Research Practices of Agricultural Scientists at The Ohio State University

ABSTRACT

The Ohio State University Libraries was one of 19 institutions collaborating in the Ithaka S+R Research Support Services for the Field of Agriculture study. Based on a series of individual, semistructured interviews with faculty researchers affiliated with the agricultural sciences at the Ohio State University, the study gathered information about current research practices. The study highlighted challenges of the agricultural research process and identified opportunities for improving research support services for agricultural scientists.     

Investigating the Research Practices of Agriculture Scholars: Findings From the University of Florida

ABSTRACT

The University of Florida (UF) George A. Smathers Libraries is one of 19 institutions that participated in an Ithaka S+R Research Support Services investigation of agricultural sciences. The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of research support services based on one-on-one semistructured interviews with 15 faculty of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences in 2016. A number of core themes emerged from the analysis of research practices in the local study at UF. Core themes included finding appropriate literature, data management issues and tools, repositories for sharing research products, and research dissemination. This report summarizes a subset of these results, focusing on themes related to academic library services that support agricultural scholars research needs.     

Supporting the Research Practices of Agricultural Scientists at Oregon State University

ABSTRACT

As part of a cross-institutional collaboration organized by Ithaka S+R, Oregon State University Libraries faculty interviewed 15 faculty members in the College of Agricultural Sciences about their research, publishing, and information management practices. The work of Agricultural Sciences faculty is uniquely influenced by their regional geography and climate, as well as by their local and disciplinary communities of practice, which includes both growers and scholars. Findings showed that publishing decisions, access to research, barriers to access, and a systems thinking approach were influenced by behaviors and standards established by these various communities. Implications for the libraries' role in discovery, access, and dissemination are considered and discussed.     

Examining the Research Practices of Agricultural Scholars at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities

ABSTRACT

During the spring and summer of 2016, the University of Minnesota Libraries joined 18 other institutions to participate in Ithaka S+R's Research Support Services Program to explore agricultural scholars' research focus, research methods, and publishing practices. This report summarizes our local findings, resulting from 16 interviews with University of Minnesota faculty from the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences on the Twin Cities campus. It also offers suggestions for agriculture libraries and librarians based on the data we have gathered.     

Research Practices and Support Needs of Scholars in the Field of Agriculture at Cornell University

ABSTRACT

This article presents the results of one of numerous and coordinated qualitative studies carried out at land-grant universities across the United States, to improve our understanding of agricultural research practices and identify new avenues for library services to meet the changing needs of agricultural faculty and research staff. We interviewed agricultural researchers across several departments at Cornell University about their research practices including research dissemination methods, data sharing, their use of primary and secondary resources, and current challenges in conducting agricultural research. Emerging themes included stakeholder engagement, collaboration and interdisciplinarity, the impact of technology, and research inputs and outputs.     

Investigating the Needs of Agriculture Scholars: The Purdue Case

ABSTRACT

To better understand the complexity of agricultural research, two Purdue University Libraries’ faculty members conducted a series of interviews with subjects from across the College of Agriculture. Interview questions addressed research methodologies and outputs, research data management, primary information resources, and other aspects of the research cycle and the researchers’ professional lives. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using nVivo software. The results are summarized and presented here.     

Prospectus for the Field of Agriculture at the Oklahoma State University Library: A Local Report for Ithaka S+R Research and Support Services

ABSTRACT

In 2016, the Oklahoma State University (OSU) Library was invited to participate in an Ithaka S+R research project with 19 other academic libraries from institutions with strong agricultural programs. This project documents agriculture research practices and needs and reflects a summary of findings from 10 interviews with OSU faculty researchers. This local report is to inform the Library's support for research of the OSU's agricultural faculty. The report was completed on December 1, 2016.     

Research Support Services for the Field of Agriculture: Ithaka S+R Interviews and Themes for Libraries

ABSTRACT

As part of a larger, national survey, we performed an in-depth qualitative analysis using semistructured interviews and a standard set of questions. We wished to examine the research practices of faculty in agriculture, to understand what they need to be successful in their teaching and research. We plan to use this information to make improvements to research support services. The national survey results should help pinpoint opportunities for developing new research support services for agriculture. This study adds to library and information sciences by examining the specific needs of faculty members in agriculture and agricultural extension, groups that have been previously underrepresented in the library literature.     

Serials Redesign: Using Electronic Document Delivery to Reshape Access to Agricultural Journal Literature

ABSTRACT

In response to financial pressures resulting from escalating serials prices and severe budget constraints, LSU Libraries have launched a complete and comprehensive evaluation and redesign of its serials collection. The Serials Redesign Project is an innovative approach to the serials review process using electronic document delivery to facilitate the integration of access and ownership. Library liaisons help promote faculty acceptance and support, which will be crucial to the success of the project. Background information, the project methodology, faculty responses, and preliminary results for two pilot studies and for the Agriculture departments are presented.     

基于图谱可视化的中国大气氮沉降研究态势分析

[目的]系统地探究近10a中国大气氮沉降研究态势,为今后的相关研究提供科学借鉴。[方法]基于科学计量学与信息可视化分析方法,借助Citespace软件,从文献中分析近10a中国大气氮沉降研究热点及趋势。[结果]近10a来,在氮沉降背景下,森林生态系统中凋落物分解与土壤微生物特征一直是研究热点;近5a草地生态系统的研究地区更加广泛,但较少涉及林下草地;碳氮循环相关研究多集中于温带及亚热带森林区,研究内容更加丰富,研究方法向大数据分析及模型建立方向发展;大气氮沉降通量观测以水域生态系统为主,近5a来较多地结合了非点源污染及示踪技术。[结论]近10a来,中国氮沉降领域各学科交叉性和系统性增强,研究内容和尺度不断扩大,研究方法和技术趋于多样化;草地生态系统及微生物群落特征、氮沉降与全球变化及人类活动耦合关系研究成为近年来关注的热点。     

Market Research Reports: An Overlooked Resource for Agribusiness Libraries

ABSTRACT

In today's competitive agribusiness climate, agribusiness professionals, and students perform research to develop new products for the marketplace. While traditional search tools such as AGRICOLA and CAB Abstracts are important for research, the content in those databases is mostly scientific in nature. Market research reports are an excellent resource for understanding the marketplace and for aiding researchers in new product development. This article defines and explains the purpose of market research and, by using a case study of an agribusiness course at a research university, compares the content from four market research products.     

Organizational Effectiveness of the Agricultural Scientific Information Dissemination and Management System in Kenya

ABSTRACT

Developing countries, Kenya included, continue to put considerable efforts in the creation of scientific agricultural information through the utilization of scientific human resources and an extensive agricultural research system. Little attention has been paid to the management and dissemination of the information so created, especially within the research system, as contrasted with the fanner level. This paper argues that the management and dissemination of information at the level of the research scientists is crucial to the effectiveness of the entire research system, and concludes that Kenya is deficient in this respect.     

The Information Access Center-Your Information Stop on the Web!

ABSTRACT

The development of a site that allows the public easy access into the information available at Michigan State University was the key to starting an across the University collaboration. By working collectively with MSU Libraries, MSU Extension, and MSU Outreach, the development of the site offered opportunities to link internal and external resources around issues. The site offers information on basic topic areas and sub topics that people expect the land-grant university can answer. The development was and is based on input from not just the team but from departments, staff and the public.     

Disseminating Equine Research and Teaching Videos Through the Institutional Repository: A Collaboration

Institutional repositories manage and disseminate a University's scholarly output and provide a multitude of benefits to the organization and society. Rutgers University Libraries is actively expanding its repository to include materials with scholarly merit that are currently siloed in academic departments or otherwise unpreserved and unavailable to the public. This article describes a collaboration between Rutgers Libraries faculty and Rutgers teaching faculty which is enabling discovery of a significant collection of video data relating to equine behavioral responses. The article describes the research, the repository tools, and the process of developing and customizing metadata to bring this collection to light.     

University of Arkansas Food Science Faculty Publications and the Characteristics of Their Cited References: A Bibliometric Study

ABSTRACT

In the allocation of collection resources, it is important to have a good understanding of the teaching, instruction and research needs of faculty and graduate students. Data related to the use of electronic databases, journals, books, etc. is helpful; however, this data does not reflect the nature and impact of the information retrieved, but merely provides a general idea of the number of times items have been searched, retrieved or borrowed. By identifying and analyzing faculty and graduate students' publications and grant proposals to determine where researchers are publishing and what sources they are citing in their research, the Library can assess how well it is supplying a core of literature to meet research needs. To this end, this study analyzes the publication and citation patterns of food science faculty at the University of Arkansas for a fourteen-year period, 1990–2003. The findings show that faculty are using and citing materials ranging from 1 to 22 years old and that 85 titles account for only 13.67% of the total journals cited but for 77.75% of the citations. It is assumed that these 85 titles constitute the core journal titles for food science research.     

Effectiveness of the Agricultural Research System in Kenya

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the organizational mechanisms affecting policy-making in the creation of agricultural scientific information in Kenya. Specifically, an attempt is made to determine how well the general policy framework fits the particular case of agriculture. It is concluded that the state suffers from organizational inefficiency in both the policy-formulation mechanisms and the policy-implementing institutions in the agricultural research system.     

Overcoming the Fear Factor: Creating a Dynamic Web Site

In this information-rich age, agriculture-related information is abundant and updated quickly. Collaborations between agriculture specialists and information specialists are increasing. The question has become how can agricultural information be presented in a more collaborative and timely manner?

This article documents the process that Kansas State Libraries (KSL) followed to build a dynamic Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC) website. It discusses how and why librarians collaborated with research and teaching faculty and other agriculture specialists, examines the pros and cons of building dynamic versus static websites, and documents the steps to create a basic dynamic website without extensive programming skills.