A Review of "Using Tablets and Apps in Libraries"

Abstract

Academic libraries have increasingly adopted web-scale discovery tools in order to meet the expectations of students who want immediate results, efficient algorithms, and a single search box. As they have become the de facto search tool at many libraries, librarians and patrons alike have been forced to confront the way they think about research processes and in some cases, modulate ingrained habits. In this article, the authors explore student perceptions of efficacy, relevancy, and ease of use of a library discovery tool through a 2017 mixed-methods user experience study conducted at three City University of New York (CUNY) campuses. The results from this user study will be useful to other institutions that already have implemented discovery layers within their library and help inform website design, discovery layer design, and pedagogy. By combining student interviews with a task analysis, the authors were able to learn more about student search behaviors, how they respond to challenges, and what they expect from search tools. Identifying these barriers to student use of the Primo discovery tool has helped us articulate best practices for instruction and interface customization that may address these barriers and has illuminated implications for website integration.     

How We Hired a Content Strategist (And Why You Should Too)

Libraries were once the trailblazers for developing Web sites in the early 1990s, but today many library Web sites are bloated with outdated, irrelevant, and unfriendly content. Some institutions have recently turned to content strategy—the practice of planning “for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content” (Halvorson 2011 Halvorson, K. 2011. Understanding the discipline of web content strategy. Bulletin of the American Society of Information Science and Technology 37:23–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bult.2011.1720370208.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 23)—to address these problems. In this article, the authors argue that large libraries can benefit from creating a dedicated staff role for content strategy. They explore how the University of Arizona Libraries moved from its first forays in content strategy to adding a full-time, permanent content strategist to the staff. The authors describe the key elements that were important in making the case for this position and detail considerations for recruitment and hiring. They also discuss the role a content strategist can play for improving the overall user experience beyond just the library Web site.     

Tracking User Behavior with Google Analytics Events on an Academic Library Web Site

ABSTRACT

The primary purpose of an academic library Web site is to serve as a portal to library-acquired content. Navigational design of a library Web site affects the user's ability to find and access content. At Albertsons Library, the goal of the navigational design of the Web site is to mimic user behavior on the Web site to help them access information and articles from over 300 different library vendors. Coordinating with different vendors makes tracking the navigational flow of user behavior difficult with the tool Google Analytics. Using the events feature in Google Analytics, the team responsible for Web design was able to track user flow, and was able to quantify how many users were actual “drop-offs” versus those that were clicks into library resources. Decisions made after acquiring these data resulted in a Web site with a 10 percent or less bounce rate, and decreased the number of clicks required for users accessing the library's content.     

高校图书馆个性化信息服务模式应用实践与特点分析

综合分析了目前国内高校图书馆开展个性化信息服务各种模式的应用实践及特点,力求将理论研究与应用实践相结合,总结其问题,提出实施对策,从而提高我国高校图书馆的信息化服务水平。     

基于大数据的图书馆用户个性化隐私保护策略

近年来,用户隐私保护问题已成为大数据时代图书馆的研究热点,用户数据隐私保护的意义显得尤为重要。本文介绍了大数据时代图书馆用户隐私保护问题的研究背景,提出了一种基于大数据的图书馆用户个性化隐私保护策略,从隐私政策、隐私保护技术、数据可用性分析和图书馆监管4个重要方面,对图书馆用户的隐私保护问题进行了分析与总结。     

基于日志分析的高校用户信息行为研究

以西北工业大学AIAA Electronic Library数据库的用户检索日志为基础,从用户检索频次、用户身份、检索方式、不同专业背景用户等方面。探讨了高校用户使用AIAA数据库的信息行为,分析了学历、专业背景、性别等因素对用户信息行为的影响。提出了高校用户信息行为的影响因素模型。     

基于用户需求的移动图书馆信息服务探讨

阐述了移动图书馆的信息服务方式、内容、策略和用户需求。从基于用户需求的移动图书馆信息技术服务的角度,提出现代化信息技术发展的整体模式和移动图书馆信息服务的创新模式,以实现用户需求与移动图书馆信息服务的有效对接。     

用户接受和使用信息技术:技术特征的视角

本研究从技术特征的角度来解析信息技术制具,构建了技术特征影响用户接受和使用信息技术的机理模型。对问卷调查收集的367份有效样本通过PLS结构方程方法进行模型检验,结果表明用户的感知有用性受到技术特征中的灵活性、可靠性、准确性和完整性的显著影响,用户的感知易用性受到技术特征中的可及性和呈现性的显著影响。此外,随着用户使用经验的增加,灵活性和完整性对用户感知有用性的影响将增加。本研究能够促进对用户接受和使用信息技术制具的理解以及为信息技术设计者、实施者和管理者驾驭信息技术提供参考和建议。     

Enhancing student engagement in student experience surveys: a mixed methods study

Background

Measuring the student experience is becoming increasingly important in higher education in the UK. Student experience surveys are used as indicators of quality and form the basis of rankings of higher education institutions. They are also used by them as tools to assist their quality enhancement initiatives. However, these surveys frequently suffer from low response rates, which can reduce the reliability and usefulness of their data. The UK Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is a relatively new survey and suffers from a low response rate. As this survey is new, little is known about why students do not respond to it.

Purpose

This study aimed to explore the reasons why postgraduate students do not respond to the PTES.

Sample

Three hundred and fifty-five postgraduate taught students from four health faculties in one UK higher education institution completed an online survey. Of these, seven participated in one of two focus groups.

Design and methods

The online survey was completed both by students who completed the PTES in 2011 and those who did not. This provided us with cross-sectional data to compare both groups’ knowledge of PTES and their reasons for completing or not completing it. We used multivariate regression analysis to explore which variables were associated with response to PTES. We led two focus groups to explore the themes that emerged from the survey in more depth. This data was analysed by two researchers using thematic analysis.

Results

The cross-sectional data found that students who were not clear about the purpose of PTES were less likely to respond, independent of other potential predictor variables. Focus group data indicated that if postgraduate students felt a stronger connection to the university community they may be more likely to respond to PTES.

Conclusions

This study suggests that higher education institutions may wish to review their strategies for advertising student experience surveys to focus more on their purpose rather than their impact.     

Collecting feedback on the quality of distance education: a follow‐up survey of China Central Radio and TV University graduates and their employers

Timely collection of feedback on the quality of teaching from graduates and their employers is of great significance in distance education, and can help enhance the quality of teaching and improve management and all‐round learner support. However, since the graduates left university some years ago, are now widely dispersed and consequently may have changed jobs various times, it becomes more difficult to collect feedback effectively at low cost, and it is even more challenging to establish a regular mechanism for collecting this feedback. This research was based on a follow‐up survey of 280,000 graduates, who graduated from China Central Radio and TV University (CCRTVU) between 2002 and 2004, and a sample of 3–5% of them who were participants for research through questionnaires and interviews. Their employers were also invited as participants. The research data covered the feedback collected on the open learning programmes offered by the CCRTVU, in terms of curriculum design, learning resources, learner support and the delivery and effectiveness of teaching. This in turn provided the basis for improving teaching and learner support. The successful conduct of the follow‐up survey and the effective use of its results have shown that the establishment of such a mechanism is significant in improving the quality of distance education. This article focuses on the establishment of a mechanism for large‐scale feedback and provides some insights into the development of the questionnaire, which will be discussed in more detail elsewhere.