When a Librarian's Not There to Ask: Creating an Information Resource Advisory Tool

It is 2am. A professor wakes up with a new direction for her research; she must immediately learn about bioethics. In a dorm a student is finally ready to begin a paper on Cuba. Where do they turn? The library web site presents them with a bewildering array of resources and no librarian on hand to serve as intermediary. How can librarians facilitate research in their absence? What interfaces can be designed to educate users in their search? What metadata is needed to enable accurate retrieval? What is the librarian’s role in the increasingly indirectly-mediated information-seeking environment? Can the reference interview be effectively translated into a search interface? This paper describes a step towards resolving these issues by creating an on-line tool to assist users in selecting the database(s) most germane to their research needs

User Needs Assessment of Information Seeking Activities of MIT Students - Spring 2006

The SFX/Verde Group was authorized to complete a user needs assessment in the form of a Photo Diary Study with MIT students in the spring of 2006. The goal of the study was to inform the MIT Libraries of online tool improvements that should be implemented to meet our most pressing user needs. Sixteen graduate students and sixteen undergraduate students participated in offering a fascinating glimpse into the information-seeking aspects of their academic lives. The team categorized user behaviors into goals and tasks and then analyzed the 277 goals and tasks and the 507 methods shared with us by the students in the study. The study yielded the following priorities for the Libraries' online tools: Make discovery easier and more effective. Incorporate trusted networks in finding tools. Continue to put links to the Libraries' services and resources where the users are. The study also showed that the students used a variety of highly successful strategies for performing quick lookups of information and finding specific known items. Finally, while the assessment focused on aspects of the students' work related to online tools, it also yielded rich information that could be useful in improving other aspects of the Libraries' services

Publishing Practices of NIH-Funded Faculty of MIT

Faculty and researchers who receive substantial funding from NIH were interviewed about their publication practices. Qualitative data was collected from interviews of eleven faculty members and one researcher representing six academic departments who received NIH funding. Interview responses were analyzed to identify a representative publication workflow and common themes related to the publication process. The goals of this study were to inform librarians about faculty publication practices; to learn how faculty are affected by and responding to NIH publication policy changes; and to inform planning and discussion about new services to support NIH compliance in addition to general faculty publishing. Major themes from the interviews included consistency in publishing workflows, but variety in authorship patterns and in data management practices. Significant points of pain for authors included difficulty finding quality reviewers, frustrating submission processes, and discomfort about the implications of publication agreements. Some authors found the NIH submission requirement to be burdensome, but most assumed their publishers were taking care of this process for them. Implications for library services are considered