Social networking tools for academic libraries

(Since starting the Science and Pharmacy blog, my Twitter site and Delicious, which is used for our "Selected Websites", I have become more convinced than ever that social networking is extremely important in terms of liaison and communication with our users.  It is not difficult to do, it is FUN, INTERESTING, STIMULATING & CHALLENGING, and the rewards are well worth the time spent!

 Some conclusions from this article

• benefits of using these tools are perceived to outweigh the costs, which were reported to be minimal,
• Social networking tools were perceived to be helpful in promoting library services and interacting with students.
• helpful for internal staff communication
• implementation of these tools by library staff was found to be challenged by limited time and perceived inadequacy of the staff to keep pace with the development of technology
•   Provision of training for staff users was found to be inadequate, and this indicates a component that needs to be addressed by organizations that intend to launch social networking platforms effectively. 

"......The phenomenon of social networking tools is likely to continue evolving rapidly. As this occurs, libraries make up one group that may benefit from utilizing these tools in an evolving manner as well. Findings of this study suggest that factors related to time pressure and competencies of staff need to be addressed in order to encourage libraries to take advantage of benefits offered by these web technologies." 

Using LinkedIn for Career Building

Joseph G. Gerard of Western New England University published "Linking in With LinkedIn®: Three Exercises That Enhance Professional Social Networking and Career Building" in the Journal of Management Education December 2012 Special Issue on New Technological Advances Applied to Management Education.  As Professor Gerard writes in the abstract:

Getting students to network with one another can be one of the biggest challenges in college courses, despite being a highly important function of higher education. Networking can, in fact, lead to that first job or to professional advancement, and technology can improve the success of individual and institutional efforts. This article describes how one instructor moved from a systemwide “Meet the Classmates” assignment nested within the learning management system to the use of a free social networking system, LinkedIn®, and how one icebreaker assignment evolved to three larger, more comprehensive assignments that better leveraged certain social networking system characteristics for greater career preparedness. Exploratory data from 154 respondents from undergraduate capstone strategy courses provides insights into some possible advantages and limitations of the free social networking system to offset networking challenges as well as to enhance those professional and career-based advantages associated with effective network management.

Academic Library Use of Facebook: Building Relationships with Students

Academic Library Use of Facebook: Building Relationships with Students • Article
The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 37, Issue 6, December 2011, Pages 512-522
Phillips, N.K.

....... Results

The analysis revealed that Facebook offers a dynamic environment for academic libraries to cultivate relationships with students. Libraries present information through status messages which suggest who they are and what they do. In addition to being informational, libraries attempt to engage and establish rapport with students through Facebook. The university setting not only creates a context for messages, but also offers a mutual set of experiences and values shared by libraries and students..........

.....

Facebook messages illustrate a range of resources and services academic libraries offer to meet student needs and interests. Information resources, writing workshops, and a variety of reference services are highlighted to address students' academic needs. By advertising events such as resume coaching and seminars, libraries also demonstrate their recognition that students may be thinking about life after graduation. Furthermore, the wide variety of library-sponsored events publicized on Facebook offer students opportunities to “take a break from all the work,” to have fun, and to explore interests in genealogy, the arts and current events. Messages about these events serve to expand the “library=book” brand.

Even messages about “the books” and other items in the collection reflect attempts of libraries to engage students, and perhaps broaden their image in the process. Whether it is B.B. King's birthday, Star Wars Day or the anniversary of a historical event, “Today is…” provides a convenient excuse to introduce a book, CD, film, website or electronic database. Current events, such as the Chicago Blackhawks 2010 National Hockey League Championships, and figures in popular culture are also used to pique the curiosity of students. In addition to using attention-grabbing headlines, libraries incorporate pictures and links to audio, video, the library catalog, websites, databases, and events, to engage students.

The posts about library services often reflect an informal tone, for example “Get ‘um while they're fresh!” referring to new books.

By Librarians, For Librarians: Building a Strengths-Based Institute to Develop Librarians’ Research Culture in Canadian Academic Libraries

In spite of the increase in formal and informal expectations for research by Canadian librarians, there have been few—if any—Canada-wide initiatives to help support librarians in meeting research expectations. Moreover, there have been few opportunities to address academic librarians’ needs and Canadian librarian research culture in any systematic way, especially on a national scale. As a way of redressing these absences and filling this need, a four-day nation-wide institute was proposed and conducted in order to bring together Canadian librarians interested in developing their own research programs and working toward fostering a positive and productive research culture in Canadian academic libraries. This article describes the principles informing the institute's development and locates the institute's objectives within discussions of research culture, mentorship, and strengths-based approaches.

Brave New World: eBooks Free With Ads

Brave New World: eBooksFree With Ads

"The Victorians gave us the Penny Press, Short form and episodic fiction, serialisation and book and pamphlet advertising. Some will suggest that today’s developing digital market can learn much from yesterday’s initial era of mass reading. Today we read of another ‘new’ Victorian‘ idea – the ebook with adverts. We see adverts on many digital services today. You have to suffer the pop-up 20 seconds, before they let you into where you want to go. Now www.eBookPlus.com , is introducing ebooks with adverts on a ‘with advertising it’s free’ model.  A service offer based on the premise that you will accept adverts at the front of the book and each chapter to get the content for free. Adverts in ebooks is going to happen, it is now a question of how it will happen and the implications of the change. We believe that no single platform will prevail and it is somewhat hard to see how it is a sustainable unique selling point. But what about the questions we need to ask ourselves? ..."

Twitter for Researchers

Twitter for research by University of York Information

Should we be involved in this at RUL?

altmetrics...............  (article from the Library Journal)

."..It’s a field that is ripe for the type of analysis to which librarians are ideally suited, he said. Academic librarians could maintain more relevance in the research process by studying these metrics and helping students and faculty get more impact out of their research output and publications...."

RUL study waiting to be done!

Academic library use and student retention: A quantitative analysis

"....For the institution, these findings can inform the development of library services to target specific student groups on the basis that higher library use may lead to improved integration and retention. In addition, the study describes a research design that is replicable in other institutions and contributes to library use and retention literature."

Undergrads use of Library resources vs Wikipedia

 

 

“You Just Type in What You Are Looking For”:Undergraduates' Use of Library Resources vs. Wikipedia   from J of Academic Librarianship.

The popular fiction books are shelved in an aumbry!

aumbry, n.

Library as Place: Learn from Retailers

libraries to watch entertainment technologies, because those techs will be mainstays for all of us very soon...ways to engage clients – markets – communities.  Like retail, we don’t see ‘non-users’, we see ‘potential users’.

     Amsterdam Central Library

OLA's Institute on Library as Place: Christopher Hume

 transforming library spaces “From Reading Room to Living Room”

 

The Mendeley Dilemma

I just came across this very interesting article commenting on the sale of Mendeley to Elsevier - oh dear!

Canada: University Libraries in Nova Scotia Test eBook Sharing

A group of Nova Scotia university libraries is testing a new approach to ebook lending that offers unprecedented levels of access to students and faculty. Novanet – a consortium of 10 academic libraries founded in 1988 – has negotiated a new deal with publishers to allow the sharing of electronic books among libraries as freely as the sharing of print books. In a pilot project that began in November 2012, the member libraries deposited a total of $100,000 to access a shared collection of about 16,000 ebooks through vendor EBL.

Redefining the Academic Library

Just published, the USA’s University Leadership Council’s report:
Redefining the Academic Library: Managing the Migration to Digital Information Services


Full report in pdf
 
Content:
Transformational Change in the Information Landscape:

    Unsustainable Costs
    Viable Alternatives
    Declining Usage
    New Patron Demands

Managing the Migration to Digital Information Services

I. Leveraging Digital Collections

    The Promise and Perils of Ebooks
    Patron-Driven Acquisition
    Print-on-Demand

II. Rethinking the Scholarly Publishing Model

    Centralized Licensing Structure
    On-Demand Article Access
    Open-Access Publishing

III. Repurposing Library Space

    Data-Driven Deselection
    Collaborative Collection Management
    Building the 21st Century Library

IV. Redeploying Library Staff

    Externalizing Low-Impact Activity
    Roles in Teaching and Learning
    Roles in Research and Scholarship
 

AAUP Publishes New Guidelines on Librarians | Inside Higher Ed

AAUP Publishes New Guidelines on Librarians | Inside Higher Ed
....recommends that colleges and universities involve librarians in governance issues, such as curriculum development, said Deanna Wood, a reference librarian and associate professor of reference at the University of New Hampshire who helped draft the updated guidelines. That way, students won’t enter the library to do research and find “there’s nothing there to support it.”

Developing core competencies for library staff

January 2013 College & Research Libraries News vol. 74 no. 1 14-35

From the conclusion:
"...Library staff was keenly aware of the changing environment throughout libraries, particularly academic libraries, and as such, ultimately understood the need to enhance skills in order to meet the demands of our users. Resetting the performance bar, when explained as part of the overall support and development of staff personnel, can be and was accepted by the staff as an important part of moving the library into a new culture of highly skilled and professional individuals."

Secret Lives of Readers


Books reveal themselves. Whether they exist as print or pixels, they can be read and examined and made to spill their secrets. Readers are far more elusive. They leave traces—a note in the margin, a stain on the binding—but those hints of human handling tell us only so much. The experience of reading vanishes with the reader.  How do we recover the reading experiences of the past? Lately scholars have stepped up the hunt for evidence of how people over time have interacted with books, newspapers, and other printed material.

Pests in the Library

Library bedbugs: Growing threat to borrowers of paper books—and another justification for library e-books?

READING in bed, once considered a relatively safe pastime, is now seen by some as a riskier proposition.  That’s because bedbugs have discovered a new way to hitchhike in and out of beds: library books. It turns out that tiny bedbugs and their eggs can hide in the spines of hardcover books. The bugs crawl out at night to feed, find a new home in a headboard, and soon readers are enjoying not only plot twists but post-bite welts.

The Librarian (I-III)

Entertaining movie series similar to the Indiana Jones series. The Librarian (of the New York Metropolitan Public Library), played by Noah Wyle, is curator of historical artifacts and treasures including the Arc of the Covenant, Excalibur and Pandora's Box.

The adventures of The Librarian are entertaining (albeit light) with corny lines and some interesting characters. At the least, the traditional image of librarians is challenged!

Available at the RUL.

30 tips for successful academic research and writing

Choosing something that you are passionately interested in to research is a great first step on the road to successful academic writing but it can be difficult to keep the momentum going. Deborah Lupton explains how old-fashioned whiteboards and online networking go hand-in-hand, and advices [sic] when it is time to just ‘make a start’ or go for a bike ride. 

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/11/28/lupton-30-tips-writing/