Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Choice Is Yours! Researchers Assign Subject Metadata To Their Own Materials In Insitutional Repositories, Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

The Digital Commons platform for institutional repositories provides a three-tiered taxonomy of academic disciplines for each item submitted to the repository. Since faculty and departmental administrators across campuses are encouraged to submit materials to the institutional repository themselves, they must also assign disciplines or subject categories for their own work. The expandable drop-down menu of about 1,000 categories is easy to use, and facilitates the growth of the institutional repository and access to the materials through the Internet.

Learning From Each Other: Baltic Collections In North America, Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

Estonian, Lithuanian and a few Latvian libraries, archives and museums will be described with the intent to see what the Latvians can learn from these examples, to better preserve their own history through libraries, archives and material culture collections.

To view actual presentation, see http://vimeo.com/51605116

Turning A Passion Into A Research Project, Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

As a Latvian-American I became interested in librarianship when assigned to set up a library at the Latvian Studies Center in Kalamazoo. The library was dispersed after Latvia regained its independence, and I started working at Western Michigan University. I have recently turned my research focus back to my ethnic heritage and am excited to be able to combine my professional skills with my passion. I have started looking at not only Latvian, but Estonian and Lithuanian collections in the U.S. As the communities age, what is happening to their libraries, archives and museums? As the information world turns digital, …

Library Stats As An Assessment Tool, Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

Western Michigan University has been working on creating a culture of assessment for ten years. The libraries have been using LibQUAL, a user satisfaction survey, since 2004, but have been gathering other statistics and assessment data over these same years. It is time to put it all together into an assessment plan.

Library Stats is an open source tool for maintaining reference statistics. It provides the opportunity to keep rich statistics on each reference transaction, including the actual question and answer. WMU implemented the use of Library Stats across all reference areas in 2009 and has already used the data …

Training Students For Reference Desk Work, Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

Western Michigan University Libraries use student workers to answer reference questions at almost all of the reference points in the library system. The Central Reference Desk in Waldo Library is the most active reference point, with questions on a wide range of topics, and an extensive range of resources. The students working at the Central Reference Desk receive a twelve week training program and a handbook that covers the library collections, services, types of resources, and condensed subject guides for the most popular humanities and social sciences topics. This presentation will show how this training program has evolved over the …

Using The Read (Reference Effort Assessment Data) Scale© To Assess Reference Work, Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

Surveys have shown that librarians are not completely satisfied with the statistics used for reference services, so Bella Karr Gerlich at Dominican University developed the READ (Reference Effort Assessment Data) Scale, which has now been tested by 14 academic libraries. In October 2008 the Central Reference Department at Western Michigan University Libraries started using the READ Scale to record reference transactions. Instead of just writing down tick marks for each question answered, each question was rated on a six-point scale, based on the difficulty of the question and the time it took to answer. This low-tech tool was easy to …

Baltic National Bibliographies Minus The Book Chambers, Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

Part of the panel: The Fate of Book Chambers and National Bibliographies in the Former Soviet Republics since 1991.

Continuing Education And Knowledge Retention: A Comparison Of Online And Face-To-Face Deliveries, Julie A. Garrison, Connie Schardt

Julie A Garrison

Objective: Drawing upon earlier research that surveyed students’ grasp of subject knowledge after taking either an online or face-to-face EBM course, this paper explores the effectiveness of a Web-based professional continuing education course, compared with an equivalent face-to- face version. The course was designed to teach practicing medical librarians how to participate in and advocate for Evidence Based Medicine at their individual institutions. Methods: Seventy-two practicing librarians, self-selected to participate in either the distance education eight week course or the eight hour face-to-face class. Using a modified version of the Fresno Test of Competence in Evidence-Based Medicine, the authors compared …

Collaborative Strategies To Meet The Challenges Of Serving Graduate Students, Michele D. Behr, Barbara J. Cockrell

Barbara J Cockrell

Recent LibQual+ (2004) and Off-campus Satisfaction (2002, 2006) surveys at Western Michigan University revealed that graduate students had information needs that were not being met. Many lack awareness of resources and the necessary research skills for performing graduate level research, yet instructors are reluctant to relinquish class time for library sessions and the students themselves are reluctant to seek the individual help they need. In 2005-6 we collaborated with the Graduate College to offer new graduate workshops that were not class related but were instead part of a Strategies for Success series that was already in place. These workshop topics …

Latviesu Gramatas Un Citi Materiali Kratuves Arpus Latvijas (Latvian Books And Other Materials In Collections Outside Latvia), Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

No abstract provided.

Krātuve Kas Nemitīgi Aug! Pieci Gadi Latviešu Studiju Centra Bibliotekā. (A Collection That Is Constantly Growing! Five Years At The Latvian Studies Center Library, Maira Bundza

Maira Bundza

Describes the history of the collection at the Latvian Studies Center Library in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the collection itself, its users, organization, and cooperation with other libraries.