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Friday, November 13, 2015

OCLC Research publishes 'The Library in the Life of the User'



OCLC Research has published a new compilation, The Library in the Life of the User: Engaging with People Where They Live and Learn, which represents more than a decade of collaborative work studying the information-seeking behaviors of library users.

Compiled and co-authored by Lynn Silipigni Connaway, findings from The Library in the Life of the User articulate the need for the design of future library services to be focused on the library user. The compilation is intended to provide a sequential overview of the findings of user behavior research for librarians, information scientists, and library and information science students and researchers as they think about new ways to provide user-centered library services.

"It is important to think of the library in the life of the user instead of the traditional model of the user in the life of the library," according to Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President, OCLC Research and Chief Strategist. The findings in these studies illustrate how some library user behaviors have changed as new technologies emerge, while other behaviors remain constant.
Among the findings:
  • People associate the library with books and do not consider the library in relation to online resources or reference services.
  • People may not think of using libraries to get their information because they do not know that the services exist, and some of the existing services are not familiar or do not fit into their workflows.
  • The context and situation of the information need often dictate how people behave and engage with technology.
  • Engagement and relationship building in both the online and physical environments is important for the development of successful and effective services.

The Library in the Life of the User includes a collection of work completed in the OCLC Research user studies theme. It represents more than a decade of work with colleagues from The Ohio State University and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and with Jisc, in collaboration with Oxford University and the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

Click on report here: The Library in the Life of the User: Engaging with People Where They Live and Learn

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

PEW Report - Technology Device Ownership: 2015

pew

A recent report from Pew Research Center on technology device ownership in 2015 states the following:

Today, 68% of U.S. adults have a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011, and tablet computer ownership has edged up to 45% among adults, according to newly released survey data from the Pew Research Center. Smartphone ownership is nearing the saturation point with some groups: 86% of those ages 18-29 have a smartphone, as do 83% of those ages 30-49 and 87% of those living in households earning $75,000 and up annually.

At the same time, the surveys suggest the adoption of some digital devices has slowed and even declined in recent years.

Read full report here:

Friday, October 16, 2015

Google's Massive Book-Scanning Project Is Legal

Article by Joseph Ax
A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that Google's massive effort to scan millions of books for an online library does not violate copyright law, rejecting claims from a group of authors that the project illegally deprives them of revenue.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected infringement claims from the Authors Guild and several individual writers, and found that the project provides a public service without violating intellectual property law.
The authors sued Google, whose parent company is now named Alphabet Inc, in 2005, a year after the project was launched. They claimed that the scanning illegally deprived them of revenue.
But Google argued that the effort would actually boost book sales by making it easier for readers to find works, while introducing them to books they might not otherwise have seen.
A Google spokesman and a lawyer for the authors both did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Google had said it could face billions of dollars in potential damages if the authors prevailed.
Circuit Judge Denny Chin, who oversaw the case at the lower court level, dismissed the litigation in 2013, prompting the authors' appeal.
Chin found Google's scanning of tens of millions of books and posting "snippets" online constituted "fair use" under U.S. copyright law.
A unanimous three-judge appeals panel said the case "tests the boundaries of fair use," but found Google's practices were ultimately allowed under the law.
"Google’s division of the page into tiny snippets is designed to show the searcher just enough context surrounding the searched term to help her evaluate whether the book falls within the scope of her interest (without revealing so much as to threaten the author’s copyright interests)," Circuit Judge Pierre Leval wrote for the court.
The 2nd Circuit had previously rejected a similar lawsuit from the Authors Guild in June 2014 against a consortium of universities and research libraries that built a searchable online database of millions of scanned works.
Google Books began after the company agreed with several major research libraries to digitize current and out-of-print books from their collections.

Friday, April 24, 2015

 Syncing for Success: Social Media & Mobile Apps: Tips & Tools for Innovative Services

Wednesday, April 29, 2015
11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Summary:
As the volume of free online resources continues to grow exponentially, so do the challenges faced by librarians and other information professionals in their task of finding, evaluating, and facilitating community access to this free content. This presentation promotes free social media tools and mobile apps and shows how these can be successfully applied in libraries and other working environments. Developed specifically for “info pros” who want to use tech tools to innovate, improve, and add value to services, it focuses on innovative concepts and trends that are rapidly being “mashed up” and adopted in the library world. Learn about tools and apps supporting the latest trends in cloud storage, crowdfunding, ebooks, makerspaces, MOOCs, news aggregation, photo and video sharing, self-publishing, social networking and bookmarking, video conferencing, visualization, and wearable technology.

This presentation can be found on the Computer in Libraries 2015 conference page

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Announcing The Cybrarian's Web Vol 2

Finally I can announce the completion of the second volume of The Cybrarian's Web 2 (TCW2). Similar in purpose, organization, and content to the first version, TCW2 provides in-depth summaries and analysis of free resources on the web and the practical application and implementation of these resources in libraries and other work environments. While the first volume was written as a starter guide to social media tools, catering mainly to the needs of an audience with limited technological knowledge (for example, brief overviews and library use of popular tools such as Blogger, Delicious, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and YouTube), TCW2  focuses on lesser-known tools successfully implemented by libraries. Another major divergence is the extensive coverage given to ebooks, ebook collections and  ebook readers.

TCW2 also focuses on innovative concepts and trends that are rapidly being mashed up and adopted in the library world. Readers will learn about these in chapters that cover topics such as self-publishing, cloud storage and hosting, crowdfunding, mobile applications (apps), makerspaces, massive open online courses (MOOCs), social news aggregators, social media management services and visualization tools.  Readers are also introduced to wearable technology in the form of Google Glass.

I hope that this book, like the first volume will serve a wide cross section of readers in multiple communities supporting productivity, collegial collaboration, and self-development, and that readers discover its usefulness as a guide and learning tool to innovate, improve, and add value to library services in the digital age.

Learn..Experiment...Share

Order from  the Information Today Bookstore.

Read sample chapter on Information Today website
Read sample chapter on Scribd
Cheryl Ann Peltier-Davis

 

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Call for Conference Papers



The Association of Caribbean Higher Education Administrators (ACHEA) will be hosting its 14th Annual ACHEA conference from July 9-11, 2015 in Trinidad and Tobago.

Conference Theme:

Re-visioning, Re-assessing and Re-committing for Success in Higher Education

Sub-themes

ACHEA invites papers which take into consideration the conference theme or address the sub-themes:
  • The Role and Mission of the HEIs in the 21st Century
  • The Ideal Administrator in Higher Education
  • Internationalization in Higher Education
  • Governance in Higher Education
  • Exploring the New Frontiers in Teaching and Learning Modalities
  • Curriculum Development (CARICOM Mandate)
  • Enrolment Management: Efficiency, Customer Service, and Marketing
  • Human Resource Management: Recruitment, Development, and Retention
  • Fostering Partnerships for Financing Higher Education
  • The Role of Succession Planning in Higher Education
  • Partnering with Stakeholders for Success in Higher Education
  • Sustainable Development in Higher Education
  • Facilities Management and Space Planning
Link to Call for papers (deadline date March 21, 2015)


Association of Caribbean University Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) 2015 conference will be held in Suriname on June 7 - 11.

MAIN THEME:
Collaborative Continuing Education: Learn, Act and Inspire: Professional and Personal Development Opportunities for Lifelong Learning in Libraries, Archives and Museums in the Caribbean. 

Sub-Theme I
Assessing and identifying professional and personal learning needs and opportunities
Updating old skills and learning new ones. The advancement in the career ladder of information professionals rethinking and reinventing learning.

Sub-Theme II
Collaborative Learning for All: Developing and Implementing a Professional/Personal Learning Plan
Refurbishing and acquiring new competencies and cultural heritage through transdisciplinary collaboration that focuses on opportunities for knowledge workers to work in teams, communities, and organizations that encompass multiple ways of knowing and collaborating

Sub-Theme III
Evaluating Learning Outcomes and Search for New Opportunities of Continuous Learning and Performance
Improving social, professional and personal abilities (self-awareness, self-knowledge) for the joy of learning and a better quality of life.


Monday, January 5, 2015

Top Ten Buzzwords of 2015

Lucy Bernholz shares her thoughts on the top ten  buzzwords of 2015

1. Internet of Things

It’s no longer just your laptop and your phone that hook you in to the online world. Digital connections are now linking our watches, shoes, refrigerators, thermostats, cars, and almost anything else that can hold a teeny-tiny chip. Each of these devices becomes a sensor—a collector and distributor—of data about our habits, our activities, and us. More promise and more peril await nonprofits and the people they serve as a result of this transformation. The Internet of Things is also known as ubiquitous computing or the "web with many things."

2. Citizen Science

As the cost of materials, equipment, and information drop, the do-it-yourself and "maker" movements are turning to garage biology, chemistry, and physics. Teenager Jack Andraka made headlines as a self-taught cancer researcher who discovered a pathbreaking way to detect pancreatic cancer early, and Public Lab has launched numerous well-known science projects for social good. Lots of people engaging in science is a good thing. On the other hand, given the ubiquity of data-collecting devices (see Internet of Things), we’ll surely have more occasions to ask, "How did they get that information?" and "Who should be monitoring the scientists?"

3. Giving Days

Dedicating a specific day to fundraising for a certain cause has a long history. Galvanizing lots of people around challenge grants has been a mainstay fundraising tool deployed by American community foundations for several years. But with the spectacular success of Giving Tuesday, a re-branding of the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving to focus on charitable giving, these events have reached a new pitch. In its third year, the event has gone global and become a much-watched case example of using social media for good.

4. A/B Testing

This is the practice of showing different interfaces or options to specific groups of people and seeing which one is best at generating the behavior you want to spark. Commonly used by direct-marketing firms, software developers, and interface designers, A/B testing entered common parlance with the Obama presidential campaign’s widespread use of it in testing fundraising emails. The 2014 Facebook "contagion" study, which used algorithmic manipulation to see whether happy or grim news changed how people behaved, reminded us that the software behind our screens is making choices about what we see.

5. Data Gender Gap

Gender disparities abound in data. Yes, even today medical research is still done mostly on men (or male mice). Many other large sets of data are used to inform policy or grant-making decisions, despite the built-in biases created by omission. Similarly, large collections of data also abound in—and can reinforce and exacerbate—racial, ethnic, linguistic, geographic, and economic biases. Look for resources on data discrimination and the built-in biases of data analytics and prediction to get far more (much-needed) attention in 2015.

6. Encryption

Human-rights activists are on the front edge of creating and using secure technologies to stay clear of corporate and government oversight. Major foundations and large nonprofits have become targets for hackers, whether they’re looking for sensitive grant information or stealing donor information. A new British nonprofit, Simply Secure, makes encrypted software for email and mobile phones easier to use and more readily available. Nowadays, security is about more than not clicking on the suspicious link in that phishing email. Nonprofits and foundations will be taking more steps to keep their abundant digital data secure.

7. Artivists

Take art, mix it with activism, and you get artivists. Whether it’s posters and sculptures in public squares or the artistic protest associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement, artivists are stepping out of the shadows and into the limelight. There’s a book of case studies, Beautiful Trouble, to help inspire and coach. Art played a role in the 2014 Hong Kong protests and is part of an effort by cyclists in Germany to connect crowdsourced data on biking routes to public art projects, all in the name of changing public policy.

8. Wearables

Bracelet-style fitness monitors, upmarket pedometers masquerading as jewelry, and digital-sensor-enabled clothing to monitor sweat patterns or heart rhythms are just the latest ways people are wearing devices to connect them to the Internet. Opportunities to donate to charity based on your "steps walked" emerged almost instantly after Fitbit tracker became popular. These devices also fed a widely publicized data visualization of how the 2014 Napa Valley earthquake disturbed sleep, which may be a harbinger of how big data will be used. The data from these devices have already made it into courtroom battles. The more common these devices become, the more people resemble walking, talking cheap data points.

9. Smart Cities

More and more of the world’s population now lives in cities. Cheap materials and improved data-collection processes mean our cities are filled not only with more people but with more sensors, cameras, parking-space sensors, tollgate passes, building codes, heat meters, you name it. If it’s being built into today’s cityscape, it probably gathers data ("senses") and sends that information somewhere.
The goal is to use all this remotely gathered information to improve municipal services, making our cities "smart." Smart will require that we set the right rules for what is gathered and what is done with it.

10. Iterate

The dictionary tells us that iterate means to do again and again. In its buzzword guise, it is one of many design terms that has jumped the rhetorical fence, pulled along by related terms like "innovate," into philanthropy. Sexier than your grandmother’s pilot program, iterations mean trying something small, learning from it, and improving as you go along.

Reposted from The Chronicle of Philanthropy