairs’ role in faculty development. Survey participants were asked to rate the importance of methods chairs may use in enhancing the professional activities of faculty. According to the not-yet-tenured library faculty members responding to this study, a chair engaging in the most important practices to enhance their facultys professional development would be one who utilizes good communication, while acting as an administrative advocate.