“Packaged” Information: How are new Means of Delivering Information Affecting Students’ Information-Seeking Behavior?

This article explores two methods of “packaging” information for students: custom textbooks and web-based discovery services. It examines the implementation of each of these initiatives at the University of Reading, using the institution as a case study to explore the implications on students’ information-seeking behavior. This is combined with a review of the relevant literature surrounding each service. Custom textbooks were used by the University's History department to support one of its first-year undergraduate modules, with the aim of providing a source of essential reading. The University Library released its web-based discovery service to students in October 2011. Various effects on information-seeking behavior are observed, including the potential decline of critical thinking in order to evaluate sources and the danger of sidelining search skills in favor of easy information solutions. The article concludes that librarians have an important role to play in helping students to understand the complexity of information searching. Whilst custom textbooks and discovery services are in some ways beneficial to students, they still require guidance from expert library staff to help them navigate these resources as independent learners. Finally, topics for further research are presented.     

Secondary adoption of technology standards: The case of PREMIS

While archival scholars have identified some of the most important steps for deciding to use and implement metadata standards in archives, very little systematic empirical investigation within the archival science literature regards either how implementation processes actually unfold or the factors affecting implementation. This article analyzes the organizational factors and processes that come into play during implementation of metadata standards, using PREservation metadata: implementation strategies (PREMIS) as an exemplar. Adapting a theoretical framework for secondary adoption of technologies from Gallivan (Database Adv Inf Syst 32(3):51, 2001), the authors apply their model to the PREMIS technology standard and investigate PREMIS implementation by projects/programs on the Library of Congress PREMIS Implementation Registry. Using data from a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews, the authors develop a model for the secondary adoption of PREMIS and outline implications for the secondary adoption of technology standards based on the results of this study.     

The Spaces of Children's Programming

In the competitive world of children's programming, networks are under intense pressure to build brand loyalty and increase market share. This essay examines how Fox Kids and the Disney Channel transform electronic space into “place” as a means for carving out brand identity. This transformation of electronic space into place requires strategies that encourage viewers to see electronic spaces as habitable and desirable. While the two networks employ different approaches to the creation of place, they both reproduce familiar ideologies (e.g., individuality as identity) and social arrangements (e.g., families and neighborhoods) to represent a habitable place that can inspire loyalty and even affection from viewers.     

Catalogers Unite! Creating Documentation through Collaboration

Recent changes have forced Bowling Green State University (BGSU) to reevaluate our documentation, workflows, and communication. There have been staff retirements, changes in staff responsibilities, and a new faculty cataloger. Additionally, BGSU is implementing a discovery layer, purchasing shelf-ready books, and adding more electronic resources. It has become apparent that documentation needs to be updated and, in many cases, created from scratch. Collaboration is critical as catalogers are currently few in number and are seeing the need to work with other departments in ways unheard of previously. The creation of a new cataloging manual is vital to the success of cataloging at BGSU.     

Guest reviewers

What if new cars could adjust in-car devices to particular ways of speaking around the world? General Motors sought communication research to inform the design of culturally competent in-car human–machine interfaces. We discuss concerns and tensions that arise when balancing commitments of naturalistic study with design development goals. We emphasize the importance of awareness, attentiveness, and cooperation to ensure research integrity.     

Embedding Guides Where Students Learn: Do Design Choices and Librarian Behavior Make a Difference?

This study investigated whether library guides embedded in a university's learning management system fulfill their mission to promote library resources and maintain a librarian presence in the online course environment. Specifically, the study examined whether design elements, promotional practices, or other behaviors influenced guide use. It questioned whether students located the library guides and, if so, did students find the guides helpful. Results confirmed that students who used library guides found the guides helpful. Select faculty and librarian behaviors may also influence student use of library guides. Promotion and marketing practices, however, are not the only factors encouraging students to use library guides.     

Just Enough of a Good Thing: Indications of Long-Term Efficacy in One-Shot Library Instruction

Website attributions were measured as one way of evaluating the efficacy of the “one-shot” library session. Survey results indicated support for single session information literacy instruction in that participants exposed to a librarian classroom visit reported that they would be significantly more likely to have used library databases, checked out a book, asked a librarian for help, and to predict that they would ask a librarian for help at a later time. Results also indicated that students who reported a classroom librarian visit may have engaged in more systematic or complex processing to evaluate websites in that they considered more attributes and took less time to make better judgments about the quality of sources.     

Closing the Loop on Nursing Library Instruction: Using Student Performance to Improve Outcomes

Two librarians analyzed nursing students’ performance on an information literacy assignment to determine how they could change their instruction to better assist the students in comprehending the material. After identifying major areas of difficulty, including the use of search techniques, they revised both the instruction and the assignment, closing the loop by utilizing their assessment data. Next, they analyzed those results to evaluate the effectiveness of their changes and to make further improvements, thus demonstrating the iterative nature of instruction and assessment. The evidence-based instruction cycle of teaching, assessing, and revising should be repeated frequently to keep the assignment fresh and relevant.     

Teaching First-year Medical Students Where to Go First: Connecting Information Needs to e-resources

The purpose of this project was to introduce first-year medical students to electronic resources that are best suited for different types of background questions. Specific questions from a case study were presented, and the students generalized them into a “type” of question. They then identified the best e-resources for that type of question. This is their first introduction to the lifelong learning competency in the Indiana University School of Medicine competency-based curriculum.