Scholarly Works, University Libraries

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Research articles, presentations, and other scholarship

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Open Science Across Borders: India vs. U.S. Institutional Approaches plenary session: U.S. Institutional Approaches
Pannabecker, Virginia (2025-09-26)
Open science encompasses not only making scientific research and data accessible to all but also aspires to reusability of knowledge. Open Science is an umbrella term that includes open data, open-access publications, and collaborative research platforms. Open science in the United States is revolutionizing research methodologies by enhancing transparency, collaboration, and accessibility. Principal activities encompass federal requirements for open access to publications and data, compliance with FAIR principles, citizen science endeavors, and the utilization of open-source platforms for data sharing and collaboration. The 2022 OSTP mandate requires that all government-sponsored research be readily accessible by 2026, highlighting a national dedication to this initiative. Nonetheless, obstacles such as financial sustainability, equality concerns, and cultural rejection persist. The US is positioned to spearhead advancing open research as a worldwide norm by overcoming these obstacles and promoting international cooperation. The open science movement in the USA is advancing rapidly, driven by federal policies, technological innovation, and grassroots efforts. While challenges remain, the country’s robust research infrastructure and commitment to transparency and collaboration position it as a global leader in the open science revolution. Note: This presentation was invited as part of a plenary panel session. The presentation slides file is only for the Virginia Tech author's presentation focused on the U.S., one of two presentations during the panel. The other presentation, focused on India approaches, was provided by Nabi Hasan who was also the panel moderator.
Out There, Anywhere: Digital Proxies for Threatened Cultural Heritage Sites and Structures
Deisa, Eva; Tucker, Sarah; Kinnaman, Alex; Ogle, J. Todd (Eurographics - The European Association for Computer Graphics, 2025-09-10)
Cultural heritage sites and structures located in remote environments or composed of fragile materials face numerous threats from degradation, inaccessibility, and lack of preservation support. This paper introduces an in-progress multimodal digitization project for a remote sculpture trail, an open-air art installation composed of wooden sculptures, in southwest Virginia. This project combines photogrammetry, Gaussian splatting, LiDAR, volumetric capture, and oral history to create an immersive digital proxy of the site and experience. It proposes a replicable, scalable model for capturing and preserving complex cultural heritage assets, leveraging interdisciplinary expertise and prioritizing cross-departmental collaboration and digital preservation strategies for XR content. This paper presents the comprehensive project plan, details current progress, and discusses ongoing planning considerations.
Representing Southwest Virginia: Creating the Rick Boucher Digital Collection
Munshower, Alan (2025-08-25)
Donor relations have changed significantly since digitization became ubiquitous, with many donors expecting to take a more active role in managing collection access, including donating funds for digitization. Funding is often welcome but may lead to disproportionate digitization of the collections of a wealthy few. Yet donor input can also provide an opportunity to engage with communities who appear in collections so that selections represent their priorities and reflect their lived experiences. In this panel, five practitioners will discuss their experiences managing donor-driven digitization, with examples ranging from donor-provided funding to engagement with marginalized communties.
"Look at My Planet!": How Handheld Virtual Reality Shapes Informal Learning Experiences
Moon, Hayoun; Bautista Isaza, Carlos Augusto; Gallagher, Matthew; McDaniel, Clara; Vernier, Atlas; Ican, Leah; Springer, Karina; Cohn, Madelyn; Bennett, Sylvia; Nair, Priyanka; Ricard, Alayna; Pochiraju, Nayha; Enriquez, Daniel; Lee, Sang Won; Ogle, J. Todd; Newbill, Phyllis; Jeon, Myounghoon (ACM, 2025-04-26)
Handheld virtual reality offers a promising tool for fostering engagement in informal learning environments, providing safe, shared, and inclusive experiences. This study investigated the potential of a handheld VR-based educational program, Solar System Explorer, in a science museum setting. Fifty-three participants, aged 5 to 13, engaged in six interactive scenes using handheld tablets, involving room-scale exploration of virtual environments in small groups guided by a docent. Findings showed that dynamic, room-scale content encouraged active physical movement, while visually rich, interactive scenes fostered knowledge sharing and elicited positive emotional responses. Social engagement was strongest during creative activities, such as planet building, which facilitated interactions even among unfamiliar peers. These insights inform design guidelines for developing fun, active, and collaborative VR learning environments, contributing to scalable and inclusive handheld VR applications for informal education.
Evaluating the Impact of Automated Labeling on Retrieval Instability in Neural IR
Ingram, William (ACM, 2025-07-13)
Effective information retrieval (IR) depends on accurate relevance classification. But when the criteria are subjective or underspecified, small variations in classification can cause consequential shifts in retrieval results. The potential for such variability becomes critical for institutions when they use IR for research assessment. Retrieval instability can lead to relevant literature being overlooked, hindering a comprehensive understanding of the research landscape, and potentially undermining the validity of subsequent analyses and decisions. We investigate this problem within the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a global framework for addressing environmental, social, and economic challenges. Scholarly research is vital for understanding, implementing, and monitoring SDG progress. Universities report SDG-related research to demonstrate impact, and international rankings incorporate SDG alignment into evaluations, influencing funding, policy, and institutional strategy. However, the nuanced nature of the SDGs makes it difficult to define what constitutes an SDG contribution [1]. Commonly used Boolean queries and controlled vocabularies for SDG retrieval cannot reliably differentiate substantive contributions (based on semantic relevance) from mere term occurrences. In prior work, Large Language Models (LLMs) have been used to filter Boolean search results in systematic reviews by scoring documents for relevance to a specific information need [2]. Other studies demonstrate that LLMs can generate high-quality relevance labels for IR evaluation [4]. This prompted an investigation into using LLMs to judge SDG contribution through relevance filtering, which revealed variability in the judgments made by different LLMs on the same set of documents [3]. This observation suggests that the classification behavior of LLMs are sensitive to the specific parameters inherent to each model. In this study, we prompt multiple LLMs to judge the SDG relevance of abstracts retrieved using Boolean queries. Abstracts judged relevant are used as positive training examples for fine-tuning multi-label SDG classifiers. We use these classifiers to simulate retrieval, applying fixed scoring functions to isolate fluctuations in ranking stability attributable to the different LLM relevance judgments. Our goal is to analyze how the structured signal of upstream inconsistencies in LLM-derived relevance judgments manifests as variations in retrieval outcomes, providing a novel lens for investigating ranking stability under classification uncertainty. This research centers on three key questions: RQ1: How do different LLMs diverge in their filtering decisions, and what effect does this have on ranking stability in retrieval systems trained on filtered data? RQ2: Can divergence in labeling decisions be systematically explained or predicted from document content? RQ3: What distinguishes documents where LLMs disagree on relevance, and can these differences be predicted from lexical or surface-level features? Using SDG classification as a case study of subjective relevance, we evaluate retrieval stability under classification uncertainty and address broader concerns regarding the reproducibility of LLM-based classification pipelines and their downstream effects.
A Closer Look at the End of Leadership: A Digital Followership Collection for Leadership Education
Kaufman, Eric K.; Oyedare, Israel; Haugen, Inga (2025-07-15)
Undoubtedly, the field of leadership has experienced a significant shift in recent years. As followership studies and research gain increasing attention, there is a growing call to prepare for its continued development. Thus, Virginia Tech, through a mini-grant and two years of research, is building a digital followership collection with the goal of supporting and advancing the field. This session will introduce participants to the platform, share its potential benefits across contexts, and demonstrate how artificial intelligence interfaces with the digital followership collection.
Preserving Content from Virginia Tech's Original Digital Collections Database
Munshower, Alan (2025-06-16)
This presentation provides an overview of the process of migrating content from the digital collections platform 'Imagebase'. Far from a traditional migration process, careful scrutiny was given to the metadata, scan quality, provenance, and organization of the over 100,000 items. Each collection required a unique mapping of its metadata, and thousands of new scans were made in the Digital Imaging Lab. Some collections were also expanded with the selection and scanning of additional physical objects.
New Evidence on Storage Practices: Results from the 2023 NDSA Storage Survey
Munshower, Alan; Prud'homme, Max; Allen, Amy; Garfunkel, Amanda; May, Kari (2024-07-17)
The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) recently conducted a survey to gather new data on trends, technologies, standards, and practices that impact digital preservation storage at different types of organizations around the world. Distributed through 18 different national and international listservs, the NDSA Working Group received 138 completed responses to the 51-question survey between October and November 2023. The 2023 survey builds on the results of the three surveys carried out in 2011, 2013, and 2019 on storage infrastructure, and offers a longitudinal view of how practices have changed. The survey gathers any information organizations use to establish and manage a preservation storage infrastructure (including systems and service providers) to meet their mission. Additionally, the survey captures insights on planning and organizational commitment. The newest feature of the survey is a section to address environmental awareness, as organizations seek to optimize digital preservation actions. This data can be used as a tool for organizations to advocate for resources, provide direction for future practices, inform work on tools, and provide an opportunity for collaboration on common challenges. This presentation will provide a brief look at how the report is developed using responses from international universities, institutes, government agencies, and others followed by some preliminary findings on how they manage digital preservation storage. The survey report will be published on the NDSA site later in 2024.
Virtual Micro-Internships as an Introduction to Digital Collections
Munshower, Alan (2024-08-15)
This session explores the challenges and opportunities associated with hosting remote and hybrid interns. It addresses how archival institutions can provide equitable learning experiences while meeting students where they are, ensuring their engagement, professional-growth, and well-being. Panelists from four institutions will discuss best practices, successful case studies, and how this first exposure to archival work can impact the development of future leaders.
Leveraging Expertise for Digital Scholarship Support
Guimont, Corinne; Munshower, Alan; Kinnaman, Alex (2023-11-14)
Virginia Tech University Libraries maintains over a dozen digital scholarship projects brought in through different library departments, indicating a need to better support these projects through the creation of the Digital Scholarship Technical Review Committee. Panelists will discuss roles and how past experiences with digital scholarship shape documentation and workflows.
An Exercise in Preservation (The Virginia Tech Time Capsule Project)
Munshower, Alan (2023-10-21)
Time capsules, while a ritual in the preservation of community memory, are often at odds with archival practices of preservation. With a representative selection of historical artifacts and the safeguarding of contents being central to all time capsule projects, archivists are commonly asked to participate in their creation and unearthing. This panel session will delve into case studies that reflect the process of selecting and preserving items, the importance of community engagement, and the ethical considerations involved. We will discuss the potential of time capsules to serve as tools for education and outreach, and re-appraise our recognized roles and responsibilities as archivists within a community.
Lest We Forget: Exploring the Life and Legacy of Maceo Pinkard
Munshower, Alan (2023-03-23)
Bingeable Archives: Licensing Content for TV and Film
Munshower, Alan (2022-10-10)
From Repository to Silver Screen: Building a Moving Image Licensing Practice
Munshower, Alan (2022-07-26)
Toward a More Sustainable Open Education Community: Panelists Share Their Work in OEP and Identify Strategies for Bridging the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sectors
Arispe, Kelly; Hoye, Amber; Blomgren, Connie; Smith, Shannon; Walz, Anita R.; Cormier, Beth; Lashley, Jonathan (2024-11-15)
This panel presentation is an expansion to the research presentation, “Toward a more sustainable open education community: Breaking through barriers to bridge primary, secondary, and tertiary open practices,” also presented at OEGlobal 2024. We suggest that even though Open Educational Practices (OEP) are supported and implemented differently across these sectors, working together as boundary spanners (Walz & Farley, 2023) can be a productive contribution to OEP sustainability. Addressing this gap is important to providing equitable quality education to all which is a UN Sustainable Development Goal. The panelists in this presentation were strategically selected to represent diverse perspectives across educational sectors (primary/secondary teacher librarian, tertiary/Higher Education librarians, Teacher Education faculty, Professional Staff, and state-level Government Leader). They will discuss commonalities and differences in their OEP work, perceived barriers, and opportunities, and share concrete examples where bridging the gap has positively impacted OEP implementation and advancement in their communities. Some of the barriers that challenge boundary spanning include a lack of OEP and OER awareness (at all levels), including not understanding the need for OEP and OER in the first place. Copyright fears and gatekeeping around ownership and sharing materials prohibit engagement and, in some regions, primary and secondary teachers are required to obtain permission to openly license and publicly share their work. Where OEP does bridge primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, inequities persist regarding how a contributor is compensated for their work, putting at risk the sustainability of these partnerships. From a governance perspective, stakeholder turnover at the state or provincial level is challenging to move this work forward. Widespread uncertainty regarding budget availability also threatens the sustainability of this work. This panel, however, is optimistic that by working together, we can impact the sustainability of OEP by empowering multi-level awareness and engagement. Panelists agree that the first step is to work towards policy that permits teachers, especially K-12 teachers, to engage in OEP. Furthermore, understanding and valuing one another's contributions is key; one potential solution is through common language about OEP that honors and recognizes this work, especially at primary and secondary levels. Panelists will also share their observations regarding the “Teacherpreneuer” mindset, where teachers could work as educational leaders and policymakers to incentivize and grow OEP engagement instead of commodifying teaching resources. Where copyright fears and debates around ownership keep educators from engaging, Creative Commons licenses provide a “third space” by shifting the focus from ownership to one of access, equity, and impact. Finally, panelists will discuss opportunities to bridge OEP across sectors through adopting and adapting open curricula and by collaborating in projects that require multi-level engagement. References Walz, A., & Farley, J. (2023). Making Open Educational Resources with and for PreK12: A Collaboration Toolkit for Higher Education. Virginia Tech Libraries. Retrieved May 1, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.21061/OER_PreK12_highered
Toward a More Sustainable Open Education Community: Breaking through Barriers to Bridge Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Open Practices
Arispe, Kelly; Hoye, Amber; Walz, Anita R. (2024-11-13)
Open Educational Practices (OEP) are supported and implemented differently in the primary and secondary sectors compared to the tertiary sector. This is observable in the types of OER they prefer (ancillary materials compared to textbooks, respectively; Blomgren 2018) and the incentives that have evolved to make open education count (McKinney, 2024). The latest Bayview Analytics Reports (Seaman & Seaman, 2023) also reveal disparities in OER awareness and use; preK12 is becoming more aware but only a third of the population knows they exist compared to two-thirds of higher education faculty. Moreover, differences in governance and funding mechanisms fundamentally impact how materials are adopted and how instructors make choices about the materials they use in their classrooms. These differences complicate how institutions at all levels support and reward instructors who want to engage in OEP and keep these sectors siloed and isolated. However, by continuing to be siloed in practice rather than working together as boundary spanners (Walz & Farley, 2023), the OEP community is missing its greatest potential contributor to pedagogical innovation and creativity. The mutual isolation of these two sectors is a major threat to the sustainability of OEP. Addressing this gap is also important in providing equitable quality education which is a UN Sustainable Development Goal. This presentation will explore and compare the distinctive characteristics of open education at different educational levels in North America. We identify factors that generate or influence these structural barriers and suggest practices and models that can solve the siloing of these two communities. This presentation suggests a framework for how to move forward and is relevant to a variety of stakeholders (education, government, and non-profit) who can act on these recommendations. We end with a brief overview of several projects across these sectors doing critical work as boundary spanners who bridge these gaps in meaningful ways. Finally, this presentation sets the groundwork for a panel session (also under review) whereby a diverse group of leaders across sectors (primary, secondary, tertiary, government) discuss their work in OEP and propose opportunities in which they could work as boundary spanners to address the sustainability of OEP in collaboration with other educational sectors and partners. References Blomgren, C. (2018). OER Awareness and Use: The Affinity Between Higher Education and K-12. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19, 55-70. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i2.3431 McKinney, A. (Ed.). (2024). Valuing OER in the tenure, promotion, and reappointment process. CUNY Academic Works. Retrieved from https://pressbooks.cuny.edu/tenureandpromotioncasestudies Seaman, J.E. & Seaman, J. (2023). Curricula of Many Sources Educational Resources in U.S. K-12 Education, 2023. Bay View Analytics. Walz, A., & Farley, J. (2023). Making Open Educational Resources with and for PreK12: A Collaboration Toolkit for Higher Education. Virginia Tech Libraries. Retrieved May 1, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.21061/OER_PreK12_highered
Forming a Pod: A Naval Architecture, Marine and Ocean Engineering Librarian Community of Practice
Barbrow, Sarah; Durkin Ruth, Kelly; Janssen, Amber; Mayberry, Christina; Over, Sarah; Parker, Sarah (American Society for Engineering Education, 2025-06-22)
Naval Architecture, Marine, and Ocean Engineering (NAMOE) programs are unique in that they are specialized, interdisciplinary, and uncommon at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. As a result, librarians or subject specialists who liaise with these areas can encounter a lack of resources and knowledge to support the students and faculty in these programs. A group of librarians who have NAMOE programs as part of their institutions recently started a dedicated group, combining elements of communities of practice and peer group mentoring to discuss how best to support these programs and each other as professionals with varying experience in this subject area. Plans include the development of a resource similar to chapters in Osif’s Using the Engineering Literature, a crucial source for librarians supporting engineering disciplines that lists a comprehensive, discipline-specific suite of key resources, and enhancing discovery of OER in NAMOE. In this work-in-progress article, in addition to sketching out some of the resources we plan to create and share, we will discuss the formation of this group and reflect on how it has impacted our work. By combining our efforts, we will enhance teaching and research for NAMOE programs, deepen our expertise in NAMOE library services, and present a framework for other specialized librarian communities to follow.
Collaborations Beyond the Library: Bibliometric Analyses to Support Engineering Research, Innovation and Diversity
Over, Sarah; Stovall, Connie (American Society for Engineering Education, 2023-06-25)
A new library department was formed to focus on growing university research impact and delivering data-driven research intelligence. The department collaborates with multiple units across campus, including with the College of Engineering via the department’s Engineering Collections and Research Analyst. All collaborations stem from the need for data-driven decisions for determining inter- and intra-institutional strengths and for discovering potential and existing research partnerships. This paper focuses on key collaborations with campus partners relevant to engineering research, innovation, and diversity efforts at Virginia Tech, providing processes and examples in each area. Examples include: an analysis of institutional degree data to determine competency related to the CHIPS and Science Act; prospective aerospace company collaborations; and research alignment analysis with HBCUs and other minority serving institutions. Each example covers tools, alternatives, and processes used to generate these analyses with end products presented to collaborators. Overall, the collaborations have been successful and are growing, which prompted the need for a new department, with wide support within the library and across campus.
Libraries’ Role in Enabling New Engineering Research Investments: Working with Campus Research Administration Units
Over, Sarah; Comer, C. Cozette; Stovall, Connie; Wang, Jiren; Hoch, Jackson; Mazure, Emily S.; Miles, Rachel A. (2025-06)
The role of libraries in academia is ever evolving with opportunities to influence research decisions at the highest level. University Libraries at Virginia Tech for multiple years now has been asked to support cutting-edge research investments with the goal of helping to galvanize complex, cross-disciplinary, and highly impactful research for years to come. With access to a variety of databases, software, and specialized experts, libraries can support and inform these research investments via discovery and analysis of: future and/or retrospective funding, research gaps and/or trends, market and industry trends, graduate programs, and more. At Virginia Tech, these research investments (Destination Areas) from the Office of Research involve engineering each year, covering areas such as AI, medical materials, and quantum navigation. This publication will present case studies (analyses and processes) for other librarians and/or research units to consider, leveraging the expertise of information sciences and academic libraries. The University Libraries, Virginia Tech have not only succeeded in this work, but enabled greater discovery of our talents and skills as research partners for the whole institution.
Developing a Network for Non-credit, Non-classroom Credentialing at Virginia Tech
MacDonald, Amanda B.; Zaldivar, Marc (2025-03-03)

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