May 16, 2013

Serving the DIY Patron: Library Instruction at the Point of NeedMeredith Farkas, Portland State University

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What is DIY?

✤ Self-sufficiency

✤ Personalization/customization

✤ Frugality/rejection of consumerism

✤ Developing skills for creation, reconnection with hands-on activities

✤ A rejection of the mediated/expert model

✤ Doing things outside of traditional hierarchies/boundaries

✤ Satisfaction from building things yourself

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/g7ahn/8369950576/

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/seven_resist/5428142486/

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/pzed/4279771767/Tuesday, May 7, 13

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshb/99851205/Tuesday, May 7, 13

http://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/8670412388/Tuesday, May 7, 13

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/asieo/3109001969/

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/spcummings/2087666493/Tuesday, May 7, 13

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/shifted/8555568803/Tuesday, May 7, 13

http://www.flickr.com/photos/juggernautco/6084899576/Tuesday, May 7, 13

The DIY generation✤ Respect for locally-made, hand-made

✤ Desire for more control, personalization (hacker ethos)

✤ Grassroots politics, leaderless movements (Occupy, Wikileaks)

✤ Growth in communities for the “expert amateur” to make things

✤ Why be DIY? (Kuznetsov & Paulos, “Rise of the Expert Amateur: DIY Projects, Communities, and Cultures.” NordiCHI, 2010)

✤ “Express myself/be creative” (97%)

✤ “Learn new skills” (91%)

✤ “Solve problems/challenge myself” (88%)Tuesday, May 7, 13

Do people like this seek out help from experts?

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Help-seeking in libraries: a history✤ Then

✤ Closed stacks

✤ Mediated searching

✤ Information scarcity

✤ Now

✤ Open stacks

✤ Search tools designed for the end-user

✤ Self-checkout, patron-driven acquisitions, unmediated ILL, etc.Tuesday, May 7, 13

At the same time...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/intersectionconsulting/7537238368/Tuesday, May 7, 13

Plus, most millennials think they’re research...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/osakajock/121838967/ Tuesday, May 7, 13

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Information = Abundant

Time = Scarce

Attention = scarce____________________Do the traditional models still work when information isn’t scarce?

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What has this meant for reference?

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Reference usage has declined

✤ “According to Association of Research Library (ARL) statistics, the number of reference transactions taking place in ARL libraries has declined by more than half since 1995. Control that statistic for enrollment and the decline is greater: in 1995, ARL libraries provided an average of 10.1 reference transactions per student FTE; in 2009 the number was 3.6, a decline of over 60%.”

Anderson, Rick. (2011). “The Crisis in Research Librarianship” Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37(4).

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Reference transactions in U.S. academic libraries Source: NCES

0

750,000

1,500,000

2,250,000

3,000,000

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008

Reference Transactions

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Reference transactions in public libraries Source: NCES

0

0.375

0.75

1.125

1.5

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008

Reference Transactions per capita

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Reference transactions in CA public libraries Source: NCES

0

0.35

0.7

1.05

1.4

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008

Reference Transactions per capita

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Why would they ask us?

✤ College students overwhelmingly (83%) begin their information searches using search engines, though at lower rates than in 2005 (92%). As in 2005, no student surveyed started on the library Web site. College students feel that search engines trump libraries for speed, convenience, reliability and ease of use. Libraries trump search engines for trustworthiness and accuracy. Substantially more students in 2010 (43%) indicated that information from library sources is more trustworthy than from search engines (31% in 2005).

✤ Source: OCLC Perceptions of Libraries 2010 study

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And yet

✤ Source: OCLC Perceptions of Libraries 2010 study

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The DIY patron

✤ Wants to figure it out themselves

✤ Is accustomed to using Google and other web services

✤ Is accustomed to using quick help sites like WikiAnswers, Yahoo! Answers, etc.

✤ Wants things to be intuitive

✤ Looks for pointers about how things work

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Other reasons they might not ask for help✤ Library anxiety

✤ Low academic self-efficacy - asking for help means admitting they lack ability.

✤ Gender - girls “lose their voice” during adolescence

✤ Lack of understanding of the role of the librarian (marketing problem?)

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“We desperately need to invest serious thought and effort into ways that we will not only provide access to information, but also maintain the connections between the wired user and the information expert to demonstrate that the added value that we provide users in this information-saturated environment is far greater than the mere convenience of ‘getting it all online.’”

Brette Barclay Barron, “Distant and Distributed Learners Are Two Sides of the Same Coin,” Computers in Libraries 22 (Jan. 2002): 24–28.

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The answer then for reference instruction

✤ Disintermediate whenever possible

✤ Develop instructional content that mimics answer services on the web like Yahoo! Answers (small, specific bits of content)

✤ Make that content available and easily findable at their points of need 24/7

✤ For academic/K12 librarians: Embed instructional content into the fabric of classes

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Online learning objects

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LEARNING OBJECTS

INSTRUCTION REFERENCE

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LEARNING OBJECTS

INSTRUCTION REFERENCE

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INSTRUCTION REFERENCE

LEARNING OBJECTS TO SUPPORT A

COURSE

LEARNING OBJECTS FOR

POINT OF NEED

INSTRUCTION

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These are two different things

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Do students come looking for this?

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Or this?

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So what about these?

✤ Great when assigned

✤ Useless when not part of a class

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Focused on specific needs

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Discovering needs

✤ Reference transactions

✤ Web statistics

✤ Usability testing

✤ Ethnographic research

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Reference transactions

✤ Collect questions asked at the desk

✤ Reference stats

✤ Virtual reference transcripts

✤ Don’t collect? Talk to colleagues who frequently work the reference desk

✤ Or sample!

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Web analytics

✤ What pages do they visit the most?

✤ What databases do they visit the most?

✤ Where do patrons get frustrated and leave?

✤ Where do they spend a lot of time that doesn’t make sense?

✤ Time on site

✤ Bounce rate

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Usability testing

✤ Giving patrons tasks and watch them use your website to complete them

✤ Watch students do authentic research

✤ Always surprising

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Ethnographic research

✤ Observing students using the library

✤ Focus groups and individual interviews

✤ Photo diary studies

✤ Research journals

✤ Research narratives

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Models that support DIY patrons

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Library DIY @ Portland State

✤Reference librarian in a box✤ Small pieces of instructional content

✤ Based on questions we get at the reference desk

✤ Each one answers just one question

✤ If in-depth help needed, link out

✤ Information architecture gets students to just the info they’re looking for

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Next steps

✤ Finish content development

✤ User testing over the summer

✤ Placement and marketing to make it visible at students’ points of need

✤ On the library website

✤ In the library

✤ On campus

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Making content findable at points of need

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And how findable is this?

✤ Links to tutorials

✤ Under research resources/start your research

✤ Under help/research help

✤ Under Services

✤ Under Library Services --> Instruction

✤ Within LibGuides

✤ Unfindable from some library websites

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/yogendra174/5980718184

Get in their flow

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Where might patrons look for/need help on your library website?

✤ Ask a Librarian page

✤ Any help type of pages

✤ Research guides

✤ Databases page (and inside databases)

✤ Catalog

✤ Webpages for specific services (ILL, gov docs, etc.)

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“The library needs to be in the user environment and not expect the user to find their way to the library environment”-Lorcan Dempsey http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/000688.html

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Go where your users are

✤ in the Learning Management System (LMS)

✤ on an Intranet

✤ in any local social networks or relevant community websites

✤ on Facebook

✤ on mobile devices

✤ in computer labs (on the desktop)

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Digital research help in the physical world

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Link patrons to library instructional content where they need it

✤ In the library

✤ In the stacks, places people get lost

✤ By collections patrons have trouble using

✤ Machines patrons have issues with

✤ Other places people have information needs

✤ Buses, business support organizations, daycare centers, community centers, high schools, academic department offices, residence halls, computer labs, etc.

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QR Codes

✤ Short for Quick Response

✤ Originally developed for inventory control

✤ Need a QR code reader to read

✤ Scan a QR code to access info or take action

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Hicks, A., & Sinkinson, C. (2011). Situated Questions and Answers. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 51(1), 60–69.✤ Placed posters with QR codes in the library in places where patrons

encountered difficulties

✤ For the journals area: Poster says “How do I...

✤ find older issues of the journal?

✤ find the call number for the journal I need?

✤ find a scanner?

✤ find a copy machine?

✤ get more help?Tuesday, May 7, 13

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QR Codes are a stopgap

✤ Near Field Communications

✤ A way for devices to receive information at close range

✤ RFID is an example

✤ User no longer has to take the initiative to scan

✤ In the meantime

✤ Use QR codes with shortened URLs (bit.ly, goo.gl, tinyURL, etc.)

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Another way to reach DIY students

✤ Embed information literacy instruction seamlessly into the DNA of classes

✤ Create learning objects, activities, and self-paced tutorials that faculty can easily integrate into their courses

✤ Embed library instruction meaningfully into classes (beyond the one-shot)

✤ Requires a tremendous amount of relationship-building with faculty + time

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Questions? Comments?

Find me at

http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress

mgfarkas (at) gmail.com

twitter: librarianmer

facebook: meredithfarkas

Slides and links at

meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com

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