Has Chat Changed Things?

Sending instant messages, be they SMS, AOL, Gchat or any other of the numerous methods of “chatting” has become widespread in the computer world. The research maniacs over at the Pew have identified, in several studies, the current generation’s (those born since 1980) love of the chat. What does this mean for the library?

Currently, The University of Iowa library is redesigning it’s web site based on someone’s brilliant Master’s Thesis. One of the recommendations was to move the chat feature to a prominent place on the main page. I am guessing that the move of the chat feature will result in dramatically increased traffic of this service. However, I am wondering what impact, if any, this will have on the type of question the reference department is asked. Additionally, will the relocations of the chat feature send a signal that the library has changed, for better or worse, to accommodate the information needs of students?

I firmly believe that the amount of attention that students give their education is decreasing, but this is hardly any fault of the student and more society. But that is a discussion for a different time. The point is that students have information needs and the library is here to help, but is encouraging chat the way to do this?

Search Engines

The idea of a search engine is, I believe, fairly limited. By that I mean that Google dominates the market. There are plenty other options out there for people to use, but Google remains, by far, the search engine de jour. Within the past few weeks a new search engine has appeared, www.cuil.com Pronounced “cool” this engine was designed by former Google engineers. The interesting thing about cuil is that its WebCrawler is strikingly different from Googles. I encourage you to try out searches between these two search engines and look at the difference.

the Information Search Process

I have now completed two rounds of usability testing at Iowa. We are testing a beta site, designed with some of my recommendations from the previous study. Even with improvements students are still having a damn hard time finding things. I am beginning to think that information literacy needs to target instructors more than it needs to target students. I think the best chance for students to succeed is if they are told the same thing from every 'information-authority.' Essentially that they need to hear the same words "databases" "smart search" from both professors and librarians.
The problems that continually present themselves in my usability studies are the participants abilities to understand what a citation is. Participants still experienced considerable trouble finding the article, even after I explained what each section of an MLA citation meant.
So what is going on here? Is it a lack of information literacy of the students (or maybe a general apathy towards research). Or is there a lack of instructors who know how to use the library (or maybe a general apathy towards their students?).

interview AND success NOT("screw up" AND rush)

Some tips for reference librarian interviews

1. Make sure you research possible questions you might get asked

2. Go over those questions with friends

3. Don't have a script in front of you, but just try and play it naturally and try your best to 'be cool.' (I dislike the use of the word 'cool' but it really sums up my point here).

4. Remember steps 1-3 when your phone interview begins

5. Don't give short, and sometimes meaningless, answers to questions.


#5 is particularly important as you might experience a kind of 'out of brain' feeling during an interview which, might, cause you to sound dis-interested and like an overall idiot.

Also, if you have a list of questions that you want to ask it might be a good idea to have those in front of you. If you neglect to do this (and try to play it by ear) you might end up asking questions that have little or no relevance to the position you are applying for, in which case you will sound stupid, and again dis-interested. Do not do this.

This post has no basis from my own life and has nothing to do with trying to get a job that I really wanted and feel as though I totally blew the phone interview.

The trouble with students

Another topic of discussion at The University of Iowa SLIS Journal Club, and the main purpose for our meeting, was Patience L. Simmonds and Syed Saad Andaleeb's article "Usage of Academic Libraries: The Role of Service Quality, Resources, and User Characteristics" Library Trends 49:4 (2001).
One of the findings of the article was that users tend to not be able to use library services, even after they had attended an information literacy session with a librarian. Shawn and Courtney pointed out that perhaps the problem isn't the users, that maybe it's the library's problem. There is a lot of blame placed on each generation that they just don't work hard enough or (insert something here) enough.
Libraries too often try and force their users into interacting with terribly designed web sites. No amount of instruction, by even the best instructors, can overcome bad web site design. One problem with library web sites is when they are designed for librarians and not for the user. The 'librarian knows best' mentality is a major problem. Too many studies/librarians/professors are quick to blame the users and do not take the time to consider that maybe, just maybe, there is a problem with the system itself.

Cults seem to be everywhere

Last night, at The University of Iowa SLIS Journal Club, there was a rather lively discussion regarding Andrew Keen's the cult of the amateur. Several members of the club were shocked that I had actually purchased the book. There was a general feeling among the my colleagues that Keen's book was nothing more than a series of poorly argued, and illogical, statements that add up to nothing more than elitism. I agree that there are major problems with Keen's arguments. He assails wikipedia for allowing anyone to edit an entry, which leads to a toxic amount of democracy. So much democracy that nothing can be agreed upon and that the users of Wikipedia get inaccurate information (see pages 36-38 for Keen's own words).
I feel that this attack on Wikipedia is unfounded, but that is beside the point. The value of the cult of the amateur is that it highlights the degree to which people find themselves entertaining/important. What I really like about this book is the fact that, I believe, Keen comes back to an idea about the cult of the individual. I wonder if Keen would have a problem with digital culture if the people taking part were not so self-obsessed.

Priorities

I have recently concluded a usability study at Iowa. One of my main concerns is the number of links from the home page (82 incase you are wondering). I recently clicked on "staff directory." While scrolling down, looking for a librarians email, I noticed there were a lot of catalogers, 49 in fact. That seems like a lot to me, especially when one considers that the University currently employes 5 digital librarians.

Catalogers: 49
Digital Librarians: 5

Hmm. What does that say about Iowa? More importantly what does that say about where the technological priorities of this university rest?

Seriously, 49 catalogers and 5 digital librarians. Are you freaking kidding me? The relevance of cataloging is marginal at best in an era when books arrive at the library, already catalogued, what can 49 people possibly be doing?

Of the reference interview

Traditionally, the use of the library was heavily dependent on a librarian being able to aid the patron in decoding paper indexes and various other bibliographic resources. Over the past 10-15 years the services originally found in such paper indexes have been supplanted with electronic databases, which are available to anyone at a library that has access to a computer. Additionally, these electronic resources are used outside of the guiding help of a librarian or instructor.
My question is: how are these electronic resources helping information literacy? Students increasingly view themselves as being "tech-savvy" but what happens when a student navigates to a sophisticated database such as Web of Science or Emerald and has no luck finding what it is they are after? What happens when these students become frustrated and rely on EBSCO for all of their information needs? When going online to use library resources patrons are left on their own to figure things out, i.e. there is no form of the reference interview. Is this a problem? How do we fix it?

The Cult of the Individual (COTI)

Recently I've discussed what I call "the cult of the individual" with several colleagues and friends. I realize that I did not coin this phrase, but I find it quite an intriguing idea to discuss. To me, basically, the cult of the individual is visible in many areas of our culture and society. Shirts that say "princess," cell phone conversations in public places, facebook accounts, etcetera. All of these things are meant to draw attention to the person. To show how very important we are to other people.
One might argue that cell phones are for convenience and maintaining contact, but why would someone subject other people to an otherwise private conversation, no matter how insignificant? Also, why disturb other people by talking on your phone? What about all those Jazzy ringtones? Ah, how nice it is to let other people know how cool/hip/ironic/[insert something here] we are with our unique ringtones. The answer is because people think that they are important to everyone else.
Okay, so I don't like cellphones (you can read about it on my facebook page) but I hope the idea is clear. Society seems increasingly concerned with what everyone else is doing and everyone else seems to want society to notice.
Now, why does this belong on a blog that discusses Information and Librarianship? To be honest, I am trying to figure that out too. I recently had coffee with my friend Steve, who asked me how the Cult of the Individual affects librarianship/Information Literacy. I know the connection is there I just can't seem to find it.

Low Context versus High Context

At last week's ACRL meeting in Davenport the keynote Speaker, Dr. Roberto A. Ibarra spoke about the general trend of libraries becoming some of the most multicultural spots on college campuses.

A brief Discussion of "Context"
Low Context: North-Western European. Specifically the Germanic university model that is currently the "norm" in North American universities. Low Context is described as relying heavily on writing and reading. Hence a relatively "low" amount of contact/interaction. Space is private.
High Context: Pretty much the rest of the world. Things that are important in hight context include; reading, writing, architecture, tone, social interaction, gestures. Generally, space is communal (no closed doors).

Ibarra's discussion focused on how libraries do a lot to enable multicultural learning. One of my favorite quotes from Ibarra was that "putting posters up doesn't do anything for multiculturalism." That might not be the quote exactly, but it is pretty close. Ibarra's main point was that libraries are creating open spaces for people to come together and work in a more comfortable and "high context" environment. i.e. collaboration is the name of the new library game.

Okay, that's fine. HOWEVER, what happens in those collaborative spaces? Everyone gets together and sits at a table and looks at a computer screen to start working.....where we go head over-heals back into the world of über low context. Ibarra makes a good point about libraries, but falls short because he does not address the fact that what has become the way to do research in the library (i.e. databases and OPACs via a computer) is still excruciatingly difficult to use.

Click Here for a PDF of Dr. Ibarra's paper, A Place to Belong: The Library as
Prototype for Context Diversity

An Ethical Delima

So, lets say that, hypothetically, a graduate student assistant was at the reference desk. And that a student asked for a book that was required reading in a class. And lets say that it is the sixth week of class. And that the book review is due in 14 hours. The following is a possible scenario.....
The student, dressed in pajama pants, and smacking gum, flippantly asks for a book. The reference librarian finds the book on the OPAC only to discover it was checked out. Books 24x7....no luck. Google books.....no luck. What to do?
Now, lets suppose the reference librarian is about to try and find book reviews to help the student get a better understanding for the book. As results are coming up the student utters the following sentence, "It doesn't matter if I have the book, I'll write the review with or without it."
Now, lets say that the reference librarian is no book snob, but the preceding comment convinces him that this patron is not serious about their scholarship and closes the book review search before the results come up.
My question, was this hypothetical behavior ethical?

Inconsistency of Data

So in my seemingly never-ending literature review for my usability study I have come across an author who likes to discuss epistemological beliefs of information seekers. As I have come to understand this topic (which I'm not sure if I do) it is the perception that researchers have regarding the search process. This author, who shall remain nameless, compares her finding from two groups:

Group 1: 20 Yale fourth year students who were in the process of writing a paper
Group 2: 15 University of Wisconsin-Madison Freshman

Additionally, this researcher tries to take findings from the following study (described below) and compares it to the two above. Please let me know if you see ANY problems here.

2002 Study: involved 15 faculty and doctoral students. The findings of this study were compared to the studies above.....There is no way in holy hell that 15 faculty and doc students have the same research behavior as undergrads. EVEN IF the findings were the same there is NO FREAKING WAY that there reasons were.

Now, call me crazy, but I don't think there is any way that anyone could compare these two studies (especially the third). Even if the beliefs of these two groups were identical (thus giving an across the board continuity) I don't think that as a researcher you could say these are similar.

Am I splitting hairs here?

Just a disclaimer: I have attempted to boil down a lot of information here and if you want the full citations just email me and I will be happy to provide them.

So it's 11:20p.m. on the second day of classes.....

I'm here at the information desk trying desperately to stay awake. Unfortunately that 8p.m. cup of coffee wore off about 30 minutes ago. So, to keep myself awake I continued my research into the world of information science.
I just started reading Everything is Miscellaneous (2007) by David Weinberger. The introduction has a wonderful example about the organization of a Staples store, stating that your typical neighborhood staples has 7,185 different items in it. Weinberger goes on to state that when you come to Staples with a list of 15 things you have 7,170 items that are essentially hiding your 15 items, i.e. making it difficult for you to complete a relatively simple task.
So what about libraries? Weinberger goes on to make the point that the digital world makes problems of physics less relevant, but when it comes to finding academic information I don't think anyone would argue that it is easy. Here at Iowa we have roughly 4 million books. If you account for our journal subscriptions (both print and online) we have untold millions of articles. So consider the plight of the undergraduate, "Um, yeah. Dude I need an article about the foreign policy of the United States. . . where do I go." What can we do?! We need to do something. I have long been an advocate for large scale federated searching, but after working with several systems I don't think that is possible. Better information literacy? Better interfaces? Wine bar in the library?

The Library at 11p.m. on the first day of classes

There is no point in me being here. I am normally a pretty strong advocate for keeping the reference desk open whenever the library is open but this is just ridiculous. My stance on this has nothing, whatsoever, to do with the extremely smelly patron that I just helped.
so I just read an article "Marketing library Services to the Net generation" Library Management vol. 27 (2006). This article makes some damn good points about the changing nature of libraries and what the new generation of user is looking for. Not too surprisingly they want information and they want it now. The article does a great job at pointing out that this generation's want for quick information is no different than a study done in 1968 that showed (shocker) students wanted information quickly and were willing to sacrifice quality to get it. So to all those grouchy-pants cardigan wearing librarians who think "this generation is just different" I say, "screw you."

Perceptions of librarians

During my shift on the reference desk today I was approached by an undergraduate student that I often see toiling about in the library. She is a very knowledgeable student (tri-lingual) and doesn't quite know what to do after she graduates. Naturally, I suggested that a bright young hipster like herself go to library school. Her response? "I don't know that much about Dewey."
Inside I died. Please keep in mind that I did not look down on her for this answer, but realized that the outside perception of what librarians do is so very very confusing to non-librarians. I also know that anyone in a library program reads about a dozen (of the thousand plus) articles about "public perceptions" of librarians. I just needed to vent about my experience.
Also, I'm curious what my fellow students would have said in response? I was speechless in that I didn't know where to start.

Welcome to the Information Ninja Blog

I am a graduate student in library and INFORMATION science. No, the capitalization of "information" was no mistake. It's not that I dislike "library" but I just feel that it has received too much attention. I'm not in library school because "I love books." In fact I don't think anyone who lists that as a reason should be in library school. I think they should join a book club and let that be it.