Tuesday 10 March 2009

Fresh thinking on what libraries have to offer

The Information Literacy Cookbook Edited by Jane Secker, Debbi Boden and Gwyneth Price. 025.5
I really liked the first sentence of chapter 2: 'The secret to good cooking lies in the use of fresh ingredients.' If you feel like your training sessions might be getting a bit stale you might find something here to help. Very much a book to dip into for inspiration but, given the enthusiasm with which the authors take on and develop the metaphor, probably best not read if you're feeling hungry!

Marketing the Best Deal in Town: Your Library. Where is your purple owl? By Nancy Rossitor. 021.7
Seth Godin wrote about the need for 'purple cows' - not just the same old thing with new marketing spin but truly innovative products and services. Are libraries boring old brown cows, or do we have something genuinely remarkable to offer?

Monday 9 March 2009

Information - how people find it.

College & Research Libraries Vol.69 No.5 September 2008
Information literacy from the trenches: how do humanities and social science majors conduct academic research?
This study conducted at St Mary's College of California - a small liberal arts institution -found that students first step in researching a topic was to read the course textbook, followed by a visit to the library website, then a search engine. People and bought books came lower down the list.


College & Research Libraries Vol.69 No.6 November 2008
Information seeking through students' eyes: the MIT photo diary study
This study at MIT found that students most frequently used information source was Google, next was going directly to a URL, third was using the library catalogue, and these were followed by databases and the course website. Books and people came lower down the list.


Aslib Proceedings Vol.60 No.5 2008
Information seeking behaviour of physicists and astronomers
The most frequently used information source for physicists and astronomers at UCL was Google. Databases, ejournals and tracking references at the end of articles were also frequently used. However when asked how they had found the last article they had read the most often mentioned source was recommendation from colleagues.


Aslib Proceedings Vol.60 No.6 2008
Seeking serendipity: the paradox of control
Explores the importance of the 'happy and unexpected discovery' in information seeking.


Serials Volo.21, No.1 March 2008
A parallel universe? Blogs, wikis, Web 2.0 and a complicated future for scholarly communication
Looks at how Web 2.0 tools are likely to change the nature of scholarly communication and information use and how both publishers and librarians will need to adapt to those changes.