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Teaching Transition

Teaching Transition. Chris Edwards User Experience & Instruction Librarian c hris.edwards@utdallas.edu. Don’t Panic!. (Adams 2004). Change is… Scary Frustrating Job Security. Outline. How it Happened (A brief history of what changed at the University of Texas at Dallas)

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Teaching Transition

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  1. Teaching Transition Chris Edwards User Experience & Instruction Librarian chris.edwards@utdallas.edu

  2. Don’t Panic! (Adams 2004)

  3. Change is… Scary Frustrating Job Security

  4. Outline • How it Happened (A brief history of what changed at the University of Texas at Dallas) • Issues for Users • Librarians • Students • Faculty • Suggestions/ Strategies for Instruction Librarians

  5. How it Happened • Primo became available for testing for librarians, Spring of 2012 • Parallel launch of Primo, with data from Voyager (both OPACs available), Spring of 2013 • WebVoyage link taken down, Primo is the only available catalog, August 2013. • Discover switched to pull data from Alma, August 2013. (About a week later)

  6. Testing and Evaluating • Test server available for librarians, April 2012 • Focus group test with Student Advisory Group, November 2012 • A library committee will meet to finalize changes and settings throughout Fall 2013.

  7. Issues for Librarians • Want a high degree of specificity; • Concerned with clarity of results; • Strongly influenced by “tradition” or “the way we’ve always done it”

  8. Finding a Specific Title is Hard… • Primo FRBR-izes records to show more variety of results…

  9. Issues for Students • Generally want quantity, with high relevance; • Varying degrees of comfort with technology; • High turnover means less influenced by “what we had before” or “branding”; • Often operate by trial and error; • “Library terminology” is a significant obstacle for many students; • Primary concern is understanding what they have found. (Majors 2012)

  10. BEFORE: Go here to check the catalog… Go here to check the databases… NOW Go here to check the catalog and databases.

  11. Material labels Customizing takes time, but can help alleviate confusion. Example: “Audio Visual” was changed to “Media”

  12. Issues for Faculty • Want both specific and broad results; • Resistant to retraining; • Tech savvy varies widely; • Trend is to go directly to preferred electronic resources (Specific e-books or databases); • Primary concern is getting to the resources they are already accustomed to using. (Guthrie & Housewright 2011)

  13. Faculty hoped to find a favorite database by searching in Primo: Short titles often require advanced search because exact match isn’t returned first in results: One of the harder/longer customizing projects was our A-Z journals list:

  14. Suggestions:

  15. Anything you can teach, users can misunderstand.

  16. Take the Users’ Perspective • Separate user needs from librarian needs • New interfaces are truly designed with users (not librarians) in mind. • Teach what they need most first • As instructors, place first priority on what users will really want to do. Example: Do users frequently need to browse or search a call number list?

  17. Be an Early Adopter • As soon as a public version of a new OPAC is posted, start defaulting there for reference assistance. • Learn the work-arounds before you need them. • Easier than trying to anticipate questions. • Look for opportunities to integrate the new into instruction sessions. • Particularly well suited for Rhetoric (Freshman English) or entry level courses

  18. Forget the Old Way* • New interfaces mean new ways and new opportunities. Example: Finding a journal article with an incomplete citation. “Read the article by Prasher in Gene, vol 111, 1992 page 229-233.” * Unless the old way turns out to really be better.

  19. Example: Finding a Journal Article Old way: New way: Primo has a feature that gets you to a specific article faster than following the trail. (even an incomplete citation) Search for journal title Open full text link Select from multiple database links Browse to correct year Browse to correct volume number Select correct article by author name and page number. This method still works, but takes longer.

  20. Be Honest “We are transitioning…” “Bear with us…” There are bound to be hiccups or bugs. Acknowledge them; don’t try to pretend there’s no problem and don’t villainize the new system.

  21. Do not blame your new system for not being the old system. • Don’t make new systems into a scapegoat; • Understand how the system is supposed to work before launching complaints; • Ask questions; Have a plan. • Work together with colleagues. • Share work-arounds and how-tos; • Establish a protocol for reporting real issues; • Prioritize complaints.

  22. References Adams, D. (2004). The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy (25th anniversary facsimile ed.). New York, NY: Harmony Books. Fyn, A. F., & Vera Lux and, R. J. (2013). Reflections on teaching and tweaking a discovery layer. Reference Services Review, 41(1), 113-124. doi:10.1108/00907321311300929 Guthrie, K., & Housewright, R. (2011). Repackaging the library: What do faculty think? Journal of Library Administration, 51(1), 77-104. doi:10.1080/01930826.2011.531643 Majors, R. (2012). Comparative user experiences of next-generation catalogue interfaces. Library Trends, 61(1), 186-207. doi:10.1353/lib.2012.0029 Ruleman, A. B. (2012). Comparison of student and faculty technology use. Library Hi Tech News, 29(3), 16-19. doi:10.1108/07419051211241877

  23. Questions? Chris Edwards User Experience & Instruction Librarian chris.edwards@utdallas.edu

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