Students, Librarians, and Subject Guides: Improving a Poor Rate of Return

Portal

Volumn 4, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 123-130

  Reeb, Brenda ^a   Gibbons, Susan ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 2342483109     PISSN: 15312542     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/pla.2004.0020     Document Type: Review

References (30)

1. A mental model is a preconceived expectation of an outcome, based on previous experiences in the same or similar situation.
2. In the late 1970s photocopiers became standard office equipment. The availability of quick and cheap reproduction on demand no doubt contributed to the explosion of printed subject guides. See Kerry Regan, "The Copier," Office Systems 16, 12 (1999): 29-31 for a brief history.
3. Several contemporary and historical articles discuss subject guides: Charles H. Stevens, Marie P. Canfield, and Jeffrey J. Gardner, "Library Pathfinders: A New Possibility for Cooperative Reference Service," College & Research Libraries 34 (January 1973): 40-6; Alice Sizer-Warner, "Pathfinders: A Way to Boost Your Information Handouts Beyond Booklists and Bibliographies," American Libraries 14 (1983): 150; Glenn J. Thompson and Barbara R. Stevens, "Library Science Students Develop Pathfinders," C&RL News (May 1985): 224-5; and Terri L. Holtze and Anna Marie Johnson, "Getting Mileage Out of the Pathfinder," Kentucky Libraries 61 (1997): 29-32.
4. Several contemporary and historical articles discuss subject guides: Charles H. Stevens, Marie P. Canfield, and Jeffrey J. Gardner, "Library Pathfinders: A New Possibility for Cooperative Reference Service," College & Research Libraries 34 (January 1973): 40-6; Alice Sizer-Warner, "Pathfinders: A Way to Boost Your Information Handouts Beyond Booklists and Bibliographies," American Libraries 14 (1983): 150; Glenn J. Thompson and Barbara R. Stevens, "Library Science Students Develop Pathfinders," C&RL News (May 1985): 224-5; and Terri L. Holtze and Anna Marie Johnson, "Getting Mileage Out of the Pathfinder," Kentucky Libraries 61 (1997): 29-32.
5. Several contemporary and historical articles discuss subject guides: Charles H. Stevens, Marie P. Canfield, and Jeffrey J. Gardner, "Library Pathfinders: A New Possibility for Cooperative Reference Service," College & Research Libraries 34 (January 1973): 40-6; Alice Sizer-Warner, "Pathfinders: A Way to Boost Your Information Handouts Beyond Booklists and Bibliographies," American Libraries 14 (1983): 150; Glenn J. Thompson and Barbara R. Stevens, "Library Science Students Develop Pathfinders," C&RL News (May 1985): 224-5; and Terri L. Holtze and Anna Marie Johnson, "Getting Mileage Out of the Pathfinder," Kentucky Libraries 61 (1997): 29-32.
6. Several contemporary and historical articles discuss subject guides: Charles H. Stevens, Marie P. Canfield, and Jeffrey J. Gardner, "Library Pathfinders: A New Possibility for Cooperative Reference Service," College & Research Libraries 34 (January 1973): 40-6; Alice Sizer-Warner, "Pathfinders: A Way to Boost Your Information Handouts Beyond Booklists and Bibliographies," American Libraries 14 (1983): 150; Glenn J. Thompson and Barbara R. Stevens, "Library Science Students Develop Pathfinders," C&RL News (May 1985): 224-5; and Terri L. Holtze and Anna Marie Johnson, "Getting Mileage Out of the Pathfinder," Kentucky Libraries 61 (1997): 29-32.
7. Stevens, Canfield, and Gardner, 44.
8. Bill Strickland, director of the Turchin Business Library, Tulane University, personal e-mail June 25, 2003.
9. Personal conversations with librarians from University of Rochester (2003) and discussion on the Academic Business Library Directors (ABLD) private listserv (June 2003).
10. "Survey Results - Draft: Combined Results: Pop-Up and E-mail: Summary," available from Emily C. Jackson Sanborn, reference and digital services librarian, Duke University Libraries 〈emily.jackson.sanborn@duke. edu〉.
11. At the bottom of any page on the University of Rochester's Web site 〈http://www.library.rochester.edu〉is a freely accessible "Web Page Statistics" link, which will display the usage statistics for that page.
12. Web Team, Wright State University Libraries, "Usability Test 2003," provided by Brett Powers, Web coordinator 〈brett.powers@wright. edu〉.
13. Institution wishes to remain anonymous.
14. Data provided by Ken Klippel, Web coordinator, University of New South Wales, Australia.
15. Numerous studies have been conducted to support the anecdotal evidence of students' poor information literacy skills. A good sampling of these studies can be found in Philip M. Davis, "Effect of the Web on Undergraduate Citation Behavior: Guiding Student Scholarship in a Networked Age," portal: Libraries and the Academy 3, 1 (2003): 41-51.
16. A Web site usability test typically includes 3-5 users. Through observation of this small number of people interacting with a site, major design flaws or major use patterns can be successfully extrapolated to the entire population of users. Test findings are qualitative, not quantitative. Two favorite illustrations of this rule are Jakob Nielson's "Why You Only Need To Test With 5 Users," Alertbox (March 19, 2000), available: 〈http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html〉 [October 2003] and Steve Krug's use of memorable red dots to illustrate this concept in his book Don't Make Me Think (Indianapolis: Que Publishing, 2000), 146-7.
17. A Web site usability test typically includes 3-5 users. Through observation of this small number of people interacting with a site, major design flaws or major use patterns can be successfully extrapolated to the entire population of users. Test findings are qualitative, not quantitative. Two favorite illustrations of this rule are Jakob Nielson's "Why You Only Need To Test With 5 Users," Alertbox (March 19, 2000), available: 〈http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html〉 [October 2003] and Steve Krug's use of memorable red dots to illustrate this concept in his book Don't Make Me Think (Indianapolis: Que Publishing, 2000), 146-7.
18. Web Advisory Group, MIT Libraries, "Big Test Usability Test Results: Some General Observations." Available: 〈http://macfadden.mit.edu: 9500/webgroup/usability2002/big-test/observations.html〉 [October 2003].
19. Usability Group, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester, "Testing Live Homepage, Round 1, January 2003, Clickpath Chart and Major Summary." Within the next few months, the University of Rochester usability test results will be made available on a public Web site. In the meantime, contact Brenda Reeb for copies: 〈breeb@library.rochester.edu〉.
20. Bucknell Information Services and Resources, "Pathfinder Survey Results: Post-Survey Comments," contact Isabella O'Neill for copies: 〈ioneill@bucknell.edu〉.
21. Within the next few months, the University of Rochester usability test results will be made available on a public Website. In the meantime, contact Brenda Reeb for copies: 〈breeb@library.rochester.edu〉.
22. University Libraries, University of Washington, "By Subjects Usability Study: User Summaries." Available: 〈http://www.lib. washington.edu/Usability/by-subj/bysubjectusers.html〉 [October 2003].
23. For more information about this system, see Susan Gibbons, "Building Upon the MyLibrary Concept to Better Meet the Information Needs of College Students," D-Lib 9 (March 2003). Available: 〈http://www.dlib.org/dlib/ march03/gibbons/03gibbons.html〉 [October 2003].
24. The code for the ColdFusion system, called LibCB, is available as open source from SourceForge at 〈http://sourceforge.net/projects/libcb/〉 [October 2003].
25. Bucknell Information Services and Resources.
26. Jared Spool, "Getting Confidence from Lincoln," User Interface Engineering (n. d.). Available: 〈http://world.std.com/~uieweb/Articles/ getting_confidence.htm〉[October 2003].
27. Cynthia Gibbon, reference/instruction librarian, Gettysburg College, personal e-mail June 16, 2003.
28. Patricia Albanese Pitkin, chief information office and director of library information and technology services, Mt. Holyoke College, presentation, "Learning Management Systems: Integrating Information Resources," CNI Fall 2002 Task Force Meeting, San Antonio, Texas.
29. Lee S. Shulman, "Taking Learning Seriously," Change 31 (July/August 1999): 12.
30. David P. Ausubel, Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968), epigraph.