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Review/Notes – “Behind the Point-and-Click Discovery Tool: Integrating Critical Thinking in Finding Resources”

Rob Hallis presenting on Behind the Point-and-Click Discovery Tool: Integrating Critical Thinking in Finding Resources

History of discovery: silos of databases to federated searching to “pushed suggestions”. Pulled data = what you “pull” from a system; Pushed data = what a system (like Amazon) “pushes” at you. Is critical thinking an “autonomous activity?” I don’t think so! Move from a bibliographic paradigm to a constructive process where there is uncertainty and confusion. He is using “Seeking Meaning: A process approach to Library and Information Science” by Kuhthau. (http://vufind.carli.illinois.edu/all/vf-npu/Record/2557683).

Questions/Thoughts unrelated to the main presentation:

  • Do we really know enough about how students think/learn through online searching in any form (OPAC, database, discovery)?
  • He uses this metaphor for searching for information resources: online shopping. You know what you want and where to look – but you don’t click the first thing. You shop around. Is this a good metaphor? What’s a better metaphor/image to use?
  • These presentations are really demonstrating the huge range of what falls under library “instruction” – from simple multiple choice tutorials to walking through a very complicated search processes. I wonder if that’s even a meaningful term at some point. How involved in the thesis creation process are libraries/librarians? It seems like this presenter portrays libraries as very active in the thesis/research process from the very beginning…but is that the case at our institutions? That seems like the role of the classroom professor.
  • Many presenters use the passive voice or at least speak passively when talking about Discovery Services. For example, “the resources that the discovery services provide” instead of “discovery services provide resources.” I wonder what this reflects – a mistrust of discovery? A lack of understanding of what discovery layers do or how they actually work? Or is this verbiage trying to focus on the actions of the user over the actions of the discovery service?
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Review/Notes – “How Discovery Services Tie into University Missions”

Dana Belcher from East Central University presenting on “How Discovery Services Tie into University Missions.”

Why discovery? Lots of reasons! Foster a learning environment, educate students, keep up with changes in society. These resources are tied to the University’s missions statement. Moved the library webpages totally to LibGuides; a positive change. Selected EBSCO discovery because they already had a lot of EBSCO products and the price is right. Make sure you understand 100% of the products/services offered! They created a profile for each major/area to customize a database list. After that, they worked with EBSCO to better define the limiters and facets – especially making changes to better meet user needs. Instruction is focused on limiting/faceting a search instead of “choose this database” type instruction.

Advice:

  • Communicate with vendor – make sure you understand 100% of services, make sure your catalog loading is correct.
  • Communicate with library staff – make sure the terminology is shared, have a way to report problems.
  • It’s more work for you – be prepared.

Focus on meeting the needs of the University and the needs of students. Everything is tied to the strategic plan for the library.

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Review/Notes – “Discovering Discovery”

Krista Ramirez from Southeastern University (http://www.se.edu/library/) presented ways her library changed instruction based on discovery services.

Students did not understand that these boxes on the homepage are different – taking time away from discovery. She used the captivate software to create a  “flipped classroom” to make sure students come to instruction with certain skills. These lessons were made of 5 different lessons: an overview and one per tab. There was a need to update to make sure that the objects are mobile compliant. Assessment is done via a trivia game that loads answers right into learning management system. “Users don’t understand the differences between the searches” – there is a fine line between instruction and blaming the user.

The library instruction is pretty deeply embedded in their learning management system (Blackboard) which provides immediate feedback to the user and the instructor. It seems like Captivate can integrate with Moodle. This presentation was fine…but was really focused on creating digital learning objects via Captivate than on discovery.

Why an astronaut? A space shuttle named "Discovery" and it's the "final frontier!"
Why an astronaut? A space shuttle named “Discovery” and it’s the “final frontier!”
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“This is how I study”

Just wanted to jot down an idea and try to fill out in a semi-public space.

I’ve been thinking a bit about library instruction, social media, and creating a learning culture at North Park. One idea – based deeply on lifehacker posts “How I work” – is for North Park to try and create a “This is how I study” video series. I think it would be awesome for the following reasons:

  • Would allow and encourage peer to peer instruction.
  • Would create content for our social media campaigns.
  • Would allow librarians to do instruction on a personal basis as well as on make that content available to a wider audience.
  • It would be interesting! Do students listen to music? Work in the library or their apartment?
  • I would imagine these stories (videos? webpages?) could be linked from social media as well as embeded in libguides.
  • I wonder if it could fit in existing structures (like the writing center, tutoring program, or capstone classes) or whether it would be separate.

That’s my emerging idea. Will run it by some people here at North Park to see what people think.

Edit: This idea is also very similar to the ACRL’s recurring post “Memeber of the Week”

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Review – “What is a Data-Driven Academic Library”

Last week, I watched the webinar entitled “What is a data-driven academic library?” hosted by Library Journal and really, really enjoyed it. Like, best webinar ever.

I was too engrossed in the content (and busy tweeting the event) to take comprehensive notes. But here are some of my notes from the webinar as well as later reflections.

To be data driven means to use data to drive change.

I feel like this is the core of the presentation. To be data driven means to use the data libraries and library systems collect to drive decision making. She proposed a five part method to accomplish this goal.

1. Create Questions

All questions are good – but bigger questions might need to be broken down into smaller chucks. Good questions are ones that are answerable based on data. To me, that meant questions like “are the nursing databases meeting current needs” must be translated into questions about usage and coverage – and that we should be honest and clear about that work. She also advised to not be overly reductive and to pay attention to other factors. Lastly, she advised people to let these questions guide your research – don’t get lost in the data!

2. Create a Plan

Along with crafting questions, Tudesco suggesting creating a plan. Essentially, what data will answer your question and how will you get that data? Refine your questions and create a plan or timetable for this project.

3. Collect and Manage Data

Honestly, I feel like I usually begin my data-driven projects at this step – and my projects almost always suffer because of this! My workflow usually begins with “What can I do with this data?” rather than the more important “How can this data help me make a decision?”. Allowing the question and project drive the data needs – and not the other way around – is a very valuable lesson I will take from this webinar.

She was also clear that sometimes the data you want/need doesn’t exist and that perhaps you need to create a tool to gather that data. Whether than means a survey or structured observations will be guided by the question

4. Analyze the Data

Again, this methodology focused on using the data to make a decision. This data analysis will bring together a lot of information – perhaps from different sources and with different nuances – and this will require interpretation and analysis to make sense of this. More on this later.

5. Make a Decision

This is where all that data matters! It’s very basic but it’s worth repeating – Data Driven libraries use data to drive decisions.

What Skills and Tools are Needed?

Tudesco mentioned three core skills library staff need to truly embrace the data movement and mentioned several tools under each area. This section also provided my favorite quote – one near and dear to my heart!

I’m trying to remember what she presented the best I can while also taking the liberty to add my own skills and tools to this list. This is a work in progress and will likely add more in the future.

Data Capture

  • Programming and database skills (SQL, etc.)
  • Circulation
  • Business domain knowledge
  • COUNTER reports and SUSHI protocols
  • Designing and implementing surveys

Data Analysis

Presentation

  • Visualization
  • Storytelling
  • Raw

Overall, this was a wonderful and timely webinar. I will do my best to take the lessons and tips to heart and structure all future data project in light of what this presentation taught me.

Here is the link to the webinar – I believe that if you register you will get archived access to webinar so you can watch it yourself!