Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Case Studies In The Classroom: Assessing A Pilot Information Literacy Curriculum For English Composition, Rachel Wishkoski, Katie Strand, Alex J. Sundt, Deanna Allred, Diana J. Meter

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Purpose

This mixed-methods study assesses a pilot library curriculum in a general education English composition course. Case-based learning (CBL), a form of problem-based learning (PBL), was used to scaffold information literacy skills and concepts across sessions. This article explores the approach's impact on student learning and engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

Participants were enrolled in four sections of an undergraduate composition course. Two sections were taught with the CBL library curriculum, and two with the standard library curriculum as a control. Pretest/posttest surveys included quantitative and qualitative measures to assess students in several areas of information literacy. Weekly reflections from a subsample of …

Academic Libraries, Government Information, And The Persistent Problem Of Jargon, Jennifer P. Kirk, Alex J. Sundt, Teagan Eastman

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

The shift to born-digital and digitized materials has ultimately increased access and convenience for users, but in many ways it has also complicated the process of finding information. While users may struggle with catalog interfaces or reading call numbers, most have a basic understanding of how to locate a physical book. But in the digital environment, users have no built-in model for what sequence of clicks or keywords will get them to the information they need. This problem is exacerbated for specialized areas like government information, where more and more data and documents are readily available online via a variety …

Chatting Without Borders: Assessment As The First Step In Cultivating An Accessible Chat Reference Service, Teagan Eastman, Mckenzie Hyde, Katie Strand, Rachel Wishkoski

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

As distance education programs grow at college and universities across the country, libraries must ensure virtual reference services are prepared to meet the needs of patrons in these programs. This article describes the process and results of a 2018 chat analysis conducted at a midsize research university with a large distance education program. The authors discuss the implications of their findings, as well as their process of closing the assessment loop. By using data to inform changes to virtual reference services, chat becomes more accessible and approachable to all users regardless of location.

Informing Website Navigation Design With Team-Based Card Sorting, Alex Sundt, Teagan Eastman

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

In 2016, Utah State University (USU) Libraries redesigned the library website’s main menu and underlying information architecture (IA) in response to a number of known usability problems and limitations. Card sorting studies were conducted with a group of USU undergraduate students and a mixed group of faculty and graduate students to help develop a better understanding of users’ mental models of library-related research and service tasks. Participants worked in teams to sort, rank and label cards pertaining to the content and feature of the library’s website. Afterwards, participants discussed and performed usability tasks on each other’s categories. Results were used …

Organization And Structure Of Cataloging Units In Academic Libraries Research Project, Liz Woolcott, Jeremy Myntti

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Mitigating The Risk: Identifying Strategic University Partnerships For Compliance Tracking Of Research Data And Publications, Andrea Payant, Betty Rozum, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

As international efforts to develop guidelines for data management emerge, the need for monitoring data deposit compliance increases. Utah State University has a team of university administrators, IT specialists, and librarians that addresses research data management issues. They developed a process to receive reports from faculty with successful grants that ultimately allows creation of records for data. Research grants are tracked though all stages and information about data and publications shared publicly on platforms capable of contributing scholarly work to research outputs aggregators (such as Share) and also to public facing bibliographic aggregators like Worldcat.

Merging Two Academic Libraries: Finding Unity From Diversity While Maintaining Institutional Identities, Betty Rozum, Lori Brassaw

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Merging two distinct academic libraries into one presents unique problems and challenges. In 2010 the Utah System of Higher Education officially mandated that the College of Eastern Utah merge with Utah State University in order to reduce costs and promote efficiencies within the College of Eastern Utah, an institution hit particularly hard during the recent economic decline. Although the College of Eastern Utah was clearly becoming part of Utah State University, one of the charges was to maintain its core mission and unique identity. It was important that the College of Eastern Utah Library be seen as a separate entity, …

Librarian Perceptions And Information Literacy Instruction Models, Erin Davis, Kacy Lundstrom, Pamela N. Martin

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Purpose – This paper aims to explore both instruction librarians' attitudes on teaching and how they identify themselves as teachers. Particular attention is to be paid to teaching librarians' views on the effectiveness of two types of instruction models: for-credit courses and course-integrated library instruction.

Design/methodology/approach – To investigate librarians' attitudes towards these two models, a survey was constructed targeting librarians who teach information literacy (IL).

Findings – The results indicate that there is an important relationship between the IL instruction model employed and feelings towards campus politics, perceived effectiveness of IL models, and librarians' self-identification as teachers.

Research limitations/implications …

A Happy Employee Is A Productive Employee, Erin Dini Davis

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.