Brian Unbound

July 16, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

How often have you heard that....or said it yourself? Well, a press release just crossed my desk that just might help solve the problem. Marshall Cavendish has announced a new line of books, Marshall Cavendish Classics, that will "bring a select number of out-of-print titles from all publishers back into print. We are intetested in titles that have received awards, have enjoyed starred reviews, or have with stood the test of time in story hour."

So there you have. The ball's in your court. Get your suggestions over to Marilyn Mark, Associate Editor of  Children's Books at mmark@marshallcavendish.com

It will be interesing to see what they end up publishing. We here at SLJ are trying to keep up with new editions and reissues ourselves and have launched a new column, "Fresh Approaches, " in...Read More

June 23, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Finally we are hearing from Rutgers' Marie Radford & OCLC's Lynn Connaway who are discussing their research on virtual reference. Among other things they analyze transcripts of chat reference (they've looked at 850 chat interactions!) Today they are talking about clarification in reference online reference transactions.

Wow! Marie is showing a nine minute transaction that is pretty scary. Lots of misunderstandings and lack of clarification on the part of the reference librarian. But the good news is that 75 percent do clarify the question. Fifty percent did ask: "Did this completely ask your question." Also, forty-five percent sought topic clarification, 31 percent wanted background (when is your paper due?), and more.

Users also clarify, like through background (I'm in seventh graade and have 30 minutes.) Twenty percent clarify depth (I nee...Read More

June 23, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Next up is Drexel's Laurie Bonnici & FSU's Lynne Watson who looked at other places where college students engage in research--the third place, like coffee houses. This study was exploratory, based on qualitative data, and asked how student behavior was different in a library versus a coffee house. It was based on observation and a web-based survey.

Guess what? At the coffee house, consumption was the major activity, where at the library the computer was the major activity. At both, study was the second leading behavior. In both places the students were all wired up: iPod, phones, notebooks.

The students "looked the same" in both venues. As for generational considerations, the largest percentage were Millenials, or "digital natives."  The question is, can the coffee house replace the library for this generation? Is the idea of the libr...Read More

June 23, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I'm at ALA in Washington, where is it is a beautiful 80 degrees. I never thought of DC as "vacation-land" but it is just stunning here. Since I'm a bit of a research geek, I'm trying to follow some of the programs on user research from the Library Research Round Table. It's 10:30 on Saturday, and I'm at Research, A User Experience.

First up is a report on college student research beahavior from ProQuest's Joanna Markel, John Law & Serena Rosenhan. Their research consisted of "field work," observing students in their "native habitats." The research was anonymous, the students were doing real research for classes, and it was conducted onsite (libraries, coffee shops, student apartments) and remotely--by observing the students' computers. The remote was better they said because the students were acting more natural and they ...Read More

June 19, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (3)

Does anyone remember when we had just one blogger at SLJ: poor, lonely Amy? And bad enough that she was the only one, we stuck her off on some page where even I couldn't find her half the time. Well thankfully Amy stuck in there. 

So when we had a chance to redesign our site--and it prominently featured bloggers--I was delighted. I made it my mission to convince some of the writers in our field who I most respected (and always read) to take a risk and come join slj.com. I hoped to create a family of bloggers that would represent everything that SLJ is about: books, learning, technology, education (not that these are mutually exclusive.) And with the addition this month of Betsy, Joyce, and Marc we're finally there.

What's next? It wo...Read More