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208 pages
6" x 9"
Softcover
ISBN-13: 978-0-8389-1116-7
Year Published: 2012
AP Categories: A, B, I, J, Z
Read a USA Today article, an Inside Higher Ed article, an article at The Conversation, and listen to a podcast about this title now! You can also read a sample of the book.
How do college students really conduct research for classroom assignments? In 2008, five large Illinois universities were awarded a Library Services and Technology Act Grant to try to answer that question. The resulting ongoing study has already yielded some eye-opening results. The findings suggest changes ranging from simple adjustments in service and resources to modifying the physical layout of the library. In this book Duke and Asher, two anthropological researchers involved with the project since its beginning,
- Summarize the study’s history, including its goals, parameters, and methodology
- Offer a comprehensive discussion of the research findings, touching on issues such as website design, library instruction for faculty, and meeting the needs of commuter and minority students
- Detail a number of service reforms which have already been implemented at the participating institutions
This important book deepens our understanding of how academic libraries can better serve students’ needs, and also serves as a model for other researchers interested in a user-centered approach to evaluating library services.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
ERIAL Project Research Teams
1 Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries: The ERIAL Project
Andrew D. Asher, Susan Miller, and David Green
2 Pragmatism and Idealism in the Academic Library: An Analysis of Faculty and Librarian Expectations and Values
Mary Thill
3 Marketing the Library’s Instructional Services to Teaching Faculty: Learning from Teaching Faculty Interviews
Annie Armstrong
4 Why Don’t Students Ask Librarians for Help? Undergraduate Help-Seeking Behavior in Three Academic Libraries
Susan Miller and Nancy Murillo
5 Searching for Answers: Student Research Behavior at Illinois Wesleyan University
Andrew D. Asher and Lynda M. Duke
6 Supporting the Academic Success of Hispanic Students
David Green
7 First-Generation College Students: A Sketch of Their Research Process
Firouzeh Logan and Elizabeth Pickard
8 Seeing Ourselves As Others See Us: Library Spaces through Student Eyes
Jane Treadwell, Amanda Binder, and Natalie Tagge
9 Transformative Changes in Thinking, Services, and Programs
Lynda M. Duke
10 Conclusions and Future Research
Andrew D. Asher and Lynda M. Duke
Appendix
ERIAL Interview Guide Questions
Bibliography
Contributors
Index
About the Editors
Lynda M. Duke is an associate professor and academic outreach librarian at The Ames Library, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois. Her responsibilities include coordinating assessment and marketing activities for the library, as well as collection development and library instruction for the departments of Hispanic studies, economics and business administration. She served as Principal Investigator for the IWU research team of the ERIAL Project. She has published on marketing topics in College & Research Libraries and College & Undergraduate Libraries, and has presented at ACRL, ALA, IASSIST, and NITLE. She earned her master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her master’s of urban planning from the University of Michigan.
Andrew D. Asher was the Lead Research Anthropologist for the ERIAL Project. He holds a PhD in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) fellow for scholarly communications at Bucknell University, where he is conducting research on faculty publication practices and continuing his inquiries into scholarly search processes. Dr. Asher has presented widely on using ethnography in academic libraries (including ALA, ACRL, NITLE, ITHAKA, NERCOMP & ARL), and teaches an ACRL seminar on ethnographic methods for librarians.
Reviews
"A well-organized and insightful work that reveals how academic libraries are viewed and utilized ... Those interested in keeping pace with the rapidly evolving world of academic libraries will find numerous points of interest to contemplate in these pages."
--Booklist
"Engaging ... While readers might be drawn initially
to the salient findings described in chapters
two through nine, a more lasting effect of
this book is perhaps its impact on librarians’
interest in conducting ethnographic
studies at their own institutions ... Readers will benefit from an
extensive bibliography, including a number
of studies initiated to understand and
improve student researchers’ experiences
in their college libraries."
--Portal
"While this
book explores some exciting ideas in
academic library services, I especially
enjoyed the quotes from the students
and faculty interviews that many
chapter contributors shared. This
thought-provoking book will be of
interest to anyone concerned with
the future of libraries."
--Information Today
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