Linkspam! I won't even attempt to arrange these into some kind of thematic grouping this time, just throw them all at you:
Running the Library Race "draws a parallel between fatigued runners and overworked librarians, proposing that libraries need to pace work more effectively to avoid burnout. Through an exploration of cognitive science, organizational psychology, and practical examples, guest author Erica Jesonis offers considerations for improving productivity and reducing stress within our fast-paced library culture".
LIANZA 2012 was held this week and the conference proceedings are now online.
Aaron Tay rounds up 6 presentations/posts on librarianship that impressed me.
Elyssa Kroski has put together a list of 100+ law librarians on Twitter.
Jessica Olin writes about how she handles reference on chat - including a question on "Who would win in a fight? A bear or a tiger?" - in Chat reference is a weird beastie.
Meredith Farkas writes on Living our values, pulling together thoughts on a variety of events in the general "ownership vs [increasingly-expensive-]access" debate.
Speaking of which, I've particularly been following the saga since Jenica Rogers from SUNY Potsdam posted about her library's decision to cancel subscriptions to ACS journals - not an easy decision for either the library or the faculty, but she's been communicating transparently with the faculty about all the issues for some years so has been getting their full support both on the decision and on the backlash from ACS against the attention and support her post has been getting from librarians and chemists alike - ChemBark (with all the comments) has a good summary of a large part of it from a chemist's point of view, as does Walt Crawford from a librarian-ly point of view; and Catherine Pellegrino focuses on how other libraries and chemistry departments should step forward and stand with SUNY Potsdam on this.
Showing posts with label roundup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roundup. Show all posts
Friday, 28 September 2012
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Links of interest: pricing, impact factors, marketing, and staplers
Acquisitions and budgets
2012 Study of Subscription Prices for Scholarly Society Journals (pdf) is out from Allen Press. "[T]he average increase in 2012 dropped, more than a full percentage point below the average, to less than 6%." (The Consumer Price Index, according to the same figure, was less than 4%.) Much more detail, analysis and discussion is at the source (pdf).
The Librarian in Black writes I'm breaking up with eBooks (and you can too) on the poor deal that current models of ebook provision are for libraries and, by extension, our customers.
Marketing
Alison Wallbutton in #brandlibraries ponders what branding is, how libraries are branded, and whether we want to reposition that branding. She argues that libraries are successfully branded - as "books"; it's in the very word. But of course (segue to my own thoughts) we as librarians get twitchy about wanting to make sure that users know we're not just books, so we reject that outright - often without having put any thought into what we're going to replace that branding with. Which leaves us in a position where we can't effectively promote ourselves because we don't have any image to put out there.
Impact factors
Nixon, J.M. (2012). Core Journals in Library and Information Science: Developing a Methodology for Ranking LIS Journals. C&RL. Advance online publication.
--Outlines a methodology and resulting list of three tiers into which they've divided LIS journals according to "influence". Uses a mix of expert opinions, impact factors, circulation rate, and acceptance rate and, unsurprisingly, comes up with a similar list as those derived from expert opinions or from impact factors.
Probably a good measure of influence; it doesn't claim that quality follows. Which is good because Sick of Impact Factors which concludes that "if you use impact factors you are statistically illiterate" and has been so widely retweeted and commented on that the author has posted a followup summarising the long comment thread in sections: useful links; concerns about metrics; alternative metrics; and actions to take.
Just for fun
Library Shenanigans reports on The Stapler Obituaries - a mini-exhibition of dead staplers at an academic library.
2012 Study of Subscription Prices for Scholarly Society Journals (pdf) is out from Allen Press. "[T]he average increase in 2012 dropped, more than a full percentage point below the average, to less than 6%." (The Consumer Price Index, according to the same figure, was less than 4%.) Much more detail, analysis and discussion is at the source (pdf).
The Librarian in Black writes I'm breaking up with eBooks (and you can too) on the poor deal that current models of ebook provision are for libraries and, by extension, our customers.
Marketing
Alison Wallbutton in #brandlibraries ponders what branding is, how libraries are branded, and whether we want to reposition that branding. She argues that libraries are successfully branded - as "books"; it's in the very word. But of course (segue to my own thoughts) we as librarians get twitchy about wanting to make sure that users know we're not just books, so we reject that outright - often without having put any thought into what we're going to replace that branding with. Which leaves us in a position where we can't effectively promote ourselves because we don't have any image to put out there.
Impact factors
Nixon, J.M. (2012). Core Journals in Library and Information Science: Developing a Methodology for Ranking LIS Journals. C&RL. Advance online publication.
--Outlines a methodology and resulting list of three tiers into which they've divided LIS journals according to "influence". Uses a mix of expert opinions, impact factors, circulation rate, and acceptance rate and, unsurprisingly, comes up with a similar list as those derived from expert opinions or from impact factors.
Probably a good measure of influence; it doesn't claim that quality follows. Which is good because Sick of Impact Factors which concludes that "if you use impact factors you are statistically illiterate" and has been so widely retweeted and commented on that the author has posted a followup summarising the long comment thread in sections: useful links; concerns about metrics; alternative metrics; and actions to take.
Just for fun
Library Shenanigans reports on The Stapler Obituaries - a mini-exhibition of dead staplers at an academic library.
Monday, 4 June 2012
4 #blogjune
Four fantastic links I want everyone to read:
Proceedings of Codcon 2012
A virtual, hypothetical, parodic library conference held by the Library Society of the World on Twitter and Friendfeed on Wednesday, May 16, 2012.
No, we can’t do it all by Meredith Farkas
"So many of us struggle with determining priorities in teaching. Few of us have a workload that would allow us to do everything we would like to do. We hear stories about embedded librarian programs, librarians who were able to co-grade student papers with a disciplinary faculty member, libraries that have co-taught entire classes, etc. and we think: wow, I’d love to do that. But can we?"
A failure of imagination – the problem with format neutrality
"I often hear librarians promoting their 'modern librarian' credentials by saying 'it's about the information, not the container'. By this they tend to mean that [...] we should not be concerned about in which formats information is available, as long as it is available somehow. But what if it is about the container?" Read more to inspire your imagination.
Collective action for ebook collections
"I still agree with the notion that unless ebook publishing and distribution changes, libraries are still screwed. So let's change things. Here are three things *you* can do." Read more to improve ebook access.
Proceedings of Codcon 2012
A virtual, hypothetical, parodic library conference held by the Library Society of the World on Twitter and Friendfeed on Wednesday, May 16, 2012.
No, we can’t do it all by Meredith Farkas
"So many of us struggle with determining priorities in teaching. Few of us have a workload that would allow us to do everything we would like to do. We hear stories about embedded librarian programs, librarians who were able to co-grade student papers with a disciplinary faculty member, libraries that have co-taught entire classes, etc. and we think: wow, I’d love to do that. But can we?"
A failure of imagination – the problem with format neutrality
"I often hear librarians promoting their 'modern librarian' credentials by saying 'it's about the information, not the container'. By this they tend to mean that [...] we should not be concerned about in which formats information is available, as long as it is available somehow. But what if it is about the container?" Read more to inspire your imagination.
Collective action for ebook collections
"I still agree with the notion that unless ebook publishing and distribution changes, libraries are still screwed. So let's change things. Here are three things *you* can do." Read more to improve ebook access.
Friday, 11 May 2012
Links of Interest - ebook lending, web design, bibliographic software, open access
Lending eBooks
Colorado's Douglas County Libraries has come up with a model whereby they buy, host, and manage the lending of ebooks (including DRM), rather than subscribe to publishers' platforms. See more details on the model and a letter to publishers about how it works.
Here's a cute way of reminding users of the value of libraries when they check out print books. It would be interesting to think of ways to make this work with e-resources...
Web design
See a demo of One-Pager, a free template for library websites designed and user-tested to make it easy to find the most important information - and to be immediately mobile-friendly and accessible. You can read more or download the code here.
Bibliographic software
Beyond Bibliographies: Collaborating with Citation Software (powerpoint) is a poster comparing Endnote, RefWorks, Zotero, and Mendeley.
Open Access
(I try to include a variety of stuff in these round-ups, but open access is kind of a strong interest of mine, so...)
Some keen-eyed librarians noticed that the previously open-access Reference and User Services Quarterly was suddenly open-access no longer; the Library Loon investigated and reported back. Apparently in future articles will be embargoed for a year, although as at writing older articles aren't available yet either.
(This reminds me that I keep meaning to find out whether The New Zealand Library And Information Management Journal is intended to be open access or if it's just openly accessible by default, so to speak. In any case they're there at the moment - as are all the LIANZA conference papers from 2004. They're not browsable/searchable in the most user-friendly format but I know from experience what the web group's dealing with, and that just getting them all in one place is a fantastic achievement.)
The Library Loon also has a fantastic discussion about how to recognise scammy "open access" publishers.
SCORE Library Survey Report "aimed to get a national [UK] perspective on institutional engagement in Open Educational Resources through their librarians".
Open Access in Chemistry - slides from a presentation at the 2011 ACS Spring Meeting giving an excellent overview of what it says on the tin - in terms both of numbers and of attitudes.
Colorado's Douglas County Libraries has come up with a model whereby they buy, host, and manage the lending of ebooks (including DRM), rather than subscribe to publishers' platforms. See more details on the model and a letter to publishers about how it works.
Here's a cute way of reminding users of the value of libraries when they check out print books. It would be interesting to think of ways to make this work with e-resources...
Web design
See a demo of One-Pager, a free template for library websites designed and user-tested to make it easy to find the most important information - and to be immediately mobile-friendly and accessible. You can read more or download the code here.
Bibliographic software
Beyond Bibliographies: Collaborating with Citation Software (powerpoint) is a poster comparing Endnote, RefWorks, Zotero, and Mendeley.
Open Access
(I try to include a variety of stuff in these round-ups, but open access is kind of a strong interest of mine, so...)
Some keen-eyed librarians noticed that the previously open-access Reference and User Services Quarterly was suddenly open-access no longer; the Library Loon investigated and reported back. Apparently in future articles will be embargoed for a year, although as at writing older articles aren't available yet either.
(This reminds me that I keep meaning to find out whether The New Zealand Library And Information Management Journal is intended to be open access or if it's just openly accessible by default, so to speak. In any case they're there at the moment - as are all the LIANZA conference papers from 2004. They're not browsable/searchable in the most user-friendly format but I know from experience what the web group's dealing with, and that just getting them all in one place is a fantastic achievement.)
The Library Loon also has a fantastic discussion about how to recognise scammy "open access" publishers.
SCORE Library Survey Report "aimed to get a national [UK] perspective on institutional engagement in Open Educational Resources through their librarians".
Open Access in Chemistry - slides from a presentation at the 2011 ACS Spring Meeting giving an excellent overview of what it says on the tin - in terms both of numbers and of attitudes.
Friday, 30 March 2012
Links of Interest 30/3/2012 - article linker, impact factors of open access journals, and more
Customer service
UConn Discovers What Students Want From Their Library - too complex for a pull quote, follow the link for a summary.
Two solutions for increasing the usability of that blasted Article Linker page:
JQ at the University of Oregon writes about High-impact open access journals and includes some invaluable tables of OA journals ranked by SJR, SciMago, and Eigenfactor impact factors. These (sorted by subject) could be useful for promoting OA to departments and to students graduating from university who still want to keep up with research.
Positioning Open Access Journals in a LIS Journal Ranking looks at OA journals in the library science field:
Data curation
Demystifying the data interview: Developing a foundation for reference librarians to talk with researchers about their data
Subscription statistics
Subscriptions in Context (powerpoint) is a clear and elegant presentation for University of Central Oklahoma library faculty liaisons on all the factors the Serials department considers when evaluating subscriptions.
Just for fun
A Library Society of the World thread began, "Gregor Samsa awoke from uneasy dreams to find he had been transformed into a monstrous librarian" and went on from there.
UConn Discovers What Students Want From Their Library - too complex for a pull quote, follow the link for a summary.
Two solutions for increasing the usability of that blasted Article Linker page:
- simple and sweet
- more complex and risky (if you're not a code geek, skip the discussion/coding examples and just scroll to the bottom for the "after" screenshot)
JQ at the University of Oregon writes about High-impact open access journals and includes some invaluable tables of OA journals ranked by SJR, SciMago, and Eigenfactor impact factors. These (sorted by subject) could be useful for promoting OA to departments and to students graduating from university who still want to keep up with research.
Positioning Open Access Journals in a LIS Journal Ranking looks at OA journals in the library science field:
This research uses the h-index to rank the quality of library and information science journals between 2004 and 2008. Selected open access (OA) journals are included in the ranking to assess current OA development in support of scholarly communication. It is found that OA journals have gained momentum supporting high-quality research and publication, and some OA journals have been ranked as high as the best traditional print journals. The findings will help convince scholars to make more contributions to OA journal publications, and also encourage librarians and information professionals to make continuous efforts for library publishing.
Data curation
Demystifying the data interview: Developing a foundation for reference librarians to talk with researchers about their data
As libraries become more involved in curating research data, reference librarians will need to be trained in conducting data interviews with researchers to better understand their data and associated needs. This article seeks to identify and provide definitions for the basic terms and concepts of data curation for librarians to properly frame and carry out a data interview using the Data Curation Profiles (DCP) Toolkit.
Subscription statistics
Subscriptions in Context (powerpoint) is a clear and elegant presentation for University of Central Oklahoma library faculty liaisons on all the factors the Serials department considers when evaluating subscriptions.
Just for fun
A Library Society of the World thread began, "Gregor Samsa awoke from uneasy dreams to find he had been transformed into a monstrous librarian" and went on from there.
Friday, 28 October 2011
Links of Interest 19/10/2011 - infolit & student success; serials; conferences
The Swiss Army Librarian posts a regular "Reference Question of the Week". One of the latest covers using file conversion websites to help a desperate patron who needs to print out a file in a format that the library doesn't support.
Sense and Reference discusses three recent blogposts on libraries getting rid of books to create spaces.
The effect of library instruction on student success
Three C&RL papers:
Sense and Reference discusses three recent blogposts on libraries getting rid of books to create spaces.
The effect of library instruction on student success
Three C&RL papers:
- The Academic Library Impact on Student Persistence: "a change in the ratio of library professional staff to students predicts a statistically significant positive relationship with both retention and graduation rates." (Note that they show correlation, not causation; in their discussion they're inclined to suspect that the effect of more library professional staff is an indirect one.)
- Measuring Association between Library Instruction and Graduation GPA: "if more than one or two library workshops were offered to students within the course of their program, there was a higher tendency of workshop attendance having a positive impact on final GPA. The results indicate that library instruction has a direct correlation with student performance, but only if a certain minimum amount of instruction is provided."
- Why One-shot Information Literacy Sessions Are Not the Future of Instruction: A Case for Online Credit Courses: "Researchers analyzed the pre- and post-test scores of students who received different types of instruction including a traditional one-shot library session and an online course. Results show that students who participated in the online course demonstrated significant improvement in their test scores compared to the other students. This study shows freshman students' needs for more comprehensive information literacy instruction."
- Jenica Rogers names names of vendors with annoying practices. Some vendors responded well; some badly. Jenica posted another followup on Vendors that delight me.
- SCOAP3 is an initiative to set up a consortium that redirects library funds from paying for closed access High Energy Physics journal subscriptions to funding these journals to be made open access. The FAQ goes into more detail about how the model will work.
- LIANZA 2011 starts on Sunday - #lianza11 tweets from all attendees will be captured in a set of CoverItLive sessions and I'll be liveblogging as much as my wrists allow
- the worldwide online Library 2.011 conference will follow, running from November 2 - 4, with sessions held in multiple timezones.
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Links of Interest 23/8/2011 - What Students Don't Know (and bonus marketing)
This has exploded onto the various networks I follow, so it seems a good time to gather some other links with it:
What students don't know gives an overview of findings from an ethnographic study of how students at various Illinois universities research, and is a vital read for anyone in the academic environment working with students.
Related links:
Unrelated links, on marketing:
What students don't know gives an overview of findings from an ethnographic study of how students at various Illinois universities research, and is a vital read for anyone in the academic environment working with students.
Related links:
- Project home
- The study will be published as a monograph.
- A similar study in 2007 Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester is also available (including a free online version).
- In 1993 Barbara Fister wrote the still-relevant and -mindblowing article Teaching the Rhetorical Dimensions of Research, reading which made me modify a class I was preparing for mid-way through pulling the powerpoint together.
- Ibid, 2011, Search: How Libraries Do it Wrong draws links between problems with how we teach search to students and with how we interact with academics and "the small things, the seemingly trivial things, that can drive people to find ways around libraries."
Unrelated links, on marketing:
- Gavia Libraria writes about all those times people say "So you're a librarian? So... you... shelve books?..." and suggests Representing Ourselves by telling people what we do (in elevator pitch format - she gives examples) rather than waste time attempting to argue about stereotypes.
- Mr Library Dude collects a bunch of Social Media Ideas & Prizes for Libraries from various libraries.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Links of interest 2/6/11 - collaborating with students
Reading my RSS feeds sometimes a theme emerges from the chaos - this time it was ways in which academic libraries have collaborated with students to enhance both library services and student learning.
Research
Students Studying Students: An Assessment of using Undergraduate Student Researchers in an Ethnographic Study of Library Use "reports on the use of undergraduate students enrolled in an Applied Anthropology course as researchers for a library use study at Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library".
Similarly, Brian Mathews writes about Exploring graduate student use patterns of the UCSB Library.
Experimentation in an Academic Library: A Study in Security and Individual Student Engagement
"The Special Collections and Rare Book Department at Western Michigan University collaborated with a student worker to develop a system to improve security and employee performance. The student was taking a course in psychology that required him to develop a workplace behavioral intervention with a client and modify an important behavior for employee performance."
Library instruction
Building a Participatory Culture: Collaborating with Student Organizations for 21st Century Library Instruction - literature review and summary of some events where the library hooked into student association events, or initiated their own in collaboration with the student association, to teach library skills.
Displays
Brian Mathews again: Reframing the Concept of Plagiarism, Or What I Learned From Banksy - on art projects in the library.
Communication
A Friendfeed discussion on Our library posts a newsletter called "Stall Times" in our bathrooms. A student using the pseudonyms "Mike Koch" and "Hugh Jass" recently made a parody called "Small Times." Our creative manager contacted him and invited him to collaborate. The conversation doesn't go further in depth but does include links to archived bathroom newsletters from this and other libraries.
Back to Brigham Young University - they're also famous for their parody of the Old Spice commercial, made by the Harold B. Lee Library Multimedia Production Crew, consisting of two full time employees and ten student employees - see their behind the scenes.
There's lots of scope for collaboration with journalism, media, music and film students. Language students could translate subtitles. History/literature/etc students could work with digitisation projects. Computer science students could work on components for open source library software. The sky's the limit...
Research
Students Studying Students: An Assessment of using Undergraduate Student Researchers in an Ethnographic Study of Library Use "reports on the use of undergraduate students enrolled in an Applied Anthropology course as researchers for a library use study at Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library".
Similarly, Brian Mathews writes about Exploring graduate student use patterns of the UCSB Library.
Experimentation in an Academic Library: A Study in Security and Individual Student Engagement
"The Special Collections and Rare Book Department at Western Michigan University collaborated with a student worker to develop a system to improve security and employee performance. The student was taking a course in psychology that required him to develop a workplace behavioral intervention with a client and modify an important behavior for employee performance."
Library instruction
Building a Participatory Culture: Collaborating with Student Organizations for 21st Century Library Instruction - literature review and summary of some events where the library hooked into student association events, or initiated their own in collaboration with the student association, to teach library skills.
Displays
Brian Mathews again: Reframing the Concept of Plagiarism, Or What I Learned From Banksy - on art projects in the library.
Communication
A Friendfeed discussion on Our library posts a newsletter called "Stall Times" in our bathrooms. A student using the pseudonyms "Mike Koch" and "Hugh Jass" recently made a parody called "Small Times." Our creative manager contacted him and invited him to collaborate. The conversation doesn't go further in depth but does include links to archived bathroom newsletters from this and other libraries.
Back to Brigham Young University - they're also famous for their parody of the Old Spice commercial, made by the Harold B. Lee Library Multimedia Production Crew, consisting of two full time employees and ten student employees - see their behind the scenes.
There's lots of scope for collaboration with journalism, media, music and film students. Language students could translate subtitles. History/literature/etc students could work with digitisation projects. Computer science students could work on components for open source library software. The sky's the limit...
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Links of interest 22/9/10
Assessing the (Enduring) Value of Libraries
MIT Libraries has created a Beta Graveyard for trial projects that aren't being continued - nice to see what's happened to old ideas.
Cyberpunk Librarian, part 1 - a librarian and a library robot; a problem and a cunning solution.
The launch of Foursquare buttons for websites - a button you can easily add to any website that lets users link your site and your physical location on their phone.
Hacking Summon in Code4Lib describes how OSU made their data display more tidily
MIT Libraries has created a Beta Graveyard for trial projects that aren't being continued - nice to see what's happened to old ideas.
Cyberpunk Librarian, part 1 - a librarian and a library robot; a problem and a cunning solution.
The launch of Foursquare buttons for websites - a button you can easily add to any website that lets users link your site and your physical location on their phone.
Hacking Summon in Code4Lib describes how OSU made their data display more tidily
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Links of interest 26/8/10
Scandal du jour (aka the power of social media)
JSTOR's new interface made searches default to covering their entire database - so results might include articles students didn't have access to on JSTOR and which wouldn't even be linked via OpenURL to the library's subscription in another database. (Meredith Farkas describes the problems neatly.) Librarians complained loudly on blogs, JSTOR's Facebook page, and elsewhere, and a day later JSTOR has announced that they'll change the default while they continue work on OpenURL.
Tools
WolframAlpha has added widgets that focus on a specific kind of data and can be embedded into a webpage by copying and pasting the code. Categories cover all kinds of subject areas - some widgets might be relevant in a subject guide. (You'd need to add a new rich text box, then select the plain text editor and copy/paste in the embed code from WolframAlpha.)
Librarian as resource
University of Michigan Library's search results now bring back subject librarians as well as relevant databases, catalogue items, subject guides, institutional repository hits, and external websites. Their blog about this links to some examples.
eBooks and compatibility
Jason Griffey writes a clear explanation about why ebook filetypes and digital rights management means that purchasing an ebook doesn't mean you can read it on any old e-reader.
Library instruction
Cooke, R., Rosenthal, D. Students Use More Books After Library Instruction: An Analysis of Undergraduate Paper Citations College and Research Libraries (preprint)
JSTOR's new interface made searches default to covering their entire database - so results might include articles students didn't have access to on JSTOR and which wouldn't even be linked via OpenURL to the library's subscription in another database. (Meredith Farkas describes the problems neatly.) Librarians complained loudly on blogs, JSTOR's Facebook page, and elsewhere, and a day later JSTOR has announced that they'll change the default while they continue work on OpenURL.
Tools
WolframAlpha has added widgets that focus on a specific kind of data and can be embedded into a webpage by copying and pasting the code. Categories cover all kinds of subject areas - some widgets might be relevant in a subject guide. (You'd need to add a new rich text box, then select the plain text editor and copy/paste in the embed code from WolframAlpha.)
Librarian as resource
University of Michigan Library's search results now bring back subject librarians as well as relevant databases, catalogue items, subject guides, institutional repository hits, and external websites. Their blog about this links to some examples.
eBooks and compatibility
Jason Griffey writes a clear explanation about why ebook filetypes and digital rights management means that purchasing an ebook doesn't mean you can read it on any old e-reader.
Library instruction
Cooke, R., Rosenthal, D. Students Use More Books After Library Instruction: An Analysis of Undergraduate Paper Citations College and Research Libraries (preprint)
(They compared classes which received library instruction with identical classes which didn't.)"In Fall 2008, students from first-year Composition I and upper level classes at Florida Gulf Coast University participated in a citation analysis study. The citation pages of their research papers revealed that the students used more books, more types of sources, and more overall sources when a librarian provided instruction. When these results were compared to those produced by students in upper level classes (all of whom received instruction), it was discovered that as the class level increased, the number of citations and the percentage of scholarly citations generally increased and there was a high preference for books from all disciplines, especially history."
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Reference / Info-literacy links of interest 21/4/10
Reference
Singer, Carol A. (2010) Ready Reference Collections: A History. RUSQ 49(3)
Ready reference collections were originally formed, and still exist, because they perform a valuable function in providing convenient access to information that is frequently used at the reference desk. As library collections have been transformed from print to electronic, some of the materials in these collections also have inevitably been replaced by electronic resources. This article explores the historical roots of ready reference collections and their recent evolution.
A post on the Oregon Libraries Network notes some differences between the old and new RUSA Guidelines for Implementing and Maintaining Virtual Reference Services.
Library instruction classes
A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette suggests: A librarian should begin each library instruction class by plucking headphones from students' ears, confiscating cell phones, and searching all bookbags for contraband food. If there is any time remaining, show them all how to become fans of the library's new Facebook page.
In Getting Students to Do the Reading: Pre-Class Quizzes on Wordpress (at the Chronicle of Higher Education) Derek Bruff cites the idea that learning involves both transfer of information and assimilation of that information, and that as the assimilation is the hard part it should be done in class time while the transfer is handled before class through readings (or videos). He then discusses how he's tackled the problem of motivating students to actually do their pre-class readings by creating pre-class quizzes -- the answers to which he can then skim before class, and alter his lesson plan if students are finding some topic easier or harder than anticipated.
In the Library with the Lead Pipe is a group blog that posts longer, heavily referenced articles. In Making it their idea: The Learning Cycle in library instruction Eric Frierson quotes the idea that people learn better by putting the pieces together for themselves, and discusses ways to use this in library instruction classes, using the topic of "peer reviewed journals" as a case study.
Steve Lawson blogs about Making time at the beginning for questions - starting a library class with the projector off and just chatting informally with the students about their assignments/projects - he says, "It's like a mass reference interview."
For myself, I've had a lot of success with adding more interactivity into classes (even some large ones with 250+ students) but one series of my classes in term 1 turned clunky because (as I discovered too late) when I was chatting with students about what they needed to know for their assignment, none of them bothered to mention that they hadn't actually read the assignment instructions yet.
So for my next class I started off by asking them to explain the assignment to me - fortunately these ones had read it and could talk about it, but my fall-back position would be to stop and give them five minutes to read it, because they're not going to learn anything in class if they don't know why they're being told about it.
I spent the rest of the class alternating between asking them how they go about research and adding other sources/techniques they can use. The students were awesome and the class went like a dream. I used a PowerPoint presentation in edit mode so when I asked a question I could write their answers onto the blank page - colour-coded with white pages for my set-speech stuff, yellow pages for their stuff (and my very occasional additions when they reminded me of something) - and embed it into their subject guide after the class:
What about you: what other techniques have you read about / tried for library tutorials?
Singer, Carol A. (2010) Ready Reference Collections: A History. RUSQ 49(3)
Ready reference collections were originally formed, and still exist, because they perform a valuable function in providing convenient access to information that is frequently used at the reference desk. As library collections have been transformed from print to electronic, some of the materials in these collections also have inevitably been replaced by electronic resources. This article explores the historical roots of ready reference collections and their recent evolution.
A post on the Oregon Libraries Network notes some differences between the old and new RUSA Guidelines for Implementing and Maintaining Virtual Reference Services.
Library instruction classes
A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette suggests: A librarian should begin each library instruction class by plucking headphones from students' ears, confiscating cell phones, and searching all bookbags for contraband food. If there is any time remaining, show them all how to become fans of the library's new Facebook page.
In Getting Students to Do the Reading: Pre-Class Quizzes on Wordpress (at the Chronicle of Higher Education) Derek Bruff cites the idea that learning involves both transfer of information and assimilation of that information, and that as the assimilation is the hard part it should be done in class time while the transfer is handled before class through readings (or videos). He then discusses how he's tackled the problem of motivating students to actually do their pre-class readings by creating pre-class quizzes -- the answers to which he can then skim before class, and alter his lesson plan if students are finding some topic easier or harder than anticipated.
In the Library with the Lead Pipe is a group blog that posts longer, heavily referenced articles. In Making it their idea: The Learning Cycle in library instruction Eric Frierson quotes the idea that people learn better by putting the pieces together for themselves, and discusses ways to use this in library instruction classes, using the topic of "peer reviewed journals" as a case study.
Steve Lawson blogs about Making time at the beginning for questions - starting a library class with the projector off and just chatting informally with the students about their assignments/projects - he says, "It's like a mass reference interview."
For myself, I've had a lot of success with adding more interactivity into classes (even some large ones with 250+ students) but one series of my classes in term 1 turned clunky because (as I discovered too late) when I was chatting with students about what they needed to know for their assignment, none of them bothered to mention that they hadn't actually read the assignment instructions yet.
So for my next class I started off by asking them to explain the assignment to me - fortunately these ones had read it and could talk about it, but my fall-back position would be to stop and give them five minutes to read it, because they're not going to learn anything in class if they don't know why they're being told about it.
I spent the rest of the class alternating between asking them how they go about research and adding other sources/techniques they can use. The students were awesome and the class went like a dream. I used a PowerPoint presentation in edit mode so when I asked a question I could write their answers onto the blank page - colour-coded with white pages for my set-speech stuff, yellow pages for their stuff (and my very occasional additions when they reminded me of something) - and embed it into their subject guide after the class:
What about you: what other techniques have you read about / tried for library tutorials?
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Mobile vs Smartphones & other links of interest 14/4/10
Mobile vs Smartphones
Roy Tennant suggests not making any more mobile websites as research suggests more people (in the US) are getting smartphones that can support anything a normal web-browser can support. (Though I don't know of any smartphone that supports a 1024x768 screensize...) Smartphone applications seem to be trending instead. The iLibrarian rounds up her Top 30 Library iPhone Apps (part 2 and part 3). Why an application when you've already got a website? Phil Windley points out that "If my bank can get me to download an app, then they have a permanent space on my app list." The trade-off is that whereas a website should work on any browser, smartphone apps often need to be in proprietary formats (the Librarian in Black particularly complains about Apple's iPhone in this respect).
Web 2.0
Common Craft has a 3-minute video explaining "Cloud Computing in Plain English".
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries and Brown University Library provide a "dashboard" of widgets on their websites displaying current statistics about library usage.
View from the top :-)
The University Librarian at McMaster University Library blogs results from their laptop survey. Apparently laptop circulation now accounts for about a third of their total circulation stats; their survey looks into how students are using the laptops.
The Director of Librarys at the State University of New York at Potsdam blogs about "What I've Learned" in the first 10 months of her job there.
Scandal of the week...
Barbara Fister summarises recent discussion about EBSCO as the "New Evil Empire" in her Library Journal article "Big vendor frustrations, disempowered librarians, and the ends of empire".
Fun
Alice for the iPad - one of the ways technology can enhance the book.
Roy Tennant suggests not making any more mobile websites as research suggests more people (in the US) are getting smartphones that can support anything a normal web-browser can support. (Though I don't know of any smartphone that supports a 1024x768 screensize...) Smartphone applications seem to be trending instead. The iLibrarian rounds up her Top 30 Library iPhone Apps (part 2 and part 3). Why an application when you've already got a website? Phil Windley points out that "If my bank can get me to download an app, then they have a permanent space on my app list." The trade-off is that whereas a website should work on any browser, smartphone apps often need to be in proprietary formats (the Librarian in Black particularly complains about Apple's iPhone in this respect).
Web 2.0
Common Craft has a 3-minute video explaining "Cloud Computing in Plain English".
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries and Brown University Library provide a "dashboard" of widgets on their websites displaying current statistics about library usage.
View from the top :-)
The University Librarian at McMaster University Library blogs results from their laptop survey. Apparently laptop circulation now accounts for about a third of their total circulation stats; their survey looks into how students are using the laptops.
The Director of Librarys at the State University of New York at Potsdam blogs about "What I've Learned" in the first 10 months of her job there.
Scandal of the week...
Barbara Fister summarises recent discussion about EBSCO as the "New Evil Empire" in her Library Journal article "Big vendor frustrations, disempowered librarians, and the ends of empire".
Fun
Alice for the iPad - one of the ways technology can enhance the book.
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Links of interest 25/3/10
Resources
C-SPAN Video Library "indexes, and archives all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational, research, and archival uses." (Content is primarily US politics but see here for overlap with other subject areas.) All programs since 1987 can be viewed online for free.
Twitter
Following in the popular footsteps of the Fake AP Stylebook Twitter account ("Use a hyphen to join words together, a dash to separate two words that really don't like each other.") come rival accounts Fake AACR2 ("2.17B1. Describe an illustrated item as instructed in 2.5C. Optionally, add woodcuts, metal cuts, paper cuts, etc., as appropriate.") and Fake RDA ("2.3.3 When attempting to parallel title, line title up to proper title, put title in reverse, turn left, shift into drive, turn right.")
Neat stuff
C-SPAN Video Library "indexes, and archives all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational, research, and archival uses." (Content is primarily US politics but see here for overlap with other subject areas.) All programs since 1987 can be viewed online for free.
Following in the popular footsteps of the Fake AP Stylebook Twitter account ("Use a hyphen to join words together, a dash to separate two words that really don't like each other.") come rival accounts Fake AACR2 ("2.17B1. Describe an illustrated item as instructed in 2.5C. Optionally, add woodcuts, metal cuts, paper cuts, etc., as appropriate.") and Fake RDA ("2.3.3 When attempting to parallel title, line title up to proper title, put title in reverse, turn left, shift into drive, turn right.")
Neat stuff
- Embedding chat widgets within EBSCO databases
- Darien [Public] Library offers prizes to Foursquare checkins at their library
- Lincoln University uses their page on Facebook to promote their own Foursquare check-in and to chat with students about famous pranks
- Crowdsourcing: How and why should libraries do it? includes a huge number of examples of successful crowdsourced projects (ie projects where the bulk of the work has been done by individuals of the general public a few bits at a time) and what has made them successful
- Common Craft have made a new "Augmented Reality" video in their "in plain English" series
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Links of interest 4/3/2010
Subject Guides
Springshare have created a Best of LibGuides LibGuide to share ideas about "the best of what the LibGuides system has to offer".
Gale notes on Twitter that "We analyzed search usage growth for 5k libraries; 20% of them use widgets. The libraries using widgets had 60% higher growth." Widgets can be built from their website (among other tools for measuring and increasing usage).
Infolit by video
Using video to address an immediate research need is an answer to a faculty complaint with students not researching broadly enough. The librarian put together a video in 30 minutes, posted it on his blog, subject guide, and course management system, and watched the video stats climb as students watched it.
COPPUL's Animated Tutorial Sharing Project collects video tutorials that can be shared among library systems to avoid reinventing the wheel - including project files so libraries can tweak it to fit their environment. The ones I've seen are licensed with a "share-alike" Creative Commons license (meaning you can use it and change it but you have to license your finished product with the same license). You can browse or search for databases eg JSTOR.
Miscellaneous Web 2.0
7 Things You Should Know About Backchannel Communication: Mostly backchannel communication happens at techier conferences but 7 Things points out that: "Backchannel communication is a secondary conversation that takes place at the same time as a conference session, lecture, or instructor-led learning activity. This might involve students using a chat tool or Twitter to discuss a lecture as it is happening, and these background conversations are increasingly being brought into the foreground of lecture interaction."
10 Technology Ideas Your Library Can Implement Next Week "to start creating, collaborating, connecting, and communicating through cutting-edge tools and techniques".
Measuring the impact of web 2.0 (via a colleague via the LIS-WEB2 mailing list):
Springshare have created a Best of LibGuides LibGuide to share ideas about "the best of what the LibGuides system has to offer".
Gale notes on Twitter that "We analyzed search usage growth for 5k libraries; 20% of them use widgets. The libraries using widgets had 60% higher growth." Widgets can be built from their website (among other tools for measuring and increasing usage).
Infolit by video
Using video to address an immediate research need is an answer to a faculty complaint with students not researching broadly enough. The librarian put together a video in 30 minutes, posted it on his blog, subject guide, and course management system, and watched the video stats climb as students watched it.
COPPUL's Animated Tutorial Sharing Project collects video tutorials that can be shared among library systems to avoid reinventing the wheel - including project files so libraries can tweak it to fit their environment. The ones I've seen are licensed with a "share-alike" Creative Commons license (meaning you can use it and change it but you have to license your finished product with the same license). You can browse or search for databases eg JSTOR.
Miscellaneous Web 2.0
7 Things You Should Know About Backchannel Communication: Mostly backchannel communication happens at techier conferences but 7 Things points out that: "Backchannel communication is a secondary conversation that takes place at the same time as a conference session, lecture, or instructor-led learning activity. This might involve students using a chat tool or Twitter to discuss a lecture as it is happening, and these background conversations are increasingly being brought into the foreground of lecture interaction."
10 Technology Ideas Your Library Can Implement Next Week "to start creating, collaborating, connecting, and communicating through cutting-edge tools and techniques".
Measuring the impact of web 2.0 (via a colleague via the LIS-WEB2 mailing list):
- The Twitter Experience at Chelmsford
- Twittering at Sheffield library
- Birmingham libraries use of Web 2.0
- Case studies/guest blog posts on UKOLN's Cultural heritage blog
- and the Libraries and Web 2.0 wiki
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Links of interest 13/1/10
Web collaboration
- Tinychat lets you instantly set up a temporary chatroom with its own short url you can share with anyone you want to join you. Once everyone has left the chat it disappears.
- Flockdraw does the same for the virtual whiteboard.
- Virtual provider pessimism: analysing instant messaging reference encounters with the pair perception comparison method looks at how users vs librarians are satisfied with IM reference sessions. They find that users are frequently happy with results even when the librarians haven't felt confident with how things went.
- Cyberspace or Face-to-Face: The Teachable Moment and Changing Reference Mediums looks at instant messaging, chat, and face-to-face reference in terms of levels of instruction in each medium. They find that "patrons wanted to be taught regardless of medium, and that librarians responded by providing instruction in all mediums." (Although different techniques are used in the different mediums.) "These patrons’ consistently high desire for instruction reinforces the notion that the ideal teachable moment can be found in reference work."
- "But I Want a Real Book": An Investigation of Undergraduates' Usage and Attitudes toward Electronic Books
- This Open Access mindmap covers what open access is, what supporters are motivated by, what it applies to, how materials are made available (eg journals and repositories) and organised. Many of the nodes have links to articles for further information.
- Discussion of a simple system a Dutch library set up to encourage users to recommend or 'tag' books as they returned them - and discussion of how this system became so successful that the library discontinued it.
- Karen Schneider writes Reflections on strategic plans that are neither strategic nor plans
- And finally, Beyond the Bullet Points: New Years Resolution says "Let us make a resolution together. Let’s make 2010 the year of the librarian – not the library."
Monday, 14 December 2009
Links of interest 14/12/09
A library in a telephone booth
"Fix Your Terrible, Insecure Passwords in Five Minutes" talks about some common mistakes in creating passwords and suggests techniques for more secure ones.
Customer service
Zabel, D. and L. J. Pellack (2009) First impressions and rethinking restroom questions, RUSQ 49(1) has garnered a number of thoughtful comments, as well as reactions in the biblioblogosphere including:
Via someone I forget, who pointed out that this works perfectly if you replace the word "computer" with "library/catalogue/database/etc": How to help someone use a computer.
Information literacy
Karen Schneider recommends and discusses the Project Information Literacy report Lessons Learned: How college students find information in the digital age (PDF, 3MB).
Digital natives, scholarly immigrants on the ACRL blog discusses some of the findings of the Journal of Higher Education article University students' perceptions of plagiarism.
"Fix Your Terrible, Insecure Passwords in Five Minutes" talks about some common mistakes in creating passwords and suggests techniques for more secure ones.
Customer service
Zabel, D. and L. J. Pellack (2009) First impressions and rethinking restroom questions, RUSQ 49(1) has garnered a number of thoughtful comments, as well as reactions in the biblioblogosphere including:
Via someone I forget, who pointed out that this works perfectly if you replace the word "computer" with "library/catalogue/database/etc": How to help someone use a computer.
Information literacy
Karen Schneider recommends and discusses the Project Information Literacy report Lessons Learned: How college students find information in the digital age (PDF, 3MB).
Digital natives, scholarly immigrants on the ACRL blog discusses some of the findings of the Journal of Higher Education article University students' perceptions of plagiarism.
Monday, 23 November 2009
Links of interest 23/11/09
Crowdsourcing
Library Society of the World brainstorms library terminology:
Unshelved (the library webcomic) has launched Unshelved Answers, where librarians can ask question and get answers from fellow librarians. There's a nice system of voting and rewards points to ensure quality control by the community.
Digitisation
The National Digital Forum 2009 conference is in progress; the hashtag on twitter is #ndf2009. Announced there, Make it Digital is offering two $10,000 awards for organisations wanting to digitise NZ content.
Due to popular demand, DigitalNZ announces Collaborative digitisation of the AJHR.
Google Scholar adds full-text legal opinions from various US courts.
Post-digitisation
The Ithaka report on What to Withdraw: Print Collections Management in the Wake of Digitization "analyzes which types of journals can be withdrawn responsibly today and how that set of materials can be expanded to allow libraries the maximum possible flexibility and savings in the future."
The Swiss Army Librarian writes (with photos) about printing a book from Google Books on one of Google's Expresso book-on-demand machines.
Library Society of the World brainstorms library terminology:
- Unhelpful library terminology....and GO.
- Translate unhelpful library terminology to something more useful/usable/understandable?
Unshelved (the library webcomic) has launched Unshelved Answers, where librarians can ask question and get answers from fellow librarians. There's a nice system of voting and rewards points to ensure quality control by the community.
Digitisation
The National Digital Forum 2009 conference is in progress; the hashtag on twitter is #ndf2009. Announced there, Make it Digital is offering two $10,000 awards for organisations wanting to digitise NZ content.
Due to popular demand, DigitalNZ announces Collaborative digitisation of the AJHR.
Google Scholar adds full-text legal opinions from various US courts.
Post-digitisation
The Ithaka report on What to Withdraw: Print Collections Management in the Wake of Digitization "analyzes which types of journals can be withdrawn responsibly today and how that set of materials can be expanded to allow libraries the maximum possible flexibility and savings in the future."
The Swiss Army Librarian writes (with photos) about printing a book from Google Books on one of Google's Expresso book-on-demand machines.
Friday, 25 September 2009
Links of interest 25/9/09
News
LibLime, an organisation which sells support to the New Zealand-developed open-source library system Koha, has recently announced changes to their practices that are technically legal but many feel don't abide by the spirit of the open-source license. Library Journal has a basic summary of events with links to key discussions.
A libarian gets a marriage proposal on Ask a Librarian.
Customer service
Being at the point of need discusses placing screencasts, chat widgets, and other tutorials in the catalogue, subject guides, and databases.
Chalk notes as a valid communication format is a library manager's blogpost about her response to chalk-on-pavement comments about the library. Her follow-up on chalk notes addresses the issue of communication within the library about public responses like this.
Tracking ILL Requests is a "wouldn't it be neat if" post about providing more information on ILL requests to users.
Resources
The APA has an APA Style Blog with all sorts of handy tips.
10 free Google Custom Search Engines for librarians
5 sites with free video lectures from top colleges
LibLime, an organisation which sells support to the New Zealand-developed open-source library system Koha, has recently announced changes to their practices that are technically legal but many feel don't abide by the spirit of the open-source license. Library Journal has a basic summary of events with links to key discussions.
A libarian gets a marriage proposal on Ask a Librarian.
Customer service
Being at the point of need discusses placing screencasts, chat widgets, and other tutorials in the catalogue, subject guides, and databases.
Chalk notes as a valid communication format is a library manager's blogpost about her response to chalk-on-pavement comments about the library. Her follow-up on chalk notes addresses the issue of communication within the library about public responses like this.
Tracking ILL Requests is a "wouldn't it be neat if" post about providing more information on ILL requests to users.
Resources
The APA has an APA Style Blog with all sorts of handy tips.
10 free Google Custom Search Engines for librarians
5 sites with free video lectures from top colleges
Monday, 14 September 2009
Links of interest 14/9/09
The National Library of China is celebrating its centennial.
Nga Upoko Tukutuku korero is a new blog for discussion on Maori Subject Headings - each week they post a new question for readers to answer/comment on.
Reference
Resources
Twitter
There seems to be a revival in posts about Twitter recently - in the last couple of weeks I've come across:
Nga Upoko Tukutuku korero is a new blog for discussion on Maori Subject Headings - each week they post a new question for readers to answer/comment on.
Reference
- Promoting Library Reference Services to First-Year Undergraduate Students: What Works? (feature article in RUSQ this month) "describes a study that sought to answer three questions:
- What percentage of first-year undergraduate students are aware of reference services?
- What percentage of first-years seek information from reference librarians?
- Through which media are first-years comfortable communicating with reference librarians?"
- The Swiss Army Librarian posts a "Reference Question of the Week" describing the question and the way he found (or didn't find) an answer. His recent post on "What's in your ready ref?" is also fascinating.
Resources
- The British Library Sound Archive has made over 23,000 sound recordings available for listening online (where copyright permits) to anyone anywhere in the world. This includes music (classical, popular, traditional), oral history, nature, and linguistic recordings.
- The New Zealand Electronic Text Centre has released 1000 NZ classics in e-book format
There seems to be a revival in posts about Twitter recently - in the last couple of weeks I've come across:
- The Twitter for Organizations tutorial
- How your library may not be using Twitter but should
- The Satisfaction of Already Being There
- Data showing that the 12-17 and 18-24 year-old demographics are Twitter's fastest-growing audience segment
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Links of Interest 26/8/09
Goings-on
University of Otago Law Library has a new blog to go with their new library.
Massey University Library have added book ratings to their catalogue - when logged in, your ratings show in yellow; when logged out, average ratings show in blue.
Westlaw have annoyed librarians everywhere with an ad that "Are you on a first name basis with the librarian? If so, chances are, you're spending too much time at the library. What you need is fast, reliable research you can access right in your office. And all it takes is West®." They have since apologised.
Useful sites
A Digital Outrigger is a blog covering issues in digital libraries and usability - it posts regular link roundups and is well tagged to allow focusing on specific areas of interest.
The JISC Academic Database Assessment Tool lets you compare journal title lists, databases, and ebook platforms.
Fiction
Heard of Project Gutenberg but don't have time to read all its books? Now Project Twutenberg aims to convert each of these books into a 140-character summary.
Food for thought
After a presentation on Digital Reference, some librarians have started talking about the emerging trend towards the real-time web and the real-time library. David Lee King points out, "remove all the 2.0, digital, online stuff from this idea, and we're simply talking about the real, physical, day-to-day experience of a normal (yet very good) library. Emerging online services are working to make this normal, active experience we have at the physical library the same when we're online."
University of Otago Law Library has a new blog to go with their new library.
Massey University Library have added book ratings to their catalogue - when logged in, your ratings show in yellow; when logged out, average ratings show in blue.
Westlaw have annoyed librarians everywhere with an ad that "Are you on a first name basis with the librarian? If so, chances are, you're spending too much time at the library. What you need is fast, reliable research you can access right in your office. And all it takes is West®." They have since apologised.
Useful sites
A Digital Outrigger is a blog covering issues in digital libraries and usability - it posts regular link roundups and is well tagged to allow focusing on specific areas of interest.
The JISC Academic Database Assessment Tool lets you compare journal title lists, databases, and ebook platforms.
Fiction
Heard of Project Gutenberg but don't have time to read all its books? Now Project Twutenberg aims to convert each of these books into a 140-character summary.
Food for thought
After a presentation on Digital Reference, some librarians have started talking about the emerging trend towards the real-time web and the real-time library. David Lee King points out, "remove all the 2.0, digital, online stuff from this idea, and we're simply talking about the real, physical, day-to-day experience of a normal (yet very good) library. Emerging online services are working to make this normal, active experience we have at the physical library the same when we're online."
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