Library Voice

“Weblogs in Education: the Possiblilities Are Limitless!” has a good collection of educational blogs. The site lists tons of blogs and articles about blogs, and even has links to presentations and workshops about blogging.

Link via Information Literacy Weblog.

Schwagbag has just begun a survey about using IM for digital reference in an academic library setting. The questions that UNLV are asking are simple and to the point, and should provide the library with some useful information to help them gear up for an IM reference program. I’ll be interested to see what the results are. I did a similar survey of business students, but we have yet to survey the general population at my library. However, we are beginning to plan for an IM reference program that will launch in the fall, so a survey this spring might be a good idea.

Link via Tame the Web.

The Guitar Blog has “the latest guitar news and guitar-related information from around the world.”

Also, another Guitar Blog (same name, different blog) includes “Guitars and guitarists, basses and bassists, guitar news and products, weird guitars, bizarre guitars, wonderful guitars… Links to interesting guitar sites and products found on the internet.”

During my two o’clock desk shift yesterday afternoon, I had a business student come to the desk and ask a rather unique question. He explained that his group was working on their second project of the quarter, and he admitted that he really needed some serious help searching online databases. I told him that I’d be glad to help at any time, as that was my job.

He seemed to appreciate that and then asked, “How can I get in touch with you if I have a question and you are not at the library?”. I suppose I was a little flattered that I at least portray that sense of approachability and availability. However, I had to tell him that despite all of the ways to get in touch with me, I cannot possibly be available around the clock. I like many, do check email from home, and I will respond quickly to a query if it does not take too much time away from my home life. If it is going to take a while, it’s not fair to my wife, son, dog, or myself to bring work home.

One of the greatest things about this job, is that you can leave work at work. You can go home with the satisfaction of having put in an honest day’s effort, and know that you have helped people in a number of different ways. What we as librarians do really matter, even if the results are often not very tangible. The satisfaction you get from helping someone can get addictive, and if you’re not careful, you can find yourself answering emails and IM’s from home late into the night. While technology can extend the librarians reach and availability to our patrons, it can also make it difficult to define where and when the workday ends. While it is important to go out of your way to help someone, it is also very important to go out of your way to spend time with family, friends, or your favorite hobby. Achieving that balance is often a full-time job in itself, but it is perhaps the most important one you may have. Have a great weekend, and don’t work too hard.

My son has been ill for about a week, so my wife and I have been swapping on/off days. As a result, neither one of us has been able to get much work done, even with trying to stay on top of email from home. I have been attempting to play catch-up today which, at eight this morning, seemed like a viable possibility because I only had one desk and one chat shift scheduled. Best laid plans……..all good intentions………etc.

In every class I teach, and in nearly every conversation I have with faculty or students, I encourage patrons to contact me if they ever have a question. I make myself available in a variety of ways: via email, chat, IM, phone, or even in person. I usually encourage the first three methods as the primary option because this allows me to handle the question as time permits, or enables me to set up an appointment to discuss the question further. Business questions can be very tricky, and it may take a while to find the perfect industry analysis or market outlook. With the more advanced questions, I feel better prepared when I have some sense of a topic before meeting a patron face-to-face. I think that if I am able to do some preliminary searching before meeting the patron, I can save time during the actual reference interview. Also, if a person stops by to see me unannounced, it is often likely that I may be in one of the many meetings that I attend, or it might be my night to work and therefore I’ve taken the afternoon off.

I don’t have office hours, so if I am at the library working and available, my time essentially belongs to the patron. Usually if someone comes in and asks for me by name, I’ll drop what I’m doing and help him or her out. Most of the time the questions are fairly routine, so I can teach the patron how to find the necessary information, and then try to get back to the project at hand. Unfortunately, my to-do list keeps getting longer and longer, because I find that I am talking to more and more patrons. While sometimes frustrating, I have come to realize that the projects can wait, even if deadlines are missed and the inbox never gets anywhere near empty. The true joy of this job is talking with students and faculty, supporting them in their research needs, helping them learn, and contributing to the collective knowledge of the university.

Today, the questions were anything but routine, as I was visited by two graduate students and a faculty member. The first student was a masters of financial economics student who needed to do a regression analysis of several stocks and stock indices. His thesis advisor apparently passed my name on to him. His question involved using a complex database that takes a great deal of time to learn, so we agreed to meet later this week.

The second student came in while I was doing Business Chat for our statewide consortium. He sat in my cube with me as I answered a few chat questions, and we talked about his MBA small business competition. He was working on a business plan for a local company interested in selling urban or hip-hop apparel. We spent about an hour talking and searching a few business databases. One of the cool things about this particular conversation was something the guy said. He recalled that we had originally met at a library orientation session that I gave to all the MBA students last September. He said, “Well, you said if we ever needed help to come by and see you. So, here I am. ”

My final tough one of the day was an accounting professor who was just beginning the research for a comparative analysis of Russian and U.S. accounting ethics. This was one of those ‘I’ll have to get back to you on that one’ questions. He was satisfied with that answer, and we talked for a few more minutes about libraries and shrinking library budgets.

What made today unique was not necessarily the number of visitors, but rather the type of patron who came to the library to see me. As our university serves a large undergraduate population, most of my patron interactions are with undergraduate business students. Perhaps once a week I get the chance to talk to a faculty member or graduate student about his or her research needs. Three in one day is almost unheard of. I enjoyed the challenge of the conversations and questions, and it looks like I’ll have some challenging research topics to play with. Once again, it looks like that to-do list will have to wait until tomorrow.

Aaron Schmidt and Michael Stephens have put together a good write-up about using Instant Messaging in libraries. Once you read this, you’ll want to try IM at your library.

Link via LibrarianInBlack.

Meredith has provided a good summary or open source applications, and several good reasons for using open source software options. She promises to share future reviews of open source products:

Anyways, I’m getting off my soapbox now. I just hate to think that I am holding onto information that might be useful to my readers (or my Dad). So next time I download something great, I’ll be sure to mention it. Just know that if you’re using something expensive, clunky, or difficult to use, do check to see if there isn’t some better out there that was created by people who were just as annoyed with the proprietary options as you are.

One program that I have found particularly useful is an open source survey application called phpESP. phpESP is a web-based survey application that you install on your web server. It requires Apache, php, and MySQL, but if you are running a blog (or a web server for that matter) you already have all the necessary ingredients.

The software allows you to create surveys through a relatively easy to use web interface and has a number of answer options: yes/no, multiple choice, check-box selections, text and essay boxes, and even numerical rankings. There are several default templates that you can use to change the appearance, and if you know CSS, you can add your own. You can even make some questions optional or others required. Data from the survey is stored on the server and can be viewed through the web interface, or it can be downloaded as CSV for further manipulation in Excel.

I have been using the software for several purposes. Obviously, we have been conducting surveys of library users in order get an idea of how to better serve them. I have also been using the surveys as an assessment mechanism after I deliver a library instruction session. Finally, we plan on using the survey as a pre- and post-test tool for our freshman instruction program.

Overall, the software works great for surveys, and the price is right. Granted, there are quite a few fancier options out there, but for a tool that helps you ask questions and get answers from your users, this does the job. My only advice is this: be careful what you ask, because your users will give you honest answers and will definitely let you know what they think.