Exploring the Effects of Discovery Services on Library Instruction:

The Experience of Moore Library, Rider University

VALE / NJ ACRL / NJLA CUS Fourteenth Annual Users' ConferenceFriday, January 4, 2013

"Demonstrating Value for Every User"Busch Campus Center, Rutgers University

Piscataway, NJ

Melissa A. HofmannBibliographic Control Librarian, Rider University

Spring/Summer 2012:Set-up & training

Fall 2012:Still betaNo marketing/ promotionNo plan for teachingGather feedback

Spring 2013Next steps….

Moore Library Research Instruction Program (RIP)

• 10 librarians• Course-integrated

(mostly one-shot) sessions

• Information literacy (IL) assessment ongoing

Moore Library Research Instruction Program (RIP)

• Fall 2012– 111 sessions

(including follow-ups)– Librarians free to teach

or not teach Library One Search (LOS)

– Survey of librarian use and perception of LOS in December 2012

Librarian Use of Discovery Tool in RIP

• 60% of librarians mentioned or taught LOS in an RIP session

• But only in 42 out of 111 sessions (38%)

• How and why?

The librarian…. # of sessions

Mentioned that LOS exists only 4

Showed the LOS search box on the library home page only

17

Opened LOS interface but did not perform a search

5

Demonstrated a search in LOS 16

Why didn’t you include LOS?Not enough time. 4Not appropriate to student topics. 5Classroom faculty did not want it. 2Did not match student learning outcomes for RI session. 3

I thought it would be too confusing for the students. 5

I wasn’t sure how to teach it. 2Told students to try it but it was still in beta. 1

Included link to LOS on Class Research Guides?

“It would showcase the library, and even if

students did not remember what I taught about which databases would be best for their topics and approaches, they would at least go there and find library

resources.”

# of Librarians

Action

1 Yes, ALL GUIDES

5 No

4 Some, depended on class

Included link to LOS on Class Research Guides?

• “Depends on the course. So many of my sessions

need primary source material that One Search

does not help with.”• “…like Google but is much

better. Students are likely to find what they need easily using keywords and this engine includes reliable sources.”

At the Reference Desk/One-on-one

Yes, I show Library One Search

7

No, I have not shown Library One Search

3

“I am not used to the idea of using it at the reference desk yet, partly because I usually zero in on the particular database(s) I think the student really needs to learn and which is specific to his or her topic. One Search can be almost overwhelming and students might lose sight of which resource they are looking at.”

At the Reference Desk/One-on-one• “For hard-to-find topics, I

use this. Students were happy to find anything they cannot find anywhere else.”

• “I demonstrated Library One Search, especially when they (and I) were not sure the best starting point for a topic search.”

• “They almost always appreciate it, especially since I use it for subjects that are difficult to identify a specific database.”

• I found a student using it and I thought it was too complicated for her topic. She needed to find one review article and three original research articles on Alzheimer's disease and an appropriate intervention. It just required a completely different strategy.

“Yes, this gives me a broader perspective and is somewhat like a security blanket. It helps me prepare for the lessons. If I cannot find what I need in the individual databases, I try One Search. If I found something already, I try it to see if I missed anything. I tell students to use the same strategies to search on their topics.”

“Not much change because what I showed with One Search, about narrowing/using limiters, I also do with searching specific EBSCO databases.”

Do you think your instruction has changed since we implemented LOS?

50% YES – 50% NO

Do you think your instruction has changed since we implemented LOS?

I want to include One Search, teach what it is and how it could be useful, even if I don't think it is the best place to start. I want students to use library resources, but I find that they don't have the context/basics to understand a single database, so how will they make sense of a conglomeration?

“One Search will make me have to focus my instruction efforts on filtering, narrowing down, and refining searches.”

How do you think Library One Search will affect our students' IL skills?

• “They will find reliable resources more easily but may still not know the differences among the varieties of sources (e.g. books, magazines, journals, documents). They still need to learn the elements of citations and how to narrow down the results.”

• “I want to love it more than I do. I'm worried students don't understand what they are seeing there….I worry for the students that don't go beyond the first page of results.”

How do you think Library One Search will affect our students' IL skills?

• “Not sure--they have a difficult time understanding search strategies in regular databases, and I’m not sure they would use the faceted items available in One Search.”

• “I think it's a good service for freshmen and beginning scholars because it will encourage them to use good sources. Actual understanding of what the results mean and how to work with them will still have to be taught, and I don't think it will be easier for them to comprehend.”

Other Comments….

• “Some students use it because it is the first item on the Library page. They may not know about the catalog and databases but they will search this one box because it is right there (Location! Location! Location!).

• Students don't understand that book citations in LOS may not be coming from the catalog--they expect to be able to physically get/have access to all books found through LOS.

Other Comments-2

• “Even though I have not taught One Search, I have noticed that students have found the tool on their own.”

• “Some of my education students found articles, including scholarly ones, using One Search that they did not find when choosing particular education databases--they were thrilled in most cases. Some students felt overwhelmed with the number of results. Some were unhappy when it led them to a citation that we did not have available full text. “

Other Comments-3• Three classroom faculty members, one from

education, one from business communication, and one from communication were impressed with the new service in terms of ease of search and comprehensiveness (number of relevant databases it could search at one time).

Student Feedback….

• Feedback survey: only 4 respondents• 3 found what they were looking for easily; one

responded “somewhat.”– “Had some difficulty isolating certain terms even if

I used Boolean, esp. when searching in various languages” (Senior Spanish student writing thesis)

• 3 found it superior to the traditional catalog and databases; one “OK”

• 3 indicated “would use again”

Next Steps….• Presentation to faculty in

January• More customization for ease-of-

use• Product enhancements by

EBSCO• Analyze usage/evaluate• Publicity/outreach