Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What Does It Take To Make Discovery A Success?: A Survey Of Discovery Tool Adoption, Instruction, And Evaluation Among Academic Libraries, Aaron Nichols, Emily A. Crist, Graham Sherriff, Megan Allison

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Discovery tools have been widely adopted by academic libraries, yet little information exists that connects common practices regarding discovery tool implementation, maintenance, assessment, and staffing with conventions for research and instruction. The authors surveyed heads of reference and instruction departments in research and land-grant university libraries. The survey results revealed common practices with discovery tools among academic libraries. This study also draws connections between operational, instructional, and assessment practices and perceptions that participants have of the success of their discovery tool. Participants who indicated successful implementation of their discovery tool hailed from institutions that made significant commitments to the operations, …

Guide On The Side And Libwizard Tutorials Side-By-Side: How Do The Two Platforms For Split-Screen Online Tutorials Compare?, Graham Sherriff

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Split-screen tutorials are an appealing and effective way for libraries to create online learning objects where learners interact with real-time web content. Many libraries are using the University of Arizona’s award-winning, open source platform, Guide on the Side; in 2016, Springshare released a proprietary alternative, LibWizard Tutorials. This article reviews the advantages and limitations of this kind of tutorial. It also examines the differences between each platform’s distinctive characteristics. These platforms create similar split-screen tutorials, but have differences that affect diverse aspects of installation, administration, authoring and editing, student learning, data management, and accessibility. Libraries now have the opportunity to …

Gender And Scholarly Publishing: What Students Need To Know, Lucretia Mcculley

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

As women and gender studies students emerge as citizens of the world, how can we educate them on scholarly communication issues? What role, if any, does gender play in successful scholarly publishing? How is open access publishing affecting global access to scholarship on gender? How do students’ lives on the Web influence their understanding of copyright?

Women and gender studies students need to understand the economics and legal aspects of scholarship, both as consumers and content creators. They need to be able to thoughtfully discuss who owns information, who controls it and who has access to it. Students also need …

Why Some Students Continue To Value Individual, Face-To-Face Research Consultations In A Technology-Rich World, Trina J. Magi, Patricia E. Mardeusz

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

For decades, academic librarians have provided individual research consultations for students. There is little information, however, about why students schedule consultations, the kinds of assistance students feel are provided by librarians during consultations, and what students find valuable about face-to-face consultations, even with the availability of online research help. This exploratory, qualitative study of individual research consultations at the University of Vermont gathered students’ views on these questions. The findings will help librarians better understand how individual consultations serve students and what role consultations should play in the mix of reference services offered.

What Students Need From Reference Librarians: Exploring The Complexity Of The Individual Consultation, Trina J. Magi, Patricia E. Mardeusz

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

The article reports on an exploratory study that identified the skills used by reference librarians during individual research consultations with undergraduate and graduate students in a wide range of disciplines. The skills fell into eight categories. As expected, librarians needed knowledge about information sources and their effective use, but the project revealed that consultations often involve higher-order skills, as well, such as knowing how to approach and organize the research endeavor, shaping a topic appropriate for the scope of a project, making connections among various pieces of information and applying them to the problem at hand, and identifying alternative research …

Rethinking Information Literacy In A Globalized World, Laurie Kutner, Alison Armstrong

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

As a profession, librarians have an important and unique role to play in higher education in producing information literate students equipped to be successful in a complex, twenty-first century global society. It is our contention that our guiding professional information literacy definitions and standards need to be reconsidered in order to remain relevant within the global learning context. Our preliminary conclusion is that the predominantly skills-based approach facilitated by the current ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, is not sufficient to facilitate teaching of twenty-first century “deep information literacy,” which we feel encompasses additional content-based engagement with the …

What's Best For Students: Comparing The Effectiveness Of A Traditional Print Pathfinder And A Web-Based Research Tool, Trina J. Magi

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This quantitative study compared a print pathfinder and a web-based research tool in library instruction for two sections of a first-year business course. The traditional print pathfinder received higher ratings on use, ease of use, and helpfulness, but both tools resulted in students citing a similar number of recommended sources.

Issues In Providing Information Literacy Training: Our Kosovo Experience, Fred C. Pond

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

As part of a partnership of two medical schools, Dartmouth's Biomedical Libraries is providing leadership in the provision of information literacy training to students, faculty and staff of the Medical Faculty of University of Prishtina. Initial steps include establishing rapport between University of Prishtina and Dartmouth College partners, identifying knowledgeable trainers/educators, and designing a responsive training protocol, to act as the basis for initial train-the-trainer personnel as well as the end user.

This poster focuses on issues which arise, such as the more apparent ones of language and culture differences, and the less clear, such as navigating a steady Internet …