College Students Perceptions of Libraries and Information Sources: Mind the Gap

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College Students Perceptions of Libraries and
Information Sources Mind the Gap

• Aserl Workshop for Library Managers
• Atlanta, May 9, 2007
• Alane WilsonSenior Library Market
  ConsultantOCLC Online Computer Library Center

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Todays Program

• A quick look at the library environment
• Perceptions of online users, with a special focus
  on students, about libraries
• Some extrapolations about the future

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The library paradigm shift

• FromCustodian of books ?
• One medium ?
• Own collection ?
• Just in case ?
• In-sourcing ?
• Local reach ?
• You go to library ?

To... Service-oriented info provider Multiple
media Library without walls Just in
time Outsourcing Global reach The library comes
to you Credit Julie S. Sabaratnam 1995
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Environmental Scan
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Environmental Scan The landscapes
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Environmental Scan Dominant trends
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Self-service
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Disaggregation
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Collaboration

• Collaboration is an unnatural act committed by
  non-consenting adults.
• Robert MartinFormer Director of IMLS

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Social networking
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So what do we do for an encore?
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The Perceptions Report
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Why Perceptions?
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to boldly go where no library cooperative has
gone before
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What did we want to know?
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Familiarity and favorability students

• 96 of students have visited a public library
• 90 have cards
• 86 use an academic library several times a year
  or more
• 65 use a public library several times a year or
  more

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How you would rate the information available from
each source?
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Who provides worthwhile information?
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Which library resources provide worthwhile
information?
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How do you find new web sites?
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Knowledge of whats available
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Where do you start an info search?
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A lesson from the US Army
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Familiarity and Favorability Strategies
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Why do you use the library?
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Fits my lifestyle perfectly
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What are college students doing less?
Listening to the radio
19
40
Watching TV
14
24
Visiting friends and family
Reading newspapers
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College students library use

• 44 say their library use has gone up (Total
  respondents 25)
• 40 note no change (Total respondents 44)
• 16 say it has gone down (Total respondents
  31)

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Comparing libraries to search engines
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Comparing libraries to search engines
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Comparing librarians to search engines
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Trustworthiness of information
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The love-hate continuum
Kathy Sierra on the Creating Passionate Users
blog http//headrush.typepad.com/creating_passion
ate_users/2006/01/death_by_riskav.html
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Five considerations

• Does this create a barrier?
• Library-centered or user-centered?
• Does it add another rule to your manual?
• Does it make more work for either the user OR the
  librarian?
• Does it require doing damage control even before
  it goes into effect?
• Thanks to Michael Stephens, Dominican University

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Using the library Strategies
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The library brand
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Whats the first thing you think of?
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They say books but what they really mean is
knowledge and information.
- Library
Director
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Books, books, books, rows and rows of books,
stacks of books, tables filled with books,
people holding books, people checking out
books. Libraries are all about books.That is
what I think and that is what I will always
think. 41-year-old from Canada
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Books as brand associations not shared

• Librarian associations with libraries
• Trust privacy
• authoritative quality education learning
  community access

User associations with libraries Books
Information Free
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Positive Associations
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Negative Associations
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Roles for the library
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What are they telling us?
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Stop making it feel like church!
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Implications for the future library

• The library is everywhere
• The library has no barriers
• The library invites participation
• The library uses flexible, best-of-breed systems
• Do Libraries Matter? The Rise of Library 2.0
  Ken Chad and Paul Miller (Talis,
  2005)http//tinyurl.com/yafbk7

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Sisyphus or Don Quixote?
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Where would you go for information on nutrition?

• Professional source56
• Look up in a book18
• Ask a friend/family member9
• Consult a magazine8
• Consult a library1

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The Public Library Inquiry, 1947-50
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Service Responses (from Joan Frye Williams)

• Make facilities a top priority
• Make circulation a top priority
• Make learning a top priority
• Make Youth Services a top priority
• Embrace the free range Internet
• Support self-directed services
• Leverage the book brand
• Redefine professional excellence

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To sum up

• The user is not broken... The user is not
  "remote." You, the librarian, are remote, and it
  is your job to close that gap.
• Karen Schneider, June 3 2006

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Thank you!

• All OCLC reports are available for download at
  http//www.oclc.org/reports.