It's been really nice to know that websites can be in constant beta, and it's made the pressure for designing the new University library website be somewhat less. Still, the process is basically complete and the site is ready to be moved from the development stage to live sometime next week after finals are completely finished.
We did usability testing with undergraduates, and while I'd like to complete usability testing with graduate students and faculty & staff as well, I feel overall good about the results we received from the undergraduates. The major problem was one of terminology, a couple of others were easy fixes to place links where students were looking for the answers.
Other problems lie not so much in the design of the website (students would end up in the correct place to find information) as the design of the tools used to search for the information or a misunderstanding of what databases & catalogs search for. This is something that a metasearch would possibly help, but more importantly, education will help.
Overall, I think the new design works. It's designed in a way that makes sense for the most part, and thankfully seems to make sense to students as well.
10 June, 2008
22 May, 2008
"I give them what they need."
I was reading The Librarian as Bibliotherapist today and really found that I liked some of the ideas in this article. The most difficult part of doing this sort of technique I believe, is that it makes it difficult to create a standards based lesson plan where you ensure that students at a certain level have the opportunity to truly learn and practise certain information literacy standards.
That doesn't mean that I disapprove of the idea of asking students what they want and working with more personalization. I actually love the idea of a discussion based library class room and have done something similar in the honors classroom. The problem certainly comes down to one of time and how best to ensure that the basics are presented, but students still have the opportunity to ask for specifics to their research.
The hardest part of setting certain standards for a class, is that in a general research writing class there is such a variety of topics, it can be difficult to hit the important aspects of research for each student. Some standard must be given to make the assignments uniform, but for some students a book will not be nearly so useful as a journal article or vice versa.
Relevance is hugely important, but can be extremely time consuming, so the challenge then is to somehow create relevance, and teach standards while doing so. That is no easy challenge really.
That doesn't mean that I disapprove of the idea of asking students what they want and working with more personalization. I actually love the idea of a discussion based library class room and have done something similar in the honors classroom. The problem certainly comes down to one of time and how best to ensure that the basics are presented, but students still have the opportunity to ask for specifics to their research.
The hardest part of setting certain standards for a class, is that in a general research writing class there is such a variety of topics, it can be difficult to hit the important aspects of research for each student. Some standard must be given to make the assignments uniform, but for some students a book will not be nearly so useful as a journal article or vice versa.
Relevance is hugely important, but can be extremely time consuming, so the challenge then is to somehow create relevance, and teach standards while doing so. That is no easy challenge really.
19 May, 2008
Open Library
I definitely would like to spend more time looking at Open Library. It looks like it might be fantastic fun, not to mention that in the brief bit I read about the project, I certainly concur with it's goals. Personally I think it would be fantastic for the first posts for books that come up are not links to buy (necessarily), but are rather worldcat.org or Open Library links.
I think I need to spend more time looking at it when I've got a chance - probably that means this summer.
I think I need to spend more time looking at it when I've got a chance - probably that means this summer.
08 May, 2008
Summer is here
Ah yes, summer, the land of perpetual chill at work.
I can tell summer is here with how cold it is in the library. As is typical, they have turned the air conditioner on far beyond when it should be turned on, and I am hunched over the reference desk in a thick sweater and a running space heater.
At this moment I pray for concentration, because cold is never conducive to productive work for me.
I can tell summer is here with how cold it is in the library. As is typical, they have turned the air conditioner on far beyond when it should be turned on, and I am hunched over the reference desk in a thick sweater and a running space heater.
At this moment I pray for concentration, because cold is never conducive to productive work for me.
07 May, 2008
Zotero; some initial thoughts
Recently I've been trying to make better use of Zotero in my research at home. What I've discovered is that I really do appreciate the tool.
Currently I'm using it to organize the children's literature books that I've read, as well as some that I stumble across in my reading that I would like to read. It's easy to add links either into the Summit Catalog or to Worldcat.org, both of which are useful places to link to. It's also easy for me to keep copies of web pages, or download and attach .pdf articles to abstracts & citations I find through our local databases.
The best aspect about it, is simply knowing that if I add all of my information there it's easy to find. I have a paper folder that I'm keeping print copies of articles in, but I'm trying to be faithful about adding those electronic copies into Zotero - because then I know anything I've looked at - I won't lose it, it's going to be there waiting for me to pull it up again.
As I'm trying to do a wide variety of reading in this topic - I'm currently looking at everything from the history of Children's librarianship, to the history of children's print, to actual reviews, criticism, and analysis of children's books specifically - it's really useful to have it all in one place, where I can include notes.
This month's plan is to read Children's Books in England, since I think I'm most interested in criticism of British authors of children's books, in general, and specifically those writing fantasy, i.e. E. Nesbit, George MacDonald, and of course C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling, to name a few more modern examples. Fairy stories, if you will.
At any rate, I think I can learn more about making Zotero work for me, but I'm well on my way to making it a very real part of my research process.
Currently I'm using it to organize the children's literature books that I've read, as well as some that I stumble across in my reading that I would like to read. It's easy to add links either into the Summit Catalog or to Worldcat.org, both of which are useful places to link to. It's also easy for me to keep copies of web pages, or download and attach .pdf articles to abstracts & citations I find through our local databases.
The best aspect about it, is simply knowing that if I add all of my information there it's easy to find. I have a paper folder that I'm keeping print copies of articles in, but I'm trying to be faithful about adding those electronic copies into Zotero - because then I know anything I've looked at - I won't lose it, it's going to be there waiting for me to pull it up again.
As I'm trying to do a wide variety of reading in this topic - I'm currently looking at everything from the history of Children's librarianship, to the history of children's print, to actual reviews, criticism, and analysis of children's books specifically - it's really useful to have it all in one place, where I can include notes.
This month's plan is to read Children's Books in England, since I think I'm most interested in criticism of British authors of children's books, in general, and specifically those writing fantasy, i.e. E. Nesbit, George MacDonald, and of course C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling, to name a few more modern examples. Fairy stories, if you will.
At any rate, I think I can learn more about making Zotero work for me, but I'm well on my way to making it a very real part of my research process.
21 April, 2008
Britannica Webshare
This morning's distraction occurred in the form of an email talking about Britannica Webshare, a new program that allows access to the online Encyclopaedia Britannica for people who are blogging or publishing online.
This looks like a great program, because while I have access to an electronic subscription through our library, readers of my blog wouldn't necessarily. This program looks like it should make it easier to link to a slightly higher quality source, and my readers will be able to access the information, which is rather nifty.
This looks like a great program, because while I have access to an electronic subscription through our library, readers of my blog wouldn't necessarily. This program looks like it should make it easier to link to a slightly higher quality source, and my readers will be able to access the information, which is rather nifty.
14 April, 2008
Move Complete
I have completed moving all of my posts from LiveJournal to this Blog. I will be using it for future library musings and information.
11 April, 2008
Celebrating Libraries
This morning's project is working on a display for National Library Week, coming up next week.
So far we're printing photos of interesting libraries, such as these international libraries at this website. I'm also going to put The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World out so people can look through it if they like.
Additionally, I am currently in the process of moving old entries over to this blog. I'm through most of the first year of posts and will be able to hopefully move the rest over here in a week or so.
So far we're printing photos of interesting libraries, such as these international libraries at this website. I'm also going to put The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World out so people can look through it if they like.
Additionally, I am currently in the process of moving old entries over to this blog. I'm through most of the first year of posts and will be able to hopefully move the rest over here in a week or so.
21 February, 2008
Wikipedia & Information Literacy
The hardest part of teaching is not knowing if a lesson is going to work. I like to try new things with my classes. I have a list of information literacy standards that I apply to each of the courses I teach, but I keep trying to move towards a more hands on approach with teaching them and less with a Powerpoint lecture.
The problem with this, is that I usually feel quite fine about a Powerpoint lecture. I'm not always certain what people learn if I have them doing hands on activities. I generally feel the latter is probably better, particularly with finding books and articles, but it always leaves me slightly unsettled the first time I teach a class that way, and sometimes it leaves me very unsettled even after I've done it that way a few times.
I'm teaching in the middle of the English College Writing line-up right now, and so I'm thinking about information literacy. I really feel like one of the big issues in information literacy is yes, finding information, but more than that evaluating information. And as Google Books puts books free on the web, government organizations print in .pdf rather than in paper, and Wikipedia publishes a DVD version I think the waters only get more murky.
Are students able to use Wikipedia in elementary school and high school, then why not in college? In some ways, the reasoning is similar to why you might not use Encyclopedia Britannica or World Book as a reference in a college paper, but in other ways it's different.
I have a love/hate affair with Wikipedia.
Mostly, actually, I think I love it. But then, I also know how to use it - what its strengths are and what its weaknesses are. And those are extremely important things to know when using it. I understand when instructors say don't use it. That's no different, honestly, then saying 'only use Peer Reviewed journals'. It's a don't rather than a do, but it's still limiting what types of resources can be used in a paper. But one needs to have a why don't we use it as much as one needs to have a why we use Peer Reviewed journals.
I'm becoming more and more convinced that information literacy in the modern age isn't just about finding information (although that in and of itself is a challenge that should not be underestimated), it's about knowing what information is available, how to recognize quality information, and how to work with information.
Wikipedia has an interesting role in this because it is an excellent example of user generated content, which is everywhere on the internet.
What do people know about Wikipedia?
Do they know that they can edit it? That anyone can? Do they realize that if they come across a comma splice, or a article that needs clean up that they can fix it? Do they know Wikipedia has "Featured Articles" (I actually didn't until just this week) that have been designated such because they do meet the quality standards of Wikipedia (and yes, Wikipedia has quality standards). Do they know how to view the history of changes? How to see what's been changed and when? Do they know that they can use references in a Wikipedia article as a place to begin doing research on a topic just like they can use references in a Subject Encyclopedia article or a book or journal article? That they can look at previous versions of an article side-by-side? (My favourite example of this is on 31 January 2008 someone replaced the entire "Why Wikipedia is not so great" page with "It sucks, end of story". It was, of course, reverted back to the original page.)
Knowing how Wikipedia works, makes it a more powerful resource because it then becomes a captured look at what the world knows (or doesn't know). And I can't help but feel like if I make an edit to something, I make the world just a little bit better.
I think students need to be aware of what it does well and what it doesn't do well, because like it or not, it's not going anywhere (although the data in certain articles might disappear from time to time!), and I don't know that it's a bad thing. It's just a different thing.
So for Monday we're looking at a subject encyclopedia article and a wikipedia article on the students topics as a way of talking about evaluation. This teacher has had me do two sections the past few quarters, and in the second one I've started talking about evaluation of resources. In the past we've looked just at websites, and talked about the different ways of evaluating them, what makes up an expert, and so forth. And mostly I've said two sentences on 'don't use Wikipedia'.
I'm changing it this quarter and I don't know if it'll work. I like the idea of it because I think it will make students aware of the good and the bad of wikipedia while applying guidelines to the web in general. They have to look at Cleanup messages and look for citations and external links. They have to become aware of "featured" and "good" articles, and how to view the edits to the page - the idea that anyone can edit information, which is its greatest strength and potentially its greatest weakness as well.
In becoming aware of this, we hopefully also present the basic ideas of evaluation - authorship, authority, content, and currency, so that students become more aware that they need to look at these things. And honestly, they need to look at them in any source they use.
Because I wasn't aware of this as an Undergraduate. I went to a database, I found articles. I went to the catalog, I found books. Either nobody talked about what constituted an appropriate resource in any of my classes, or I was completely out of class on that day (and considering that I was a good-ish student, I don't think the latter was the case).
What I'm currently worried about, I suppose is how or if the assignment will work.
I'm hoping it's not TOO much work, honestly. They have to find an article in a subject encyclopedia out of class, which will be the hardest part, and then an article on wikipedia - the easy part. And then I'm having them read part of the About Wikipedia page.
In class we're going to discuss what they learned, the level of credibility of the articles they found, and then we're going to talk about why they can't use Wikipedia in this class: i.e. individual articles vary in standard and maturity, we want them to be able to find information in the library, any encyclopedia - including Wikipedia - can only be used as a starting point and will not give you all the information needed for a paper, so it's important for them to be able to find information from other sources.
I was talking about the assignment with R. last night and he's like 'it sounds like you're focusing a lot on Wikipedia'. Maybe I am. But Wikipedia is a large site with information on practically everything, which makes it a simple way to compare a print source with an internet source, using guidelines that can be used for any resource without having to deal with the idiosyncrasies of web pages published by a multitude of organizations and for a multitude of purposes, which can make for an impossible hands-on class period.
So I'm crossing my fingers that the assignment will work. That it will be useful, not terrible, and the teacher won't be like - um... go away and never teach my class again. Or alternatively, revoke my second class privileges because I really feel like discussing evaluation of sources is important to begin doing early on, not just in the quarter long paper research course. I just don't know if this is the best way to do it. I suppose time will tell...
And I just finished up my list of discussion questions for Monday so, we'll see.
The problem with this, is that I usually feel quite fine about a Powerpoint lecture. I'm not always certain what people learn if I have them doing hands on activities. I generally feel the latter is probably better, particularly with finding books and articles, but it always leaves me slightly unsettled the first time I teach a class that way, and sometimes it leaves me very unsettled even after I've done it that way a few times.
I'm teaching in the middle of the English College Writing line-up right now, and so I'm thinking about information literacy. I really feel like one of the big issues in information literacy is yes, finding information, but more than that evaluating information. And as Google Books puts books free on the web, government organizations print in .pdf rather than in paper, and Wikipedia publishes a DVD version I think the waters only get more murky.
Are students able to use Wikipedia in elementary school and high school, then why not in college? In some ways, the reasoning is similar to why you might not use Encyclopedia Britannica or World Book as a reference in a college paper, but in other ways it's different.
I have a love/hate affair with Wikipedia.
Mostly, actually, I think I love it. But then, I also know how to use it - what its strengths are and what its weaknesses are. And those are extremely important things to know when using it. I understand when instructors say don't use it. That's no different, honestly, then saying 'only use Peer Reviewed journals'. It's a don't rather than a do, but it's still limiting what types of resources can be used in a paper. But one needs to have a why don't we use it as much as one needs to have a why we use Peer Reviewed journals.
I'm becoming more and more convinced that information literacy in the modern age isn't just about finding information (although that in and of itself is a challenge that should not be underestimated), it's about knowing what information is available, how to recognize quality information, and how to work with information.
Wikipedia has an interesting role in this because it is an excellent example of user generated content, which is everywhere on the internet.
What do people know about Wikipedia?
Do they know that they can edit it? That anyone can? Do they realize that if they come across a comma splice, or a article that needs clean up that they can fix it? Do they know Wikipedia has "Featured Articles" (I actually didn't until just this week) that have been designated such because they do meet the quality standards of Wikipedia (and yes, Wikipedia has quality standards). Do they know how to view the history of changes? How to see what's been changed and when? Do they know that they can use references in a Wikipedia article as a place to begin doing research on a topic just like they can use references in a Subject Encyclopedia article or a book or journal article? That they can look at previous versions of an article side-by-side? (My favourite example of this is on 31 January 2008 someone replaced the entire "Why Wikipedia is not so great" page with "It sucks, end of story". It was, of course, reverted back to the original page.)
Knowing how Wikipedia works, makes it a more powerful resource because it then becomes a captured look at what the world knows (or doesn't know). And I can't help but feel like if I make an edit to something, I make the world just a little bit better.
I think students need to be aware of what it does well and what it doesn't do well, because like it or not, it's not going anywhere (although the data in certain articles might disappear from time to time!), and I don't know that it's a bad thing. It's just a different thing.
So for Monday we're looking at a subject encyclopedia article and a wikipedia article on the students topics as a way of talking about evaluation. This teacher has had me do two sections the past few quarters, and in the second one I've started talking about evaluation of resources. In the past we've looked just at websites, and talked about the different ways of evaluating them, what makes up an expert, and so forth. And mostly I've said two sentences on 'don't use Wikipedia'.
I'm changing it this quarter and I don't know if it'll work. I like the idea of it because I think it will make students aware of the good and the bad of wikipedia while applying guidelines to the web in general. They have to look at Cleanup messages and look for citations and external links. They have to become aware of "featured" and "good" articles, and how to view the edits to the page - the idea that anyone can edit information, which is its greatest strength and potentially its greatest weakness as well.
In becoming aware of this, we hopefully also present the basic ideas of evaluation - authorship, authority, content, and currency, so that students become more aware that they need to look at these things. And honestly, they need to look at them in any source they use.
Because I wasn't aware of this as an Undergraduate. I went to a database, I found articles. I went to the catalog, I found books. Either nobody talked about what constituted an appropriate resource in any of my classes, or I was completely out of class on that day (and considering that I was a good-ish student, I don't think the latter was the case).
What I'm currently worried about, I suppose is how or if the assignment will work.
I'm hoping it's not TOO much work, honestly. They have to find an article in a subject encyclopedia out of class, which will be the hardest part, and then an article on wikipedia - the easy part. And then I'm having them read part of the About Wikipedia page.
In class we're going to discuss what they learned, the level of credibility of the articles they found, and then we're going to talk about why they can't use Wikipedia in this class: i.e. individual articles vary in standard and maturity, we want them to be able to find information in the library, any encyclopedia - including Wikipedia - can only be used as a starting point and will not give you all the information needed for a paper, so it's important for them to be able to find information from other sources.
I was talking about the assignment with R. last night and he's like 'it sounds like you're focusing a lot on Wikipedia'. Maybe I am. But Wikipedia is a large site with information on practically everything, which makes it a simple way to compare a print source with an internet source, using guidelines that can be used for any resource without having to deal with the idiosyncrasies of web pages published by a multitude of organizations and for a multitude of purposes, which can make for an impossible hands-on class period.
So I'm crossing my fingers that the assignment will work. That it will be useful, not terrible, and the teacher won't be like - um... go away and never teach my class again. Or alternatively, revoke my second class privileges because I really feel like discussing evaluation of sources is important to begin doing early on, not just in the quarter long paper research course. I just don't know if this is the best way to do it. I suppose time will tell...
And I just finished up my list of discussion questions for Monday so, we'll see.
12 February, 2008
Make the Library Useable.
I think I need to start a list of frequently asked questions I receive on library assignments. If I hear the same things over and over it's probably true that these are things that need to be addressed, in some cases for our institution, in some cases probably in libraries the world over!
This one is very indicative of one I often receive, which is 'how do I tell if the book is going to be useful from the brief amount of information I'm given?'. The answer right now is, in short, just request it. If it's not useful you can send it back no harm no foul. But that's not an answer I'm satisfied with.
Why, in an age where Amazon can foster not only book reviews, but people reviews, can we not provide more information about a book than mere subject headings? These are helpful in their own way, shape and form, but they're not perfect indicators of a book's usefulness. I know because I order things all the time that based on their subject heading are lovely, and their content, less so. Table of contents, when available, can help with this. But I'd like to see book reviews placed in catalog records, or at the very least a real summary of the contents of the book.
And it seems like it should be doable.
This one is very indicative of one I often receive, which is 'how do I tell if the book is going to be useful from the brief amount of information I'm given?'. The answer right now is, in short, just request it. If it's not useful you can send it back no harm no foul. But that's not an answer I'm satisfied with.
Why, in an age where Amazon can foster not only book reviews, but people reviews, can we not provide more information about a book than mere subject headings? These are helpful in their own way, shape and form, but they're not perfect indicators of a book's usefulness. I know because I order things all the time that based on their subject heading are lovely, and their content, less so. Table of contents, when available, can help with this. But I'd like to see book reviews placed in catalog records, or at the very least a real summary of the contents of the book.
And it seems like it should be doable.
07 January, 2008
Thought for the day.
At one health fair, where I was exhibiting our consumer health information service that we offer for free to all our state's residents, an attendee listened to the information about the services, and replied, "No thank you, I don't need your service. I have a computer of my own." I wanted to respond to the attendee, "Yes, but please consider this: I have a hammer, wood, and nails at my home, but that doesn't mean I can expertly build a chair if I needed one."
Patron-Focused/Service-Oriented: A goal for libraries by Teresa Hartman, The Majors Report for Medical Librarians, Winter 2007
In other news, I've discovered the tag line for my future campaign for public library support for the city of College Place. If you visit the College Place website, you'll note their slogan College Place, A place to call home - to which I would like to point out as Cicero once expertly did, “A home without books is a body without soul.”.
It will make for excellent campaign posters, bumper stickers, and other such.
Sometimes the quote is credited "A room without books is a body without a soul", but in this instance home works better for obvious reasons..
02 January, 2008
Gen Y: biggest users of libraries
Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y, the survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said.
Gen Y: biggest users of libraries
These are our students! Clearly they see libraries as a community and a place they can access information! (actually, young adults 18 - 30, that's me too, and I'd have said, well obviously, but then I suppose as a librarian I'm somewhat biased!)
I would be interested in reading more of the study, but what this article reports on does seem to point to the importance of improving power and access to computers in the library (especially as we continue purchasing access to periodicals and other materials online!) as well as the library as space - the community of information & knowledge seekers.
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