E-books still have a long way to go before librarians and their customers will be satisfied

E-books still have a long way to go before librarians and their customers will be satisfied, reports Tom Wilkie from last month'sSpecial Libraries Association meeting

The e-book may be the future but it is not yet working, according to librarians and scholarly publishers speaking to the annual meeting of the Special Libraries Association in Chicago in late July.

Discovering the Impact of Library Use and Student Performance

I picked up this interesting article in EduCause Review thanks to Brenda's Twitter page! Wish we could similar research at RUL - anyone interested?

• The University of Wollongong Library developed the Library Cube, a tailored database and reporting function that joins library usage data with student data, including demographic and academic performance information.
• Analysis of the resulting data reveals a strong correlation between students' grades and use of information resources the library provides.
• ______________________________________________ 

Google Scholar Metrics

Anne Moon tweeted this - interesting

Google Scholar Metrics

 A very well reputed bibliometrics team of the Granada University, Spain, has carried an study on the flaws that Google Scholar Metrics have, that impede its use for evaluating scientific journals.
Delgado-López-Cózar, Emilio; Cabezas-Clavijo, Álvaro. “Google Scholar Metrics: an unreliable tool for assessing scientific journals”. El profesional de la información, 2012, July-August, v. 21, n. 4, pp. 419-427.

Students Find E-Textbooks ‘Clumsy’ and Don’t Use Their Interactive Features

From CHE
A recent report... shows that many students find the e-textbooks “clumsy” and prefer print.

 

Managing a 21st-Century Library Collection

Some ideas from the conclusion of this article (Managing a 21st-Century Library Collection)

 about to what librarians need be doing to assure the future of libraries:

• work with different players in every aspect of the information supply chain.

• we need to engage our users. 
  
• we need to be out there finding out how they do their research and how they do their work.

•  understanding users is an important prerequisite before we work on engaging users

• we really need to get our resources out to where students do their work

• we need to engage our content providers in conversations about licensing terms and how we should

• we have to be engaged with our system providers, making sure we are not just getting the system we deserve, but actually getting a system that we really need.

The cost of knowledge

The cost of knowledge - editorial in Ergonomics SA, 2012, 24 (1) by Dr Candice Christie - HOD of HKE Dept and editor-in-chief of Ergonomics SA.