Current awareness made easy?

Now this is really something! 
Jean Thomas from NMMU alerted me to this service available at JournalTOCS.  This site freely allows one to set up TOC alerts to selected journals but see this link for what else is on offer (admittedly at a price - but not too expensive for an institution?).  A trial period is available.

"Armed only with a list of some of your users’ email addresses and a list of the particular scholarly journals they are interested in (ones your organisation subscribes to, ones you don’t subscribe to, Open Access journals, hybrid journals to which you do, or don’t subscribe – it doesn’t matter which – it’s up to them, and they can choose to limit as they wish), you can act as a super-admin-user and set up a personalised web and email based scholarly journal Tables of Contents alerting service for them, with ease!"

RULibrary and current technologies?

A useful follow-up to Thandiwe's report-back from the Carnegie Leadership Academy.  Some very pertinent issues are addressed.

As Thandiwe's CALL research report discovered, our users are keen for the Library to use current technologies - especially the whole mobile issue.

Is Google Scholar reliable/valuable?

(article in: Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Summer 2012) "...takes a look at reliability factors that go into Google Scholar citation counts, selection of resources, and its commercial partnerships...     ...led to the conclusion that Google Scholar may be useful for initial and supplemental information gathering, but lacks a deeper reliability than other existing services currently provide scholars."

University libraries and the postgraduate student; physical and virtual spaces

University libraries and the postgraduate student; physical and virtual spaces

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Document Information:

Title:	University libraries and the postgraduate student; physical and virtual spaces
Author(s):	Colin Beard, (Freelance Consultant), David Bawden, (City University London)
Citation:	Colin Beard, David Bawden, (2012) "University libraries and the postgraduate student; physical and virtual spaces", New Library World, Vol. 113 Iss: 9/10
Article type:	Research paper
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Abstract:	Purpose - This study examines the library/information issues affecting graduate students, both those on taught courses and those undertaking research. It focuses specifically on their perceptions of the value to them of physical and digital resources and spaces, and how well their needs were being met. Design/methodology/approach - An online questionnaire survey of students was complemented by a series of face-to-face interviews with library staff. Findings - This group of students are different from undergraduates, whose information behaviour has more often been studied. They require silent study space, are enthusiastic book borrowers, and have limited interest in social media in the library. They have a strong requirement for digital resources and IT support, and are not inclined to ask for assistance from librarians. Research limitations/implications - The study is limited to three English universities, although they are sufficiently varied nature to make the results more widely applicable. Practical implications - It provides evidence for librarians in universities and colleges serving graduate students as to the best form of provision, and for any library seeking to make best use of its space as resources become increasingly digital. Originality/value - It is one of the few studies to examine the information behaviour and needs of advanced students. It contributes to the debate on the future of the library as place in a digital age.

New Academic Networking Guide (RUL Subject Guides site)

I have finally got around to re-creating the Academic Networking Guide which mysteriously disappeared from the Subject Guides list - (I think I deleted it by mistake!).

Please give me some feedback on this Guide (is is useful? - what else should be considered for inclusion, etc.)
thanks
Eileen

Social media at the university: A demographic comparison

"Examines faculty and student responses to questions regarding their use of social media and to determine possible demographic differences. Confirms that students and faculty are avid users of some, but not all, social media and the study raises some interesting questions regarding the differences between faculty and students"

This analysis at the Univ of Central Missouri found that "the library cannot automatically assume that prolific users of a particular technology are interested in utilizing it to interact with the library......  [and] that few students used or wanted library services or information offered through Twitter or RSS feeds. There was some interest in podcasts' particularly if they related to their majors. Around 50 percent would like to use Facebook and chat/IM to ask questions and a third of the students were also interested in YouTube and library blog.."

Perhaps we need a similar survey at RUL before we spend a lot of time on social media which will not be utilized????