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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Practice Makes Perfect: Updating Borrowing Policies And Practices At A Small Academic Library, Crystal Boyce
Practice Makes Perfect: Updating Borrowing Policies And Practices At A Small Academic Library, Crystal Boyce
Crystal Boyce
In 2011, staff from the undergraduate libraries at the College of William & Mary came together to evaluate circulation policies related to borrowing periods and billing. In an attempt to better align the policies across each unit, and with the intention of creating a more consistent user experience, new policies were proposed and implemented in the fall of 2012. These changes were found to dramatically decrease staff time necessary for billing, while improving user satisfaction with the borrowing policies. Significantly fewer books went into billing, suggesting no adverse effects on collection maintenance.
Measuring The International Usage Of U.S. Institutional Repositories, Lauren Fralinger, Jonathan Bull
Measuring The International Usage Of U.S. Institutional Repositories, Lauren Fralinger, Jonathan Bull
Jonathan Bull
Purpose – In an educational world with increasing internationalization, digitization, assessment and financial justification, US institutions, especially academic libraries, must justify each new project. Institutional Repositories (IRs) are no exception. The authors attempt to identify factors that might affect the international usage of US IRs as part of assessment efforts to determine an IR's return-on-investment. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was disseminated to IR administrators asking for demographic information, international usage counts for website hits and downloads, and any internationalization efforts connected to the IR in order to determine any influencing factors on an IR's international usage. Findings – While many …
Assessment And Evaluation Methods For Access Services, Dallas Long
Assessment And Evaluation Methods For Access Services, Dallas Long
Dallas Long
This paper serves as a primer to assessment and evaluation design by describing the range of methods commonly employed in library settings. Quantitative methods, such as counting and benchmarking measures, are useful for investigating the internal operations of an Access Services department in order to identify workflow inefficiencies or comparator data to judge performance against peer institutions. Qualitative methods, such as focus groups and observation studies, are useful for exploring patron behavior and perceptions, especially in regards to space planning and customer service. The strengths and limitations of these methods are also briefly addressed.
The Impact Of Library Resource Utilization On Undergraduate Students' Academic Performance: A Propensity Score Matching Design, Felly Kot, Jennifer Jones
The Impact Of Library Resource Utilization On Undergraduate Students' Academic Performance: A Propensity Score Matching Design, Felly Kot, Jennifer Jones
Jennifer L. Jones
This study uses three cohorts of first-time, full-time undergraduate students (N=8,652) at a large, metropolitan, public research university to examine the impact of student use of three library resources (workstations, study rooms, and research clinics) on academic performance. To deal with self-selection bias and estimate this impact more accurately, we used propensity score matching. Using this unique approach allowed us to construct treatment and control groups with similar background characteristics. We found that using a given library resource was associated with a small, but also meaningful, gain in first-term grade point average, net of other factors.