Jess and I are pleased to announce the arrival of Spark! Plus!  These are one-time events that will fall outside the regularly scheduled Spark series.

The Libraries have signed up for The Handheld Librarian Conference 2010.  The Handheld Librarian is an online conference that covers issues related to reaching users via mobile platforms.

The conference will be shown in L33 on February 17 & 18, 2010.  The full list of speakers is here, and you can drop in for any/all of the presentations.  There are 4 one-hour keynote addresses and several elective sessions.

I’ll be emailing an attendance interest form, so take a minute to fill it out!

The University of Washington iSchool’s Project Information Literacy released a report covering the results and findings from the Spring 2009 survey of college students and research strategies.  The full report is available as a 42-page PDF, but here’s an overview, followed by a list of six key findings:

Whether they were conducting research for a college course or for personal reasons,
nearly all of the students in our sample had developed an information-seeking strategy
reliant on a small set of common information sources—close at hand, tried and true.

Moreover, students exhibited little inclination to vary the frequency or order of their use,
regardless of their information goals and despite the plethora of other online and inperson
information resources—including librarians—that were available to them.

Many students in our sample used a strategy for finding information and conducting
research that leveraged scholarly sources and public Internet sites and favored brevity,
consensus, and currency in the sources they sought.

Major findings from the survey are as follows:

1. Many students in the sample reported being curious, engaged, and motivated at the beginning of the course-related and everyday life research process. Respondentsʼ need for big-picture context, or background about a topic, was the trigger for beginning course-related (65%) or everyday life research (63%).

2. Almost every student in the sample turned to course readings—not Google—first for course-related research assignments. Likewise, Google and Wikipedia were the go-to sites for everyday life research for nearly every respondent.

3. Librarians were tremendously underutilized by students. Eight out of 10 of the respondents reported rarely, if ever, turning to librarians for help with course-related research assignments.

4. Nine out of 10 students in the sample turned to libraries for certain online scholarly research databases (such as those provided by EBSCO, JSTOR, or ProQuest) for conducting course-related research, valuing the resources for credible content, in-depth information, and the ability to meet instructorsʼ
expectations.

5. Even though it was librarians who initially informed students about using online scholarly research databases during freshmen training sessions, students in follow-up interviews reported turning to instructors as valued research coaches, as they advanced through the higher levels of their
education.

6. The reasons why students procrastinate are no longer driven by the same pre-Internet fears of failure and a lack of confidence that once were part of the college scene in the 1980s. Instead, we found that most of the digital natives in the sample (40%) tended to delay work on assignments as they juggled their needs to meet competing course demands from other classes.

January 5×5 : January 12, 2010 : 10 am : L33 Hagerty Library

This month we welcome the following speakers to talk about distance learning and serving online students at the Drexel University Libraries.  Read more about the 5×5 format, or see info on past presentations.

Beth Ten Have
Reference services to distance learning students

Dee Childs
Delivering physical library materials to students in distance programs

Gary Childs
Using Wimba to support Health Sciences distance programs

Tim Siftar
E-meeting platforms for working with distance students

Gillian Washinsky
Changes in course reserves with the increase of distance learners

Join us!  We’ll have muffins/pastries, so bring a drink!

EDUCAUSE recently published the ECAR Study of Undergraduates and IT.  Among their findings in this annual publication, they saw a significant increase in the use of social networking sites (like Facebook):

Key Findings, p. 6 (Click image to enlarge)

and a move toward more mobile technology:

“About half of the respondents (51.2%) indicated they own an Internet-capable handheld device, and another 11.8% said they plan to purchase one in the next 12 months” (Key Findings, p. 9).

although they still prefer learning in a face to face environment:

“No matter how extensively the mobile revolution – or any other technology-based disruption for that matter-impacts higher education, respondents to our survey consistently tell us that they want to see the use of IT balanced with the human touch in their academic environment.  In their responses to the final open-ended question of our survey, students wrote explicitly about a preference for “real books and people” and said that “shiny new tech is still no substitute for well-trained, passionate instructors.” (Key Findings, p. 12).

The full report, and a shorter (13 p.) key findings document are both available online.

Now that we have access to Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro here at the library (via IRT), here’s a few minor tips for using it successfully.

• Check your system requirements beforehand.  There is a page that helps you do just that, here.
• Make sure you have a camera/headset if you want to be seen and heard.
• Practice!  There are many, many options, and practicing before a presentation is extremely useful.
• Remember that you have an option to record your session. It’s useful to review, and we can always delete it if you don’t want to keep it.

For those who are new to this tool, it’s a virtual meeting room software, similar to Wimba, but a little easier to use.  It has many, many features which can be really useful if explored thoroughly.  You can share your screen, upload presentations and documents, and conduct online polls and discussion on-the-fly.

Here are two recordings that Tim Siftar, IST Librarian, made for intro courses at the iSchool:

INFO Systems and Technology Research Tips (09:18)

INFO Introduction to Gartner Research (06:22)

Here’s the link to the Drexel version of Adobe Connect, the login screen.  If you want to know more, please let me know!

A couple months ago, there was a short thread on the LITA listserv that caught my eye.  A library school student was asking for suggestions on “tech trends” to investigate.   There were several responses, and I’ve distilled some of the feedback below.

There were several practical skills suggested, but others suggested adjusting one’s approach toward newer ideas and skills — “becoming a lifelong learner” and getting familiar with ways to apply trends to the library setting.  I think this is an essential skill for successful librarians, and for successful libraries.

The overview:

• XML
• XSLT
• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web Services
• Cloud and super computing
• Relational databases and Indexing
• eInk and eReaders
• Digital preservation
• Copyright management
• Techniques in distance education technologies (i.e., Wimba, CMS, etc.)
• Assimilating new technologies into your work life
• Writing about your experiences
• Become familiar with how you learn technology and skills — becoming a lifelong learner

There were also links to two Library Journal articles by Roy Tennant that get at this point.

The first set of the new video tutorials for English 101 have been posted to the Research Guides page.  We’ll be finishing the last set of these tutorials, and using Camtasia for additional tutorials in other areas.  Thanks to Larry and Emily for updating content and Tara for the audio!