How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age (pdf) is a report from Project Information Literacy, maintained by the Information School at the University of Washington that contains a few surprises for libraries:

• Course readings were the first place most students turn to for course-related research (97%).
• Over 80% of students used library-provided research databases.
• Usage of library offering (research databases, OPAC, print materials, and study areas) were all above 50%.

Now the not so good:

• All interactive library research (talk to a librarian, attend a training session, use chat, e-mail or other online “Ask A Librarian” service) fell below 25%.
• Students are missing out on potential resources (including library research assistance), simply because those resources are not within their range of research activity.

Where are students going for assistance?  They tend to go to their instructors for guidance and assistance, but otherwise they simply use the resources they already know about, or discover in the course of their research.

What might this mean for libraries?  We should push for better interaction with instructors, so that they will be more likely to understand the full range of resources available for students to use, and will be more likely to refer students to an interactive library resource (which was only done 26% of the time — and the only result on the survey below 60%).

We also should examine our online presence.  How does it present research resources?  Will someone looking for a particular type of information be able to locate all the resources that the library has to offer?  Print and online library guides for these activities can also be very beneficial.

This report should be read, and reviewed, with each of our libraries in mind.  By understanding that the people we interact with are only one-fourth of the population using our resources, we can begin to re-focus our efforts to ensure that what we have to offer will be used effectively.

found via Bill Drew, who found it via the Free Range Librarian

For the background on this issue, see Quis custodiet isos custodes.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the American Psychological Association has decided to offer copies of the second printing of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed as replacements for July’s first printing, which was found to contain a significant number of errors.

A quick search of the APA website hasn’t found any announcements or instructions, but a quick search of the social networks has turned up the following:

• A notice on the Inside Higher Ed Quick Takes site, linking to…
• A posting on the Boycott the APA Manual, 6th Edition Facebook page (membership required to view) by John Foubert, a faculty member from Oklahoma State, which states the following:

“I have just received word that After November 2, call APA at 1-800-374-2721, ext. 5510. Ask for instructions on how to go on-line and print a mailing label you can use to return your copy and receive a corrected copy.”

Whether this is all correct remains to be seen (and any incorrect information will be changed or removed as I learn more), but it appears that there is a window between November 2nd and November 15th to initiate replacing copies of the manuals.

found via Bill Drew on Facebook (more of that social networking)

The title is latin for “Who watches the watchers?”

The American Psychological Association’s current style book, Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed., contains dozens of errors, several of them in examples and sample papers.  Needless to say, this is causing quite a stir among those who rely on the manual for defining the rules used for papers.

(It also makes me want to write a new verse for a certain Alanis Morissette song, but that isn’t the point…)

The APA has posted a pdf with links to other pdf files with categories of corrections.  Those categories are:

1. Errors in APA Style Rules
2. Errors in Examples
3. Clarifications
4. Nonsignificant Typos

Complete versions of the corrected sample papers can be found here.

Those libraries that serve students who use this style guide should decide how to handle the corrections.  Whether to include the correction pages with the book, or even to indicate the changes within the books themselves, are possibilities.  We should, as we ought to be prepared to do for any resource, inform users that there are known errors in the manual.

One option that we don’t have is the ability to exchange the error-containing manuals for corrected versions.  The APA will be correcting the errors in the second printing, and states that

The first printing was carefully proofed and vetted at multiple stages. The guidance provided in the book is accurate and sound.

I am not sure if I would recommend that a student use that approach when appealing a marked-down grade for typographical errors within a paper.  Of course, I wouldn’t recommend myself as a source for error-free work, as any careful reader of this blog could attest.

found via American Libraries Direct

Additional note:  it seems that the errors are not the only controversy surrounding the manual.  Many users are upset that the manual has changed the spacing recommendation after a period back to two spaces.  I learned to type on a typewriter (and still own the cast-iron glass-key Royal KMM typewriter (photo not my actual typewriter) I bought from the Brookfield Public Library’s book sale when I was a Page), and two spaces are a habit I haven’t even tried to break.  I still see it as a way to differentiate between an abbreviation and the end of a sentence.  I suspect that this will be a generational behavior.  It will be easy enough to search and replace two spaces with one, if it becomes necessary.

BBC Languages is fantastic web resource provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation, and is filled with audio language resources.  These include 12-week beginning lessons, a Quick Fix section containing “essential phrases”, and teacher’s resources.

found via Librarian in Black

The State of Ohio has launched an iTunes site that is designed “to share educational resources, professional development materials, and student videos which have been produced by members of higher education, the K-12 community, and community partners free of charge with unlimited access.”

There is a wide range of material available, and it is great to see them open to everyone, with the only requirement being the iTunes software.

Launch the site within your installed iTunes, and see a model for what other states, educational institutions, and libraries can do with their media content.

discovered via the OhioLINK Digital Resources Management Committee (Drmc) list

I have been aware of the Center for History and New Media for quite some time (even posted a link here), but only recently did I take a look at their site beyond the work they do with Zotero.  I was surprised, in a very good way, at all of the resources they have available:

• Zotero – One of the best Firefox add-ons available, this should be taught to every college freshman as an aid to research.
• Omeka – Designed as a platform to create online exhibits and collections, this tool appears to be a great option for digital collection projects.
• ScholarPress – A collection of WordPress add-ons geared towards educational use, including Courseware, which offers an array of tools for instructors to connect with their students (although it would serve well for library instruction, I suspect).
• Syllabus Finder – Nearly two million syllabi can be searched and viewed through this site.
• ECHO – a directory of over 5,000 websites “concerning the history of science, technology, and industry.”

These are just a portion of the resources under their Research + Tools tab.  When you consider their offerings under the Teaching + Learning and Collecting + Exhibiting tabs as well, you can see that it would take hours to properly sample the useful items in this site.  Take some time to see what they can offer to help your projects.

With NASA in the news so much lately(1, 2, 3, 4), it seems a good reminder that the organization has nearly 70 Educator Resource Centers across the country.  These are fantastic resources to tap for information relevant to a wide range of learners.

From the NASA Educator Resource Center Network web site:

• NASA Educator Resource Centers provide services to those in the education community including teachers, scout leaders, public and private schools, homeschoolers, museums, planetariums, colleges and universities, and other education-related groups.

• It helps to be precise about your interests and requests, so have a topic and grade level in mind when you call. ERCs have limited amounts of materials available.

• NASA educational resources fall under categories such as Earth Science, Space Science, Living and Working in Space, Aeronautics, Aerospace, and topics related to Mathematics, Science, Technology, and Geography. Materials are designed to supplement K-University curriculum. Complete curriculum guides are not available from NASA.

I had the opportunity to visit the Educator Resource Center at the Kennedy Space Center a few years ago.  They were helpful, enthusiastic, informative, and had loads of reference material.  It reminded me of what a good library should strive for!

found via the NASA Do-It-Yourself Podcast blog

YouTube EDU is a collection of videos from dozens, if not hundreds, of educational sources, including Stanford, MIT, Purdue University, UNC Chapel Hill, and Harvard Business School.

This looks to be the start of a very useful collection of lectures and informational videos.

found via The MLxperience

MathTV is a collection of video tutorials, ranging from basic mathematical concepts to complex calculus applications, meant to assist students by providing a demonstration of how to work a type of problem.

This is a great resource for anyone needing a refresher on a particular mathematical concept.

A video from the main page of the site:

found via MetaFilter

Notes from last month’s OLE (Open Library Environment) Regional Workshop are on LibShare, and they are interesting to scan through, especially the comments.

I found this through the Disruptive Library Technology Jester blog, and looked into it because of two quotes he included with his post:

• With print items, we’re trying to give people access; with electronic trying to keep them out.
• Isn’t it interesting that users from other libraries have borrowed print books delivered to them, but must travel to another library to get access to their electronic items.

In addition, I will add this interesting tidbit from the same set of responses:

• It used to be about selecting high quality materials, but now have to teach evaluation of available materials.

I think that sums up much of the transition we face in the library world – how to filter useful and usable information in a way that makes it useful and usable for our patrons (aren’t you glad I didn’t say “users”).  We are drinking from the fire hydrant, and the pressure is increasing!

If you have been concerned about the possible effects of the global financial crisis on libraries, you aren’t alone.  The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) has issued a statement that is not only short, succinct, and dire, but also proposes some solutions that would not only aid libraries and consortia, but the content providers from whom they purchase.

ICOLC Economic Statement.

This is a very powerful and constructive statement which is meant to initiate some significant changes in the way resources are offered, selected, and purchased.  My compliments to those who crafted the statement; it is a good, proactive document.  Adopting its suggestions will benefit everyone.  From the statements:

“While there may be practical limits to this principle, publishers, authors, scholars, and libraries will be best served by those solutions that retain as much access to as much content as possible.”

Note that there are many, many adopters of this statement, including CARLI in Illinois, as well as INFOhio, OHIOLink, OhioNet, and OPLIN, all in Ohio.  Check the list at the bottom of the statement to see if your consortial partners have adopted it.

found via the Disruptive Library Technology Jester

The debate has been going on for years, and has recently flared up again on PUBLIB : Does a person need the MLIS degree to do the work of a librarian?

LISNews has decided to take a poll (and encourage discussion)….

Comment : I have been thinking about this issue, and related questions, for many years.  Because of budgetary pressure, support staff have been taking on duties that in the past were considered the role of librarians.  Depending on the library (size, budget, structure, role) there are different answers as to what should and should not be done by various people.

I maintain that training is the key.  The better everyone knows everyone else’s job, the more efficient the library will be.  This means that there should be very few “walls” between job duties.  Personnel issues (hiring, firing, etc.) and certain confidential issues (financial accounts, security) should be kept within a walled garden (but never with only one person!).  Otherwise, everyone should know at lease something about all other duties performed in the library.

This leads to another point : training and knowledge need to be respected at all levels.  Understand and respect that which the MLIS librarian knows and applies to his or her job.  There are years of training behind that degree, and those of us who learn on the job (and on our own) would do well to keep that in mind.  Conversely, librarians should keep in mind that support staff bring a great deal to the table, and it is impossible to know just what we have to offer until you open yourselves to our input.

I worked as a technician in a pharmacy for eight years, and was mistaken for a pharmacist more times than I can recall. Each time was a sobering reminder to never allow my actions or speech to exceed my knowledge, because it carried far more weight than my simple certification could bear.

In libraries, we all need to heed that advice.  Understand what you know; more importantly, understand what you don’t know.  Being a librarian doesn’t mean that you know more about someone’s job simply because that job is support staff.  It doesn’t even mean that you know more about esoteric “library stuff” than someone without the degree.

The same goes, as you can guess, in the reverse.  The key is respect.  Respect each other.  Respect the job.  Respect the degree.  Respect the person’s training and knowledge.  Respect everyone, and expect the same in return.

Make that your mantra : Respect and Expect.

The 2008 ECAR (EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research) survey has been released, and they have added a section on social networking (pdf version of chapter here).  Among the findings:

• Slightly over 85% of those surveyed use social networks, with Facebook and MySpace topping the list.
• Younger students (under 30) tended to use Facebook, while older ones tend towards MySpace.
• About 50% use social networking for discussing classwork with other students; only about 5% use it for discussing classwork with instructors.

The only one of these three that surprised me was the tendancy towards Facebook/MySpace by age.  I have thought of MySpace as appealing to younger users than Facebook.

Social networks are definitely here to stay.  In five years we may not be discussing Facebook or MySpace (because they might have been superceded by a yet un-created network), but people will be more interconnected, not less.

The third point is one that should make us take notice.  Half of the surveyed students have used social networks to discuss classwork; the main reason they haven’t discussed it with instructors (and by extension, the library folk) is that we view it as some sort of cyber malt shop, a place only for their peers.

If we make ourselves available on social networks, we aren’t going to find ourselves becoming an overnight sensation.  We will, however, give people one more way to view us as being there to assist them.

Whether we create OPAC search tools to embed (or even highlight the good ones that exist, like WorldCat and CiteMe in Facebook – also here), create an institutional identity, or just make ourselves more visible as individuals, there is much we can do to assist students and promote our services.

We can jump on board the trolley, or be left behind.  The choice is ours, both individually and collectively.  I am on Facebook and LinkedIn, btw… and you should be too.

found via Web4Lib — thanks Gerry McKiernan!

The Annenberg Media website at learner.org is a resource that offers on-demand streaming video for “schools, colleges, libraries, public broadcasting stations, public access channels, and other community agencies”.

These are top-notch programs, several which I recognize as having been used in college-level learning. I stumbled upon this site while attempting to locate a replacement copy of one of the videos offered on the site.  They do require registration (free) in order to view the video streams.

Subject areas include:

• Arts
• Foreign Language
• Literature and Language Arts
• Mathematics
• Science
• Social Studies and History

Two additional subject area not listed on the site’s menu are:

• Education
• Education Reform

I am not sure why these aren’t listed, but here they are in case you find them helpful.  Chalk this up to my always being curious about how web menus are set up (thanks RFS!)

The quality of the video stream is as good as any I have encountered.  The only suggestion I have to the viewer is if you are using Firefox, you should install the MediaPlayerConnect add-on.  You will find this to be a great addition to the browser and saves you from all the WMP (Windows Media Player) plugin mess.

A great, thought-provoking post on the OpenStudents blog : Open Access meets Undergrad Research… Please?

If I were to be researching a paper on a topic that has a strong open access presence (and the easiest way to see these topics is to check out the main page of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), open access would be my first choice for articles.  Not only is there no hassle in accessing them (you only need a live web connection), but you can be sure that your paper’s readers would have the same, easy access.

Making open access a part of the research process, whether it is coming from an instructor, library reference, or peer, will serve to strengthen people’s research and to add a large group of resources to those we already offer.

found via Open Access News

Free Online Courses from Great Universities is a collection of lecture podcasts organized by topic; organized by Open Culture.

found via Open Access News

Free-Reading is “an ‘open-source’ instructional program that helps teachers teach early reading.” Aimed at Kindergarten/First Grade learners, it is a collaborative means to establish an education program that combines the strengths of those who work on the project, and makes it available to teachers and organizations via a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license.

Oh, and the State of Florida just added this program to their list of approved textbooks. Not only can they save a significant amount of funds that would otherwise be spent on texts, the class materials will be current and likely to be updated by a wide variety of professional educators.

found via Open Access News

Larry Ferlazzo’s blog is titled appropriately : Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day for Teaching ELL, ESL, and  EFL.   What caught my attention is that he is compiling lists of web resources that contain great sites that should be kept in mind not only for a variety of reference questions, regardless of the English language ability of the person asking the question, but for the many great tools and resources that we can use in library training and education.

A few of his 2007 lists:

• Best Web 2.0 Applications for Education
• Best Science Websites for Students and Teachers
• Best Online Learning Games
• Best Social Studies Websites
• Best Search Engines for ESL/EFL Learners

There are more beyond these, and his blog is a constant review/overview/discussion of web sites and resources.

found via TechCrunch

An interesting video of a graduation project at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands.  Enjoy!

found on LISNews

Kind of an interesting application of the Zotero add-on for Firefox : the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University (no relation ) and the Internet Archive are working to create a storage for scholarly annotation of online documents.

The annotation would work through added functionality (in the form of a new button) on the Zotero workspace, and could create an entirely new means to access scholarly critique and commentary. Simply put, this will make one of the most interesting and promising add-ons even better by allowing the user to collaborate with other researchers.

Research 2.0 anyone?

from Open Access News

Additional:  note that this will also create an option to save an archival copy of an electronic document on the Internet Archive servers.  This centralized storage will also provide benefits beyond the initial commons concept.

additional info found on Dan Cohen’s blog