69,489 research outputs found
Academic Library, e-Science/e-Research, and Data Services in a Broader Context
No full textIn North America, academic libraries’ data services have recently emerged as a new field during a very interesting time when academic libraries are adjusting themselves to be able to deal with more digital material and at the same time trying to be further involved in the academic research process. The academic world is also undergoing a transformation into a new paradigm of doing research called e-science, which is characterized by data-intensive and networked research. Managing and curating the ever-increasing amount of data seems to be a natural extension of the established function of libraries. However, if we look at the broader landscape of e-science and all the supporting systems that are under development accordingly, we will see more than one model of data services provided by different institutions, or by different combinations of institutions. This paper will summarize these two major e-science support models, both in North America and in Europe. For both data services planners and practitioners, we need more contextual learning about the academic world and the emergence of the e-science paradigm, and a more visionary view of libraries among all the services departments/agencies around us so that we all can better design our academic library services and continue to promote and develop it.Paper presented at the ACRL 2013 Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 10-13, 2013.Wang, Minglu. Academic Library, e-Science/e-Research, and Data Services in a Broader Context. ACRL 2013 Proceedings. http://www.ala.org/acrl/acrl/conferences/2013/paper
Safety in Numbers: Developing a Shared Analytics Services for Academic Libraries
No full textPurpose
It is clear that libraries consider the use of data to inform decision making a top priority in the next five years. Jisc’s considerable work on activity data has highlighted the lack of tools and services for libraries to exploit this data.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of a shared analytics service for UK academic libraries and introduce the Jisc Library Analytics and Metrics Project (LAMP).
The project aims to help libraries effectively management collections and services as well as delivering pre-emptive indicators and ‘actionable insights’ to help identify new trends, personalise services and improve efficiencies, economies and effectiveness (student attainment and satisfaction and institutional reputation, for example) . The project builds on the Library Impact Data Project at the University of Huddersfield and the work of the Copac Activity Data and Collections Management tools.
The paper will deliver a case study of the project, its progress to date, the challenges of such an approach and the implications the service has for academic libraries.
Design, methodology or approach
The paper will be a case study of the project and its institutional partners and early adopters work to date and explore both the technical and cultural challenges of the work as well as its implications for the role of the library within the institution and the services it provides.
Specifically the case study will comprise of the following aspects:
1. A brief history of the work and the context of library analytics services in the UK (and internationally). A description of the approach adopted by the project, and the vision and goals of the project
2. Exploration of the challenges associated with the project. In particular the challenges around accessing and sharing the data, ‘warehousing’ and data infrastructure considerations and the design challenge of visualising the data sources in a useful and coherent way
3. Outline of the implications of the project and the resultant service. In particular the implications for benchmarking (within the UK and beyond), standards development for library statistics and impact (in particular the development of ISO 16439), service development, the role of the library within the wider institution and skills and expertise of librarians.
Findings
This paper will report on the initial findings of the project, which will run from January 2013 to October 2013. In particular it will consider the issues surfaced through the close engagement with the academic library community (through the projects community advisory and planning group) and the institutional early-adopters around data gathering and analysis.
Practical implications
Data accumulated in one context has the potential to inform decisions and interventions elsewhere. While there are a number of recognised and well understood use-cases for library analytics these tend to revolve around usage and collection management. Yet, the potential of a shared analytics service is in uncovering those links and indicators across diverse data sets.
The paper will consider a number of practical impacts:
Performance: benchmarking, student attainment, research productivity
Design: fine tuning services, personalised support
Trends: research landscape, student marketplace, utilisation of resources.
The case study will explore these practical implications for libraries and what they mean for the future of the library within the academy.
Originality and value of the proposal
The paper will present a case study of a unique service that currently fills an important gap within the library analytics space. The paper will focus on the services potential to transform both the way the library works and how it is erceived by its users, as well as its role and relationship within the broader institution
Exploring library anxiety among Sudanese university students
No full textLibrary anxiety is one of the psychological barriers that encounter students when they are performing a library task. This study explores library anxiety among 51 Sudanese university students using diary method for data collection. The finding indicates that library anxiety among Sudanese university students are manifested into five dimensions, namely; (a) Negative perceptions towards library environment, (b) Negative perceptions towards peer students, (c) Negative perceptions towards library staff, (d) Negative perceptions towards library services, and (e) Psychological barriers. Details of statements under the dimensions highlight the issues that are unique and not covered by previous studies in library anxiety
Open scholarship services at the Queen's University Library
No full textOpen Scholarship Services is a division of the Queen's University Library that provides a suite of integrated services supporting the open sharing of digital research and scholarship including research data. This presentation will provide an overview of the local, regional, and national resources that underlie our integrated services and briefly discuss a training program that will guide researchers to manage their outputs openly and throughout the research lifecycle
Introduction to Emerging communities: integrating networked information into library services
No full textIntroduction to Emerging communities : integrating networked information into library services [papers presented the 1993 Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, April 4-6, 1993]Submitted by Sarah Shreeves ([email protected]) on 2007-03-17T21:49:17Z
No. of bitstreams: 1
Introduction.pdf: 363008 bytes, checksum: 0f04d4cb26ef42b9726fee280c941d54 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2007-03-17T21:49:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
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Previous issue date: 1993published or submitted for publicatio
Safety in Numbers: Developing a Shared Analytics Service for Academic Libraries
No full textPurpose
It is clear that libraries consider the use of data to inform decision making a top priority in the next five years. Jisc’s considerable work on activity data has highlighted the lack of tools and services for libraries to exploit this data.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of a shared analytics service for UK academic libraries and introduce the Jisc Library Analytics and Metrics Project (LAMP).
The project aims to help libraries effectively management collections and services as well as delivering pre-emptive indicators and ‘actionable insights’ to help identify new trends, personalise services and improve efficiencies, economies and effectiveness (student attainment and satisfaction and institutional reputation, for example) . The project builds on the Library Impact Data Project at the University of Huddersfield and the work of the Copac Activity Data and Collections Management tools.
The paper will deliver a case study of the project, its progress to date, the challenges of such an approach and the implications the service has for academic libraries.
Design, methodology or approach
The paper will be a case study of the project and its institutional partners and early adopters work to date and explore both the technical and cultural challenges of the work as well as its implications for the role of the library within the institution and the services it provides.
Specifically the case study will comprise of the following aspects:
1. A brief history of the work and the context of library analytics services in the UK (and internationally). A description of the approach adopted by the project, and the vision and goals of the project
2. Exploration of the challenges associated with the project. In particular the challenges around accessing and sharing the data, ‘warehousing’ and data infrastructure considerations and the design challenge of visualising the data sources in a useful and coherent way
3. Outline of the implications of the project and the resultant service. In particular the implications for benchmarking (within the UK and beyond), standards development for library statistics and impact (in particular the development of ISO 16439), service development, the role of the library within the wider institution and skills and expertise of librarians.
Findings
This paper will report on the initial findings of the project, which will run from January 2013 to October 2013. In particular it will consider the issues surfaced through the close engagement with the academic library community (through the projects community advisory and planning group) and the institutional early-adopters around data gathering and analysis.
Practical implications
Data accumulated in one context has the potential to inform decisions and interventions elsewhere. While there are a number of recognised and well understood use-cases for library analytics these tend to revolve around usage and collection management. Yet, the potential of a shared analytics service is in uncovering those links and indicators across diverse data sets.
The paper will consider a number of practical impacts:
Performance: benchmarking, student attainment, research productivity
Design: fine tuning services, personalised support
Trends: research landscape, student marketplace, utilisation of resources.
The case study will explore these practical implications for libraries and what they mean for the future of the library within the academy.
Originality and value of the proposal
The paper will present a case study of a unique service that currently fills an important gap within the library analytics space. The paper will focus on the services potential to transform both the way the library works and how it is erceived by its users, as well as its role and relationship within the broader institution
Library Impact Data Project
No full textThis is the blog for the Library Impact Data Project, which is part of the JISC Activity Data programme.
The following institutions are involved with the project:
University of Bradford, De Montfort University,
University of Exeter, University of Huddersfield,
University of Lincoln, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Salford, Teesside University
The aim of this project is to prove a statistically significant correlation between library usage and student attainment. By identifying subject areas or courses which exhibit low usage of library resources, service improvements can be targeted. Those subject areas or courses which exhibit high usage of library resources can be used as models of good practice
Library usage and demographic characteristics of undergraduate students in a UK university
No full textPurpose of this paper: This paper builds upon existing research into library usage by exploring whether demographic characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity and country of origin have an effect upon undergraduate library usage at the University of Huddersfield.
Design/methodology/approach: The study uses demographic and library usage data for a graduating year of full-time undergraduate students at the University of Huddersfield, and uses statistical tests to explore the significance of the relationship between demographics and usage.
Findings: The study finds that there is a statistically significant relationship between demographic characteristics and library usage on some, though not all, dimensions. But in many cases the effect size is small.
Research limitations and implications: The study uses data from a single UK university, and the findings may not therefore be generalizable. Furthermore, the study is able to identify statistical relationships but is not able to fully explain why they exist.
Practical implications: The findings suggest that library services may need to be shaped differently for different demographic groups of students. Working with students in their own institution, librarians may be able to discover more about why these differences exist.
What is original/value of paper? This paper shows a relationship between usage and demographic characteristics among undergraduate students, allowing librarians to consider how better to shape their services to meet student needs
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Library decision making informed by customer values
No full text“Customer value” is a much used and, in a number of cases, a misunderstood term, with emphasis placed on a priori categories of what provides value for the customer, rather than an effort to understand value from a customer perspective. The research presented in this thesis spans more than ten years in two academic library services, (one in Australia and the other in the United Kingdom), using a methodology that does not use pre-determined value dimensions but, rather, dimensions identified by the customers themselves. This action research was carried out with different customer segments in the university libraries to identify customer values and irritations. By longitudinal tracking of student satisfaction in the UK university, changes in customer satisfaction were noted and related to interventions agreed by library management based on the research data gathered. The thesis answers four specific research questions. By focussing on customer-defined dimensions of “value” and the concept of “customer irritation”, through use of the Customer Value Discovery methodology, this research has been able to identify a set of core academic library customer values that traditional library benchmarking instruments have not previously highlighted. The attendant results of the application of the methodology to discern these values, and their use to inform subsequent change management processes, show that customer satisfaction is improved if changes are made to services and resources to both deliver customer-defined values and reduce customer-defined irritations.
Further, they show that library staff assumptions regarding customer expectations and customer perceptions of service are not always accurate. Therefore, management should seek input from customers and base decisions regarding service changes and improvements to meet customer expectations on customer-derived evidence. At the same time, the active engagement of library staff in the Customer Value Discovery process, their engagement in modelling potential interventions to add value and reduce irritation, and then in the decision-making and implementation of agreed actions, encourages greater staff “buy-in” to the change management process, as the changes are customer-led, and staff driven, rather than being management imposed. The research supported the awarding of the UK Cabinet Office’s Customer Service Excellence accreditation, attesting to the usefulness of the methodology to ensure customer-focussed services.
Taken together, these findings fill a number of gaps in the professional literature, and make a series of contributions to the extant knowledge base, by providing details of the Customer Value Discovery methodology and its usefulness in an academic library context; by presenting the application of a methodology that enables easy and precise identification of value dimensions from the perspective of the customer; and by providing practitioners with case studies of actions that improved customer satisfaction of the library services. As such, the research constitutes a significant contribution, not only to evidence-based library and information practice, informing library management decision-making, but also to the wider field of customer service management
Understanding Patterns of Library Use Among Undergraduate Students from Different Disciplines
No full textObjective – To test whether routinely-generated library usage data could be linked with information about students to understand patterns of library use among students from different disciplines at the University of Huddersfield. This information is important for librarians seeking to demonstrate the value of the library, and to ensure that they are providing services which meet user needs. The study seeks to join two strands of library user research which until now have been kept rather separate – an interest in disciplinary differences in usage, and a methodology which involves large-scale routinely-generated data.
Methods – The study uses anonymized data about individual students derived from two sources: routinely-generated data on various dimensions of physical and electronic library resource usage, and information from the student registry on the course studied by each student. Courses were aggregated at a subject and then disciplinary level. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney tests were used to identify statistically significant differences between the high-level disciplinary groups, and within each disciplinary group at the subject level.
Results – The study identifies a number of statistically significant differences on various dimensions of usage between both high-level disciplinary groupings and lower subject-level groupings. In some cases, differences are not the same as those observed in earlier studies, reflecting distinctive usage patterns and differences in the way that disciplines or subjects are defined and organised. While music students at Huddersfield are heavy library users within the arts subject-level grouping arts students use library resources less than those in social science disciplines, contradicting findings from studies at other institutions, Computing and engineering students were relatively similar, although computing students were more likely to download PDFs, and engineering students were more likely to use the physical library.
Conclusion – The technique introduced in this study represents an effective way of understanding distinctive usage patterns at an individual institution. There may be potential to aggregate findings across several institutions to help universities benchmark their own performance and usage; this would require a degree of collaboration and standardisation. This study found that students in certain disciplines at Huddersfield use the library in different ways to students in those same disciplines at other institutions. Further investigation is needed to understand exactly why these differences exist, but some hypotheses are offered
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