Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Health Disclaimers And Website Credibility Markers: Guidance For Consumer Health Reference In The Affordable Care Act Era, Deborah H. Charbonneau

Deborah H. Charbonneau

This article reports on the current state of health disclaimers, online health resources, and credibility markers provided on public library websites (N = 105) for those seeking health information. In light of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), these findings have implications for consumer health reference services in public libraries. Approximately half of the public library websites in the study sample (n = 52, 49.5%) referred users to the ACA Health Insurance Marketplace website (HealthCare.gov). When referring to online consumer health resources, a small number of public library websites identified the authors of online health content (n = 16, 15.2%) or …

Hagerty Library Collection Development Internship, James Gross

James Gross

Collection Development Internship at the Drexel University, Hagerty Library. Summary of several collection management projects. Heavy usage of excel for data extraction. Screenshots used for visual aid.

Cloud Based Storage: A Brief Look At Dropbox, James Gross

James Gross

Brief review of dropbox, a cloud based service for digital file storage.

Making Decisions: Using Electronic Data Collection To Re-Envision Reference Services At The Usf Tampa Libraries, Lily Todorinova, Barbara Lewis, Andy Huse, Matt Torrence

Lily Todorinova

Declining reference statistics, diminishing human resources, and the desire to be more proactive and embedded in academic depart- ments, prompted the University of South Florida Library to create a taskforce for re-envisioning reference services. The taskforce was charged with examining the staffing patterns at the desk and developing recommendations to give librarians greater flexibility and to better respond to the information-seeking needs of users. These recommendations were based on statistics of desk usage, collected with the newly adapted online tool Desk Tracker, and structured interviews with library administrators. The taskforce was interested in how these stakeholders use quantitative data in …

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 …

Staff Training At A Combined Services Desk, Anne E. Rauh, Anne Glorioso, Amy Kindschi

Anne Rauh

In the summer of 2008 Wendt Commons undertook the ambitious task of formalizing a training program for all library staff (including students) who work at the combined services desk. Panelists will discuss the development process, show materials created for the pilot program, and offer an evaluation of the outcome. Please attend this session for an engaging discussion of library staff training and leave with ideas that can be implemented in any library setting.

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 …

Public Services Training At Wendt Library, Anne E. Rauh, Anne Glorioso

Anne Rauh

No abstract provided.

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 …

Connecting 24/5 To Millennials: Providing Academic Support Services From A Learning Commons, Anne C. Moore, Kimberly Wells

Anne C. Moore

In response to the seamless academic and personal behavior of Millennial college students, libraries are creating a learning commons in which campus academic support services are integrated with library services to provide everything students need to succeed in a single facility 24 hours a day with food. Roving may be an effective way to satisfy the immediate support needs of students collaborating in these bustling environments. A survey conducted on March 16, 2006 of users of the UMass Amherst Learning Commons (opened in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library in September 2005) provided detailed insight into who they are, how often …

Professional Competencies For Reference And User Services Librarians, Jo Bell Whitlatch

Jo Bell Whitlatch

No abstract provided.

Research Topics From The Program - Unanswered Questions: Gaps In Research On Reference Effectiveness, Jo Bell Whitlatch

Jo Bell Whitlatch

No abstract provided.

Automation And Job Satisfaction Among Reference Librarians, Jo Bell Whitlatch

Jo Bell Whitlatch

No abstract provided.

Reference Service Effectiveness, Jo Bell Whitlatch

Jo Bell Whitlatch

No abstract provided.

Unobtrusive Studies And The Quality Of Academic Library Reference Services, Jo Bell Whitlatch

Jo Bell Whitlatch

This article uses empirical data from a recent obtrusive study of reference performance to explore content validity and assumptions regarding unobtrusive studies. Data collected by author support the contention that improvements are highly desirable before conducting more unobtrusive studies of reference service. The two most important changes concern the development of test questions representing all types of queries and supplementing the correct fill rate with other measures of reference performance.