I found this blog (ALA Marginalia) thanks to a twitter friend. In the blog, I found what seems to be a fairly complete list of travel grants and scholarships for Annual. The specific entry is located here: http://discuss.ala.org/marginalia/2007/09/25/travel-grants-for-attending-annual-conference/

I think I’m going to apply for at least one 🙂

What is a database? Why do we call them databases? What else could we call them? Do our patrons know what a “database” is?

My Twitter friends have been discussing this, and with a website redesign coming up, I am very interested in the answers to these questions. Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any easy answers.

Why not just keep calling them databases, with some simple explanation on the page? That’s been our solution (if this is truly a problem) so far, and it seems to be working. Patrons are finding articles and using the databases. So…why change the status quo?

So about 18 months ago I resolved to get more involved in local and/or national library associations. The job change a year ago has actually helped that quite a bit, since I now have some real encouragement and support for being active and involved. I am now Chair-elect of the Reference Roundtable of my state library association. I am also on the Booth committee of NMRT for next year. I am discovering more and more that if you simply volunteer, involvement isn’t really that hard. So I will continue to volunteer and try to do the best I can at whatever I’ve volunteered for.

I’ve been looking over the ImproveALA and Library Society of the World wikis trying to figure out what I can do and how I can get involved. I’m still sorting out whether or not I should (or want to) try to run for ALA councilor in the near future. I agree with most of the issues people have with ALA, but I’m not sure that I really have and ideas for how to implement any changes. So for now, I’ll try to keep up with it from the fringes and see if inspiration strikes anytime soon. I have decided to try to attend more of the business meetings at the next ALA conference, however. Unfortunately, this is at the expense of all the other, more interesting sessions.

I made it back from ALA! Finally…it took a little longer than expected, due to the various airline delays and such, but I made it back safely. I’m still processing, sort of, and trying to decide what to post and where. Expect further updates soon.

My final ALA schedule is here:

Google Docs – ALA Prelim Schedule

It’s that time of year again…the end of the fiscal year, time to turn in statistics of all types for the Annual Report. If only it were that easy….

Database statistics are supposed to be useful measures of the amount of use a database is getting. In theory, this is a great idea. We could measure how many people are using our expensive resources and make all kinds of decisions and assumptions based on those numbers. But…each vendor seems to measure something different. Or at least use different terminology for what they are measuring. Some of them don’t even explain their terminology. Which is fine, for individual statistics. But when all of these statistics have to be compared to one another and put into a single spreadsheet….well, things get tricky. I’m still trying to sort out what columns I can/should have for comparing all of these statistics. Some of the databases measure by the minute (for streaming audio) and some measure by session, or search, or page view, or “usage”.

To make matters worse(?), some of the vendors haven’t even posted their statistics for May yet. It’s June 13. I have no idea when the stats will be posted. There’s not really a hint on the vendor website – they say vague things like “10-15 days after the first of the month”

There are some standards available for the vendors to use for their statistics – ICOLC and COUNTER, but it seems that many vendors are not complying with either one. I realize it takes a lot of time and effort (and money, of course), but it really would make things a lot easier for their users. Of course, there are questions about how meaningful the current statistics are anyway, with the advent of federated searching and other advances. This is covered in Measurement of Use of Electronic Resources: Advances in Use Statistics and Innovations in Resource Functionality, by Deborah D Blecic, Joan B Fiscella and Stephen E Wiberley, Jr. in College and Research Libraries in January 2007. They point out that the guidelines have made it easier to collect data and helped remove some of the doubts about the reliability of statistical data. But they also argue that the meanings of the words sessions and searches (the common terms used in measuring statistics) have been changing as the use and functionality of electronic resources changes.

So it seems that database usage statistics will continue to be nebulous and difficult. At least until all the vendors are compliant with one or both standards. Which may be a very long while.

I’ve been spending some time in the new Meebo chat room for the Library Society of the World and we briefly talked about database interfaces today. This seems particularly appropriate today, because I’ve spent most of the morning helping various students try to figure our our databases. Specifically, these are returning adult students in our education department trying to figure out ProQuest’s Education Journals and HW Wilson’s Education Full Text.

These students are all in the same course this summer, and have articles to find daily and/or weekly. They have been told by their professor not to use things they find on the internet, which has also caused some confusion as to whether or not they can use the databases.

The following is a sampling of the questions I’ve had this week:

First thing was the name of the database – Full Text? What? So I explained that it meant that many of the articles available directly from the computer instead of requiring the user to go find the print journal and make a copy.

Then there was trouble with the links in the database – there are sometimes three or more links under each citation – Full Text, Full Text (PDF), Abstract, Article Linker. One of the students was using the Article Linker link only and couldn’t see why it was sending her in a circle. So I explained that (which had never occurred to me as a possible issue…)

Then there was the trouble with navigating back the list of saved articles in ProQuest. When a PDF is opened, there is a small link at the top that says “Back to your research”. The back button is unreliable in this instance, but the link is so small that students don’t see it and possibly lose their research.

One of the major issues I’m seeing is a lack of research skills. As far as I know, there are no courses on research skills available in the Education Department, or elsewhere at the university. This is a skill that is becoming more and more necessary, both during and after college. We (the library faculty) are working diligently to try to add an element of research skills to many of the classes on campus, but it’s been slow going. Especially in the Education department, it seems.