up2date

Alison Head "on Modeling the Information-Seeking Process of College Students in the Digital Age"

From INFOdocket :

Dr. Alison Head from Project Information Literacy recently spoke at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.  An audio file of her presentation is now available online.

Here’s the Blurb:

What is it like to be a college student in the digital age? Alison Head — lead researcher for the national study, Project Information Literacy, Berkman Fellow, and Research Scientist in University of Washington’s Information School — presents a working typology of the undergraduate information-seeking process, including students’ reliance on and use of Web sources.

Learn More About Dr. Head, the Presentation, and Project Information Literacy (with Link to a Recent Report) in this January 4, 2012 post.

National Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2011 Report

From EDUCAUSE :

The ECAR study of undergraduate students and information technology sheds lights on how information technology affects the college experience. ECAR has conducted this annual study since 2004, and though students' ownership and utilization of technology changes from year to year, students consistently rely upon their instructors and institutions to meet their technology expectations and needs. The 2011 study differs from past studies in that the questionnaire was reengineered and responses were gathered from a nationally representative sample of 3,000 students in 1,179 colleges and universities.

• Facebook generation students juggle personal and academic interactions
• Students prefer, and say they learn more in, classes with online components
• Students are drawn to hot technologies, but they rely on more traditional devices
• Students report technology delivers major academic benefits
• Students report uneven perceptions of institutions' and instructors' use of technology

Pew Internet report “A Third of Text Message Users Prefer Them to Voice Calls”

From the ResourceShelf :

Pew Report: Adults Prefer Text Messages to Voice Calls

        From the report:

Some 83% of American adults own cell phones and three-quarters of them (73%) send and receive text messages. The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project asked those texters in a survey how they prefer to be contacted on their cell phone and 31% said they preferred texts to talking on the phone, while 53% said they preferred a voice call to a text message. Another 14% said the contact method they prefer depends on the situation.

Full story >>

Beloit mindset list 2011

Time to feel old again, thanks to the Beloit mindset list (HT to Inside HigherEd). The ones that particularly strike me as indicative :

7. As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.

12. Amazon has never been just a river in South America.

37. Music has always been available via free downloads.

49. Public schools have always made space available for advertising.

 

 

mobile apps & the workplace

From the FastFoward blog a post that makes me think on multiple levels, including mobile apps for patrons & mobile apps for librarians (I really want a YBP Gobi app!) :

Forrester on Designing Mobile Apps

by Bill Ives 

Mobile collaboration is an increasingly important topic... It is a matter of when, not whether that mobile devices exceed desktops. The new Forrester Wave™: Mobile Collaboration, Q3 2011 by Ted Schadler for Content & Collaboration Professionals offers some useful advice on how mobile collaboration requires a new app approach.

We are now living in a work everywhere world. ... Forrester notes that your most productive employees m now use four devices to get work done. This means that “client/server solutions with on-premises servers are inadequate, simply not responsive or agile enough for escalating user requirements and expectations.” [emphasis mine]

They note that mobile apps need to be designed to run well on any mobile device...With so many different mobile platforms and form factors to target, app developers will have to organize differently, code differently, and execute differently. In this new environment design skills grow ever-more important (and scarce). There will be new abstraction layers that separate presentation from interaction from back-end services. Teams now must design for mobile first. [emphasis mine]

Mobile apps must be delivered as a cloud service. Forrester notes that latency is already a problem for distributed organizations and even waiting for email to upload or download to a remote site can be painful. ...

Here is another perspective on mobile app creation from the recent Enterprise 2.0 conference. This session discussed three components that any mobile strategy should have, which includes deciding what goes mobile, understanding how to mobilize applications and services, and designing a framework for managing mobility. On a related note here are some thoughts from the 2011 mLearn Mobile Learning Conference.

7 Things to know about "Gamification"

(I'm sorry, but 'gamification' is not a word.) From EDUCAUSE :

"Gamification [sic] is the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior. The rewards or the spirit of competition can spur students’ concentration and interest and lead to more effective learning. The use of gamification [sic] is wide-ranging in higher education, from extra-credit awards and in-class team competitions to complex multi-level schemes that can pervade a course. Although gamification  [sic] can be deceptively difficult to employ effectively, it has the potential to help build connections among members of the academic community, drawing in shy students, supporting collaboration, and engendering interest in course content that students might not have otherwise explored. Gamification  [sic] offers instructors numerous creative opportunities to enliven their instruction with contests, leader boards, or badges that give students opportunities for recognition and a positive attitude toward their work."

new SPEC kit : Library User Experience

From INFODocket :

From ARL:

...explores recent and planned user experience activities at ARL member libraries and the impact [sic] these efforts have on helping the libraries transform to meet evolving user needs. The survey elicited examples of successful user experience activities to serve as benchmarks for libraries looking to create or expand efforts in this area. It also explored whether libraries have created positions or entire departments focused on user engagement and the user experience.

The survey results revealed that nearly all of the responding ARL member institutions are employing a form of user engagement, whether or not they refer to it as user experience. While there appears to be a lack of common vocabulary or program standardization, there is a growing awareness of the need to assess libraries from the user perspective—with new positions and even departments created to accomplish this goal. Overall, respondents feel that efforts made in assessing the user experience are well spent. They articulated numerous projects that resulted in major program updates and facility revisions and that were well received by library administration, governing/funding boards, and most importantly, by library users.

Direct to Executive Summary and TOC (15 pages; PDF)

"Usability Testing for e-Resource Discovery"

From the latest issue of JAL :

Usability Testing for e-Resource Discovery: How Students Find and Choose e-Resources Using Library Web Sites

Amy Frylow and Linda Rich

ABSTRACT In early 2010, library staff at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio designed and conducted a usability study of key parts of the library web site, focusing on the web pages generated by the library's electronic resources management system (ERM) that list and describe the library's databases. The goal was to discover how users find and choose e-resources and identify ways the library could improve access to e-resources through its web site. This article outlines the usability study conducted at BGSU, presents its conclusions about how students at BGSU find and choose databases, contextualizes these findings with other current research about user behavior, and makes recommendations for increasing student use of library e-resources.

...

“‘If It is Too Inconvenient, I’m Not Going After It:’ Convenience as a Critical Factor in Information-Seeking Behaviors”

I couldn't have said it better myself. From INFODocket :

Authors :

Lynn Silipigni Connaway, OCLC Research
Timothy J. Dickey, OCLC Research
Marie L. Radford, Rutgers University.

From the Abstract:

In today’s fast-paced world, anecdotal evidence suggests that information tends to inundate people, and users of information systems want to find information quickly and conveniently. Empirical evidence for convenience as a critical factor is explored in the data from two multi-year, user studies projects funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The theoretical framework for this understanding is founded in the concepts of bounded rationality and rational choice theory, with Savolainen’s (2006) concept of time as a context in information seeking, as well as gratification theory, informing the emphasis on the seekers’ time horizons. Convenience is a situational criterion in people’s choices and actions during all stages of the information-seeking process. The concept of convenience can include their choice of an information source, their satisfaction with the source and its ease of use, and their time horizon in information seeking. The centrality of convenience is especially prevalent among the younger subjects (“millennials”) in both studies, but also holds across all demographic categories—age, gender, academic role, or user or non-user of virtual reference services. These two studies further indicate that convenience is a factor for making choices in a variety of situations, including both academic information seeking and everyday-life information seeking, although it plays different roles in different situations.

Direct to Complete Article (46 pages; PDF)

"This Preprint is Scheduled to Appear in Library and Information Science Research (33: 179-190) and is being made available by OCLC Research."

languages & social media webinar

From the DICA-lab (University of Luxembourg) website :

Webinar “Where languages collide: How multilingual literacies make social media real”

14 June 2011, University of Luxembourg and broadcast live, 4 PM [that's 9am CDT]

Media and more specifically social media exist in and through multiple languages – in keyboarding, texting, dubbing, subtitling, translating, gaming and in many other ways of media interaction. Multilingualism is key when participating in (social) media. Media literacy is build from various languages and contexts of language use.

• How do social media rely on multiple languages ?
• Is there media literacy without multilingualism ?
• How do users bridge languages and contents in multiuser contexts ?
• How does media literacy construct language identities ?

An interactive debate with two leading researchers in the area of multilingualism and media literacy will address recent findings and discuss examples collected from the multilingual audience preparing and attending the webinar.

Smartphone App for Book Citations

Interestingly, while my reaction to this was overwhelmingly positive, a colleague thinks entirely the opposite. What are your thoughts?

From the Chronicle's Wired Campus :

Smartphone App Makes Book Citations a Snap

February 14, 2011, 3:27 pm

By Ben Wieder

A new smartphone application takes most of the grunt work out of citing books in scholarly papers.

Quick Cite, which costs 99 cents and is available for both iPhones and Android-based phones, uses the camera on a smartphone to scan the bar code on the back of a book. It then e-mails you a bibliography-ready citation in one of four popular styles—APA, MLA, Chigaco, or IEEE.

...

"Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community"

From the ResourceShelf, a new report from OCLC:

From an OCLC Announcement:

Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community, a follow-up to the 2005 Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, is now available. The new report provides updated information and new insights into information consumers and their online information habits, preferences and perceptions. Particular attention was paid to how the current economic downturn has affected information-seeking behaviors and how those changes are reflected in the use and perception of libraries.

The OCLC membership report explores:

+ Technological and economic shifts since 2005
+ Lifestyle changes Americans have made during the recession, including increased use of the library and other online resources
+ How a negative change to employment status impacts use and perceptions of the library
+ How Americans use online resources and libraries in 2010
+ Perceptions of libraries and information resources based on life stage, from teens to college students, to senior Americans.

The membership report is based on U.S. data from an online survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of OCLC. OCLC analyzed and summarized the results in order to produce this report.

On pages 94-97 (beginning on page 51 of PDF) some numbers from the original research Harris Interactive are reported for the first time. The section is titled, "2010 Hot Spots."

On pages 98-101 (beginning of page 53 of PDF) some advice for librarians from library users.

Download the Report (Free)
The report can be downloaded as one document (59 pages; PDF) or by chapter.

You can also purchase a bound version of the report for $19.00/U.S. Details here.

report on "How Different Generations Use the Internet"

From the ResourceShelf :

Generations 2010

HTML Version (Searchable) ||| PDF Version (29 pages)

From the Overview Page:

The dominance of the Millennial generation that we documented in our first “Generations” report in 2009 has slipped in many activities.

Milliennials, those ages 18-33, remain more likely to access the internet wirelessly with a laptop or mobile phone. In addition, they still clearly surpass their elders online when it comes to many communication- and entertainment-related activities, such as using social network sites and playing games online.

However, internet users in Gen X (those ages 34-45) and older cohorts are more likely than Millennials to engage in several online activities, including visiting government websites and getting financial information online.

Finally, the biggest online trend is that, while the very youngest and oldest cohorts may differ, certain key internet uses are becoming more uniformly popular across all age groups. These online activities include seeking health information, purchasing products, making travel reservations, and downloading podcasts.

A Few Stats From the Report:

...

+ Few of the activities covered in this report have decreased in popularity for any age group, with the notable exception of blogging. ...

...

+ About six in ten American adults (59%) go online wirelessly, either through their smartphones or through a wireless card in their laptop.3 Adults age 45 and younger are the most likely to connect to the internet with a laptop, cell phone, or other internet-connected mobile device, as 82% of Millennials and 71% of Gen X connect that way. Only 9% of the G.I. Generation go online wirelessly.

+ Email and search engine use remain the backbone of online activities, with 88% of the oldest generation using email. Communicating by email is not as popular with teens, however; only 73% of teens use email.

Full Text HTML Version (Searchable) ||| Complete PDF Version (29 pages)

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

new issue of JSlit.com

Two articles of interest from this issue :

Impact of Electronic Services on Users: A Study.

Quick Response Code in library services

 

Library as learning space

From the ResourceShelf, announcing the latest issue of the EDUCAUSE Review :

+ "The Library Space as Learning Space"
by Keith Webster

Also perhaps of interest (although it's very short) :

+ "The Techno-Humanist Interaction"
by Virginia Kuhn

"Millennial Students' Mental Models of Search: Implications for Academic Librarians..."

From the latest JAL (corrected proof) :

"Millennial Students' Mental Models of Search: Implications for Academic Librarians and Database Developers

Lucy Holman

Abstract

Today's students exhibit generational differences in the way they search for information. Observations of first-year students revealed a proclivity for simple keyword or phrases searches with frequent misspellings and incorrect logic. Although no students had strong mental models of search mechanisms, those with stronger models did construct more complex searches."

"Professors Publish Guide to Copyright Issues of Multimedia Projects"

From the Chronical's Wired Campus :

"...many students fail to understand the legal risks. A new study, titled “Copying Right and Copying Wrong With Web 2.0 Tools in the Teacher Education and Communications Classrooms,” attempts to educate students about both the appropriate and inappropriate ways to use copyrighted materials that are available to mass audiences on the Internet.

..."

EDUCAUSE Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2010

From the EDUCAUSE blog :

... The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2010 ... is a longitudinal extension of the 2004 through 2009 ECAR studies of students and information technology. It is based on quantitative data from a spring 2010 survey of 36,950 freshmen and seniors at 100 four-year institutions and students at 27 two-year institutions; student focus groups that included input from 84 students at 4 institutions; and review of qualitative data from written responses to open-ended questions. In addition to exploring student ownership, experience, behaviors, preferences, and skills with respect to information technologies, including ownership and use of Internet-capable handheld devices, the 2010 study also includes a special focus on student use of social networking websites and web-based applications. Because of the critical importance of this topic, ECAR has made the full study, roadmap, and key findings available online to everyone now.

Comparison of Student and Faculty Academic Technology Use Across Disciplines

From EDUCAUSE :

"By Kevin R. Guidry and Allison BrckaLorenz

Key Takeaways

• Students and faculty use course management systems much more frequently than any other technology.
• Professional students use classroom response devices ("clickers") and Education students use e-portfolios more often than students in other fields use either.
• Faculty in all disciplines rarely use blogs, collaborative editing tools, and games and simulations.
• Students and faculty have different expectations and use technologies in different contexts, which can create tension and misunderstandings between the two groups.

...

Conclusion

Not only do students and faculty use some technologies in different frequencies, students and faculty in different disciplines use different technologies in different frequencies. Hence a "one-size-fits-all" approach to providing and supporting academic technologies will not suffice. Moreover, students and faculty have different expectations and use technologies in different contexts, which may create tension and misunderstandings between these two groups. Although this study confirms the general belief that students use technology more often than faculty, it also reminds us that the academic technology landscape is complicated and ever changing, always challenging our assumptions and demanding more context and deeper examination."

"Undergraduates' Information Retrieval in Electronic and Print Books"

A corrected proof from JAL :

Abstract

Academic libraries are increasingly collecting e-books, but little research has investigated how students use e-books compared to print texts. This study used a prompted think-aloud method to gain an understanding of the information retrieval behavior of students in both formats. Qualitative analysis identified themes that will inform instruction and collection practices.