Just In

The mobile library

2011-02-02T06:15:00.000-08:00

College and Research Libraries. January 2011. Vol.72, No.1. January 2011. p.9-20.
Library on the go: a focus group study of the mobile web and the academic library by Jamie Seeholzer and Joseph A Salem.

Students in this study expressed a surprisingly strong preference for accessing research databases via a mobile version of the library's website even after being advised that most databases would not be formatted for easy use by mobile devices. They also liked the idea of being able to contact a librarian for help via live chat.

Where are we, and our users, going?

2010-04-12T03:16:00.000-07:00

Evans, Woody Building Library 3.0: issues in creating a culture of participation. 025.02 EVA

What is Library 3.0? In this book it's taken to be whatever survives of the library after the web 2.0 revolution. It's the future and so somewhat unpredictable but might incorporate elements of 3D virtual worlds, the semantic web, intelligent search, natural language queries, social networking and mobile web. It will almost certainly involve the breaking down of barriers and some threats to the established role of libraries.

Lee, Sul H. Bridging the gap: connecting users to digital contents. 025.04 LEE

Papers delivered at the Oklahoma Libraries 2007 conference looking at a variety of technological challenges that are currently facing libraries.

Dempsey, Kathy. The accidental library marketer. 021.7 DEM

How to avoid the pitfalls that await the amateur library marketer.

Pantry, Sheila and Griffiths, Peter. How to give your users the LIS services they want. 025 PAN

Who are these 'users' and what do they want? Includes chapters on making use of information about past behaviour, tracking changes in user wants and needs and some thoughts about the future.

Human rights, business information and Library 2.0

2009-12-18T03:45:00.000-08:00

Samek, Toni Librarianship and human rights: a twenty-first century guide. 020.1 SAM

Consists largely of examples of how libraries and information workers worldwide have addressed human rights issues by empowering people with information skills, protecting freedom of thought, providing access to information and upholding rights to privacy.

Abels, Eileen G Business information: needs and strategies. 026.65 ABE

An in depth look at what business information consists of and where to find it. Although it is written from a US perspective much of the content applies to business information generally.

Cohen, Laura B Library 2.0: initiatives in academic libraries. 021.2 COH

Case studies from the US, Australia and Sweden.

2009-11-10T06:11:00.000-08:00

Politics, philosophy and future of libraries.

Access, delivery, performance: the future of libraries without walls. Edited by Jilliam R. Griffiths and Jenny Craven. 020
In four sections based around four main themes: libraries, learning and distance learning, widening access to information, changing directions of information delivery and performance, quality and leadership.

Information and liberation: writings on the politics of information and librarianship. By Shiraz Durrani. 021.8
A collection of material related to the politics of librarianship in Kenya and the UK.

Surviving the future: academic libraries, quality and assessment. By Gail Munde and Kenneth Marks. 027.7
Begins with the interesting question 'What is quality.' Further chapters then look at ways of measuring it and what it might mean in terms of different user groups.

An introduction to staff development in academic libraries. Edited by Elizabeth Connor. 023.8
Practical examples and case studies of staff development activities in academic libraries.

The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel 020
A philosophical look at libraries through the ages.

A bumper issue of Just In!

2009-06-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

Analysing Library Collection Use with Excel by Tony Greiner 025.210285
Starts with the basics of Excel then looks at what you might want to analyse and how to do it. May be as useful for the 'what' as the 'how'.

Disaster Management in Archives, Libraries and Museums. By Graham Matthews. 027.00684
The UK and international situation in disaster management and planning for libraries.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations by Robert E. Wolverton 025.1775
An overview of issues and practices relating to electronic theses and dissertations. Includes an annotated bibliography.

A Handbook for Media Librarians Edited by Katherine Schopflin 025.17
The contributors to this book have experience working for a variety of news and media organisations.

Information Obesity. By Andrew Whitworth. 025.5
A different take on the familiar issue of information overload this book examines the possible effects of the changing quantity/quality balance of information and what it means to be 'literate' or 'educated'.

Keeping the User in Mind. By Valeda Dent Goodman. 025.5
Instructional design theory as it applies to information literacy training.

Leadership: the Challenge for the Information Profession by Sue Roberts 025.1
Looks at issues around leadership in library and information services with examples from a variety of sectors and a number of suggested points for reflection.

Libraries Without Walls 7: Exploring 'anytime' 'anywhere' delivery of library services. Edited by Peter Brophy. 021.24
Conference proceedings on a variety of issues in digital and distance library services.

M-libraries. By Gill Needham. 025.04
Conference papers on libraries use of mobile technologies.

Making the Most of RFID in Libraries. By Martin Palmer. 025.82
Everything you ever wanted to know about RFID in libraries.

Searching 2.0 by Michael Sauers 025.04
If you don't know what web 2.0 is by now - read this book! There's a whole chapter looking at what it is. This is followed by the specifics of what web 2.0 has done to search, looking at media search, print search, local search, searching the past and more. The final chapter looks towards the future with examples of data visualisation.

Primo at UAE

2009-04-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

Primo
Serials Vol.22 No.1 March 2009

Brief article by Sarah Elsegood on UEA's use of Primo.

Fresh thinking on what libraries have to offer

2009-03-10T01:47:00.001-07:00

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?

Information - how people find it.

2009-03-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-09-17T03:45:00.000-07:00

Update Vol. 77 No.9 September 2008
'Like a light going on': the local Living Library project

'There seems to be a stifled thirst for conversation of any kind.' So says this article which looks at the novel concept of encouraging conversations in public libraries by offering 'living books' or borrowable people. I think Library Link had the scoop on this story but with MLA funding it seems to be catching on!

Update on Update

2008-07-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

Update Vol. 7 No.4 April 2008
Aggre-culture: what do e-book aggregators offer?

A comparison of the major ebook aggregators and how they are addressing issues in the growth of the ebook market.

Update Vol.7 No.7-8 July/August 2008
The Big Draw

Leeds Met Library did something very unlibrarylike - they invited art students (who, they say sometimes don't feel the library is 'for them') in to create art!

Dates, clothes and federated access management

2008-05-09T06:10:00.000-07:00

Aslib Proceedings Vol.60 No.2 2008
Internet dating: a British survey
Research into online dating habits, methods and outcomes which reveals some intriguing gender differences. Disappointingly, no analysis appears to have been done into the search strategy formulation techniques of the participants, nor are there any proposals to develop training in this area.
Featuring clothing and textile collections online
Analyses the use of digital images on the clothing and textile collection web sites of costume and textile museums.

Update Vol.7 No.5 May 2008
Towards the future : federated access management
A look at the challenges academic libraries face in moving away from Athens towards federated access management.

Doing research, communicating with Net Gen students and designing blended learning programmes.

2008-03-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

Practical research methods for librarians and information professionals. By Susan E. Back and Kate Manuel. 020.72
Covers a variety of methods and also includes a useful chapter on Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Research such as Asking the Wrong Questions, Seeing What You Want To See and Jumping to Conclusions.

The Academic Library and the Net Gen Student. By Susan Gibbons. 027.7
How social networking, online gaming, mobile devices and more have changed the way a generation lives and communicates, and how we should respond to that. "As our faculty begin to explore the possibilities and pedagogical potential of virtual worlds, it will be important that their libraries and librarians accompany them, lest we are replaced by new knowledge partners in the virtual world."

Blended learning : tools for teaching and training. By Barbara Allan. 025.5
A detailed guide to what blended learning is, the pedagogical theory underlying it, the various tools and technologies that can be used, how to design blended learning programmes and how to work as a tutor within such programmes. All from the perspective of information and library services.

Academic libraries: social, communal or scary?

2008-03-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

Journal of Academic Librarianship Vol.34 No.1 Jan 2008
Academic libraries: "Social" or "Communal"? The nature and future of academic libraries.
An article critical of attempts to introduce more social spaces, such as coffee bars and group study areas, into academic libraries on the grounds that such moves threaten to undermine "the environment of serious study and research."

College and Research Libraries Vol.69 No. 2 Mar 2008
A mixed-methods investigation of the relationship between critical thinking and library anxiety among undergraduate students in their information search process.
Mellon coined the term library anxiety in a 1986 study which found that it was experienced by 85% of college students. Many reported feeling lost, helpless and confused, and this study finds students making very similar comments more than 20 years on. One thing that's new is how many students contrast the anxiety they feel about using the library with their feelings of capability and comfort in searching the internet. The author quotes Diane Nahl's affective load theory in which she says that negative affective states disrupt cognitive strategies. I think this means it's hard to think straight when you're scared.

Journal articles about ebooks

2008-02-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

Aslib Proceedings. Vol. 59, No.6 2007
What do faculty and students really think about ebooks?
Report of a large scale survey conducted as part of the CIBER SuperBook project at UCL that preceded the current JISC ebooks project that we are taking part in.

Update. Vol. 6 (11) November 2007
Ebooks: setting up the national observatory project.
Caren Milloy on the process of setting up the JISC ebooks project, and why there are so few ebooks in the collection. (Note: there is a typo in the article - there are 36 ebooks in the collection, not 136!)

Serials. Vol.20 No. 2 July 2007
E-textbooks: opportunities, innovations, distractions and dilemmas.
Why do students still rely on printed textbooks and what might replace the textbook in future? Is the idea of an 'ebook' distracting publishers from thinking about the possibilities of alternative forms of digital courseware?

A European view of Google, more on library 2.0, some advice on distance learner support, and a little stress and violence.

2008-02-05T05:34:00.000-08:00

Google and the myth of universal search. By Jean-Noel Jeanneney. 025.04
The President of the Biblioteque nationale de France on how Google is organising the world's information and whether efforts should be made to develop a European search engine.

Library 2.0 and beyond. Edited by Nancy Courtney, 025.02
Explores some of the tools and, more importantly, the attitudes that contribute to xcreating a library 2.0 environment.

Going the distance : library instruction for remote learners. Edited by Susan J. Clayton. 025.5
Librarians share their experience of designing, delivering, collaborating and assessing instruction for distance learners.

Managing stress and conflict in libraries. By Sheila Pantry. 023.9
A guide to risk assessment and how to deal with violence and aggression in the library. (A book I thought we should have, but hope we won't need!)

E-journals, learning skills, Casanova and journal metrics all in the same post. Phew!

2007-09-07T03:17:00.000-07:00

E-journal invasion: a cataloguer's guide to survival. By Helen Heinrich.

How the internet has changed the lives of cataloguers.

Learning to learn: a guide to becoming information literate in the 21st century. By Ann Marlow Riedling.

A practical approach, with exercises.

Casanova was a librarian: a light-hearted look at the profession. By Kathleen Low.

Librarians in politics, porn, movies, books and more.

Aslib Proceedings. Vol.59 No.3 2007

'The missing link: journal usage metrics'. This article looks at how we can measure the quality of journals and suggests a move from author to reader centered metrics.

Subject guides, VLEs and PBL

2007-06-07T05:15:00.000-07:00

Very selective highlights from the latest library journals .

College & Research Libraries vol.68 No.2 March 2007
Academic subject guides : a case study of use at San Jose State University.

Might be worth a read as we consider the future of our own subject guides. It also made me want to find out more about the research it mentions by Kuhlthau who has apparently identified a gap between the way in which subject guides are traditionally presented and the way in which students work.

Serials. Vol.20 No.1 March 2007
Death of the VLE?: a challenge to a new orthodoxy.

Looks at the history of the VLE, the current state of the market and the effect of several new variables on its future. One of these variables is Web 2.0 with its focus on the web as platform and social, collaborative and frequently informal learning.

The Journal of Academic Librarianship. Vol.33 No.2. March 2007
The impact of problem-based learning on the information behavior and literacy of vetinary medicine students at University College Dublin.

This study found that problem based learning "resulted in students visiting the library earlier, better understanding how to use resources, becoming more discerning regarding information and learning how to integrate information effectively."

Digital literacies and social software

2007-06-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

Martin, Allan. Digital literacies for learning. 025.5

A collection of papers exploring the nature of digital or e-literacy and ways in which educators, librarians and technologists can support students in developing it.

Bradley, Phil. How to use web 2.0 in your library. 025.02

Snapfish, Squidoo, CiteULike, Odeo, Gabbly, and Liszen. If you're not sure what they are this is the book to get hold of. As well as being an excellent overview of the social software explosion this book also suggests practical library applications for RSS, blogs, podcasts, social bookmarking, wikis, instant messaging, mashups, photo sharing and more.

Reference services in a changing world

2007-06-01T05:12:00.000-07:00

Kovacs, Diane K. The virtual reference handbook. 025.02

An exploration of the blend of technical, communication and reference interview skills required of virtual reference librarians and how these can be developed. Includes learning activities and comments on practical experience from members of the Virtual Reference Librarians Group.

Farmer, Lesley S. J. The human side of reference and information services in academic libraries. 025.5

A look at the impact of technological developments on library reference services without quite as much emphasis on the human side as the title might suggest.

Change and evaluation

2007-05-11T04:04:00.000-07:00

Carr, Reg. The academic research library in a decade of change. 027.7

"... the printed book remains one of the key technologies of all time, and belongs right up there with the wheel in antiquity, and the microchip in modern times" begins a case study on the Bodleian Library.

Libraries have to cope with an ever growing array of old and new technologies, and also with social changes. This book concentrates on developments within the last decade with chapters on JISC, the eLib programme, consortia, digital publishing and the change of emphasis towards what library users want, among other things.

Brophy, Peter. Libraries without walls 6 : evaluating the distributed delivery of library services. 021.24

How do you find out how well you're meeting people's needs when more and more of them are accessing your services from a distance? A collection of conference papers on how various libraries have attempted to do this.

Information Commons and One Shot Library Workshops

2007-04-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

Beagle, Donald Robert. The Information Commons Handbook. 025.52

A look at what is involved in developing an information commons or social learning space in public and academic libraries. Includes a CD of 'success stories'.

Weldof, Jerilyn. Creating the one-shot library workshop: a step-by-step guide. 025.5

Given that 'one-shot' is often all we get, how can we make the best use of the little time we have? I liked the PAF model (presentation-application-feedback) and the reminder of how tempting it can be to spend too much time on presentation, overloading people with information without giving them enough time to apply it or to clear up any confusion.