Role of Libraries in the Google Age

http://xkcd.com/903/

The role of a research/academic library and librarians in the age of

Robin Featherstone, MLISJuly 20, 2011

In the age of Google…

“[P]rocesses of human memory are adapting to the advent of new computing and communication technology. […] The experience of losing our Internet connection becomes more and more like losing a friend. We must remain plugged in to know what Google knows (Sparrow, 2011).”

“The Google Effect”

http://4.images.theweek.com/img/dir_0063/31774_article_main.jpg?42

Job Talk Outline

• Facilitating discovery• Innovatively providing services• Assessing client needs • Delivering pro-active support

FACILITATING DISCOVERY

Scholarly Information

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Library’s Role

Facilitating Discovery

• Enhancing subject access to collections– LibGuides: http://guides.library.yale.edu/basic_science– VuFind: http://cushing.med.yale.edu/electronic/books/subjects

• Enabling patron-driven purchasing• Digitizing unique content• Developing open-access repositories• Promoting scholarly sharing• Mobilizing search tools

Access Point

• Course or subject guides

Future Developments?

• Automatic redirection to the mobile site • VPN or EZ Proxy access options

• Increased visibility of mobile resources (e.g., CINAHL & UpToDate’s mobile sites)

- http://m.lib.uwo.ca/

• McGill Library app- CU Library

Future Developments?

Access Point

INNOVATIVELY PROVIDING SERVICES

Services

“[I]n an era when everything we know about how content is created, acquired, accessed, evaluated, disseminated, employed, and preserved for the future is in flux, the research library must be distinguished by the scope and quality of its service programs in the same way it has long been by the breadth and depth of its locally-held collections (Walter, 2011).”

Services Connect Clients to Collections

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Librarians’ Role

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Innovative Services: Reference

Innovative Services: Case Based, Interactive Learning

Innovative Services: Video Instruction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bptNuuLjc1w

Innovative Services: Social Networking

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/professors-consider-classroom-uses-for-google-plus/32131

ASSESSING CLIENT NEEDS

Life Sciences User Overview• Early adopters of mobile/handheld devices (McAlearney, 2004) &

social software (Giustini, 2006)

• Less likely to implement social software in professional settings due to privacy concerns and standards of care issues (Hawn, 2009)

• Email is their preferred mode of communication from librarian liaisons (Glynn & Wu, 2003)

• Medical students, in particular, have packed schedules which make course-integrated instruction difficult (Tennant et al., 2006)

• Nurses had the highest awareness (97.1%) of library liaison services while medical residents had the lowest (16%) (Tennant et al., 2006)

Integrated Assessment

Research

http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=10101

DELIVERING PRO-ACTIVE SUPPORT

Library’s Role

http://xkcd.com/888/

Delivering Pro-active Support

Delivering Pro-active Support

Embedded Librarian

http://www.nih.gov/catalyst/2005/05.11.01/page8.html

Summary• “The Google Effect” has changed the way

clients think about information• Pro-active, innovative services are facilitating

discovery and changing the way clients use the academic research library

• Academic research libraries and librarians will change the way clients use information

Questions

ReferencesGiustini, D. (2006). How Web 2.0 is changing medicine. BMJ, 333, 1283-1284.

Glynn, T., & Wu, C. (2003). New roles and opportunities for academic library liaisons: a survey and recommendations. Reference Services Review, 31(2), 122-128.

Hawn, C. (2009). Take two aspirin and tweet me in the morning: How Twitter, Facebook, and other social media are reshaping health care. Health Affairs, 28(2), 361-368.

McAlearney, A. S., Schweikhart, S. B., & Medow, M. A. (2004). Doctors’ experience with handheld computers in clinical practice: qualitative study. BMJ, 328, 1162.

Sparrow, B., et al. (2011). Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at our Fingertips. Science Express. Published online 14 July, 2011. Retrieved from http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/07/13/science.1207745.full.pdf

Tennant, M. R., Cataldo, T. T., Sherwill-Navarro, P. & Jesano, R. (2006) Evaluation of a liaison librarian program: Client and liaison perspectives. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 94(4), 402-409.

Walter, S. (2011). “Distinctive Signifiers of Excellence”: Library Services and the Future of the Academic Library. College & Research Libraries, 72(1), 6-8. Retrieved from OmniFile Full Text Mega database