Amy Glasmeier Department of Urban Studies and Planning MIT
Second Annual Social Sciences Librarians Boot Camp Friday, June 1
st, Tisch Library at Tufts University. Slide 2 Getting to Librarian
3.0 Slide 3 The First Person Who Taught Us About Information Access
was a Librarian (Also the person who taught us our library voices!)
Slide 4 Slide 5 According to a 2002 study, 73% of college students
say they use the internet more than they use the library for
information research, while only 9% say the opposite. More
recently, Cisco Connected World Technology Report from 2011
indicates that one of five students (21 percent) have not even
bought a physical book (excluding textbooks required for class) in
a bookstore in more than two years or ever.
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2002/The-Internet-Goes-to-College.aspx
Slide 6 This is one of the sobering truths these librarians,
representing a group of Illinois universities, have learned over
the course of a two-year, five-campus ethnographic study examining
how students view and use their campus libraries: students rarely
ask librarians for help, even when they need it. The idea of a
librarian as an academic expert who is available to talk about
assignments and hold their hands through the research process is,
in fact, foreign to most students. Those who even have the word
"librarian" in their vocabularies often think library staff are
only good for pointing to different sections of the stacks.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-08-22/Study-
College-students-rarely-use-librarians-expertise/50094086/1 Slide 7
Participatory culture doesnt do away with the need for authority,
but it will privilege a different kind of authority, a more
transparent, more engaged one. I believe people still want a
trusted voice they can listen to, particularly in the digital
realm. Rob Stein IMA Please Chime In: The Challenges and
Opportunities of Participatory
Culturehttp://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2011/10/11/please-chime-in-the-
challenges-and-opportunities-of-participatory-culture/ Slide 8
Conventional Modes of Behavior Are Being Pressured to Change Slide
9 You have people like Brian Mathews, Associate Dean for Learning
& Outreach at Virginia Tech, who runs a blog about designing
better user experiences and the pursuit of use-sensitive libraries
say: The library is a platform, not a place, website, or person.
Libraries need less assessment and more R&D. Focus on
relationship building instead of service excellence and
satisfaction. Dont just copy & paste from other libraries:
invent! Grow your ideas: Build, Measure, Learn, Iterate &
Prototype. Plant many seeds; nurture the ones that grow. Seize the
whitespace.
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/theubiquitouslibrarian/ Slide 10
In Marketing Todays Academic Library, Brian Mathews uses his vast
experience Most library marketing intended for undergraduates
promotes the collection, reference and instructional service, and
occasional events such as guest speakers or exhibits. The guiding
principle of Marketing Todays Academic Library is that marketing
should focus on the lifestyle of the user, showcasing how the
library fits within the daily life of the student. Mathews personal
and compelling presentation will assist readers in: Challenging and
rethinking their marketing strategies Demonstrating their value
through applied relevance Focusing on the needs of the student and
their expectations Written in a concise and engaging manner that
speaks to popular anxiety points about new marketing techniques,
this book is filled with tips and strategies that academic
librarians can use to communicate with students, surpassing their
expectations of their library experience.
http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?id=2596 Slide 11 Libraries
have already drifted too far down the commercial path: Research and
educational values must be restored to their primacy of place.
"Good enough" and one- stop shopping are no substitutes for
systematic research. Technology cannot replace human expertise. The
business world has many valuable tools and resources to offer, but
libraries must insist that scholarly requirements take precedence
over commercial interests. Daniel Goldstein Arts, humanities, and
social-science librarian at the University of California at Davis
http://chronicle.com/article/Library-Inc/124915/ Slide 12 Segue:
New Patrons and New Functions Slide 13 Serve students in a
different manner and for different reasons: educated hand- holding
Provide support for faculty more as colleagues and collaborators
than as purveyors of pre-specified items Slide 14 The numbers of
tenured and tenure-track professors have sharply declined from
nearly one-half of the faculty to about one- third. Most courses in
four-year colleges and universities as well as community colleges
are now taught by contingent faculty, including part-time adjuncts,
graduate students, and holders of full-time nontenure-track
positions. Slide 15 25 years ago, a junior faculty member was a
lone researcher, with a small or non- existent research budget.
Today, a junior faculty member is prepared to conduct funded
research, probably works in a research group, and has a good grasp
of the job. Slide 16 Science Transformation. New Modes of Behavior
and Roles Slide 17 Slide 18 Four key developments will change the
way researchers interact with librarians Data Capture, Curation,
Analysis Synthesis Slide 19 More scientists are creating their own
data sets and NSF is requiring them to be placed in the public
domain. Who is going to help them? Precision Confidentiality Slide
20 Usability Data structures Meta data Schema Tables, the fields in
each table, and the relationships between fields and tables. Slide
21 Slide 22 Data being captured (cell phone, crowd sourcing, social
media; satellites, sensors, images), being processed by software
with knowledge or information stored on computers. Only after this
process, far down the line of production, does a scientist get
involved in analysis. Slide 23 The first is the basic science
Geography The second is geo-informatics We are applying computer
science and computer science capabilities to the investigation of
processes Slide 24 A typical project with data capture, curation,
analysis, visualization, representation, reporting, data
dissemination needs a person! For big projects, the costs of all
the data- related expenses can be rolled into a big budget, but for
smaller single PI projects, data management is a huge additional
cost Slide 25 Software tools are ridiculously simplistic and
well-worn Not prepared for the big time or to ensure data quality
for future users Most researchers use Excel and maybe access to
manage vast amounts of data Slide 26 New tools for data retrieval
Data mining and analysis Meta Analysis Synthesis Slide 27 The world
of integrated interoperability Full texts and scientific data
Ready-made journals Conference management will become the new
source for immediate books Slide 28 Slide 29 Who is going to do all
this matching, compilation, synthesis and dissemination?
Researchers are needed to do this and to learn to do this; every
project will be different; new capabilities of compilation
developed all the time. Librarians Slide 30 My worries turned to
research My hopes turn to your creativity My dreams turn to an
abiding goal: provide the most for the most in the least amount of
time with the least amount of effort Slide 31 New skills New
collaborations New technologies Cant do it all yourselves But you
can do it, you are doing it right now--GIS