Barbara Blummer

Best Practices for Integrating E-books in Academic Libraries: A Literature Review From 2005 to Present

Library Journals 2011 Ebook Penetration and Use in U.S. Libraries Survey testifies to e-books’ increasing popularity in academic libraries. This review tracked literature published from 2005 that focused on academic librarians’ best practices for acquiring, cataloging, maintaining, and promoting e-books at their institutions. Some of these practices include implementing trial accesses, considering institutional requirements, providing an e-book presence in the library catalog, monitoring usage statistics, and utilizing the library Web site for promotional efforts.

E-books revisited : The adoption of electronic books by special, academic, and public libraries

ABSTRACT Improvements in e-book technology, national and international digitalization projects, and a renewed interest by readers and libraries refueled attention on electronic books. To gauge the degree of their popularity among special, academic, and public libraries, the author posted a questionnaire to various library-related listservs querying respondents on their experiences with e-books, including: collection size, titles, popularity, maintenance, digital rights management problems, technology needs, promotional efforts, viability concerns, acquisition and cataloging issues. Today, special, academic, and public libraries are utilizing e-book technology to facilitate information finding as well as to expand collections while reducing costs. To maximize the use of e-books, librarians must adopt an active role in shaping the development of the technology as well as negotiate licenses and pricing models that are advantageous to all libraries.

The Design and Assessment of a Proposed Library Training Unit for Education Graduate Students

This article presents the design and assessment of a proposed library training unit for education graduate students. A literature review of graduate students’ information-seeking behavior and training initiatives supports the selection of the course content as well as the assessment of student learning. In addition, research on behaviorist and constructivist learning theories and related instructional design strategies directed the development of the learning environment. The proposal represents a collaborative effort between an institutions librarian and a department faculty member in a required Ethics and Laws in Education class for beginning students. The objectives for the pilot project were to teach students how to use scholarly resources, to mirror the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Information Literacy Competencies, and to include hands-on database demonstrations as well as inquiry-based learning exercises. The learning environment supports students’ diverse learning styles and offers opportunities to utilize technology, underscoring its importance to information use and especially to libraries in the digital era.

Promoting Digital Literacy Skills: Examples from the Literature and Implications for Academic Librarians.

This paper explores the numerous definitions of digital literacy, discusses its relationship to information literacy, and describes applications of digital literacy instruction in institutions of higher education. It also offers opportunities for academic librarians, and especially those in junior and community colleges, to enhance students’ digital literacy skills through novel educational techniques. For example, librarians could develop tools to support students’ interaction in course management systems and virtual worlds, assist faculty in the creation of course curriculum, as well as moderate online book discussions. Promoting the development of a variety of literacies among students enables librarians to demonstrate their flexibility as well as their role in contributing to individuals’ success in academia and beyond.

The Research Experience for Education Graduate Students: A Phenomenographic Study

This article presents the findings of an exploratory study of education graduate students’ information-seeking behavior and attitudes. Qualitative data included interviews with education students, focusing on their research habits, and analyzed from phenomenographic approach that focused on variations in individuals’ experiences. The quantitative analysis stemmed from participants’ responses to the survey of their information-seeking behavior. A comparison of interview participants and survey respondents’ search skills, research strategies, and attitudes toward previous library instruction illustrate the wide variation in students’ abilities and experiences between the groups. This suggests the need for further analysis of these students’ information seeking behaviors.

Assessing Patron Learning from an Online Library Tutorial

Abstract In the digital era online tutorials remain especially popular for providing information literacy instruction to undergraduates. This paper provides three approaches for assessing learning from a web-based tutorial. First, a general assessment focuses on patron surveys, usage statistics, and interlibrary loan requests for library-owned materials to determine the overall success of the tutorial. Second, individual assessment captures users initial interests and skills and provides a mechanism for identifying patron abilities to locate library resources following instruction. Third, the tutorials objectives, content and design, the institutional support, and user comments are considered in the program assessment. Ultimately these three perspectives offer a snapshot of learning through an online library tutorial.

Reducing Patron Information Overload in Academic Libraries

Information overload interferes with our abilities to use information effectively. It represents a challenge in searching print as well as online collections. Academic librarians have developed strategies to help their patrons reduce the effects of information overload. This article provides best practices employed by academic librarians to reduce their users’ information overload. Five themes emerged in a review of the literature: information presentation, library instruction, user strategies, librarian roles, and software technologies. Information literacy instruction remains particularly important in combating information overload since the promotion of users’ research skills facilitates their search competencies. Research on information problem solving that focuses on metacognitive strategies may help decrease information overload among users searching digital libraries.

The Availability of Web 2.0 Tools from Community College Libraries' Websites Serving Large Student Bodies.

Web 2.0 tools offer academic libraries new avenues for delivering services and resources to students. In this research we report on a content analysis of 100 US community college libraries’ Websites for the availability of Web 2.0 applications. We found Web 2.0 tools utilized by 97% of our sample population and many of these sites contained more than one Web 2.0 tool. We identified LibGuides, social networking tools, chat technology, photo video sharing sites and RSS updates as especially popular among these libraries. Our findings support research on the availability of Web 2.0 applications in academic libraries supporting four year institutions.

A Librarian's Internship in a Campus Computing Center: Lessons Learned and Implications for Community College Libraries

This research reports on the conduction of a needs assessment and the development of a training and evaluation program for a student associate position at the campus computing center. The center provides faculty support for a range of software and technologies. At the projects onset, the majority of students performed basic office duties such as greeting faculty, logging computers, as well as answering phones and referring requests to the appropriate center staff member. The projects goal aimed to enhance students’ technology skills to improve the level of service they provided to faculty. The qualitative study included interviews with current student employees to gauge their digital literacy competencies as well as discussions with the students’ supervisors and full-time center staff members on the types of skills necessary for upgrading the position. The second phase of the project centered on the development of a training plan and skills assessment for the student workers. The authors draw on the similarities between libraries and campus computing centers to advocate for the conduction of technology training programs for library staff. In addition, the article proposes increased collaboration between libraries and campus computing centers to enhance their collective services and programs for patrons.

Psychosemiotics and Libraries: Identifying Signways in Library Informational Guides, Games, and Tutorials.

Tutorials and digital learning objects provide librarians a quick, concise mechanism for delivering information and training on a wide range of library topics. The semiotic theory promoted by Charles Sanders Peirce (Wiener, 1958) and Howard Smith (2005) contains implications for enhancing the effectiveness of library tutorials through the interrelationship of signs and literacies. This paper provides examples of instruction and information delivery through various signways in tutorials and gaming devices from academic library Web sites, as well as PRIMO and the Information Literacy Resource Bank. Foremost, librarians can use these examples to design their digital guides and tutorials to deliver information through multiple signways, thereby enhancing students’ meaning-making.