Research and Publications - University Libraries

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A Dicey Situation: A Study of How Controlled Vocabularies Describe Tabletop Roleplaying Games
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2024-02-09) Smith, Taylor S.
As popular culture has become an accepted aspect of study, academic interest has increased for tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs). However, existing controlled vocabularies cannot accurately describe them, and this will decrease their discoverability in collections. This article surveys several controlled vocabularies that feature headings for TTRPGs and argues that their definitions, structures, and disambiguation between subject and genre/form fail to distinguish TTRPGs from other forms of roleplay or from works about TTRPGs. The author also offers possible short and long-term solutions for better implementing existing vocabularies in TTRPG records.
A Retrospective Look at a DDA-Centered Collection Strategy: Planning for the Future of Monograph Acquisitions
(Elsevier, 2024) Lowry, Lindsey; Arthur, Michael A.; Gilstrap, Donald L.
The demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) model has been established as a standard component of collection development strategies for academic libraries. The University of Alabama’s collection development strategy revolves around the large DDA program for acquiring electronic monographs and is supplemented by other methods of monographic acquisitions such as firm ordering, bulk eBook purchases, and more. While previous studies have confirmed the advantages of The University of Alabama's DDA plan early in its implementation, this study explores the long-term effectiveness of the DDA-centered collection strategy, seven years after it was first put into place, and examines the validity of the strategy as one bringing efficiency and high return on investment. Finally, this longitudinal study hopes to substantiate the DDA-centered collection strategy as one that could be a foundational model for other academic libraries to follow.
Access and Importance of Pell Awards at Public Regional Historically Black Colleges and Universities: What Do the Data Say?
(University of Illinois Press, 2022) Daugherty, Alice L.; Katsinas, Stephen G.; Keeney, Noel
The Pell Grant is the foundational need-based student aid program in the United States, providing students of lower socio-economic status a pathway to afford college costs and educational expenses. Currently, over one-third of all U.S. undergraduate students receive Pell. This paper examines federal Pell assistance and institutional costs for students at the 38 publicly controlled regional Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), which serve high average percentages of low-income students and students of color. By deploying the University of Alabama Education Policy Center's new Mission-Driven Classification System to enrollment, tuition and fees, and other costs metrics along with federal Pell and student loan data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), a more direct apples-to-apples comparison of the 38 public regional HBCUs to the 182 public regional non-HBCU universities in the same 19 southern states, is revealed, as are comparisons to the universe of 461 public regional universities nationally. This paper finds that America's most financially disadvantaged students rely on Pell Grants to alleviate financial constraints at public regional HBCUs, where 55 percent of students are Pell recipients, a rate 24 percent higher than their non-HBCU counterparts. Moreover, the data underscore an opportunity for Congress to construct a meaningful federal role in higher education by providing stable and sustainable funding for the Pell Grant program.
Accessible services in academic libraries: a content analysis of library accessibility webpages in the United States
(Emerald Group, 2022) Ezell, Jon; Pionke, J. J.; Gunnoe, Jeremy; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Howard University
Purpose This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of current accessibility efforts and practice in librarianship by providing a broad overview of the information about services, resources and facilities on academic library accessibility pages. By compiling and analyzing data from 85 libraries, this study seeks to facilitate comparisons between current and past accessibility practice and to provide perspective on how libraries communicate to users about accessibility efforts across libraries. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a content analysis of 85 library accessibility pages from a sample population of 98 institutions, consisting of all members institutions of four US academic library consortia. Pages were coded for content elements regarding services, facilities, collections, staffing, assistive technologies and general information. Webpage features, architecture and accessibility/functionality were also assessed. Findings Libraries have broadened and strengthened efforts to publicize/provide services and resources to functionally diverse users. Pages most commonly prioritize information about assistive technologies, services and facilities. Pages varied greatly in size, complexity and detail, but public institutions' pages were more prevalent and informative than their private counterparts. Libraries can work to foreground accessibility pages and increase transparency and evidence of currency to improve communication to their users. Originality/value This study provides a large-scale content analysis of library accessibility webpages. It allows for comparison of the features and information most commonly featured on these important online points of service.
The Alert Collector: The Gothic Aesthetic: From the Ancient Germanic Tribes to the Contemporary Goth Subculture
(2019-06-22) Fischer, Rachel K.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Goths. How did we get from warlike Germanic tribes sacking Rome, to an aesthetic or subculture imbued with "the dark and melancholy, a hint of horror tinged with romance." This column will show you how widely this aesthetic is represented in art, architecture, film, literature and more, and along the way you will undoubtedly find some great resources to add to your collections, from music CD, to academic journals, reference works and the usual popular and academic books. Rachel Fischer has ably put together an excellent resource for anyone wanting to build a collection from the ground-up, or add some new and interesting resources. -Editor
America Rediscovers Lewis and Clark: Are Libraries Ready for the Bicentennial, 2003-2006?
(2002) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
An Ally and an Intermediary: Bella Abzug, Gay Americans, and the Equality Act
(Modern American History, 2022-07-01) David Ferrara
In 1974, Congresswoman Bella Abzug introduced the Equality Act, the first federal gay rights legislation. A high-profile ally, Abzug occupied a unique space in the gay rights movement, and the Equality Act cemented her as the premier political intermediary for gay rights. Owing to her prominence, Abzug attracted a geographically and ideologically diverse constituency of gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans. Gay activists as well as isolated individuals reached out to Abzug as a conduit for their grievances and political hopes, and her support unified gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans around a national focal point at a time when the movement was fractured and regional. In the period after Stonewall, Abzug was gay liberation’s most meaningful national intermediary. Routinely undervalued in the history of the gay rights movement, Abzug’s legislative advocacy reveals the centrality of political allyship within the struggle for equality.
An Assessment of the Stand-Alone Information Literacy Course at Louisiana State University: the Students’ Perspective
(Elsevier, Inc., 2011-02-09) Daugherty, Alice L.; Russo, Michael F.
The purpose of this paper is to convey the results of a web-based survey given to 2147 Louisiana State University students who are currently matriculating and who have completed the one-credit information literacy course, LIS 1001 (Research Methods and Materials). The survey respondents reported their use of information literacy skills and resources both within university courses they were taking as well as outside of university life. A further objective of the survey was to define the academic rank at which these skills were being used most and in which disciplines.
Analysis of Job Responsibilities of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Human Resource Professionals
(IGI Global, 2010) Costello, Gina R.; Daugherty, Alice L.
The purpose of this paper was to convey the results of an exploratory survey given to human resource professionals working within the 123 institutional members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The objective was to further define the role of human resource professionals in ARL libraries and reveal the nature and extent of human resource support for faculty and staff at ARL libraries. Respondents were recruited through email and asked to characterize their human resource functions by answering 35 open-ended and closed survey questions via an online proprietary survey tool. The response rate was 30% and provided data for the researchers to examine the experience level and education of human resource professionals, the role these individuals play in the day-to-day library operations, and the extent of interaction with the university human resource department.
Asking Questions in the Classroom: An Exploration of Tools and Techniques Used in the Library Instruction Classroom
Whitver, Sara Maurice; Lo, Leo S.; ; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Assessing Learning, Critical Reflection, and Quality Educational Outcomes: The Critical Incident Questionnaire
(2008-09) Gilstrap, Donald L.; Dupree, Jason; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This research study incorporates Brookfield’s Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ) as a qualitative instrument to assess the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education in one library’s instructional curriculum.A sample (n=348) of English Composition II students was studied over the course of two semesters during a four-session instructional program. A methodological framework of critical reflection, incidents, and events was incorporated, as well as reflection on practice. Results of the study showed the CIQ was effective in supporting qualitative methods for assessment of critical reflection in general and the ACRL Standards specifically during the research and learning process.
Basic Tenets of Library Service
(1995) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Being Earnest With Collections-Known Unknown: A Humanities Collection Gap-Analysis Project
(Charleston Hub, 2017) Arthur, Michael A.; Daugherty, Alice L.
University of Alabama faculty member, Alice Daugherty, provides insight into a project she participated in while working at Louisiana State University.
Benchmarking Marketing Scholar Productivity
(2018-10-29) Chapman, Karen; Ellinger, Alexander E.; Filips, Karli; Nash, Jesse; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Despite growing utilization of scholarly metrics to assess faculty research output, quality, impact, and productivity, the marketing discipline has yet to develop a comprehensive, generalizable benchmark for assessing scholar productivity. This study builds on and extends previous productivity benchmark studies by examining a considerably larger and more representative sample of over 1,000 marketing scholars from U.S. research-intensive schools and by assessing marketing scholar productivity over complete careers rather than for specific periods of time. Consistent with the objectives of benchmarking, the study findings enable educational administrators and faculty themselves to see exactly where a particular marketing scholar’s productivity falls within the range of scores.
Between Friends: Disability, Masculinity, and Rehabilitation in The Best Years of Our Lives
(Liverpool University Press, 2017-01) Sahn, Sarah F.
The Best Years of Our Lives, William Wyler’s 1946 film about three World War II veterans returning home to a small Midwestern town, has long been notable for its frank treatment of wartime trauma, disability, and the personal and cultural crises of masculinity precipitated by the end of the war. At a moment when disability studies has gained a firm foothold in the academy, the article returns to this touchstone text to reconsider the film’s staging of the disabled male body. The article complicates the equation of disability with castration implicit in readings of masculinity and heterosexuality in the film’s rehabilitation narratives by considering the role of friendship in the film’s depiction of masculinity and disability. The argument is that to focus on heterosexual romance in The Best Years of Our Lives is to tell only half the story; the narrative of homosocial friendship between Al, Fred, and Homer is equally important to their reintegration into the civilian world. Friendship provides an ameliorative space outside the narratives of heterosexual romance that structure the film’s logic of rehabilitation, and does not demand elision of the war’s traumas and the traces, visible and invisible, that it leaves behind.
Biased Against Apathy: Harnessing Curiosity and Knowledge Gaps in Source Analysis
Eastman, Katherine S.; Gilbreath, James N.; Johnson, Karlie; Oberlies, M. K.; Mattson, J.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Bibliography of Nebraska Geology 1843-1976
(1983) Sandy, John H.; Fussell, Jay; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The Book Catalogue of 1848: A Time Capsule to the History of The University of Alabama
(2016) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Book Collecting Inspires UA Students
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) Sandy, John H.
Book Review of A Hundred Years of Sail by Keith Beken and Kenneth Beken
Sandy, John H.

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