LIRG blog

ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008

2008-11-02T11:30:00Z

Members may be interested in the recent ECAR report (see abstract and URL below):

"This 2008 ECAR research study is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 ECAR studies of students and information technology. The study is based on quantitative data from a spring 2008 survey of 27,317 freshmen and seniors at 90 four-year institutions and eight two-year institutions; student focus groups that included input from 75 students at four institutions; and analysis of qualitative data from 5,877 written responses to open-ended questions. In addition to studying student ownership, experience, behaviors, preferences, and skills with respect to information technologies, the 2008 study also includes a special focus on student participation in social networking sites."

http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ECAR/TheECARStudyofUndergradua/47485?time=1225624407

2008 Call for new Committee members

2008-09-09T14:27:00Z

LIRG is looking for two new Committee members. We are especially interested in people with a public library background but experience in any domain(s) within LIS would be relevant.

Serving on the Committee involves attending up to three meetings per year and contributing through those meetings (and possibly through other linked events like seminars) to the work of LIRG. LIRG exists to both encourage the growth of applied research within the LIS domain and also to encourage practitioners to use that research and also to contribute to it themselves. Thus to be a Committee member of LIRG you do not need to be an active researcher but a practitioner who is interested in using research in their work, and also in encouraging other practitioners to use research.

Please get in contact with me if you are interested in one of these Committee positions.

Alan Poulter - LIRG Secretary

More on the AGM/Seminar

2008-08-05T08:47:00Z

On our Events page there are pictures and also presentations, please see:

http://www.cilip.org.uk/specialinterestgroups/bysubject/research/activities/events.htm

'The dad dancing at the wedding' and other metaphors ...

2008-07-31T11:28:00Z

Tuesday July 29th saw the Library and Information Group's (LIRG ) AGM and annual address, held in London. As well as the usual AGM business, including the awarding of our annual prizes - the Research Award and the student prize for best dissertation - we had a presentation from last year's Research Award winner, Jackie Chelin (and colleagues), followed by a set of linked presentations around the theme of the ACRL's 2007 Environmental Scan, a horizon-scanning of issues relating (in particular) to academic libraries, published in January this year. ACRL is the Association of College & Research Libraries, a Division of the American Library Association .

The document lists the 'Top Ten Assumptions for the future of Academic Libraries and Librarians' in ranked order, as well as some 'emergent issues'. The Top Ten are:

increased emphasis on digital collections
evolving skills set for librarians
greater expectations from users
IPR debates will become increasingly common
IT will continue to shape practice & demands for IT-rich environments will grow
HE will increasingly be viewed as a business
students will view themselves as customers
online learning will expand
growong demand for free public access to research data
privacy and intellectual freedom continue to be defining issues

Some of the 'emergent issues' include:

greater collaboration between librraies from different sectors
increased role for libraries as 'publishers'
shift from focus on collections to design & delivery
social computing will provide new opportunities but increase demands on staff & systems

A series of three excellent and well-thought out presentations provided a reflection from a UK perspective on the ACRL document. According to Sheila Cannell, Director of Library and Collections at the University of Edinburgh, the Top Ten are 'spot on'. This was widely agreed upon by the two other speakers, Chris Powell, Director of Academic Services at the University of Northampton and Gary Horrocks, Deputy Director of Customer Services, Information Services & Systems at Kings College London. A number of observations were made on the differences between the UK and USA environments: for example, it was felt that accountability in the UK would be higher up the list, and there was some surprsie at 'students as customers' in the list. Gary Horrocks found some of the document 'pedestrian' and pointed out that the library profession has always been in transition, suggesting that Change Management is therefore a CPD skill that librarians should be developing. Many useful and entertaining metaphors were adopted; by far the best was Chris Powell's 'Dad dancing at the wedding' as an observation on librarians reacting to potential technological fads (i.e. Web 2.0) without careful consideration of their applicability and use. Gary Horrocks too indicated we need proper research and evaluation of these tools - where do they fit in the 'hype cycle'? Debate around skills sets and the role of LIS education (and library and information management departments) was lively, and as ever controversial, and will continue to be so.

The final contribution was via video link from Scott Walker, current Chair of the ACRL Research Committee and co-author of the report; he explained how the scan will be updated in the coming year(s) and refected upon to what extent the assumptions have (already) 'lived out their life'.

It was a packed programme, but highly stimulating and enjoyable. A more detailed report on the afternoon will be included in the next LIRG newsletter (sent to members only).

RIN report on the information needs of researchers

2008-07-02T08:06:00Z

The Research Information Network has issued a report, Mind the Skills Gap, covering the 'information handling needs of researchers.' Details of the study and report can be found at the report website.