Barbara Lewis

Making Decisions: Using Electronic Data Collection to Re-Envision Reference Services at the USF Tampa Libraries

Declining reference statistics, diminishing human resources, and the desire to be more proactive and embedded in academic departments, prompted the University of South Florida Library to create a taskforce for re-envisioning reference services. The taskforce was charged with examining the staffing patterns at the desk and developing recommendations to give librarians greater flexibility and to better respond to the information-seeking needs of users. These recommendations were based on statistics of desk usage, collected with the newly adapted online tool Desk Tracker, and structured interviews with library administrators. The taskforce was interested in how these stakeholders use quantitative data in decision making.

Transforming special collections through innovative uses for LibGuides

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the utility of Springshares LibGuides platform for special collections repositories and to evaluate the collection guides built by Special & Digital Collections at the University of South Florida in LibGuides.Design/methodology/approach – This paper explores how academic libraries have used LibGuides previously and provides a case study that suggests new ways for special collections repositories to make the most of the product.Findings – The simplicity and easy‐to‐update functionality of LibGuides works well for USFs Special & Digital Collections collection guides. The flexible API allowed SDC to embed digital content, enable user comments, advertise events, and measure the impact of various services.Practical implications – LibGuides provides an intuitive, simple, and cost‐effective method to create dynamic and frequently updated guides to special collections.Originality/value – This is the first paper to explore the use of LibGuides in a special collections reposi...

Special collections and the new web: Using LibGuides to provide meaningful access

Librarians have long struggled to find user-friendly mediums to provide meaningful information to patrons using bibliographies, pathfinders, and subject guides with varying degrees of success. Content management systems, such as Springshares LibGuides, have recently been developed to facilitate the creation of online subject guides. Special collections units also struggle with this issue. This article examines how special collections are presented on the Web, the use of LibGuides for special collections, and how the use of LibGuides is facilitating the goal to provide information in a meaningful way by Special and Digital Collections at the University of South Florida Tampa Library.

What the Heart Remembers: the Women and Children of Darfur

In 2009, the University of South Florida (USF) Libraries received from the organization Waging Peace a collection of materials which included transcripts of interviews with female genocide survivors and original childrens drawings depicting the atrocities of genocide in Darfur. These materials are particularly significant in that they were used as evidence of genocide in Darfur in the International Criminal Court. The childrens drawings have been digitized by USF and are an important element in the development of a web portal for the new Holocaust & Genocide Studies Center. These drawings also inspired the performance piece What the Heart Remembers: The Women and Children of Darfur staged by the USF Theatre and Dance Department. This article focuses on the librarys acquisition and digitization of these materials, the ongoing efforts to develop a web presence, faculty outreach, and the multidisciplinary collaboration between the library and other USF departments in this project.