4. Discovery: Libraries enable users to discover information in all formats through effective use of technology and organization of knowledge.
4.1 The Library organizes information for effective discovery and access
4.2 The Library integrates library resource access into institutional web and other information portals
4.3 The Library develops resource guides to provide guidance and multiple points of entry to information
4.4 The Library creates and maintains interfaces and system architectures that include all resources and facilitates access
from preferred user starting points
4.5 The Library has technological infrastructure that supports changing modes of information and resource discovery
4.6 The Library provides one-on-one assistance through multiple platforms to help users find information
Background
To address these points the Library draws upon feedback provided through the 2015 and 2018 LibQUAL surveys, a national measure of patron response to physical and virtual library structures, usage statistics of the library website, informal observation of patrons, and feedback from students and professors during and following instruction.
Discussion
The Library’s online catalog records meet professional standards as the backlog continues to decrease, thanks to the Library’s long-term plan to process materials, which includes outsourcing materials to Mansfield University cataloging.
Students and other researchers have numerous access points for services and resources. There are research guides for disciplines taught at BU, for specific BU courses, and for other principal areas such as University Archives and Special Collections. The Library’s website has gone through several iterations in the last five years, to improve navigational, educational, and aesthetic attributes, and a new online catalog was implemented, with greatly improved navigation and aesthetics. Library personnel have taken the first step in integrating the Library’s services and resources into the University’s course management system, implementing an LTI (learning technology interoperability) tool with the assistance of the instructional designers.
The overall frequency of one-to-one research guidance has fluctuated somewhat during the last 5 years but has been trending slightly upwards for the last two years. Dips in numbers some years may be attributable to external events such as curricular scheduling and library faculty members leaving while increases may be attributable to an increased library presence in New Student Orientation and increased library instruction to first year students, making students more aware of research guidance. The use of the on-call research guidance model continues to work well, based upon experiences of Library faculty, Library staff, and students and other patrons. In addition to the on-call system, the business librarian continues to schedule himself in Sutliff Hall for research guidance with Business, Economics and Instructional Technology students.
Library personnel are dedicated to investigating and implementing technological options that support student research and research instruction. The Library’s website is already easily accessed by mobile devices. Library staff have assumed a greater role in using the online chat system to field basic questions and to make referrals to library faculty. The library website is continually revised to make it more user friendly and up-to-date with current good practices
4.1 The Library organizes information for effective discovery and access.
4.2 The Library integrates library resource access into institutional web and other information portals.
4.3 The Library develops resource guides to provide guidance and multiple points of entry to information.
ACTIONS
Library faculty create research guides and web pages for a wide array of audiences and purposes, including ones for students, faculty, and other audiences such as Pennsylvania residents, Bloomsburg University student clubs, fellow librarians at BU and elsewhere, and local high school students.
Library faculty have made discipline-specific research guides, to provide specialized guidance and resources on a broad or introductory level. These discipline-specific research guides increase the visibility of Library services for students and faculty.
Library faculty have also made course-specific Research Guides, to treat nuances of research pertinent to some courses in the curricula; guides are often created at the request of faculty members, and librarians typically create unique guides to support information literacy instruction sessions. These guides are offered each time there is instruction and routinely made available through the Library’s website and, with the instructor’s permission, through BOLT. In summer 2020, course-specific and discipline-specific Research Guides were also made available automatically in BOLT through an LTI tool which matches metadata, under Resources.
Further, the Library faculty have developed extensive Special Topic guides on research-related topics, such as APA Guide 7th Edition, Census 2020, Open Educational Resources (OER), and Where Should I Publish My Article? as well as community-related guides including Census 2020, Genealogical Research, and Opioid Addiction Resources.
OUTCOMES
Through user surveys following instruction and informal feedback, students and other patrons report that the guides are useful, and the guides provide a sense of ownership, structure, and easy access to resources needed for assignments.
Students and faculty have access to searchable Archives and Special Collections web pages and resources using the LibGuides search feature on the Library homepage.
Faculty and graduate students use special topic guides developed by Library faculty to help them with their scholarship and publication.
4.4 The Library creates and maintains interfaces and system architectures that include all resources and facilitates access from preferred user starting points.
4.5 The Library has technological infrastructure that supports changing modes of information and resource discovery.
ACTIONS
The Library has the ability—through University, consortial, and vendor services—to make purchased and subscribed digital materials discoverable through the online catalog and the Library website. The wireless network is accessible throughout the building and the campus. The Library has optimized the mobile interface for its web site. Additionally, full text access to BU resources is available through Google Scholar.
The Library offers EBSCO’s Discovery Search, in which patrons can search for materials regardless of format, including the holdings listed by the Library’s online catalog. The Library migrated to a new Open URL link resolver, Full Text Finder, and Publication Finder (EBSCO’s publication search), during the review period, which enables researchers to locate materials either outside or in conjunction with research databases.
In addition to the option to save searches and items in an account, the catalog offers students the option of texting call numbers and locations to themselves. The Library’s technology promotes navigation to its print collections, and eases this process.
The Library uses Springshare’s LibAnswers platform, which allows librarians to answer reference questions via email, instant messaging, text messaging, Twitter, and online meetings using Zoom, which is synced with Bloomsburg University’s Zoom account. Research librarians use a dedicated cell phone to provide the On-Call Research Guidance. Research librarians may also use a tablet that is dedicated for librarians’ use with patrons.
OUTCOMES
Students and other patrons may tap into the Library’s information inside and outside the building, through a variety of devices, and from many starting points.
Students and other patrons can use a familiar device like a cell phone to carry call numbers with them as they navigate the print collection.
Students and other patrons can search the Library’s webpages and collections, receive informational/directional help, receive research guidance, and request interlibrary loan / document delivery from any location, through any device, and at any time.
4.6 The Library provides one-on-one assistance through multiple platforms to help users find information.
ACTIONS
The Andruss Library’s Research Guidance is an on-call arrangement, whereby in-house researchers come to the Circulation Desk in order to ask for a Librarian to be called to assist them in the workspace of their choosing.
During times when librarians are not available, Library Access Services staff monitor chat, answering directional and informational questions, and referring research questions to librarians through the system; they also provide users with links to the Library’s research guides and LibAnswers’ FAQs in the interim.
The “Ask Us” icon on the Library website directs students and other patrons to chat, email, telephone, and Zoom options. As time and circumstances permit, Librarians rove throughout the building to engage students in their research. The Research Guidance schedule is posted online, where patrons can get contact information for individual librarians. Access services staff frequently refer students to liaison librarians for individual research consultations. Similarly, by reputation, students often refer their fellow students to Library faculty for research guidance.
An “Ask Now” chat widget has been implemented on all Library webpages and within the discovery service (Search Everything @ BU) and within the catalog (BU Books & More).
Librarians schedule research assistance consultation times in other buildings on campus in collaboration with subject faculty. These times/hours are often planned around assignments.
OUTCOMES
Students and other patrons have multiple access points for one-on-one assistance and convenient ways in which to request and receive that assistance.
Librarians have assisted researchers with the following frequencies of advanced READ Scores within this review period. READ scores are a measure of a question’s complexity with a higher score equally greater complexity and requiring more advanced guidance.
|
Figure 2: Upper Level READ Score Frequencies (2015 – 2020) |
|
|
Score |
Transactions |
|
3 |
3512 |
|
4 |
1440 |
|
5 |
195 |
|
6 |
30 |
Students and other patrons may now receive online help whenever the library is open.
Students and other patrons have ready access to research assistance in the workspace of their choosing and when they need it and through the medium of their choice.
Students and other patrons find consultations with librarians by chat to be very helpful, based on chat ratings (for 2019-20, 96.9% of those rating a librarian chat rated it as excellent/good).
Students recommend the one-on-one research guidance to their classmates and friends. Some students return to the librarian’s office with follow up questions. Some students feel comfortable approaching the librarians whose offices are visibly located on the second floor.
Librarians receive fewer basic assistance questions since Access Services staff are often able to assist students who initially contact the Circulation Desk.
Librarians have the flexibility to work in a space of their choosing (e.g. office, Archives, stacks, etc.) when not working with a patron.
Students can receive research guidance coordinated with their class assignments and in the classroom buildings with which they are familiar and find convenient
Andruss Library | 570-389-4205 | reference@bloomu.edu
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