Libraries and the New Education Ecosystem

Lee Rainie, Director, Internet, Science, Technology Research, Pew Research Center
@lrainie @pewinternet @pewresearch

“any day spent with librarians is a better day”

FactTank, News in the Numbers

Pew doesn’t take positions on what it researches. Enthusiastic about the audience, not here to prove a point.

What we know: our previous findings, libraries.pewinternet.org Continue reading “Libraries and the New Education Ecosystem”

Data Designed for Discovery

Roy Tennant

The Canonical Entity (of the past) — the card catalog

MARC was not created for online catalogs; it was created for card catalogs. It’s a fundamental flaw. Readable reformatting of MARC isn’t much better

The classic bib record

  •  a collection of statements
  • taken from the piece itself
  • sometimes enhanced w inferred parentheticals
  • or additional statements not on the piece (eg subject headings)
  • where punctuation, which may or may not be present is used (inconsistently) for structure
  • We’re dealing with uncontrolled text strings that are only loosely connected to anything else

Continue reading “Data Designed for Discovery”

Working out the Future of Library Resource Discovery

Marshal Breeding, Website, @mbreeding

Resources

Online Catalog– part of ILS

  • Scope of search: books, journals, and media at the title level
  • Not in scope: articles, book chapters, digital objects

Next-gen Catalogs or Discovery Interface

  • single search box
  • query tools: did you mean; type-ahead
  • relevance ranked results
  • faceted navigation
  • enhanced visual displays (cover art; summaries, reviews)
  • Recommendation services
  • Scope of search: books, journals, and media at title level; other local and open access content
  • not in scope: articles, book chapters, digital objects
  • there are different needs bw academic discovery & public library discovery

Continue reading “Working out the Future of Library Resource Discovery”

Search results are the new black

Deirdre Costello, Sr. UX Researcher, EBSCO Info Services, @deirdre_lyon

The Projects

  • Secondary research — lit review of student, doctor & public library patron habits
  • Video diary study –  hs students self-reporting their research habits & preferences, using Go Pros (selfie generation)
  • Contextual inquiry (primary method.) – one-on-one sessions students, doctors & public library patrons discussing their research habits (participant-led); tools, services, & products online.

Samples

  • Academic — hs, college, & grad students; focus research workflow
  • Medical — med students, residents, physicians; focus: searching at point-of-care (similar to grad students)
  • Public — Focus: engaging with the library online (avid power-users; and those who don’t use public library, how they’re getting the services the pub library offers elsewhere)

Audience: goals & emotional states that users are bringing to the search experience; contextual inquiry tells us a lot about emotional state

Students search to: find an overview (anxiety involved); narrow down their topic (what topic looks easiest/broadest); find citable sources Continue reading “Search results are the new black”

Exploring Roles & Directions, Keynote

Exploring Roles & Directions — panel presentation

This was the best conference keynote I ever attended. I didn’t want the panel to end. These women could have continued to talk all morning, really, all day, and I don’t think anyone would have complained. It was an excellent start to the conference

Ilana Ben-Ari, Founder, CEO & Lead Designer, Twenty One Toys
Liza Conrad, Head, Community & Partnerships, Hopscotch
Erin Mulcahy, Strategic Initiatives, Global Education Business, littleBits

21 Toys #Empathy Toy — 21st century skills

Continue reading “Exploring Roles & Directions, Keynote”