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 …

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. …

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 …

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.

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.

Institute For Research Design In Librarianship (Irdl), Kristine Brancolini, Marie Kennedy

Marie R. Kennedy