This study focused on determining the extent to which collections of the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame met the needs of graduate students. This study data (2005–2007) consisted of a citation analysis of 248 dissertations and focused on the following questions: What were the graduate students citing in their dissertations? Did the library own the cited items? How did the disciplines compare in their citation patterns? The data showed that over 90 percent of the 39,106 citations were to books and journals. The libraries owned 67 percent of the items graduate students cited in their dissertations. The libraries owned 83 percent of the Arts & Humanities, 90 percent of the Engineering, 92 percent of the Science, and 75 percent of the Social Sciences sources in the top 1,000 most cited titles, indicating a need for funding for further development of Social Sciences collections in the Hesburgh Libraries.

This study sought to determine the extent to which the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame meet the needs of the anthropology faculty. It did that by focusing on how useful the University Libraries' collections were in their research and publications. This article describes both the methodology employed and the findings of this citation analysis. The study looked at the following questions: What were the faculty of the anthropology department at the University of Notre Dame citing in their published research? Where were they publishing their research? Did the library own these cited items and the publications in which the faculty were publishing? The study found that the anthropology faculty's citations overall were 47 percent and 45 percent book and journal citations, respectively. In addition, the library owned only 41.48 percent of the items anthropology faculty were citing in their research. This study also found that the library owned 72 percent of the publications in which anthropology faculty published their works. This study indicates a need for additional funding for further development of anthropology collections in the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame to support anthropology faculty at the university in their research and publication endeavors.

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Quality of data plays a very important role in any scientific research. In this paper we present some of the challenges that we face in managing and maintaining data quality for a terabyte scale biometrics repository. We have developed a step by step model to capture, ingest, validate, and prepare data for biometrics research. During these processes, there are many hidden errors which can be introduced into the data. Those errors can affect the overall quality of data, and thus can skew the results of biometrics research. We discuss necessary steps we have taken to reduce and eliminate the errors. Steps such as data replication, automated data validation, and logging metadata changes are necessary and crucial to improve the quality and reliability of our data.