#irelibchat 23rd April 8pm: The 21st Century Librarian: Skills, competencies and attributes

"Modern librarians need to be comfortable and conversant with technology, be willing and able to speak in public, and possess people skills and a commitment to lifelong learning, as the profession and the expertise necessary for success are constantly changing"

(Meredith Schwartz, Library Journal, March 2013)

Do you have strong communication, I.T., technical, marketing and organisational skills?
Are you flexible, innovative, passionate and committed?
Can you think on your feet, troubleshoot, collaborate, negotiate and network effectively, and plan strategically as well as operationally?
Management skills are sometimes neglected when we talk about librarianship but staff management, financial management, leadership and project management skills are essential in many roles today, particularly as your career develops.

• What skills and attributes - if any - do you think are essential in LIS today?
• Which are over-emphasised? Which are under-rated?
• Does it depend on the type of library / role you are working in?
• What exactly is it, that makes a good LIS professional, good?
• Does the concept of The Librarian even exist?

Join in the next #irelibchat on Twitter on Tuesday April 23rd at 8pm (two weeks from today!) and share your ideas and experiences.

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Knowing your student: the path toward engagement analytics

The recently published Horizon report noted that the current trending of learning analytics will become standard fare in education institutions over the next few years. Surely, a plethora of variables affect a student's ability in experiencing a rounded and successful education, and it goes without saying that managing those is by no means a straightforward exercise from a provider point-of-view.

The idea, therefore, to carefully and consistently monitor students' engagement with the many different contact points in an education institution is a good starting point. Some illustrative examples of analytic variables include attendance (all types), use of the library (analogue and digital), VLE engagement, personal background (e.g. home or abroad student, age profile, level of language proficiency, commuting distance, etc.), timetable (shape of student's day), complaints (academic and otherwise), social profile (e.g participation in organised extracurricular activities) among many others.

Before bringing up a specific institutional case study which applied analytics as a means to identifying at-risk students, it makes sense to clarify the term learning analytics as "the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimising learning and the environment in which it occurs" (LAK). 

Yet, it is important to acknowledge that learning analytics by itself is only one (important) ingredient within a holistic socio-technical analysis mix that aims to create a richer understanding about a student's educational journey. "Hard" data by itself is not sufficient. Instead, the desired informational end-state of educators is to create meaningful insight into at-risk students for the purpose of enacting proactive (rather than reactive) intervention at the right point in time. The grid below illustrates this idea of generating information and insights through analytics (source: Davenport et al, 2010)

	Past	Present	Future
Information	What happened?	What’s happening now?	What will happen?
Insight	How and why did it happen?	What’s the next best action?	What’s the best/worst that can happen?

Derby's SETL (Student Experience Traffic Lighting) project looked at students' experiences when interacting with the institution. The focus here was on "engagement" analytics through focus groups and interviews with students and staff whereby hard data and analytics initially featured in the background. The project was interested in finding out what genuinely mattered to students from a lived experience perspective and what data analytics staff believe should feature in a student's profile.

The initial project questions revolved around 1) what is actually happening to students, how can we find out?, 2) what are the touch points with between students and the institution?, 3) what are the institutional "digital footprints" of our students?, 4) what really matters to students?

Effectively, SETL established the requirements for a data dashboard that utilises a traffic-light system (green,amber,red) monitoring individual students' progression and alerting staff about any anomalies that might negatively impact their study journey. Meaningful/informed conversations can then be held between tutors and students based on what Derby calls "engagement analytics".

From a library/information service perspective, the collection of analytics is nothing new. Examples include borrowing of books (down to student level), footfall via access control gates (down to student level), IM reference traffic, participation in organised IL instruction classes (down to student level), e-journal use (Athens) etc.

 
The challenge is to break down and pool analytic data from different collection systems (library, registrar, VLE, student services...) into one container which can then be accessed by staff and utilised on a per-student level. Ethical and legal aspects in collecting personalised analytic data must also be considered.

There are out-of-the-box solutions which combine generic reporting with predictive analytics. However, they might not suit just any institutional context with regard to conditions on the ground and related requirements. An example would be the Desire2Learn system, which also includes an analytics component. The screenshot on the right illustrates what personalised student engagement data can look like.

It is a rounded and student focused approach towards analytics that creates the conditions for an environment of constructive teaching and learning.

Jean Mutton (University of Derby) offers the following advice regarding analytics related projects:

1. Keep the end user firmly in mind,
2. Promote a sense of excitement and fun,
3. Talk to people "the best conversation can happen in corridors",
4. Work at a cross-institutional level as much as possible,
5. Have access points, e.g. in-house web pages/forums where people can get involved,
6. Shock people with data
7. Get people to think outside their immediate area of focus,
8. Keep an open mind as to what information your university/school does/could/can't capture and how it could be used,
9. Try to ensure that any data being collected can be used by as many people and systems as possible

References and further reading:
JISC. 2013. cetis Publications. [ONLINE] Available at: http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/c/analytics. [Accessed 01 April 13].
Essa, A., Ayad, H.. Improving student success using predictive models and data visualisations. Research in Learning Technology, North America, 20, aug. 2012. Available at: http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/19191. [Accessed: 01 April 2013].

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Twitter Takeover: @VoicesLibrary

Guest post by Shona Thoma (@shinyshona), MLIS student UCD SILS, 2012-13

I read recently that to describe Twitter as ‘social media’ along with applications such as Facebook, is to vastly underestimate its power – and I would have to agree. Twitter is having a huge impact on the way that we exchange information, and I recently had the opportunity to experience this on a larger scale than I normally would with my personal account. I took over the Twitter account @VoicesLibrary, which is a Rotation Curation account, voiced by a new library professional each week. This was the first time that a Library and Information Studies student had curated the account, but given the interest in LIS courses and qualifications, Jo at Voices for the Library agreed that Tweets from a current student would be welcome.

As a student currently looking towards the jobs market I was interested in what working librarians had to say about the use of LIS qualifications in their current roles. I posed questions relating to this throughout the week and the wide community of information professionals following the account offered their views. Some felt that it was just a necessity, adding extra letters after their name. Others spoke about both the practical and theoretical lessons they were glad they had learnt. Looking at the responses would seem to confirm that as with most things in life, you get out as much as you are willing to put in. I don't know if I would ever have the opportunity to speak with people from such a broad spread of places about this in 'real' life. In addition, the succinct nature of Twitter can possibly attracted more contributors to a discussion as people don’t feel they need to expand on their point or get bogged down in detail. Ideas and opinions are quickly shared, making it an ideal breeding ground for further investigation.

In addition to exchanging information and ideas, I realised that Twitter is really useful for gauging the reactions people might have to topics. I shared an article about library marketing, which led to a debate on ‘marketing’ vs. ‘promotion’ as appropriate terms. It was interesting to see that people had quite strong opinions on terminology alone, let alone carrying it out. In relation to measuring reaction, Bitly proved to be really useful tool. You can input any web address to Bitly and it will make it shorter, thus saving characters; but it wasn't just space saving I found it useful for - it also records how many people visit the links you share. Not everyone will reply to a tweet, but via Bitly I could see that people were clicking through to the articles I shared.

Although followed by an international audience the @VoicesLibrary account is focused mainly on the UK. I think it would be fantastic to see a similar rotation curation account for Irish Information Professionals, promoting all aspects of what we do. It would be fantastic as a way of strengthening the librarianship network, and ideally would attract interest from non-librarians too!

*Guest blog posts represent the personal views of the poster and do not represent the official opinions or commentary of libfocus.com

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Social Media Strategies for Libraries

Following some recent talks I have given on Twitter, several people have asked me how they can use Twitter and other social media tools to really engage and connect with their user communities. Good question! It's difficult to do well, and difficult to do right.

I would also go as far as to say, if you aren't going to use these tools effectively, it might be better not to use them at all. There is possibly nothing worse than an inactive Twitter account or one that is used solely to broadcast one-way information. What's the point? Ask yourself, why are you using? Is it just because you feel you have to (well all the libraries are doing it now so....) or because you actually believe it can deliver value to your users and ultimately improve and enhance service delivery?

So what can you use these tools for and how can you 'justify' their usage to management? I am speaking mainly in the context of Twitter as it is the tool I believe is most important right now. But what should you tweet? Twitter is a great opportunity to promote your events and services to a captive audience. If people are following you on Twitter it means they are already tuned-in to some extent at any rate. Actively seek out those who may be interested in your service and follow them (not just users, but potential collaborators, competitors and so on). This is how you can build your network.

Twitter can also be a really valuable customer service tool. I think libraries should encourage its use in this way, as many commercial companies already do. Many users may tweet about problems or other feedback, rather than sending more formal complaints. However, this kind of informal feedback can be so valuable in informing and improving service delivery and enhancing your users' experience. Twitter can also help to build your reputation and virtual presence, show your followers that you understand and embrace new technologies, engage your users and strengthen relationships

You should always be thinking about your social media strategy and how you are using these tools in terms of your overall service. Some strategies to keep in mind include:

Innovation - be the first to do something, experiment, use Twitter as a testing ground for new ideas and services, investigate the potential for new services like virtual reference, collaborate with other departments by promoting their research through Twitter.

Streamlining and Integration - libraries have so many access points, services and resources today. Just like with discovery services, tools are generally more successful if they are integrated with overall service delivery. Don't think in isolation; your Twitter account should not be seen as something standalone. You should be displaying your tweet feed on your website to increase its visibility to your users. Focus on one tool if you have to and do it well. Always think of the user experience!

Be Proactive - share information that is of real value to your users by anticipating their needs. This will keep them interested. Initiate conversations; don't expect them to come to you. Show faculty the value of concepts like altmetrics before they start asking you about them.

There are obvious things you can tweet about: library events; new titles and acquisitions (why don't libraries do this more?); solicit recommendations/requests from followers; links to useful external and internal resources; obtain feedback (and don't censor negative comments, address them!). You always need to think of social media and networking tools in terms of building relationships with your users; if you forget this, it won't work.

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2013 Horizon Report

The latest edition of the Horizon report was unleashed on the wider public last month which, as every year, represents a forecast about technological developments that are likely to mainstream in teaching, learning and research within the context of higher education.

This year, six trends were prioritised according to three distinct time-do-adoption horizons that cover a total of five years. The report introduces each topic by definition including its particular relevance in teaching and learning. This is followed by a brief discussion (which very much represents the most beneficial aspect of the report) and specific examples, i.e. how the particular technology is already used. An annotated list of suggested readings concludes each area.

Time-to-adoption horizon: One Year or Less 
Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCS)
Over the past year, MOOCS have gained massive traction in terms of public awareness. They’re free of charge and generally of high quality reaching thousands of learners who engage with them in a suspended time- and space continuum. The crux here is that the MOOCS model combines and leverages a mix of pedagogies and learning tools through blended learning, open education resources and crowd sourced interaction. Presently, Coursera, edX and Udacity are the main operators out there.

Tablet Computing
Tablets are distinct from smartphones, e-readers or tablet PCs. They are intuitive in their functionality and lend themselves quite well to teaching and learning environments due to their portability and variability. Check out "How a classroom of IPads Changed My Approach to Learning".

Time-to-adoption horizon: Two to Three Years
Games and Gamification
Recreational interactive games have proven themselves to increase critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and teamwork. The same skills are required in the education setting. A working example would be the game "10 Downing Street", which simulates economic policy making. A library example would be the HML-IQ Library Orientation Game.

Learning Analytics
The idea here is to tap into large student-related data sets (e.g. derived from student information systems and course management systems via sophisticated tracking tools) in order to build better pedagogies, target at-risk student populations and provide more personalised learning experiences. An example here would be the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon.

Time-to-adoption horizon: Four to Five Years
3D Printing
This refers to the creation of physical objects from three-dimensional digital content (e.g. compute aided tomography (CAT), computer-aided design (CAD) and X-ray crystallography). Its potential rests in "a more authentic exploration of objects that may not be readily available to universities" (Horizon Report, 2013: 29). An example would be the field of Architecture and Design.

Wearable Technology
This represents devices that "integrate naturally" with its carrier (person). Google's Project Glass would be a well-publicised example. Another interesting example is the Robotic Suit that supports its wearer when carrying out physically demanding tasks.

Make sure to check out the Horizon Project Navigator; the site refers to a variety of specific projects and examples that exploit emerging technologies.

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Open Access LIS Journals

I'm fortunate that I work in an academic library that has a great selection of subscriptions to LIS journals. However, those working as solo librarians or in smaller, special libraries may not have access to such resources. Thankfully there are some great open access journals out there. Below are just a few that I read frequently myself, I would also recommend submitting your own research to them also - keep it open so everyone can read it :)

As an aside I really recommend journal tocs for managing your TOC alerts. There are 242 LIS journals included in the service and it specifically highlights those that are open access also.

Journal of Information Literacy
Evidence Based Library & Information Practice
College & Research Libraries
Library & Information Research
Information Research
Journal of the MLA
Journal of Librarianship & Scholarly Communication
Journal of Library Innovation
SCONUL Focus


If there are any I have missed, please do add a comment! It's unfortunate we don't have an Irish OA LIS journal. I wonder if An Leabharlann will consider making research articles (not necessarily the whole publication) available on an OA basis when they go online? I know that authors can self-archive, but not all LIS professionals have access to an institutional repository for archival purposes.

The research-practitioner divide in LIS is lessening I feel, and I think most of the above titles do a good job of eroding any such differences. Good articles with good results are worth publishing; it doesn't matter whether they primarily address theoretical aspects or issues for practice. However, LIS journals have not traditionally had as prestigious a reputation as other fields (I always say, there's no NEJM in LIS!). This makes journal rankings and impact factors even less relevant (or even meaningless) in LIS than other fields in my view. Instead, I think who your intended audience is, should probably drive where you publish, and by publishing OA you can ensure than everyone you are targeting can potentially read your work. There is an interesting paper from 2012 that explores the position of OA titles in a ranking of LIS journals by Jingfeng Xia which is also worth a look!

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