Social Media and Learning at the Ferguson Municipal Public Library

This brief article highlights the way in which the Ferguson Municipal Public Library harnessed social media, specifically Twitter, to provide opportunities for learning in the community during the August 2014 protests after the death of Michael Brown, a black teenager shot and killed by a white police officer. The article presents data from the Ferguson Library’s Twitter account and looks at community reception of the library’s educational efforts

Beta Spaces as a Model for Recontextualizing Reference Services in Libraries

Reference services are at a cross-roads. While many academic libraries continue to offer reference services from behind a desk, others are moving to roving and embedded reference models. Meanwhile, libraries are also engaged in the development of collaborative learning spaces—often rich with technology, such as makerspaces and learning labs—but these spaces are often removed from the reference services environment. Beta spaces are another type of collaborative environment used in both public and academic libraries with the potential to infuse energy into the reference space and emphasize research support through experimentation, collaboration, and user contribution. Beta spaces are user-oriented environments with a focus on innovation and experimentation, much like a makerspace but with an emphasis on ideas over technology. A beta space model for reference services would enhance opportunities for active learning, help make the research process visible and tangible, and effectively demonstrate the value of reference

Coordinating Information Resources (With Reference on my Mind)

This poster presentation explores the ways reference and technical services staff can work together to build strong, user-centered collections and best serve student and faculty patrons. It highlights the professional path of the author during a transition from public services to technical services in a newly created position: information resources coordinator. The challenge is twofold: 1) how to apply reference services expertise to a new scope of responsibility that includes collection analysis and management of print and electronic resources, and 2) how to build collaborative and meaningful relationships with reference and teaching librarians in order to best evaluate existing and future resources in support of student learning? With a focus on communication and outreach, collaborative collection development, assessment, and user services, the goal of this poster is to encourage reference librarians to think of the ways that partnerships across service areas serve to promote the work that they do, and the way they can influence decisions made across the library

Interpret the numbers: Putting e-book usage statistics in context

E-books have been an integral part of library collections for a long time now, but they are still surrounded by controversy. How much our patrons really use them? That seemingly simple question has a very complicated answer that could depend on a number of factors. The e-books’ usage reports mean very little on their own and leave many unanswered questions. In order to contextualize the usage statistics, the Claremont Colleges Library conducted an analysis of enhanced usage reports in comparison with the total offerings of e-book content available to our users from all major providers, and through all access models. The study aimed to measure turnover rates and shed light on what is not being used, gauge usage (and non-usage) patterns by subject area and publication year, as well as determine the impact, if any, of the different access models. In addition, we compared the subject composition and the age of the e-book collection to the print book collection, and analyzed the usage patterns in the two formats within calendar 2014. This presentation will highlight the most important findings of the study and discuss their implications for future collection management

Cataloging Abstraction: Reflections on Looking, Metadata and Grief

This poster presentation describes an ongoing digital project focused on cataloging and organizing a large collection of abstract artwork created by Burton Dickerson, the presenter’s grandfather, who passed away in 2022. The poster highlights technical aspects of organizing the collection, including the decision to self-host an instance of Omeka-S, the use of metadata tags to identify consistent visual motifs across works, and approaches to managing complex items that consist of both digital and physical objects

Critical Collection Analysis: Using DH Tools to Contextualize Historical Collecting Patterns within a Political Framework

With the growth of digital humanities and a wide range of free and open source analysis tools at our fingertips, librarians have a unique opportunity to use these new tools to critically analyze library collections. Moving beyond usage and budgets, strategies such as text analysis, temporal pattern finding and data visualization offer insights into the structure and content of our collections, which in turn supports evidenced-based decision-making for future acquisitions. At the Claremont Colleges Library, librarians across divisions have been encouraged to learn tools and approaches to Digital Humanities, and apply these principles to our own work and relationships with researchers. This presentation was delivered on Friday, November 4th at the Charleston Conference. It covered: methods for gathering historic acquisitions data; strategies for using Digital Humanities tools to both analyze and communicate findings; an overview of this team\u27s findings on terrorism and collection development at Claremont; and potential future applications for the use of Digital Humanities tools to support collection assessment and development