Comments on: The More We Know The Better We Can Do

By: Designing Better Libraries » Perhaps More Librarians Will Pay Attention To Design

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:19:14 +0000

[...] Last week the Chronicle of Higher Education featured an article that received a good amount of buzz in the library community. It was a profile of the ethnographic research study of undergraduates conducted by the academic librarians at the University of Rochester. What probably caught the attention of the library community was the novelty of employing an anthropologist to study the research behavior of students. I’m sure this was a radical new idea for many academic librarians, but it shouldn’t have been. This research project was a topic of discussion more than a year ago at the Blended Librarians Online Learning Community. In the sping of 2006 the Community featured a webcast on the UR project and our guests were some of the same folks mentioned in the Chronicle article (sorry, there is no archived recording – we were not allowed to record). I’ve also blogged about the project at ACRLog at least two times in the last year. So it came as a bit of surprise to me that this was all so new to librarians when the word has been out there for some time now. [...]

By: Learning From The Work-Practice Study

Learning From The Work-Practice Study — Mon, 21 May 2007 11:03:14 +0000

[...] This past Friday I attended the LACUNY (Librarians Association of the City University of New York) Institute 2007. On hand were two speakers from the University of Rochester Library, Nancy Foster and David Lindahl. ACRLog has previously posted about projects in which both Foster and Lindahl are involved. Foster, as Lead Anthropologist at the River City Campus Library, is a leader in the ethnographic studies being conducted by the Library. Lindahl, as Director of Digital Library Initiatives, participates in these projects with Foster and also heads up the XC Catalog research project. [...]

By: ACRLog » Blog Archive » To Improve What You Do - Study People

ACRLog » Blog Archive » To Improve What You Do - Study People — Mon, 15 May 2006 11:58:09 +0000

[...] Academic librarians are no strangers to the process of asking our users “how are we doing?” Conducting user surveys, either for measuring satisfaction or service quality, are traditional methods for gauging how well the library meets the needs of its users. The results, we hope, will better inform us on how to improve library services, operations, and resources. The challenge with user surveys is that we don’t really know how accurately they measure our success. Usability studies have gained popularity more recently, but those efforts tend to focus solely on the library web site. But the idea is correct. Learn to improve by watching what people do when they use your systems, services, or resources. ACRLog has previously reported on how librarians at the University of Rochester are using anthropological techniques to study their user community. Clearly, the popularity of using such techniques is growing. [...]