2011 Sessions

The Cunningham Memorial Library at Indiana State University (ISU) has made the "library as place" one of its top priorities in its recently written strategic plan. The library's motto, "your campus living room," has resonated with students and faculty alike. Can you make your library more relevant to campus? Sure you can add more books, more electronic resources, and other wonderful points of information access, but can you convince students (and sometimes faculty) that the library is still relevant to the campus community? This session will look at how the ISU Library has made strategic changes in its facilities, services, resources, and programs to not only attract users into the library but to meet the research and recreational needs of their students and faculty. Attendees will take away ideas that can be implemented in their own library without having to build a new library or hire a cadre of new librarians.

As librarians in any discipline, it is important to be aware of the nature of changes in the world of research. This presentation is specifically geared towards librarians without a background in science. It will include a brief overview of e-science as well as why this emerging area is important for libraries. Current trends and possible future trends in roles for libraries will be discussed. Many of the issues have a direct relationship to the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Information Technology is rapidly changing the world of scientific research. We have entered a new era of science. Some call it e-science, while others call it the 4th paradigm of science. Scientists, with the aid of technology, are continually amassing larger and more complex datasets. These data are accumulated are at an ever-accelerating rate. How will this information be organized? What, if any of it should be preserved for future use? How will it be preserved? If it is preserved, how will it be made publically accessible? The NSF and others describe the solving of problems such as these as some of the major challenges of this scientific generation. They also state that tackling these problems will take expertise from many fields, including library and information science.

A recent movement of this new era of science is an increasing requirement for scientists to archive and make their research data public. For example, the National Science Foundation (as of January 18, 2011) is requiring scientists to articulate how they will accomplish these goals within data management plans that must be submitted with each grant proposal.

What role can libraries play in this new realm of science? What role are libraries already playing? Several libraries have taken the lead in initiating efforts in assisting scientists with a variety of data management needs. This presentation will include a brief overview of the current trends as well as possible future directions in librarianship that this new era of science may lead.

Do you notice some international students appear to be lost when presenting information during a library instruction session? While working at the reference desk, do you notice international students do not seem to understand the instructions given? This presentation is about understanding the language and cultural barriers that may be present in these types of interactions.

The presenter plans to discuss issues which may occur when delivering library instruction to international students and/or working with them at the reference desk (both physically and virtually). These students come from a variety of different backgrounds and may not understand an American style of presentation, the vocabulary of such a presentation and/or the examples used in the presentation. The participants will leave the presentation with some ideas on how to handle these types of issues in regards to the library instruction session and working the reference desk (both physically and virtually). The presenter will discuss ways to explain library terminology to international students. To finish the presentation, there will be a discussion of ways for collaborating with various on-campus international student organizations, clubs, etc. There are numerous international student organizations, clubs, etc. that you may not even be aware of because they do not contact the library or they seek help somewhere else. The participant will leave the session with ideas on how to find these international student organizations, market services to these groups and gain insight on ways to adapt library services within reasonable accommodations.

Are your library student assistants underutilized? Have you ever wondered if there were other jobs you could assign to them? Are there tasks that students can accomplish that you never considered before? Student assistants work in all types of academic libraries, and engage in a wide variety of tasks while on the job. This session will present the results of an extensive survey of responsibility level tasks assigned to student workers. We will review relevant literature and discuss the results of our survey sent to all types of academic institutions, including junior colleges, 4 year colleges, and universities, regarding the jobs/tasks that student assistants are asked to accomplish. The survey is broad in scope, including circulation, acquisitions, cataloging, reference and interlibrary loan, and asks the respondents to rank the responsibility level of the tasks assigned. It is expected that new tasks will be discovered and, through this project, spark new ideas to utilize the student assistant workforce regardless of institutional size.
Hide this content.

Embedded librarian programs provide the perfect opportunity to expand reference services by creating personal connections with students who utilize online learning platforms. At Wayne State College's Conn Library (Wayne, NE), librarians have discovered that a "wait and see" policy for questions in such classes is ineffective. They now proactively engage both distance students taking online courses and on-campus students using online components in their classes through the use of tips tailored to specific classes, useful databases, assignments, and frequently asked student questions.

In this session attendees will learn how librarians at Conn Library manage online discussion forums with posted tips containing links to previously developed printed resources and live screen capture demonstrations. Based on course syllabi and instructor/student needs, attendees will learn how to develop their own proactive tips using Jing, an open source screen capture program, and web-based resources from their own library. They will also learn strategies to store, update, and maintain their tips for future courses.

As a result of this proactive approach, Conn Library has discovered that students are more likely to contact librarians because students are more familiar with the course librarian. Students have also indicated that they appreciate receiving relevant information before they become frustrated with their research. Plus, students have begun to ask questions about specific resources and services that they had not previously discovered on their own. These things combine to create a collaborative learning environment that extends beyond the individual class and the library.

The doors to higher education have been blown wide open by the winds of an economic downturn as well as education reform which expand Pell grants. The doors have been blown right off their hinges at two year colleges and state systems.

At Suffolk County Community College, a multi-campus college that is part of the State University of New York system, fall 2010 enrollment was over 23,300 – up more than 9% from the prior fall. We have begun to offer courses at 6 a.m. as well as courses that run until 10 p.m. We have managed to accommodate nearly all of our applicants for admission. Our problem is that we have literally run out of physical space. Nowhere is this problem bigger than in the Ammerman Campus Library. Students jam the library from the moment it opens until it closes. Students wait in line to access library databases and the OPAC.

We recently cleared space in reference by thoroughly weeding and shifting the collection. This project allowed room for additional tables, chairs and computers. We brought the number of student-use computers in the area up to 26 and the total number of seats to 52. Unfortunately, twenty-six computers were not enough.

Our circulating stacks take up 75% of our net square footage. We knew that our users would be better served with a more up-to-date collection and with more tables, chairs and computers. We knew what had to be done. We had to weed and feed the collection in order to harvest the space.

We used our recent reference weed as a model for our circulating stacks weed (we are 70 % through the process). Weeding the reference collection is a spectacular way to imagine how to complete a thorough weed of the circulating stacks and permits the library faculty and staff to work out the bugs (there will be bugs). This method also enabled us to visualize and measure how much physical space could be freed up. We received compliments from students thanking us for making more space in the reference area and we intend to hear the same compliments once we complete the weeding and shifting on the second floor where our circulation stacks are housed.

Every library that was built prior to 1979 has a space issue. It may be physically grueling and emotionally difficult to pull the weeds that have become part of the collection, but by weeding we grow a better collection and our users reap the benefits of having space that they can work in and better resources to work with.

Learning outcomes:

• Participants will be able to consider how they can physically reconfigure their libraries in order maximize space.
• Participants will gain a better understanding as to the importance of their collection management policy in order to allow them to weed their collections more thoroughly and without fear of repercussions.
• Participant will identify and articulate action plans for weeding their collections by utilizing the Library of Congress classification system as a guide.

B.D. Owens Library has embraced change in a big way, all in the pursuit of student success. With the historic change in administration, as well as the addition of a justification component for expenditures, our mission and function as a library evolved. With a new University President, new Provost and new Director of Academic and Library Services, the Library was challenged to rethink existing collections and learning spaces. Challenged by the director to re-think how a library should live and breathe, the library staff was charged with redesigning the first floor layout on a minimal budget. This process grew to incorporate redefining the existing first floor book collections to further support scholarly and personal development of students, faculty and staff. Every Library employee contributed to the planning and successful implementation of the redesign and development of the collection, which combined with numerous campus partners helped design, build, and configure the resulting space and collection. The purpose of the first floor space and collection were defined to support student success with synergy, organic spaces, and sustainability in mind. The resulting concept of a Popular Collection emphasized connecting learners to resources and enhancing pathways for learning. Change was embraced across the Library with the demolition of existing first floor furniture arrangements and shelving units, the identification of the genres and item selection for the Popular Collection, and preparation of the call number scheme and consortial catalog specifications. Throughout the process, components continued to evolve, from genre sizes and shelving design to delegation of management responsibilities and project duties. After the construction phase was completed, consideration was given to student employee training, expansion of topics included in the Popular Collection, and maximized effectiveness and efficiency of shelving locations. Looking to the future, factors being contemplated include circulation, age, and size of the collection while still focusing on student success. The realization is the Popular Collection will be continually changing and the ongoing need for strategic change will endure as the impact reaches the campus community.

Hide this content.

Aside from face-to-face sessions, it can be hard for today's librarians to reach preoccupied students with the tools they need to become information literate. Students are often running from one class to the next or too busy checking Facebook updates on their smart phones to stop by the library for assistance. This is especially true at a commuter college, where students are often on campus for a short amount of time during the day.

That's where QR Codes come in. QR Codes (short for "Quick Response") are a common sight in many Asian countries, but they've only recently begun appearing on advertisements and street signs in the United States. This presentation will examine what exactly QR Codes are and how they are being used in academic libraries to strengthen and enhance the research experience. In addition to highlighting uses at other libraries, the presenter will describe how she has used QR Codes to provide research assistance to students who are often too busy to stop in the library for help.

Strategic placement of QR Codes on library instruction handouts, in buildings across campus, and in the library's stacks has allowed students to take control of their own learning and access important research tools (such as mobile databases and online subject guides) as they walk to class or head home for the day. Come prepared to discuss strategies for implementing this no-cost emerging technology on your campus!

Reference services are advancing at the speed of light. Libraries now offer reference through email, chat, and even text messaging. Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans has been providing two of these three methods and is now covering the third method-the elusive and often expensive text reference at no cost and with little effort through Twitter and TweetDeck.

Twitter is cell phone-friendly. This means that users can send Twitter messages and updates through text messaging. They can also send and receive direct messages to/from their cell phones. With the help of a free program called TweetDeck, libraries can utilize this Twitter function to provide advanced virtual reference. TweetDeck allows the Twitter user to view multiple columns that relate to one or more Twitter accounts all on one screen. There are columns for direct messages to the user (tweets that contain D ekl_library), messages about the user (@ekl_library), as well as messages that contain a certain term or hashtags (#unolib).

Hashtags can be used like subject headings to group tweets on the same topic together. Libraries can choose a specific hashtag for their users to use with their questions, making it easier for the library staff to find questions directed to the library. Once these tweets are located, the library staff can respond directly to the user with the answer to his/her question. By responding directly to the user, Twitter will actually send a text message to the user with our response.

Twitter can offer libraries a wonderful future. Libraries can have their own hashtags or work with other libraries using a group hashtag. Maybe one day, librarians can even work separately across the world with the same hashtag-something simple like #libref or #ref. Much like the popular "Slamming the Boards," librarians could assist Twitter users with everything from questions about the weather to questions about research.

Academic libraries have long collected usage statistics to make retention decisions on subscription databases and other electronic resources that have ongoing costs. Usage statistics for one-time purchased electronic resources have not drawn much attention. In recent years, the University of Kansas(KU)Libraries have purchased large packages of historical newspapers, imprints, e-books, and documents as one-time purchases. However, more than 1% of the entire library collections budget is spent annually on maintenance fees to support these resources. KU librarians have begun to question whether this is a wise use of limited funds. Two KU Librarians collected usage statistics on 44 one-time purchased electronic resources in an effort to answer the following questions:

1. Has use increased or decreased with time?
2. What types of resources get the greatest use?
3. Do the number of faculty and students in various departments impact usage?
4. Is heavy use associated with large class assignments?
5. Do low numbers indicate that service staff and instructors need to be better promoting these resources?
6. Are there any correlations between the cost and use of these resources?
7. Have we spent our money wisely on these resources?

The presentation will briefly summarize a review of the literature and focus on the results of this study, with implications for the future of one-time purchased electronic resources at the KU Libraries. The presenters will open discussion so that the audience may share their experiences from their own institutions.

Cowles Library at Drake University has long been the unofficial keeper of the university's archives and special collections, but until recently, the use of these resources has never been integrated into the Drake curriculum. For many decades, there were only a handful of times when student groups were allowed to physically tour through the publicly-inaccessible area known as the Special Collections Department. Rarely were items ever brought out of the locked "cage" which houses most of the department, and taken into a classroom for students to observe and handle. This secured area seemed to exist only to protect items from the community, not to offer access to them. To that end, two colleagues at Cowles Library combined efforts to design a First-Year Seminar class entitled, "Drakepedia: Building a Living Archive," in an attempt to not only highlight the unique contents of our Drake University heritage collections, but also to open up the hidden collections for curricular use at Drake.

The primary purpose of this course was to create an organic, home-grown online repository in the form of a wiki "about Drake, by Drake and for Drake." A Wikipedia entry already existed for Drake University, as is the case for many institutions, but much of the content was of the cookie-cutter variety that seemingly was shaped together by an admissions and a marketing department, with a modicum of historical content thrown in for good measure. The goal of this class was a student-created wiki, constructed from the ground up and consisting of student-authored and submitted content drawn from the resources found in Drake's special collections and the digital Drake Heritage Collections.

The specific intent of the wiki was to focus on the history and stories behind the buildings, organizations, people, traditions and artifacts of the Drake University community. The instructors wanted the students to learn how to do research of this nature, where oftentimes resources available about specialized local content required digging deeper into source material not usually found in the online catalog and standard academic databases. In addition, they also wanted to include an oral history component as part of the course that would teach students how to prepare for and conduct an oral history interview with a member of the Drake community; this would enhance the wiki by adding an audible voice to the Drake "story."

Intranets are essential places for academic libraries to provide security networks where organizational information is accessible at any time. At the University of Northern Iowa's library, intranet has been available for many years and over time, the thousands of pages accumulated have gradually made the site structure confusing. It is very hard to find certain information, and there is lack of search capability across the site. Ideally, an intranet should facilitate communication and interaction among 21st century workers, but that is not always achievable when HTML pages are static. We experience email overloads every day because there is no place on the current site that enables library-wide discussions and conversations. User dissatisfaction indicates it is time for a redesign; whether the objective is to reorganize the site structure, add a search box, enhance communication, or reduce the amount of emails within the library.

Design Decisions: A series of design decisions were made based on considerations from a site inventory, a usage survey, and an interview with another library.

Site Inventory - Information Architecture and Navigation System: Before spending time on the redesign, there is a need to inventory all the pages within the current site. In this stage, we worked on distinguishing the characteristics of each file to determine logical groupings. It was a prolonged process but it turned out to be beneficial.

Staff Intranet Usage Survey - Identify the Gaps: The survey asked respondents to point out weaknesses of the current site. Nineteen out of twenty-three participants reported that organization infrastructure challenged them the most. Several other challenges mentioned were difficulties in navigating the site, inconvenient authentication with remote login, non-intuitive organization, duplicated information, prohibitive number of links needed to find specific information, and lack of search capability, all of which users generalized as being "not user friendly." Suggestions for improving the site included: enhancing the menu system, regrouping some of the information, reconsidering the naming system for headings, adding a search box, and enhancing communication/interaction through creation of a staff newsletter, forming discussion groups, and creating a virtual space to fulfill social needs of staff. Luckily, these are all achievable with Drupal's database-driven platform.

Interview with another Library - to Learn From Others: The University of Iowa had just launched a redesigned intranet in 2010 and graciously agreed to share their experiences with us. During the interview, we were impressed by the site's professional looking, functional organization, and the social essence throughout the site.

Conceptual Framework - Building the Sitemap: Finally, we were able to construct a sitemap based on reorganization of existing pages, utilizing results from the survey and interview.

In the presentation, we will share what we learned from the process in moving from an HTML to a Drupal platform, and what our decisions were in redesigning the interface and navigation systems. A post survey of staff satisfaction on the redesigned intranet will be conducted and those results will be shared as well.

Profound challenges lie ahead for U.S. higher education. Population analysis shows us that shifting student demographics may prove to be the most formidable change ever for American colleges and universities. Millennials, America's newest generation, are the most ethnically and racially diverse cohort of youth in the nation's history-called "digital natives", the first in human history to regard behaviors like texting, along with mobile phones and social media usage, not as extraordinary inventions of the modern era, but as everyday parts of their lives. Who are our future college students? How do we tailor library services to meet their needs?

At the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) the concept and interpretation of library instruction is shifting. Two documents at the core of this change are the UMKC Undergraduate General Education Student Learning Outcomes (draft document at the time of submission) and the University Libraries Strategic Plan: 2010-2015.

This presentation will briefly review how one librarian and one intrepid professor worked together to move from traditional library instruction to a model of embedded librarianship. An undergraduate intensive writing course serves as the framework for this ongoing experiment. The relationships between the students and the librarian will be closely examined. Students from the class will discuss their attitudes about libraries and librarians, both before and after the class. These students will talk plainly about their feelings regarding the merits of an embedded librarian. Lastly, the students and the librarian will discuss the impact on the final research project for the course and any implications for life-long learning.

In the summer of 2010, the UMKC University Libraries created a Copyright Support Team for the purpose of filling a void on campus to help faculty with their copyright issues. Inspired by models at other universities, yet lacking some of the resources and personnel for a Copyright Center or Scholarly Communications officer, the University Libraries created a network that meets the need in a low budget, yet effective way. Headed by the University Libraries Associate Dean, assistance is structured through a collaboration of the copyright support team and faculty advocates. This session will provide an overview of the impetus for this initiative, resources employed, a discussion of the way the team built campus recognition, and an explanation of how copyright issues and questions are handled. The presenters will also share the copyright team's deliberations over the institutional copyright policy and plans for the future.

TAs library purchases for their collections move to predominantly electronic and patron-driven, acquisitions staffing has been changing to meet demands of fast paced and more complex workflows. For large academic institutions with legacy print collections, this change has not been a seamless or simple transition away from print to electronic. Unique print and patron-driven acquisitions have required complex management and staffing needs similar to those of e-resources.

In 2006 the Acquisitions/Serials Department at the University of Kansas began addressing these staffing needs by hiring all new or vacant entry level library assistant staff positions as flexible assignments. Each one shares duties and supervisors across three Units of the department: Serial Records (print), Serial Orders & Claims (print and electronic), and Monograph Orders/Approvals (print and electronic). Based on the skill set of the applicant and the needs of the department at any given time, each new hire began within different units in an effort to determine: 1) the best sequential learning for training purposes, 2) best practices in communication between staff and supervisors, and 3) appropriate physical space and location of new hires. Job advertisements outlined the reporting structure and nature of the flexible assignment. Hiring interviews focused on measuring behaviors such as adaptability to change, technological literacy, and communication skills. Physical spaces were adjusted as needed. Interviews with staff and supervisors assessed the effectiveness of this arrangement and the impact on workflow.

This presentation summarizes the process and assessment, and solicits audience feedback to identify areas for further research. This presentation is potentially applicable, beyond technical services, to anyone seeking new collaborations or restructuring of staff and workflows.

When a new Director of Academic and Library Services were appointed, the library was challenged to improve customer service initiatives. All staff gathered information about student perceptions regarding the purpose and use of the library. In addition, librarians met with each department to solicit information about needs, wants, and priorities. The library also collected feedback via mediums including interviews, comment boards, and social networking. With so many resources and services available via the Internet and other campus units, the library worked to remain a viable, in-demand, hot-spot on the &brick" campus. With increasing services and resources offered in the “click” environment, libraries must also ensure that customers receive good service in an online experience. When customers are faced with multiple options for their patronage, what can be done to ensure that the library stays relevant? This presentation will examine initiatives to ensure that the library remains a center of campus activity, contains a welcoming environment, meets the needs of its users, delivers a high standard of service, and provides a variety of value-added services and resources. The presenters will begin the presentation with a showcase of students discussing examples of when they received exemplary customer service. Next, the audience will be invited to discuss how these service stand-outs can be locally implemented. The presentation will conclude with the presenters sharing how our customer service plan was examined, designed, and implemented within B.D. Owens Library.

QR codes are two-dimensional barcodes, that when scanned by a camera-equipped phone, can cause that phone to display plain text, open a URL, make a call, send a text message, or send an e-mail. A number of libraries have begun deploying them on signs, business cards, book-jackets, and/or on web-pages in the hopes of driving traffic to digital services and resources. The question of the utility of using QR codes for this purpose has been discussed widely, but has not been well-examined through empirical methods.

At K-State Libraries we have conducted a series of simple experiments pitting traditional signs against signs with QR codes to see which are more effective at driving traffic to digital services or resources. To gain greater insight into the importance of instructions for using QR codes, we have also compared versions with and without instructional text. The digital services we have targeted are our text-a-librarian service, our mobile site, and our renewal by phone service. The digital collections we have targeted are our DVD movies, our audiobooks, and the online Oxford English Dictionary.

After the describing the results of our experiments, we will discuss the implications they have for QR code deployments and outline a number of relatively unexamined ideas for using QR codes to improve services to patrons.

Librarians at South Dakota State University have redesigned the library instruction sessions that are presented to all Fundamentals of Speech, SPCM 101 sections from an in-person lecture to a series of videos that course instructors show to their classes. For more than 10 years, librarians have met with approximately 30 sections of SPCM 101 each semester. Classes typically have 60-75 students in each. Since Fundamentals of Speech is a required course for all students at SDSU, these sessions provide one of two guaranteed opportunities for librarians to meet with typically first-year students. In one 50-minute session, librarians would present an overview of the library's website, information about finding a topic, and an introduction to searching several library databases.

Initially, a staffing shortage prompted discussions about changing the format for the sessions and moving from an in-person visit to each section to an automated option. Librarians who had participated in teaching the sessions also indicated an interest in changing the delivery method to one that was more suited to the course schedule and needs of the students. Removing the repetitive instruction sessions from the calendar was seen as a way to free up time for librarians to work on other projects and to focus on higher level instruction sessions. The content for the videos was designed to aid the students in researching specific assignments and was created in collaboration with the coordinator for the speech courses. Modules included finding a topic, developing a search strategy, and searching the ProQuest, LexisNexis Academic, and CQ Researcher databases. The final module was a brief overview of how to evaluate information, particularly websites.

In the initial semester of implementation, students viewed the content independently from their Fundamentals of Speech course page in the course management software, Desire2Learn. There were multiple problems discovered in this delivery method. Students reported difficulty in opening the files and viewing the content and instructors expressed frustration at the time and effort needed to verify that students had viewed the content. To address these issues, the content was moved to YouTube and shown by the instructors to each class. Viewing the series of videos in one sitting has proven to be tedious for both the instructors and students. In coming semesters, the library modules will be shown in a more limited manner with the videos being shown over several course periods as a supplement to the lecture that the instructor will present. A follow-up activity based on the show The Amazing Race has been designed to bring the students to the library for a class session. Collaborating with instructors for the course on both the content of the videos and on the hands-on activity was a crucial step in creating an effective instructional experience for the students. Course instructors have been supportive of the project and instrumental in its success.

Once a lending library of last resort for Missouri Public Libraries, the Missouri State Library suffered under a woefully out of date collection development policy and sporadic or infrequent purchases of new books. Past de-selection attempts were foiled by a lack of direction and subject specialist librarians who couldn't bear to weed from their chosen topics. As the library mission evolved from that of a public library to a state government special library, the collection remained largely the same.

After many years of stasis, library seems ready for change. The new collection development librarian uses a combination of anecdotal knowledge, a broad survey, a literature review, mission statement, and a policy review to begin a complete revision of the collection development policy. As the revision neared completion, a collection analysis using the local ILS demonstrated that nearly 80% of the current collection lay outside of the new policy's scope. The policy led the way as portions of the collection underwent review and de-selection. In the face of a large volume of books and bureaucratic policy changes, the collection development team had to adjust workflows, change our procedures, and stop the weeding project all together for a few months. Our new attitude toward the collection development policy is one of respect, but we also have a willingness to be flexible. The on-going de-selection process and continual changes in patron needs demands a policy that functions as a working document.

In the midst of a complete renovation of the Miller Nichols Library's first floor, Access Services and Reference staff made the bold decision to combine two service desks into one highly visible service point. This paper will address reasons for the change, early decisions leading to the change, intermediate steps, the new service model, training, results and assessment. Factors in the decision-making process included resolving patron and staff frustrations, eliminating multiple referrals, and using limited resources more effectively. Incremental changes began with combined service during late evening hours, moved to providing both services at the Access Services Desk during construction, and resulted in a dynamic service desk where patrons can check out books and get answers to their basic research questions. In-depth research assistance was moved away from the service desk to be provided by librarians on call and by appointment. Combining services involved more than just sharing desk space. Services were assessed and in many cases reassigned to be provided at the most appropriate staffing level. Student assistants, staff, and librarians have been cross-trained in new functions to enhance services to UMKC students, faculty, staff, and community users. The combined desk has the added benefit of freeing staff time to allow better individualized services from point of need troubleshooting at the patron's computer to expanded liaison services to academic departments. One of our goals is not to wait another ten years before making changes. We are highly flexible, continuously reassessing, and making changes dynamically as appropriate to meet our patrons' ever changing needs.

In the past decade, many libraries redefined their user communities, their sphere of influence and their obligation to the communities they serve. Gone were the geographic limitations which previously influenced the physical library space and the content of library Websites. Libraries began to look for ways to connect users with resources beyond local collections. The philosophical shift in libraries, from local to global, was reflected in the evolution of library Websites into information portals. Users no longer visit library Websites solely for information about the local library. Instead visitors now expect library Websites to provide access to information resources found in collections throughout the world. During the development of library managed information portals, many library Websites became dumping grounds for links to vast numbers of off-site collections and to the administrative minutia of the hosting library, leaving patrons struggling to navigate through multiple layers of pages and menus in order to finally access the desired information.

Usage data and usability testing provide the basis for library development of effective, user-friendly interfaces. A successful library Website meets the needs of the user--it is easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing and results in few errors. Time spent analyzing an institution's Website will result in a better user experience for virtual library visitors, leaving them with a positive feeling about the library. This session will highlight website usage data collection applications, define usability, outline formal usability testing methods, discuss how to integrate collected information with future website development, outline a sustainable usability schedule and discuss some of the usability study pitfalls and successes encountered by University of Nebraska Omaha Library.

On a trial basis during the summer of 2010, Western Washington University Libraries began using LibAnswers, a program that allows library employees to track desk statistics using its analytics tool while building a public knowledge-base of answers to user questions. LibAnswers also manages questions coming in via text message and an email submission form. After using LibAnswers for one term, the Western Libraries Reference Desk permanently switched to LibAnswers from Libstats. Personnel decided that LibAnswers could be adapted to track user statistics at eight other service points: Reference, Circulation Desks, Media Desks, Map and Music Libraries, Special Collections, Archives and the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, and the Writing and Writing Instruction Support Centers. Working with each service desk, a common set of terms for statistics collection were developed to meet everyone's needs. Extensive training was done to ensure that all library staff understood the terms, how to apply them, and the need for reliable statistics. This presentation session will outline the challenges and benefits of transitioning to LibAnswers at multiple service points.

This presentation will highlight the College Readiness Dialog events held at Blue Valley High School in Stillwell, Kansas, in October 2010 and January 2011. Librarians representing 2-year and 4-year higher education institutions, as well as Library Media Specialists and teachers from middle and secondary schools, met in face-to-face sessions to explore the question of how to prepare students for the transition from middle and secondary level research to the demands of undergraduate research. A panel of high school and academic librarians will present what they have learned from the initial dialogs. This will include a look at the wiki which was created to provide an arena for information sharing and collaboration, description of the partnerships born from these events and ideas for expanding the collaborations to include other partners in secondary and higher education.

Academic librarians always find teaching new college students how to find academic journal articles within a 50-minute time frame a challenge. Part of that challenge is because of the complicated research process which can be very intimidating and overwhelming for freshmen college students. In order to make this teaching moment easy to understand, more effective, and entertaining, Chinese cooking techniques are applied. They include several basic steps such as a careful selection of ingredients (library scholarly resources including print and electronic), seasoning (ways to narrow down topics), preparation and cooking techniques (search strategies), cooking tips (Boolean operators, and truncations), and even the final presentation (citation styles). The "Master Chef" librarian conducts the library instruction with humor, enthusiasm, and entertainment. Feedback from students indicates that they enjoy such a light-hearted teaching method and hope the librarian will keep such a style in the future.

Ipads have taken personal computing to a new level of convenience. Longer battery life, lighter design, and larger capacity make them a highly functional device. Their functionality depends on the apps one chooses to load on the device, and thousands of them have been developed over a relatively short period. Briefly surveying several applications illustrates their usefulness in the classroom, education, and beyond, but the focus of this presentation will be on using the ipad as an ereader and how it works with resources available through a library. Briefly highlighting apps that can be used in the classroom will reveal how different applications amplify content, support multimedia resources, and enhance the educational experience.

As an ebook reader, specific apps permit one to access proprietary content through major vendors such as Kindle and Nook as well as books in the public domain. Itunes U provides access to a wealth of instructional sources from psychology to Chinese Art, and subscription access to many periodicals automatically delivers these publications to your device.

Ipad apps supplement instruction through providing multimedia access to language tutorials, translation services, and a variety of scientific disciplines. There are also a number of tutorials that function like high-tech flash cards, outlines, and other tools for reviewing facts, presenting ideas or managing information. One can even annotate an audio recording of a lecture in class. Although the numbers of applications are constantly growing, most apps cluster around productivity tools, internet portals, informational displays and translation tools. Examining several types of apps reveal how the ipad accesses information, exchanges files, and facilitates interaction with the user. Through a brief survey, one can gain a sense of how this type of technology can enhance the classroom, the library, and empower users.