Group items tagged

Our major findings are as follows: 1. During one of the busiest times of the academic year, the students we interviewed were mainly using different IT devices to stay in touch with their friends while they were in the campus library. In the hour before we interviewed them, 81% of the students in our sample had checked for new messages (e.g., email, Facebook, IMs, texts). 2. At the same time, many of the same respondents who said they had checked for messages had also prepared assignments for submission (60%), studied and reviewed materials for class (52%), and satisfied personal curiosity with a computer search (e.g., sports score, news, gossip) (45%). 3. Despite the pressing need to complete assignments at crunch time, few respondents reported having used the full range of library resources and/or services during the previous hour. Many more respondents said they had used library equipment (39%) such as computers and printers than anything else, including scholarly research databases (11%), library books (9%), face-to-face reference (5%), and/or online reference (2%). 4. Overall, we found most respondents (85%) could be classified as "light" technology users. These were students who used "only" one or two IT devices primarily in support of coursework and, to a lesser extent, communication. The most frequent combination (40%) of devices being used was a cell phone (including smart phones) with a personally owned laptop computer while they were in the library. In stark contrast, only 8% of the sample could be classified as "heavy" technology users. 5. For over half the sample, a personally owned laptop (58%) was the primary-most essential-device in use at the time of the interview. A smaller percentage of respondents (35%) were using a library desktop computer. 6. More than any other combination of applications, respondents had both a Web browser and a word processing program open at the same time (47%) while they were in the library. 7. Despi

"The goal of this article is to build on the assessment links Jarson provided. Her stated goal was to "guide readers to important resources for understanding information literacy and to provide tools for readers to advocate for information literacy's place in higher education curricula." In addition to the information on resources and tools, Jarson provided links to universities whose assessment tools were available for review on their Web sites. For this article, selected Web sites have been accessed and evaluated further. A handful of additional information resources have been profiled, including new Web sites that offer a variety of assessment tool formats."

"The following is an alphabetical list of library web pages that list experimental, beta, or trial web tools and services."

"This discussion document, Libraries at Webscale, explores the impact of the Web on our rapidly changing information landscape, and presents an overview of the opportunities and challenges that operating in a Web-connected world provides for libraries and library users. The document presents a case for the opportunities that Webscale can afford libraries and the OCLC cooperative, and provides context for OCLC's strategies to support libraries at Webscale."

"This guest post comes from Daniel Jacobson, Director of Application Development for NPR. Daniel leads NPR's content management solutions, is the creator of the NPR API and is a frequent contributor to the Inside NPR.org blog." As I look at this beautiful flowchart (beautiful in function) of the NPR web publishing process, I wonder what libraries could learn from this method of information management.  This NPR process is designed to get the content out in a variety of ways, with options for the end user. How are libraries and library systems making this possible for our end users? 

Presentations on LibGuides, library applications, web analytics

"The Skeptical Science web site works to debunk the critics of global warming, and works hard to do so. A new handbook put out by the site, The Debunking Handbook, is a veritable how-to guide to the practice of shooting down any misinformation, whether a global science issue, or your company's belief that "password123" is a valid password."

Embed a ProQuest search widget on a web page

Embed a JSTOR search widget into a web page

Providing a unified interface through which patrons can access nearly all of your library's collection has an obvious appeal on all sides. Users get the googley familiarity and convenience of a singular, wide-ranging search box and, according to a recent case study done at Grand Valley State University, the reduced friction patrons face when using library resources correlates to an increase - potentially dramatic - in the frequency with which they access them. If the new tool is like Google, then why does it require instruction?

First open-access e-version issue

"This site is intended to help library web developers decide how to label key resources and services in such a way that most users can understand them well enough to make productive choices. It serves as a clearinghouse of usability test data evaluating t

LITA 2011 Keynote, October 1, 2011

Some things to think about as the library redesigns its website.

Without going into too much detail, instaGrok basically lets you punch in any search term (I'd recommend using a subject matter or item you're learning about) and get a neatly formatted and interactive experience as search results

"The report summarizes and provides analysis based on the experience and impressions of senior administrators and deans from a range of institutions including research universities, small colleges, and community colleges."

Hugh McGuire: "The distinction between "the Internet" and "books" is arbitrary, and will disappear in 5 years. Start adjusting now."

"The NCSU Libraries Mobile Scavenger Hunt is an interactive, technology-rich way to introduce students to the library. Developed in response to student and instructor feedback collected in 2010-2011, it leverages the motivating power of situated learning and the fun of team game dynamics to orient students to the Libraries' spaces, promote the use of emerging technologies, and foster confidence in using the Libraries' collections. The activity is run using iPod Touches and several free apps and online tools. Students answer Scavenger Hunt questions using Evernote, a free app for multimedia note-taking, which is installed on the iPod Touches distributed to the Scavenger Hunt teams. Librarians are able to monitor students' answers in real time as they are entered into Evernote, keeping score on a Google Docs spreadsheet."