Lili Luo

Reference Librarians’ Adoption of Cloud Computing Technologies: An Exploratory Study

This study examines how reference librarians use cloud computing technologies, particularly the general-purposed, consumer-oriented software as service (SaaS) tools, to support and facilitate their work. A survey was conducted and the findings suggest that librarians use these tools for a variety of purposes, ranging from facilitating internal communication and collaborative work, to supporting information literacy instruction. Advantages and disadvantages of the tools were also identified. This study will help interested librarians gain a concrete understanding of how to benefit from the increasingly popular cloud computing technologies and thus make more informed decisions when migrating to the cloud.

Slam the Boards: Librarians' Outreach into Social Q&A Sites

Slam the Boards (STB) is a grassroots activity in which librarians visit social Q&A sites on the tenth of each month and answer as many questions as possible. Through this activity, librarians hope to represent librarianship at a new venue; encounter users beyond the library and provide well-sourced, dependable answers to peoples questions; and ultimately increase the publics awareness of libraries. Semistructured interviews were conducted with participating librarians, examining their motivation, experience, and reflection. Findings of the study can help develop an in-depth understanding of STB and yield insights on how to efficiently and effectively promote library resources and services beyond the library.

Health information programming in public libraries: a content analysis

ABSTRACT Health information programs, defined as library programs focusing on health-related topics, are an essential way for public libraries to reach out to their user communities, raising awareness of and interest in healthy lifestyle, promoting access to quality health information, and ultimately enhancing health literacy of the citizenry. This study presents a content analysis of the health information programs provided by a large urban public library system in the past year, seeking to strengthen the professional understanding of how public libraries can contribute to health literacy improvement through effective programming, and help other libraries gain insights on health information program planning and implementation.

Consumer Health Reference Interview: Ideas for Public Librarians

This two-stage study seeks to help public librarians become better prepared, and more confident and competent, when answering medical/health questions. At the first stage, eleven barriers that public librarians often encounter in the consumer health reference interview were identified through a comprehensive literature review, and at the second stage, input from professional consumer health librarians on how to overcome the barriers was gathered via a qualitative survey. Findings of the study provide concrete and practical strategies that will help public librarians more successfully conduct the reference interview to assist library users in their health information-seeking journey.

Reference service evaluation at an African academic library: the user perspective

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a detailed discussion of a large-scale library reference evaluation study conducted at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) in Ghana. The study seeks to evaluate the reference service from the user perspective, focusing on how users use and perceive the service. Design/methodology/approach – Self-administered survey was used as the data collection instrument. One thousand questionnaires were distributed to library users in a three-week period, and the response rate was 63.7 per cent. Findings – The reference service had a high non-use rate of 42.6 per cent, which was primarily attributed to library users’ self-sufficiency and lack of awareness of the service. The top three motivations for library users to use the reference service were class assignments, personal interests and using library facilities. Although their overall altitude was positive, users felt that reference librarians were more successful at exhibiting customer service qualities than performing ta...