Navigating Internet Resources: Sorting the Awesome from the Awful

Last week I hosted another set of "Conversations on Information Literacy" sessions. As Faculty Development and Instruction Librarian, I host a series of events throughout each semester highlighting library resources and how the library can help support faculty teaching and student learning. This semester I am really focusing on hands-on experience with the resources we discuss. Making information accessible, practical, and relevant is important for both faculty- and student-oriented lesson planning. Keeping in mind that people learn better when they’re actively applying the concepts being introduced, I arranged to have the faculty development sessions held in a computer lab in another building on campus. This allows students to continue to use the library lab (which does tend to get quite busy during the late morning & afternoon, when the faculty sessions are scheduled). I was also excited about this because it shows librarians getting out of the library & going to spaces where faculty are. I am hoping to continue this outreach beyond the faculty sessions, and do some office visits or hold office hours for both faculty and students in different buildings in the future (eventually—this may take some time).

In this set of sessions we discussed helping students find quality information online (Navigating Internet Resources: Sorting the Awesome from the Awful). I went over some of the strategies the library uses during our instruction with students, and then dove into different resources. Of particular interest to the faculty were the following:

• Google Advanced Search
• Google Scholar
• The Recommended Websites page we are developing
• Online citation resources

The feedback from those who attended was overwhelmingly positive and several faculty members said they were excited to share the resources we covered with their colleagues in department or other meetings! My goals are to continue to increase attendance (which is going to be tricky, given schedules on this campus) and to continue to develop sessions that would appeal to a wide range of faculty. I am hoping to do some informal surveying of faculty from a variety of departments (informal because, as I’m sure many other campuses are, our email inboxes are exploding, and paper surveys tend to take the back burner to lesson planning and assessing student work). For more information on the faculty development session, explore the links above.

If anyone has suggestions for something they've tried in the past & loved, I'd love to hear your ideas!

Library After Hours - Dr. Carol Gilbertson

Dr. Carol Gilbertson

Last Friday, Iowa author (and Luther Professor Emerita of English) Dr. Carol Gilbertson was our fist speaker for the "Library After Hours" series.  She shared her poems and experiences, reading from her latest publication From a Distance, Dancing, which was a finalist in the Finishing Line Press annual chapbook contest.  From Luther's website: "One reviewer calls the poems 'smart, witty, honest, and passionately intelligent.' Another reviewer writes that one of the poems is 'the most perfect description of rural life I have ever read.'" Dr. Gilbertson also spent time visiting classes and meeting Grand View students and faculty throughout the day. We had a very nice turn out, especially considering the approaching snow and the fact that it was on a Friday evening--25 attendees (plus 4 librarians). It was a particular treat for me because of the Luther connection--though I didn't have any classes with Dr. Gilbertson when I was a student at Luther, it was still nice to meet her and some of the Luther alumni that came to hear her read.  (I did have to tell my boss, during the reception after the reading, that Luther people tend to linger--no matter the department--English, Music, Theater--we always seem to be "those people" who are probably a little to loud and who are the last to say goodbye.) Below are some photos from the evening.

Area Luther alumni who attended Library After Hours.

Lib & Learn - February

Here's the first edition of the new Grand View University newsletter, geared toward students (and also faculty, but primarily students). Enjoy!

Library Newsletter -February
A big thank you to Rachel Slough for letting me borrow the title from her!

Reflect & Be Thankful

As what has been a fairly hectic week comes to a close (technically tomorrow it comes to a close, but hey, Thursday works for reflection too--thus ends-ish the first week of spring semester), I'd like to take a moment to reflect & be thankful. Some of it is career related, and the rest is likely adorable puppy related.

I give thanks for:

• the hubbub students bring with them 
• tech guys who are on the ball & fix little things before they become big things
• cold weather that helps us appreciate it when the mercury is in a range anywhere above that which causes eyelash-cicles (does this even make sense???)
• have I mentioned having students back on campus? having students back on campus (they keep life interesting)
• new projects
• others dancing in public
• children's books
• kids who read children's books
• grown-ups who read children's books
• adorable puppies
• adorable puppy videos
• friends who are like family
• family who are like friends
• curiosity
• enthusiasm
• internet memes
• Puttin' on the Ritz
• cheesy jokes
• fun reference questions that allow me to learn right alongside the person asking the question
• Television from my childhood (and yes, this includes reruns I watched during my childhood) like The Andy Griffith Show and The Flying Nun, and reruns now like Matlock and The Muppets. 
• CBS Sunday Morning
• Bob Schieffer laughing
• Downton Abbey
• Goodreads
• gluten-free food that doesn't taste like feet
• blogs
• TED Talks
• busy days that help make time fly
• space heaters
• good books
• adventures
• music
• pajamas
• when other people have fun surprises
• lots and lots of other stuff

Taking a minute to breathe and be thankful is just what we all need sometimes. 

Mentoring Meeting

The week before Christmas I met with my ILA/ACRL mentor, Rebecca Funke (Director of the DMACC libraries). This was our first meeting. I was able to see the Ankeny campus library, learn more about their collection, meet some of the other library staff, hear about their policies & procedures, and ask tons of questions (like the new librarian I am). It was interesting to hear about their set-up, and hear the similarities between what we are doing at as a university & what they are doing as a community college. I shared a bit about what we are doing with the embedded librarian program & how we structure our instruction sessions. There were several take-aways from the day spent in Ankeny, but one that I'd like to take steps toward implementing within the next year is to have an all-campus reads program. (It all depends on administrative approval, collaboration between other areas on campus, effective marketing, and overall interest.) The Iowa Center for the Book chooses one book each year to be the All Iowa Reads selection; this year's selection is Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains.I have been brainstorming about marketing and programming related to a campus-wide program.  Possibilities include:

• a read-in
• collaboration with student groups
• collaboration with faculty & departments on campus
• perhaps a raffle with book give-aways
• utilizing the existing book trailer to increase interest 

Creating marketing materials, talking to the on-campus radio and television production groups as well as the student newspaper to help get the word out & to cover events held throughout the year (semester?) is going to be a big part of getting this program started.

Article Discussion: Using Google Forms to Schedule Classes in Your Library

Kenney, J. (2011). Using Google Forms to schedule classes in your library. Journal of Library Innovation 2(2). Retrieved December 1, 2011 from http://www.libraryinnovation.org/.

What is awesome about no longer being in grad school (besides having a job with health insurance, having my own apartment, sleeping on a regular basis instead of pulling all-nighters, and actually getting to see my friends and family) is that I don't have to read articles I find boring. I get to choose the articles I get to read! (Believe me, this is pretty darn luxurious! I love practical articles where I find something in it that I can actually apply right away!) I was really excited when I began browsing the Directory of Open Access Journals (http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=home&uiLanguage=en) and came across the Journal of Library Innovation. One: because, let's face it—I'm frugal and the fact that it's open access (free!) makes me feel like I'm getting a great deal; two: because the articles are remarkably readable and practical; three: because I drink the Google Kool-Aid, and what did appear before me but an article about using Google tools to make life easier! I'm sold!

So, let’s talk about this wonderfully practical article that uses Google magic, shall we? Kenney is a high school librarian who uses Google Forms (GF) to schedule classes in the library. Though our institution is a university, we have a similar break-down with our number of students (Grand View serves about 2,000 students; Bristol Eastern High School has 1,300) and types of facilities available (both BEHS and GV have one computer lab devoted to library instruction).

When I arrived this summer I visited with my colleagues about using GF as a replacement to paper stats. During my internship at University of Dubuque (UD), we used GF for this purpose and it worked fantastically, so we revised the UD form to make it simpler and began implementing the new statistics procedures. In the past, as a student leader in SLIS at Indiana University (IU), I had used GF to coordinate events, gather RSVP information, help with officer elections, etc., so I was already comfortable with the format. Kenney took it a step further and uses it for scheduling instruction (love this!).

As an Instruction Assistant at IU, course instructors scheduled library instruction sessions using a PHP form. This is a similar concept, but could be more difficult to implement depending on access to server space and coding experience. GF allows librarians to easily make and modify a form that meets their instruction scheduling needs, and all of the information is kept in a central location (not to mention automatically organized in a rockin' spreadsheet).

Prior to using GF, Kenney's procedure was to have teachers email back and forth with her to line up not only the times/dates, but also exchange several emails about what was to be included in the session, assignment expectations, etc. Though I am not our official scheduler, I have visited with our librarian about the (sometimes…) lack of information we receive from instructors regarding what they want their students to learn during the library instruction sessions, resulting in a situations and email exchanges similar to those Kenney experienced. Implementing the form would simplify this experience for all involved. Also, Kenney's form included a detailed list of the services and types of instruction the library provides. This allowed her to highlight specific resources and technologies that instructors might not have otherwise thought to include in their requested instruction session. She then transferred the submitted information from the Google spreadsheet into a calendar item. The calendar was available for classroom instructors to see (so they would know when instruction was/was not available).

I think it's a fantastic solution using resources that are freely available to simplify a process (and keep your email inbox tidier)! There are a few caveats that we need to consider, should we decide to implement this new method. I think educating faculty about the new procedure and form is the top consideration. Some professors may not be comfortable with electronic forms, so some training may be necessary. Populating the calendar with instruction sessions/information may be a bit clunky, but it is no clunkier than what we are currently doing—and this procedure would eliminate excessive email exchanges. Another consideration is that, even though Google works to make many things customizable, we still can't accept attachments via the forms; we could add a mailto link to the form so they automatically send it to the right person (so it can be added to the right calendar item).

I've shared this with my colleague, who sounds keen on making this work for our library. Fingers crossed for a simpler instruction scheduling process for all involved!

Article Discussion: Searching Where for What: A Comparison of use of the Library Catalogue, Google and Wikipedia

Waller, V. (2011). Searching where for what: A comparison of use of the library catalogue, Google and Wikipedia. Library and Information Research 35(110). Retrieved November 28, 2011 from Freely Accessible Science Journals.

I’m pretty sure every instruction librarian has struggled with students who simply want to Google or search Wikipedia to find “research” for their course assignments. This is nothing new. Students tend to gravitate toward the familiar, and toward what they think is the easiest route. In fact, I received an email from a student that said “I just ended up looking it up on Google. Google knows all.” (Granted it was very early in the semester, before I had gotten into their class to do any IL instruction, but still). So when I saw “Searching where for what: A comparison of use of the library catalogue, Google and Wikipedia” I was intrigued. We all turn to different resources for different research needs. Let’s be honest, I won’t turn to the library’s catalog or databases to figure out when Beyonce announced her pregnancy (2011 VMAs, Aug. 28th) or whether Jason Segel is married (Single! But I knew that from a Letterman interview...I digress); Wikipedia is just fine for that. But, if I’m looking to write a paper for a grade (hint hint, students), I should use something more credible. So as part of my instruction, we discuss web quality. I share fun examples of less-than-stellar websites, and then have the “Come to Jesus” moment when it comes to using Wikipedia. (See slide four below.)

Searching and Evaluating the Web (General)

View more presentations from stonca01

I don’t know if you can see it, but the Wikipedia entry for Newton, IA shows the nickname to be “The Armpit of America,” the motto as “Too lazy to commute. Let’s go on title 19,” and the population is made up of “15,579 Smiling toothless methheads” (keepin’ it classy, Wikipedia). That usually gets a chuckle out of the students, and opens their eyes to just how easily this information can be manipulated. I tell them that I went back just one hour after I took the screenshot, and the information had been changed back to something less controversial—so not only can Wikipedia be ridiculously incorrect, it’s also not a stable, constant resource.

While reading the article “Searching where for what: A comparison of use of the library catalogue, Google and Wikipedia” I was interested in seeing what might be implied about user behaviors and the reasoning behind it. Waller examines the catalogue (yes, spelled the British way) searches in the State Library of Victoria (Australia) as compared to the searches done in Google and Wikipedia. The researcher looked at the following categories: popular culture, ecommerce, business-related, cultural practice, computing/web, health, history, science (including math), place/building, contemporary issues (news, government information), books/authors, high culture, adult (XXX or dating sites), genealogy, unknown, and other. Waller used transaction logs to gather data from the library/internet users without impacting their behavior. The findings showed that 20% of catalogue users were researching contemporary issues, wherein only 5% of Google searches were seeking information on contemporary issues. Quite the opposite was the case when researchers examined the results for pop culture; 29% of Google queries and 40% of searches that took users to Wikipedia. The article contains more information about the nitty-gritty results, but in the end, I wasn’t surprised by the user behaviors.

While not Earth-shattering, it was eye-opening to hear concrete numbers regarding Google use versus library catalog use. According to Waller, “Google is used approximately one hundred times more often than the State Library catalogue to look up information on contemporary issues. Similarly for every five library catalogue searches, there are in the order of 500 searches conducted in Victoria using Wikipedia…Wikipedia is used approximately twenty five times more often than the State Library catalogue to look up information on contemporary issues.”

I encourage my students who are working on research papers to ask “So what?” or “What’s the big deal; why should I care?” Waller’s “so what?” suggests that libraries should monitor the catalogue query subjects to better understand how their collections are being used (or where there are gaps in the collection that should be filled with new purchases). This approach would still leave gaps in the data, not allowing researchers to understand users’ reasoning behind their searching habits. Perhaps patrons are simply unaware of the depth of the library’s collection regarding their topic so, instead of searching the library catalog, they search online elsewhere. The issue then becomes educating library users about the collection, as opposed to modifying holdings. I like that Waller points out the advantages of using library resources over (possibly sketchy) web resources: difficult to find “authentic meaning when using a search engine,” most users don’t dig deeply enough into the search results (past the first page of results), you get all of the bibliographic information you need to properly cite your sources when using library resources, and information on like topics is grouped together (making students’ research easier). Waller failed to mention that when you use library resources, you’re likely to have at least one librarian you can contact when you have questions, need help sifting through and interpreting information, or need help remembering to breathe because your paper is due tomorrow and you know you should have started it sooner but you didn’t and you realize now that you kind of screwed yourself over but really you just need to get it done and just survive until the end of the semester (where’s the closest cup of coffee?). (Not that I’ve seen students do this or anything…)

In the end, the article didn’t necessarily address user motivations, but it did reinforce that, as an instruction librarian, I need to continue to educate my students about the need to dig deeper—especially when they think they already know how to search and find quality information.