I am working on two projects right now---a book chapter on the importance of environmental scanning in public services librarianship and a research study on student digital literacy acquisition.
ECAR just released the 2009 Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, and there are many aspects of the report that relate to both of my current projects. Information literacy, use of technology in the classroom, and student adoption of mobile technologies (and higher ed's responsiveness to this trend) are just some of the area covered in the report. I'll start with what this report shares relevant to environmental scanning, future trends, and libraries.
Environmental scanning is a powerful tool for gathering critical and strategic information relevant to an organization's current initiatives and future direction. This information can be taken from a variety of sources, including current literature reviews, recent research, interviews and focus groups. The data is synthesized to create a portrait of the current issues and future trends that must be addressed to be certain that the organization retains effectiveness and relevance.
All that said, documents like the ECAR report are an excellent contributory resource for an environmental scan. This report focuses on freshman and senior samples at a variety of colleges and universities. If I were working on an environmental scan for use in an academic library, one of the major aspects of this report to use deals with student adoption of mobile devices.
From the report:
Good news for the library web site: 94.6% of student respondents use the library web site on average of once a week.
73% said they were actively using the library web site for their coursework at the time of the survey. That's more often that course management systems (73%), presentation software (73.5%) or spreadsheets (53.2%). I have not seen robust, reported use like this, well, ever. Color me surprised.
IM use is on the decline among students (74% report using IM with a median of several times per week) as opposed to 90.3% for social network use and texting (median daily use.)
And a student quote from the report: "After describing the institution's library
system as "amazing," the student wrote, "I love it how I can send a text message on my
phone to locate the book." (p. 62)
There's much more to read in the report on the current state of student mobile adoption and use, but I would (from an environmental scanning standpoint, of course) take this as a warning bell for several initiatives:
1) Design a mobile interface for the library's web site as soon as possible. (We are currently working on this within the context of the overall redesign of the Penn State Libraries web site.)
The report shows that mobile use is rapidly growing, and will soon be the primary way that many users visit web sites.
2) Design a mobile app that integrates the library with other university-specific resources just as quickly. (There was a quote somewhere in the report about the proliferation of commercial apps, and how higher ed. has so far failed to maximize this opportunity to connect with students.) I know quite a few universities have done this, and we are in the process of it at Penn State.
3) Start thinking about eventually scaling back on IM-based reference services. Text messaging is the way for the near future. It is so interesting to see IM usage receding so quickly.
I'm going to try to post about the IL-related findings as well in a separate post. If you have any thoughts on the report's findings, environmental scanning, or other things I should do while in Canada, let me know!
ECAR just released the 2009 Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, and there are many aspects of the report that relate to both of my current projects. Information literacy, use of technology in the classroom, and student adoption of mobile technologies (and higher ed's responsiveness to this trend) are just some of the area covered in the report. I'll start with what this report shares relevant to environmental scanning, future trends, and libraries.
Environmental scanning is a powerful tool for gathering critical and strategic information relevant to an organization's current initiatives and future direction. This information can be taken from a variety of sources, including current literature reviews, recent research, interviews and focus groups. The data is synthesized to create a portrait of the current issues and future trends that must be addressed to be certain that the organization retains effectiveness and relevance.
All that said, documents like the ECAR report are an excellent contributory resource for an environmental scan. This report focuses on freshman and senior samples at a variety of colleges and universities. If I were working on an environmental scan for use in an academic library, one of the major aspects of this report to use deals with student adoption of mobile devices.
From the report:
Good news for the library web site: 94.6% of student respondents use the library web site on average of once a week.
73% said they were actively using the library web site for their coursework at the time of the survey. That's more often that course management systems (73%), presentation software (73.5%) or spreadsheets (53.2%). I have not seen robust, reported use like this, well, ever. Color me surprised.
IM use is on the decline among students (74% report using IM with a median of several times per week) as opposed to 90.3% for social network use and texting (median daily use.)
And a student quote from the report: "After describing the institution's library
system as "amazing," the student wrote, "I love it how I can send a text message on my
phone to locate the book." (p. 62)
There's much more to read in the report on the current state of student mobile adoption and use, but I would (from an environmental scanning standpoint, of course) take this as a warning bell for several initiatives:
1) Design a mobile interface for the library's web site as soon as possible. (We are currently working on this within the context of the overall redesign of the Penn State Libraries web site.)
The report shows that mobile use is rapidly growing, and will soon be the primary way that many users visit web sites.
2) Design a mobile app that integrates the library with other university-specific resources just as quickly. (There was a quote somewhere in the report about the proliferation of commercial apps, and how higher ed. has so far failed to maximize this opportunity to connect with students.) I know quite a few universities have done this, and we are in the process of it at Penn State.
3) Start thinking about eventually scaling back on IM-based reference services. Text messaging is the way for the near future. It is so interesting to see IM usage receding so quickly.
I'm going to try to post about the IL-related findings as well in a separate post. If you have any thoughts on the report's findings, environmental scanning, or other things I should do while in Canada, let me know!
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