Connecting with Faculty on Issues that Matter: How Vulnerable are Conference

Proceedings?

Tracy GabridgeMIT Engineering and Science Librariestag@mit.edu

ASEE 2007

Today

Set the StageAbout MITOutreach and Marketing at the MIT

Engineering and Science Libraries The conference proceedings project

The studyThe connectionsA sneak peek at some results

MIT

Faculty Graduate Students

Undergraduate Students

Total

MIT 998 6,100 4,100 11,198

School of Engineering

357 2,790 1,725 4,872

School of Science

270 1,110 870 2,250

MIT Engineering and Science Libraries

• 4 libraries• 17 librarians

Outreach & Marketing

Traditionally - The independent subject specialist

Now – Coordinated effortWhat information do we need to know

about our community?Marketing/promotion/awareness

activitiesSkill development/role evolutionAction planning

Outreach & Marketing

Traditionally - The independent subject specialist

Now – Coordinated effortWhat information do we need to know

about our community?Marketing/promotion/awareness

activitiesSkill development/role evolutionAction planning

Conference Proceedings ProjectMotivation

IEEE decision to stop print conference proceedings packages

ASEE presentation 2 years ago

Conversations with faculty

We believe that some percentage of conference proceedings are in danger of becoming inaccessible over the long term

We want the MIT community to have access to the materials that are important to research over the long term.

Avoid this:

“We have lots of information technology. We just don’t have any information.” – Sydney Harris

The Project

Goals To understand what conferences our faculty

find important To understand the strengths, gaps and risks

of our collections in conference proceedings according to our faculty’s interests.

To enable us to learn more deeply about our subject specialties and collections

To take appropriate and high-value actions based on the results

The Project

For a set of faculty find:Conferences at which they’ve

presented in the past five yearsConferences which they’ve cited in the

past year (in either conference or journal articles)

Other conferences in which they are interested (attending, following, etc.)

• Gets at conferences that aren’t indexed.

Tactics

One hour a week, scheduled meeting Bring your laptop Search the indexes of your choice Compile citations in Refworks Create lists of conferences for each faculty member Contact each faculty member to check the list Hire a student worker to do some of the compilation

work Investigate the conferences to see if we have them,

how to get them, assess vulnerability

Where are we?Search for

conferencesSearch for citations

Create list of conferences by

faculty

Contact faculty Look up conferences

Analyze results Take action

Aero/Astro

Chem Eng

Civ and Env Eng

Comp Sci

Elec Eng (1st half)

Elec Eng (2nd half)

Mat Sci and Eng

Mech Eng

Nuclear Eng

Current phaseCompleted phase

Faculty quotes about the project

Thanks for the project: You’re doing a great thing. Thank you!!!  This is a really useful thing that you're

trying to do.  It's so frustrating that my field publishes primarily in conferences, and then it's hard to get hold of some of the proceedings

Great skills: I am amazed at your search powers.  This list is

longer than I could have imagined.  You have done a great job tracking conferences that I

contribute to. Your records are much better than mine.

More quotes:

Commentary about the value of conferences: Anything worth publishing is worth publishing in a good

journal I personally think that most conference proceedings

volumes should be done away with (an exception are the ACS Symposium series which are peer reviewed to some extent).  I would rather prepare my work for publication in bona fide journals than conference proceedings.

Desire for advice and advocacy: Let me know your opinion and we would like to have your

[input about the conference]. Indeed, the citation standards are all over the map and it

is not easy to find many of these items. Advocating clear consistent usage would be great.

Still more quotes:

Detailed information about conferences: It is a boondoggle in Monaco ICEM, International Conference on Electric Machines is a

problem: it has no permanent secretariat and doesn't align itself with any particular organization. I share your concern about it but don't know what to do about it.

European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) is also an important field-leading conference that is particularly difficult to get proceedings for.

I attend this meeting every year, and it is the premier meeting in the field. Proceedings of this meeting should be collected by the library.

Incidentally, that series is either now dead or in very serious risk of becoming dead.  With my concurrence and perhaps even in part due to my recommendation, I might add.

Making Connections with a Collections Project

Faculty are happy we are working on something important to them.

Show our relevance in an increasingly digital age

Show that we know something about them and care about their publishing practices

We can have an impact on an issue of importance to them

Next Steps

For Electrical Engineering – Address collection shortfalls – and notify

faculty as we acquire new materials, or ask advice!

Finish remaining faculty Prepare a presentation for them

For other engineering disciplines Finish data collection and analyze

See you next year with all the data!

Results for Electrical Engineering(1st half)

Total faculty contacted so far: 35 Total faculty responses: 25 Total unique conferences: 295

Results for Electrical Engineering…

Not in danger: 72% Available in print and widely held

Online only conferences in a 3rd party digital archive In danger of long term inaccessibility: 10%

Available only online without 3rd party archiving Proceedings not available for purchase, but distributed to

participants. CDROM only, or not widely held in print

No proceedings published: 10% Still investigating: 8%

Questions?