Another week, another set of threads of library and library-related topics. (Who ever said this profession was boring? Well, I once did, but that is a thread for another day.) Information literacy hit the mainstream this week with noted usability analyst Jakob Nielson noting that internet users need to learn better search skills and Google giving us a tool (in the form of a daily puzzle) that might do just that. Next is an announcement from OCLC about a re-energizing and re-forming of the research library partner program. Lastly, a computer scientist at Miami University creates a mobile app that will be a godsend for library shelvers everywhere (perhaps after you relabel your spines).

Feel free to send this to others you think might be interested in the topics. If you find these threads interesting and useful, you might want to add the Thursday Threads RSS Feed to your feed reader or subscribe to e-mail delivery using the form to the right. If you would like a more raw and immediate version of these types of stories, watch my FriendFeed stream (or subscribe to its feed in your feed reader). Comments and tips, as always, are welcome.

On the Need, and Perhaps a Tool, to Teach Search

Although some analysts questioned the finding of search dominance, it’s a user behavior that gets stronger every year. Today, many users are so reliant on search that it’s undermining their problem-solving abilities. Ironically, the better search gets, the more dangerous it gets as people increasingly assume that whatever the search engine coughs up must be the answer. …

In the long term, we should try to improve the world rather than design to suit its shortcomings. One example of how we might do this is to teach better Internet research skills in schools.

- Incompetent Research Skills Curb Users’ Problem Solving, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox

A Google a Day is a new daily puzzle that can be solved using your creativity and clever search skills on Google. Questions will be posted every day on agoogleaday.com and printed on weekdays above the New York Times crossword puzzle. We’ll reveal each puzzle’s answer the next day in the Times and on agoogleaday.com, along with the search tips and features used to find it.

Just like traditional crossword puzzles, the difficulty of the questions increases over the course of the week, so by Thursday or Friday, even the most seasoned searcher may be stumped.

- A trivia game where using Google is allowed, Official Google Blog, via A Google a Day

Interesting that these two items showed up within days of each other. How can we improve the skills of internet users? By making it a game, of course. This sort of thing strikes me as a good way for libraries to promote information literacy skills. Syndicated to the New York Times? How about syndicating it to library websites! (I’ve sent feedback to Google to see if this sort of thing is possible.)

An early word about the OCLC Research Library Partnership

OCLC Research Library Partners will be part of a leading-edge, peer-based, transnational collaborative. Institutions will participate in a challenging and rewarding set of activities designed to improve the information-driven environment in which your students and scholars work. Partners’ efforts will be backed by the full capacities of OCLC Research, and Partners will collectively influence and direct a substantial portion of the OCLC Research effort. Institutions will have an opportunity to share expertise with some of the most innovative and forward-thinking library managers and leaders in the world.

- An early word about the OCLC Research Library Partnership, hangingtogether.org blog

I only worked briefly at an RLG library and in that short time never really got introduced to what it meant to be a member of RLG. Now that RLG has been OCLC Research for about five years, OCLC is now looking to re-engergize and expand communication between research libraries. The expanded effort is set to launch on July 1st.

Shelvar, the Augmented Reality Shelf-reading App

Putting misshelved books back in their proper places is not a library worker’s favorite task. It takes time and it’s not exactly scintillating. Now a computer-science professor has come up with a way to make the process faster and less burdensome: an augmented-reality shelf-reading app that can scan an entire shelf’s worth of books at a time and alert workers which ones are out of place.

- Shelving Made Easy (or Easier), Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education

This one warms my heart because it comes from my alma mater, Miami University‘s Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. It is an app for mobile device that scans two-dimensional barcodes on the spines of books and shows, in real time, which ones are out of place. This 4-minute video demonstrates how it works. In comments on the YouTube video, Dr. Brinkman says: “Sorry, the application is still under development, and is not available for other people to try yet. If everything goes well we will be soliciting for beta-test partners some time around Christmas.”

At the Academic Library Association of Ohio meeting last week, I saw a presentation by John Burke, director of the library at Miami University – Middletown, and Krista McDonald, director of the library Miami University – Hamilton called “You Can’t Do That! Library-Initiated Textbooks on Reserve Programs.” It was an introduction to their program to provide access to textbooks through the library’s course reserve service. It was such a great session that I felt compelled to write it up and share it with a larger audience.

The Problems with Textbooks

Yet it is commonly agreed that there are problems with financial model for textbooks. For starters, they are too expensive. Pekow says that students spend $940 annually on textbooks and supplies¹ The average cost of a textbook purchased by the Hamilton branch was $103, for the Middletown branch it was $85. (It could be said that libraries would have the same issue!) In addition, the late arrival of financial aid awards can keep students from purchasing textbooks in time for the start of class. Students wonder if textbooks will be used enough in class to justify the cost of purchase.

The Genesis of Textbooks on Reserve

That was the beginning of the Textbooks on Reserve program. The core elements of their “pitch,” as they called it, were to purchase textbooks for a select number and type of courses, to invest a small amount of library funds but to also encourage donations of current texts from faculty and students, to provide reasonable and broad access to the text;,and to keep track of statistics to see if the investment was paying off in usage.

Having the criteria is important in controlling the scope of the pilot project when faculty and students hear about it and want to expand the program. Courses were selected based on the nature of the course — it must be one of the general education requirements or some other introductory-level course, a significant projected student enrollment, the use of a single textbook for all or most sections offered in the course, the non-consumable nature of the material, and that publication of a new edition was not imminent. Inherent in this selection criteria is the fact that courses that had multiple instructors for multiple sections that used different textbooks were excluded from the pilot, although textbook donations from faculty, if they came in, helped offset this criteria. In addition, the library would purchase only the required texts — no study guides, workbooks, lab manuals, or other related (consumable) materials. Lastly, they worked with the bookstore to determine if a new edition was coming so as to maximize the investment of the first batch of books in the pilot.

Both campuses held a “textbook summit” of sorts, attended by representatives from the campus bookstore, department of learning assistance, student services department, academic advising and retention, financial aid department, faculty, and the student government association. The outcome from the summits differed on each campus. In Middletown, the participants were on-board, but there was initially not a strong feeling of commitment. In particular, there was no interest from the other parties to help fund it. The bookstore helped with the logistics and the John had the general backing of the administration. On the Hamilton campus, however, the response was much more positive. Or, as Krista put it, they were “stunned” and asking questions like “why hasn’t this been done already?” The support was so strong that a committee was created, lead by the head of the library and the head of the bookstore, to manage the program.

Making it Happen

Textbooks are placed on 2-hour in-house reserve at each of the branches. The Middletown library has also experimented with overnight loans. (If the item is checked out within two hours of closing it can be brought back in the morning.) Hamilton had problems with items walking out and not coming back, so they have stuck with the 2-hour reserves. Only one copy of each text is available. In some cases due to donations or other existing copies, there might be more than one. This fall Middletown is trying to add additional copies based on demand. The textbooks are intermingled with regular reserve items on reserve shelves, but labeled to show their “Textbooks on Reserve” status. The physical processing is done by the reserves coordinator as part of existing duties. Middletown adds the items to their ILS using brief “on-the-fly” records as John doesn’t see the need to formally catalog items that are going to be withdrawn in a few years. Hamilton performs full copy cataloging on the textbooks. Both campuses will add a book plate to donated items if the donor desires it.

The program is marketed on the library web pages and blogs of each campus, and e-mail was sent out to various campus-wide mailing lists. Posters were distributed across campus, the Middletown branch used a banner at the library entrance, and bookmarks were distributed with each checkout and to all attendees at library instruction sessions. John and Krista attended various campus committee meetings to promote the program, and word spread among students and faculty by word-of-mouth. In particular, faculty appreciated knowing about the program in cases where they encounter students early in the course that are having problems with financial aid awards.

Within the course reserve system, all of the textbooks are grouped into a single course reserve section. For statistical purposes, an accounting of transactions are gathered weekly along with a count of items that come onto the textbook program and those that leave. There might come a point where the stats wouldn’t be tracked in detail; the program just becomes a part of the library service offerings.

Whether the program is allowed under copyright law is unclear in cases. In terms of the items purchased by the library, it seems pretty clear — the first sale doctrine means that the library can lend what it owns. This doctrine may not apply to donated desk copies. More thought on the issue is warranted.

Results so far

Both libraries are continuing to build the textbook-on-reserve collections with new courses and additional copies. Both are seeking additional funding from their campuses to support the program. Hamilton, in particular, is considering the option of holding an annual book sale hosted by the student government to fund the textbook program. The textbook on reserve program is also one response to the growing issue of the cost to students of texts. Other activities that bear watching are the state-wide e-textbook pilot projects underway by the Collective Action group, and the return of a proposed bill in state government that would mandate libraries to purchase all required texts and make them available.

The presentation included a handout with questions to consider when planning a similar service and a bibliography of helpful resources. Errors in transcribing and digesting the talk into the description above are my own; the presenters have not reviewed this summary. Kudos to Krista and John for bringing their experience to the ALAO meeting.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://www.ohiocollectiveaction.org/ on January 20th, 2011.

The text was modified to remove a link to http://www.alaoweb.org/conferences/conf2007/ on January 20th, 2011.

Footnotes

1. Pekow, C. (2007). Did you know? Textbooks join tuition on list of rising costs for students. Grants for Libraries Hotline. 7,7.