Tag Archives: academic libraries

Designing future blended libraries – LIANZA 2023

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Patricia Velasquez
Libraries have redesigned/innovated a lot to meet user needs.
Looked at concepts of physical space; digital space; blended space. Benyon 2012 described blended space – eg in the library context:

  • ontology – the objects users can use
  • topology – how the objects complement each other
  • volatility – how flexible is the face
  • agency – the people in the library space

Cunningham&Tabur 2012 described learning space attributes analogously to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

  • comfort and image <- apex
  • sociabiity
  • uses and activities
  • access and linkages <- base

Research to help libraries understand experience of users. Did document analysis, individual interviews, observation, focus group discussions.
Students’ challenges:

  • wifi strength, consistency – especially with online classes
  • library promotion – may not find out about library services until near graduation!
  • signage – either not enough or too much
  • lack of self-service guide
  • lack of BYOD support, power points
  • inconsistent policies etc

Students’ preferences

  • flexibility eg table height, opening windows
  • self-service – want to be able do it themselves — but otoh
  • human interaction. (Different groups have different preferences! We need to be careful when we make changes…)
  • variety of resources – print, electronic, etc
  • ease of use
  • availability (and accessibility)

Talking with them: students see the physical space as a transient space where people come and go. See library as a repository of knowledge where it can be found/access and learning happens. Haptic experience – want to be close to books, smell them – this is motivating.
They talk about the digital space – importance of online browsing and searching (but need to think about ease of use). Personalisation stil relevant. Want user-friendly technologies.
They want increased use of physical and digital elements of the library. Improve BYOD support. Have identified the disconnect between physical and digital elements – eg look for a book online but when they come to campus and can’t find it.
Students use the library (collection, building, services) if they perceive it to be helpful). We need to make the transition between physical and digital more seamless.

Transdisciplinary design of a future library – LIANZA 2023

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Dawn Carlisle
Backdrop of project is merger of polytechs into Te Pūkenga. Other challenges: honouring obligations under Te Tiriti; ever-changing nature of technology; Covid-19.
Transdisciplinary research: methodology that sees a subject and issue from all angles and disciplines. Allows for collective understanding from the community involved in the subject and issue. (Compared to interdisciplinary research which might ‘only’ come from the point of view of a couple of disciplines.)
Explored what a future academic library service could look like in Aotearoa bearing in mind these challenges, and looking at it from all angles. Including library as space, librarians as teachers, library kaimahi, decolonization and Te Tiriti, “industry 4.0 technology” (robots, AI, AR, etc).
5 surveys with 62 participants. Interviews with library professionals; a library managers forum; a Te Tiriti workshop.
Analysed using Constructivist Grounded Theory which is a reflective iterative approach of working with data from the various interviews etc.
Insights:

  • We need equity and understanding – move away from Eurocentric model; increase Indigenous staff; improve understanding of Indigenous knowledge; be comforting, welcoming spaces
  • Centralisation is beneficial – but can’t lose individuality. Need to know people and histories of local land
  • Technology – implemented into our work
  • Treaty partnerships – work within mana whenua in our communities, keep communication open
  • Improving access – currently each ITP has to negotiate its own access to databases – Te Pukenga merger is an opportunity to change this.

Lots of future avenues for exploration.
As a result of the work developed featured library guides around Aotearoa history; mātauranga Māori; Pacific knowledge. resources/services for Wintec researchers; and Equity&Inclusion.

How libraries can buy DRM-free ebooks

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Libraries hate DRM because our customers hate DRM because it makes the ebooks we buy really truly appallingly horrible to use. I can never find the cartoon when I want it, but it’s something like “How to download an ebook in 37 easy steps”. It involves lots of installation of software and restarting of the computer and logging in to things and troubleshooting, and the final step is to give up and look for it on BitTorrent. (ETA: As per Andromeda’s comment, here’s the cartoon.)

But what can we do when publishers require DRM before they sell anything to us?

Well, the new venture Unglue.it could change things. The idea behind Unglue.it is that:

  • author/copyright-holders pick a lump sum that they think is fair compensation for the rights to their book;
  • people who want to read the book pledge however much they want;
  • when the lump sum is reached, the book is released as a DRM-free, open-licensed ebook, free to the entire world. (If the lump sum isn’t reached, no money’s taken from your credit card.)

This is aimed at individual readers, but why shouldn’t libraries get in on the game? There are apparently some 16,000-odd public library branches in the USA: if each one of those made a one-off pledge of US$1 then American Book Award-winner Love Like Gumbo would be available to their members (and everyone else in the world) in perpetuity. That’s one heck of a cheap ebook. You can store a copy on the library server, or just link to it from the catalogue. You can print it out, if you want – as many times as you want. And you won’t have to buy it again after it’s been borrowed 26 times.

Currently Unglue.it has campaigns for five books. (If this takes off, and I’m convinced it will, there’ll be more.) If any of these books would be of interest to the members of your library, then figure out what’s a fair price (or what you can afford — whichever’s less) and then pledge just half of that from your book budget.

If you really can’t afford it (or purchasing really has to go through approved suppliers, no exceptions ever), well, then promote the campaigns to your members instead.

Or do nothing. When the books are funded, you and your members will get them for free anyway. 🙂

I just think that this is such a natural extension of our mission to use our funds wisely to provide resources to our communities that it’s hardly an extension at all. I think it’s the answer we’ve been asking for to the problem of ebooks. And I think it’s the best consortial deal ever.

So let’s go forth and Unglue!

Koha / demonstrating value #lianza11 #vs1

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Two papers in this vendor session.

Shelley Gurney (http://koha-community.org/)
Giving librarians a voice – using open source libraries to build a better system

Myths:
“We’re too small”
“We’re too big”
“You need to be a techie to run Koha” – there’s always someone on listserv to help and answer questions
“It’s difficult to migrate” – usually yes, but with Koha in fact you can have a painless migration
“The quality of the ILS is not great” – the British Archives, French police are using it without issues. Government departments – so security’s not an issue

FOSS – Free and Open Source
Why money isn’t everything – she can give us a CD now for free with the whole ILS and documentation. But will take time – which is why there are companies who can do this set-up for you.
Collaboration and community are the cornerstones of FOSS – and libraries – so we can have a say, a voice, in making it just what we want it to be. Can be customised exactly how we want.

Version 3.6.0 just released. (Upgrades every six months; bugfixes every two weeks.) Looking at using RFID with the system. Book covers, RDA compliant. Works with Te Puna, Worldcat. A library in India might ask for a new system to deal with children’s books, and will pay for its development – then it’s available for everyone to use.

Try it out at http://mykoha.co.nz – reset at 6pm every evening but you can catalogue, circulate, etc just as if it was live at your library, and see how users would use it. Search history and borrower history – deleteable by user. In staff view, things most often used on left, and others linked from right. Circulation screen looks like a friendly webpage. Fast cataloguing available – with Z39.50 search so you can look up in NLNZ or LoC.

Questions
Q: Why is NZ so behind in adopting Koha?
A: Partly don’t understand open source (think it’s free therefore no good) and partly hesitant to change. Lots not knowing what open source really means – advises to go to these sites, look around, and ask existing users how they’re enjoying it.
Comment: Often open source debate is about cost of actually maintaining it.
A: If you make it too complex this is true, but if you just take an existing system it should basically run itself (as much as, or even more than, anything else).
Comment: Used at ASB Community Trust – very small organisation and library. Migrating to Koha was so much easier than any other migration. Can pay for any specific customisations (per hour for development).
A: And if you need help, there’s a turn-around of 10 minutes for an answer.

Q: Smartphone and tablet aps?
A: Some developers working with RFID and integrating with tablet aps so can walk around and scan items in the library – mobile version of the main system that you’d be able to use on your phone. Also aps for users in the library.

Stephen Pugh Oranjarra Partners
Librarians are not hospice workers: best practice strategies for demonstrating value and influence in academic libraries

Currently seems like librarians are like hospice workers – looking after the patient while it dies. Sums up issues with vendors, suppliers, aggregators – market dominance and effective monopoly.

Best practice is not new in NZ. Streamlining of collection development. Idea of return on investment. Pushback against the Big Deal.

SCS – Sustainable Collection Services – irony of someone who spent first half of his year selling big packages, now telling libraries how to get rid of them.

World class collections aren’t created in a vacuum… Focus on relevant content. Academic libraries don’t want to put things in silos – is it a monograph, a journal, a CD – but look at whether it’s relevant. Also want to look at alternative models. Some are publisher-agnostic.

Various practical studies of return on investment. Tend to focus on research grant money but this measure is less relevant to institutions that don’t have a solid sci/tech base. Likewise summits on the value of academic libraries.

Evaluation has to do with standards. Assessment has to do with goals.
Usage and such measures = implied/empirical value
Testimonials = explicit value
Time and cost savings = contingent value

Questions for your toolkit
How does your library contribute to: student retention, graduation, success achievement, learning, experience; faculty research productivity, grants, prestige.

#2 issue in facilities in recruiting students is the library (article in “Facilities Manager”)

Survey (results on website)
People know of trend to measure ROI; many don’t think ROI can be accurately measured but do think metrics can be applied to Collection Development activities. Think admin/funding bodies more interested in ROI than faculty/students/community. Some measuring it; more “might at some stage”.

Oranjarra’s work will be informed by this trend. Hard to measure to get result you want. Need to decide if it’s a political issue or if there’s intrinsic value in it.

Socialising vs being sociable

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A colleague pointed out that, Facebook being a social environment, academic libraries don’t really belong. (This post will mischaracterise our conversation terribly. My colleague wasn’t arguing that we shouldn’t be there; just… there’s a reason students laugh when we tell them that we are.)

I pointed to Christchurch MetroInfo’s successful Facebook page as a counterexample, but my colleague said that the buses are taking people to their friends and parties. Academic libraries, by and large, aren’t involved even this much in students’ social lives.

I conceded the point at the time but seeing the examples on these tips for effective Facebook community management crystallised my lingering reservations with the distinction. Getting stains out of your clothes cannot possibly be a more social activity than doing a group research project in the library!

On reflection, I think there is a distinction: between socialising and being sociable. Few students will want their library, bus company, or detergent brand commenting on photos from their latest holiday. But if people find it useful to have a space in which to share bus route suggestions or laundry tips away from their ordinary social groups, then why not study or research tips? And this is the kind of virtual community that a library can, I think, enable.

The question of course is how…