Information Online 2011
ALIA 15th Conference & Exhibition
PEP Report by Attendees:
Amy Croft
Connie Pan
Helen Naman
Suzanne Munro
Table of Contents
Reports on sessions attended ................................................................................................................. 1
Keynote address: Earning your digital dividend ................................................................................. 1
Culture shock: Librarians’ Response to Web Scale Search ................................................................. 1
MyLanguage: expanding the possibilities of community web content .............................................. 3
From ‘I hate it’ to ‘it’s my new best friend!’: Making heads or tails of client feedback to improve
our new Quick Find discovery service................................................................................................. 4
All Hat; No Cattle................................................................................................................................. 4
Re-thinking the school library space ................................................................................................... 5
Keynote address: Find & Get! ............................................................................................................. 5
How to write a paper in 140 characters or less: Social media for professional development ........... 6
Little changes, big improvements ....................................................................................................... 7
Keynote address: Ebooks and the Future of Publishing ..................................................................... 8
Clash of the paradigms... busting ‘em in the 21st century .................................................................. 9
What’s in the box? How the science library is challenging tradition at UWA .................................. 10
Library spaces: New Places of Invention........................................................................................... 10
Keynote address: Mobile, social, digital collections ......................................................................... 11
Customer Service Excellence in the Self-Service Library .................................................................. 13
Evaluating Web 2.0 tools .................................................................................................................. 14
Student Engagement and Retention: What does Library Use Tell Us?............................................. 14
Keynote address: Digital Libraries: The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes ........................................... 15
Location, location, location! Meeting students where they seek information ................................ 16
Learn to Play the Game—Play the Game to Learn ........................................................................... 17
Not another Library class! Information skills for web generation students ..................................... 17
Learning to freely share: Mandates and Open Access ..................................................................... 18
Playing with readers: online games and their potential for reference and readers advisory services
in public libraries ............................................................................................................................... 18
Revolutionising the library’s OPAC ................................................................................................... 19
Does participation equate to engagement? ..................................................................................... 19
Ebook readers: separating the hype from reality ............................................................................. 19
Closing panel: Doing More with Less ................................................................................................ 20
Reports on exhibitions and vendor presentations ............................................................................... 21
Reflections on the conference and relevance to current position ....................................................... 22
Reports on sessions attended
(Full papers also available from http://www.information-online.com.au)
Keynote address: Earning your digital dividend
Jim McKerlie, Chairman, Bullseye
(Attended by Helen Naman)
Jim McKerlie's career is in Australian and international new media sector. He provides strategic
advice to international businesses, governments, user groups and investors around the world as well
as having considerable senior executive experience with content producers, publishers and digital
service providers; also has 25 years experience as a broadcaster, commentator and speaker.
Jim is the author of a comprehensive discussion paper entitled "business@100Mbps - a View of the
Firm of the Future" in which he analyses and forecasts the impact of a broadband capability as
contemplated by the National Broadband Network. Jim recently appeared before the Senate Select
Committee on the NBN and presented at the Prime Minister’s national summit "Realising Our
Broadband Future" held by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital
Economy.
This paper is general presentation on IT industry.
The world is undergoing massive change.
Information technology and recent developments radically affected information professionals.
Comparison manual card catalogue v Opac
The rules under which we operate, the way in which we work and the ways we achieve our purpose
are being challenged and are changing rapidly and dramatically.
The net benefit of a broadband networked world will generate a Digital Dividend. How to benefit
from this?
Culture shock: Librarians’ Response to Web Scale Search
(Attended by Helen Naman)
Constance Wiebrands - Manager, Library Services
David Howard - Manager, Library Collections and Access Edith Cowan University Library
ECU Library implemented the Serials Solution web scale discovery tool Summon at the beginning of
2010. This paper describes the rollout of Summon and the subsequent impact on ECU Library and its
users, with a specific focus on its impact on ECU’s librarians and the information literacy
programmes provided to library users. Survey was conducted paper discusses the findings of the
survey .
What is Summon? Summon is Serials Solutions “web-scale discovery service” providing “instant
access to the span of authoritative content that's the trademark of great libraries”. A library that
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licenses or subscribes to the service has its catalogue holdings indexed, along with other resources
from participating publishers and content providers, creating a “unified index of preharvested
content”. Summon then provides a search engine that enables users to “search the breadth of
library collections – physical and digital at the article level – from a single search box.”
Survey results:
A key stakeholder group for this project were librarians, and many librarians at ECU responded to
Summon with a degree of concern, perhaps even trepidation, over the changes Summon would
bring to the way library clients accessed resources. The initial survey was conducted in February
2010 soon after implementation with the follow up run in July of the same year. The longer term aim
was to compare librarian reactions to Summon with those of our users. Of a total population of 30
the surveys had a return rate of 26% and 20% respectively. The poor rate of return in itself
demonstrated some interesting issues. Librarians not directly involved with information literacy felt
that they could not respond to the survey instrument. Those librarians who were involved in the
selection and rollout of Summon felt that they had a vested interest and chose not to respond. A
large majority were in fact unsure to the issues and felt insufficient concern or praise to warrant the
time to complete the survey. In this regard the survey respondents represented those staff with
extreme views at either end of the spectrum. Though a small sample the results give a good picture
of the concerns expressed by librarians when moving into a pre-indexed web scale search tool.
Concerns:
Lack of knowledge of what was indexed in Summon was a major concern, with librarians
understandably wanting to know what journals were indexed, and wanting this information
provided in terms of percentage coverage of traditional subject databases.
Questions were raised around the percentage of titles in CINAHL or Academic One File which were
covered by Summon. This data was very difficult to provide as Serials Solutions deals with publishers
and not with database providers.
Survey indicated a significant shift in the perceived advantage of “full-text searching” within Library
One Search. Initially 75% of librarians viewed full text searching within Summon as an advantage. Six
months later only 50% of respondents viewed the ability to locate full text items as an advantage.
Lack of confidence in the coverage led to concerns that full text may not be found and students
would not recognise how to move beyond Library One Search to more specialized resources.
Search functionality would be “dumbed down”. Summon, with its single search box and apparent
lack of advanced search capabilities, did not appear to librarians to be sufficiently sophisticated.
Some librarians argued that library clients would be disadvantaged if they did not use the native
search interfaces provided by database vendors. There was doubt that Summon would be able to
provide library users with adequate access to library resources. Overall these concerns reflected
librarians’ desire to find information in the “right way”.
Librarians did raise issues related to helping existing students deal with change. Users who have
become comfortable with accessing information from current systems were more resistant to make
the change to Library One Search. While those who had found our access points difficult to navigate
embraced Library One Search.
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Librarians largely were positive on the general advantages of the Summon approach to information
discovery from an average user perspective. A common theme in the feedback received from
librarians was that it was a proactive response to Google’s domination in student academic life.
Overall librarians rated Library One Search as a very good to good search tool for our users but with
considerable reservations at this point in time with regards to its professional standing with
librarians. At product launch librarians rated Library One Search as: 0% excellent 37.5% very good,
37.5% good, 25% fair and 0% poor After 6 months of use librarians had more positive views on the
performance of Library One Search. With a general shift to the left on our scale: 16.6% excellent;
16.6% very good; 50% good; 16.6% fair 0% poor “It’s very good if you know what it does and its
limitations.”
The implementation of Summon at ECU was a success and has delivered benefits to the vast
majority of our Library users.
MyLanguage: expanding the possibilities of community web content
(Attended by Helen Naman)
Oriana Acevedo State Library of New South Wales
Brendan Fitzgerald State Library of Victoria- Vicnet
The paper explores how libraries and in particular MyLanguage are assisting CALD communities to
build ownership and capacity to develop content that meets the expressed needs of their
communities.
The national MyLanguage portal http://www.mylanguage.gov.au is a joint partnership between the
State & Territory Libraries of NSW, QLD, SA, VIC, WA, NT and ACT. As a way of enriching Australia’s
linguistic and cultural cyberspace, seven State and Territory Libraries have created this portal to
enable people to search and find information on the internet in over 60 languages. MyLanguage
provides access to over six-million information links: search engines, web directories, government
websites, digital library projects and syndicated news headlines.
The MyLanguage concept is inspired by three key ideas:
Social inclusion for all Australians requires having access to and publication of multilingual and
multicultural information;
Digital inclusion requires that new and emerging communites have access to new technologies and
the internet to ensure creation of and access to information and resources; and
Libraries are crucial as gateways to multilingual information resources.
One of a few sections ”For Libraries” provides access to vast variety of government websites,
including links to information about community, Policies & guidelines and Translation & interpreting
and many more.
You can watch videos describing MyLanguage at http://www.youtube.com/user/StateLibMyLang.
Might be useful for our library and students.
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From ‘I hate it’ to ‘it’s my new best friend!’: Making heads or tails of client
feedback to improve our new Quick Find discovery service
(Attended by Helen Naman)
Cathy Slaven
Barb Ewers
Kurt Vollmerhause
Queensland University of Technology
The research/case study has been done by the Queensland University of Technology library staff to
establish what information retrieval strategies students use in order to locate library resources
[library catalogue, databases, e-journals] and what obstacles they face.
It was stated in the research that regardless of how many designs they test lib.staffe are unable to
prevent the perennial problem of students searching for articles in the catalogue! The target of
implementing a unified discovery tool, that would allow students to find books, articles and other
content in a single search, was very appealing. Anything that would provide a simple starting point
for research was on the right track.
In late 2009 the Library signed up for Summon (from Serials Solutions) and eagerly launched "Quick
Find" in February 2010. Surprisingly no positive feedbacks were received - was dominated by
negative feedback from both students and staff with comments such as: "I hate it" "when I used it, it
took me to really weird results""looks good but does not work well" "Extremely difficult to use" "If it
ain't broke don't fix it" The paper is a case study of how lib staff analysed feedback to determine the
underlying cause of these comments and to ascertain what did work with the new search and what
did not.
All Hat; No Cattle
(Attended by Connie Pan)
Bruce Heterick, from Ithaka (JSTOR)
What is the easiest place to start research accounting to students’ needs
What kind of resources students are family with, so we start from it.
Statistics show: A specific electronic research resource is the highest.
Building library; Catalogue – resources of general purpose; research purpose – specific electronic
resources
Services discovery
First - Ebsco’; second - library databases; third – Google
Where JSTOR usage initiated in Australia 2010
JSTOR 76%; Google 16%; other 8% < 6% known linking + 2% library
2010 JSTOR usage highlights - Google scholar
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University of Minnesota – digital conservancy – print 4 pages https://conservancy.umn.edu/simplesearch?query=report&submit=Go
Discovery should be organised according to users‘ needs
Reach users at the places where they choose to begin to search and then we build their needs.
Re-thinking the school library space
(Attended by Connie Pan)
Andrew Finegan from Princes Hill Secondary College
An outsider perspective – some note paper on the door of the library
What do we need to rethink to create a 21st century library space?
teachers’ needs – have a survey about the library – improved space to access for classes; improve
teaching tools;
Students’ needs – shelving high to low; furniture changed to soft ones; build computer room
Create a discussion room; reading room
Keynote address: Find & Get!
Chris Winter, Manager New Services, ABC Innovation, Australian Broadcasting
Corporation
(Attended by Amy Croft)
Chris Winter spoke about how the ABC uses Facebook and Twitter to engage with users and about
their efforts to make online materials easier to find and access.
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Q&A audience increased 30% after introduction of Twitter feed
Twitter was a very important source of information during Victorian bushfires
Audience model of one-to-many has changed.
Rights are more problematic than finding sources.
o ABC Archives, National Film and Sound Archive and the National Library are trying to
make everything as accessible as possible.
o BBC (UK) aim to make EVERYTHING accessible.
Sydney Sidetracks (http://www.abc.net.au/innovation/sidetracks/)– collaboration with users
“opening the archives”: ABC has signed a memorandum of understanding with National
Library to make archive available via Trove
“active partnership development” – BBC
Findability: their top client is ABC News, who they know very well. Serving other clients who
may need different descriptors poses problems
Review of website for usability/findability (3-11 million pages)
o Currently structured like the ABC organization – rather than for the user to find stuff
o ‘aggregation’ for findability – machine-led, with human editors, sorting all topics into
clear areas, eg http://www.abc.net.au/science/ for everything related to science
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o Unexpected uses/users – eg archival footage used in treating Alzheimer’s sufferers
o Archives – benefits for learning, research
JISC – met to discuss one collection in the UK (currently different organisations with
sometimes overlapping collections)
Use of various platforms:
o TV: 13-14 million
o PC: 15 million
o Mobile: 26 million
o Mobiles – soon to overtake PCs for internet access (2013/2014)
o Most users accessing the ABC Mobile site are iPhone users
Innovation division – as well as all divisions responsible for integrating online content
Gallipoli – won first AFI award for innovation (/Gallipoli)
/Blacksaturday
Bluebird AR – interactive over a 6-week period, participatory story-telling
/Education – especially now there’s a national curriculum
DVDs of Gallipoli sent to schools by the Department of Veteran Affairs
How to write a paper in 140 characters or less: Social media for professional
development
(Attended by Amy Croft)
Kate Freedman (La Trobe University) and Naomi Doessel (Griffith University) spoke about using
social media for professional development, and for collaborating on their presentation without
meeting face-to-face.
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Synchronous collaboration now possible
New tools for collaboration
Facebook used for personal contacts rather than professional
Twitter: build Personal Learning Networks (PLN)
Follow library leaders
Find others with similar interests
Social media=connection online=IRL
‘Crowdsourcing’
o asking questions of your PLN
o sharing ideas, experiences, encouragement, support
Web 2.0 technologies investigated and used by the presenters to collaborate on the
presentation:
o Google Docs
o Dropbox (no need to worry about sending different versions of documents back and
forth as with email)
o Zotero (bibliographic tool)
o Prezi (great mind-mapping tool, but some bugs with collaboration)
o Skype
Other areas of interest:
o Mobile computing
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Augmented reality
Little changes, big improvements
(Attended by Amy Croft)
Lisa Miller, Online Futures Librarian at the Gold Coast City Council, spoke about ways to ‘tweak’
library services to make ‘big improvements’.
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Build your reputation:
o Promote yourself
o Branding (use templates for consistency)
o Write for your target audience
o Let staff know about upcoming events
o Posters, flyers
o Build relationships with local media and community
o Social networking
o Manage your web presence
 Make sure information is current
 Change content regularly
Maintain credibility:
o Develop an expectation of quality and variety
o Support your staff with training
o Encourage staff to be ‘subject experts’
o Up-skill staff in social networking tools
o Keep up your programming (events, classes etc)
o Maintain your collection
Keep your audience interested
o Eg ‘Hot Reads’ retail-style display of new/popular books
o ‘Insights’ workshops
o Online (Web 2.0) presence, eg blogs
 ‘Blurb it’ for teens (limited success so moving to facebook)
 ‘Book Coasters’ online book club (http://gcbooks.wordpress.com/)
o Decide on a benchmark for success
o Leveraging technology for better services
 Library Thing
 Ebscohost Mobile
 QR codes
 Youtube for training videos, eg database searching
o Events such as ‘Techno Expo’
 Promote databases
 Promote ebooks
 Provide training in using technology
Mobilise your staff
o They are the library’s ambassadors
o Keep them motivated
o Keep them selling your products and services
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o Remember your reputation relies on staff
Final words
o Recognise your library’s strengths
o Identify areas where you can make changes
Keynote address: Ebooks and the Future of Publishing
Michael Mace, Product Planning and Marketing E xecutive, Rubicon Consulting,
USA
(Attended by Connie Pan)
Publishing history - from printing – computer – touch screen
Summary: not book about paper; still have barriers to an e-publishing takeover; paper publishing is
unsustainable.
E-book readers
Soft book; e-book from 2001 to reach to 3 million; 90% book published by e-publish
For customers
- prices were too high; not enough periodicals, magazine & newspaper are a better fit; viewed as
disposable – still need time to get there.
1. Rethink an ecosystem - magazines
- Physical format still – like the horsey horseless
- Page formatted e-magazine
- Our readers value the quality content that our Ads bring to the publication
- Phantom value MP3, CD, audio
2. Newspaper ecosystem
- printed on paper
- Flip board: online newspapers – BBC, CNN, NYTimes, Yahoo news
3. Short content – an opportunity
- < 2000 words magazines? ; or > 80,000 books?
4. Buy or subscribe to authors easily and should including it in Ads so readers easily discover authors
5. Statistics; Out of print books 70%; imprint 10% and public domain 20% for each year
6. Lots of books didn’t print out
7. Do printed books go away?
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– Books as gifts; decoration; children soft books are still useful
Pay author to go e-published only $20 each and make more money
E-readers are still little
8. What to do?
- Traditional book publishing is still
- Magazines are distributed on table
- Library is advocate for reading books
- Caution quality and preservation
More information to see: http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/
Clash of the paradigms... busting ‘em in the 21st century
(Attended by Connie Pan)
Gary Conroy Cooper from Launceston LINC
Tasmania to build new LINCs http://www.linc.tas.gov.au/
The Tasmanian Government establish the Leaning and Information Network Centres (LINC)
throughout the state. These centres offer a new approach to service delivery, integrating community
learning, libraries, business development, and community services. They will make it easier for
people to access information and government services and lifelong learning opportunities.
The Huon LINC offers so many fantastic services and it really fits in with the government’s aim to
keep Tasmanians learning throughout their lives. Centres will also offer life-changing experiences.
Tasmanian education and training sector for improvement in the literacy and numeracy levels of
school children and adults.
Launceston LINC is part of the Community Knowledge Network, linking together Adult Education, the
State Library of Tasmania, Online Access Centres and the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office
(TAHO).
You can borrow books, magazines and dvds from the library and access our large range of online
resources, and an extensive Local Sudies Collection. You can also enrol for an Adult Education
course, use the Internet, access literacy services and research your family history.
What's on at Launceston LINC
Activities
Storytime
Educational fun for pre-school children! Join us for 1/2 an hour of stories, rhymes and songs.
Rock & Rhyme
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Pre-literacy skill development and fun through rhyme and song for babies aged 0 - 24 months, and
their parents/carer
Events
Adult education course guide
Launceston Human Library
Adult and Family Literacy
Need help with reading and writing or know someone who does?
Exhibitions
Launceston LINC facilities & services
Online Access Centre for Internet use
Adult Education enquiries and enrolments
Training Courses
E-learn Flexible Online computer training course
E-learn is an Online Introductory computer course :
2010-11 Volunteer Opportunities
What’s in the box? How the science library is challenging tradition at UWA
(Attended by Connie Pan)
Since opening in July 2009, the UWA science library has changed the way that both science and the
library are viewed at UWA.
Students have made the space their own: writing on the glass desktops, talking loudly on their
mobile phones in the “Cell Zone”, rearranging furniture, and finding places for concentrated study,
for conversation over coffee, or for group work in discussion rooms that appear to be suspended
among the trees.
900 seats; 13 group rooms; 4 multimedia rooms; 200 PCs; + 300 spaces for laptops
The science library‘s success which can be attributed to three factors:
Creating spaces for everyone (from parents to UG & PG students with special needs);
Provding technology that enhances learning and inspires the creation of new knowledge
an emphasis on science in science library
If you want more information see Connie (the paper is available)
Library spaces: New Places of Invention
(Attended by Connie Pan)
A10: Libraries spaces : new places of invention by Annie Talve (Make Stuff Happen)
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She worked in state library of NSW from 1988-1995 and during the time, she led a scenario planning
exercise – the virtual library emerged as a disembodied space fuelled by an irrefutable supply
demand proposition.
Library as place scenario was less clearly defined and more uncertain. Library as place has never
been so popular; what kind of library spaces and uses we can expect in the future?
See the photos of State library of Qld; Surry Hill public library, the national library of Australia and
State library of Victoria.
More information see the website; http://makestuffhappen.com.au
Keynote address: Mobile, social, digital collections
Sebastian Chan, Manager, Web Services Unit, Powerhouse Museum
(Attended by Amy Croft)
Seb Chan (@sebchan) gave an inspiring address about how the Powerhouse Museum is engaging
users, with plenty of examples. Key points and links below:
Powerhouse Museum’s key audiences:
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Children, families
Under 30s
Culturally active adults
Makers, tinkerers, creators, designers
Tensions:
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Kids vs scholars
Exhibitions vs collections
Buildings and galleries vs platforms and media
Formal education vs inspiration
Experience vs information
Serendipity vs efficiency and accuracy
Guiding principles for digital content:
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Findable: where people are and where they look
Meaningful: people can understand it
Responsive: to people’s interests and location
Usable/shareable: people can pass it on and share it (eg Creative Commons)
Available: online (web), onsite (galleries), offsite (community)
Collection:
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Only 5% on public display
36% accessible in some way
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Moving beyond cataloguing as books, eg Electronic swatch book
(http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/electronicswatchbook/)
o User tagging
o Search individual swatches by colour
Collection has become more well-known and significant due to accessibility
Open access: data can be used in new ways
Data improvement prioritised by popularity with users
Collection API launched in October 2010
‘Post Web Accord’
1. Exhibition for experience
2. Web for data cloud surrounding objects
Collection search now accounts for 50% of web traffic, up from 8% in 2006
Growing requests for private tours of the collection, after discovering items online
Features:
o Social tagging
o ‘Did you mean?’ with recommendations
o Accompanying data such as significance, similar objects, lots of images
o Data is open licensed (Creative Commons)
o Incomplete records also available
Use:
o Users’ search terms were different to those expected
o Measure the most cut-and-pasted sections of text to make those parts easier to find
o Looking at linking all people mentioned in records to Trove records
Encouraging interaction and participation:
o Eg Museum metadata games website (http://museumgam.es/) involves tagging and
adding descriptors
o Eg Sepiatown (http://www.sepiatown.com/) has led to new types of metadata such
as compass headings
o Photo collection added to Flickr
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/)
 Makes it easier to access, not just for formal researchers
 User tags added on Flickr have been added to the collection catalogue
o Mobile:
 have explored using QR codes and short URLs to signs on physical collection,
linking to records on website
 app to scan environment and display related photos (augmented reality)
 China Heart (http://www.chinaheart.org.au/) location-based game
Challenges:
o Managing visitor expectations
o Promoting and scaffolding new ways of engaging with the museum
o Focusing on user experience and context rather than the technologies themselves
o Changing the Museum’s ‘DNA’ to have an ongoing relationship with users, rather
than a one-off experience
o Transforming content
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Understanding constant change and investing in people
Customer Service Excellence in the Self-Service Library
(Attended by Amy Croft)
This project explored the impact of self-service options on customer service in selected public
libraries. It is a result of the State Library of Victoria Shared Leadership Program, developing
leadership skills by collaborating on action-learning projects.
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Self-service: empowering users and freeing up staff for value-added services
Value-added services: anything beyond the expected services
Used case studies of various libraries:
o Brisbane City Council Library
 Used a ‘payback system’: identified hours saved (25 per week) which were
used for extra services at branches and extended hours
o Sutton Library in the UK
 Invest in technology to save on staff
 Advantages: extended hours, shorter queues
o Seattle Public Library in the US
 Aim to reduce staff workload and OHS issues
 Created 2 new positions
 Advantage: much greater service to patrons, inc. more time with reference
enquiries
o SengKang Library in Singapore (completely self-service)
 Aim to reduce queues etc
 No programs
 Disadvantages: high loss of material, complaints about noise
Benefits:
o Reduced OHS risks of RSI and other manual handling issues
o Greater privacy for borrowers
o Shorter queues
o More staff time for value-added services
Important to measure qualitative aspects – service quality
Measured this using 7 key attributes of customer service excellence (Arden and Edwards) as
a framework
o Reliability: eg functionality, speed, maintaining service standards
o Communication: staff communication and training essential when introducing new
services
o Competence: in value-added services, eg efficient reference services etc
o Responsiveness: change to respond to community demands, eg using relevant
technologies or services such as roving assistance
o Understanding the customer: real vs perceived needs
o Accessibility: eg extended opening hours, online resources
o Staffing: providing a good user experience, approachable and love what they do
Found a mixture of self-service elements with traditional assisted service to be best
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Eg combination workstations to offer the choice of self-service or assistance
Evaluating Web 2.0 tools
(Attended by Amy Croft)
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82% more time spent on social networking sites than one year ago
In Australia more than 7 hours per month (Nielsen July 2010)
80% of community social engagement happens elsewhere than where the content
originated
This study started with the Learning 2.0 program (23 Things) adapted for NSW public
libraries (familiarising library staff with using common Web 2.0 technologies)
Follow-up survey found limited planning for use of Web 2.0 tools
Lack of planning can affect sustainability
Current evaluation via comments, client feedback, site visits, visitor posts, views of specific
content
Newer ‘Library 2.1’ program includes evaluation tools
Flickr used to:
o Record events
o Promote services
o Promote collection
o Provide access
o Share knowledge
o Get user knowledge, such as tagging
Most libraries unable to provide statistics on visits to their Flickr site
Necessary to evaluate to demonstrate usefulness
Evaluation examples and tools:
o Eg a wiki about reference excellence
(http://wiki.libraries.nsw.gov.au/index.php/Reference_excellence): Google Analytics
used to evaluate and determine if it is reaching the intended audience
o Google Analytics: good for the ‘big picture’
o Manyeyes: data visualization tool
o Google Alerts or Social Mention: to grab ‘blog cuttings’ about an event or exhibition
o TwapperKeeper or Tweetstats: to measure patterns in tweets
Need to measure impact to successfully manage social media
Be clear about what you want to achieve and how you will measure success
Not just statistics, gather data to tell the stories behind the numbers
Student Engagement and Retention: What does Library Use Tell Us?
(Attended by Amy Croft)
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Study conducted at Curtin University, Semester 1 2010 to explore the questions:
o Is there an association between library use and student retention?
o Do factors such as age and socio-economic status (SES) affect library use?
Engagement: using library resources and space, including:
o Borrowing
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o Login to library workstations
o Remote login to library resources
Retention: continuing and completing studies
Data gathered from:
o Student records database
o Library management system
o SEIFA index (ABS): SES (high/medium/low) of postcodes
Data analysed with Excel and SPSS
Sample size 4661 (local students with SES data)
Mature age students withdraw at a slightly higher rate
No SES impact found, but only a small low SES cohort in sample
Measured extent of library use:
o Items borrowed (loans)
o Logins to library workstations (PC logins)
o Logins to catalogue, databases, metasearch, eReserve (other logins)
High SES: low/no use of library workstations
Low SES: higher use of library workstations
Borrowing a low priority for all students
Mature age: more borrowing, fewer logins to workstations
Retained students use library resources and workstations more.
Future research:
o longitudinal studies, broken down by cohort
o more data for library managers
o increasing the library’s contribution to encouraging student engagement
o all areas of the university promoting the library as part of the support system for
students
Keynote address: Digital Libraries: The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes
Sarah Houghton-Jan, Digital Futures Manager, San Jose Public Library, USA
(Attended by Suzanne Munro)
In the current environment where there is an overwhelming amount of information. The question
was raised : Digital libraries – where do they fit in?
Technology use as revealed in statistics from ABS indicates that Australia is ahead of the US in the
use of technology. There is an increase in mobile activity, and services from this activity is the way of
the future. Vendors are not geared for this.
80.1% of Australians are registered internet users. Big users of social network sites : 90% social
network, 63% Facebook, 23% Twitter. Facebook is the 2nd most visited site after Google by 18-24
year olds. 11% of visits to all other websites come from links on Facebook. 43% Australians own a
smartphone. 73% run web searches, 18% use Twitter on mobile, 18% use YouTube.
Devices : touch screens, laptop with smartphone attached to the back of the pc, internet TV. Where
is the Library’s role? 3D gaming programs, 3D video, downloading vs streaming. Who owns your
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data? Library can be educational regarding some of these issues. The challenge of digital
proliferation is an opportunity for us.
Collections
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Digital vs physical
Budget choices
Selection process
Access when closed
Explosion in technology use.
User awareness
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Formats
Rights management
Owning and leasing
Device support
Digitize local format. Support more than text.
Library catalogues – no innovation in last 5 years. Library websites – what can we cut out? Focus on
function.
Local history tours. Genealogy – living history. Computing spaces, technical support, ergonomic
seating.
Key points:
Community advocacy, Freedom of information, Expert research help, personal privacy.
Location, location, location! Meeting students where they seek information
(Attended by Suzanne Munro)
This paper addressed issues relating to the specialised Language Library at the University of Sydney,
with the theme ‘Meeting students where they seek information’. The new generation of library users
are very technologically savvy. They are not coming to the library but using the library from
elsewhere. There is less physical presence to discuss their library needs.
Mature age students are Generation Y (net generation) – 1979-2002. Large number of librarians are
from the Baby Boomers generation – median age = 47.
The Language Library is a ‘blended library’. There are a lot of languages taught. Physical collection
comprising books, CDs, DVDs, cassettes, satellite TV, computers, etc. Can’t have all materials online.
Now use a lot of authentic materials which have copyright problems. AV is on site access – can’t
copy onto their devices. Permission letters required for AV materials to be copied to the server.
The ‘blended librarian” – new virtual resources, Library website with bookmarks, Facebook with link
to Library page. The language library has piloted the use of Facebook and a blog to promote it’s
language resources, digital, audio-visual and printed.
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Students use the Facebook page when it is used as a one-way information sharing tool. Students
generally do not approve of lecturers using Facebook to interact with students. The Facebook page
has 231 fans, 76% are from the University of Sydney. The outcome of the survey was favourable to
promote library resources.
Learn to Play the Game—Play the Game to Learn
(Attended by Suzanne Munro)
David Di Muro pointed out the he was not a librarian, but has an IT background. He has been
impressed by what the librarians do at UNSW Library. Information Literacy is important, however
patrons in general don’t care, have a false sense of success, patrons don’t want to help, they want
answers, this is not new. (Atkinson 1997). Web-based IL tutorials do not offer appropriate
environment to develop research skills, including critical thinking. Patron is only able to learn when
they are willing to learn.
Why games? Game design theory – about instilling research skills – learning from another industry.
Intelligent interface design, examples Pacman, Sonic. Some common elements:
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reduce obstacles from goal clearly identified adjustable difficulty or complexity.
Integrated tutorials and learning objects
Customisable, context-sensitive interface
Searchfirst (ExLibris)
Moving forward:
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Explore the game industry.
Not another Library class! Information skills for web generation students
(Attended by Suzanne Munro)
Core of services for students are information and research skills. At University of Sydney there are
about 49,000 students and 45 Faculty Liaison Librarians.
The new generation of students are tech-savvy. They are very busy often working, and studying.
They are diverse in cultural backgrounds. They are using Wed 2.0 services such as Facebook, Twitter,
and YouTube.
The University of Sydney Library has a Facebook page
iResearch : information skills for life.
Funded Project over four years, to design a framework for online information literacy resources.
Specialist staffing, Project Manager (2 years), Project Coordinator/Designer, student programmers,
testers and actors.
iResearch project aims
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Enrich students’ learning
Document standards
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Sustainable model
Resource development process:
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Analysis
Outline development
Content development
Production
Implementation
Evaluation
A collaborative process, many methods, hire of experts – student developers. The Engaging
resources are available through the University of Sydney Library website, e.g. What is Endnote? Find
that Book, How to reference, etc.
http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/skills/
The evaluation process included a pre-quiz, a post quiz, questionnaire, a feedback form.
The Library is willing to share these resources. See iResearch website for more information. There is
a lot of interest – local and overseas. Contact them if you want to use.
Learning to freely share: Mandates and Open Access
(Attended by Suzanne Munro)
Online open access (OA) to research publications, that is free. Gold OA – publishing in open access
journals, Green OA – self-archiving.
Why open access?
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Research builds on what has come before
Increases visibility of their research via Google
Need for a change in scholarly publishing. OA repositories. OA is not practised by all researchers all
the time. This paper reported on research conducted as part of a PhD study in 2 Australian
universities. One university had an institutional mandate (policy) to encourage open access and the
other did not. Each university approached their program differently. The institution with the
mandate had a far greater proportion of its research output in its repository, the researchers and
authors were engaged with the process of OA.
Playing with readers: online games and their potential for reference and readers
advisory services in public libraries
(Attended by Suzanne Munro)
This paper looked at online games as a way of providing readers advisory services online. A few
libraries overseas have developed their own games as resource discovery tools. Museums are
leading the way with games to help people understand exhibitions. Some of the games could be
adapted for use in public libraries e.g. local studies, walking tours. Collection items could be used as
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part of the game. Historical photos can be imposed over street views. The game format appeals to
some.
Some examples : The Viking game (Denmark) educates people about the Vikings, the History of
Singapore, Powerhouse Museum – China Heart.
Revolutionising the library’s OPAC
(Attended by Suzanne Munro)
Yarra Plenty Regional Library implemented a discovery layer for their catalogue which is fully
integrated into the Library’s website, and replaces all OPAC functionality, complements the MARC
record. Technical benefits and reduces staff time. Has links to Facebook and Twitter.
http://www.yprl.vic.gov.au/
Yarra Plenty was the first to do this. They worked with a Canadian company. There were privacy
concerns, and concerns about inappropriate content. 9,000 people registered in the first month.
‘MANGO Languages’ purchased.
Boopsie for Libraries is a mobile application for Smartphones.
http://www.boopsie2.com/libraries.html
Does participation equate to engagement?
(Attended by Suzanne Munro)
This paper discussed a project at SLQ which measured the effect of participation in Web 2.0
technologies. The design and implementation of online Web 2.0 learning program for the public of
Qld in 2010. The program was titled Looking@2.0, posted on SLQ website. There were 8 modules
which could be completed in your own time. There were internet safety tips in each module. The
survey generated most participation from local libraries. The majority of respondents were female
above 35 years of age. They were asked what could be improved. One comment was that there was
too much video and that there should be more text for those who could not access video.
Ebook readers: separating the hype from reality
(Attended by Suzanne Munro)
QUT Library has a policy of preference for e-book format over print. In 2010 QUT had 180,000 ebooks. In response to a e-book survey 80% of the respondents agreed to e-books. QUT looking for ebook reader that they can lend to students.
E-book reader trial looked at:
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E-readers suitable to lend to staff.
Which ones to trial?
Evaluated in no. of areas
E-books evaluated : Apple iPad, iphone, Kindle, CyBook Opus, ECO Reader, Kobo
Evaluation by 2 student focus groups : 4 students + 2 note takers in each group
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Ranked readers out of 5.
Usability.
Kobo – the lightest (trend towards lighter)
E-ink e-book readers – these don’t have glare (as do Apple devices)
Kindle and Cybook Opus – OK
Button menu v Touch screen layout – touch screen preferred
Kindle has an inbuilt Oxford Dictionary – most don’t have dictionaries
Kindle has 3G wireless, most others don’t. Apple devices have wireless capability
Read aloud devices for vision impaired students
Digital Rights Management
Adobe digital editions
Kindle does not support Adobe DRM editions
Student focus groups :
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E-book readers light and easy to hold
OK for text, but not good for images & diagrams
Different navigation
Prefer Kindle over other e-ink e-books
No e-book readers scored highly. No perfect e-book reader for academic library
iPads would be popular – would have to purchase
Compatability with library collections is an important criteria
iPad – can download but not for long periods
Sony have a new ebook reader which looks the best – has a touch screen
Closing panel: Doing More with Less
(Attended by Suzanne Munro)
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Panel did not like this phrase as it is not a matter of doing more with less but doing things
differently.
How are we coping with smaller budgets?
What are we doing that is innovative?
Are we using more open source instruments?
What does it mean for our profession? Do we need to enhance our technical skills?
How will this affect our client base?
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Budget cuts – do things differently – must not forget the emotional distress that comes with
change.
What do your clients want?
Marketing ourselves. Librarians very diverse.
The word ‘library’ is not mentioned in any of the ‘library’ courses in Australia.
Reports on exhibitions and vendor presentations
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The exhibitions were one of the best parts of the Conference. However by the last day of the
Conference most of the exhibitors were winding down and packing up. I did not attend any
of the vendor presentations. (Suzanne Munro)
Several contacts with vendors were established. Updated data on information retrieval
products/strategies will be regularly sent to Sydney library staff. (Helen Naman)
EBSCOhost database training will be provided by EBSCO Publishing representative
sometimes in March 2011. [Luke McKeown Regional Sales Manager EBSCO Publishing 51
Stephenson Street Richmond VIC 3121 Australia p. +61 (0)3 9276 1777 m. 0400 948 126 f.
+61 (0)3 9421 3150 e. lmckeown@ebscohost.com w. www.ebscohost. (Helen Naman)
There were some useful vendor presentations (notes below), and the Bibliotecha stand was
very interesting as they demonstrated how RFID can be used for self-service checkouts and
returns, as well as for shelf-reading and stocktake. This technology would definitely allow for
more effective use of staff in our library. (Amy Croft)
Vendor presentation: Summon
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Generation Y want to be self-sufficient and anonymous
o Don’t want to ask questions
o Used to Google and want all searching to work the same way, including the library
Problems with libraries:
o No clear starting point
o Difficulty identifying appropriate resources
o General lack of awareness of resources
o Value gap between expenditure on resources and use
Summon is not federated search
Can search without authentication, don’t need to login until click-thru
o Eg University of Sydney: http://usyd.summon.serialssolutions.com/
o Unified results set
o Preview abstracts
o Merges results and removes duplicates
o Mobile
Vendor presentation: Wiley Online Library
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History: started as Wiley Interscience, then integrated Blackwell Synergy, now Wiley Online
Library
Features:
o “jump-to” menus
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Expandable references with ability to click-thru
Customisable subject pages
Vendor presentation: ACS Publications
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New titles with high impact factors
ACS Symposium series
Individually indexed book chapters
Chemical and Engineering News archives via subscription or one-off payment
ACS Mobile, now on iPad
Web usage report card
Reflections on the conference and relevance to current position
Amy Croft
I found the conference useful – although one of the most interesting-sounding presentations ran out
of time for their conclusions (eg. Customer service excellence in the self-service library). Fortunately
the paper and presentation are now online. I found the presentation How to write a paper in 140
characters or less: Social media for professional development really interesting, and it prompted me
to create a Twitter account and start to develop my own Personal Learning Network (PLN).
Connie Pan
The library conference is wonderful. From the speakers and exhibition, I know what the new
technology is using in the information world. What kind of new services are other libraries doing?
It’s really useful for us to obtain new professional knowledge and ideas to improve our library
services.
Helen Naman
The Conference/Exhibition is very good opportunity to upgrade our knowledge as information
professionals. One of many outcomes: EBSCOhost database training will be provided by EBSCO
Publishing representative sometimes in March 2011.
Suzanne Munro
The Conference was good. It gives a bigger picture of what is happening in the information world,
e.g. new technologies and how they may be used, how other libraries are doing things, innovations,
etc. The exhibition is very good. There is an opportunity to network with colleagues in the industry,
and to hear presentations from overseas guest speakers.
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