Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Creating A Culture Of Meaningful Evaluation In Public Libraries: Moving Beyond Quantitative Metrics, Bill Irwin, Paul St-Pierre

Bill Irwin

The current state of practice sees public libraries, like all public institutions, enduring funding challenges within the dominant political-economic environment, which is shaped by the tenets of new public management and the neoliberal audit society. Libraries, feeling threatened and unsure about their future stability, seek new ways to demonstrate their value. However, they face institutional cultural constraints when attempting to introduce new assessment methods to meet this challenge. The new dynamics require them to go beyond output measures (counts). With research findings supported by survey and interview data from Ontario public libraries, and in agreement with the current literature on …

Financial Literacy Across The Curriculum (And Beyond): Opportunities For Academic Libraries, Heather Jagman, Krystal Lewis, Brent Nunn, Scott Walter

Heather Jagman

Provides an introduction to financial literacy programs in the library and in other academic and co-curriculum programs at DePaul University.

Library Outreach Through Media Wall Exhibits, Lori Bronars, Gwyneth Crowley

Lori Bronars

Library Outreach Through Media Wall Exhibits, Gwyneth Crowley, Lori Bronars

Gwyneth H. Crowley

Can Data Drive Success?: Implementing Instruction Evaluation Forms, Ashley Rosener, James Gulvas, Barbara Harvey, Anne Merkle, Emily Frigo

Barbara C. Harvey

A committee comprised of seven Research and Instruction Librarians at Grand Valley State University met to analyze, evaluate, and recommend changes to a newly-implemented librarian instruction evaluation form. Prior to the creation of this form, instruction assessment forms were used on an individual, ad hoc basis for personal self-evaluation. In 2010, there was a grassroots effort to trial a standardized form, but it did not result in widespread adoption among teaching librarians beyond the duration of the project. In 2013, with a formal Instruction Program in place, there was renewed interest in creating an effective, sustainable, and practical library assessment …

Scholarly Communications Committee Report On Activities 2013-14, Janelle Wertzberger

Janelle Wertzberger

2013-14 annual report for Musselman Library's Scholarly Communications Committee, including Gettysburg College's institutional repository, The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. Covers June 2013-May 2014.

The Cupola Infographic (2014), Janelle Wertzberger

Janelle Wertzberger

This infographic displays key facts and figures about Gettysburg College's institutional repository, The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College, as of 5/31/14 (end of fiscal year).

Open Access: A Brief Overview, Florence Mugambi

Florence N. Mugambi

No abstract provided.

Fan Fiction Metadata Creation And Utilization Within Fan Fiction Archives: Three Primary Models, Shannon Johnson

Shannon F Johnson

Issues related to searchability and ease of access have plagued fan fiction since its inception. This paper discusses the predominate forms of fan-mediated indexing and descriptive metadata, commonly referred to as folksonomy or tagging, and compares the benefits and disadvantages of each model. These models fall into three broad categories: free tagging, controlled vocabulary, and hybrid folksonomy. Each model has distinct advantages and shortcomings related to findability, results filtering, and creative empowerment. Examples for each are provided. Possible ramifications to fan fiction from improved metadata and access are also discussed.

Breaking All The Rules: Lock-In At The Sciences Library, Brett Cloyd, Sara Scheib

Brett Cloyd

Imagine forty first-year students at the library after hours, yelling and racing through the stacks, pulling books off the shelf before sprinting to another section. It might sound like a librarian’s worst nightmare, but it was all according to plan. In an effort to help overcome library anxiety and give our students a fun introduction to academic libraries, we broke all the rules to develop a Library Lock-In event. This collaborative effort supported by the Library, Residence Life, and the Honors Program turned out to be very successful and was one of the most well-attended programs offered to the LLCs. …

I Felt Like Such A Freshman’: Integrating First-Year Student Identities Through Collaborative Reflective Learning, Paula Dempsey, Heather Jagman

Heather Jagman

This poster reports on qualitative analysis of 97 first-year student essays generated from an information literacy exercise designed collaboratively by four academic support units at DePaul University in Fall 2013. Working as an ACRL Assessment in Action team, the Library, Writing Center, Office for Academic Advising, and Center for Students with Disabilities integrated a library experience into an academic skills unit led by peer mentors. First-year students were asked to consider a topic of personal or academic interest, use the library discovery tool to identify an item, physically find the item in the library, check it out, and reflect on …

Practice Makes Perfect: Updating Borrowing Policies And Practices At A Small Academic Library, Crystal Boyce

Crystal Boyce

In 2011, staff from the undergraduate libraries at the College of William & Mary came together to evaluate circulation policies related to borrowing periods and billing. In an attempt to better align the policies across each unit, and with the intention of creating a more consistent user experience, new policies were proposed and implemented in the fall of 2012. These changes were found to dramatically decrease staff time necessary for billing, while improving user satisfaction with the borrowing policies. Significantly fewer books went into billing, suggesting no adverse effects on collection maintenance.

Teaching Public Administration In An Age Of Austerity: Librarians And Hybrid Instruction, Ashley Rosener, Lara Jaskiewicz

Lara Jaskiewicz

Eleanor Crumblehulme recently said, “Cutting libraries in a recession is like cutting hospitals in a plague.” While a number of university libraries have received drastic budget cuts during the current recession, Grand Valley State University (GVSU) has chosen to invest in their library, keeping its services and materials up-to-date and relevant for student learning. Despite receiving the lowest appropriation per student among Michigan state universities, GVSU has embraced new practices in teaching public administration and other disciplines while balancing the need to serve more students with a reduced budget. The greatest challenge amidst these changes is to continue providing students …

The Chat Is Coming From Inside The House: An Analysis Of Perceived Chat Behavior And Reality, Elizabeth Berndt-Morris, Samantha Minnis

Samantha Minnis

Adding Up To Success? Assessing Freshman Skills In Information Literacy, Susan Archambault

Susan Gardner Archambault

Loyola Marymount University (LMU) designed a 4-module online tutorial to meet the information literacy outcomes associated with a First Year Seminar course. The four modules that comprise the tutorial (Starting Your Assignment, Types of Information, Finding and Evaluating Information, and Using Information Ethically) were integrated into each First Year Seminar course through Blackboard, the university's Learning Management System (LMS). After completing each tutorial module, students were also required to take a quiz. The effectiveness of the tutorial and quizzes was assessed through a mixed methods approach using direct and indirect measures. Overall areas of weakness are were evaluated and addressed, …

You Can't Handle This Book: The State Of The Banned Book In America, Annie Smith

Annie Smith

Banning and challenging books is not a thing of the past. If anything, book challenges have been on the rise in recent years. This presentation and discussion will explore this phenomena, with special attention to the ethical dilemmas of book banning, parental authority, and trigger warnings.

Music Librarianship, Lisa Philpott, Monica Fazekas

Lisa Rae Philpott

Anyone who doubts that a music library is special -- and requires appropriately-trained staff -- has only to spend some time with us fielding day-to-day queries.

A Sophisticated Library Search Strategy Using Folksonomies And Similarity Matching, William Lund, Yiu-Kai Ng, Maria Pera

William Lund

Libraries, private and public, offer valuable resources to library patrons. As of today the only way to locate information archived exclusively in libraries is through their catalogs. Library patrons, however, often find it difficult to formulate a proper query, which requires using specific keywords assigned to different fields of desired library catalog records, to obtain relevant results. These improperly formulated queries often yield irrelevant results or no results at all. This negative experience in dealing with existing library systems turn library patrons away from library catalogs; instead, they rely on Web search engines to perform their searches first and upon …

Patrons Cataloging? The Role And Quality Of Patron Tagging In Item Description, William Lund, Allyson Washburn

William Lund

With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, user participation in the description and evaluation of content has come to the library. User tagging is almost a given in applications such as Del.icio.us, Flickr, and LibraryThing. The question is whether tagging provided by users with their own motivations is better in some sense then descriptions provided by professionals. Is the tagging provided by the wisdom of the crowd a better description of an item?

Social Media For International Students: It's Not All About Facebook, Grace Saw, Wendy Abbott, Jessie Donaghey, Carolyn Mcdonald

Jessie Donaghey

According to the OECD there are nearly four million tertiary students enrolled in a course outside their country of citizenship. In 2010 there were 335 273 international students enrolled in higher education in Australia. To support these students during their study, libraries need to find ways to communicate and engage with them.An Australian study found that international students’ preferred methods for learning about library services was through library webpages and personal contact with library staff. As more libraries experiment with social networking to inform and connect with students, we need to determine the effectiveness of this strategy for reaching international …

An Instagram Is Worth A Thousand Words: An Industry Panel And Audience Q&A, Wendy Abbott, Jessie Donaghey, Joanna Hare, Peta Hopkins

Jessie Donaghey

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the industry panel session hosted by Bond University Library at the Australian Library and Information Association's Information Online 2013 Conference. The panel was held to discuss the use and implications of professional Instagram profiles. The panel included a professional photographer, an internet marketing expert, a social media expert, a librarian and a social media-savvy student. The inclusion of a range of perspectives from outside the library aimed to provide a holistic approach to the institutional use of Instagram and to provide inspiration. The panel took place on Wednesday 13 February 2013 …

The Perfect Storm: The Convergence Of Social, Mobile And Photo Technologies In Libraries (Data Set), Wendy Abbott, Jessie Donaghey, Joanna Hare, Peta Hopkins

Jessie Donaghey

No abstract provided.

The Librarian In Rowling’S Harry Potter Series, Mary Freier

Mollie Freier

In her article "The Librarian in Rowling's Harry Potter Series" Mary P. Freier discusses Hermione Granger's skills as a librarian and researcher which lead to the defeat of Lord Voldemort. In each novel in the series, Hermione's research provides the necessary information for the solving of the mystery. Throughout the series, Hermione proves to be the only character who can use books effectively without putting herself or others in danger. Hermione begins the series as a child who loves the library, but does not always know how to use it effectively, while Madam Pince begins the series as a stereotypical …

From Theory To Action: “Good Enough” Digital Preservation Solutions For Under-Resourced Cultural Heritage Institutions, Jaime Schumacher, Lynne Thomas, Drew Vandecreek, Stacey Erdman, Jeff Hancks, Aaisha Haykal, Meg Miner, Patrice-Andre Prud’Homme, Danielle Spalenka

Meg Miner

**Winner of the 2015 SAA Preservation Publication Award and the 2015 NDSA Innovation Award, Organization category***; see http://archivists.org/node/19832 and http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2015/10/announcing-the-2015-innovation-award-winners/?loclr=eadpb

Libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage organizations collect, create, and steward a rapidly increasing volume of digital content. Both research conclusions and professionals’ real-life experiences expose the inherent fragility of this content. The cultural heritage and information science communities have developed guidelines, best practices, policies, procedures, and processes that can enable an organization to achieve high levels of digital preservation. However, these protocols are often complex, leaving many practitioners attempting to address the challenge of preserving digital materials …

Library In The Future Tense, Justin Wadland

Justin Wadland

Story Problems: Telling Your Story Through Database Statistics, Annie Smith

Annie Smith

Librarians have collected database usage statistics for as long as they have been available. But other than using them to decide whether or not to renew a database subscription, what can we use them for? The session will begin with a brief overview of COUNTER compliance and what kinds of reports are available from vendors before discussing how to mix, blend, and splice your usage numbers to get the most out of your statistics. The session will include group activities to give you some hands-on experience.

Biz Of Acq -- From Student To Supervisor: Ten Management Tips For Recent Graduates, Christy Allen

Christy Allen

No abstract provided.

From Theory To Action: A Pragmatic Approach To Digital Preservation Strategies And Tools, Meg Miner

Meg Miner

Cultural heritage practitioners who lack the advantages of specialization that come with a larger staff and budget feel overwhelmed by the many facets of digital preservation. Professionals in these situations do not know how to take the next steps from awareness to action, and so the risk to their collections remains unmitigated. What can individuals do to move beyond understanding the need for digital preservation and towards effective stewardship of digital collections? The goal of this project is to investigate scalable and practical solutions, including potential business and implementation models, that provide equitable access to digital preservation processes for smaller …

Charting Your Course: Using Curriculum Mapping To Enhance Information Literacy, Susan Archambault

Susan Gardner Archambault

Loyola Marymount University’s (LMU) Reference Department launched a “curriculum mapping project” to support information literacy in a new core curriculum. Subject librarians at LMU are completing a curriculum map for every undergraduate major degree program on campus. The purpose is to pinpoint strategic information literacy opportunities within each Department, discipline, or program.

Publish, Not Perish: Supporting Graduate Students As Aspiring Authors, Barbara Alvarez, Jennifer Bonnet, Meredith Kahn

Jen Bonnet