The Holistic Cognitive Framework for Personal Information Management Research

Descriptive Personal Information Management (PIM) studies inform us about PIM behavior and their findings should guide the design and development of PIM tools to support the behavior under study. Unfortunately, descriptive studies do not always provide useful recommendations and PIM tool research is often carried out separately. The Holistic Cognitive Framework developed by Ingwersen and Järvelin (2005, Figure 6.1, p. 261) might serve as a unifying framework for PIM researc

Building on background knowledge to formulate researchable questions

At the recent ALA Midwinter Conference in Seattle, I moderated the AASL-sponsored Hot Topics discussion on “Genre-fying” the collection. Six panelists presented a variety of viewpoints on how to handle an issue that is being widely discussed. A number of librarians have implemented the change, reclassifying their nonfiction titles using letters identifying the genre. Some have used EBSCO’s NoveList as a source for the categories they chose, others have used their own ideas. A few have integrated fiction within the nonfiction. A more limited approach is to “genre-fy” the fiction collection. Those who have made the change point to increased circulation. Librarians who think we should stay with Dewey argue that consistency between libraries is important and the amount of work to make the switch is hug

Letter of Information

Letter of Information for participants in the study: The Impact of New Data Management Plan Requirements on Faculty, Sponsored Programs, and Institutional Repository Managers

Teaching Use of Digital Primary Sources for K-12 Settings

This paper describes learning outcomes of a three-day workshop on integrating primary sources into K-12 teaching. The short curriculum — intended for teams of teachers and school librarians — combined visits to a museum and a library\u27s special collections with an introduction to significant national and local digital collections of primary sources. The paper draws on focus group data, reflection papers, and a conference presentation by the workshop participants as well as curricular artifacts presented to the workshop instructors. Using their workshop experience, teachers integrated digitized primary sources into their curricula thereby creating quality instructional content that engaged students\u27 interest. School librarians and teachers worked together during the workshop, establishing a model for future collaboration. They were exposed to readily accessible digital sources they can draw upon for scholastic projects and lifelong learning. Primary source sets created by workshop participants were added to local and national educational websites for others to use

Everybody’s Publishing but Me! How a Writing Group Can Help Actualize Your Publishing Dreams

On any given day, one can go to the Chronicle of Higher Education and see a new article on the trials and tribulations of publishing and seeking tenure in academia. Anxiety inducing titles such as “Measuring Up” and “The Stress of Academic Publishing” reaffirm the notion that one must publish, or perish. While this type of pressure pushes some to success, for others, it makes it harder to write. However, you don’t have to travel this writing and publishing road alone. Inspired by the book Every Other Thursday: Stories and Strategies from Successful Women Scientists by Ellen Daniell, a small group of women academics and professionals in Logan, Utah found their support team through the creation of a writing group in Spring 2009

Tools for Using and Organizing Online Resources to Enhance Reference and Instruction

Presentation at the 2010 Utah Library Association annual conference. This presentation addressed different tools that can be used to incorporate technology and online resources into teaching and instruction

Teaching and Learning Information Synthesis: An Intervention and Rubric Based Assessment

The purpose of this research was to determine how information synthesis skills can be taught effectively, and to discover how the level of synthesis in student writing can be effectively measured. The intervention was an information synthesis lesson that broke down the synthesis process into sequenced tasks. Researchers created a rubric which they used to assess a student’s level of information synthesis demonstrated in their final research essays. A form of counting analysis was also created to see if other methods could help in measuring synthesis.Findings from the rubric analysis revealed that students appear to benefit from the synthesis lesson. The level of synthesis, however, remains low overall. In addition, the study also showed that the different measures of synthesis established were able to identify different levels of information integration. Discovering effective ways to measure and teach synthesis continues to be essential in helping students become information literate