Author: Margaret

Categories
Libraries Web Design

On Trying New Things

New initiatives are supposed to be what we’re all about in the library world these days. Certainly that is what you read on Twitter. The thing is, what is new in some places is not at all new in others. In my current position, I spend a lot of time thinking about what others have done that would match what we are here. For redesigning the library website, it made the most sense to draw on Dominican’s relationship centered culture, and invite people to work together to build a solution we could all live with. The first such session was today, but no one showed up. There are four more, and I suspect scheduling may be better for some of the other sessions, but it still leaves me feeling a bit worried.

Again, focus groups for user centered design aren’t even remotely a new thing, but it’s a new thing for this particular library. I’m hopeful that this will turn around and will end up working out. In the end, I think everyone who wants to weigh in on the website will get a chance to do so. I want the way I chose to go about this to work out, but I also know that if I have to reinvent as I go along, I can do that too.

Categories
Uncategorized

There’s a certain slant of light

This is the best description of the feeling that comes upon one around this time of year and lasts until about March. Not that this summer wins any prizes for being great, but at least it was light out.

There’s a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.

Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings are.

None may teach it anything,
‘T is the seal, despair,—
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.

When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath;
When it goes, ‘t is like the distance
On the look of death.

–Emily Dickinson

Categories
Libraries

Too much stuff on the page

A lot of the reference or current events databases have been reinventing themselves over the summer to have “topic” or “concept” pages. Opposing Viewpoints and Credo Reference are two such examples. The idea with this is that students not only get the information provided in the database, but also information pulled in from other sources such as Google Books, news sites, podcasts, or potentially other library subscribed databases. Initially I was excited about this idea, but now that I see it in practice I’m not so sure.

Partly this is just an aesthetic reaction. Yes, I know we are all used to seeing pages filled with lots of stuff, and are getting more and more used to it. I also know that undergraduate students are not pursuing their research with the single-mindedness of a scholar. But really, there’s a lot on the page, and it becomes difficult to focus on one element long enough to evaluate its relevance to your own research.

Since these features are so new, I haven’t yet had a chance to see how actual students use them. For the first year students we teach, I can see this as a good way to get them into something at least vaguely credible right away. One thing that the new Opposing Viewpoints has done, however, is to remove the “pro” and “con” indications from sources. The idea behind this is to make it possible to give an assignment to spot the bias. This is something that students invariably struggle with unless it’s made very obvious.

From the way these thing are working right now, I still think librarians should be thinking about ways to construct more dynamic research guides with a lot more focus on search and discovery. That way it’s easier to ensure that we are giving students a multiplicity of viewpoints and not just a one stop shop of topical information. I do recognize, however, that this is a time-consuming process, and in the end it may be better to throw students into a topic page with too much stuff on it that has some selection at work than to just leave them to find their own way. Not that I am so naive as to think most students are using library resources to start their research–but a girl can dream!