Claire Timpany

Book selection behavior in the physical library: implications for ebook collections

Little is known about how readers select books, whether they be print books or ebooks. In this paper we present a study of how people select physical books from academic library shelves. We use the insights gained into book selection behavior to make suggestions for the design of ebook-based digital libraries in order to better facilitate book selection behavior.

Judging a book by its cover: interface elements that affect reader selection of ebooks

Digital library research has demonstrated the impact of content presentation on both search and reading behaviours. In this paper, we scrutinise the influence of ebook presentation on user behaviour, focussing on document thumbnails and the first page view. We demonstrate that flaws in presentation increase the volume of short time-span reading, and reduce the likelihood of long-span reading when compared to other documents. This reflects other patterns of information seeking behaviour that demonstrate increased short-term reading when information content is uncertain, and suggests an ineffective use of reader time on less useful content.

An exploration of ebook selection behavior in academic library collections

Academic libraries have offered ebooks for some time, however little is known about how readers interact with them while making relevance decisions. In this paper we seek to address that gap by analyzing ebook transaction logs for books in a university library.

Social Information Behaviour in Bookshops: Implications for Digital Libraries

We discuss here our observations of the interaction of bookshop customers with the books and with each other. Contrary to our initial expectations, customers do not necessarily engage in focused, joint information search, as observed in libraries, but rather the bookshop is treated as a social space similar to a cafe. Our results extend the known repertoire of collaborative behaviours, supporting further development of models of user tasks and goals. We compare our findings with previous work and discuss possible implications of our observations for the design of digital libraries as places of both information access and social interaction.

Social information behaviour in physical libraries: implications for the design of digital libraries

Physical bookshops and libraries are visited by both individuals, and groups of patrons, while digital libraries are designed primarily for individual users. This paper reports on a study exploring the behaviour of groups of patrons in physical libraries, detailing their collaboration and communication during book searches. We aim to identify how characteristics such as location, time, environment, ambiance, layout and personal motivation play a role in a groups search and browsing behaviour. We report the findings of observations of group collaboration in academic and public libraries, and compare the observed book and library use techniques employed by patron groups. Further, we examine the support for group collaboration in digital libraries and discuss the implications of our observations for the design of digital libraries that support group collaboration and interaction among users. To that end, the paper suggests features and functions that could be added to DLs to enable asynchronous group communication and interaction.

A Log Analysis Study of 10 Years of eBook Consumption in Academic Library Collections

Even though libraries have been offering eBooks for more than a decade, very little is known about eBook access and consumption in academic library collections. This paper addresses this gap with a log analysis study of eBook access at the library of the University of Waikato. This in-depth analysis covers a period spanning 10 years of eBook use at this university. We draw conclusions about the use of eBooks at this institution and compare the results with other published studies of eBook usage at tertiary institutes.

Learning outcome dependency on contemporary ICT in the New Zealand middle school classroom

Often studies of childrens technology use in the classroom is internally focused and small scale. This study attempts a globalised exploratory overview of an entire New Zealand middle school to understand the technology usages across a range of curriculum and learning outcomes. Observations of the use of technology in the classroom during eight different lessons were conducted followed by structured-open-ended interviews. From our classroom observations and through teacher interviews, we have been able to identify three levels of the dependency of learning outcome on contemporary-ICT.

Family Visits to Libraries and Bookshops: Observations and Implications for Digital Libraries

This paper explores how families select books for leisure reading. We recruited 17 families (adults and children) for this study, and spent time with each in both bookshops and public libraries. Our research aims to add to understanding of how families interact with books and bookshelves in these places, and how digital libraries might best support the shared needs of these inter-generational users. Much of our understanding of how an eBook should look and feel comes from generalizations about books and assumptions about the needs of those individuals who read them. We explore how children and adults search and browse for books together, with specific focus on the type of information seeking tasks that families undertake and on the families’ shared search and browsing strategies. We further explore the implications of this study for the development of digital libraries for children and families.

Personal digital libraries: Keeping track of academic reading material

This paper discusses optionsfor tracking academic reading material and introduces a personal digital library solution. We combined and extended the open source projects Zotero and Greenstone such that material can be easily downloaded and ingested into the combined system. Our prototype system has been explored in a small user study.

Use of mobile apps for teaching and research - implications for digital literacy

This paper reports on the results of an online survey about mobile application (app) use for academic purposes, i.e. teaching and research, by Higher Degree Research (HDR) students and academic staff at one of the eight New Zealand universities. Two thirds of the 138 respondents reported they used apps for academic purposes. In teaching, apps were reported to be used as a means to push information to students. In research, apps appeared to be used to self-organise, collaborate with colleagues, store information, and to stay current with research. This paper presents the survey results and discusses implications for personal information management in education context and opportunities for university library services.