Sitting down with cup o' coke in the morning I ran across two interesting pieces, Research at Risk By Thomas Mann, Library Journal, July 15, 2005 (courtesy Web4Lib list) and the Harris Interactive: How Academic Librarians Can Influence Students' Web-Based Information Choices reference on librarian.net.

Both pieces illustrate how influence the library can be on users.

Research at Risk: When we undermine cataloging, we undermine scholarship
By Thomas Mann
Library Journal, July 15, 2005

(Brief excerpt)

"Studies abound showing that researchers don't use library subject headings. They guess at keywords. They don't grasp Boolean or word proximity search techniques. Many are apparently contented with whatever results they find quickly. They just don't know what they're missing. Fast information-finding trumps systematic scholarship."

"Many library managers seem to think the library profession should simply capitulate and accept this situation. In their view, we should abandon Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) in our OPACs and scan in the table of contents of each book or wait for Google Print to digitize "everything." These managers are willing to go with the expedience of simply throwing more keywords into the hopper. They think this eliminates the need for categorization, linkages, and browse displays that show options beyond whatever keywords happen to be typed into a blank search box."

Most users , even sophisticated ones, think all there is to research is looking for whatever and as many words for their topic in the catalog. It was only through library instruction where users' eyes were opened to LC classification did they understand the potential strength and accuracy of using subject searching within the catalog.

Currently there is a ongoing debate on the Web4Lib list library catalogs, their ease of use (or lack of) for patrons, their structure, and even the wording (should we even use the word catalog at all). The author fears massive structural and philosophical changes to the internet to make it more like Google may make users happy but it won't necessarily find the correct information that they need.

Librarian.net directs us to look at the OCLC White Paper on the Information Habits of College Students, How Academic Librarians Can Influence Students' Web Based-Information Choices.

(brief excerpt from the White Paper)
"College and university librarians are acutely aware that usage of their websites and electronic resources is growing. They observe that, since fewer students visit the library in person, knowledge about the needs of their student users is limited. In order to deliver relevant services, academic librarians need to know more about the preferences and needs of these invisible information consumers."

"College students have confidence in their abilities to locate information for their study assignments. Three out four agree completely that they are successful at finding theinformationo they need for courses andassignmentss, and seven in ten say they are successful at finding what they seek most of the time. The first choice web resources for most of their assignments are search engines (such as Google or Alta Vista), web portals (such as MSN, AOL, or Yahoo!), and course specific websites."

Clearly there is some need for libraries to reach out to their users and educate them and direct them to quality online resources (be it the catalog, website, online journal, database, etc.) However, it seems we as librarians are missing the boat.



So here are two different articles that both look at the research patterns of users. One article looks at our catalog in relation to research and the other looks at the library's internet. Obviously there are always was to improve both areas, but in my mind the bigger question is how are you going to eventually reach these users who think they are sophisticated enough to do quality research and who aren't in physicallycomingg into your library. All the changing and reorganizing of systems and creation of web help guides and directories won't make a difference if there isn't some sort of basic research education. Just because your user knows how to sew a button on doesn't mean they are ready to close in surgery. Yet that is what we are faced with, a whole bunch of excellent button sewers.