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August 25 How clean is your dataIf you do a search for Elizabeth Bear in our local network catalog, something you might express as "Bear, Elizabeth", the first entry returned is Dust, by "Bear, Elizabeth.". Notice that the bear has developed a trailing freckle.
If you click on the entry for Dust, you can confirm that it has been written by "Bear, Elizabeth.". The web page has conveniently made this into a clickable link, so you can find other books by this author. Unfortunately, there aren't any -- because of that trailing freckle. If you click on the link, the results page will give you an alphabetical list of NEARBY AUTHORS, including "Bear, Elizabeth", without the freckle, which is where we started.
Which costs the user an extra click. You are counting clicks, aren't you?
How clean is your data? August 23 You may be part of the twenty-first century if ...You may be part of the twenty-first century if ...
... your Facebook page is as good as The Economist's.
I guess The Economist sees some value in reaching out, in new ways, beyond its usual patrons.
And they have a search box on the page! August 21 "How Libraries and Librarians Help"I just finished reading How Libraries and Librarians Help. It's an excellent book, and not just because it's short and clearly written.
The focus of the book is on determining how users (or patrons, if you like) are helped by library services. It's an attempt to move away from output-oriented measures of library productivity such as circulation figures. Coincidentally, a recent OCLC report funded by the Gates Foundation concluded that support for library funding didn't depend on circulation figures either. The report complements this book nicely.
There's one important point that I think could have been clearer: the difference between prompted and unprompted survey responses. Briefly, an unprompted question would be, "Name three ways in which the library has helped you", whereas a prompted question would give you a list of possibilities from which to choose. This matters a great deal if you want to make statements like "25% of the patrons surveyed got help with a job search", since prompted and unprompted responses will be biased in opposite directions.
A small quibble: the term "Hawthorne Effect" was incorrectly applied to a completely different kind of bias. I'd give you the details, but the book's index is terrible, and I couldn't find the mention again.
Many of the examples in the book are based on ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programs, and some of the remainder are from teen after-school programs. These programs are certainly needed in our town, but I worry that they're just the path of least resistance for libraries trying to demonstrate value to the community. I'd hate to see libraries limit their vision to books + DVDs + ESOL + Teens.
Which sounds like I think the book is weak at best, but that's not true. As I said, I think it's excellent. This isn't an area for which a library can use a cookie-cutter solution. This book illuminates and clarifies the path a library needs to take to move to user-centered services and service evaluation. After reading this book, you'll know a lot more, but even better, you be able to see more clearly. |
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