Digital Libraries
17:610:553:90/95
Reading for Recovery: Final Report
William Bejarano
bejarano@rulmail.rutgers.edu
Executive summary: What follows is a final report summary of the Reading for
Recovery (R4R) digital library prototype, taken from the “About” page at r4r.omeka.net .
http://r4r.omeka.net
http://r4r.omeka.net
R4R: Reading for Recovery is a prototype of a digital library developed in parallel for
the Digital Libraries course under the tutelage of Dr. Tefko Saracevic for the Rutgers
School of Communication and Information and for the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies
Library.
DISCLAIMER
As this web site is still a prototype and not yet meant to be a released to the public-atlarge, its collection has not yet been vetted by addiction professionals. As such, it makes
no claims of authority nor of the quality of the selected titles.
NEED
The problems of substance abuse and addiction have been well-established in society.
Books have proven to be a potential source of solace, inspiration, and enlightenment for
those attempting to recover from these ills. To date, there is no comprehensive resource
bridging the gap between these two pillars.
PURPOSE
The R4R Digital Library is the first comprehensive, non-commercial attempt to bridge
this gap. Its aim is to: (1) facilitate the use of libraries by highlighting materials for users
who may wish to remain anonymous, (2) add to the reader’s advisory toolkit for
librarians on a sensitive topic, and (3) provide addiction counselors with a sustainable
database to complement traditional therapies.
While traditional reading advisories work both in the physical and digital environments,
due to the sensitive nature of addiction, the online environment better facilitates the
information behavior by allowing anonymous information seeking. To that end, this
digital library has been created as an easily discoverable, non-commercial, open-access
website for users who wish to retain their anonymity.
COMMUNITY
The intended audience for this collection is not only those suffering from addictions or in
recovery, but also those indirectly affected by substance use, or librarians and/or
counselors who may want assistance in recommending useful titles.
We offer several sub-categories of titles, such as scientific literature, novels, self-help
books, and memoirs, as everyone's reading interests are unique to them, and what might
be considered unappealing to one person could be considered engaging and even lifechanging to another.
This collection is of course not excluded to those who simply find a fascination with the
topic, even if they are not directly or indirectly affected.
CONTENT
The collection was selected from the following sources:
Rutgers Center of Alcohol Library catalog: As the oldest research institution on
addiction, CAS is a trusted, authoritative source on the topic, and as such provides a
unique collection unlike any other in the world.
Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists (SALIS) book lists: The creator
of this digital library is a member of this collective, and has access to a vast array of
trusted literature on the topic, vetted by professionals in the industry.
Several recovery web sites/blogs/message boards: There is much that has been publicly
available on the internet in regard to this topic, and personal recommendations and
suggestions from those suffering from addiction or are involved in some indirect way can
often provide an even keener insight into the topic than any professional organization
can. These sources must, of course, be carefully observed, but ignoring them altogether
would be a disservice.
Books/articles on the topic of bibliotherapy: There is a substantial body of literature on
the topic, though only a small portion of that literature is focused on addictions. Still, it
was worth going through an extensive literature review in order to gain both a sense of
big picture as well as some individual recommendations, some of which were fruitful and
ended up in this prototype.
SELECTION CRITERIA
Books from the CAS Library collection were chosen based LC call numbers. The range
HV5001-5840 was a particular focus, as these titles cover alcoholism, tobacco habits,
drug habits, and drug abuse. In addition, the range RC554-569.5 covers personality and
behavioral disorders, including drug abuse.
Books from the SALIS list, forums, and books on the topic of bibliotherapy were chosen
based on a subjective opinion from the book's description. In particular, those with
themes relating to the individual sub-collections were given priority.
METHODS
Once selected, the metadata for each book were pulled from various sources and added,
one-by-one, to the collection. By checking the relevant information against several
authoritative sources, including the Library of Congress, OCLC's WorldCat, HathiTrust,
and the Rutgers University Libraries Catalog, this digital library can confidently claim
that all metadata is correct.
Subject Headings were assigned based on the combined wisdom of Library of Congress
and WorldCat (source is noted on the individual records).
Descriptions were taken from several sources, including Library of Congress, WorldCat,
publisher pages, and Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies LibGuides, and respectively
credited.
The Source field provides a permalink to the WorldCat record for each item, which offers
up similar metadata, but more importantly provides local libraries from which the user
can find the title, based on zip code. Also on this page are links to online sources from
which the title can be purchased, and user reviews.
The Relation field provides other titles that are directly linked to the one in question, such
as those which are a part of the same series, or revisions and edits.
The titles are organized into Collections, which are decided upon by the digital library's
creator. In addition, titles can be "tagged" with other potential organizing criteria. These
"tags" show up as a link on the record, which when clicked, leads to dynamically-created
collections of all items with those same "tags". This is provided so there exists both a topdown and bottom-up approach to cataloging. User tagging is currently not available, but
may be implemented in some capacity in the future.
Citations are helpfully provided on each record for any users who might want to cite
something from this library.
SEARCHING & BROWSING
At the top of the page are the two different ways of organizing the collection. The
"Browse Items" page lists items by date added as the default, but can also be listed
alphabetically by creator (read: author) or title. The "Browse Collections" page has items
organized by the sub-collections explained above. These can also be sorted by date added
or by collection title.
The general search box, located in the upper-right of the page, is an all-encompassing
search of all metadata fields. For a more precise search, the user can click the [...] icon,
which allows the user to change the general search to a Boolean or Exact Match. Further,
the user may select Advanced Search, which offers faceted searching on any combination
of metadata fields, tags, or item types.