A Linguistic Analysis of Chat Reference Conversations with 18–24-Year-Old College Students

Thirty-one chat reference conversations were linguistically analyzed, compared to twenty-three instant messaging (IM) conversations held between students, and further correlated to students’ satisfaction with the reference interaction. Conversations between librarians and students in chat reference are more formal than those solely involving students, and the use of some linguistic patterns are correlated to user satisfaction

An Evaluation of Library Instruction Delivered to Engineering Students Using Streaming Video

This paper evaluates the use of streaming video applications in the delivery of information literacy instruction to engineering students. It describes the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB) Engineering Library\u27s implementation of streaming video to support graduate distance programs in the Center for Advanced Engineering and Technology Education (CAETE), and reviews library literature regarding the use of streaming technology. As an initial evaluation of the project, the preliminary results of a survey (n=27) comparing satisfaction levels and learning outcomes between students who attended library instruction sessions in-class versus via streaming video are given. The results reveal no significant difference in satisfaction or learning outcomes between students who received library instruction delivered via streaming video or students attended live

ENGnetBASE

Database review of ENGnetBASE

Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries

This article posits a definition and theory for Library 2.0 . It suggests that recent thinking describing the changing Web as Web 2.0 will have substantial implications for libraries, and recognizes that while these implications keep very close to the history and mission of libraries, they still necessitate a new paradigm for librarianship. The paper applies the theory and definition to the practice of librarianship, specifically addressing how Web 2.0 technologies such as synchronous messaging and streaming media, blogs, wikis, social networks, tagging, RSS feeds, and mashups might intimate changes in how libraries provide access to their collections and user support for that access

The Physical and the Virtual: The Relationship Between Library as Place and Electronic Collections

A statistical analysis of responses to a LibQUAL+™ survey at the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB) was conducted to investigate factors related to patrons’ satisfaction with electronic collections. It was found that a respondent’s discipline was not related to his or her satisfaction with the Libraries’ electronic collection, nor was the frequency with which the respondent used the Libraries’ facilities or used commercial search engines. The factors significantly related to users’ satisfaction with electronic collections were the frequency with which they used the Libraries’ Web site, and, most interestingly, the physical library they most often visited

Just Because We Can Doesn’t Mean We Should: On Knowing and Protecting Data Produced by the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society

A recent project at the University of Denver Libraries used handwritten text recognition (HTR) software to create transcriptions of records from the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society (JCRS), a tuberculosis sanatorium located in Denver, Colorado from 1904 to 1954. Among a great many other potential uses, these type- and hand-written records give insight into the human experience of disease and epidemic, its treatment, its effect on cultures, and of Jewish immigration to and early life in the American West. Our intent is to provide these transcripts as data so the text may be computationally analyzed, pursuant to a larger effort in developing capacity in services and infrastructure to support digital humanities as a library, and to contribute to the emerging HTR ecosystem in archival work.Just because we can, however, doesn’t always mean we should: the realities of publishing large datasets online that contain medical and personal histories of potentially vulnerable people and communities introduce serious ethical considerations. This paper both underscores the value of HTR and frames ethical considerations related to protecting data derived from it. It suggests a terms-of-use intervention perhaps valuable to similar projects, one that balances meeting the research needs of digital scholars with the care and respect of persons, their communities and inheritors, who lives produced the very data now valuable to those researchers

Reorganizing for Transformational Change: The 21st Century Research Library at a Flagship Public University

Beginning in November 2010 and culminating in February 2012, the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries began planning a significant structural reorganization. Local, pragmatic drivers for the change included retirements at the executive level and the loss of professional librarian lines due to the Great Recession of 2008. But other, more important catalysts existed and are driving similar reorganization efforts in research libraries across the country. The increasingly interdisciplinary, digital, and inter-institutional nature of scholarship, research and teaching requires a more flexible, team-managed research library. Dramatic shifts in how institutions of higher education are funded are also fueling the need to reevaluate organizational structures. This article will explore the process, strategy, and on-going efforts to recreate the research library at the University of Colorado Boulder

Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries

This article posits a definition and theory for "Library 2.0". It suggests that recent thinking describing the changing Web as "Web 2.0" will have substantial implications for libraries, and recognizes that while these implications keep very close to the history and mission of libraries, they still necessitate a new paradigm for librarianship. The paper applies the theory and definition to the practice of librarianship, specifically addressing how Web 2.0 technologies such as synchronous messaging and streaming media, blogs, wikis, social networks, tagging, RSS feeds, and mashups might intimate changes in how libraries provide access to their collections and user support for that access

The Good, the Bad, but Mostly the Ugly: Adherence to RUSA Guidelines During Encounters with Inappropriate Behavior Online

Using a scoring rubric based on RUSA’s Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers, librarians’ performance in 106 chat reference transcripts in which a patron was determined to be acting inappropriately were compared to 90 randomly chosen transcripts from the same time period in which no inappropriate behavior was identified. Librarians serving appropriately behaving patrons scored significantly better on two of five major dimensions of the RUSA Guidelines. Recommendations for librarians serving inappropriately behaving patrons and for improving the three of the five major dimensions are given

Receptivity to Library Involvement in Scientific Data Curation: A Case Study at the University of Colorado Boulder

Increasingly libraries are expected to play a role in scientific data curation initiatives, i.e., the management and preservation of digital data over the long-term. This case study offers a novel approach for identifying researchers who are receptive toward library involvement in data curation. The authors interviewed researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and, after analysis, created eight design personas. Each persona represents an aggregation of researcher attributes and can be used to target strategic relationships for nascent or emerging data management initiatives. These personas are applicable to any academic library seeking to provide data curation support