JOHN MEIER: June 2008 Archives

I was uploading my presentation slides for an upcoming presentation and I noticed that Slideshare lists how many times my other presentations have been viewed.

The odd thing is that the most viewed is from a talk I did for an Engineering class (635) on how the Information Literacy Standards of ACRL applied to ABET Accreditation and their future job duties.

Does this mean that one of my small presentations is having some significant impact beyond it's original task? This can also be called Youtube fame, an example of which is Ellysa's video (17,790).

EBSCO has a working preview of their 2.0 interface (in "Beta") available under "New Features" when you use a EBSCO database, like Library Lit or LISTA. I tried it out, including creating a new MyEBSCOhost account since there are social networking features.

The starting search page looks "off" since the search boxes are so close to the top, but you get used to it. Basic and Advanced searching get you to results that use facets on the left side (though in a slightly different way from other databases, since added facets appear at the top and new ones come up on the left, but it is hard to tell) You can save items to a folder, which come in preset types but you can customize AND share (with an invite). There are oddly large buttons and little text for "email" and "print" and similar actions for articles.

The "visual search" is a pretty cool way to see results that you narrow and sort visually (does not really map them or allow custom grouping) and is a Flash application. I'm not sure it works completely yet (Beta) since I can't seem to add articles from it to my folders... or print... or anything.

Research Productivity Among Librarians: Factors Leading to Publications at Penn State by Joseph Fennewald paints an encouraging environment for professional publication that does indeed exist here at Penn State. I also like the fact that the most productive type of faculty librarian (in journals and books) is MLS plus a second Masters (like me).

A Mixed-Methods Investigation of the Relationship between Critical Thinking and Library Anxiety among Undergraduate Students in their Information Search Process by Nahyun Kwon reinforces an earlier study on correlation between anxiety and success for library users. A good map (textual and visual) for library service desk interaction and advice for general interaction of library staff with users.

Measuring Students’ Information Literacy Skills through Abstracting: Case Study from a Library & Information Science Perspective by Maria Pinto, Andrés Fernández-Ramos, and Anne-Vinciane Doucet is a very long article with lots of figures and tables on abstracting, which I found out from a colleague is a totally separate "profession" in some ways to librarianship. I certainly didn't study it in library school (should I have gone to Spain?)

Better than Brief Tests: Coverage Power Tests of Collection Strength by Howard D. White

My first peer reviewed (co-authored) article appeared in May and my first solo article in a major journal appears in June, here are the citations.

Meier, J.J. & Conkling, T.W. "Google Scholar's Coverage of the Engineering Literature: An Empirical Study," Journal of Academic Librarianship, May 2008

Meier, J.J. "Chat widgets on the library website: Help at the point of need," Computers in Libraries, June 2008

To Brian Mathews "What department do you work in and who would do your job if the 'User Experience Librarian' didn't exist?"
- He reports directly to the Head of Public Services (used to be the Engineering Librarian)
- It used to be done by committee, it could be done by a coordinator. It really grew out of usability testing (web and information technology) but was moved into user testing in all areas (real life?)

To Marianne and all "What type of research do librarians do? Is it social science, information science, or it could even be similar to hospitality research?"
- She comments that even social scientists have trouble describing what kind of research they do

To All "Whose responsibility is it to publish on scholarly publishing like the crisis in Humanities for new professionals?"
- This is a new area, a call to study for a new library professional

Missed the questions, but Nancy responded that ACRL conference presentations are published in the proceedings, it isn't just already published unless it is a significant write-up. Joe followed up that a study showed less than 1/3 of ACRL proceedings entries went on to a journal article. I know that ACRL-STS has a Research Forum that Nan suggested they change into a format similar to other Sciences where preliminary research proposals are presented and critiqued with the idea that they would eventually develop into research projects and papers.

Wonderful video on a wacky focus group (Luxury!) Focus groups seems easy like a round robin Q&A, but can be very complicated, like results interpreted in many ways or "can you believe what they tell you". So you can combine different activities, not just focus on opinions. Be careful of conflict even by who is running the study, he is almost an internal consultant since he isn't in reference. Six focus groups break down like: 2 for an environmental scan, 2 for assessing what you have heard, 2 for (he trailed off). They use observations too, for example why are students using spaces other than the library. How to manage personalities is interesting; am I the free pizza guy or the joker? Ask question broadly then narrow and keep them the type that draw out stories. These slides are really good, too bad I am running out of battery power.

* Peer to peer study is a frequent observation implies that the library needs to be a social space.
* A one shot library session has been described as a "field trip" or "substitute teacher".
* Promotion and marketing are successful if they "appeal to their lifestyle".
* He talks pretty fast and sometimes drops names or runs through a statement that might be profound but it is hard to catch.
* Talk to "the Dominator" before the committee meeting to get them on board with you. The applications of focus group tactics to committees is the best part of this talk!
* This could be experiential research that the hospitality industry focuses on.

Judi Briden is giving a presentation different than those she had done in the past on the UR Undergraduate Research project (this time we were told to bring a map of our campus and a printout of our library homepage) It actually started as a study of faculty work practices (why weren't they using D-Space?). Their research is LOADS of work, from easy stuff to more labor intensive, many times creating "artifacts" such as photos, maps, and web-site mockups. Lots of objects including posters, 3d models in paper/cardboard, and marked up websites were created and before did unrelated activities to stimulate creativity. Fun for staff, probably because of the creative activities, plus they are more focused on the student experience.

Anthropology research sounds fun, but you need to learn the boundaries, rules, and you need to practice (on each other or in a weird place... Kinkos?) "Immersing yourself in the data" is either in a group or solo that you read, think, review all your materials including all your data (videos, images, interviews) and discuss or reflect. Build in this time (even in on your own)

* They did some things with the data (24/7 space, parents breakfast, six or more changes) then they continue the studies in the changed environments.
* Perhaps setting up a large, ongoing project would allow for many small pilots and experiments as part of it.
* Is Library Science research most like Information Science, Social Science (Anthropology), or History?