Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mba Student Library Collaboration: Progress And Pitfalls., Colleen Hailey, Jill Dixon

Library Scholarship

In 2008, four accounting students taking a graduate marketing class contacted the business and engineering librarians at the Binghamton University (BU) Libraries about collaborating on a market research project. We wholeheartedly agreed — at once recognizing the unique benefits of gaining patron feedback on library resources and services from the student perspective. The project was also an excellent opportunity to support the School of Management and business students with their graduate course work.

With the Libraries serving as their marketing client, the accounting students created a library survey to provide a “better understanding of the typical user and his/her perceptions …

Coding Into The Great Unknown: Analyzing Instant Messaging Session Transcripts To Identify User Behaviors And Measure Quality Of Service, Sarah Maximiek, Elizabeth Brown, Erin Rushton

Library Scholarship

After one year of providing virtual reference service through an instant messaging (IM) service, Binghamton University (BU) Libraries, under the purview of its Digital Reference Committee (DRC), undertook a study of collected session transcripts. The goals of this work were to determine who was using the IM service and why; if staffing for the service was adequate and met our in-person reference standards; and if improvements to the Libraries' existing reference services were needed. The findings revealed that 31% of identifiable users were students and 5% of users were campus community members. The analyses also revealed that many used the …