The Ubiquitous Librarian (Brian Mathews)

While Reference Stats Decline, Oregon surges +51%. A glimpse at some ARL outliers

I read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers this week and it is a great book... but I like all his stuff. The section on Asian students and math/work ethic is really good and I really liked his analysis on sports and age limit deadlines. There is also some good parenting advice in there as well.

Anyway, my colleague Jon Bodnar and I are working on a handful of writing projects and this theme of outliers started to standout for me. We are currently processing a ton of ARL stats and I became very interested in the idea of who is outperforming the overall trends. This post is in no why authoritative, statistically valid, or what have you—just something I found interesting and that wanted to share. Jon’s office is right beside mine and so we’ve been discovering these types of epiphanies all week long.  It has been a good week.

Reference Questions
Overall the trend is downward. Nothing new here, we’ve all been hearing that for years. When you look at 1995 to 2005 the ARL average drops about 47%. That is a lot fewer questions!

Ah, but not at Oregon. The Ducks report a +51% increase in reference queries during this time period. Interesting, but why? Did they add service points? Did they renovate or change the layout? Did they alter the way they record stats? I am sure there are many variables, but I just found it fascinating that while everyone else declined they surged so much.

Other Reference Outliers:

• Columbia (+46%)
• Toronto (+40%)
• Washington (+38%)
• Cincinnati  (+36)

There were a total of 12 libraries that saw an increase during this period, the other 83 saw a decline.
NOTE: Not all member libraries provided data.

Total Circulation
Total circulation is another area that has seen an overall decline. From 1995 – 2005 the average total circ count per ARL library is down 11%. Not bad really. The steepest drop is -68%, but overall -11% seems decent. I would have suspected about -30 or -40%, but what do I know? One think I do know is that patrons at Ohio State love to borrow books! During this same period OSU saw a +110% increase in circulation. I didn’t believe it at first but visited their website to double check—indeed it is true. So again, why? They have been building a new library for years, but I would think that would hurt circulation. Are they circulating more DVDs? More reserves? Why are they busting the overall trend? That is a substantial increase!

Other Circulation Outliers:
Columbia (+66%)
Harvard (+59%)
Southern Illinois (+52%)
Utah (+40%)

There were a total of 32 libraries that saw an increase during this period, the other 73 saw a decline.
NOTE: Not all member libraries provided data.

Instruction
Last but not least: instruction. ARL asks for groups as well as total participants involved with instruction. My feeling is that there is some inconsistency here. I mean, do you only count classroom sessions? What about orientations? What about tours?  This is very subjective. If I help four students working together on an assignment does that count as a group or is that four reference queries?  Maybe both? Or maybe just one query? In other words, take this section with a grain of salt. I doubt all 100+ libraries are following the same counting practices.

From 1995 to 2005 there has been a significant rise with instruction or at least in attendance.  The stat for “presentation participants” went up +40%. That’s huge.

And who saw the largest increase? Toronto with +392%. That’s right they taught just over 6,000 students in 1996 and then reached over 30,000 in 2005. Texas gets the top honor for most participants in 2005 with 61,042, but how did Toronto surge so much in such a short time? What’s the story? Did they get new classrooms? More librarians? A change in the curriculum?

Yale was another top outlier with a +361% increase. In 2005 they had over 10,000 people participate in instruction sessions--- that is pretty good for a school with just 5,300 undergraduates.
In fact, there were 22 libraries that saw triple digital percentage increases during this 10 year period. Only 19 schools saw a decrease with instruction, while the bulk was somewhere between 20% and 90%. Here is a quick trend line:

So again that question: why did Toronto (+392), Yale (+361), Boston (+276), Columbia (+259), and Emory (+227) pull far ahead of everyone else? Did these organizations decide to really push instruction? Did the faculty really embrace information literacy? Did they all start counting the ten minute overviews that librarians give at new student orientation events as “instructional” sessions? Who knows? Columbia ended up in the top five of all three catagories-- why? Why them instead of Cornell or Harvard or Wisconsin or UCLA?

As I mentioned, Jon and I are hacking at some data that really has nothing to do with this topic— this is my tangent. I just find it incredibly fascinating to look at the data and piece together stories. Gladwell of course would go three levels deeper and rationalize what happened at each place and could tell us why Columbia was so successful. I am just aiming for an entertaining winter break blog post.

dataDUMP = a social-driven library instruction project

Our Fall Semester is less than a week ahead. This is one of the busiest times of the year, at least for reference librarian types. There is always a sort of slumber that I get used to during the summer which is jolted awake by thousands of students returning to campus. The first few days of a new semester are always exciting—a heightened energy—so I am looking forward to it, but wish I had another few weeks to finish projects.

Regarding instruction, my main liaison responsibility now is the College of Computing and I’ve tinkered around with some instruction ideas. A few professors invite me to talk with their classes, the tradition instruction approach. And a few of them also ask me to prepare handouts, help guides, or Camtasia video tutorials for their course management system--we use Sakai. Several of my colleagues offer office hours at the departments they serve or host one-shot workshops in the library focused on their particular disciplines. Good ideas, but I have found it difficult to get students to talk with me when I use these formal routes. Then of course there is the librarian with a latte model, which is office hours combined with a library instruction session but set in a café.

In keeping with the spirit of these outreach attempts, I need something that speaks to my specific audience. And so I proudly announce dataDUMP: a weekly online gathering of Georgia Tech students centered on computer science and the related culture. I’ll be using Wimba, a digital classroom environment with text, chat, app sharing, and so on. The objective is to make this a regular evening event that students might check out from time to time while they are doing other stuff online. I don’t want to make it too instruction-driven, that is, maybe we’ll talk about assignments or papers and that sort of thing if it comes up, but maybe we’ll talk about interesting new websites, software, gadgets, Wired articles, or IT gossip.

The focus is not “the library” or “using the resources” – it’s about a social outlet connecting CS majors (and perhaps a few faculty) around a topic of mutual interest. The library is a sponsor, but this is really a chance for these students to showoff their work, to ask each other questions, to share stories or code, and whatever else they are interested in. (jobs, the major, the campus, GT football, comics, movies, etc.)

DataDUMP positions the librarian as a participant, not as the all-knowing persona who is running the show or preaching about the horrible inaccuracies of Wikipedia. I figure I can learn a lot from them in terms of the curriculum, their approach to assignments, as well as about computer science.

It could totally flop-- I am prepared for that, but I have to try something. If anything, I hope this approach gains me some online cred with these students. That way when I casually mention Safari Tech Books or patent searching for emerging start-ups, they might actually listen, or better yet, be interested. We'll see.

Second Life Revisited – are we ready to provide classroom support?

I attended an AIMA event this week about Second Life. The presentation, How Virtual Worlds are Impacting Interactive Marketing , featured an all-star panel with reps from major companies. Below are some highlights. Also, some thoughts about the role of the librarian within the virtual world.

InterContinental Hotels Group - Del Ross

• Real world hotel corporation that offers virtual rooms in Second Life. Just as you might have a business meeting in the real world, they can also provide space for virtual meetings.
• Right now it is free, but planning to charge in the future. 100 – 500 Linden dollars, which is a little less than 1 dollar real money.
• They provide rentable space that offers privacy, security, suitable space, and support (audio, video, PPT, etc)
• Online Room Reservation form and tons of other info.
• If you don't own land in SL, no place to meet, conduct business—they are trying to fit that need—their slogan is “the place to meet”
• Informal space, convention space, lounge, executive board room – space can be configured depending upon the need.
• SL showcases their “real” world value—virtual space mirrors the physical spaces that they make available to customers. They are in the business of “business environments” regardless of the location.

Weather Channel - Paul Greenberg

• Major theme of weather channel is to show how weather connects to your life—more than just the science, but also the psychology of how weather has an impact on us.
• Wanted to build a Second Life space that supports TV programming
• Stay. Play. Watch.
  (stay = community areas for shared experiences)
  (play = do stuff, interact)
  (watch = video programming)
• Hurricane environment – witness & experience what a storm is like, virtually
• Sports activities= surfing, biking, skiing – all with variable weather conditions
• Has improved the impression/perception of the Weather Channel
• The numbers are low, compared with TV/Radio/Print/Web—however SL provides an engagement experience that is more valuable and memorable

Turner - Rhonda Lowry

• Rethink spam = Socialization, Participation, and Motivation (SPaM)
• The “real” CNN has iReport, basically citizen reports. They started a Second Life iReport program—basically correspontants reporting on the news that happens in SL. CNN provides them with tools and training (one hour weekly training sessions in-world about taking photos, shooting video, interviewing, writing copy, etc) teach them how to be reporters—they report about SL, CNN provides them with a sense of legitimacy / authenticity -- in return, CNN gets to expand reputation as THE news provider. More info here.  

Kaneva - Chris Klaus

• Kaneva is a virtual world similar to Second Life, however they emphasize being yourself (as opposed to dragons or super models)
• Emerging trend is watching TV online in a virtual world with your friends. They have experimented with the show 10 items or less by having cast join fans in the virtual environment to interact, ask questions, and hang out.
• Also stream behind-the-scenes at tv sets / awards show. Screen Actors Guild Awards had extra cameras, could watch crew setup and take down set—and talk with others online while watching.
• Interior designers can work with clients –use virtual space to model rooms—see what colors and furniture will look life before purchasing.

Coca-Cola - Mike Donnelly

• Before Coke got involved they went to the “leaders” of Second Life—the major blogs, the virtual citizens with power and popular land, etc and talked with them about how Coke might fit in. When entering a new territory or using a new technology, need to listen and learn, don't think you know what they want—ask advice, council, and even permission.
• They didn't want to buy and build up an island. Lots of companies did that and are stuck with empty islands—Coke rented land, but ultimately try to embedded themselves within community (people wear coke clothing)
• Virtual Thirst contest – winner – objective was to design virtual coke machine—however not necessary a literal vending machine—but some type of experience that captures the essence of Coke. Design and build the vending machine of the future (not necessarily about bottles of soda though)
• Once Coke decided that they wanted to participate in Second Life—discovered that the brand already existed—people has used the logo
• Wanted to build on the idea of “quenching” thirst = knowledge, experience, entertainment, communication, inspiration

Second Life, Classroom Instruction, and the Role of the Library

Fittingly enough, I received an email the evening of this event from a Georgia Tech faculty member. He is an English instructor wanting to include a SL component to his course. This includes several in-world meetings along with virtual space and support for his students to develop a small project.

What's the role of the library here? I mean, if a professor asks for face-to-face classroom support we provide that. If they ask for web support via WebCT or via an online service like Horizon Wimba, we'd most likely provide that too. But what about Second Life? How many of us are ready to offer services there?

I feel that librarians can benefit from a basic understanding of virtual worlds for cases just like this… and this example is going to become more common. Imagine the possibility of say a physics class in which you have a lecture, a lab, and a virtual world homework assignment (3 distinct components.) Maybe an aerospace class conducts experiments in zero gravity. Maybe a class of civil engineers and a class of architects have to work together on building a structure, just like in the real world.

SL has a lot of info for educators . Are you ready to help them? If the classroom and the curriculum are heading into a virtual environment, shouldn't libraries follow? Or even better, shouldn't they lead the way? The idea of setting up a virtual reference desk and waiting around for patrons is preposterous, but collaborating with faculty and creating engagement experiences is the future of education.

Some of my other SL posts:

Augmented Reality – the Georgia Tech model

Second Thoughts – the Woodbury Model

Fairfield U Goes Experiential

I got a sneak peak at Fairfield Beach, an instructional tool that the Fairfield U library is using this semester. I have to claim some influence since I shared my “Laguna Beach in a Library” project with one of the screenwriters. The gist of the project involves the experiential narrative -- showing how the library fits into the context of the student life, as opposed to glorifying the librarian or collections. In their video, the library is the setting, or perhaps is arguably a character itself, yet the students are the stars.

The librarians at Fairfield U put an interesting spin on it by embedding a choose-your-own-adventure approach in which the protagonist is presented with options and the audience must choose her path.

They are using the video with instruction sessions this semester. Previously they handed out maps/floor plans and talked students through the various services that the library offers. The video approach on the other hand engages the class (they make the decisions on what to do next) and it attempts to provide a more interesting delivery of the material—it also follows a romantic storyline.

The script was written over the summer by two librarians: Leslie Porter and Ramona Islam. They turned it over to the Fairfield media lab where a student (Bob Cammisa) pulled together the cast and filmed the project.

Don’t you wish you could watch it? Well it's not online—and if it’s not online then it doesn’t exist, but here is a leaked demo. (UPDATE: Fairfield asked me to remove the link to the video clip.) For an Abercrombie school like Fairfield this type of presentation works well, plus the users are the stars, not the librarians -- sorry L-team. But seriously, if you make a video, put it online so that it becomes a discovery tool—this isn’t the 90’s—everything is web-based now!

If you want more information about the Fairfield Beach video tool email the reference staff.

For more library orientation videos, see: U Dayton & UVA (also see The BC, non-library content, but same genre.)

Special thanks to Dottie Hunt, who constantly shows me why I should be using a Mac.

Are we addressing real needs or just offering strawberry frappuccinos? A lesson from Kroger

Yesterday afternoon I went into my local grocery store. I picked up what I needed and moved along to the checkout isle. LONG LINES! They had the self check section, which I like, but most of us had full carts. They only had two lanes open, but each lane had two baggers. Why couldn’t they have cross trained baggers to be cashiers for rush periods?

I could see two other employees messing around with a broken self-serve Georgia Lottery machine... couldn’t they have let that go for a few minutes to open up additional lanes?

I’m sure this happens everyday in every grocery store across the country— but what bothered me is while we were waiting two more employees came out offering strawberry frappuccino samples. Why couldn’t one of them open an additional lane?

Kroger’s priorities didn’t match the customer's need. Each lane was over six customers deep... we all wanted to purchase goods and be on our way, yet their workflow was not designed to be optimized... not build for congestion. Each employee had their role, their task, and even though a bottleneck emerged, employees stayed within the framework.

I felt something similar last summer when we merged our circulation and reference desks during renovations. On the reference side we didn’t have the software or access privileges to the circ client and hence could not check out books or answer patron account questions. We couldn’t address a large portion of actual needs.

Do patrons really need to know about Boolean and Advanced Searching tactics? Do they need to understand and appreciate peer reviewed journals? Do they even need to know how a library catalog works? I'm not against reference or information literacy, but I just feel our approach and rhetoric (as a profession) might be off-message to our users. Very old-world.

Many libraries claim to be user-centered, but when I talk with librarians or read their blog posts or see their flyers and advertising they still seem to be very library-centered, even very reference-centered. We can't seem to move beyond "the term paper" mentality.

I don’t know—still working this one out. But I’m starting to think that all I have to offer are strawberry frappuccinos... and missing out on what my patrons really need.

Note: At ALA, Google was made librarians participate in a 4 question online scavenger hunt in order to earn a Google Pin. How lame is that? Note to all vendors--- ipods and mp3 players are pretty old now--- try and lure us with GPS or iPhones or something cool. Pins? Seriously...

Note 2: Google, please learn who Morrissey is. Gmail has no clue, yet Microsoft Word is down with rock icons.

Using MySpace to Teach Information Literacy

Sure, online social networks have potential for outreach and advertising, but can they also be used for instruction?

A common annoyance on MySpace are friend-spammers . I'm not sure what the slang term is, but these are essentially profiles created to direct viewers to another web site. This isn't always as malevolent as the media likes to hype . The most common examples include profile customization tools, web cams, and unsigned bands.

It's sad to see that people actually believe these profiles are real. Users want to believe that some model-hot girl is lonely and sought them out for friendship. And even though she “doesn't really use MySpace much,” encourages you to view her other website. There is tons of this type of thing. Different photos, different angles, different approaches—but all and all, the same objective: click here!

The sad thing is that guys actually fall for it. You can tell because they post public messages to these spam accounts along the lines of “Oh you are so hot—let's meet up this weekend.” People want to believe the fantasy so much, that they can't see they're being deceived.

So, why not start a class looking at such a profile and evaluating it? That's the core of information literacy right? We aim to teach practical skills and lifelong learning, so why not apply it to a common college student experience?

Look for the flaws. Analyze and evaluate the material. Does the fact that she's linking to a fee based site raise any flags or do guys skip the content and focus on the seductive photos? Is there anything in the content that seems false or cliché? What is the overall message or theme within the profile? Why would someone create this profile? How do they profit/benefit? How about those 900+ friends she has? Approach this from the ‘man behind the curtain' via the Wizard of Oz and expose the truth.

Sure, there is some sexual undertones and I can already see some librarian scowling at this idea—but you'd probably have a better chance of capturing their attention and engagement with something like this, rather than starting off with Boolean searching subject headings, and the OPAC.

It also allows you to segue into more traditional content—something like this:

Ok, so let's step out of MySpace now and see how we can apply this to your assignment. Let's say you're doing alternative fuel sources. Here is an article I found online . It seems pretty legit, they've got all these statistics, they've done the research and they even cite a more scholarly publication they've written, which we have right here . So what do we think? They're saying it's not worth it. That ethanol and biodiesel from crops is too much work. Obviously we're not scientists, but what can we tell from the evidence? What can we tell from the way it is presented? Is there bias? Is it creditable? Do we just accept this or do we want to get a second opinion?

Wired magazine just published this article , which essentially refutes the idea—claiming that ethanol is efficient. They also state that the researchers of the original article have ties to the oil industry? How does that change our perception? Why would the oil industry want to discourage alternative fuels? Can we trust Wired? What's their agenda?

This opens up discussion about critical thinking, analysis and resource types. I'd stress the point that you can't believe everything— that you have to read between the lines. Accumulation of articles and information is the easy part, but forming your narrative, your output, that's the real challenge. Then you can go into the old: “I'm going to give you some tips, suggestions, and short cuts for finding resources. Let's start with Academic Search Premier…” And so on.

If MySpace is too risqué, maybe use Apartment Ratings . How many of you live in apartment? How many of you are happy? How many are looking for someplace else to live? Then talk about what's important. What are the key features you look for? Is there a balance between location, price, and comfort? Apartment Ratings is interesting because it's open for comments – for the users by the users. Here is an example: Summit at Lenox . It repeatedly gets negative ratings and comments, is this one person who really hates the place or is it consensus? Notice the post on 04/11/2006 that states:

"The Summit at Lenox sold their property to a new owner and its like a whole new community! All the buildings, elevators, even the pool has been renovated! Maintainance responds to problems promptly and the staff is really nice. I was about to move out and now I'm glad I didnt!"

This is obviously insider perspective. But people can see through it. In the comments posted to this opinion, people see the lie. Get students talking and thinking. Who do we believe? Does is place really suck or is it ok? Does anyone live there? Has anyone seen or visited this place?

Aim to make critical thinking practical and relevant to them, before boring them with journals and database searching.

Of related interest:

• Gun Control
• Male Pregnancy
• Why Most Research Findings are False
• The Sokal Affair
• UCLA Library: Hoax? Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? You Decide!

Sell the Sizzle

In marketing they say sell the sizzle, not the steak. I'm trying to incorporate that into my presentations. Our semester opens on Monday so it's that crazy of the year again. I uploaded a ‘sizzle' sample to show my approach. This is the first few minutes of a talk I gave to undergraduate students last week.

My objective was to show the library as a dynamic place. Every library has something unique, something interesting, something most students don't know about—show it! Don't go right into all the boring stuff like books and journals and policies--- there is plenty of time for that later. Have some fun. Surprise them! Build some intrigue. I hope that this approach wins me some creditability and that they might actually tune in for the rest of the talk.