Journal Club Digest 2011-2012

The following report synopsizes the McGill Librarian Journal Club's meeting for the academic year 2011-2012.

October 2011

Kim, J. (2011). Motivations of faculty self-archiving in institutional repositories. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37(3), 246-254.

Facilitators: Tara Mawhinney and Andrea Miller-Nesbitt

Summary:

This article was chosen to better understand faculty members’ perception of institutional repositories. We had an interesting discussion about which factors the authors considered important in researchers’ willingness to contribute to IRs. There were some flaws in the methodology; however, it was useful to reflect on users’ perceptions of IRs and how we, as librarians, can educate people about the purpose and benefits of IRs.

November 2011

Fry, A., & Rich, L. (2011). Usability testing for e-resource discovery: how students find and choose e-resources using library web sites. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37(5), 386-401.

Facilitators:  Graham Lavender and Lindsey Sikora

Summary:

This article reports on a usability study at Bowling Green State University that focused on how students find and select e-resources (i.e., databases) from the library’s website. One topic of discussion during the journal club meeting was the inherent difficulty of designing studies that address usability. It’s possible to test whether users can complete a task like “find X database,” but how can websites be designed for students who have not yet learned what a database is or why it might be needed?

December 2011

Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science, 333(6043), 776-778.

Facilitators:  Gen Gore and Robin Featherstone

Summary:

This cleverly designed study demonstrated, on a sample of undergraduate students at Harvard and Columbia University, that the expectation of the future availability of information decreased recall of the actual information but increased recall of where the information could be found. The study also showed that when the students were faced with difficult questions, their reaction times, when presented with words for which the task was merely to identify the colour of the word (the Stroop test), were slower when identifying the colour of computer-related words: this indicated a disposition to think more about computers when faced with difficult questions. Discussions in the journal club meeting included the issue that not all information is available online, as well as what effects this type of research has on collections in general. It also underscored the importance of teaching students the different types of resources that should be consulted depending on the information need.

February 2012

Olszewski, L., & Rumbaugh, P. (2010). An international comparison of virtual reference services. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 49(4), 360-368.

Facilitator: Giovanna Badia

Summary:

This study reveals interesting patterns about the behaviour of users of email reference services in academic and public libraries in 10 countries. The authors summarize the existing literature on virtual reference services in non-US countries at the beginning of the article; however, they do not link their findings back to their literature review. This missing link makes it hard to determine how this study adds to, or fits in, our present body of knowledge on the subject. The authors also fail to place their findings in a wider context. A discussion of the wider context would have added value to this article by making it clear to the reader how these findings can influence the practice of libraries participating in collaborative virtual reference services via QuestionPoint.

March 2012

Dinkins, D., & Ryan, S. M. (2010). Measuring referrals: The use of paraprofessionals at the reference desk. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 36(4), 279-286.

Facilitator:  Jennifer Zhao

Summary:

The effectiveness of using paraprofessionals at the reference desk is measurable, for example, measuring referrals as reported in the paper. Although there are flaws in this study, many questions mentioned can be useful for assessing the implementation of our Single Service Point module at McGill Libraries, such as “What category of questions did the referral fall” (information, directional, technical, or loans), “Did referrals decrease in the spring semester as compared to fall semester” as our desk staff get familiar with the new module.

April 2012

Imler, B., & Eichelberger, M. (2011). Do they "get it?" Student usage of SFX citation linking software. College and Research Libraries, 72, 454-463.

Facilitators:  Emily Kasuto and Vincci Liu

Summary:

This article reported on the findings of a study designed to quantitatively measure the success of the use of the SFX article linker by undergraduate students. Several questions were raised about the methodology and some of the authors’ interpretations of the results. However, it was nevertheless interesting to compare these students’ reported difficulties navigating the interface (such as sometimes confusing language and the many clicks needed to reach the full text) with observations of our own students in similar situations.

May 2012

Schrader, A. M., Shiri, A., & Williamson, V. (2012).  Assessment of the research learning needs of university of Saskatchewan librarians: A case study. College and Research Libraries, 73, 147-163.

Facilitator:  Brian McMillan

Summary:

The article looks at the actions and policy changes recently made at the University of Saskatchewan to foster a research culture among its liaison librarians and surveys the librarians to reveal their attitudes towards this new direction and the changes made so far and to collect suggestions for future changes. Discussion at the journal club meeting noted the parallels between U of S and McGill and brainstormed ideas for following the example of U of S. Thus far:

• Megan has contacted Alvin Schrader to see if he plans any further continuation of this type of study (e.g., doing a broader survey of multiple Canadian university libraries or even targeting individual Canadian university libraries). His answer is “no.”
• Brian has created a “Fostering a Research Culture” folder in the Library Journal Club RefWorks account listing this reading and titles listed in its bibliography.
• Brian has created a list of the strategies taken so far by the U of S Library. These notes are stored in the RefWorks entry for the article.
• April and Megan have attended the inaugural CARL research workshop. They went over their experiences with interested McGill librarians. Plans are to develop a local Montreal group of librarians interested in research to follow the strategies promoted at the workshop.

June 2012

Koufogiannakis, D., & Wiebe, N. (2006). Effective methods for teaching information literacy skills to undergraduate students: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 3(1), 3-43. URL: http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/viewArticle/76

Facilitator:  Megan Fitzgibbons

Summary:

This article was selected to illustrate the application of systematic review and meta-analysis methodologies in LIS research. It was found that studies with instruction interventions appropriate for this kind of analysis are sparse in the literature. However, it was interesting to see how methodology that originated in the health sciences can be applied to evidence-based practice in librarianship.

August 2012

Hoseth, A., & McLure, M. (2012). Perspectives on e-books from instructors and students in the social sciences. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 51(3), 278-288.

Facilitator:  Megan Fitzgibbons

Summary:

This article was selected as an example of focus group methodology, particularly for the purpose of investigating library users’ perceptions of e-books. Although the study found that some participants recognize e-books as integral to the future of reading, many expressed a preference for print in terms of readability, accessibility, and cognition. This type of empirical evidence of user needs and behaviours is important to inform libraries’ collection development decisions.