Taiwan OCLC ConsortiumNational Taiwan University | December 7, 2016

OCLC User Research Update: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Lynn Silipigni Connaway, PhDSenior Research Scientist & Director of User Research

Our traditional model was one in which we thought of the user in the life of the library… but we are now increasingly thinking about the library in the life of the user

(Connaway 2015)(Dempsey 2015)

The workflow contextConvenience & context switching

Fragmentation is a deterrent(Dempsey 2015)

Need to provide services for what people actually do, not what they say they do

“Nearly 60 percent of the world’s people are still offline.”(Pattillo 2016)

“…Americans indicate that they could make it a week or less without Internet access (67%)…”(Birth 2015)

“Freshman and sophomore students using the university library as a place to study are more likely to have positive outcomes as measured by retention, graduation, and grade point average.”(Pattillo 2015, 650)

E-reader device sales have been declining and traditional print publishing have remained stable.

(Alter 2015)

“A University of Washington pilot study of digital textbooks found that a quarter of students still bought print versions of e-textbooks that they were given for free.”

(Rosenwald 2015)

“On average, faculty preference for using scholarly monographs for reading in depth remains high for print format rather than digital format.” (Pattillo 2016, 264)

“…around half of newspaper readers consume newspapers only in their printed form. They are more likely to often watch local TV news than those newspaper readers who access the paper online instead of or in addition to the print edition.”

(Barthel 2016)

THE GOOD

“People lack patience to wade through content silos…”

(Connaway 2015, 134)

“Yes, it [Matrix film plug-in to brain] - sort of makes information gathering effortless and without having to sort of manually go through and separate the chaff from the wheat.”

(Digital Visitors and Residents, UKU10, Male, Age 20, Law)

“At first I started looking online, and it was a little bit overwhelming…I ended up reaching into my mom’s cupboard and using a recipe that I found in one of her old cookbooks. The recipe was just what I was looking for...” (Digital Visitors and Residents, USS3, Emerging, Female, Age 17, High School Student)

Motivation & behaviors change based on context & situation

“The techies, in short, are taking over. We’re running your libraries today, and more of us will be doing so in 2020.” (Houghton 2013, 37)

“One of the most important assets found in public libraries is the knowledgeable library workforce…Staffing levels at public libraries declined during the recession…but stabilizing by FY 2013.”

(Institute of Museum and Library Services 2016, 10)

“...my father knows a lot...I trust him.... If he tells me to look at this page, or he shows me one of his books, even if they are old-fashioned.”

(Digital Visitors and Residents, UOCU2, Female, Age 28, Information Sciences)

“When I need a quick answer my preferred source is a person, because a person would interpret your need quickly and better than Internet.” (Digital Visitors and Residents, UOCU5, Female, Age 30, Education)

“In the public library there are two or three people. I know the staff… Once I participated in a civil servant open examination and they helped me a lot.” (Digital Visitors and Residents, UOCU1, Female, Age 22, Information Science and Communication Studies)

Build relationships

“…youth ages 14–24 make up 25% of all public library users.” (Braun, Hartman, Hughes-Hassell,

and Kumasi 2014, 1)

“Libraries are offering more diversity, including children’s and multi-cultural reference rooms...” (Shin 2016)

Promote resources available to users

“Sometimes libraries are closed and i need help so this [VRS] would be a great alternative. This method

should me advertised more.” (Seeking Synchronicity, NOS-36503, Female, Age 15-18)

“If my other friends recommended it to me and used chat reference services themselves I might be convinced to try them...”

(Seeking Synchronicity, NOS-94938, Female, Age 15-18)

Space for socializing & work groups

“We do go to the library or somewhere quiet where we can just get our work done together...”

(Digital Visitors and Residents, UKU3, Female, Age 19, French and Italian)

“Whatever their performance level, students report that they prefer to study in the library… libraries offer places where they can focus, and focus makes their study time more effective.”

(Thaler and Pittman 2015, 10)

Studying in the Library

“Freshman and sophomore students using the university library as a place to study are more likely to have positive outcomes as measured by retention, graduation, and grade point average.”(Pattillo 2015, 650)

Studying in the Library

THE BAD

Satisficing…What is enough information?“…I needed the answer, my maths, I was doing an exercise, I got stuck on a question, I still had the rest of the exercise to go and I had like an hour to do it and I just wanted the formula and the quickest way to do it was to type it into Google and it came up.”

(Digital Visitors and Residents, UKS2, Female, Age 17, Secondary School

Student)

“[When you search information] you notice that new information arrives every moment...Until you are tired and then you stop searching.”

(Digital Visitors and Residents, UOCG4, Male, Age 41, Health Sciences)

Centrality of Google & search engines

“…I just think it’s [VLE web site] too complicated and it’s limited, that I just carried on going on Google.”

(Digital Visitors and Residents, UKS6, Emerging, Female, Age 16, Secondary School Student)

“It’s like a taboo I guess with all teachers, they just all say – you know, when they explain the paper they always say, ‘Don’t use Wikipedia.’”

(Digital Visitors and Residents, USU7, Female, Age 19, Political Science)

The Learning Black Market

Multi-tasking

“So, I’ll be like looking over at that and then like either Facebook or my email will beep at me and I’ll click on that, see who sent me something and then go back to working. So, it’s always, kind of, open and there.”

(Digital Visitors and Residents, USU4, Male, Age 19, Engineering)

Librarians and services within the workflow

“I haven’t called them, I don’t think I’ve ever talked to the librarians here since I’m not in the building much.”

(Digital Visitors and Residents, USU4, Emerging, Male, Age 19, Engineering)

“I used to seek information in Wikipedia, even my colleagues said that there are wrong things on it…but I said Enciclopedia Larousse [Traditional encyclopedia] also have mistakes…the only difference is that it is printed and is impossible to correct the mistakes once you have the printed version…Mistakes are not about technology, are about people.”

(Digital Visitors and Residents, UOCFE6, Male, Age 53, Computer Science)

THE UGLY

Screenagers have a traditional view of librarians

“It’s like, it’s like, you don’t want to go “So which shelf are you pointing at?” Because, I mean, once they do their famous point, it’s just like…”

(Seeking Synchronicity, Focus Group 6 participant, Female, High School Student)

Librarians rarely were mentioned by Students of any groups. Faculty of all groups, mentioned librarians more often, yet still less than half of the time.

“You spend many hours with Saint Google. We entrust ourselves to Saint Google and that solves it for us.” (UOCFI6, Male, Age 53, Arts & Humanities)

It’s time for a change

“Librarians have an opportunity to become part of users’ social networks and to put resources in the context of users’ information needs.”

(Connaway 2015, 23)

WHAT CAN WE DO?

The workflow contextConvenience & context switching

Fragmentation is a deterrent

The personal contextRelationship – sharing – engagement

The environmental contextSpaces and places

(Dempsey 2015)

Need to provide services for what people actually do, not what they say they do

Embedded librarianship…be where our users need us

“Our experience with a proactive chat model… showed us that there is indeed a ready-made market for our services right on our own library pages...”

(Zhang and Mayer 2014, 205)

Social Media Presence

Special Events & Activities

Special Events & Activities

“Library is a growing organism.” (Ranganathan 1931)

Use what you knowLearn what you don’t knowEngage in new ways

• Plant many seeds• Try lots of decent ideas

instead of one good one • See what works

• Seize the white space• “Don’t limit your

innovation”

Barthel, Michael. 2016. “Around Half of Newspaper Readers Rely Only on Print Edition.” Pew Research Center, January 6, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/01/06/around-half-of-newspaper-readers-rely-only-on-print-edition.

Becker, Samantha, Michael D. Crandall, Karen E. Fisher, Rebecca Blakewood, Bo Kinney, and Cadi Russell-Sauvé. 2011. Opportunity for All: How Library Policies and Practices Impact Public Internet Access. IMLS-2011-RES-01. Institute of Museum and Library Services. Washington, DC. https://www.imls.gov/assets/1/AssetManager/OppForAll2.pdf.

Birth, Allyssa. 2015. “More Than 7 in 10 Americans Think Technology has Become Too Distracting and is Creating a Lazy Society.” The Harris Poll 68. www.theharrispoll.com/health-and-life/Technology-Too-Distracting-Lazy-Society.html.

Braun, Linda W., Maureen L. Hartman, Sandra Hughes-Hassell, and Kafi Kumasi. 2014. The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action. With contributions by Beth Yoke. www.ala.org/yaforum/project-report.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni. 2013. “Meeting the Expectations of the Community: The Engagement-centered Library.” Library 2020: Today’s Leading Visionaries Describe Tomorrow’s Library, edited by J. Janes, 83–88. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

References

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, comp. 2015. The Library in the Life of the User: Engaging with People Where They Live and Learn. Dublin, OH: OCLC Research. http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/2015/oclcresearch-library-in-life-of-user.pdf.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, and Timothy J. Dickey. 2010. The Digital Information Seeker: Report of Findings from Selected OCLC, RIN, and JISC User Behavior Projects. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/reports/2010/digitalinformationseekerreport.pdf .

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, Timothy J. Dickey, and Marie L. Radford. 2011. “‘If it is too inconvenient I’m not going after it:’ Convenience as a Critical Factor in Information-seeking Behaviors.” Library & Information Science Research 33, no. 3: 179–190.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, and Ixchel M. Faniel. 2015. “Reordering Ranganathan: Shifting User Behaviours, Shifting Priorities.” SRELS Journal of Information Management 52, no. 1: 3–23. http://i-scholar.in/index.php/sjim/article/view/60392/51360.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, Donna M. Lanclos, and Erin M. Hood. 2013. “‘I always stick with the first thing that comes up on Google…’ Where People Go for Information, What They Use, and Why.” EDUCAUSE Review Online (December 6), http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/ialways-stick-first-thing-comes-google-where-people-go-information-what-they-use-and-why.

References

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, Donna Lanclos, David White, Alison Le Cornu, and Erin M. Hood. 2012. “User-centered Decision Making: A New Model for Developing Academic Library Services and Systems.” IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2012 Helsinki Proceedings: Libraries Now! Inspiring, Surprising, Empowering . http://conference.ifla.org/sites/default/files/files/papers/wlic2012/76-connaway-en.pdf.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, and Marie L. Radford. 2005-2007. Seeking Synchronicity: Evaluating Virtual Reference Services from User, Non-User, and Librarian Perspectives. Funded by Institute for Museums and Library Services Research Grant. http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/synchronicity/default.htm.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, Marie L. Radford, Timothy J. Dickey, Jocelyn De Angelis Williams, and Patrick Confer. 2008. “Sense-making and Synchronicity: Information-seeking Behaviors of Millennials and Baby Boomers.” Libri 58, no. 2: 123–135. http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/library/2008/connaway-libri.pdf.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, David White, Donna Lanclos, and Alison Le Cornu. 2013. “Visitors and Residents: What Motivates Engagement with the Digital Information Environment?” Information Research 18, no. 1, http://informationr.net/ir/18-1/infres181.html.

Dempsey, Lorcan. 2015. “Environmental Trends and OCLC Research.” Presented at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, September 28. http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/presentations/dempsey/dempsey-notre-dame-oclc-research-2015.pptx .

References

Dempsey, Lorcan. 2015. “Environmental Trends and OCLC Research.” Presented at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, September 28. http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/presentations/dempsey/dempsey-notre-dame-oclc-research-2015.pptx .

DeSantis, Nick. 2012. “On Facebook, Librarian Brings 2 Students From the Early 1900s to Life.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 6. http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/on-facebook-librarian-brings-two-students-from-the-early-1900s-to-life/34845.

Kraft, Amanda, and Aleck F. Williams, Jr. 2016. “#Shelfies are Encouraged: Simple, Engaging Library Instruction with Hashtags.” College & Research Libraries News 77, no. 1 (2016): 10-13.

Mudd Library. “Library Events.” Lawrence University. https://www.lawrence.edu/library/about/events.

Pattillo, Gary. 2016. “Fast Facts.” College & Research Libraries News 77, no. 3: 164.

Pattillo, Gary. 2015. “Fast Facts.” College & Research Libraries News 76, no. 11: 650.

Pattillo, Gary. 2015. “Fast Facts.” College & Research Libraries News 76, no. 4: 232.

References

Pattillo, Gary. 2016. “Fast Facts.” College & Research Libraries News 77, no. 5: 264.

Prabha, Chandra, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Lawrence Olszewski, and Lillie Jenkins. 2007. “What is Enough? Satisficing Information Needs.” Journal of Documentation 63, no. 1: 74–89. http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/newsletters/prabha-satisficing.pdf.

Radford, Marie L., and Lynn Silipigni Connaway. 2007. “‘Screenagers’ and Live Chat Reference: Living Up to the Promise.” Scan 26, no. 1: 31–39. http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/archive/2007/connaway-scan.pdf.

Ranganathan, S. R. 1931. The Five Laws of Library Science. London: Edward Goldston, Ltd.

Rosenwald, Michael S. 2015. “Why Digital Natives Prefer Reading in Print. Yes, You Read that Right.” The Washington Post, February 22, 2015. www.washingtonpost.com/local/why-digital-natives-prefer-reading-in-print-yes-you-read-that-right/2015/02/22/8596ca86-b871-11e4-9423-f3d0a1ec335c_story.html.

Rushkoff, Douglas. 1996. Playing the Future: How Kids’ Culture Can Each Us to Thrive in an Age of Chaos. New York: HarperCollins.

References

Stemmer, John K., and David M. Mahan. 2016. “Investigating the Relationship of Library Usage to Student Outcomes.” College & Research Libraries 77, no. 3. http://crl.acrl.org/content/77/3/359.full.pdf+html.

University of Minnesota. “Managing Stress on the Road to Finals Week.” https://twin-cities.umn.edu/managing-stress-road-finals-week.

White, David S., and Lynn Silipigni Connaway. 2011-2014. Digital Visitors and Residents: What Motivates Engagement with the Digital Information Environment. Funded by JISC, OCLC, and Oxford University. http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/vandr.html.

Wolff, Christine, Alisa B. Rod, and Roger C. Schonfeld. 2016. “Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2015.” Ithaka S+R, http://sr.ithaka.org?p=277685.

World Bank. 2016. World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends. Washington, DC: World Bank. www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016.

Zhang, Jie, and Nevin Mayer. 2014. “Proactive Chat Reference: Getting in the Users’ Space.” College & Research Libraries News 75, no. 4: 202-205.

Zickuhr, Kathryn, Lee Rainie, and Kristen Purcell. 2013. Younger Americans’ Library Habits and Expectations. http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/06/25/younger-americans-library-services/.

References

Confidential. Not for distribution.

Thank You!Lynn Silipigni Connaway, PhDSenior Research Scientist and Director of User Researchconnawal@oclc.org@LynnConnaway

Questions & Discussions