Library Gazette

You might have heard recently that there’s a new research guide format that the reference folks have been learning to use. It’s called LibGuides, and allows for users to create research guides that take advantage of a number of web 2.0 tools. We’re still learning, but you can see some of the examples here. Not only do these guides make it easy to include the standard information that we’ve included in the past, but you can also include delicious bookmarks, videos and images, and embed chat boxes within the guides themselves.  We’re working on setting up some training options for anyone who might want to make a guide for their subject area, but in the meantime, if you want to see what is possible and the ease of use, you can watch this video:

I’ll send something to lib-l once we have a time/date/place for training. In the meantime, feel free to get in touch if you have questions or comments!

For the past three years, an ongoing weeding project has been taking place in ZSR Library’s Government Documents Department. As more resources go online, efforts are being made to convert to electronic and reclaim much needed shelf space by removing out-of-date and out-of-scope materials. We work with the Regional Depository at UNC to ensure that only appropriate materials are removed and that we send UNC any titles that are needed for the regional collection.

In conjunction with this effort, similar activities are taking place in the Microtext Department. We are assessing where we have exact duplication of microtext collections with archival electronic versions. We are offering the microtext versions to other schools who may not be able to afford the electronic purchase.

When both collections have been downsized, the Microtext Department will be moved into current Government Documents space. This will reduce the number of service points on the 4th floor, improving our ability to serve our patrons effectively. The space vacated by Microtext can be repurposed for other essential needs.

This project will be under Mary Scanlon’s leadership. Joining her in the core working group are Steve Kelley, Carolyn McCallum, Lauren Pressley, Mary Lib Slate, and Susan Smith. Consulting members are Erik Mitchell, Laura Spear and Roz Tedford.  As this sizable project proceeds, we plan to share our progress with you in the Gaz.

Over the past few months, Kevin and I have gotten together with a few sets of students to conduct some informal focus groups. The students we have spoken with, though a small group, have been from all years and from varying majors. Our aim is to better understand how our students find information, how they use our website to do so, and what we can do to make it easier for our students to get to the best information more quickly. As one of the participants said, “I mean, we live on our computers,” so understanding what they do on their computers can help us do our jobs better. These conversations have proven to be really valuable, so I thought we could share some of the themes and interesting ideas here.

The first thing we found was that the students don’t clearly separate the library as a place from the library as a web presence. We’d start talking about something on the site, only to find ourselves talking about the building a few minutes later. One library fact that a student shared was that “the state of the atrium defines the state of the library.” She said that if you walk in and the atrium is crowded, that you know there won’t be an outlet anywhere. The popularity of this (and other) space shows how much the students value the library as a place. Across the board the students we spoke with also valued serendipity, and liked looking as books shelved together. We also heard positive things about the periodicals move: one student even said, “now I will use them!”

We found that students often are confused by library speak. As we know, many of the terms we say, or write on the website, make sense to us, but not to all of our users. One group continued to come back to interlibrary loan, first asking what it was, then asking several follow up questions. Once they knew what it was, they were really excited about it, but it showed us how even a term that sounds like what it means might still be confusing to users.

Once we were able to address the design of the website, we heard pretty clearly that there are too many links on the homepage. People look at the main tabs, but are overwhelmed by the amount of text on the page. One student said “design is content” and in this sense, we heard that the design obscured the content. We also heard that the catalog is one click away rather than no clicks, which would be preferable. Students also said they’d like to see library and technology news displayed more prominently, even news about the new Firefox or Zotero. Across the board they love the covers in the catalog and the new text message call number feature.

We also learned that the students would like a more simplified way of getting started. They suggested a Getting Started button on the website for those who have never written a college level research paper before. Hopefully, we’ll be able to easily do this with the Toolkit. We also received a request that librarians compile top research blogs and think tanks in a wiki, letting the students contribute as well. This student found many blogs by professors in their field and use them in their academic work. He thought a list of these blogs would have been very helpful when he was getting started in the field.

The students also spoke to a need to make things very easy and well publicized. One student described her classmates as “very intense, they need simple information and lots of marketing.” Over and over we hear a need for simple, bulleted news. Students like what we have to offer, but want an easy way to find out about it.

And perhaps the best quote of them all: “The library going 24/5 was the most beautiful thing that ever happened.”

These focus groups have given us a lot of work to do, but they’ve also given us work that we know will help our students. We hope to do more of these types of meetings, but first we need to create a Getting Started page… list some relevant research blogs… find a way to market library news……

During the past several weeks since the Research, Instruction and Technology Services Team was formed, efforts have been underway to establish its structure.

Initial organizational structure was announced last week. Two team sub-units have been established to facilitate daily operations. Roz Tedford has been appointed Assistant Head of Research and Instruction Services and Erik Mitchell has been named Assistant Head of Technology Services. Two “bridge” positions were identified that already span functions of  both units: Giz Womack (Technology Training Manager) and Lauren Pressley (Instructional Design Librarian). To assist with team integration, Giz and Lauren have switched “home” units - Giz will be with Research & Instruction and Lauren with Technology. Other functional changes may take place as the team identifies ways to improve its effectiveness.

Part of the integration process includes physically placing people in office locations where they will be close to their unit colleagues. To accomplish this to some extent, we have moved some of us to new offices.  Giz has moved to the 4th floor Reference Office Suite. Susan, Erik and Lauren did the “Big Move”, a circular office switch! Susan is now in 457A (Lauren’s old office), Erik is in Susan’s old office (258B), and Lauren has moved into Erik’s old location (302A). Stay tuned for an open house to show off the new offices, but in the meantime, please come visit!

Susan’s New Office

Erik’s New Office

Lauren’s New Office

Giz’s New Office

The process of developing a job description for the open team position (the one vacated by Mary Horton) will commence this month with a projected search to begin in early fall. We will revise the position into one on the Technology side so that we can address our need for the additional programming skills required for us to migrate to more open source systems. But we will look for a person who also can contribute to the library instruction programs.

The largest project for RITS during the next academic year is the consolidation of our Government Documents and Microtext Departments. This project will require the talents of many people within the RITS team, as well as from other Library Teams (Resource and Access Services). Mary Scanlon will lead the task force that is being formed to manage this project. Details on this important initiative will be shared as we proceed.

Effective June 1, Research and Information Services (aka Team Info) and Information Technology (aka Tech Team) merged into a new team. As Lynn conveyed in her lib-l announcement to the staff, this merger will help optimize our ability to accomplish the library’s strategic goals.

Our first retreat took place on Monday, June 9. Over the 3 hour period, we explored many avenues for making an effective transition. Of course, one of the first orders of business was to decide on a new team name.

“Research, Instruction & Technology Services” describes the major functional responsibilities for the team. There are many intersections of these three important services that are already taking place in what team members accomplish. By highlighting them in the new team name, we hope to emphasize the areas of synergy that our new team will bring to the library’s mission.

In keeping with the library field’s affection for acronyms, we also considered how the new name would be abbreviated. So, feel free to refer to us as “RITS”!