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6023 results in Facet Publishing

Page 257 of 302

  • 4 - Putting the ‘e’ into libraries and learning: study, pedagogy, content and services in the digital age

  • from Theme 1 - Libraries, learning and distance learning
    • By David Baker, Principal, University College Plymouth St Mark and St John
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 39-54

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This chapter focuses on the history, development, application and future of information and communications technology (ICT) in the field of learning and teaching with special reference to UK higher education (UKHE). The work of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in improving the take-up of ICT is highlighted.

    Background

    Just over ten years ago, a report was produced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE, 1997) that looked at the reasons behind the low take-up of ICT in learning and teaching activities within UK HE. Although technology was already pervasive in higher education institutions (HEIs), its usage at that time had been primarily for administrative or ‘housekeeping’ activities rather than the delivery of teaching or the support of learning. This was despite the fact that there had been a significant investment in the development of ICTbased teaching and learning aids (courseware, computer-assisted or computerbased learning packages, websites, portals and gateways, virtual and managed learning environments – V/MLEs) notably through a series of national initiatives within the higher education (HE) community, and primarily – at the time – the Computers in Teaching Initiative (CTI), the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) and a whole series of projects commissioned and funded by the JISC. The Dearing Report on the future of higher education published that same year (National Committee of Enquiry into Higher Education, 1997) stressed the significant knowledge gap in HEIs with regard to ICT, including at the most senior levels, where a ‘deep understanding’ of the key issues seemed to be sadly lacking.

    In the 1990s, ICT applications were seen as a way of gaining productivity and maintaining quality at a time when there were fewer members of teaching staff because of economic cutback, though the Summative Evaluation of Phase 3 of the eLib Initiative (Whitelaw and Joy, 2001) subsequently concluded that there had been no real cost savings as a result of the Follett Report (Joint Funding Councils’ Libraries Review Group, 1993); rather there had been both an increased functionality and an increasing empowerment of the user, at least in terms of learning and teaching. Follett also recognized that it was important not to graft new technologies onto old (as has happened in previous ICT-based learning and teaching programmes and projects to some degree) but to look afresh at the issues and the appropriate applications as a whole.

  • 8 - Institutional repositories in tertiary institutions: access, delivery and performance

  • from Theme 3 - Changing directions of information delivery
    • By Rowena Cullen, Associate Professor and Director of Research, School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), New Zealand, Brenda Chawner, Senior Lecturer, School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), New Zealand
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 113-144

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Academic libraries have played a key role in the scholarly communication process for the past 150 years. They have experienced major changes in the creation, dissemination and preservation of knowledge, through changing social, philosophical and educational paradigms, and taken advantage of new technologies to fulfil their mission. Academic librarians have shown themselves to be adept at adjusting to these changes, and been proactive in advancing research, scholarship and knowledge. With the advent of institutional repositories, they are being asked to adopt another new technology, one that brings with it the potential for a further paradigm shift in scholarly communication. Roosendaal and Geurts (1997) identified four key functions of scientific/scholarly communication:

  • • registration: identifying the ‘owner’ of the intellectual property

  • • certification: establishing the quality of the research

  • • awareness: making the research available to others

  • • archiving: long-term preservation to make the results available to future researchers.

    • The first two have traditionally been carried out by hard copy scholarly journals, particularly registration (by tracking the date an article was submitted for publication) and certification (via the review process). Physical collections in libraries distributed the archiving function, and awareness was largely the responsibility of secondary sources, in particular abstracting and indexing services. Institutional repositories have the potential to change the way all four functions are carried out.

    This chapter covers key concerns that led to the development of institutional repositories (IRs). This includes selected national and international initiatives, issues related to the creation, maintenance and use of repositories, and discussion of the extent to which IRs can meet the high expectations their promoters place on them.

    History

    In the late 20th century, existing channels for scholarly communication, particularly in the sciences and medicine, suffered from time lags in refereeing and publishing journal articles. Systems for distributing paper pre-prints by mail or facsimile were clumsy and slow, and researchers found it difficult to keep up with new developments in their fields. In the early 1990s, the rise of the internet and the web made other communication and publishing options possible, starting with e-mail distribution, then moving to the web. The first web-based pre-print server, arXiv, was started at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1991. It initially accepted physics pre-prints, and has been extended to include aspects of mathematics, computational linguistics and neuroscience.

  • 5 - Library services for visually impaired people: a UK perspective

  • from Theme 2 - Widening access to information
    • By Jenny Craven, Research Associate, Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM), Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 57-74

  • Summary

    Introduction

    As Head of the Library and Learning Resource Service (LLRS) during the 1990s at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK, Peter Brophy was involved in developing the delivery of services for students with disabilities offered within the LLRS through the Specialised Learning Resource Unit (SLRU). The work of the SLRU continues to offer a range of specialist services to provide students with disabilities the opportunity to access the same library resources as everyone else, the aim being to promote ‘an accessible and inclusive university’ (www.uclan.ac. uk/slru/mission.html). It is interesting to note that the SLRU was developed before existing disability legislation had come into force, thus showing a commitment to social inclusion driven by moral beliefs rather than legal requirements. This belief in the importance of social inclusion is evident throughout Peter Brophy's career, not least in the significant contribution he has made to improving library and information services for people with visual impairments.

    As Director of the Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM), research projects he has led such as Resources for Visually Impaired Users of the Electronic Library (REVIEL) (www.cerlim.ac.uk/projects/reviel/index.php), Non-Visual Access to the Digital Library (NoVA) (www.cerlim.ac.uk/projects/nova/index.php) and more recently the European Internet Accessibility Observatory (EIAO) (www.cerlim.ac.uk/ projects/eiao/index.php) are good examples of how research has fed into good practice and advice in this field.

    This chapter will start with a brief look at the general provision of library services for visually impaired people, primarily in the UK but with reference to other countries and then to a more global perspective, and then look more specifically at developments in the provision of electronic access to the digital library, with a particular focus on access by visually impaired people.

    A note on terminology: the term ‘visually impaired person’ is used in this chapter to refer to someone with a serious sight problem. This could include total blindness, partial sight or low vision, as well as cognitive impairments such as dyslexia, which may result in a print impairment.

  • 6 - Public libraries, an enduring freedom: widening access to learning, information and culture

  • from Theme 2 - Widening access to information
    • By John Dolan, formerly Head of Library Policy at the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). At MLA (2006–2008) he managed a major consultation of the future priorities for public libraries leading to the MLA libraries plan, 2008–13
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 75-94

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The career of Peter Brophy spans some of the most interesting decades in the history of public libraries. Peter himself has been an advocate of change and innovation and a keen observer of what is and is not working. In his early career the emergence of new librarians wanting a library to be an active participant in community life met with a mixture of enthusiasm and apprehension. The spirit of community librarianship emerges in the first decade of the 21st century as a mix of user-oriented provision, partnership working, devolution and community engagement with a performance focus on impact beyond outputs.

    The library evolves to meet a challenge

    Under sometimes negative pressure the library changes slowly to meet new needs. The negative pressure is the easily voiced fear that the library has become outdated by social change, rendered redundant by new communications technologies; or it is the financial pressure of the parent institution: school, college, university or local authority. With the best motivation the library changes also in response to a community expectation, perceived or stated, or to an anticipated need or aspiration.

    Increasingly it is not passive but proactive but this is a requirement of a service that is interventionist not reactive, that originates rather than supports initiative, and that leads rather than waits.

    Conventionally, the library is a resource that underpins initiative. Collections, information, space to read and study, staff assistance form the main elements of library provision. Ranganathan's five laws of library science (Ranganathan, 1931) are about the collection, organization and delivery of resources to inform and support an initiative, a learning venture or research:

  • Books are for use.

  • Every reader his or her book.

  • Every book its reader.

  • Save the time of the reader.

  • The library is a growing organism.

    • Underpinning the five laws is a sense of philanthropy, an espousal of liberty and freedom of thought and an inherent desire to support the learner that is not immediately evident. Essentially the five laws determine the critical criteria that make an efficient and effective library. Ranganathan's five laws have proved to be so powerful that they have spawned generations of variations and extrapolations translating them into new sets of principles to meet different settings and periods. For example see Application of Ranganathan's Law to the Web Webology (www.webology.ir/2004/v1n2/a8.html#18).

  • 9 - Folksonomies to ontologies: the changing nature of controlled vocabularies

  • from Theme 3 - Changing directions of information delivery
    • By Richard J. Hartley, Head of the Information and Communications Department, Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 145-158

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Throughout a distinguished career as both practitioner and researcher, Peter Brophy has been concerned with the effective delivery of information resources to users and potential users. As both practitioner and researcher, he has been interested in the development of new services to users. There have been a number of recurrent themes throughout his work, among which are novel service delivery from academic libraries and the exploration of the possibilities of exploiting new information technologies in service delivery. Examples include BIBDEL Libraries Without Walls: the delivery of library services to distant users (www.cerlim.ac.uk/ projects/bibdel/index.php), and Franchise: Library Support for Franchised Courses in Higher Education (www.cerlim.ac.uk/projects/franchis/index.php). He explored the concept of the hybrid library in the HyLife project (www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/projects/hylife/) and more recently the eMapps.com (www.eMapps.com) project has explored the use of mobile technologies to motivate active learning among primary school children across Europe. It is many years since Ranganathan first advocated ‘every reader his book’. Brophy has been a dedicated proponent of an updated version of this mantra, as evidenced by his work as practitioner and researcher and explored more widely in the conference series ‘Libraries without Walls’ of which he was a creator.

    Although his concern has been with what might be termed the macro level of service delivery and exploration of the possibilities for new service development, those services have often been underpinned by matters of vocabulary and vocabulary control in its many guises. His emphasis has been on exploring technology, but I will argue that though technology offers new possibilities for service delivery, language is and will remain at the heart of effective information resource discovery and access. This is particularly the case in the English language with its vast vocabulary. Bryson (1990) has pointed out that this has been caused by its propensity to absorb words from many different languages and offers some fascinating examples of Anglo-Saxon nouns for which the relevant adjective has been imported from elsewhere: mouth/oral, book/literary, water/aquatic, town/urban. Examples such as these demonstrate the complexity of effective retrieval and explain why automated means may require forms of vocabulary control for many years to come; or more likely that there will remain a need for human involvement in the retrieval process and totally automated retrieval will remain an elusive ‘holy grail’.

  • 2 - The Library Research Unit at the University of Lancaster, 1967–1972: a memoir

    • By Michael Buckland, Professor Emeritus, School of Information, and Co- Director, Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative, at the University of California, Berkeley
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 7-20

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Peter Brophy entered librarianship by a thoroughly unorthodox route. He was one of the first students to take the BSc in Information Science developed by B. C. (‘Bertie’) Brookes at University College, London, graduating in 1971. He then moved into full-time research on library problems at the Library Research Unit at the University of Lancaster Library before moving on in 1973 to library auto - mation and eventually library management. At the time both his undergraduate degree and the Library Research Unit were radical departures from conventional practice. This memoir, written mainly from memory, provides an account of the Lancaster Library Unit in which Brophy's professional career began.

    A new university at Lancaster

    The University of Lancaster was one of the ‘new universities’ founded in the 1960s to help accommodate the rapid expansion of university education in the UK. Charles F. Carter, the founding Vice-Chancellor, an economist and a Quaker, was concerned that the University address real-world problems as well as regional needs. Lancaster had the first department of operational research in the UK, the first department of marketing, and, also a first, a department of systems engineering with special interest in optimization in chemical industries. The ethos of the new university was very similar to that of the land grant universities in the USA. Currently, the University's website opens with the slogan ‘Learning for the real world’ (www.lancs.ac.uk).

    Among the very earliest appointments was the University Librarian, A. Graham Mackenzie, who had graduated in Classics from the University of Glasgow. His handle-bar moustache and his enthusiasm for machines were both attributed to his service in the Royal Air Force. He liked to recall how when he was interviewed he was taken south of Lancaster to a grassy, windswept hillside, the Bailrigg site, where he was abruptly asked what a first-rate university library would be like in 20 years. His interviewers said that they wanted one on this site and that the first students would be arriving in 18 months. It was a challenge to which he responded with enthusiasm and boldness. It was clear that the planned library would have to be developed quickly and be both economical and effective. Initially the library service was provided in temporary quarters in Lancaster and the first phase of the new library building opened in January 1967.

  • 12 - Influential leadership for academic libraries

  • from Theme 4 - Performance, quality and leadership
    • By Jennifer Rowley, Professor of Information and Communications, Department of Information and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University, Sue Roberts, University Librarian, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 197-214

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Libraries are at the forefront of the turbulent environment of the digital age. Academic libraries, more specifically, are wrestling with changing student, staff and researcher expectations about access to information resources to support learning, teaching and research. The ‘Google generation’ of students expect fast and straightforward access to information and are intolerant of interfaces that require multiple stages to arrive at the full text of a document. They are not impressed by the need for authentication or barriers imposed by organizational structures and licensing arrangements. Taking this further, Von Hippel (2006) talks about the democratization of innovation in access to information and the shift in power from information providers to users. In addition, and with potentially serious consequences for providing ready access to research information, there are major changes taking place in the scholarly communication processes.

    Open access publishing and institutional repositories are vying with more traditional publisher-controlled means of publication in what were print, and are now, e-journals and e-books. Information professionals not only need to respond to changing user expectations and relationships between stakeholders in scholarly publishing, they are also required to work in different partnership models with other academic services and other professional groups, which can take them far beyond the traditional concept of libraries, creating new models of holistic student support, learning environments and teaching and research collaborations. Consequently, the academic information profession has no option but to continuously change. As Mech suggested as long ago as 1996, ‘academic transformation will not be the result of a committee decision. Higher education and academic librarianship are being re-shaped by the actions of professionals and the institutions in which they work. These individuals are not super-heroes. They are ordinary people who decide to exercise leadership’ (345). Unless the information profession is prepared to sell out to the technocrats and to relinquish the very important role of working with communities and organizations to facilitate their access to information in the face of overwhelming complexity and, some might suggest, chaos, the information profession and its members have no choice but to exercise influential leadership.

  • 3 - Alice in www.land: reflections on ten years of developing library services for distance learners

  • from Theme 1 - Libraries, learning and distance learning
    • By Gill Needham, Head of Strategic and Service Development at the Open University Library and Learning Resource Centre, Nicky Whitsed, Director of Library Services at the Open University. She has led the development of library services to the Open University's 200,000 students
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 23-38

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This story begins in 1998 at a time of tremendous change and challenge in the provision of library services to distance education students. At the Open University Library we were embarking on a journey which at the outset appeared to have a relatively clear route and destination. Universities are, however, large and complex organizations and operate in a volatile and increasingly political context. The journey had more than a few twists and turns along the way and we are taking the opportunity of writing this chapter to reflect on our progress and some of the challenges we have encountered. This is particularly appropriate in a volume dedicated to Peter Brophy, who has been such an inspiration to all of us working in this field.

    A tale of two Alices

    In the beginning it was all about equity and access for distance learning students. This was both an ethical issue – the rights of these learners to have an equivalent service to that enjoyed by campus students – and an issue about academic standards and ‘graduateness’. The challenge was to abolish, or at least minimize, distance for those learners. It was characterized at the time by a tale of two Alices.

    The Follett Report of 1993 (the Joint Funding Councils’ Libraries Review Group, 1993) reviewed the provision of library services in UK higher education and made some important recommendations about investment, particularly regarding information technology, with the plan to set up the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). The report predicted the importance of the virtual library and presented a series of scenarios in this context, one of which introduces Alice, an undergraduate student of the future: Alice has just received feedback, online, from her tutor on her latest assignment:

    He suggests two further references. Alice switches to the library catalogue. Fortunately one reference is available on the campus textbook server: she requests it for printing in the hall of residence. The other reference takes longer to locate: it is an electronic journal article and will cost £10 for immediate transmission…. She calls up the abstract/front page option on screen, decides it will be worth reading, swipes the credit card and in a few seconds the article is on screen, transmitted over the networks from an electronic document delivery exchange in Colorado.

    (Joint Funding Councils’ Libraries Review Group,1993, 60)

  • 1 - Introduction

    • By Alan F. MacDougall, Visiting Professor, Department of Information and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 1-6

  • Summary

    This Festschrift celebrates and commemorates the work and career of Professor Peter Brophy, who retired in 2008 as the Director, Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM), Department of Information and Communications at Manchester Metropolitan University. It both identifies and honours his contribution and acknowledges his distinguished career over more than 30 years in the field of libraries, information management and information science. The collection of writings in this work is written among others by: close academic colleagues, those who worked for and with him, people whom he inspired and peer colleagues of high international repute. It weaves an impressive account of achievement and respect for his abilities. It also gives an insight into his character.

    In an introduction of this kind the requirement to reflect on Peter's career and achievements might unwittingly seem more like an obituary, or Gedenkschrift, rather than a Festschrift. On the contrary, Peter retires from his post at the zenith of his career, indeed, he constantly likes to remind me, and anyone who will listen, that he is actually younger than me (only four days though!).

    I begin this introductory chapter on a personal note but with some reason. To be asked to write this introduction is a privilege and an honour. I am equally aware that contributors to this book were eager to honour Peter and his importance in the profession, and to record his achievement, which will stimulate the next generation, their research and their practice.

    The second chapter in this work refers to the time before I knew him. It provides an insight to Peter's contribution during the early days of his career from 1971 to 1973. Written by Michael Buckland, the eminent professor, it is worthy of note that he should describe Peter as having a ‘distinguished career’. The chapter introduces us to the innovative work of the Library Research Unit at Lancaster University, which Buckland headed and where Peter was a research associate. It is a timely commentary both as a review of the work of that Unit and Peter's role in its success, and as an introduction to his professional career.

  • 7 - Sceptic 2.0? Social networking technologies in public libraries

  • from Theme 2 - Widening access to information
    • By Juliet Eve, Principal Lecturer, University of Brighton, School of Computing, Mathematical and Information Sciences
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 95-110

  • Summary

    Introduction (and disclaimer)

    Let me start with a story. It seems an appropriate place to start: it is one of the things public libraries do best: Baby Rhyme Time, Storytime for Under 5s, Book Groups, Bibliotherapy etc. Earlier this year I attended an author reading event at a small library in West Sussex. There were about 20 people there, and we listened to a local author who writes crime fiction. She talked, read an extract from her book, answered questions, signed copies and chatted amicably with locals. I have no intention of reading one of her books, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and, browsing the display afterwards, came home with a book (which I subsequently read with pleasure) by a different crime writer whom I'd been meaning to read for ages but not quite got round to it. This was a thoroughly, and typically, Library 1.0 experience. However, it struck me that evening that here was a library doing what it does best: serving a local community, making best use of the physical space, using all the library resources (it was a multimedia event; the audience were helped to vote online for this author in a national competition after the reading) and engaging with its users in a thoroughly interactive and meaningful way.

    I would like to establish here and now my anti-Luddite credentials. Not only do I have a Facebook profile, I can be found on Linked-In, and I appear on YouTube (see link from February post to the blog InformationMatters at www.informationmatters.net). I also spent two happy years at the Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM) researching into the value and impact of ICT in public libraries, collecting evidence to support the case for implementation of what became the People's Network (Eve and Brophy, 2000).

    Why is that relevant? It will serve, I hope, to set the discussion below firmly in the context of a reflective and appropriate use of and engagement with technologies, rather than to accept a prevailing ‘if it's got 2.0 on the end it must be good’ dash to blog, twitter and MySpace our energies away, with no evidence to prove that these activities are actually providing a useful service.

  • 11 - Measuring the quality of academic library electronic services and resources

  • from Theme 4 - Performance, quality and leadership
    • By Jillian R. Griffiths, Research Associate, Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM), Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 183-196

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Walk into any lecture theatre in a UK higher education institution and ask what students use to find information and the majority will shout ‘Google’ – a situation we refer to as the ‘Googling phenomenon’ (Griffiths and Brophy, 2005). Students’ use of search engines influences their perception and expectations of all electronic resources but, although the preference for very simple search engine approaches is prevalent, it does not mean that students are necessarily best served by this approach. Exclusive use of any commercial search engine, coupled with a lack of awareness and understanding of peer-reviewed, quality resources, is not in the best interest of students or academic staff.

    This issue of ‘quality’ plays a key role in professional discussions regarding electronic (and other) services and resources and as a result sophisticated approaches to quality assurance have been developed, such as peer review (largely for journal articles) and publisher reputation (for monographs) and relating these to the known interests of the user community, present and future. As a profession we are constantly striving to ensure that we provide the best services and resources possible to our users and this concern has resulted in a myriad of approaches and methods being used in an attempt to establish the quality of services and resources and lead to improvements in them. Online resources in particular have been the focus of much research in recent years, with work being undertaken in many areas including, for example, information retrieval, information-seeking behaviour and usability studies.

    Evaluation of comparative online systems, services and resources has a long tradition of improving the state of the art in information retrieval (IR) technology. The criterion for the evaluation of performance effectiveness has largely been based on the overall goal of a retrieval system, that is, the retrieval of relevant documents and suppression of non-relevant items. Such evaluations adopt the Cranfield experimental model based on relevance, a value judgement on retrieved items, to calculate recall and precision. These dual measures are then presented together where recall is a measure of effectiveness in retrieving all the sought information and precision assesses the accuracy of the search.

  • 10 - An evaluation decision-making system: development and implementation of a web-based evaluation learning and instructional tool

  • from Theme 4 - Performance, quality and leadership
    • By Charles R. McClure, Francis Eppes Professor of Information Studies and Director of the Information Use Management Policy Institute at the College of Information, Florida State University, John T. Snead, Research Associate, Information Use Management and Policy Institute, College of Information, Florida State University
  • Edited by Jillian R. Griffiths, Jenny Craven
  • Book:
    Access, Delivery, Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 November 2008, pp 161-182

  • Summary

    … libraries need to develop services that enable and encourage users not simply to be passive receptors of information, but themselves to create new information and other objects that they can share with their worldwide community.

    Peter Brophy (2004, 14)

    US public libraries received $9.7 billion in operating income in FY 2005 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008): 81% from local sources, 10% from state sources, 1% from federal sources, and 8% from other sources (gifts, fines, donations, and so on). Regardless of how much each individual library received, public library administrators and librarians are under increasing pressure to articulate the value and impacts of their library services and resources to these sources of funds. The process for determining value, impacts, outcomes, satisfaction and so on increasingly requires more attention and more tools. The project described here is one attempt to assist public library administrators to develop better evaluation tools.

    Researchers and library practitioners have developed a number of evaluation strategies and tools to help libraries articulate value, impact, quality and other benefits related to the use of services and resources. Identification of the best evaluation methods to use as part of these strategies, however, and obtaining access to sources of information capable of providing useful service and resource data, presents a formidable task for many libraries. Oftentimes, methods and evaluation tools are not compared against each other nor do they take into consideration local situational factors that may affect the success with which these tools can be implemented.

    The project described in this paper, an evaluation decision management system (EDMS) (EDMS, 2008, available at www.libevaluation.com/edms), addresses how public libraries:

  • • develop evaluation strategies to demonstrate value and impacts

  • • identify the best evaluation methods for these strategies

  • • access a range of service and resource data from national library-based databases.

    • Public libraries can address the above through a centralized online portal that encourages users to share and create a range of information related to evaluation. In addition, this paper identifies issues related to the development and implementation of a web-based instructional system and assesses the effects of technology development on evaluation of networked services and resources. Although the project is currently under development as this paper is written (2008), a number of lessons have been learned that may be of use to others developing such an evaluation tool.

Page 257 of 302