Library instruction
I’ve recently been pondering the idea of database searches as an experiment – hypothesis, experiment, evaluate, modify the hypothesis and try again. This might make a useful way to introduce sci/tech students in particular to the idea that you’re not going to necessarily get your best results from your first search; I’ll have to see how they receive it when I’ve actually got a class to test it on….

Incorporating Failure Into Library Instruction (from ACRLog) discusses the pedagogy of learning by failure and talks about times when it’s more or less suitable for library instruction.

Anne Pemberton’s super-awesome paper From friending to research: Using Facebook as a teaching tool (January 2011, College & Research Libraries News, vol. 72 no. 1 28-30) discusses Facebook as a useful teaching metaphor for databases.

Don’t Make It Easy For Them (from ACRLog) – with caveats in the comments that I think are at least as important as the main post.

Data and databases
There’s a whole D-Lib Magazine issue devoted to the topic of research data.

Heads they win, tales we lose: Discovery tools will never deliver on their promise – and don’t miss the comment thread at the bottom of the page, which segues into the dilemma of increasingly expensive journal bundles and possible (vs viable) solutions.

Web services
The Web Is a Customer Service Medium discusses the idea that “the fundamental question of the web” is “Why wasn’t I consulted?” – that is, each medium has its niche of what it’s good at and why people use it, and webpages need to consider how to answer this question.

Library Day in the Life
Round 6 begins next week, in which librarians from all walks of librarianship share a day (or week) in the life.

Deborah

I’m collecting photos of Christmas decorations around the UC libraries to put up on our Facebook page next week. So far EPS Library’s “Christmas Branch” is sitting alone in Q:\Deborah\2010_Christmas but I’ll get one of our windows once we’ve yet again re-taped up the recalcitrant decorations there, and Education have also promised a photo of their awesome tree made of journals.

Do any other teams have trees/decorations whose photos they could donate? If you’ve got a photo, you can put a copy straight into Q:\Deborah\2010_Christmas or if you need a photographer give me a call. 🙂

Deborah

My favouritest new journal ever is currently the Journal of Library Innovation. I have vague memories of issue 1 being decent but issue 2’s contents are totally awesome. They include:

• an editorial (pdf) pointing out that: a) when we innovate we don’t have to seize on every expensive new technology, and b) on the other hand sometimes failing to use a new technology can be expensive too
• Quick and Dirty Library Promotions That Really Work – whee, fortune cookies!
  

  [I would really like to amplify this squee. I think we should do this: it puts a smile on people’s face and it 99% guarantees they’ll actually read the promotional message, which is at least 90% more than traditional signage. (Fudge factor because I can’t remember the number I saw the other day, though I think it was less than 10% and included primarily mature students.]

• Accommodating Community Users in an Authenticated Library Technology Environment – making a computer kiosk for non-members to use which respects database license agreements; not my thing at present but cool enough that I nevertheless recognise the super utility of it.
• Making Physical Objects Clickable: Using Mobile Tags to Enhance Library Displays – QR tags in book displays – evidence that these increase usage of promoted materials/webpages
  

  [See also Embedding tutorials into physical objects – using a QR code on a photocopier to link to video instructions. I think here I’d use QR codes in conjunction with a bit.ly link for people who don’t have the right hardware/software combo to make it work, but this caveat shouldn’t be construed as decreasing my enthusiasm for the idea.]

• The Library is Undead: Information Seeking During the Zombie Apocalypse – another quick and dirty library promotion, jumping off a student event.
  

  [Why do we insist that big promotions have to be planned months in advance? Maybe it’s Parkinson’s Law (“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”) – when you plan 3 months in advance, it still feels rushed at the end so you figure next time you should plan 4 months in advance. But if you start planning 6 days in advance (as this library did), sure you’re rushed at the end, but the short timeframe has forced you to forgo normal inefficiencies and brush off the temptation to perfectionism, so you save thousands of staff time and in the end you’ve still got it done.]

• and also book reviews which seem genuinely helpful and balanced evaluations of how useful the books are and for what purposes.

Deborah

Can any other branches please let us know (and/or come by to pick up) if they could use any of the following:

(toasted sandwich maker, electric jug, toaster, empty first aid kit, serials display dividers, Christmas tree, and assorted bits)

(Will accept expressions of interest from individuals too but obviously libraries get first dibs.)

Deborah

EPS is clearing out its stationery cupboard and has the following assorted oddments available for any library interested:

Sorry, it’d take more time than most of these things are worth to list them all, but some are: scales, holepunches, bookbags, labels, lanyards and nametag holders and much more! If anything strikes your fancy come and have a rummage, or feel free to enquire.

We’ll also have a large number of bookends (albeit not in the best condition) soon so let us know if you’re on the lookout for such too.

Deborah

QR Codes
(What’s a QR Code? See QR Codes: An Overview.)

Google has launched goo.gl, a URL shortening service (like tinyurl.com, bit.ly, etc) which as a bonus gives you a QR code: eg http://goo.gl/Xxyl links to this blog and http://goo.gl/Xxyl.qr gives you a pretty QR code you can paste onto a poster. Shortly thereafter, bit.ly joined in the fun.

On the downside I recall reading (somewhere on the internet; it sounded plausible at the time) that, cool as QR codes sound, since they’re mostly being used by advertisers, actual real people aren’t really all that keen on using them.[citation needed] On the upside, I’ve also heard anecdotes from people who do use them. And in any case they don’t cost any money and almost zero time.

Library tutorials

• An old post I just came across: Subversive Handouts: One Librarian’s Secret Weapon – a sneaky way to get some extra face-time with a class.
• When an imploring librarian is not enough – a sneaky way to get students to actually want to use Web of Science etc rather than Google Scholar

Open Access

• Dramatic Growth of Open Access
• The Economics of Open Access points out that “Every time a researcher or teacher cannot get to the information she needs to do her work, or must obtain it by labor-intensive means like interlibrary loan or direct contact with the author, time and knowledge, which are both worth money, are wasted; open access reduces that loss.”
• Open access: the world is your consortium sees open access as a new solution for the inability of library consortia, let alone individual libraries, let alone individual scientists, to be able to afford access to journals.
• Almost Halfway There: an Analysis of the Open Access Behaviors of Academic Librarians “presents results of a study of open access publishing and self-archiving behaviors of academic librarians” and discusses “several strategies to encourage academic librarians to continue embrace open access behaviors”.

Deborah

Currently when you doubleclick to open the “__uc_librarian” chatroom for AskLive, nothing happens (or if you’re on meebo.org instead, you just get a “Hold on tight while we connect you to the room…” message).

This seems to be a problem with Meebo which they’ll fix in due course, we just can’t predict when or do much about it in the meantime…

Deborah

Assessing the (Enduring) Value of Libraries

MIT Libraries has created a Beta Graveyard for trial projects that aren’t being continued – nice to see what’s happened to old ideas.

Cyberpunk Librarian, part 1 – a librarian and a library robot; a problem and a cunning solution.

The launch of Foursquare buttons for websites – a button you can easily add to any website that lets users link your site and your physical location on their phone.

Hacking Summon in Code4Lib describes how OSU made their data display more tidily

Deborah

If you need an introduction to Multisearch for yourself or students and academics, there’s a handout on How to find an eBook in MultiSearch (pdf) available.

We also have two screencasts available:

• How to find an eBook in MultiSearch
• How to find journal articles in MultiSearch

If you need to point students/academics to them, these are available from Library News, the MultiSearch page, and the Earthquake eResources page.

Deborah