Develop strategies to increase student awareness and use of point of need instruction offered at the Information Desk and in research consultations.
Some students may not be fully aware of the services Research and Instruction Librarians can provide through point of need instruction at the Information Desk and through research consultations. Our goal for this year is to analyze our students’ awareness of these services and to develop strategies to increase their use. Our goal for next year will be to implement the developed strategies and to measure their effect on student use of our services.
Measure 1: Determine to what extent students are aware of point of need instruction offered at the Information Desk and in research consultations and where they currently look to find out about our services.
Performance Target: Collect data by December 20, 2017.
Measure 2: Based on analysis of the collected data, develop strategies to increase student use of point of need instruction offered at the Information Desk and in research consultations.
Performance Target: Produce a report by June 1, 2018 which includes data analysis and strategies on how to raise student awareness to be implemented prior to Fall 2018 semester.
Strategies: Collect and analyze data via LibAnswers, surveys, interviews, and/or focus groups.
Measure 1: We collected monthly LibAnswers data for Primary and Secondary Research Questions asked at the Information Desk. In total, there were 9662 questions from July 2017 - June 2018.The top three most commonly asked questions were categorized under: 1.) General Information, 2.) Catalog/ Find Books, and 3.) Database/ Find Articles. We also conducted a two week long online survey that was shared in the Spring 2018 semester to all currently enrolled students (N=9,627). This survey was shared as a link on the library website, in person at the Information Desk and before library instruction sessions, and by email.Of this population, we had 322 responses (n=322). Overall, students expressed that they wanted to know more about what resources were available and how to access them. They also stated that they mostly looked to some type of online platform to learn about library research and that their preferred outreach methods were through email and signage. Finally, in addition to collecting LibAnswers data and circulating a survey, We moderated a small focus group of 3 students to gather feedback on what students knew, or wanted to know, regarding Library Research Services. The information from this focus group echoed the findings from both LibAnswers and from the survey results.
Measure 2: As stated above, we collected a year’s worth of data which was then analyzed to discover trends in student research service needs through the entire academic year.
Target met for measure 1? Yes; initially we planned to only collect data to December 20, 2017, but upon further discussion and planning, it became clear that more data was necessary to have a better understanding of trends throughout an entire academic year. Therefore, data was collected up until June 30. The LibAnswers data, survey results, and focus group transcript were submitted as they became available.
Did results for measure 1 demonstrate improvement from previous assessments? N/A -- because this is a new measure, there are no previous assessments with which to compare. Set to baseline.
Target met for measure 2? Yes, we produced a report that summarized the findings from the data. Included in the report is a proposed Research Service Outreach Calendar to be used in the upcoming 2018-2019 academic year.
Did results for measure 2 demonstrate improvement from previous assessments? N/A -- because this is a new measure, there are no previous assessments with which to compare. Set to baseline.
The end results of this goal was to produce a Research Services Outreach Calendar. As this calendar has been drafted and can be evaluated by the Research and Instruction department, the plan moving forward is to implement these outreach methods in the Fall and Spring semesters of the 2018-2019 academic year. Future data collection should be done in the upcoming year to compare if new outreach methods have been successful in improving student awareness and use of library research services.
The assumptions before proceeding with this goal were that students would primarily need to be reached at the beginning of the semester and during midterms. Additionally, we expected to see a high number of students primarily wanting to use social media as their method of communication. However, after looking at the trends in the monthly LibAnswers Primary and Secondary Research Questions at the Information desk, it was determined that the key months students are asking research related questions are September - November, and February - April. While this was expected to some degree as they are key months in each semester, what was surprising to see was that the amount of questions in these months were reasonably close in count (within 150 overall for each of these months). This coupled with the information gained from the focus group suggested that despite our assumptions, students still have research, or research services, related questions through the entirety of the a semester. This appears to be in part to no set schedule when research papers are due. To this end, the proposed Research Services Outreach Calendar consists of promotion throughout September - November and February - April. Secondly, while social media was suggested by students as an outreach method, only 21% of the survey answers referred to social media in some degree. The primary methods of outreach as suggested by students were email and some type of signage. To this end, the Outreach Calendar suggests a staggered mix of these methods each month as to not overwhelm students. For a full and detailed report of the findings, please refer to the 2017-2018 Annual Goal: Point of Need Instruction/ Outreach to Student Report. The Outreach Calendar detailed in this report has been constructed with a start date of September 3, 2018
Overall, this first phase of evaluating student awareness of library research services was successfully completed, and the data collected provides a comprehensive baseline moving forward in outreach to students concerning point of need instruction. In the upcoming year, we propose to implement the developed strategies and to measure their effect on student use of our services.
