Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (Journal)
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Ethnographic Study at a Music Library Found Students Prefer Short Stopovers and Longer Solitary Study
No full textObjective – To identify patterns of patron behaviour in the library in order to improve space utilization.
Design – Ethnographic data-gathering, including observations and a qualitative survey.
Setting – Music library of a large public university.
Subjects – Library patrons, primarily music students but also music faculty, other students and faculty, and regional music professionals and amateurs.
Methods – In the exploratory phase, complete (i.e., incognito) participant observers recorded patron characteristics and behaviours in four zones of the library (the technology lab, the stacks, the reference area, and study carrels). They conducted a series of five-minute-long visual sweeps of these zones at five-minute intervals. Observers were not given any checklist, but were told to record anything they saw regarding the personal characteristics, behaviours, and activities of patrons. The data collected resulted in what the investigators called “flip books” (a series of images recorded in close succession, which, when flipped, could give the illusion of movement). The data was analyzed using the grounded theory approach, a qualitative method to identify recurring themes on space use. A statistical analysis based on these themes was then conducted. In the second, explanatory phase, observers conducted new “sweeps,” or observations of the same library zones, this time using checklists to indicate the occurrence of specific activities identified in the first phase (solo vs. group activity, social interaction vs. study discussion, and use of technology). In addition, observers recorded patron entry and exit on “time cards,” and had all exiting patrons answer five brief questions about the types and volume of activities they had conducted in the various zones of the library.
Main Results – The vast majority of the patrons were students. Most (at least three-quarters) engaged in solitary activity, and a large majority used electronic technology. According to data from the flip books, 44% engaged in multitasking, which was therefore significant but not preferred. It was more likely to occur when electronic technology was involved. Patrons were most likely to be present in the library for less than 5 minutes or more than 20 minutes. Patrons who stayed in the library for only a short time were more likely to engage in leisure activities than those who stayed longer, but leisure activities overall were as prevalent as study time. The technology lab and the reference area were the most popular zones. Users stayed in the technology lab and stacks for short times only, whereas the reference area and carrels were favored for long visits. Users engaged in multitasking mostly in the carrels and reference area.
Conclusion – The patrons’ preference for solitary study is at odds with academic libraries’ current interest in collaborative learning spaces, but can be explained by the specific nature of music studies (artistic creation is a solitary activity), and is in line with previous ethnographic studies of public libraries. Music students presumably use the technology labs for short visits between classes. They favor the study carrels for longer stays where they can multitask, using their own laptops and iPods. These findings can be used to help redesign the library. Design recommendations include placing the technology lab by the entrance to enable quick coming and going, increasing the number of carrels, placing them in quiet parts of the library, and equipping them with electrical outlets
A Survey of Graphic Novel Collection and Use in American Public Libraries
No full textAbstract
Objective – The objective of this study was to survey American public libraries about their collection and use of graphic novels and compare their use to similar data collected about video games.
Methods – Public libraries were identified and contacted electronically for participation through an open US government database of public library systems. The libraries contacted were asked to participate voluntarily.
Results – The results indicated that both graphic novels and video games have become a common part of library collections, and both media can have high levels of impact on circulation. Results indicated that while almost all libraries surveyed had some graphic novels in their collections, those serving larger populations were much more likely to use graphic novels in patron outreach. Similarly, video game collection was also more commonly found in libraries serving larger populations. Results also showed that young readers were the primary users of graphic novels.
Conclusion – Responses provided a clear indicator that graphic novels are a near-ubiquitous part of public libraries today. The results on readership bolster the concept of graphic novels as a gateway to adult literacy. The results also highlight differences between larger and smaller libraries in terms of resource allocations towards new media. The patron demographics associated with comics show that library cooperation could be a potential marketing tool for comic book companies
Development of Deal- and Journal-level Metrics and Methods Assists Librarians to Evaluate Big Deals
No full textA Review of:
Blecic, D.D., Wiberley, Jr., S.E., Fiscella, J.B., Bahnmaier-Blaszczak, S., & Lowery, R. (2013). Deal or no deal?: Evaluating Big Deals and their journals. College & Research Libraries, 74(2), 178-193.
Objective – To assess the value of aggregated journal packages (Big Deals) and to select individual journal titles for continued subscription should a deal be cancelled.
Design – Case study.
Setting – Doctoral research university library in the United States of America.
Subjects – Three anonymous Big Deals.
Methods – The authors define metrics at two levels (deal and journal) to evaluate Big Deal packages. The metrics rely heavily on the COUNTER JR1 metric Successful Full-Text Article Request (SFTAR).
Main Results – The authors found that while 30% of journals provide 80% of SFTARs, the cost of subscribing to these journals individually would not save significant sums of money. Additionally, they speculate that library users would increase the number of interlibrary loan requests to access the 20% of SFTARs that would be inaccessible if a Big Deal was cut, amounting to increased costs.
Conclusion – With no sign of publishers moving to change the price and conditions of Big Deals, these arrangements are becoming unsustainable for libraries. As this occurs, librarians require methods of assessing which deals to keep and which to cut, as well as evidence of to which individual journals they should subscribe. The authors of this paper set out one method of conducting these assessments that they have found to be useful at an academic library. They conclude by stating that even with SFTAR data, individuals must keep in mind the necessity of providing equitable access to all of a university community’s user groups
First Year University Students Arrive with Some Search Skills, But Struggle with Scholarly Sources
No full textA Review of:
Salisbury, F., & Karasmanis, S. (2011). Are they ready? Exploring student information literacy skills in the transition from secondary to tertiary education. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 42(1), 43-58.
Objective – To determine what existing information literacy skills first year students possess upon entering university.
Design – Quantitative survey questionnaire.
Setting – A research university in Australia.
Subjects – 1,029 first year students in the health sciences.
Methods – First year students enrolled in the health sciences were asked to complete a paper questionnaire in their first week of classes in 2009. The 20 question survey was distributed in student tutorial groups. The first 10 questions collected information on student demographics, expected library use, and existing information seeking behaviour. The remaining 10 questions tested students’ understanding of information literacy concepts. Data collected from the survey were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS.
Main Results – Most of the students who responded to the questionnaire were between the ages of 16 and 21 (84.3%) with only 2.2% over the age of 40. Approximately 15% of respondents had completed some postsecondary university or vocational education prior to enrolling in their current program.
The students ranked Google, a friend, and a book as the top three places they would go to find information on something they knew little about. Google was also the most popular choice for finding a scholarly article (35% of respondents), followed by the library catalogue (21%).
A large proportion of students correctly answered questions relating to identifying appropriate search terms. For example, one third of the students selected the correct combination of search concepts for a provided topic, and 77% identified that the choice of search phrase could negatively impact search results. Students also demonstrated prior knowledge of the Boolean operator AND, with 38% correctly identifying its use in the related question. Most students were also able to identify key markers of a website’s credibility.
Questions relating to ethical information use and scholarly literature proved more challenging. Almost half (45%) of the students said that they did not know the characteristics of a peer reviewed journal article. Twenty five percent of respondents indicated that citing an information source was only necessary in the case of direct quotes, with only 28% correctly identifying the need for citing both quotes and paraphrasing. Only 23% were able to select the example of a journal citation from the list presented.
Conclusion – Students enter university with existing strengths in concept identification and basic search formulation, but require the most assistance with locating and identifying scholarly literature and how to cite it appropriately in their work. The findings will inform the development of an online information literacy assessment tool to assist incoming students in identifying areas where they may require additional support as they transition to university
Diagnoses, Drugs, and Treatment Are the Main Information Needs of Primary Care Physicians and Nurses, and the Internet Is the Information Source Most Commonly Used to Meet These Needs
No full textA Review of:
Clarke, M. A., Belden, J. L., Koopman, R. J., Steege, L. M., Moore, J. L., Canfield, S. M., & Kim, M. S. (2013). Information needs and information-seeking behaviour analysis of primary care physicians and nurses: A literature review. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 30(3), 178-190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hir.12036
Abstract
Objective – To improve information support services to health practitioners making clinical decisions by reviewing the literature on the information needs and information seeking behaviours of primary care physicians and nurses. Within this larger objective, specific questions were 1) information sources used; 2) differences between the two groups; and 3) barriers to searching for both groups.
Design – Literature review.
Setting – SCOPUS, CINAHL, OVID Medline, and PubMed databases.
Subjects – Results from structured searches in four bibliographic databases on the information needs of primary care physicians and nurses.
Methods – Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) and keyword search strategies tailored to each of four databases were employed to retrieve items pertinent to research objectives. Concepts represented in either controlled or natural language vocabularies included “information seeking behaviour, primary health care, primary care physicians and nurses” (p. 180). An initial yield of 1169 items was filtered by language (English only), pertinence to study objectives, publication dates (2000-2012), and study participant age (>18). After filtering, 47 articles were examined and summarized, and recommendations for further research were made.
Main Results – Few topical differences in information needed were identified between primary care physicians and nurses. Across studies retrieved, members of both groups sought information on drugs, diagnoses, and therapy. The Internet (including bibliographic databases and web-based searching) was the source of information most frequently mentioned, followed by textbooks, journals, colleagues, drug compendiums, professional websites, and medical libraries. There is insufficient evidence to support conclusions about the differences between groups. In most research, information needs and behaviours for both groups have been discussed simultaneously, with no real distinction made, suggesting that there may not be significant differences even though a few studies have found that nurses’ emphasis is on policy and procedures. Barriers to access include time, searching skills, and geographic location; for the last, improvements have been made but rural practitioners continue to be adversely affected by limited access to people and resources.
Conclusion – Both primary care physicians and nurses seek information on diagnosis and treatment. The Internet is of increasing utility for both groups, but all resources have advantages and disadvantages in identifying evidence based information for use in practice. Further research is required to support access and use of evidence based resources, and to explore how focused, evidence based information can be integrated into electronic health record systems
C-EBLIP Fall Symposium: Librarians as Researchers Wednesday, October 15, 2014 University Library, University of Saskatchewan
No full textNo abstract
Undergraduate Use of Library Databases Decreases as Level of Study Progresses
No full textA Review of:
Mbabu, L.G., Bertram, A. B., & Varnum, K. (2013). Patterns of undergraduates’ use of scholarly databases in a large research university. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 39(2), 189-193. http://dx.doi.org/10.10.1016/j.acalib.2012.10.004
Abstract
Objective – To investigate undergraduate students’ patterns of electronic database use to discover whether database use increases as undergraduate students progress into later stages of study with increasingly sophisticated information needs and demands.
Design – User database authentication log analysis.
Setting – A large research university in the Midwestern United States of America.
Subjects – A total of 26,208 undergraduate students enrolled during the Fall 2009 academic semester.
Methods – The researchers obtained logs of user-authenticated activity from the university’s databases. Logged data for each user included: the user’s action and details of that action (including database searches), the time of action, the user’s relationship to the university, the individual school in which the user was enrolled, and the user’s class standing. The data were analyzed to determine which proportion of undergraduate students accessed the library’s electronic databases. The study reports that the logged data accounted for 61% of all database activity, and the authors suggest the other 39% of use is likely from “non-undergraduate members of the research community within the [university’s] campus IP range” (192).
Main Results – The study found that 10,897 (42%) of the subject population of undergraduate students accessed the library’s electronic databases. The study also compared database access by class standing, and found that freshman undergraduates had the highest proportion of database use, with 56% of enrolled freshman accessing the library’s databases. Sophomores had the second highest proportion of students accessing the databases at 40%; juniors and seniors had the lowest percentage of use, with 38% of enrolled students at each level accessing the library’s databases. The study also found that November was the peak of database search activity, accounting for 37% of database searches for the Fall 2009 semester. Database use varied by the schools or colleges in which students were enrolled, with the School of Nursing having the highest percentage of enrolled undergraduates using library databases (54%). The authors also report that the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts had the fourth highest proportion of users at 46%, representing 7,523 unique students, more than double the combined number of undergraduate users from all other programs. Since the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts accounts for more than 60% of the total undergraduate enrollment, the authors suggest that information literacy instruction targeted to these programs would have the greatest campus-wide impact.
Conclusion – Although the library conducts a number of library instruction sessions with freshman students each Fall semester, the authors conclude that database use patterns suggest that the proportion of students who continue to use library databases decreases as level of study progresses. This finding does not support the study’s hypothesis that database use increases as students advance through their undergraduate studies
Awareness of Open Access Issues Differs among Faculty at Institutions of Different Sizes
No full textA Review of:
Kocken, G. J. & Wical, S. H. (2013). “I’ve never heard of it before”: Awareness of open access at a small liberal arts university. Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 32(3), 140-154. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1080/01639269.2013.817876
Abstract
Objective – This study surveyed faculty awareness of open access (OA) issues and the institutional repository (IR) at the University of Wisconsin. The authors hoped to use findings to inform future IR marketing strategies to faculty.
Design – Survey.
Setting – University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a small, regional public university (approximately 10,000 students).
Subjects – 105 faculty members.
Methods – The authors contacted 397 faculty members inviting them to participate in an 11 question online survey. Due to anonymity issues on a small campus, respondents were not asked about rank and discipline, and were asked to not provide identifying information. A definition of OA was not provided by the authors, as survey participants were queried about their own definition.
Main Results – Approximately 30% of the faculty were aware of OA issues. Of all the definitions of OA given by survey respondents, “none . . . came close” to the definition favoured by the authors (p. 145). More than 30% of the faculty were unable to define OA at a level deemed basic by the authors.
A total of 51 (48.57%) of the survey respondents indicated that there are OA journals in their disciplines. Another 6 (5.71%) of the faculty members claimed that there are no OA journals in their disciplines, although most provided a definition of OA and several considered OA publishing to be “very important.”
The remaining 48 participants (46%) were unsure if there are OA journals in their disciplines. Of these survey respondents, 38 answered that they have not published in an OA journal, 10 were unsure, and 21 believed that their field benefits or would benefit from OA journals.
Survey respondents cited quality of the journal, prestige, and peer review as extremely important in selecting a journal in which to publish.
Conclusion – The authors conclude that the level of awareness related to OA issues must be raised before IRs can flourish. They ponder how university and college administrators regard OA publishing, and the influence this has on the tenure and promotion process