Reference Librarian Intern
Hartwick College Stevens-German Library
This is an abridged version of my practicum report given to my advisor at the completion of my formal internship.
Supervisors:
Peter Riessler, Head of Public Services
Rebekah Ambrose-Dalton, Archivist
Paul Coleman, Library Director
Introduction
My practicum at Hartwick College entailed working with various departments and focusing on a few major projects: (starred by time spent):
****Designed LibGuide for Indian Ocean World, 1300-1800 first-year seminar
****Provided research assistance for Dr. Robert Benson
****Created basic overview video for EBSCO Discovery Service
***Updated broken URL's on General Web Links page and suggested additional links and changes to layout design
***Learned Illiad
**Instructed Rebekah on how to use PowerPoint to make video presentations
**Attended Information Literacy presentation, Bloomberg Financial, & EBSCO meetings
*Analyzed Project SAILS data
*Assisted with Circulation
*Checked MARC records for changes
*Created form for students to hand in to professors after visiting the library
*Helped create brief survey after Information Literacy Presentation
-- LibGuide for First-Year Seminar: Indian Ocean World, 1300-1800, Dr. Cherilyn Lacy, Chair and Professor of History
As I had never used LibGuides before, I was eager to learn the interface (I have created webpage-based Pathfinders). I was not as impressed as I thought I would be. While there is some level of customization, it is not to the degree I would have liked.
However, that is only a minor, subjective criticism on the aesthetics. Functionally, the interface was fine with one exception: The only major problem was the nested page feature. The LibGuide topic was diverse and required many tabs:
Home
Indian Ocean World Trade & Civilization
Islam
Delhi Sultanate & Mamluks
Maritime Kingdoms of Malabar Coast
Melaka (Malacca)
Ming & Qing Dynasties
Mughal Empire
Ottoman Empire
Swahili Coast
Vijayanagara
For each topic, I included the following:
Quick Reference Books
Subject Headings Journal Articles
Keywords
Web Resources
I had originally wanted to keep the information on each page to a level where copious amounts of scrolling would not be necessary. To do this, I wanted to nest tabs (i.e. a “Books” page under “Islam”, a “Books” page under “Ottoman Empire”, etc). However, when I started to set it up, I realized it was very difficult to discern that there were other pages nested in the tab. I requested another librarian to view the LibGuide and tell me how many pages were in the guide. He did not understand that there were nested pages. The only indication that other pages exist is a very small “v” next to the tab heading. As a result of this, I had to include all sub-headings on each page, which initially looked crowded and would require a lot of scrolling to view all the information. I solved this problem by hyperlinking book and journal article titles rather than posting the URL separately, thereby condensing space.
One of my favorite parts about being a librarian is the lifelong-learning element: as I created the LibGuide, I learned about the civilizations of ancient India and Africa, a topic I would not have necessarily researched on my own. The project also got me thinking about ways to get students to understand how the information could be used for future research. Therefore, I included sections detailing how to do a Boolean Search using the course topic as example, the difference between subject headings and keywords, and which databases were best for historical research. Seeing how some students, especially freshmen, might find journal articles and scholarly books dry (I know I did as an undergraduate), I also included “Quick Reference” and “Web Resources” sections to make the subject easily accessible (these were taken from encyclopedia entries and mainly academic or government websites as well as specialized non-profit websites).
During the course of designing the LibGuide, I was given my own LibGuides account. As I had been using Rebekah’s account, the LibGuide was on her account, not mine. This required having to transfer the original LibGuide over to the new account, which familiarized me even more with the software. I learned how to copy an existing LibGuide, how to move and copy boxes, how to reuse hyperlinks, and so on. Ultimately, learning this saved a lot of time and will no doubt be useful during the creation of future LibGuides.
--Research assistance for Dr. Robert Benson, Professor of English and Director of Writing
Bob’s research was challenging in that the subject was broad in scope (issues with American and Canadian native youth in subjects such as medicine, child welfare policy, urbanization, etc.) yet many articles focused on narrow topics such as diabetes, or geographic locations such as the northeast.
After receiving an invitation from Rebekah to assist with the research, I was given the research topic and proceeded to do some preliminary research. This turned out to be a good idea as Bob found the articles useful and was able to further narrow down the topic from the articles provided. During the initial meeting, we were provided with the Oxford Bibliography instructions, including restrictions on length (this restricted the results to articles over 10 pages in length, which was a challenge as most articles on the subject averaged between five and eight pages).
One major obstacle to the research was a problem with the ERIC database. Some time ago, ERIC discovered personally identifiable information in their database and so removed all information prior to 2005. Many of the results found were from the ERIC database and older than 2005. This was very frustrating for Bob as many of those articles would have otherwise been relevant. He had the option of requesting certain articles, but there was no guarantee they would be released and if so, when.
Over the course of the research, the scope and topic evolved:
1) educational issues and policy for Native American/Canadian youth;
2) medical issues and policy;
3) impact of the Royal Commission’s Report on Aboriginal Peoples in Canada after 1996;
4) journal titles that cover Native American/Canadian educational and child welfare issues
I suggested the best way for Rebekah, Bob, and I to collaborate would be to use Google Drive Documents so that articles could be added over time with Bob suggesting the direction of the research. After instructing them on how to use the software, it worked quite well, especially as the subject criteria shifted. It allowed Bob to highlight what did or did not work for each article as it was provided.
In the end, he was pleased with the assistance provided, he learned how to use Google Drive, and how to find the information he needed by using a combination of subject headings, keywords, limiters, and specific databases such as Academic Search Premier as well as the library’s less-powerful federated search, EBSCO Discovery Service.
--EBSCO Meeting
The first meeting was to evaluate a new EBSCO product: the eBook Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) service. The staff went through the process of choosing and checking out an eBook. Multiple problems arose. First, the checked-out e-books would only remain checked-out for a few minutes before returning the error message “No Valid License”. Secondly, the EBSCO-based folder that lists all the items checked-out to a user does not show the correct number (listed five check-out titles when only four showed up). Thirdly, multiple user accounts are required to check out a title from EBSCO, even when using a Hartwick-based user account (also, users need to login each time they want to check out a title). Lastly, eBooks cannot be previewed through the mobile interface. As a result, the patron would need to download the entire book - check it out, in essence - in order to preview it at all. The staff found this quite irritating. Since I was not familiar with the PDA service, I asked about how it worked.
There are two forms of the PDA service:
1 - EBSCO provides electronic titles for a small fee for a certain number of loans. If a title is checked out more than the number of loans indicated, it triggers an automatic purchase for the library.
2 - The library can set up a single user purchase PDA: If a title is previewed for more than a set amount of time (I believe this is 10 minutes), previews more than ten pages, or checks the title out (even once), an automatic trigger is purchased. (This is the current setup of the library.)
Once the title is checked out, unless the library has a multiple-user license, the effect is the same as if a physical title was checked out of the library - no one else can preview or use the title for seven days when the title is “returned”. However, there is no way to “return” the loan early.
During the meeting, I suggested that the inability to preview a title in the mobile interface could have financial consequences in that, if a student checks out a book he did not really want, and the title is automatically purchased upon checkout, the library has just purchased a title that was unnecessary. Thankfully, I learned that the service was still being tested and not yet available to the college, since, in the words of a library staff member “a student could really do some damage [to the budget]”. [In Week 5, during a meeting with EBSCO representatives, I brought this issue up and a very dubious resolution was provided: the mobile application does not have the ability to preview, so mobile users need to use the full version of the interface. My response was then regarding why someone using an e-reader or other mobile device would use the full version; why have a mobile application in the first place? And how would a mobile device user know to switch? There is nothing to tell users that some features are not available to mobile interface users. What’s to prevent them from downloading/checking out the title and triggering an unnecessary purchase? The answer: They’ll get back to us.]
--Updating Library Website
I began a project under the supervision of the Head of Reference Services, Peter Riessler, to clean up the Web Links part of the library’s website. It had not been updated in several years and many of the links were broken. I was asked to update the URL’s (on paper since I don’t have authority to alter the site) and provide suggestions for new ones. My experience in my Government Information course at UB was very helpful in this task as many of the websites I was able to suggest were government-sponsored resources, especially for international topics and statistical resources. I also learned about several resources for librarians that I was not familiar with previously, such as Bartleby.
-- PowerPoint Instruction
I was asked by Rebekah to provide instruction on how to use PowerPoint to create video presentations as she was unfamiliar with the software. I covered how to alter the design of slides, how to import graphics, animations, audio, video, and hyperlinks, inserting “action” elements (such as making the presentation interactive by including clickable elements), creating transitions, timing animations to audio, and creating special effects. Additionally, I showed her how to create and edit graphics as well as multiple ways to record and edit audio clips to later import into a presentation.
--Bloomberg Financial Meeting
I attended a library meeting with a Bloomberg Financial representative who demonstrated how libraries are using Bloomberg terminals in their undergraduate coursework. I was incredibly confused during the presentation mainly because there was so much data on the screen. I was not the only one who felt dismayed by how “busy” the interface was on the terminal screen and wondering how students would handle it. In addition to the confusing nature of the product, staff was not convinced of the usefulness of the product as it had the limitation of only being available on vendor-provided computers. In other words, if a 30-person class showed up to use a Bloomberg terminal and there were only three terminals available, there would be long waiting times. The cost of the terminals was also prohibitive ($1,750 per terminal per month).
During our post-presentation staff meeting, I mentioned that Bloomberg Financial had been in the news recently for allegedly spying on people using the terminals. I forwarded the library director two news articles from the New York Times and Atlantic Wire regarding the issue.
--Project SAILS
I created an Excel sheet to analyze data from the Project SAILS assessment that was done earlier in the year with freshmen and seniors to measure their information literacy skills against the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) standards.
I began by asking what Rebekah needed to know from the data, which was to a) determine if information literacy skills improved during the students’ undergraduate education, and b) how they performed in each standard. Using an Excel spreadsheet, I entered the data, which contained the question number, which standard it measured, and what percentage of freshmen (and then seniors) answered the question correctly. I then calculated the difference in percentage points between freshmen and seniors. After that, I used the “averageifs” formula to pull out the data applicable to each standard and calculated the average and difference again.
I found that there was no significant improvement in the information literacy skills in seniors and that some skills, particularly in Standard 1, had actually decreased. This suggests that the information literacy program is not meeting its goals of improving students’ information literacy in accordance with ACRL standards. ACRL defines 70% as “proficient” and 85% as “mastery”. Neither threshold was met in any standard.
When attempting to share the Excel document via Google Drive, I discovered that advanced formulas such as the one I was using to analyze the data (averageifs) are not compatible with the free software. This is an interesting limitation, especially if sharing is to be done between professionals. Eventually, I saved the spreadsheet to Dropbox, although that cannot automatically be shared unless other people download the Dropbox application to their computers.
On a whim, I looked at the Project SAILS assessment questions and found something interesting - some of the questions were either poorly worded or described research strategies I would not have used. For instance, one question asked where a political science student would go to find the testimony of someone who had spoken during a congressional hearing ten days prior. I would have answered that he or she would go to the online daily congressional record (this was not listed as an option), but the correct answer chosen by Project SAILS was to check the NY Times online. At first, I thought this might be because they were undergraduate students and, if freshmen, maybe not familiar with the congressional record. However, the question specifically states that it would be for a political science course and one would think a professor would mention the congressional record as a source of information. This is a strange question because many students who are not political science majors take this assessment, and they would not necessarily know where to look for congressional information (which may or may not be conveyed to them by their professors). I think the question was poorly designed and makes me question the validity of an assessment like Project SAILS.
One problem I noted was that the questions were not given to the same group of freshmen and seniors. That is, earlier in the year, a group of freshmen and a group of seniors were given the same questions. If the goal was to determine whether skills had improved, it would be better to test the incoming freshmen this fall, then test them again before they graduate. I understand this would take time and might not be feasible, but if the information literacy program (the current one) has only been in effect for a couple of years, it stands to reason that the results of the assessment may not be accurate.
--Basic Video Overview for EBSCO Discovery Service
I offered to create a basic overview video for searching using the Discovery Service aimed at freshmen or students who had never used it before. The result was a two and a half minute video instructing viewers how to use the Discovery Service with a brief search example. I produced the video with Microsoft PowerPoint, as well as Windows Sound Recorder, Paint, and Snipping Tool. The only problem with creating the video was that, while writing the script, I kept moving into the advanced features. In order to make such a short video, the topic can’t be too detailed, yet there needs to be enough information to avoid confusing the audience.
A video for the Discovery Service will be useful, especially to freshmen, as what constitutes the Discovery Service is not readily apparent and causes quite a bit of confusion for students and faculty alike. The other feature of the video is that it is general enough to re-use in different contexts (such as LibGuides and freshmen orientation). The video was uploaded to the Indian Ocean World, 1300-1800 LibGuide as well.
--Exit Interview
On the last day, I sat down with the library director for an exit interview where we discussed the projects I have worked on, my interaction and observance of the library staff, and suggestions about how the library could be improved.
When asked specifically about the book collection, I replied that I didn’t think the environment encouraged students to browse the stacks. The books are mainly found on the second and third floors (main entrance is on the fourth floor). The third floor is inviting with paintings and spotlight lighting and comfortable seating. The second floor is akin to a warehouse. I pointed out that places that want to draw people in to use books have added amenities such as recliners, cafes, open lounge areas, and so forth. These changes make the space more inviting for patrons.
On the other hand, despite my affinity for physical volumes, I believe electronic resources are the future. I looked at Hartwick College’s Collection Development Policy and noted that acquisition was centered on electronic resources, with which I agree. The library has limited space, most of which is taken up by books. (The fourth floor is mainly an open area with computer stations, the circulation desk, reference desk, and reference area. It is two stories high and very well lit by a large set of skylights.)
However, upon further reflection after my practicum, I suggested to the Director that students may just not know about the book collection and what it offers. A project could be to provide the instructors of first-year courses a list of physical volumes that relate to their courses, to be included in their syllabi. Also, many students go to the library and browse the books without ever checking them out of the library. Those interactions would not be recorded by circulation statistics. How, then, to track that? I have been unable to come up with a solution.
[Note - I later discovered that one reason patrons are asked not to re-shelve books is for this very purpose. Unfortunately, these books are not being recorded in any statistic at the moment. Pages could record which books are being re-shelved or a handheld scanner could be used for a similar purpose.]
Supervisors:
Peter Riessler, Head of Public Services
Rebekah Ambrose-Dalton, Archivist
Paul Coleman, Library Director
Introduction
My practicum at Hartwick College entailed working with various departments and focusing on a few major projects: (starred by time spent):
****Designed LibGuide for Indian Ocean World, 1300-1800 first-year seminar
****Provided research assistance for Dr. Robert Benson
****Created basic overview video for EBSCO Discovery Service
***Updated broken URL's on General Web Links page and suggested additional links and changes to layout design
***Learned Illiad
**Instructed Rebekah on how to use PowerPoint to make video presentations
**Attended Information Literacy presentation, Bloomberg Financial, & EBSCO meetings
*Analyzed Project SAILS data
*Assisted with Circulation
*Checked MARC records for changes
*Created form for students to hand in to professors after visiting the library
*Helped create brief survey after Information Literacy Presentation
-- LibGuide for First-Year Seminar: Indian Ocean World, 1300-1800, Dr. Cherilyn Lacy, Chair and Professor of History
As I had never used LibGuides before, I was eager to learn the interface (I have created webpage-based Pathfinders). I was not as impressed as I thought I would be. While there is some level of customization, it is not to the degree I would have liked.
However, that is only a minor, subjective criticism on the aesthetics. Functionally, the interface was fine with one exception: The only major problem was the nested page feature. The LibGuide topic was diverse and required many tabs:
Home
Indian Ocean World Trade & Civilization
Islam
Delhi Sultanate & Mamluks
Maritime Kingdoms of Malabar Coast
Melaka (Malacca)
Ming & Qing Dynasties
Mughal Empire
Ottoman Empire
Swahili Coast
Vijayanagara
For each topic, I included the following:
Quick Reference Books
Subject Headings Journal Articles
Keywords
Web Resources
I had originally wanted to keep the information on each page to a level where copious amounts of scrolling would not be necessary. To do this, I wanted to nest tabs (i.e. a “Books” page under “Islam”, a “Books” page under “Ottoman Empire”, etc). However, when I started to set it up, I realized it was very difficult to discern that there were other pages nested in the tab. I requested another librarian to view the LibGuide and tell me how many pages were in the guide. He did not understand that there were nested pages. The only indication that other pages exist is a very small “v” next to the tab heading. As a result of this, I had to include all sub-headings on each page, which initially looked crowded and would require a lot of scrolling to view all the information. I solved this problem by hyperlinking book and journal article titles rather than posting the URL separately, thereby condensing space.
One of my favorite parts about being a librarian is the lifelong-learning element: as I created the LibGuide, I learned about the civilizations of ancient India and Africa, a topic I would not have necessarily researched on my own. The project also got me thinking about ways to get students to understand how the information could be used for future research. Therefore, I included sections detailing how to do a Boolean Search using the course topic as example, the difference between subject headings and keywords, and which databases were best for historical research. Seeing how some students, especially freshmen, might find journal articles and scholarly books dry (I know I did as an undergraduate), I also included “Quick Reference” and “Web Resources” sections to make the subject easily accessible (these were taken from encyclopedia entries and mainly academic or government websites as well as specialized non-profit websites).
During the course of designing the LibGuide, I was given my own LibGuides account. As I had been using Rebekah’s account, the LibGuide was on her account, not mine. This required having to transfer the original LibGuide over to the new account, which familiarized me even more with the software. I learned how to copy an existing LibGuide, how to move and copy boxes, how to reuse hyperlinks, and so on. Ultimately, learning this saved a lot of time and will no doubt be useful during the creation of future LibGuides.
--Research assistance for Dr. Robert Benson, Professor of English and Director of Writing
Bob’s research was challenging in that the subject was broad in scope (issues with American and Canadian native youth in subjects such as medicine, child welfare policy, urbanization, etc.) yet many articles focused on narrow topics such as diabetes, or geographic locations such as the northeast.
After receiving an invitation from Rebekah to assist with the research, I was given the research topic and proceeded to do some preliminary research. This turned out to be a good idea as Bob found the articles useful and was able to further narrow down the topic from the articles provided. During the initial meeting, we were provided with the Oxford Bibliography instructions, including restrictions on length (this restricted the results to articles over 10 pages in length, which was a challenge as most articles on the subject averaged between five and eight pages).
One major obstacle to the research was a problem with the ERIC database. Some time ago, ERIC discovered personally identifiable information in their database and so removed all information prior to 2005. Many of the results found were from the ERIC database and older than 2005. This was very frustrating for Bob as many of those articles would have otherwise been relevant. He had the option of requesting certain articles, but there was no guarantee they would be released and if so, when.
Over the course of the research, the scope and topic evolved:
1) educational issues and policy for Native American/Canadian youth;
2) medical issues and policy;
3) impact of the Royal Commission’s Report on Aboriginal Peoples in Canada after 1996;
4) journal titles that cover Native American/Canadian educational and child welfare issues
I suggested the best way for Rebekah, Bob, and I to collaborate would be to use Google Drive Documents so that articles could be added over time with Bob suggesting the direction of the research. After instructing them on how to use the software, it worked quite well, especially as the subject criteria shifted. It allowed Bob to highlight what did or did not work for each article as it was provided.
In the end, he was pleased with the assistance provided, he learned how to use Google Drive, and how to find the information he needed by using a combination of subject headings, keywords, limiters, and specific databases such as Academic Search Premier as well as the library’s less-powerful federated search, EBSCO Discovery Service.
--EBSCO Meeting
The first meeting was to evaluate a new EBSCO product: the eBook Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) service. The staff went through the process of choosing and checking out an eBook. Multiple problems arose. First, the checked-out e-books would only remain checked-out for a few minutes before returning the error message “No Valid License”. Secondly, the EBSCO-based folder that lists all the items checked-out to a user does not show the correct number (listed five check-out titles when only four showed up). Thirdly, multiple user accounts are required to check out a title from EBSCO, even when using a Hartwick-based user account (also, users need to login each time they want to check out a title). Lastly, eBooks cannot be previewed through the mobile interface. As a result, the patron would need to download the entire book - check it out, in essence - in order to preview it at all. The staff found this quite irritating. Since I was not familiar with the PDA service, I asked about how it worked.
There are two forms of the PDA service:
1 - EBSCO provides electronic titles for a small fee for a certain number of loans. If a title is checked out more than the number of loans indicated, it triggers an automatic purchase for the library.
2 - The library can set up a single user purchase PDA: If a title is previewed for more than a set amount of time (I believe this is 10 minutes), previews more than ten pages, or checks the title out (even once), an automatic trigger is purchased. (This is the current setup of the library.)
Once the title is checked out, unless the library has a multiple-user license, the effect is the same as if a physical title was checked out of the library - no one else can preview or use the title for seven days when the title is “returned”. However, there is no way to “return” the loan early.
During the meeting, I suggested that the inability to preview a title in the mobile interface could have financial consequences in that, if a student checks out a book he did not really want, and the title is automatically purchased upon checkout, the library has just purchased a title that was unnecessary. Thankfully, I learned that the service was still being tested and not yet available to the college, since, in the words of a library staff member “a student could really do some damage [to the budget]”. [In Week 5, during a meeting with EBSCO representatives, I brought this issue up and a very dubious resolution was provided: the mobile application does not have the ability to preview, so mobile users need to use the full version of the interface. My response was then regarding why someone using an e-reader or other mobile device would use the full version; why have a mobile application in the first place? And how would a mobile device user know to switch? There is nothing to tell users that some features are not available to mobile interface users. What’s to prevent them from downloading/checking out the title and triggering an unnecessary purchase? The answer: They’ll get back to us.]
--Updating Library Website
I began a project under the supervision of the Head of Reference Services, Peter Riessler, to clean up the Web Links part of the library’s website. It had not been updated in several years and many of the links were broken. I was asked to update the URL’s (on paper since I don’t have authority to alter the site) and provide suggestions for new ones. My experience in my Government Information course at UB was very helpful in this task as many of the websites I was able to suggest were government-sponsored resources, especially for international topics and statistical resources. I also learned about several resources for librarians that I was not familiar with previously, such as Bartleby.
-- PowerPoint Instruction
I was asked by Rebekah to provide instruction on how to use PowerPoint to create video presentations as she was unfamiliar with the software. I covered how to alter the design of slides, how to import graphics, animations, audio, video, and hyperlinks, inserting “action” elements (such as making the presentation interactive by including clickable elements), creating transitions, timing animations to audio, and creating special effects. Additionally, I showed her how to create and edit graphics as well as multiple ways to record and edit audio clips to later import into a presentation.
--Bloomberg Financial Meeting
I attended a library meeting with a Bloomberg Financial representative who demonstrated how libraries are using Bloomberg terminals in their undergraduate coursework. I was incredibly confused during the presentation mainly because there was so much data on the screen. I was not the only one who felt dismayed by how “busy” the interface was on the terminal screen and wondering how students would handle it. In addition to the confusing nature of the product, staff was not convinced of the usefulness of the product as it had the limitation of only being available on vendor-provided computers. In other words, if a 30-person class showed up to use a Bloomberg terminal and there were only three terminals available, there would be long waiting times. The cost of the terminals was also prohibitive ($1,750 per terminal per month).
During our post-presentation staff meeting, I mentioned that Bloomberg Financial had been in the news recently for allegedly spying on people using the terminals. I forwarded the library director two news articles from the New York Times and Atlantic Wire regarding the issue.
--Project SAILS
I created an Excel sheet to analyze data from the Project SAILS assessment that was done earlier in the year with freshmen and seniors to measure their information literacy skills against the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) standards.
I began by asking what Rebekah needed to know from the data, which was to a) determine if information literacy skills improved during the students’ undergraduate education, and b) how they performed in each standard. Using an Excel spreadsheet, I entered the data, which contained the question number, which standard it measured, and what percentage of freshmen (and then seniors) answered the question correctly. I then calculated the difference in percentage points between freshmen and seniors. After that, I used the “averageifs” formula to pull out the data applicable to each standard and calculated the average and difference again.
I found that there was no significant improvement in the information literacy skills in seniors and that some skills, particularly in Standard 1, had actually decreased. This suggests that the information literacy program is not meeting its goals of improving students’ information literacy in accordance with ACRL standards. ACRL defines 70% as “proficient” and 85% as “mastery”. Neither threshold was met in any standard.
When attempting to share the Excel document via Google Drive, I discovered that advanced formulas such as the one I was using to analyze the data (averageifs) are not compatible with the free software. This is an interesting limitation, especially if sharing is to be done between professionals. Eventually, I saved the spreadsheet to Dropbox, although that cannot automatically be shared unless other people download the Dropbox application to their computers.
On a whim, I looked at the Project SAILS assessment questions and found something interesting - some of the questions were either poorly worded or described research strategies I would not have used. For instance, one question asked where a political science student would go to find the testimony of someone who had spoken during a congressional hearing ten days prior. I would have answered that he or she would go to the online daily congressional record (this was not listed as an option), but the correct answer chosen by Project SAILS was to check the NY Times online. At first, I thought this might be because they were undergraduate students and, if freshmen, maybe not familiar with the congressional record. However, the question specifically states that it would be for a political science course and one would think a professor would mention the congressional record as a source of information. This is a strange question because many students who are not political science majors take this assessment, and they would not necessarily know where to look for congressional information (which may or may not be conveyed to them by their professors). I think the question was poorly designed and makes me question the validity of an assessment like Project SAILS.
One problem I noted was that the questions were not given to the same group of freshmen and seniors. That is, earlier in the year, a group of freshmen and a group of seniors were given the same questions. If the goal was to determine whether skills had improved, it would be better to test the incoming freshmen this fall, then test them again before they graduate. I understand this would take time and might not be feasible, but if the information literacy program (the current one) has only been in effect for a couple of years, it stands to reason that the results of the assessment may not be accurate.
--Basic Video Overview for EBSCO Discovery Service
I offered to create a basic overview video for searching using the Discovery Service aimed at freshmen or students who had never used it before. The result was a two and a half minute video instructing viewers how to use the Discovery Service with a brief search example. I produced the video with Microsoft PowerPoint, as well as Windows Sound Recorder, Paint, and Snipping Tool. The only problem with creating the video was that, while writing the script, I kept moving into the advanced features. In order to make such a short video, the topic can’t be too detailed, yet there needs to be enough information to avoid confusing the audience.
A video for the Discovery Service will be useful, especially to freshmen, as what constitutes the Discovery Service is not readily apparent and causes quite a bit of confusion for students and faculty alike. The other feature of the video is that it is general enough to re-use in different contexts (such as LibGuides and freshmen orientation). The video was uploaded to the Indian Ocean World, 1300-1800 LibGuide as well.
--Exit Interview
On the last day, I sat down with the library director for an exit interview where we discussed the projects I have worked on, my interaction and observance of the library staff, and suggestions about how the library could be improved.
When asked specifically about the book collection, I replied that I didn’t think the environment encouraged students to browse the stacks. The books are mainly found on the second and third floors (main entrance is on the fourth floor). The third floor is inviting with paintings and spotlight lighting and comfortable seating. The second floor is akin to a warehouse. I pointed out that places that want to draw people in to use books have added amenities such as recliners, cafes, open lounge areas, and so forth. These changes make the space more inviting for patrons.
On the other hand, despite my affinity for physical volumes, I believe electronic resources are the future. I looked at Hartwick College’s Collection Development Policy and noted that acquisition was centered on electronic resources, with which I agree. The library has limited space, most of which is taken up by books. (The fourth floor is mainly an open area with computer stations, the circulation desk, reference desk, and reference area. It is two stories high and very well lit by a large set of skylights.)
However, upon further reflection after my practicum, I suggested to the Director that students may just not know about the book collection and what it offers. A project could be to provide the instructors of first-year courses a list of physical volumes that relate to their courses, to be included in their syllabi. Also, many students go to the library and browse the books without ever checking them out of the library. Those interactions would not be recorded by circulation statistics. How, then, to track that? I have been unable to come up with a solution.
[Note - I later discovered that one reason patrons are asked not to re-shelve books is for this very purpose. Unfortunately, these books are not being recorded in any statistic at the moment. Pages could record which books are being re-shelved or a handheld scanner could be used for a similar purpose.]
