Rachel E. Scott is the associate dean for information assets at Illinois State University’s Milner Library, where she oversees the library’s access and technical services, collection development, scholarly communication initiatives, and cultural heritage activities. Scott recently completed a PhD in historical musicology and conducts research at the intersections of information literacy, library collections and their discovery, music bibliography, and scholarly communications.
A growing body of literature has shifted aesthetic attention from composition to performance, or ... more A growing body of literature has shifted aesthetic attention from composition to performance, or the performing activity, and asserts that the act of performance creates meaning.1 Scholars have emphasized differences between the passive consumption and active making of – or even listening to – music.2 As I sought to understand the impact of performance on Alma Mahler's legacy, I identified the need to gather as much data as possible on who, what, where, when, why, and how her songs were performed. This need led me to evaluate the metadata associated with recordings of Alma Mahler's songs in the WorldCat union catalogue and the video sharing platform YouTube. Recent studies have shown the utility of leveraging big data for musicology, although few scholars have done so to investigate reception history. This essay outlines one approach to data scraping YouTube with emphasis on the value to those researching recent Lieder reception, and in doing so highlights some of the promis...
Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 2017
A Review of: Lloyd, A., & Wilkinson, J. (2017). Tapping into the information landscape: Refugee y... more A Review of: Lloyd, A., & Wilkinson, J. (2017). Tapping into the information landscape: Refugee youth enactment of information literacy in everyday spaces. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0961000617709058 Objective – To describe the ways in which refugee youth use everyday information to support their learning. Design – Photo voice technique, a process by which the population under consideration is provided with cameras and asked to visually document an aspect of their experience. Setting – Social agency in New South Wales, Australia Subjects – Fifteen 16-25 year old refugees resettled from South Sudan or Afghanistan Methods – Three workshops were conducted. In the first, participants learned how to use the cameras and the protocols for participation. Between the first and second workshops, participants took several photographs of places, sources and types of information that were personally meaningful. In the s...
This report describes the first year of a textbook affordability project by several Milner librar... more This report describes the first year of a textbook affordability project by several Milner librarians in which the library purchased electronic copies of assigned textbooks for the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters. The report provides an overview of the project and includes key findings related to student savings, enhancing equity in access to course materials, implications for student success, and the library\u27s return on investment.https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/mlp/1029/thumbnail.jp
Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 2020
A Review of: Teper, J. H. (2019). Considering “sameness” of monographic holdings in shared print ... more A Review of: Teper, J. H. (2019). Considering “sameness” of monographic holdings in shared print retention decisions. Library Resources & Technical Services, 63(1), 29-45. https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.63n1.29 Objective – To investigate the degree to which books catalogued using the same bibliographic record differ and to consider the implications of these differences for cooperative monographic print retention programs. Design – Book condition survey. Setting – Academic library consortium in the United States of America. Subjects – 47 monographic titles, publication years 1851-1922, held by all consortium members and catalogued using the same respective OCLC record number. 625 out of a possible 705 circulating copies of these titles were available for item-level analysis via interlibrary loan. Methods – Book condition surveys were completed for all items and the resulting sets of assessment data points were analyzed to reveal trends. Main Results – 3.4% of items analyzed exhibited c...
Alma Mahler (1879–1964) grew up surrounded by artists in late nineteenth-century Vienna. Despite ... more Alma Mahler (1879–1964) grew up surrounded by artists in late nineteenth-century Vienna. Despite her musical training, demonstrated passion for music, and publication of several Lieder, Mahler’s identity as a composer has remained overshadowed by narratives surrounding her personal life and those of her husbands and lovers, not to mention the artistic work of her husbands and lovers. Increasingly, however, interest in Alma Mahler as a composer has been nurtured through creative engagement with that legacy, and frequently by women authors and artists. This dissertation explores the existing literature written by and related to Alma Mahler and identifies some approaches for reevaluating her legacy as a composer. Those writing about the life and legacy of Alma Mahler in the twenty-first century typically follow one of two established paths; that of the rational author writing the irrational female subject or that of creative, and frequently feminist, approaches to Mahler’s life and work. I propose a third path, one that acknowledges both of the aforementioned approaches, but that focuses on Mahler’s work instead of her words. By drawing attention to Mahler works—that is, her songs and the performance thereof—and considering how reception and recording of these songs has shifted over the past several decades, I am poised to assert that Mahler is a composer. The proliferation of diverging primary source materials surrounding her life and musical activities has prompted some to discount the narrative of Alma Mahler as a legitimate composer. This dissertation acknowledges the varied and often conflicting approaches to and perspectives on the idea of Alma Mahler as a composer and investigates how her music and its performance have been received in light of, and sometimes despite, her own writings. My work reconciles diverse facets of the composer by exploring her own words, the words of others, and, perhaps most importantly, her musical work in contemporary performance. It is my contention that by investigating Mahler through all of these frames, we can identify and contextualize the hidden but significant musical contributions of a young, female song composer in turn-of-the-century Vienna.
A number of studies investigate the usability of library websites, but usability is less commonly... more A number of studies investigate the usability of library websites, but usability is less commonly associated with the electronic resource life cycle. The usability of a website or electronic resource is a combination of several factors, including "intuitive design, ease of learning, efficiency of use, memorability, error frequency/severity, and subject satisfaction" and may be measured using a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches (https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/usability-evaluation.html). Through usability testing, websites or electronic resources are evaluated by actual or potential users of the resources. Testing can include various methods but it commonly involves users attempting to complete tasks while being observed by researchers. During observations, researchers can ask open-ended questions to gain an idea of how users feel about the ease of use of the website or resource being evaluated. Usability influences library patrons' use and satis...
In the information age, data stewardship is crucial for individual and organizational productivit... more In the information age, data stewardship is crucial for individual and organizational productivity. It is easy to get overwhelmed by vast amounts of information being created every second. Information overload has become a common occurrence in the workplace to the extent that people “spend more time searching for the right information, leaving them less time for proper analyses using the acquired information.” Thus, the excess of information in the workplace can lead to stress, lack of productivity, and information fatigue.
Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 2020
A Review of: Sharun, S. (2019). Exploring value as a dimension of professional information litera... more A Review of: Sharun, S. (2019). Exploring value as a dimension of professional information literacy. Journal of Information Literacy, 13(2), 26–40. https://doi.org/10.11645/13.2.2627 Objective – To critically explore the frame “Information has Value” in a workplace setting. Design – Semi-structured interviews. Setting – Community health centre in Canada. Subjects – Seven health and human services staff members serving vulnerable, urban youth ages 12 to 24. Methods – The researcher employed phenomenography to analyze interviews and to identify categories of information practice. Main Results – Four categories of information practice emerged: resourcing, referring, outsourcing, and advocating. The researcher identified the value of information as central to participants’ experience of information practice in the workplace. Subjects’ understanding of the nature and significance of value was situated within personal relationships and professional networks. Conclusion – The study demonst...
A growing body of literature has shifted aesthetic attention from composition to performance, or ... more A growing body of literature has shifted aesthetic attention from composition to performance, or the performing activity, and asserts that the act of performance creates meaning.1 Scholars have emphasized differences between the passive consumption and active making of – or even listening to – music.2 As I sought to understand the impact of performance on Alma Mahler's legacy, I identified the need to gather as much data as possible on who, what, where, when, why, and how her songs were performed. This need led me to evaluate the metadata associated with recordings of Alma Mahler's songs in the WorldCat union catalogue and the video sharing platform YouTube. Recent studies have shown the utility of leveraging big data for musicology, although few scholars have done so to investigate reception history. This essay outlines one approach to data scraping YouTube with emphasis on the value to those researching recent Lieder reception, and in doing so highlights some of the promis...
Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 2017
A Review of: Lloyd, A., & Wilkinson, J. (2017). Tapping into the information landscape: Refugee y... more A Review of: Lloyd, A., & Wilkinson, J. (2017). Tapping into the information landscape: Refugee youth enactment of information literacy in everyday spaces. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0961000617709058 Objective – To describe the ways in which refugee youth use everyday information to support their learning. Design – Photo voice technique, a process by which the population under consideration is provided with cameras and asked to visually document an aspect of their experience. Setting – Social agency in New South Wales, Australia Subjects – Fifteen 16-25 year old refugees resettled from South Sudan or Afghanistan Methods – Three workshops were conducted. In the first, participants learned how to use the cameras and the protocols for participation. Between the first and second workshops, participants took several photographs of places, sources and types of information that were personally meaningful. In the s...
This report describes the first year of a textbook affordability project by several Milner librar... more This report describes the first year of a textbook affordability project by several Milner librarians in which the library purchased electronic copies of assigned textbooks for the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters. The report provides an overview of the project and includes key findings related to student savings, enhancing equity in access to course materials, implications for student success, and the library\u27s return on investment.https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/mlp/1029/thumbnail.jp
Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 2020
A Review of: Teper, J. H. (2019). Considering “sameness” of monographic holdings in shared print ... more A Review of: Teper, J. H. (2019). Considering “sameness” of monographic holdings in shared print retention decisions. Library Resources & Technical Services, 63(1), 29-45. https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.63n1.29 Objective – To investigate the degree to which books catalogued using the same bibliographic record differ and to consider the implications of these differences for cooperative monographic print retention programs. Design – Book condition survey. Setting – Academic library consortium in the United States of America. Subjects – 47 monographic titles, publication years 1851-1922, held by all consortium members and catalogued using the same respective OCLC record number. 625 out of a possible 705 circulating copies of these titles were available for item-level analysis via interlibrary loan. Methods – Book condition surveys were completed for all items and the resulting sets of assessment data points were analyzed to reveal trends. Main Results – 3.4% of items analyzed exhibited c...
Alma Mahler (1879–1964) grew up surrounded by artists in late nineteenth-century Vienna. Despite ... more Alma Mahler (1879–1964) grew up surrounded by artists in late nineteenth-century Vienna. Despite her musical training, demonstrated passion for music, and publication of several Lieder, Mahler’s identity as a composer has remained overshadowed by narratives surrounding her personal life and those of her husbands and lovers, not to mention the artistic work of her husbands and lovers. Increasingly, however, interest in Alma Mahler as a composer has been nurtured through creative engagement with that legacy, and frequently by women authors and artists. This dissertation explores the existing literature written by and related to Alma Mahler and identifies some approaches for reevaluating her legacy as a composer. Those writing about the life and legacy of Alma Mahler in the twenty-first century typically follow one of two established paths; that of the rational author writing the irrational female subject or that of creative, and frequently feminist, approaches to Mahler’s life and work. I propose a third path, one that acknowledges both of the aforementioned approaches, but that focuses on Mahler’s work instead of her words. By drawing attention to Mahler works—that is, her songs and the performance thereof—and considering how reception and recording of these songs has shifted over the past several decades, I am poised to assert that Mahler is a composer. The proliferation of diverging primary source materials surrounding her life and musical activities has prompted some to discount the narrative of Alma Mahler as a legitimate composer. This dissertation acknowledges the varied and often conflicting approaches to and perspectives on the idea of Alma Mahler as a composer and investigates how her music and its performance have been received in light of, and sometimes despite, her own writings. My work reconciles diverse facets of the composer by exploring her own words, the words of others, and, perhaps most importantly, her musical work in contemporary performance. It is my contention that by investigating Mahler through all of these frames, we can identify and contextualize the hidden but significant musical contributions of a young, female song composer in turn-of-the-century Vienna.
A number of studies investigate the usability of library websites, but usability is less commonly... more A number of studies investigate the usability of library websites, but usability is less commonly associated with the electronic resource life cycle. The usability of a website or electronic resource is a combination of several factors, including "intuitive design, ease of learning, efficiency of use, memorability, error frequency/severity, and subject satisfaction" and may be measured using a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches (https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/usability-evaluation.html). Through usability testing, websites or electronic resources are evaluated by actual or potential users of the resources. Testing can include various methods but it commonly involves users attempting to complete tasks while being observed by researchers. During observations, researchers can ask open-ended questions to gain an idea of how users feel about the ease of use of the website or resource being evaluated. Usability influences library patrons' use and satis...
In the information age, data stewardship is crucial for individual and organizational productivit... more In the information age, data stewardship is crucial for individual and organizational productivity. It is easy to get overwhelmed by vast amounts of information being created every second. Information overload has become a common occurrence in the workplace to the extent that people “spend more time searching for the right information, leaving them less time for proper analyses using the acquired information.” Thus, the excess of information in the workplace can lead to stress, lack of productivity, and information fatigue.
Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 2020
A Review of: Sharun, S. (2019). Exploring value as a dimension of professional information litera... more A Review of: Sharun, S. (2019). Exploring value as a dimension of professional information literacy. Journal of Information Literacy, 13(2), 26–40. https://doi.org/10.11645/13.2.2627 Objective – To critically explore the frame “Information has Value” in a workplace setting. Design – Semi-structured interviews. Setting – Community health centre in Canada. Subjects – Seven health and human services staff members serving vulnerable, urban youth ages 12 to 24. Methods – The researcher employed phenomenography to analyze interviews and to identify categories of information practice. Main Results – Four categories of information practice emerged: resourcing, referring, outsourcing, and advocating. The researcher identified the value of information as central to participants’ experience of information practice in the workplace. Subjects’ understanding of the nature and significance of value was situated within personal relationships and professional networks. Conclusion – The study demonst...
Alma Mahler (1879–1964) grew up surrounded by artists in late nineteenth-century Vienna. Despite ... more Alma Mahler (1879–1964) grew up surrounded by artists in late nineteenth-century Vienna. Despite her musical training, demonstrated passion for music, and publication of several Lieder, Mahler’s identity as a composer has remained overshadowed by narratives surrounding her personal life and those of her husbands and lovers, not to mention the artistic work of her husbands and lovers. Increasingly, however, interest in Alma Mahler as a composer has been nurtured through creative engagement with that legacy, and frequently by women authors and artists.
This dissertation explores the existing literature written by and related to Alma Mahler and identifies some approaches for reevaluating her legacy as a composer. Those writing about the life and legacy of Alma Mahler in the twenty-first century typically follow one of two established paths; that of the rational author writing the irrational female subject or that of creative, and frequently feminist, approaches to Mahler’s life and work. I propose a third path, one that acknowledges both of the aforementioned approaches, but that focuses on Mahler’s work instead of her words. By drawing attention to Mahler works—that is, her songs and the performance thereof—and considering how reception and recording of these songs has shifted over the past several decades, I am poised to assert that Mahler is a composer.
The proliferation of diverging primary source materials surrounding her life and musical activities has prompted some to discount the narrative of Alma Mahler as a legitimate composer. This dissertation acknowledges the varied and often conflicting approaches to and perspectives on the idea of Alma Mahler as a composer and investigates how her music and its performance have been received in light of, and sometimes despite, her own writings. My work reconciles diverse facets of the composer by exploring her own words, the words of others, and, perhaps most importantly, her musical work in contemporary performance. It is my contention that by investigating Mahler through all of these frames, we can identify and contextualize the hidden but significant musical contributions of a young, female song composer in turn-of-the-century Vienna.
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This dissertation explores the existing literature written by and related to Alma Mahler and identifies some approaches for reevaluating her legacy as a composer. Those writing about the life and legacy of Alma Mahler in the twenty-first century typically follow one of two established paths; that of the rational author writing the irrational female subject or that of creative, and frequently feminist, approaches to Mahler’s life and work. I propose a third path, one that acknowledges both of the aforementioned approaches, but that focuses on Mahler’s work instead of her words. By drawing attention to Mahler works—that is, her songs and the performance thereof—and considering how reception and recording of these songs has shifted over the past several decades, I am poised to assert that Mahler is a composer.
The proliferation of diverging primary source materials surrounding her life and musical activities has prompted some to discount the narrative of Alma Mahler as a legitimate composer. This dissertation acknowledges the varied and often conflicting approaches to and perspectives on the idea of Alma Mahler as a composer and investigates how her music and its performance have been received in light of, and sometimes despite, her own writings. My work reconciles diverse facets of the composer by exploring her own words, the words of others, and, perhaps most importantly, her musical work in contemporary performance. It is my contention that by investigating Mahler through all of these frames, we can identify and contextualize the hidden but significant musical contributions of a young, female song composer in turn-of-the-century Vienna.