Establishing a Baseline: History,Evolution and Evaluation of Grand Valley State University's Off-Campus Library Services

ABSTRACT

The model replacing a dedicated off-campus library services (OCLS) unit was one in which librarians provide services to both on- and off-campus students and faculty within their liaison disciplines. A year after this model was implemented, faculty in subjects taught both on- and off-campus were surveyed to assess their awareness of library resources and whether this awareness impacted course assignment design. Findings from this survey combined with a planned review of off-campus course syllabi will help identify areas of concern and lead to ways to strengthen awareness and usage of library resources.     

The Collegial Environment and the Functional Organization

Abstract

Libraries are generally organized by function in order to carry out their mission efficiently. Academic librarians who are faculty also have a collegial organization that exists apart from any functional arrangement. Public and technical services librarians in this sort of organization are colleagues who have responsibility for the library in the way that teaching faculty are responsible for the programs in their departments. This article discusses the characteristics of the successful collegial organization and the relationship of technical and public services librarians in a collegial library.     

Retooling Library Services for Online Students in Tough Economic Times

ABSTRACT

At a time in our economy when library budgets are strained and staffing is under the microscope, librarians need to reassess and retool their library services for online students to provide quality, depth, and community without causing meltdown. The authors analyze some of the retooling undergone at their library to meet the shifting demographics of students who in 10 years have grown from 1,000 online students to 14,500 and increased to 65% of the students now taking online classes. To meet this challenge, the library centralized library services by closing the regional Library Information Centers and established a Multimedia Department focused on developing tutorials and online training materials, established an outreach librarian position, and worked with reference and instruction librarians to expand their roles as liaisons to the various academic programs. The library is learning to work smarter, not necessarily harder, and much leaner.     

Transitioning Online Reference Staffing Models: Assessing and Balancing Needs of Patrons and Practitioners

ABSTRACT

As staffing models evolve for academic library service points, online chat reference services require strategic analysis to improve efficiency and effectiveness. This paper will examine the perception of chat reference before and after staffing changes from faculty librarians, staff, and graduate assistants to non-MLIS library professionals and graduate assistants at Florida State University’s a large, public research university library. Our survey explores satisfaction levels and perception of both patrons and library personnel before and after the staffing change.

Our analysis of 197 patron survey results determined that patrons are equally satisfied with non-librarian provision of chat reference services and found chat interactions to be comparable in quality and timeliness to chats staffed by librarians. Our research into staffer survey results revealed a slight decrease in satisfaction with operation of the service, notably in terms of confidence after the staffing transition even though this was not reflected in the patron satisfaction levels. This assessment indicates that library workers are equally as competent in staffing chat reference services as librarians from patron perspectives. As academic libraries continue to measure the value of staffing service desks with librarians, this study will provide relevant insight into how patrons and staffers are affected by changes in staffing models.     

湖南高校图书馆特色馆藏社会化服务探讨

针对高校信息资源的社会化服务问题,在介绍湖南高校特色馆藏建设和服务现状基础上,指出高校特色馆藏必须面向广大的社会用户开展服务,才能更好地体现出其社会价值。并结合湖南地方经济建设和社会发展服务当中的需求,从完善特色馆藏建设与社会化服务机制、以合作为基础构建共享服务平台和围绕地方需求拓展社会化服务内容等方面探讨湖南高校特色馆藏社会化服务对策。     

Looking for the library: Using an undergraduate business syllabi analysis to inform an instruction program

This study analyzed 260 syllabi representing a year of the undergraduate curriculum from a business school. The syllabi were examined based on the mentions of the library from across three categories: spaces, resources, and services, as well as possible opportunities for engagement that librarians could target for collaboration. In this study, the library was mentioned 79 times, mostly in relation to library resources. There were also 479 opportunities for engagement coded. This study found that the majority of undergraduate syllabi do not mention the library, but that there are considerable opportunities that librarians can target for future engagement.     

Cover Me,I’m going in: Exploring the needs of student veterans

Abstract

The number of military veterans taking advantage of post-911 educational benefits has increased significantly, and institutions of higher education have responded by creating veteran-friendly campuses. Accordingly, academic librarians have engaged in proactive, ongoing conversations about providing services to this unique student population. The authors went on reconnaissance to assess the needs of student veterans and their response to a recently created veterans lounge space in the library. The information gathered from this survey can help provide insight and possible strategies to improve library outreach and services.     

Privacy and Library Public Services: Or,I Know What You Read Last Summer

SUMMARY

The privacy and confidentiality of library use are often at odds with efficiency in and customization of library public services. When librarians make decisions about services and privacy, they should consider strategic approaches to defining and discussing privacy and become familiar with the law of library privacy and their ethical commitment to privacy in library use. A wide range of library services and efficiencies threaten privacy and introduce the potential for secondary uses of personally identifying information collected by the library. Market failure for privacy weakens the value of consumer surveys and consent as substitutes for librarians' choices between privacy and services. Compromises such as those outlined by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee offer reasonable approaches to libraries and librarians struggling with the uncertainties that characterize the challenge of meeting both service and privacy interests.     

Libr-AR-y Tours: Increasing engagement and scalability of library tours using augmented reality

Abstract

Orienting patrons to library spaces, collections, and services is an important, but time-intensive, challenge for many librarians. Library tours are one strategy commonly employed to familiarize patrons with library spaces and services. Augmented reality provides a new opportunity for librarians to develop engaging and interactive unmediated tours. Augmented reality tours provide participants with an opportunity to explore library spaces and service points while affording librarians the chance to share valuable information about those spaces and services. This article details how one library constructed an augmented reality tour and shares assessment-based insights into participant responses to the augmented reality format.     

Creating a HIP in the library: A high-impact practice case study

Abstract

High-impact practices (HIPs) have been adopted on college campuses to enhance student learning. The academic library provides services and space contributing to learning at its institution. Librarians conduct space research to learn how the library building can better serve its users. Library space assessment is one way for librarians to engage with faculty and students to create an HIP in the library. This article is a case study of a collaboration between a librarian and a sociology professor to design an observational study. It demonstrates how librarians can contribute to HIPs at their institution by involving students in meaningful research.     

Promoting Library Visibility Through Creative Programing

Abstract

Digital libraries and their librarians face a challenge to remain visible to users since almost all their resources can be accessed without having to visit the library space. Libraries with a primarily electronic collection can promote their visibility through creative programing that draws people into the library space or provides opportunities for users to engage with librarians. A new, primarily digital academic health sciences library shares its experiences with developing creative user events and programs to promote the library’s visibility.     

Insourcing library outreach: Engaging technical services in outreach to student organizations

Abstract

In recent years, library outreach has become an increasingly important aspect of public services work. In order to expand capacity and engage patrons, libraries should consider expanding their library outreach programs to include the efforts and expertise of technical services personnel. In this article, librarians from Texas A&M University will share how public services librarians, cataloging experts, and preservation librarians collaborated to provide support for a student-led textbook lending library for student veterans. Through this collaboration, the library was able to develop new outreach opportunities that highlighted technical services expertise as well as lend support to an important campus effort to improve the affordability of college textbooks for veterans.     

Distance Learning Librarianship Research Over Time

Abstract

This paper informally presents the results of a study using a combined survey/interview technique that asked experienced extended, distance and/or distributed library services librarians for their advice to novice librarians in the field. The primary recommendation is to build relationships. Other strategies are offered in the areas of marketing, gathering information, evaluating policies, remaining flexible, keeping up with technology, and using the ACRL Guidelines for Distance Library Services.     

The Integrated Library System: From Daring to Dinosaur?

ABSTRACT

The automated library system (ALS) has undergone significant changes since its inception in the 1970s. It is no longer simply a database to house and retrieve a library's holdings. It has become an integrated library system (ILS) comprised of robust clusters of systems involving every process and module related to libraries.

The Internet, open source, the increase in electronic resources, and the rising expectations of library users are changing the nature of the ILS. Library vendors are at times struggling to keep up with the demand for new services while providing support for existing services.

This article details the evolving role of the ILS and discusses where it could and should be headed.     

How It's Done: Examining Distance Education Library Instruction and Assessment

ABSTRACT

While articles on individual studies, surveys, and programs abound, there is a lack of baseline data regarding what and how libraries provide instruction for their distant populations. Do libraries generally provide information literacy or library instruction to students at a distance? How is instruction usually provided? Is instruction generally assessed? If so, how is instruction assessed? These questions were asked of librarians in an online survey of 143 institutions offering distance programs, randomly sampled from the College Blue Book. With a 55% response rate, data about instruction offerings and assessment were correlated with information about library staff size, budget, and student enrollment. The expectation was that larger libraries with more money and students would provide more and better services, but interestingly these factors had far less influence than anticipated. It seems that the individual efforts of librarians were the major determinants for services offered by libraries at institutions with distant students.     

Understanding the Characteristics,Concerns, and Priorities of Adult Learners to Enhance Library Services to Them

Summary

Adult students, while often aware of library services offered by the institution they are enrolled in, often seek the familiarity and convenience of a local public library. These libraries may or may not be able to assist students with their assignment. In either case, librarians can establish an environment of good will and future support by acknowledging the unique characteristics, concerns, and priorities of the adult learner.     

Designing User-Focused Marketing Culture in Academic Libraries: A Conceptual Outline

ABSTRACT

To design an outline of a user-focused marketing model and its implication in academic libraries is the goal of this article. The determinants for the proposed model were primarily derived from the success factors of customer-focused marketing noted in earlier research, and views and insights from a number of allied constituencies in Bangladesh. Doing this job, the study used exploratory investigation in the form of executive interview, focus group discussion, and questionnaire survey. To examine reliability of the determinants “item-total correlation” was applied. The proposed model shows quality service has been seen as a direct result of the quality of library products, services, and service providers that leads to ensure user satisfaction and loyalty. It also demonstrates how users are the central theme from all functional perspectives of library services. The model emphasizes the quality improvement and operational efficiencies are to be working together to achieve a competitive advantage. The model may help librarians understand how to set the users as the central theme from all functional perspectives of the library services.     

Selling the Library from the Reference Desk

Abstract

Many library directors and administrators spend a significant portion of their time attempting to market the library and its services. Getting patrons into the library and keeping their business is an integral part of the day-to-day management of the library. This mission, however, is not always effectively passed on to the front lines to the one group of people who face the patrons on a daily basis -the reference librarians.

This article will show how the library's service points can be used as marketing tools; outline what librarians and public service staff should know about their library; and discuss ways in which reference service librarians can help further the library's marketing and public relations goals.     

Seeking Meaning: Capturing Patron Experience Through a User Survey

ABSTRACT

A well-crafted localized survey is an excellent opportunity to efficiently collect data about library user feelings and experiences on a large scale. 800 undergraduate students and employees of a mid-sized public university responded to an online survey about their feelings on library space, communication, services, and collections. Employing a variety of question types, the authors sought to include measures that would yield both pertinent and meaningful feedback. Results were analyzed and prioritized by significance and librarians culled the results for actionable findings and opportunities for further study or long-term benchmarking.