91´«Ã½

Mary Jo Lynch


Director, 91´«Ã½ Office for Research and Statistics

Note: This article is posted with permission from
The Bowker Annual Library and Book Trade Almanac, 2002, published by Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055-8750. Copyright Information Today, Inc.

The year 2001 will be remembered by all Americans for the tragic events of September 11th. For leaders in the research community, those events and their aftermath raised concerns about the long-awaited Library Research Seminar II scheduled for November 2nd and 3rd at the University of Maryland. Despite those concerns, the seminar was a great success. One hundred seven people attended some or all of the seminar, which was named “Partners and Connections: Research Applied to Practice.” The group was an interesting mix of practitioners, experienced academic researchers, doctoral students, and government officials. The program consisted of three invited speakers and twenty-five juried papers chosen by the Seminar Planning Committee from a pool of fifty responses to a “Call for Papers.” In addition there were four panels on various topics and a grant application workshop conducted by IMLS. The three invited speakers and their topics were as follows:

• Yvonna Lincoln, (Texas A&M), “Insights on Library Services & Users From Qualitative Research”
• Phyllis Dain and Kathleen Molz, (Columbia University, retired), “Tracking a Moving Target: Research on Public Libraries”
• Ben Schneiderman, (University of Maryland, College Park), “Visualization for Digital Libraries.”

Juried papers varied widely. The complete program is available at the LRS II Website:
. Proceeding will not be published, but authors have been encouraged to publish and the LRS II Website will list publications as they become available.

Academic Libraries

Most of the research activity in 2001 took place in the academic library sector. Two major ARL projects, which began in 2001 and were described in the 2001 edition of the
Bowker Annual, moved into new territory. In Spring 2001, the Lib Qual+ project, a 56-item protocol developed to measure the quality of library services was completed by 20,416 participants at 43 campuses, 35 of them members of ARL. Library users in 170 institutions will participate in Phase Two (2001-2002). For additional information go to:
.

In October 2001, the project team at Florida State University’s Information Use Management and Policy Institute compiled “Measures and Statistics for Research Library Networked Services: Procedures and Issues: ARL E-Metrics Phase II Report”
. Based on substantial field-testing, the team recommended sixteen statistics (items to count) and three performance measures (ratios using the statistics and others commonly collected). The recommended network statistics and performance measures, either independently or in some combination, can assist research libraries in describing a number of aspects of their networked resources and service. There is a section in the report that provides libraries with some guidance regarding the use to which the network statistics and measures can be put. At this writing, it is not yet known how ARL will use these measures in its regular data collection efforts.

Several major new projects were started in 2001. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded funds to the Digital Library Federation for a study of how faculty and students at universities and colleges use the academic library and how they perceive the library within the larger scholarly information environment. The study, entitled “Dimensions and Use of the Scholarly Information Environment”, will be conducted by Outsell, Inc., a research and advisory firm that focus on the information content industry. The findings will help libraries and universities plan information services that match the current and emerging needs of their faculty and students. A keener sense of user needs will also help publishers and content providers that serve the education market create better information products. The study is scheduled to be completed in April 2002.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation also awarded $755,000 to the Penn State University Libraries to support an extensive study of digital image delivery. Project partners include the School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), Center for Education Technology Services, and the Center for Quality and Planning, Library Computing Services. The Visual Image User Study will examine the use of digital pictures at Penn State in the disciplines of the arts, environmental studies, and the humanities. The project includes the development and testing of a prototype digital library system for image delivery. Phase one of the project will employ a variety of needs assessment methods and information retrieval studies to analyze the current and future needs of teachers, learners, and archival managers. The second phase, based on the results of phase one, will create the design and content of the prototype system. Slated to begin in May 2001, activities will continue for twenty-six months. A summary of the project is available at:
.

Another Mellon Foundation grant ($150,000 for a one-year planning effort) will go to Cornell University Libraries to explore the idea of creating permanent digital archives for scholarly journals, with the goal of setting up a pilot archive of agricultural journals. While not research in the sense of gathering and analyzing data, “Project Harvest” will answer a number of critical questions, such as:

• Will the collective be a “living archive” that scholars can access or a “dark archive” that simply preserves journals against the possibility that they are needed in the future?
• Will the scholarly community feel sure the archive will be available in the future?
• Should there be a procedure for “certification” of an archive to assure users it is reliable?
• Should everything be converted to one standard format, or should the formats used by individual publishers be retained?
• How do librarians ensure that stored material will be readable as technology evolves?
• What assurances are there that digital texts will not be altered?
• Should there be multiple copies in different locations?
• Who will pay for long-term maintenance of the archive?

Project harvest will create a development team with representatives from a small pilot group of interested publishers. Later, other publishers will be invited to participate. Cornell hopes to secure further funding next year to purchase hardware and create the actual archive.

The National Science Foundation awarded University of Tennessee’s Carol Tenopir a $251,961 grant for studying electronic journal use by undergraduates. Her study, entitled “Increasing Effective Student Use of the Scientific Journal Literature,” is part of a broad initiative by the National Science Foundation. The research is part of a multidisciplinary effort to create a national science, mathematics, engineering, and technology digital library (NSDL), which will make collections of high-quality scientific resources available for teaching at all, levels. The new digital library will also develop communication networks to facilitate interactions and collaborations among educators, researchers, and students. Dr. Tenopir, the principle investigator, will begin the two-year research project by identifying, implementing, and testing software features that will promote the sustained use of digital libraries by undergraduate student users. Once the software features have been prioritized as to their effectiveness, professors Dr. Peiling Wang and Dr. Richard Pollard, also of the University of Tennessee’s School of Information Sciences, will construct and manage user testing with the support of the Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information.

The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded a grant to the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) for a study of preservation programs in American college and research libraries. The study, entitled “The State of Preservation Programs in American College and Research Libraries”, will be undertaken jointly with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the University Libraries Group (ULG), and the Regional Alliance for Preservation. The partners will assess preservation efforts and concerns in the nearly 250 college and research libraries that constitute the membership of ARL and ULG, as well as in leading liberal arts colleges and major non-ARL land-grant institutions. In addition to documenting current conditions and preservation needs, the study will suggest new strategies to equip preservation programs for an increasingly complex technical environment.

Academic libraries will also be a part of the Heritage Health Index, a cooperative effort done by IMLS, Heritage Preservation, Inc., and the Getty Grant Program. This is a very broad survey of museums, libraries, archives, and historical societies that will provide a general picture of the conditions of cultural collections nationwide. All kinds of libraries are included. For information see:
.

E-books

Academic librarians have been active in action research on e-books. The Volume One, Number One issue of
portal: Libraries and the Academy, which started in 2001, featured an article on “E-books: Some Concerns and Surprises” by Susan Gibbons, Digital Initiatives Librarian at the University of Rochester. Recently, she was director of the “Electronic Book Evaluation Project” funded by the Library Service and Technology Act (see:
). The purpose of the grant was to evaluate the uses and feasibility of electronic books in various types of libraries. Two academic libraries, two public libraries, and two school libraries; all in New York state, participated in the first year of the grant. The grant focused on two portable, dedicated electronic book readers: NuvoMedia’s Rocket e-book and the SoftBook Reader by SoftBook Inc. Each library received five electronic readers. Every patron and librarian who used an e-book reader was asked to complete an Electronic Book Evaluation Survey and focus groups of patrons, librarians, and educators were formed to supplement the survey data. The main surprise Gibbons describes in her article is that patrons reacted positively to the e-book technology. Her main concern, however, is that electronic book readers are not library friendly for a number of reasons.

The second year of the grant focused on netLibrary and audio e-books. Data on the latter were not good enough to allow conclusions, but a report on the use of netLibrary e-books at the University of Rochester has been posted on the Web (see
. The two studies in this report were conducted over the Spring 2001 (January – May) semester. The first examined use of the overall netLibrary e-book collection and compared that to the use of the paper editions of those same titles. The second study focused on the use of e-books for course reserves. In both cases, core statistics were kept and patrons were asked to complete Web-based surveys.

The University of Rochester Libraries has shared ownership of a collection of 3,613 netLibrary e-book titles, purchased by a consortium. In addition, the Management Library participated in the netLibrary trial, thus providing access to an additional 618 e-book titles within the fields of management, business, and economics, and bringing the total number of e-books available to members of the University of Rochester community to 4,231. For the second study an additional seventeen books were purchased. The conclusion from the first study (general use of e-books) was positive, though it did lead to recommendations for change, five for the library and one for netLibrary. The conclusions of the second study (e-books for reserve) were less positive for reasons involving the cost and functionality of e-books.

As noted above the audio book component of the LSTA project in New York state was not successful. Another experiment with audio books, funded by a grant from a local foundation and other gifts, was attempted by the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Public Library with more success. The project began in March 2001 with the purchase of twenty Diamond Rio 500 MP3 players and a one-year contract with Auditile.com to purchase titles. At this writing, two quarterly reports have been posted on the library’s Website. Results so far are positive.

Another academic project, “Academic Libraries Take an E-Look at E-Books”, was funded by an “Educate and Automate” grant from the Illinois State Library and evaluated by Thomas Peters, Director Center for Library Initiatives, Committee on Institutional Cooperation. Two undergraduate English classes at two Illinois colleges participated. The primary objective was to learn what happens when a college library provides pre-loaded course-related content on handheld, portable e-book devices directly to the hands of undergraduate students and their professors for their use in actual course-related readings. After integration of these devices into the classroom and the library, the experiences, impressions, and suggestions of students, professors, and librarians were collected and analyzed. The project team was interested not only in the overall acceptance and usefulness of the e-book devices, but also in the use of specific features and the real-life challenges of using e-books in higher education environments. The evaluation report concluded that the project was successful from a pedagogical perspective, but using library-owned e-book devices in college classrooms raises several logistical and policy challenges for academic libraries (see
).

Another test of e-books in an academic setting was conducted by the University of Virginia Library’s Electronic Text Center and described briefly in the July/August 2001 issue of
C&RL News. Students in an English class and a religious studies class used compact, handheld personal computers to read most of their assigned reading materials as e-books. The Library’s Electronic Text Center worked with Microsoft Corp. and electronic course material publisher XanEdu to provide the students the tools they needed to read their materials as interactive e-books using Microsoft Reader software. The project sought to gather feedback from the students and professors on how well the e-books integrated into their curriculum. This included the students’ reactions to having most of the course materials on one device. Project staff also wanted to understand whether such technology changes teaching and learning, and, if so, how.

The library and Microsoft are evaluating results and at least one article was being prepared for publication at this writing. Several advantages of e-books are already apparent according to Etext Center director David Seaman. For example, using the original writings as e-books allowed the students instant, direct access to the primary sources, so they could form their own opinions about the work. Another e-book advantage is that one easy-to-carry; handheld device contained most of the course material, giving students the freedom and convenience of accessing their readings whenever and wherever they please.

Public Libraries

In a previous year, this article mentioned an IMLS National Leadership Grant to the St. Louis Public Library to develop methodology large public libraries could use to gather data that will demonstrate the economic value of public library service. Results of that work will be available in 2002. Meanwhile, IMLS awarded a 2001 National Leadership Grant to the same study team to develop a similar methodology for use by medium-size and small public libraries.

Results of a 1999 National Leadership Grant for a project entitled “Counting on Results: New Tools for Outcome-Based Evaluation of Public Libraries” were posted on the Web in late 2001 (
). Directed by Keith Lance of the Colorado State Library, the goals of the project were to develop and demonstrate the potential utility of new tools for outcome-based evaluation of public library services. One of the tools was customizable software for Palm personal digital assistants (PDAs) that facilitates collecting standardized data on conventionally recorded library outputs (e.g., visits, circulation, reference questions) as well as observable patron activities in the library. The second tool was a set of standardized questionnaires eliciting reports of the outcomes of public library service directly from patrons.

The project developed these tools and demonstrated their use by forty-five public libraries representing twenty states and all four major regions of the United States (i.e., Northeast, South, Midwest, West). In addition to reporting data on conventional library service outputs, the project generated data on the observed library activities of more than 40,000 patrons and reports of the outcomes of library services from over 5,500 patrons. Thus, this project completed that largest, most comprehensive, and most detailed multi-state data collection of this type attempted to date. Several articles on this project will be published in 2002.

School Libraries

In previous years, this article has called attention to a series of studies, under the direction of Keith Lance (Colorado State Library) that has demonstrated a correlation between strong library media center programs and student achievement. The first such study was done in Colorado in 1993. That work was repeated in 2000, with similar results. The correlation also held true for studies in Pennsylvania and Alaska. During 2001, studies in Oregon (see
) and Texas (see
yielded similar results. In addition to determining the impact of school library media programs on student achievement, the Texas study (done by Ester Smith of EGS Research and Consulting) also examined school library resource service and use in the light of existing state standards and guidelines for school library media programs.

The recent Lance study in Oregon and one underway in New Mexico were the focus of one program at the November 2001 conference of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in Indianapolis. The two other research programs focused on information literacy. One was sponsored by the AASL Research and Statistics Committee to honor the recently deceased Judy Pitts. The committee sent out a “Call for Proposals” for the Judy Pitts Research Forum and selected a paper by Dr. Leslie S.J. Farmer which described a school-wide action research study that investigated ways to improve student information literacy competencies through identifying needed skills, assessing present skill levels, mapping information literacy, identifying gaps in learning, designing interventions, and assessing results. In a related program on “New Research About Information Literacy”, David Loertscher and Blanche Woolls reviewed studies that were done after their 1999 book,
Information Literacy: A Review of the Research (San Jose, CA: Hi Willow Research & Publishing).

People and Places

In July, Lorcan Dempsey was named Vice-President, OCLC Office of Research. Dempsey has held several positions in England. Since June 2000, he has been director of Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER), King’s College, London, England, a UK initiative to provide a coherent information environment for higher education communities. From 1994 until joining DNER, he was director of the UK Office for Library and Information Networking, a research and policy unit at the university of Bath. OCLC CEO Jay Jordan describes Dempsey’s background as combining “the practical and the theoretical with an important global perspective. He has been extensively involved in applied research and development, with the aim of informing policy and influencing practice.”

Two new places to report on and monitor research in progress were unveiled in 2001.
Library Hi-Tech News (LHTN) Number 3 announced a new column, “Research in Progress” to be coordinated by Philip Calvert, co-editor of
LHTN. The announcement notes that scholars and researchers everywhere want to spread the news about their latest work. Prior to the formal reporting stage, however, there is very little opportunity to tell colleagues and peers about research in progress. Scholars everywhere are invited to contribute reports, especially in the hi-tech aspects of libraries and information management. Calvert can be reaached at philip.calvert@vuw.ac.nz.

Another place to use and watch is CAROL (Collections and Organizations Research Online). This is a Web database where researchers in any area of library collections or acquisitions can log a description of their research and locate other researchers active in areas of interest to them. The purpose of CAROL is to encourage research by providing a central source of information about ongoing work. Researchers who are not already in CAROL create a researcher record with their name, the names of any co-researchers, their institution, e-mail address, fax, and phone numbers. Then, for each project that they want to list, they create a project record in which they provide the title of the project, a brief description, publication plans, if any, and a tentative timetable. As a project develops, the researchers can access their original record in CAROL and update the project status. Users may also query CAROL and in a matter of seconds retrieve a list of research projects of interest.

The idea for CAROL arose from 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½) committee work among members of the Collection Management and Development Section (CMDS) of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS). They encourage all librarians and students carrying on systematic research in any area of collections or acquisitions, whether intended for publication, for a conference, or for use within a library operation, to log their research on CAROL.

A new source of research began in 2001, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (EDAR). This center was formed to provide educational leaders with high-quality, well-researched, timely information to support institutional decision-making. Although academic libraries are not mentioned in a major way on the ECAR agenda, one of the four components of that agenda is “Teaching and Learning Issues” and one of the topics under that heading is “The Implementation and Socialization of E-Books in Higher Education”. For more information see
.

Awards that Honor Excellent Research

All active awards are listed along with the amount of the award, the URL for the award (if available), and the person(s) and projects(s) that won in 2001. If the award is annual but was not given in 2001, that fact is noted. General 91´«Ã½ awards are listed first followed by units of 91´«Ã½ in alphabetical order, followed by other agencies in alphabetical order.

91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½)

Library and Information Technology Association (LITA)


Frederick G. Kilgour Award


Winner: Marcia J. Bates, University of California, Los Angeles


Rationale: Dr. Bates has a thirty-year record of research, teaching, and scholarship in search strategies, information-seeking behavior, subject access, user-centered design of information retrieval systems and interfaces, and science and technology information services. Several of her publications have become seminal papers in our field. Her work carries on the tradition of Kilgour, in its recognition of the centrality of the user in the design of response information systems.

Library History Round Table (LHRT)


Donald G Davis Article Award


Award Page


Not given in odd-numbered years.


Justin Winsor Prize ($500)


Prize Page


Not given in 2001.

Library Research Round Table (LRRT)


Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research ($500)


Award Page


Not given in 2001.


Jesse H. Shera Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research ($500)


Award Page


Not given in 2001

One award given by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) annually, but not always for research, was given for research in 2001. The K.G. Saur Award for the most outstanding article in
College & Research Libraries (C&RL) went to Thomas E. Nisonger for “Use of Journal Citation Reports for Serials Management in Research Libraries: An Investigation of the Effect of Self-Citation on Journal Rankings in Library and Information Science and Genetics” in the May 2000 issue of C&RL. The award committee noted that Nisonger’s article “adds to the literature on citation analysis and fully explores the trend of self-citation and its impact. Work like Nisonger’s promotes the use of tools like the
Journal of Citation Reports, and helps refine the interpretative results. The research is carefully done, and the article is well written.” The cash award of $500 is funded by K.G. Saur publishing company.


ACRL also gave a new award this year in connection with the ACRL National Conference in Denver (March 15-18). Linda Marion, a doctoral student at Drexel University in Philadelphia was the recipient of the ACRL Student Paper Award, which encourages leadership in academic librarianship research. Marion’s paper,
Digital Librarian, Cybrarian, or Librarian with specialized Skills: Who Will Staff Digital Libraries? was presented at the conference. The paper explores the territory of digital librarianship and examines the skills employers are seeking in new hires when filling technologically orientated jobs. Marion’s presentation contains a content analysis of job ads to provide a map describing the domain of digital librarianship. She received $500 and complimentary registration to the conference.

American Society for Information and Technology (ASIST)



ASIST Research Award


Winner: Paul Kantor (Rutgers, School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies)


Rationale: Dr. Kantor is an internationally known researcher in the areas of mathematical modeling and information system evaluation, and he is the author of scores of publications in these areas. His work has included the application of Markov models, Bayesian decision theory, lattice theory and the calculus of variations, among others, to a variety of questions in the areas of information searching, retrieval, and library costing.

ASIST/UMI Doctoral Dissertation Award


Winner: Allison Powell (University of Virginia)


Project: This dissertation deals with the general problem of choosing the database(s) to which a user’s query should be sent. Its primary goal was to “enhance the understanding of the overall multi-collection retrieval problem, including the potential that introducing multiple collections when a single one is possible may become advantageous.” In a laboratory environment, Dr. Powell created conditions that allowed her to compare and evaluate the performance of different multi-collection information retrieval algorithms methodically and comprehensively.

Pratt-Severn Best Student Research Paper Award


Winner: Brian Hilligoss (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)


Project: This paper received high marks in the areas of technical competence, information science, significance of findings, and originality. The findings support some past conclusions, question others, and emphasize the significance of the author’s work as well as the need for continued research on the impact of Web page information elements on user-site orientation.

Association for Library & Information Science Education (ALISE)


ALISE Methodology Paper Award


Winners: Diane H. Sonnenwald and Barbara M. Wildemuth


Project: “Investigating Information Seeking Behavior Using the Concept of Information Horizons.”

ALISE – Bohdan S. Wynar Research Paper Award


Winners: George D’Elia, Corinne Jorgensen, and Joseph Woelfel


Project: “The Impacts of the Internet on Public Library Use: An Analysis of the Current Consumer Market for Library and Internet Services.”


Eugene Garfield – ALISE Doctoral Dissertation Award ($500 for travel expenses plus 2001 conference registration and membership in ALISE for 2000-2001)


Winner: Patricia Coit Murphy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


Project: “What a Book Can do: Silent Spring and Media-Borne Public Debate.”


Certificates of recognition were given to the following:


Daniel G. Dorner, “Determining Essential Services on the Canadian Information Highway: An Exploratory Study of the Public Policy Process,” Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Western Ontario, 1999.


J. Stephen Downie, “Evaluating a Simple Approach to Music Information Retrieval: Conceiving Melodic N-Grams as Text,” Faculty of graduate Studies, University of Western Ontario, 1999.


Richard William Kopak, “A Taxonomy of Link Types for Use in Hypertext,” Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, 2000.

Grants that Support Research

Note: All active grants are listed with amount of the grant, the URL for the grant (if available), and the person(s) and Project(s) who won in 2001. Of the grant was not given in 2001, that fact is noted. General 91´«Ã½ grants are listed first, followed by units of 91´«Ã½ in alphabetical order, and then followed by other agencies in alphabetical order.

91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½)

91´«Ã½ Research Grant ($25,000)


Winner: Virginia A. Walter and Cynthia L. Mediavilla, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)


Project: This project, “Models for Homework Center Outcomes,” will develop evaluation models than can be used by any public library to determine the effectiveness of their homework centers as measured by the positive impact on the teenagers using them. Model A will be relevant to homework centers in which teens participate as the homework assistance providers. Model B will be relevant to homework centers in which teens are the recipients of the homework assistance. The research will build on Mediavilla’s study of successful homework centers nationwide, which is described in
Creating the Full-Service Homework Center in Your Library available from 91´«Ã½ Editions.

Carroll Preston Baber Research Grant ($7,500)


Grant Page


Winner: Ruth V. Small, Syracuse University


Project: “Motivational Aspects of Information Literacy Skills Instruction in Community College Libraries.” Research in information literacy skills instruction has largely focused on process or learning outcomes, with little attention paid to the motivational presentation methods that stimulate and encourage curiosity, information seeking and exploration. The proposed research, building on earlier work by Small at the K-12 level, seeks to identify instructional motivators used by community college librarians that promote students’ task engagement and enjoyment of the research process.

American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

AASL/Highsmith Research Grant ($5,000)


Grant Page

Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)

ACRL/ISI Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship ($1,500)


Fellowship Page


Winner: Laurie Bonnici, Florida State University


Project: “An Examination of Categorical Attributions Through the Lens of Reference Group Theory.”

Samuel Lazerow Fellowship for Research in Acquisitions or Technical Services in an Academic of Research Library ($1,000)


Fellowship Page


Winner: Adam Chandler, Cornell University


Project: “An Application Profile and Prototype Metadata Management System for Licensed Electronic Resources.”

Coutts Nijhoff International West European Specialist Study Grant (10,000 Dutch Guilders)


Grant Page


Winner: Sue Waterman, Johns Hopkins University


Project: “Collecting the Nineteenth Century: The Book, the Specimen, the Photograph as Archive.”

Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)

Francis Henne/YALSA/VOYA Research Grant ($500)


Award Page


Winner: Patrick Jones, Connectingya.com


Project: “Buyer Beware: Investigating the Quality of Customer Service to Young Adults in a Major Urban Public Library.”

American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST)

ISI/ASIST Citation Analysis Research Grant ($3,000)





Winners: John Budd, Mary Ellen Sievert, Gabriel M. Peterson, Ku Chuin Su (University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Information Science and Learning Technologies)


Project: Their proposal, “Errors and Corrections in the Biomedical Literature,” takes research that has already demonstrated that retracted articles continue to be cited well after retraction statements appear and extends it to a study of other types of anomalies in the literature. This work intends to demonstrate the potential impact of anomalous publications on future research and communication in biomedicine and alert both end users and librarian-intermediaries to the nature and extent of these problematic publications.

ISI Information Science Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship ($1,500 plus $500 towards travel or other expenses)


Winner: Alesia A. Zuccala (University of Toronto, Faculty of Information Studies)


Project: She plans to study the invisible college of singularity theory researchers, viewing it as both an intellectual structure of communication and social process of information sharing. She will use both bibliometric methods (examining the products of communication) and ethnographic data (examining the process of communication) to shed new light on how a small invisible college operates. Thus, the dissertation will make a unique contribution to information science by providing dual perspectives (structural/bibliometric and social/ethnographic) on the nature of invisible colle

Association for Library & Information Science Education (ALISE)

OCLC/ALISE Research Grant ($10,000 each)





Winner:Anna Perrault, University of South Florida


Project:“Global Collective Resources: WorldCat as the Foundation for International Library Cooperation.” Dr. Perrault’s research is a bibliometric study to profile the monographic contents of WorldCat (the OCLC Online Union Catalog) by subject and language parameters using the OCLC/WLN iCAS software. The profile will detail the contents of global publication made accessible through the OCLC international network. The results of this research can foster international resource sharing and cooperative collection development.

Winner:Hong Xie, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee


Project:“Ease of Use versus User Control: Desired Interface Model and Functionalities for Web-based Databases.” This study will explore users’ perceptions of ease of use versus user control and their preferences for desired interface models and functionalities in searching Web-based online databases. The results will lead to the identification of desired interface models and functionalities and further development if interface prototypes for Web-based online databases to support ease of use without compromising user control.

Winner:Hong Xu, and Arlene Taylor, University of Pittsburgh


Project:“Identification of Resource Types of Web Accessible Information.” This study will examine a sample from OCLC’s Web Characterization Project to determine distribution of resource types, an element of the Dublin Core, among subject areas. In the process it will test the efficacy of various existing lists of resource types.

Research Grant Award (one or more grants totaling $5,000)





Winner:Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Catholic University of America


Project:“A Delphi Study on Metadata Curriculum Implications and Research Priorities.”

Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)

A.R. Zipf Fellowship





Winner:Terence Kelly, Department of Computer Science, University of Michigan


Rationale: His research focuses on optimal resource allocation in hierarchical caching systems, especially Web caching.

Medical Library Association (MLA)

ISI/MLA Doctoral Fellowship ($2,000)





Given every other year in the even numbered years.

MLA Research, Development, and Demonstration Project Grant





Winner: Mary C. Congleton, Southern Kentucky Area Health Education Center and Shelley Paden, University of Tennessee Medical Center.


Project: Survey of the successes and problems associated with Loansome Doc in order to further the understanding of implementing a Loansome Doc program in a library, providing instruction for its use and the types of delivery methods that libraries offer.

Special Libraries Association

Steven I. Goldspiel Memorial Research Grant (up to $20,000)





Winner: Mark Rorvig, University of North Texas


Project: “Exploiting image Content Features for Image Index Term Assignment.” The primary objective of Rorvig’s project is to determine the degree to which content-based feature extraction may support index term assignment. More specifically, to discover the degree to which the similarity of image content measures implies the inheritability of terms; to determine of there is a threshold of similarity beyond which image content similarity has little or no meaning for term assignment; to propose specific uses of the technique; and to implement the techniques on a trial basis in a special library indexing environment to understand conditions of their acceptability to working staff.

END