Is This New OCLC Report Worth It?
When the OCLC Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report first appeared in December 2005 I pointed out some of the findings about college students included in that report. I suggested that although the overall conclusions of the report were somewhat dismal, I was encouraged that college students, when compared to the general population, appeared more knowledgeable about their institutional library; for them it wasn’t just about books. Now OCLC has issued a version of the Perceptions study, a subset of data, that examines the information-seeking habits and preferences of international college students. This data comes from just the 396 college students who participated in the study. I guess the question is, given that much of the data is a subset of the original report, how much do I gain by getting a copy of this new report. Will I discover any new and eye opening revelations?
The page describing the new report does indicate there are new graphs and additional analysis. That could certainly be helpful. What I liked about the original is that comparisons between college and public library users could be distinguished reasonably well. Afer looking over some of the new report’s sections I would say OCLC has retained the comparisons in a good way. I found it easy to see that college students report going to libraries daily and weekly far more than public library users, or that they use the library web site at twice the rate of other respondents. On the other hand, when it comes to choosing an electronic resource to start research, college students differ little from the general public; they all use search engines first according to this report. For what else could I use the report? Well the next time a faculty member asks me why I think it is he or she who should be promoting library resources moreso than librarians I could pull out this report and show them that students report learning about electronic information sources from faculty far more than they do from librarians. So faculty can play a crucial role in helping to educate students about the library’s electronic resources.
So I think I will get a copy of this new report even though I have a few copies of the original Perceptions report. I think it will make it easier to read and find the data I need. Oh, and I’m also going to get a copy for my boss. I wouldn’t have thought of handing him a copy of the original report, but I think this one is just right for academic administrators.
Posted: May 31, 2006 by StevenB
in Student Issues, Technology Issues, Worth Reading.
Comments
Pingback from ACRLog » Blog Archive » Sudden Thoughts And Second Thoughts
Posted: July 12, 2006 at 9:56 am
[...] The discussions about the OPAC and all that ails it go on unabated. I will acknowledge that the tone of the conversation has shifted from mere complaining to a greater focus on ways to improve the OPAC. For example, see Eric Morgan’s discussion of the next generation catalog posted at LITABlog. Given all the discussion about why the OPAC needs to improve you would think that academic libraries are besieged with complaints about the library catalog. Somehow I doubt that this profession’s concerns about the OPAC are shared by library users. As evidence of that I turn to the recent OCLC “College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources” report. When the respondents were asked “If you could provide one piece of advice to your library what would it be?” a mere 2% of the respondents suggested improvements to the local library online catalog (see page 4-6). They were much more focused on improving collections and computing facilities in the library. So if 98% of library patrons (Ok, I know it’s statistically inappropriate to extrapolate this finding from a small sample to all academic libraries) have no real concerns about the OPAC, why is there such a fuss being made about fixing something that the users don’t even think is broken? On a day-to-day basis in your library do you see patrons having massive search failures with the OPAC? Are they demanding enhancements? I recall that when I worked at the University of Pennsylvania the greatest patron reaction to the debut of our then new web-based Voyager OPAC was a mass call for the return of the telnet-based catalog. The new OPAC was simpler by far, but patrons percieved no problems with the telnet system which did just what they needed. I agree that we should always be working to improve our systems and make research a more satisfying experience for our user communities. We shouldn’t only give attention to problems when users get vocal about them, but should work proactively to consistently improve our libraries. But reports like the OCLC study suggest that our patrons are more concerned about “quality of life” factors such as having working photocopiers, good customer service and up-to-date book collections than they are about their library’s catalog system. Are we focusing our priorities in the right places? I think I’ll remain content to wait for my ILS vendor to tweak our OPAC while we direct our attention to getting students to use the library’s resources and services. [...]
Pingback from ACRLog » Blog Archive » Keeping Up Helps To Make The Point
Posted: October 30, 2006 at 9:53 am
[...] The point I want to make though is about keeping up. It certainly takes some extra time each day, but the investment will be well worth it if you come up with information and resources that can be used to keep administrators and faculty aware of the value academic libraries add to the students’ education and their ability to achieve academic success – and possibly even to help them choose the institution and stay there until they graduate. But if you don’t have the ammunition you can’t do the job. As I speak at and attend different conferences I still find that too few library administrators and even fewer front-line academic librarians are reading the Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed. Those two should be required reading for every academic librarian everyday. Doing so will allow you to come across an article like the recent one about initial results from the ETS ICT Assessment that indicated students at many test institutions lacked adequate information literacy skills. That’s the kind of ammunition about which I’m talking. We alerted our readers to the OCLC College Students Perception Report, yet I still find academic librarians who haven’t heard of the report. It’s chock full of good ammunition. I’m going to get off the soapbox now. There is no secret to or special skill required for developing good strategies for locating and using the best information possible when advocating on behalf of the library. It all comes back to having a sound and well-rounded keeping up regimen. Here at ACRLog we’ll continue to do our part by bringing to our readers’ attention new studies and reports that are required reading for academic librarians. The rest is up to you. [...]
Pingback from Takes More Than Blogs And Wikis To Build The Socially Networked Academic Library
Posted: November 12, 2007 at 9:26 am
[...] and Information Resources report, and just over a year since the release of the subset of that report focusing on college students. Now OCLC delivers its latest survey report, Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World. Was [...]
Pingback from Adventures in Wonderland
Posted: March 5, 2009 at 11:11 am
[...] 3. Is this new OCLC report worth it? [...]
Comment from Alane Wilson, OCLC
Posted: May 31, 2006 at 11:34 am
And that, Mr Bell, is exactly why we produced the report–to be given to people not interested in reading the big Perceptions report, or not likely to wade through it looking for data on students.
Even though the number of students is small, Harris assured us the subset is statistically valid.
And thanks for your remarks!