So… I’m thinking of listening to some podcasts. What good ones are out there? I’ve got the SirsiDynix Institute and Talking with Talis. What else should I be listening to? Or should I come to terms with the fact that I don’t have time… No, that doesn’t sound like fun. ;P
2 CommentsUp until this year, librarians have made little tick marks on a grid to indicate questions answered at the reference desk. We had a new grid every day, and we could tick off how many short questions and long questions we answered every hour, as well as how many questions we’d solved jointly with the IT help people, and how many questions we simply referred to the IT people (I’ll write more about our IT help later, but for now suffice it to say that we have joint service point in the library). I hate to think how much time was put into compiling these paper tick marks each week.
But this year, we’ve beefed up our statistics. In fact, it’s becoming much more than a statistics-collection project. We’re building a knowledge base and learning from our co-workers’ reference interactions.
How are we doing all this? We’re using LibStats, a free, open-source, PHP/SQL database designed by library people at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. This term, we’re using the default install which is perfect for reference interactions either at one location or multiple locations. We had grand plans of customizing the install to allow us to track our instruction and appointment statistics and notes, but we ended up simply taking the default settings so that we could get the system up and running in one day. (Seriously, it didn’t take more than a few hours to set up and get the minor field customizations entered. We got our web team to install the database, and then told the system what values to include for things like “patron type” and “question type.”)
Check out the demo, if you want to play around, but here’s a little run-down of what it does and what I like. You can specify location, patron type, question type, time spent, and librarian VERY easily. Then you can either click “Save Question” or you can type in the question and the answer before saving. You can also go back and change saved questions, backdate them, or add comments. (We use this to help each other out with questions, build in more complete answers, and so on.) We also each initial our questions, which helps with follow up. (It also means that you can filter to see how many questions you have answered this week, which is fun.)
My favorite feature, other than how completely easy it is to use, is that the database remembers your settings so that, for example, when I’m in my office and want to enter an email question I got, I open the database and it remembers that last time I worked from this computer I was in my office, so that location code is already selected for me and my initials are already suggested for me. Or if I go out to the reference desk, I don’t have to specify “Reference Desk” as a location because it remembers that from the last time that computer was used. It remembers all the values you specify, simply adding a date/time stamp to each entry whenever you click “save.” This drastically reduces the necessary clicks.
You can also search questions by keyword, and this is where the knowledge-base comes into the picture. Our database is only 5 weeks old, but already I can search to find passwords to things or for answers to those questions where you know the answer is right under your nose but you can’t think of it. We can also mark trends in questions, so it’s easier for liaisons to get in contact with their professors and say, “hey, we’re seeing a lot of questions about your numerical essay assignment.”
I can’t speak for my co-workers, but I know that this has helped me keep track of things like the questions I get at home or in my office via email. Now I can access the database from anywhere and just enter my question and answer. No more remembering to run out to the desk and make those little tick marks. And we’re hoping to do some database customization over winter break that would allow us to check a box saying that the question still needs attention, which would allow us to flag questions needing follow up, or use the system more like a trouble/ticket system.
Oh, and you can do queries and reports (there are some default reports, but for everything else you’d need to know SQL), or you can do a data dump into Excel and play with data to your heart’s content.
5 CommentsYesterday was impossible. The entire library came to a standstill (or at least a slow and distractable crawl) at the news that one of my co-workers was having a baby. But, after an entire work day of not getting any work done, the news came that mother and daughter were doing fine.
Then there was celebrating… and then students started shushing us… and we retorted that since we’re on the fourth floor and since it was a special day, we could make a little noise.
Now we all wonder what we’re going to do at the baby shower we’d planned for next week…
Congratulations Ann!
[Update: here are some pictures]
Comments closedHead on over to See Also, where Steve Lawson writes thoughtfully (as usual) about the connection between research and writing, information literacy, and the differences and similarities between librarians and disciplinary faculty.
To what extent should librarians help students see multiple sides of the scholarly conversation, develop their own arguments, or give other advice about constructing effective presentations? The only answer I have is “it depends.” It depends on a lot of things, but one of the most important is the librarian’s relationship with the professor. I know one professor, for example, who encourages her students to meet with me as they’re deciding on a topic, as they’re writing their papers, or at any other time in the iterative writing process. She and I in effect double team the students, pushing them to think not only about the answers to their research questions, but also about what makes a good research question in the first place. On the other hand, I know professors who bristle if I do anything more than teach the difference between keyword and subject searching. One professor would prefer me not to talk about evaluation of sources because that’s something properly done during office hours and by “struggling through” drafts.
While I would never suggest that librarians should usurp the professor’s role, I think that there are three specific ways in which we are uniquely placed to help students as they learn to engage with sources. First and most obviously, we are trained to think in terms of sources. We can make educated guesses about whether the information sought would be collected in a compilation, submitted to academic journals, explored in depth in a monograph, reported on in the news, or entered into an encyclopedia. We are adept at jumping straight to the questions “who would publish about this and where would they publish it?” Over the last few weeks, I’ve become acutely aware that most students cannot make educated guesses about these sorts of things. They just guess.
Second, we do not grade students. I’ve had students express confusion to me when they wouldn’t have jeopardized their standing in class to ask a “stupid” question. And I’ve had a couple of good responses from professors who, when I alerted them to a pattern of confusion in their classes, took steps to alleviate that confusion.
Third and most important, librarians are not usually as deeply immersed in the particular subject matter at hand as are the faculty. This often seems like a liability since we can’t simply pull related facts and theories out of our memories and construct searches from this base of knowledge. But far from being a liability, this is actually our greatest advantage. Because we don’t simply “know” the topic at hand, we get to model learning about the topic with the student. The hardest part about this is remembering to narrate our thought processes to students as we work together. I was reminded of this earlier this week when a student asked me how I knew which record in a result list to open. I explained that I didn’t and then consciously narrated through scanning the result list, picking up on clues from publication types and titles, looking at years of publication, and so on. Then I’d click on the record and narrate what I was seeing: title, author, publication name, subject headings, abstract. All this is new to students (especially first year students, though some seniors are almost here), but after a few minutes of this type of modeling most students will begin to take ownership of the search, suggesting new directions, pointing out records to open, and eventually running off to continue on their own. When we model learning, taking notes, going back and modifying old searches, picking up on clues, and getting excited when we find a juicy article, we’re not only helping students locate the information they need, but we’re also helping them learn the art of research.
On a related note, I would add that in addition to negotiating where librarians’ skills overlap with and complement disciplinary faculty’s skills, we should also consider how our skills overlap with those of the writing professionals on our campuses. Last spring I was invited to attend a meeting of writing professionals in our region, and it was eye-opening for all of us to realize that we both think about our jobs in similar ways, and that we both work with students on the same projects. And yet, students are trained not to expect too much help with mechanics and “proof reading” at the writing center. Writing professionals and faculty both expect students to learn about constructing effective arguments when they work with writing tutors. Why should it be so different for librarians? Just as writing tutors work with writers more than with papers, so also academic librarians are in the business of working with researchers, not simply of providing research.
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