Internet Competency

I can't believe that I am completing my final competency assignment for this class! It does not feel like I am at the end of a semester. For this assignment, I had to find a reputable website on my academic librarian topic.

I found the website called The Kept-Up Academic Librarian. This website contains postings of articles about developments in the higher education sector geared towards academic librarians. This site was created and is maintained by Steven Bell, an academic librarian at Temple University. The articles seem to cover topics about academic libraries, technology, and studies on various student behaviors. I feel that it will help me stay current in my career. Lycos was used to perform the search. I chose Lycos because I've never used it before and wanted to branch out from my Google craze.

The Citation Pearl Search Strategy in WorldCat

I performed a citation pearl search in WorldCat. This strategy can be used when you already have a citation for your search question. In this strategy, you start with the citation you already have and retrieve it in the database in which you are working in. A search statement can then be formed to find similar records using the indexing terms that appear in the record retrieved.

The topic of interest and naive question are the same as before.

Topic of Interest: Nonuser studies

Naïve Question: What are some of the characteristics of nonuser groups identified by public libraries?

I started with the following citation that I obtained from WorldCat from doing a previous search on the above naïve question.

Citation: Galloway, S. B. B. (1978). The relationship between awareness of the Davis County libraries and their use and nonuse. ERIC reports, ED 179 221. Washington D.C.: Educational Resources Information Center.

The following subject terms were found in the citation record.

Public libraries – Utah – Davis County

Public libraries – Utah – Davis County – Use studies

Library use studies – Utah – Davis County

These terms were used to develop the following search statement.

ss1 subject search: public libraries AND library use studies

The result is 697 records ranked by relevance.

This gives plenty of good sources on user studies in public libraries. However, there are mostly records about users, and it would be nice to view the records that specifically concentrate on non-users. I pulled up a few records that had non-user information in them, but they all had the same subject terms used in ss1. This made me assume that there were no specific subject terms for nonuser. I was able to confirm this by trying to look it up as a thesaurus term and found none other than use studies. Therefore, I added a keyword search to my query for the term “nonuse?”

ss2: public libraries [in subject] AND library use studies [in subject] AND (nonuse? OR non-use?) [in keyword]

The result is 37 records that look promising. The following is a citation that I found.

Citation: Morrill, J. H. (2003). The Wisconsin library user (and non-user): Outcomes of a statewide survey. Madison, WI: Morrill Solutions. http://www.winnefox.org/wplc/current/survey2003/report.pdf.

I would use this method before any of the others mentioned in previous postings if I already had a citation to start off with. It’s quick and much easier than using a search strategy where you have to look into the thesaurus and gather subject terms.

Multimedia Competency

I found this model created by Michael Habib that he developed while working on his MLS paper. According to Habib (2006):

This model presents a view of how students might view the library as place in relation to their academic and social lives. It is at this intersection that I propose Library 2.0 has begun to materialize. The primary goal of the model is to encourage brainstorming over how we can develop virtual environments that will fit into students' lives. (para. 2)

This graphic illustration created by Michael Habib, 2006, is licensed under http://www.flickr.com/photos/habibmi/222296001/sizes/o/#cc_license / http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en

I like the way that an academic library is shown as fitting into a student’s social as well as academic life. It would be interesting to explore this model more and see if this is necessarily true. This makes me ponder about the things that I could do as an academic librarian to help this model become more of a reality.

References

Habib, M. (2006, August 22). Academic library 2.0 concept models (basic v2 and detailed). Message posted to http://mchabib.blogspot.com/2006/08/academic-library-20-concept-models.html

Habib, M. (2006). [Graphic illustration the Academic Library 2.0 August 22, 2006]. Academic library 2.0 concept model basic v2. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/habibmi/222296001/

DIALOG Competency

This week I performed a building block search in DIALOG. A building block search is where key terms or facets are taken out of the naïve question. The facets are then combined with Boolean logic.

Topic of Interest: Nonuser studies

Naïve Question: What are some of the characteristics of nonuser groups identified by public libraries?

DIALOG Search - ERIC:

Thesaurus terms were found using the expand command (e). Just type in e and then the term to get thesaurus terms.

In DIALOG, search statements for each facet can be entered separately. DIALOG then gives the number of items found for each term and then the total found when all terms are combined. Each of the bulleted statements was entered separately.

• ss nonuser OR nonusers

Results from DIALOG:

S1 NONUSER 32

S2 NONUSERS 231

S3 NONUSER OR NONUSERS 254

• ss public libraries

Results from DIALOG:

S4 PUBLIC LIBRARIES (ADDED 07/01/1966) 6403

• ss library research

Results from DIALOG:

S5 LIBRARY RESEARCH (ADDED 07/01/1966) 2062

DIALOG search statements s3, s4, and s5 can be combined to form the following command.

• ss s3 AND s4 AND s5

Results from DIALOG:

S6 S3 AND S4 AND S5 2

I was able to see my results of 2 records using the following command.

• t6/5/all

The following citations were found.

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (1982). Pilot test of the online public access catalog project's user and nonuser questionnaires. Final report. Dublin, OH: Author.

Rosen, M.E. (1990). Assessing library needs in rural America. Journal of Youth Services in Libraries, 4(1), 87-90.

I looked at the list of 17 records obtained from combining s3 and s4 because I found the library research facet extremely narrowing, and there were relevant resources pertinent to my search question in that search as well, including the two listed above.

This database is amazing! I like the way it shows the number of documents for each aspect of the search statement as well as the combined search statement. It helps you see what terms are actually producing results! This one is the best so far. Also, the thesaurus is more detailed. I felt that the thesaurus terms had the exact wording for what I was looking for.

Inspiration - Image Competency

My love for academic libraries began as an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma. This is when I realized that libraries can be beautiful. The Great Reading Room in the Bizzell Memorial Library is absolutely breathtaking. On nights that I just felt like I could not study one second more, I would walk to the library and study here. The beauty alone was inspiring and calming. All frustrations would melt away.

I found this image by conducting a search using Google images. Typing in "University of Oklahoma library" yields this image among others. Finding this also introduced me to the Creative Commons license. See the copyright link below the picture for more information.


This picture of the Great Reading Room is licensed under

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pokechamp01/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

The Specific Facet Search Strategy in ERIC/FirstSearch

This week I performed a specific facet search in the ERIC/FirstSearch database. With this strategy, you find your most specific facet first. Then, you combine facets, one at a time, until you reach your facet that produces the most results. Search results should be checked each time before adding another facet to make sure that the records retrieved make sense.

The topic of interest and naive question are the same as before.

Topic of Interest: Nonuser studies

Naïve Question: What are some of the characteristics of nonuser groups identified by public libraries?

The following table reflects the thesaurus terms gathered from ERIC/FirstSearch.

There were no thesaurus terms found for the first facet of nonuser groups, so I performed a keyword search here.

I then tried each of the following search strings using each facet individually to determine which facet is the most unique.

• SS1 keyword field search: nonuser* OR non-user*

RESULT: 442 records

• SS2 subject field search: public libraries

RESULT: 7,361 records

• SS3 subject field search: library research

RESULT: 6,552 records

SS1 is the most specific facet. I started with that and then added SS3 which yields the second smallest amount of results to get:

• SS4: (nonuser* [in keyword] OR non-user* [in keyword]) AND library research [in subject]

RESULT: 35 records

A final search was done using all three facets to see if anything can be found with the public libraries aspect added.

• SS5: (nonuser* [in keyword] OR non-user* [in keyword]) AND library research [in subject] AND public libraries [in subject]
  

Final result is 12 records.

Citation: Gallup Organization, Inc. (1975). The role of libraries in America. Princeton, NJ: Author.

This is a wonderful technique to find out which facet produces the least amount of results. Also, I was not expecting to see my results get limited so drastically once search statements started being combined because the facet with the most results is used last. However, any additional AND statement can bring the number of results down by any amount.

Successive Fraction Search Strategy with Library Literature

In class, we are all finding out how much practice it takes to perfect searching for material effectively. We are learning different types of search techniques to be able to pull information that we need from databases. This week I gave the successive fraction search strategy a try using the Library Literature database. In this technique, you are supposed to search the facet that gives you the most results first and then add additional facets one at a time, ending with the most unique facet. Here is an account of my search strategy experience.

Naive Question: What are some of the characteristics of nonuser groups identified by public libraries?

Focus groups could bring in the specific aspect of why certain groups of people are not using the library, so this was added as a facet as well.

I then tried each of the following search strings using each facet individually to determine which gives the largest retrieval.

• SS1: public libraries/non-users [in subject] OR non-user* [in Smart Search] OR nonuser* [in Smart Search]
  

The term non-users is being searched using a Smart Search as part of this facet in an attempt to get as many results as possible. The search is conducted with and without the dash to cover all spelling scenarios. Smart Search will try to find a term in the actual document or bibliographic record as well as the subject, author, title, journal name, and abstract fields.

RESULT: 25 records

• SS2 subject field search: public libraries

RESULT: 19,295 records

• SS3 subject field search: focus groups

RESULT: 97 records

SS2 yields the most results. I started with that and then added SS3 which yields the second largest amount of results to get:

• SS4 subject field search: public libraries AND focus groups

RESULT: 8 records – Two facets narrow the results down considerably!

I did another search using all three facets to see if anything can be found with the nonuser aspect added in.

• SS5 search: public libraries [in subject] AND focus groups [in subject] AND (public libraries/non-users [in subject] OR non-user* [in Smart Search] OR nonuser* [in Smart Search])

RESULT: 1 record

Citation: Tyerman, K. (1996). Getting things in focus: the use of focus groups in Brent Libraries. Library Management, 17(2), 36-9.

This is too narrow. Out of curiosity, I searched to see what I would get without the focus group facet, which brought down 19,295 records to 8 records. This facet may be what is limiting my search. This gives the following search statement.

• SS6 search: public libraries [in subject] AND (public libraries/non-users [in subject] OR non-user* [in Smart Search] OR nonuser* [in Smart Search])

RESULT: 16 records

As I guessed, the focus group facet was too limiting! I was able to get more of what I needed without even using this facet.

Citation: Harris, K. (2001). Who are they? In search of the elusive non-user. Colorado Libraries, 27(4), 16-18.

This is a wonderful technique for finding out how much of a topic is covered in a database or if it is covered at all. Sometimes combining the two broadest terms can be more limiting! Therefore, trying to combine the facets in a different way after analyzing the search results can prove helpful.